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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
Diversity of the Magistracy
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (Mr. Christopher Leslie): At the beginning of October, the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor published a national strategy for recruitment to the magistracy, setting out my Department's plans to increase the number of appointments as a justice of the peace, and to encourage applications from people with a wider range of backgrounds. In furtherance of the national strategy, the Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor is now amending his directions to the Committees, which advise him on magisterial appointments. The Committees are asked to achieve a bench that is broadly representative of the community which they serve. Following advice from royal commissions in 1910 and 1948, political association has hitherto been used as an indicator of social class in seeking to achieve that balance. The Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor is satisfied that the way people vote is no longer a reliable guide to social perspective and standing. Therefore a new system is being introduced; applicants will identify themselves against occupational and industrial groupings, based on standard classifications used by the Office for National Statistics. The Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor is also telling the Committees that there need be no lower age limit for applicants who can show that they have the key qualities needed for appointment. Copies of the national strategy document
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and of the new application form, which sets out the occupational groupings categories, have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
DEFENCE
Future Command Liasion Vehicle
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Defence has today signed a contract worth £166 million (including VAT) with Alvis Vickers Ltd, for the manufacture of the future command and liaison vehicle (FCLV).
On 17 July we announced that the FCLV would be deployed with the RAF regiment and that the contract value would be worth over £200 million. Ongoing work on armoured fighting vehicle rationalisation has led to a review of the initial requirement for vehicles. Consequently, we have revised the size of the initial procurement of FCLV whilst retaining the option to procure additional FCLV at a later date. The RAF regiment will no longer receive vehicles from the initial fleet of FCLV and the contract value of the initial work has been revised.
The FCLV will perform the command and liaison role and replace the ageing and disparate vehicle fleet within the manoeuvre support brigades comprising elements of the 430 series, Saxon, Land Rover and combat vehicle reconnaissance (tracked) fleets. From its planned in-service date of 2006, the FCLV will provide levels of crew protection and mobility commensurate with their roles in an increasingly extended ground manoeuvre area. It will offer protection against small arms, blast and anti-personnel mines. Those in the direct fire zone will contain a self-defence weapon (SDW) that can be operated under armour to provide suppressive fire and surveillance and target acquisition (STA) system will be provided to enhance situational awareness, reconnaissance, targeting and reporting. The vehicle has been selected to deliver the solution to the armed forces requirement for enhanced speed, reliability, flexibility and protection for a wide range of users in combat or peacekeeping operations.
The award of this contract to Alvis Vickers Ltd is excellent news for both our Armed Forces and the defence industry. It will sustain approximately 35 highly skilled jobs at the Alvis Vickers Ltd facility at Telford, and a further 25 within other UK companies. This is the culmination of work conducted by both the MOD and industry, and is a good example of the principles of smart acquisition being put into practice. It is incumbent on the MOD and industry to work together to ensure that our armed forces have access to the right equipment, in the right quantities, at the right time and at the right price.
Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence AgencyTargets (2003–04)
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): The role of the Defence Geographic and Imagery Intelligence agency is to provide imagery intelligence and geographic support to defence policy, operations and training; to meet customer requirements
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for imagery intelligence and geographic support in accordance with defence priorities; to maintain and develop agency capabilities and readiness in line with future defence requirements; and to become progressively more efficient, whilst improving the quality and delivery of its products and services. The key targets for the agency for the 12 months from April 2003 are:
- Key Target 1A—Operational IMINT Provision
To satisfy operational requirements for Imagery Intelligence within timescales and to standards agreed between the Agency and its customers, by satisfying at least 95 per cent. of requirements overall, whilst delivering not less than 98 per cent. of priority one tasks.
Key Target 1B—Operational Geographic Support
To satisfy operational requirements for geographic support within timescales and to standards agreed between the agency and its customers, by satisfying 100 per cent. of the geographic products and services essential to support current and potential operations, both from the agency's UK based operation and its deployable units.
Key Target 2—Readiness
To achieve the required levels of operational readiness in line with defence planning assumptions, whilst continuing to satisfy those deployable element outputs required under Key Target 1, maintaining agreed states of readiness as set by PJHQ for all contingency forces.
Key Target 3A—Strategic and Contingency IMINT Provision
To satisfy strategic and contingency requirements for Imagery Intelligence within timescales and to standards agreed between the agency and its customers, by providing at least 57 per cent. of the requirements as set out in the imagery exploitation programme (HEP), while delivering not less than 92 per cent. of priority one tasks.
Key Target 3B—Strategic and Contingency Geographic Support
To satisfy strategic and contingency requirements for geographic support within timescales and to standards agreed between the agency and its customers, completing at least 90 per cent. of a customer endorsed programme of work for geographic products and services.
Key Target 3T (Transitional)—Measurement of Geospatial Provision
To develop improved mechanisms for the measurement of geospatial provision which enable effective evaluation of output efficiency. Definition of output measurement mechanisms for geospatial provision which enable a baseline for output efficiency to be quantified during FY 04–05.
Key Target 4—Improvement in Geographic Information Holdings
To demonstrate a further 1 per cent. improvement in the coverage of geographic information holdings resulting in at least a cumulative 4 per cent. improvement on the baseline established in 1999, and to ensure that the quality of the collection achieves the level of readiness agreed with customers. This will be demonstrated by maintaining the
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- MOD map library collection at the agreed level of readiness and achieving a further 1 per cent. improvement in coverage of geographic information holdings.
Key Target 5T (Transitional)—Output Efficiency
To define mechanisms for the measurement of output efficiency that encompass all key areas of agency business, which will enable a baseline for output efficiency to be quantified during FY 04–05.
Defence Intelligence and Security Centre AgencyTargets (2003–04)
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram): DISC is the centre for defence intelligence training in the UK. CE DISC is responsible for training authorised personnel in intelligence, security and information support disciplines and maintaining an operational capability. The key targets for the agency for the 12 months from April 2003 are:
- Key Target 1—Training Quantity
To deliver, within the resources available, the quantity of training places agreed with sponsors through the statement of training requirement (SOTR) process, and as endorsed by the customer executive board (CEB) and owner's advisory board (OAB).
Key Target 2—Training Quality
To set up a new process by which DISC can measure its training output in terms of quality.
Key Target 3—Efficiency
To reduce the current cost in real terms of delivering the average training place made available and to reduce the average cost of a man training day (MTD) successfully completed in financial year (FY) 2003–04.
Key Target 4—Operations
To satisfy the operational tasking of the defence de-briefing team (DOT) and the field HUMINT team (FHT).
TREASURY
UK Dividends (Taxation Changes)
The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo): Legislation to block potential tax avoidance by individuals using transactions in UK equities is to be included in Finance Bill 2004. The changes will have immediate effect.
The legislation closes a loophole resulting from a mismatch in the rules for taxing UK dividends and making "manufactured" payments under a sale and repurchase (repo) or stock lending arrangement. These schemes enable individuals to obtain an unintended tax windfall by using repos or stock loans to manufacture a dividend payment. The new provisions will apply to dividends received and manufactured dividends paid on or after today.
A copy of today's Inland Revenue news release giving the relevant background to this measure has been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses and is accessible on the Inland Revenue's website at http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk.