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HOME DEPARTMENT
Independent Race Monitor
The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): My right hon. Friend the Home Secretary has today laid before the House a copy of the annual report produced by Mary Coussey, the independent Race Monitor, under section 19E of the Race Relations Act 1976, together with his response. The Race Monitor has a statutory duty to report to Parliament via the Home Secretary on Ministerial authorisations made under section 19D of the Race Relations Act enabling immigration staff to discriminate on the basis of nationality or ethnic or national origin in the exercise of their functions.
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Hazardous Materials (Detection Kits)
The Minister for Citizenship and Immigration (Beverley Hughes): The purpose of this statement is to confirm advice to businesses and inform the House of our view on the question of whether organisations should acquire their own equipment to detect chemical, biological or radiological materials as part of their contingency plans.
The Government takes contingency planning for potential terrorist attack very seriously and is working with emergency services to ensure that they have the equipment they need to protect the public from the use of chemical, biological or radiological (CBR) materials. The Government are also ensuring that effective measures are in place to detect such substances on a routine basis, where required. Such equipment is regularly tested by independent scientists and by users in the relevant agencies, including the emergency services, to ensure that it is of the standard required. Staff are also well trained in its use.
The Government's advice is, therefore, that other organisations, including businesses, leave the demanding and potentially dangerous job of detecting CBR materials to personnel in the emergency services and responsible agencies who are professionally trained in the necessary equipment. Any business considering measures to prevent or reduce the impact of terrorism should contact the counter-terrorist security adviser in their local police force who will be able to give further advice.
WORK AND PENSIONS
President of Appeal Tribunals Annual Report 2002–03
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Andrew Smith): I am pleased to publish today the third report by the President of appeal tribunals on the standard of decisions made on my behalf in cases which come before appeal tribunals. Of those cases where the appeal tribunal overturned or amended the decision the main reasons given were because new evidence was produced at the hearing, the tribunal took a different view of the same evidence or the presence of the appellant at the hearing shed new light on the existing evidence.
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The President has highlighted some areas where improvements have been made since his last report. Some examples of these are; the increased use of the explanation and reconsideration routes to try and avoid an appeal, a general improvement in decision making and the agencies taking forward new initiatives.
The President has suggested that the agencies should adopt a more flexible approach to decision making and encourage appellants to supply them with additional evidence which might prevent the case reaching an appeal hearing. I welcome the President's report which provides an independent view of the standard of decision-making in cases coming to the appeal tribunal.
Copies of the report have been placed in the Library and are available on the internet at http://www.appeals-service.gov.uk/about_us/publications/presidents_report0203/pres_rep03.pdf
Performance Standards Fund
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Chris Pond): I am pleased to announce the first awards from the £200 million Performance Standards Fund. These total £33 million and will benefit 210 local authorities, who submitted applications for funding to support their local housing benefit improvement plans.
These awards are the first step in the substantial investment we are making, as part of our housing benefit reform agenda. The performance standards fund of £200 million over three years represents the single biggest investment in housing benefit since the scheme began in 1988. We have established the fund to target additional resources in a focused way to help local authorities bridge the gap between current performance and the performance standards for housing benefit administration we published last year.
The priority for the first awards of funding is to improve performance in the speed and accuracy of processing of claims and the prevention and recovery of overpayments. Much of the additional funding is going to help with the recruitment and training of new benefit staff and investment in new IT systems. These awards demonstrate that we are committed to working in partnership with local government to improve their performance. In return, however, we expect real improvements in the speed and accuracy of claims processing.
A full list of the successful applications has been placed in the Library. We expect to be announcing further awards during the coming year.