---

17 May 2004 : Column 678W—continued

Targeted Assassinations

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to his answer of 10 May 2004, on targeted assassinations, question reference 169853, on what basis the Government has determined that the policy of targeted assassinations by the Government of Israel is illegal. [173000]

Mr. Rammell: We recognise Israel's right to defend itself against terrorism but it must act in accordance with the applicable law. We do not consider that Israel's policy of targeted killings is in conformity with its obligations under the Fourth Geneva Convention and international human rights law. In particular, the policy does not appear to meet the conditions required for a killing to be justified as self-defence.
 
17 May 2004 : Column 679W
 

MINISTER FOR WOMEN

Equal Pay

Mr. Denham: To ask the Minister for Women what   recent representations she has received from (a) trade unions, (b) employers and (c) other bodies concerning   the pay gap between men and women in Hampshire. [171642]

Ms Hewitt: I have had no specific representations concerning the pay gap between men and women in Hampshire. However I have ongoing dialogue with trade unions, employers and others including the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) and Opportunity Now concerning action to tackle the gender pay gap. For example, last week I met with over 40 trade union women from across the country to discuss this issue and identify action which builds on what we have already achieved. We have made it easier for employers to pay fairly through EOC toolkits, which have been well received. Recent EOC research shows a significant increase in the number of large organisations undertaking pay reviews which suggest we are on track to meet our Public Service Agreement target of 35 per cent. by April 2006. 41 per cent. of those that had carried out a pay review or were planning to do one said that government policy and publicity had influenced them.

Mr. Denham: To ask the Minister for Women pursuant to the answer of 26 February 2004, Official Report, column 486W, on equal pay, what methodology was used to conclude that the gender pay gap in the South East is the second biggest in Great Britain. [171710]

Ms Hewitt: The figure I reported on 26 February 2004 was based on April 2002 figures. Using April 2003 figures shows that the South East had the third largest pay gap of regions in Great Britain. The figures in both cases were taken from the New Earnings Survey (NES), conducted by the Office for National Statistics.

Average earnings are estimated for full-time employees on adult rates of pay whose pay was unaffected by absence during the pay period, by their place of work. This is the standard definition used for NES tables. The gender pay gap for each region is derived from the male and female estimates for those regions.

Working Hours

Helen Jones: To ask the Minister for Women what research she has commissioned into the effect of a long   working hours culture on women's employment and   promotion prospects; and if she will make a statement. [172845]

Ms Hewitt: I have commissioned no specific research into the impact of a long working hours culture on women's employment and promotion prospects, however last year my Department published "Working Long Hours: a review of the evidence" which was commissioned from the Institute for Employment Studies. It is available on the internet at hppt://www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar.

Its main findings are that 11 per cent. of employees in the UK work long hours (over 48 hours per week). There are clear gender differences with men more likely
 
17 May 2004 : Column 680W
 
to work long hours than women. Two thirds of women who work long hours are in managerial and professional occupations (23 per cent. and 40 per cent. respectively).

Through the Work-Life Balance Campaign and the introduction of the right to request flexible working, my Department has sought to demonstrate the benefits of alternative work patterns. Employers who pursue family friendly policies and provide their employees with choice about how they work, report greater motivation and productivity and a reduction in recruitment and retention costs.

In April my Department published research complied by the Office for National Statistics on the first year of the flexible working law. It showed that overall the new flexible working law is proving to have been a huge success. Many more flexible working requests (86 per cent.) are being either fully or partly accepted by employers compared to the rate immediately prior to the new law (77 per cent.). The study can be found at the website mentioned above. 11 per cent. of flexible working requests made since April 2003 were declined, which represents a near halving of the rate of refusal by employers compared with the previous two years. And it suggests the new law has significantly increased employers' willingness to consider employee requests.

The Second Work-Life Balance Baseline Survey of Employers published in 2003 showed that more than nine out of 10 employers agree that people will work best when they can strike a healthy balance between work and the rest of their lives. The report is also available at the website mentioned above. The report also revealed an increase in the provision of flexible working time practices by employers. Significantly this increase was not confined to workplaces of a particular size or in a particular sector or industry.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Child Pornography

Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department has taken to   export the UK model of co-operation between Government, police and industry to tackle child pornography on the internet. [173047]

Mr. Timms: The Department of Trade and Industry attaches great importance to protecting children from illegal or harmful material on the internet. The Government are primarily addressing it through the Home Secretary's Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet. The Department takes part in the activities of the Task Force, and in particular, supports cooperation between Government, law enforcement, industry and other stakeholders to develop self-regulatory responses to problems arising, in order to strengthen the take-up of the internet and the growth of e-commerce. We strongly support the work of the industry-led Internet Watch Foundation.

Child protection on the internet is a common challenge in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world. The UK's approach has served as the model for the EU's main programme to tackle it, the Safer Internet Programme. Since 1999, Safer Internet has funded
 
17 May 2004 : Column 681W
 
over   130 projects across Europe bringing together Government, industry, law enforcement and child protection agencies in the following streams of activity:

hotlines: Safer Internet supports at least one hotline along the lines of the UK's Internet Watch Foundation in each of 17 countries in Europe, allowing users to report internet content they regard as illegal or harmful. INHOPE, based in the UK, is the European hotline coordinating body, responsible for monitoring standards and spreading best practice for these hotlines.

rating and filtering technology: the programme encourages the development of software that empowers users to filter or otherwise limit the amount of unwanted material they receive, as well as ways to measure and benchmark its performance.

promoting cooperation: it has created European-level forums to drive consensus on the challenges and solutions among experts from industry, law enforcement, government, educators, consumer groups, child welfare and other NGOs.

raising awareness: support is offered to initiatives at country, regional or other levels to inform parents and educators of means to use the internet more safely, using techniques based largely on practice developed by members of the Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet.

UK companies and NGOs are very well represented among the participants in the various projects, and some of them act as coordinators at European level (e.g. for best practice for ways of promoting awareness of self-help techniques).

In March 2004, the European Commission adopted a proposal for Safer Internet Plus, a programme to continue these activities for the next four years. It will increase the international reach of the UK's model approach because it will particularly encourage hotlines and awareness activity in the 10 new member states, and provide resources for the EU to pursue effective cooperation and solutions in international forums and with third countries, especially those which are the origins of a large proportion of illegal, harmful or unwanted material, such as child pornography and spam.

The Government also take opportunities to raise the profile of a cooperative approach to online child protection in international discussions: for example, at the conclusion of the first phase of the United Nations sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in December 2003, the UK, working with its EU partners, strongly supported a statement to the effect that

"all actors in the Information Society should take appropriate actions and preventive measures, as determined by law, against abusive uses of ICTs, such as . . . all forms of child abuse, including paedophilia and child pornography . . ." (Declaration of Principles, para. 59).

As part of its strategy to promote a globally competitive environment for electronic communications businesses, the Department has developed a number of dialogues with other countries' regulators, officials and industry representatives. These discussions have frequently covered the implications of offensive or harmful online material. The Internet Watch Foundation and other leading UK players take part to give a first hand account of the UK's cooperative approach, and also actively pursue their own extensive international contacts, supported wherever possible by the Department of Trade and Industry and other Departments. In addition, meetings recently arranged or to take place within the framework of dialogues with the United States, Japan
 
17 May 2004 : Column 682W
 
and Australia will address cooperative solutions to the issue of unsolicited messages (or "spam"), some of which can be linked to child pornography.

---