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Parliamentary Questions
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Jack Straw): During Foreign and Commonwealth Office Oral Questions on Tuesday 29 November, in response to a supplementary question from the hon. Member for New Forest, West (Mr. Swayne), I said
"the United Kingdom has historically been paid significantly more than France over many years, notwithstanding the abatement that was secured in 1984", Official Report, 29 November 2005, volume 440, column 115.
I should have said that "the United Kingdom has historically paid" rather than "been paid". I apologise to the hon. Member and to the House for this inadvertent error.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Control Order Powers
The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. Charles Clarke): Section 14(1) of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (the 2005 Act) requires me to report to Parliament as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of every relevant three-month period on my exercise of the control order powers during that period.
The 2005 Act came into force on 11 March 2005. During the 3rd period (11 September to 10 December) I made four orders on 23 November 2005 and one order on 8 December 2005, all five were made with the permission of the court under section 3(1)(a) of the 2005 Act.
There are eight control orders currently in force.
During the period I have refused two requests to modify control order obligations. A right of appeal exists in section 10 of the 2005 Act against a decision by the Secretary of State not to modify an obligation contained in a control order. This has not been exercised in respect of these refusals.
12 Dec 2005 : Column 132WS
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Gleneagles Implementation Plan for Africa
The Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn): The Government are committed to ensuring that the pledges on Africa and development made at the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July are implemented, and progress has already been made. At the international level, implementation will be monitored by the Africa Partnership Forum, as well as by the G8 group of countries and the EU. The Gleneagles Implementation Plan for Africa—a copy of which I am placing in both Libraries—sets out the Government's views on the key milestone which need to be achieved on Africa and development in the twelve months following the Gleneagles summit. I am pleased that some of these have already been achieved, and the Government are working with their partners in developed and developing countries to ensure that the remainder are achieved as quickly as possible. This Plan will be updated monthly as further progress is made.
WORK AND PENSIONS
Pension Credit (Quarterly Report)
The Minister for Pensions Reform (Mr. Stephen Timms): I have today placed in the Library the latest quarterly progress report on Pension Credit, with figures to the end of September. The report gives the number of households and individuals receiving Pension Credit overall, broken down by the Guarantee Credit and Savings Credit and by Government Office Region and parliamentary constituency.
The total number of households receiving Pension Credit at 30 September 2005 was 2.71 million, or around 3.30 million individuals. The average weekly award is now £43.54.
The figures show that there were just under 2.1 million households, or 2.48 million individuals, getting Pension Credit Guarantee awards as at 30 September.
In future, Pension Credit caseload figures will be incorporated within the National Statistics reporting framework. The multi-benefit release of National Statistics in January 2006, including detailed Pension Credit figures for August 2005, will also include provisional headline Pension Credit statistics for November 2005.
Copies of the report are also available for hon. Members in the Vote Office.