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18 Oct 2004 : Column 471W—continued
Pakistan
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the average waiting time between an application to the High Commission Islamabad for leave to settle in the United Kingdom as the wife of a British citizen and the date of interview was in the last period for which figures are available. [190673]
Mr. Mullin:
Our High Commission in Islamabad have statistics available for the quarterly period June-August 2004. These show that the average waiting time from application to date of interview was 13 weeks.
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Ports Access
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action (a) the Government and (b) the EU may take against non-EU countries who refuse access to their ports by the commercial fleet of an EU member state; and if he will make a statement. [190441]
Mr. MacShane: This is a matter for the EU member state whose commercial fleet is refused access. The course of action is then dependent upon the circumstances and reasons for refusal of access to the ports in question.
Russia (G8 Presidency)
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what further discussions he plans with the Russian presidency in advance of the UK's presidency of the G8. [191124]
Mr. Alexander: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary discussed the UK and Russian G8 presidencies with the Russian Foreign Minister, Mr. Lavrov, in Moscow in July. The Ministers asked their officials to carry forward co-ordination work for the two presidencies. Senior officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office will visit Russia this week as part of this process. Furthermore, officials in particular areas, such as counter-terrorism, are in regular contact with their Russian counterparts on (i8 matters. The two Ministers plan to meet later this year to review progress. However, no date has yet been set.
Saudi Arabia
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if Dr Ali-al Shamrani is still a diplomat accredited to the Saudi Arabian embassy in London; and if he will make a statement. [190494]
Mr. Rammell: Dr. Ali Al Shamrani is not now an accredited diplomat. He left the UK on 15 August 2003.
Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations were made to the ambassador of Saudi Arabia about the soliciting of official information by a Saudi intelligence officer, from Mr. Ghazi Kassim; and if he will make a statement. [190495]
Mr. Rammell: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office raised this case with the Saudi ambassador and asked that the diplomat in question should be withdrawn. It is not our policy to divulge the details of discussions with foreign ambassadors. I am withholding this information under Exemption l(b) of Part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Security Council (India)
Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is with regard to a place for India on the UN Security Council; and if he will make a statement. [192185]
Mr. Rammell:
The Government have long supported expansion of the Security Council in both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership. We have
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supported the candidacies of Germany, Japan, India and Brazil for permanent membership. We also believe that the Council should include a permanent member from Africa.
Our commitment to work with India to achieve its place as a permanent member of the Council was recently reconfirmed in the Joint Declaration issued on 20 September following the meeting of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister and Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister.
Turkey
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the position of Turkey with regard to future membership of the European Union. [190569]
Mr. MacShane: The European Commission's recommendation of 6 October 2004 concluded that
"Turkey sufficiently fulfils the political criteria and recommends that accession negotiations be opened."
The UK strongly supports Turkey's EU accession and welcomes the Commission's recommendation. A decision on this will be taken by the European Council on 17 December.
Zimbabwe
Sir Patrick Cormack: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he last met the President of Zimbabwe; what matters were discussed; and if he will make a statement. [190532]
Mr. Mullin: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary was introduced to Robert Mugabe at a reception during the United Nations General Assembly in New York on 22 September. There was no discussion between them.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Correspondence
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions when the Minister of State for Work will reply to the letter dated 6 July from the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan regarding maximum working temperatures. [192085]
Jane Kennedy: I replied to the hon. Member on 21 July. I am sending a further copy of my letter to him.
Departmental Vehicles
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many road vehicles are operated by the Department and its agencies; how many personal injury accidents involving road vehicles operated by the Department have occurred within each of the last five years; and what the Department's policy is for managing work-related road safety. [185926]
Maria Eagle:
DWP currently operates 2,670 road vehicles.
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The information in the table has been provided by the Department's External Accident Management companies who are contracted to DWP to maintain Accident Management Services.
DWP was formed in June 2001 from the former Department of Social Security (DSS) and parts of the former Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) including the Employment Service (ES). The DWP vehicle fleet was formed on 1 April 2002 from the former DSS and ES fleets.
| April to March | Former DSS | Former ES | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 59 | 3 | 62 |
| 2000–01 | 29 | 6 | 35 |
| 2001–02 | 11 | 3 | 14 |
| DWP | |||
| 2002–03 | 52 | ||
| 2003–04 | 57 |
The Department's procedures for managing work-related road safety will be reviewed in the light of the recent publication from the Health and Safety Executive on managing work-related road safety.
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the revision of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will affect businesses. [191809]
Maria Eagle: On 1 October 2004, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 came into force. These regulations extended the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) to cover employers with fewer than 15 employees and all previously excluded occupations except the armed forces. They brought into the scope of the employment provisions an additional 1 million employers who are now under duties not to discriminate against, and to make reasonable adjustments for, disabled employees and disabled job applicants. These duties are not anticipatory, and an employer is not required to make adjustments until he has a disabled employee or job applicant.
The regulations also introduced a range of new provisions which have implications for employers in relation to the recruitment and employment of disabled people. They:
make clear that harassment for a reason relating to disability is unlawful;
ensure that treatment which constitutes direct discrimination against a disabled person, for example where it is motivated by prejudice, can never be justified;
outlaw discriminatory job advertisements;
bring practical work experience placements in the context of vocational training within scope of the DDA;
extend the DDA's protection to claims by former employees about discrimination where the discrimination has arisen directly out of, and is closely connected to, the former employment; and
ensure that instructions and pressure to discriminate, are unlawful.
Also on 1 October 2004, the final access duties for providers of services to the public were introduced. These further open up services to around 10 million disabled people in this country. The new duties require service providers to take reasonable steps to tackle physical features of their premises which otherwise make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for a disabled person to access the service; or to provide the service by another reasonable means. The duties for service providers are anticipatory.
The DDA requires employers and service providers only to make adjustments that are reasonable and factors such as the cost and practicability of making adjustments, and the financial and other resources available to the business or organisation, will be taken into account in determining what is reasonable.
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