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8 May 2003 : Column 801W—continued
Health and Safety at Work
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to introduce a bill that will remove Crown Immunity from liability under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. [111196]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: I have been asked to reply.
The Government will seek a legislative opportunity, when parliamentary time allows, to remove Crown immunity from statutory health and safety enforcement.
In the meantime the Health and Safety Executive continues to enforce health and safety requirements in Crown bodies and applies the Crown censure procedure, where but for Crown immunity, prosecution would have been justified.
Iraq
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many contracts have been awarded related to the reconstruction of Iraq; of those, how many have been awarded to (a) US and (b) UK companies; what the total value is of contracts awarded; and what percentage have gone to (i) US and (ii) UK companies. [111130]
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Ms Hewitt [holding answer 6 May 2003]: The US Government has let a number of contracts to US firms, mainly through US AID and the US Army Corps of Engineers. Information on these contracts is available on the Trade Partners UK website, with full details on US Government websites, including US AID. The main US AID reconstruction contract was awarded to Bechtel on 17 April. We are supporting efforts by UK companies to win sub-contracts but companies are not obliged to inform us if and when they win contracts.
Research Councils
Valerie Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to undertake a review of the work of the Medical Research Council following the report of the Science and Technology Committee published on 24 March, HC132. [111246]
Ms Hewitt: The MRC is highly renowned around the world for its track record in promoting excellent medical research. We currently have no plans to carry out a review of the MRC following the Select Committee report. We are however reviewing the Select Committee's report and we will make a detailed response during May.
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Rachel Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will review the arrangement whereby the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council has its income from UK grants and funds reduced when it gains additional EU funding. [111375]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 7 May 2003]: UK public spending financed from the EU's Budget is subject to normal public sector budgeting rules. This reflects the fact that UK taxpayers have an interest in spending on programmes funded from the EU's Budget being spent in a way which is consistent with national priorities.
Departments and their sponsored bodies, including PPARC, have therefore in general needed budgetary cover for spending funded from the EU's Budget, including spending on research and development. To improve incentives, however, a recent review has resulted in changes to the public sector budgeting rules, so that from 2003–04 departments and their sponsored bodies including PPARC which receive income from the EU's Budget for commercially- or competitively-let research contracts will be able to offset half of their income from qualifying programmes against spending within their departmental expenditure limit.
Radiocommunications Agency/Oftel
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many staff were employed by (a) the Radiocommunications Agency and (b) Oftel in each of the last five years; and what the annual budget was in each of those years in each case. [108937]
| Year ended 31 March | Staff employed (average) | Staff costs £000 |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 509 | 15,653 |
| 1999 | 492 | 16,380 |
| 2000 | 502 | 16,256 |
| 2001 | 535 | 17,786 |
| 2002 | 573 | 20,101 |
Note:
'Staff costs' is actual expenditure on staff including salaries, social security costs, and early retirement costs, as shown in the Agency's published Annual Report and Accounts.
| Year ended 31 March | Staff employed (actual) | Staff costs £000 |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 176 | 6,097 |
| 1999 | 181 | 6,783 |
| 2000 | 195 | 7,671 |
| 2001 | 208 | 9,401 |
| 2002 | 236 | 10,741 |
Source:
Annual report and accounts
SARS
Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will take steps to support businesses operated or owned by people of Chinese origin which deal directly with the public, with specified reference to (a) restaurants and (b) shops, to combat the effect of public concern over the issue of SARS; and if she will make a statement. [111785]
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Ms Hewitt [holding answer 7 May 2003]: The Government are striving to combat the effects of SARS, taking the steps described to the House by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health on 28 April 2003, Official Report, colums 38–41.
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
Iraq
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Minister for Women what steps she is taking to ensure that Iraqi women play a full part in the leadership of Iraq. [110339]
Ms Hewitt: The UK Government is a strong supporter of UN Security Council Resolution 1,325 which emphasises the importance of the inclusion of women into all aspects of post conflict reconstruction and peace operations, and strongly supports its effective implementation in post conflict Iraq. As Minister for Women I am extremely concerned that Iraqi women play a full role in the reconstruction and leadership of their country. Together with colleagues across Government I am taking several initiatives to fulfil this aim, these include:
- An ongoing dialogue with Iraqi women exiles,
Awareness raising within the Office for Reconstruction and Development (ORHA) on the importance of promoting the involvement of women in all aspects of the reconstruction of Iraq,
Nomination of female participants at meetings to discuss the Interim Iraqi Administration (IIA),
Active encouragement of UK NGOs in this process,
Use of Freedom TV to encourage Iraqi women to participate in reconstruction, Plans for a women's conference to feed into the creation of the IIA,
Secondment of a UK government gender equality expert to work in ORHA.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Correspondence
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many acknowledgement letters and cards were dispatched by his Department in each year since 1997 for which figures are available; and what the estimated average cost was per letter and card. [111869]
Maria Eagle: The information is not available.
Criminal Offences
Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will list, broken down by Act, the criminal offences created in legislation sponsored by his Department and its predecessors since 1997. [111787]
Malcolm Wicks: The Social Security Administration (Fraud) Act 1997 created six new offences—involving failure to report material changes of circumstances and making false statements. These offences were re-enacted in modified form in the Social Security (Fraud) Act 2001. S.5 of the 1997 Act created a further offence of failure to comply with a requirement to produce documents and information required under the Social Security Administration Act 1992.
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The Social Security Act 1998 modified a previously existing offence of breach of regulations and created a new offence of fraudulent evasion of contributions (sections 60 and 61).
The Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 created offences in three areas. False statements in applications to register stakeholder pension schemes (s.2); fraudulent evasion of employers payments to personal pension schemes (s.9(12)) and a substituted offence for s.49(8) of the Pensions Act 1995 of fraudulent evasion of the deductions from employees' earnings for contributions to pensions (s.10).
The Child Support, Pensions and Social Security Act 2000 created three offences of making or causing false statements to be made and failing to comply with a request for information required by regulations.
The Social Security (Fraud) Act 2001 added an offence to s.111 of the Social Security Administration Act in respect of failure to comply with requirements to allow authorised officers to have electronic access to records.
Disability Living Allowance
Mr. Boswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what studies he is conducting into whether potential loss of disability living allowance inhibits potential returners to work. [110735]
Mr. Nicholas Brown: Disability Living Allowance (DLA) provides a contribution towards the extra costs that severely disabled people face as a result of their disabilities, and entitlement is based solely on a person's need for personal care and/or their walking difficulties. DLA is payable to people both in and out of work, and therefore does not disincentivise recipients wishing to take up work.
We recognise that, for many disabled people, work is made possible through receiving additional support and we make no assumptions that the severity of a person's disability has changed simply because they are undertaking work. Decision makers receive specific guidance that awards of DLA should only be altered where a person's care or mobility needs have changed.
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