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Terrorism Act 2000
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Blunkett): Lord Carlile of Berriew QC prepared a report on the operation in 2002 and 2003 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which I laid before the House on 26 April 2004.
I am grateful to Lord Carlile for his detailed report and I have considered his recommendations fully. Following consultation within my department and with other relevant departments and agencies I am pleased to place my response to Lord Carlile's recommendations in the House Library today.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Wilton Park
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Chris Mullin): Wilton Park is an academically independent executive agency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Its annual report and accounts for 2003–04 were published today and copies will be placed in the Library of the House.
Highlights of the last year include:
More conferences organised than ever before—49, including for the first time two held outside Europe
A record level of financial support from other organisations
Highest ever ratings by participants of the value of conferences
Wilton Park's performance against agreed targets for 2003–04 is shown below. The targets cover cost recovery, quality of conference programmes and standards of service, including for the current year.
| 2003–04 | 2003–04 | 2004–05 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Performance | Target | |
| Total income | £3,732,000 | £3,635,000 | £3,987,000 |
| Excellent rating for programmes | 57% | 57.9% | 57% |
| Excellent rating for administration | 89% | 86.5% | 89% |
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Private Rented Sector
The Minister for Housing and Planning (Keith Hill): My right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister will publish for public consultation on 16 July a paper on licensing in the private rented sector concerning the implementation of selective licensing.
This paper seeks to explain the Government's proposals for licensing in the private rented sector that will be set in place by the Housing Bill, currently before Parliament. In particular, the paper explains the Government's proposals for selective licensing and sets out proposals for the secondary instruments required to implement these measures.
The powers in the Bill and proposed secondary legislation will give local authorities scope to license properties in those areas where the private rented sector is associated with problems of low demand and/or antisocial behaviour. Licensing will enable local authorities to:
Ensure that landlords are fit and proper persons or employ agents who are.
Ensure that the standards of tenancy relations' management and property management employed by a landlord or agent are adequate.
Impose conditions on licenses to achieve improvements in management where necessary.
Identify landlords and support them in participating in work to regenerate rundown areas or to tackle problems of antisocial behaviour.
Step in and manage properties where landlords refuse to meet the required criteria.
The paper invites interested parties to comment on how these powers should be implemented in relation to selective licensing through the necessary secondary legislation.
This consultation is being taken forward alongside the progress of the Bill through Parliament, not only to enable authorities to make an early start to tackling problems of low demand and antisocial behaviour once the Bill receives Royal Assent, but also better to inform the consideration of the Bill in Parliament.
Copies of the paper are being sent to a wide range of interested parties including local authorities, landlord and tenant organisations and others with an interest in this issue. The closing date for responses is 8 October 2004.
Copies of the paper will also be made available in the Libraries of the House and will be available on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website at www.odpm.gov.uk
15 Jul 2004 : Column 76WS
TREASURY
Thalidomide Trust
The Paymaster General (Dawn Primarolo): The Treasury is today laying a statutory instrument which provides that payments by the Thalidomide Trust to the people affected by the drug thalidomide will in future be exempt from income tax. This legislative change, on which the Government have consulted with the trust, will come into effect on 5 August 2004.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Draft Disability Discrimination Bill
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Andrew Smith): I have today laid before Parliament the Government's response (Cm 6276) to the report by the House of Commons and House of Lords Joint Committee on the draft Disability Discrimination Bill, which was presented to Government on 27 May.
The Government are grateful to the Joint Committee for producing such a thorough report and we welcome the Committee's recognition of the important extensions in the draft Bill to disabled people's rights and freedoms. These include: taking a power to end the exemption of transport vehicles from the scope of the DDA's access to goods and service provisions; introducing a new duty on public bodies to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people; and extending the DDA's definition of disability to cover more people with HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis.
The Committee made 75 recommendations and we have accepted them wherever they are worthwhile and practicable given our ambitious timetable, and in the light of our priority to legislate on and implement the new rights quickly. A number of the Committee's recommendations are for the Disability Rights Commission, and we commend those to the commission. Others concern purely procedural or administrative matters, which we accept. The remainder would require amendment to the draft Bill.
In respect of this latter category, we have accepted a number of important recommendations. These include:
ensuring that there are sufficient powers in the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), which the draft Bill amends, so that the definition of disability can be amended to improve coverage, should this prove necessary in the light of future evidence;
removing the requirement in the DDA's definition of disability that mental illnesses must be "clinically well recognised" before a person can qualify as disabled under the Act;
amending the blue badge parking scheme to: (i) alter the wording of badges issued to groups caring for disabled people to "organisation" instead of "institution"; and (ii) provide legal recognition for blue badges issued by other member states of the European Union and European Conference of Ministers of Transport members and associate members;
removing the additional defence of ignorance from the draft Bill's provisions on third party publishers of discriminatory advertisements; and
ensuring that awarding (i.e. examination) bodies in respect of general qualifications (such as GCSE and the Scottish Standard Grade) will be covered under the DDA (as the awarding of vocational qualifications is already covered).
We are also committed to look at the current wording of some aspects of the draft Bill to ensure that there is clarity and certainty for those who will have rights and duties under the Bill. We are also considering changing the short title of the Bill to reflect better its intent.
Other changes to the DDA come into force in October 2004 (e.g. extending service providers' duty of reasonable adjustment to include physical features and implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act (Amendment) Regulations 2003, which significantly extend the rights of disabled people in employment). The changes in the draft Bill, combined with the October 2004 changes, will ensure that by the end of this Parliament we have in place comprehensive civil rights for disabled people.
Our response to the Committee sets out an indicative timetable for implementation of the Bill following Royal Assent. This sees a number of the duties coming into force in December 2005 and others in December 2006.
There are some legislative recommendations made by the Committee that we have decided to reject. For far too long disability rights did not exist in law at all, so this is a new and rapidly evolving field. So, in many respects the basic framework of rights legislation is still bedding down both in the understanding and practice of employers, businesses, public bodies, private clubs and individuals. We must ensure that in driving forward key DDA features, we avoid the risk of confusion and uncertainty which could damage the effective implementation of the rights that the legislation provides. The Act will continue to be monitored and reviewed by the Disability Rights Commission, and any successor body, and we look forward to any future proposals on how the legislation can be improved still further.
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