The Minister for Local Government (Mr. Phil Woolas): I am today placing in the Libraries of both Houses copies of the strategy document Independence and Opportunity: Our Strategy for Supporting People and an associated impact assessment and equalities impact assessment.
The strategy document is the culmination of an extensive consultation with local authorities, service providers, service users and representative bodies on the future effective delivery of housing-related support.
The document focuses on four key delivery issues:
Keeping the needs of service users at the heart of the supporting people programme, by ensuring their involvement in the planning, design and delivery of services; and by encouraging choice and control over services, and by rationalising needs assessment for individuals.
Enhancing our relationship with the third sector, who deliver the majority of housing related support services, by ensuring they have the capacity and tools to compete fairly for contracts to deliver services.
Delivering housing-related support services effectively in the new local government performance landscape, that is through the local area agreement framework.
Maximising efficiency and minimising bureaucracy through a national value improvement programme, which will assist in rationalising processes such as procurement and contracting.
The strategy aims to provide additional clarity and focus to an already successful programme that helps a million people per year to attain or maintain independent living in their own homes.
The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (David Miliband): I and my hon. Friend, the Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare represented the United Kingdom at this months Agriculture and Fisheries Council in Luxembourg. Richard Lochhead, the Scottish Environment and Rural Affairs Minister, also attended.
The Council reached unanimous political agreement on a presidency compromise proposal to reform the fruit and vegetable regime. The UK voted in favour as the reform met our negotiating objectives, including the flexibility we had sought with regards to allowing the four regions of the UK to take their own implementation
decisions on inclusion of fruit and vegetables in the single payment scheme. The reform will also deliver full decoupling of the aids for products grown for processing.
The Council also reached unanimous political agreement on a presidency compromise text, on the conclusion of the Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the EU and Greenland. The agreement provides fishing opportunities in Greenlandic waters for EU vessels including those of the UK, in return for Community funded financial contributions.
The Council adopted a conclusion on the Commissions report on the application of system of cross-compliance.
The Council also adopted a set of general conclusions on the Commissions communication on reducing bycatches and eliminating discards. The UK intervened to welcome the Commissions initiative, but also drew attention to the potential difficulties in finding solutions that worked in the mixed fisheries which characterised the EU situation.
The Council formally adopted a proposal to simplify and update the current regulation on organic food and farming, following the general agreement reached on the proposal during the Finnish presidency last year.
The Council also adopted a range of Agriculture and Fisheries A points: labelling requirements for veal meat; a proposal amending the common organisation of the market in cereals by the abolition of maize intervention; multi-annual management plan for North sea sole and plaice; recovery measures for European eel; and a recovery plan for bluefin tuna in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The UK could not offer its support to the compromise text on bluefin tuna. Despite voting against, the UK did manage to secure a joint Council-Commission declaration which should mean cases of overfishing are dealt with appropriately in the future.
The Council reached political agreement by qualified majority on a presidency compromise text establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets. The proposal consolidates the existing 21 sector-specific Common Market organisations into a single horizontal regulation. The UK voted in favour of the compromise text which satisfied the UKs principal concerns.
The Council also reached political agreement by qualified majority, with the UK voting in favour, on a set of measures to rebuild and manage the cod stocks in the Baltic sea.
A number of issues, as follows, were raised under any other business:
The Council took note, without discussion, of a report provided by the presidency on the outcome of the conference of directors of EU paying agency, which was held in Postsdam, Germany. The Council also took note of a written update provided by the Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner on the state of play of discussions on proposals covering the marketing of plant protection products and on the sustainable use of pesticides.
The ten new member states currently applying the single area payment scheme expressed concerns on the implementation of the system of cross-compliance.
The Agriculture Commissioner updated Council on progress in the WTO agricultural negotiations.
The Fisheries Commissioner set out the Commissions initial plans for handling the setting of the total allowable catches for 2008. He highlighted the importance of involving the full range of relevant stakeholders in the decision-making process.
Denmark expressed concerns about the operation of the existing management plan for the North sea sandeel fishery. The UK reminded the Commission about its interest, albeit limited, in the fishery and asked to be consulted when the management arrangements were reviewed.
Finally, the UK expressed concerns regarding the continued illegal use of drift nets by a number of member states, following the ban agreed in 1992. The Commission explained that it took such illegal activity seriously and that it would make full use of its treaty powers to pursue any infringements.
The Minister for Local Environment, Marine and Animal Welfare (Mr. Ben Bradshaw): Charges to cover the costs of local enforcing authorities in regulating processes which are subject to Part I of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 (Local Air Pollution Control (LAPC)) were introduced in April 1991. Interim charges for installations which are subject to the Pollution Prevention and Control Act 1999 (Local Air Pollution Prevention and Control (LAPPC) and Local Authority - Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (LA-IPPC)) were introduced in August 2000.
With the approval of the Treasury, and following consultation with local authority associations and industry, I have revised the scheme specifying the scale of fees and charges in respect of the Pollution Prevention and Control Act.
This amendment to the scheme specifies the scale of fees and charges for certain petrol vapour recovery applications, namely, the application and subsistence fees that operators must pay for Stage II petrol vapour recovery (PVR II) systems at existing petrol stations. With effect from 15 June 2007 the application fee for PVR II will be £91 and the subsistence fee for combined PVR I and PVR II will be £202.
The basis of these fees is set out in the consultation paper on The Implementation of the Petrol Vapour Recovery Stage II Controls which is available on the DEFRA website.
The amendment has been laid before Parliament and copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Margaret Beckett):
There were 5,484 outstanding parking and other minor traffic violation fines incurred by diplomatic missions and international organisations in the United Kingdom recorded during the year
1 January 2006 to 31 December 2006. These totalled £506,475. In April this year the Foreign and Commonwealth Office wrote to all diplomatic missions and international organisations concerned giving them the opportunity either to pay their outstanding fines or appeal against them if they considered that the fines had been issued incorrectly. As a result of subsequent payments totalling £22,713 and formal appeals lodged, there remains a total of 4,859 (£448,965) unpaid fines for 2006(1). The table below details those diplomatic missions and International Organisations that have outstanding fines totalling £1,000 or more.
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