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Legal Advice Direct
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on the use of webcam technology as part of the online Legal Advice Direct project. [40824]
Bridget Prentice: The Legal Services Commission is currently in contract negotiations with the firm responsible for Legal Advice Direct. It would therefore be inappropriate to comment on their services at this stage as this could compromise impartiality during the tender process. In general I am keen to embrace and work with new technology in ensuring that services are delivered using methods that best meet client need while demonstrating cost-effectiveness.
Legal Aid
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps her Department is planning to encourage law students to choose careers involving legal aid work. [40823]
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Bridget Prentice: Supporting the development of the next generation of legal aid lawyers is a high priority for the Department and the Legal Services Commission (LSC).
The LSC has committed £10 million over three years in a training support grants scheme for students and trainee solicitors. To date nearly 400 grants have been awarded to 338 solicitors' firms and 49 not-for-profit organisations.
The LSC worked with the College of Law and the Law Society to develop a Legal Practice Course with a specialist option (or 'elective') in legal aid work.
The LSC promotes legal aid work to students and young lawyers as a career of choice in a range of ways: for example, exhibiting at the Graduate Law Fair, arranging work shadowing, and sponsoring the Young Legal Aid Lawyer of the Year award and the Young Solicitors' Group legal aid conference.
MINISTER FOR WOMEN
Parental Leave
Michael Connarty: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps are being taken to provide for equal parental leave rights to both parents in the second six months of their child's life. [40700]
Meg Munn: The Work and Families Bill includes provisions that will allow fathers to take time off in the second six months of their child's life. The first six months of maternity leave will be reserved for the mother, in the second six months the fathers will be able to take up to six months additional paternity leave (APL) if the mother has returned to work.
Pregnancy and Maternity (Equality and Employment Law)
Michael Connarty: To ask the Minister for Women and Equality what steps are being taken by the Government (a) to harmonise, (b) to consolidate and (c) to simplify (i) equality and (ii) employment law relating to pregnancy and maternity. [41173]
Meg Munn: The Discrimination Law Review, led by the Women and Equality Unit in the Department of Trade and Industry, is examining the current framework of anti-discrimination legislation, by developing proposals for a more modern, coherent and effective legal framework for tackling discrimination across all equality strands. This includes discrimination in employment on grounds of pregnancy and maternity.
ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS
Bovine TB
Mr. Drew:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what size of culling area the Department is considering for the control of bovine TB; and what percentage of badgers would have to be despatched in those areas in order for the policy to be effective; [39629]
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(2) what restrictions there will be on areas chosen for badger culling to control bovine TB; and whether restrictions will apply to locations where active study of the badger population is under way. [39630]
Mr. Bradshaw: We are currently consulting both on the principle of culling badgers to control bovine tuberculosis (TB), and on how a badger cull might operate. Options are set out in the consultation document Controlling the spread of bovine tuberculosis in cattle in high incidence areas in England: Badger Culling". These include possible culling areas ranging from 1 km to 3 km from an eligible farm's boundary to areas of 100 km 2 or more. Until the consultation is complete no decisions on culling badgers or the detail of how an effective cull would operate can be made.
In deciding whether to introduce a badger culling policy we will take account of scientific evidence, the effectiveness of culling as a way of reducing bovine TB in cattle, and whether this is cost-effective. We will also consider what is practical and sustainable. Copies of the consultation document are available in the House Library or on the DEFRA website at:
The deadline for responses is 10 March 2006.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what additional powers the Department requires to enforce a cull of badgers in locations where the landowner does not agree to the policy. [39631]
Mr. Bradshaw: We are currently consulting both on the principle of culling badgers to control bovine tuberculosis, and on how a badger cull could operate. If we do decide to introduce such a policy, the consent of landowners would be needed for culling to take place on their land.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the carbon dioxide emissions of (a) China, (b) India, (c) the US and (d) the UK were as most recently reported for the purposes of the Kyoto and Montreal agreements; and what projections have been made for that purpose for (i)2020 and (ii) 2050 in each case. [39789]
Mr. Morley: The following table shows historical and projected carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) emissions in million tonnes of CO 2 (MtCO 2 ) for China, India, the USA and the UK.
Emissions estimates are submitted under the United Nations framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) which is the parent treaty for Kyoto protocol and the Montreal decisions, and also covers the US which has not ratified the protocol.
The USA and UK are annexe 1 parties to the UNFCCC, and submit emissions inventories annually; the most recent year for which data are available is 2003. China and India are non-annexe 1 parties to the UNFCCC; the most recent data they have submitted is
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for 1994. The table also provides US and UK CO 2 emissions for 1994 from UNFCCC submissions for comparison. The data in the table cover all sectors including land-use, land-use change and forestry as reported by the country. The UK's data have been updated for consistency with the information provided in June 2005 to the European Union.
The USA and UK have submitted projections to the UNFCCC for CO 2 emissions in 2020, but China and India have not. Projections to 2050 are not available for any of the countries, although the UK policy, as set out in the 2003 Energy White Paper, is to put ourselves on a path to a reduction of some 60 per cent. by 2050.
| CO 2 emissions (MtCO 2 ) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Country | 1994 | 2003 | 2020 |
| China | 2,666.0 | n/a | n/a |
| India | 793.5 | n/a | n/a |
| US | 4,327.8 | 5,013.5 | 6,763.0 |
| UK | 559.8 | 555.9 | 524.7 |
n/a=Not available.
The International Energy Agency provides estimates of projected emissions from use of fossil fuels which indicate, for China and India respectively, increases of about 210 per cent. and about 240 per cent. over the period 1994 to 2020. Fossil fuels account for the majority of CO 2 emissions but do not include land-use, land-use change and forestry which in 1994 reduced emission from China by about +5 per cent. and increased those of India by about 8 per cent.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what measures her Department is implementing to cut carbon emissions from transport; and what the percentage change in emissions from transport was between 2000 and 2005 (a) in total and (b) in each year. [39905]
Mr. Morley: The UK Government set out its policy on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from all sectors in its publication Climate Change: The UK Programme" in 2000. The Climate Change Programme (CCP) is currently under review, and as part of this review the Government are considering the scope for additional policy measures to further reduce emissions from all sectors, including transport.
The following tables contain carbon emissions from 2000 to 2003, the latest year for which published data are available, expressed as million tonnes of carbon (MtC) equivalent. Percentage changes are shown as a year-on-year change and as a total change from 2000 to 2003.
The first table shows carbon emissions from domestic transport, which includes emissions from road, diesel rail, domestic aviation and domestic shipping. The second table shows carbon emissions from international shipping and international aviation; under guidelines agreed internationally, these emissions are not included in UK total emissions, but are estimated for information purposes and do not count towards the achievement of the UK's Kyoto target.
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| Total transport emissions (MtC) | Percentage change between each year | Percentage change in total (2000–03) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 33.63 | — | — |
| 2001 | 33.50 | -0.39 | — |
| 2002 | 34.00 | 1 .49 | — |
| 2003 | 34.34 | 1 .00 | 2.11 |
| Total transport emissions (MtC) | Percentage change between each year | Percentage change in total (2000–03) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 9.81 | — | — |
| 2001 | 9.79 | -0.20 | — |
| 2002 | 9.35 | -4.49 | — |
| 2003 | 9.49 | 1 .50 | -3.26 |
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