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Our policy needs to take full account of these challenges. We have therefore reviewed and are reprioritising what we are doing in Colombia. The changes we are making
will give new focus to the UK’s contribution to peace, prosperity and justice for Colombia’s people, to the mutual benefit of both our countries.
We will continue our important counter-narcotics work in Colombia, including supporting projects totalling over £900,000 of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime in Bogota. Our capacity building work in Colombia is helping to bring down trafficking networks, put those involved in jail, seize cocaine destined for the UK, disrupt traffickers’ financing networks, and seize the proceeds of their crimes. It is vital that we continue it.
We will make tackling impunity a priority, and have allocated £250,000 next financial year for projects in this area implemented by the UK and other partners. Too many people in Colombia commit crimes without fear of justice or punishment, and our work will aim to help the Colombian criminal justice system develop its ability to tackle impunity.
Human rights and humanitarian demining engagement with the Colombian armedforces
We have achieved our objective of helping the Colombian Government develop a roadmap to promote their military’s adherence to international humanitarian law. The Government share the concerns of many in the House that there are officers and soldiers of the Colombian armed forces who have been involved in, or allowed, abuses. The challenge for the Colombian Government is to ensure the strategic human rights principles we have helped to promote are embedded and consistently practised by all members of their armed services. We will continue to offer our political, and, where possible, financial and practical support to UN projects that aim to help promote human rights adherence within the Colombian armed forces. Our bilateral human rights projects with the Colombian Ministry of Defence will cease.
The UK’s humanitarian demining training has contributed significantly to the removal of the landmines that kill and maim innocent Colombians. We now plan to integrate this work more fully with that of international governmental and non-governmental partners.
Human rights and promoting civil society
We will continue our work on strengthening human rights, promoting civil society and supporting human rights defenders. We support a large number of projects in areas such as freedom of speech, democracy and tackling discrimination. For example, we have recently supported a UN project to improve criminal prosecution of sexual crimes committed against women and girls, and we are working with journalists in Colombia to improve capacity for investigative journalism in conflict and peace issues. Projects already approved for the next financial year and beyond total almost £1 million and a further £170,000 is to be allocated for human rights projects. With British trade union partners, we will continue to look at ways in which the UK can promote labour relations in Colombia. The Department for International Development’s (DFID) Latin America Partnership Programme Arrangement, worth £13 million per year for the region, will also focus on promoting more accountable public and political systems and on HIV and AIDS, climate change and giving poor and marginalised people a greater voice. DFID also provides
substantial contributions to the European Commission and international financial institutions’ aid programmes in Colombia—in 2007-08 this totalled £3.l million.
Working with EU and other partners, we will continue to encourage a stronger relationship between the Colombian Government and civil society. Our staff in Colombia meet with many who have received threats, and will continue to do so.
Our ongoing work in Colombia on other issues, including addressing climate change (where our regional projects that include Colombia total £900,000) and promoting trade and investment, will continue.
FCO Services
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Gillian Merron): My noble Friend the Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Lord Malloch-Brown has made the following written ministerial statement:
FCO Services operates as a trading fund of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). I have set the following performance targets for 2009-10:
An in-year surplus before interest and tax of at least £2.9 million.
A return on capital employed of at least 3.5 per cent. (weighted average).
Wider market revenue growth of 10 per cent. on that achieved in 2008-09.
A contribution to the FCO’s comprehensive spending review commitments by delivering £6 million of cumulative cash savings over the two years 2008-09 and 2009-10.
A utilisation rate for revenue earning staff of at least 75 per cent.
A customer satisfaction rating of at least 85 per cent. satisfied or very satisfied.
FCO Services will report to Parliament on its success against these targets through its annual report for 2009-10.
Health
Health and Adult Social Care
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. Ben Bradshaw): Today I am publishing a consultation document, which is the latest stage in the development of the new system we are introducing for the regulation of health and adult social care.
The publication, “Response to consultation on the framework for the registration of health and adult social care providers and consultation on draft regulations” sets out our response to our previous consultation, “The future regulation of health and adult social care in England: A consultation on the framework for the regulation of health and adult social care”. It describes the new registration framework for the new Care Quality Commission, to be introduced from April 2010. It also launches a new consultation on the content of the draft regulations.
From 1 April 2009, the Care Quality Commission will take over from the Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission.
For 2009-10, the new commission will continue to regulate adult social care and private and voluntary healthcare under the terms of the Care Standards Acts 2000. Also in 2009-10, it will regulate national health service
providers against regulations made under the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the 2008 Act) relating to healthcare associated infections, which were recently approved by Parliament.
From April 2010, the commission will operate a new registration system based on regulations to be made under the 2008 Act. It is the content of these regulations we are now consulting on.
The draft regulations set out who needs to register with the new commission (scope of registration) and what they need to do to register and remain registered (registration requirements).
The new approach will mean that patients and people using services will have the same level of assurance of the quality and safety of their care and treatment, whether it is being provided by the NHS, local government or the independent sector.
The registration requirements are designed to address the concerns of people using health and adult social care services, covering the topics on which they want assurance. They provide clarity about the essential levels of safety and quality all providers must deliver for people who use their services, without being prescriptive about how providers run their services.
The registration system will operate alongside a wider quality improvement framework that encourages not just good care, but excellent care. The commission will have a role in contributing to ongoing quality improvement as part of the wider quality framework, particularly through its publication of comparable information in periodic reviews, and its power to conduct special reviews into areas of particular interest.
Regulation plays a vital role within the Government’s drive to make quality the organising principle of care. “High quality care for all” set out that vision for the NHS, but the underpinning ambition and principles apply equally across all forms of health and adult social care. The White Paper: “Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services” (January 2006), which is available in the Library, described the framework that is now used for promoting quality in adult social care services and set out the seven key outcomes that adult social care should deliver.
This publication will be of interest to anyone providing or working in health and adult social care, and to patients and people using services, who are interested in how the reforms are going to improve these services.
Today’s publication has been placed in the Library and copies are available to hon. Members from the Vote Office.
Justice
Her Majesty's Courts Service
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Bridget Prentice): The following list of key performance indicators has been set for Her Majesty’s Courts Service for 2009-2010:
To commence 78 per cent. of cases within the following time scales in the Crown court:
defendants’ cases that are sent for trial within 26 weeks of sending;
defendants’ committal for trial cases within 16 weeks of committal;
appeals within 14 weeks of the appeal being lodged; and
committals for sentence within 10 weeks of committal.
To speed up criminal cases in the magistrates courts so that, for charged cases, the average time from charge to disposal is less than six weeks.
Time taken to produce and send court results to the police:
95 per cent. of court registers produced and despatched within three working days.
100 per cent. of court registers produced and despatched within six working days.
To achieve an 85 per cent. payment rate for financial penalties in the magistrates courts.
For 60 per cent. of all breached community penalties to be resolved within 25 working days of the relevant failure to comply.
To increase the proportion of defended small claims that are completed otherwise than by court hearing to 65 per cent.
To increase the proportion of defended small claims that are completed (from receipt to final hearing) within 30 weeks to at least 70 per cent.
To increase the amount of civil work initiated online— 65 per cent. of eligible possession claims through possession claim online and 75 per cent. of specified money claims through money claim online and via the Claims Production Centre.
To ensure that 48 per cent. of care and supervision cases in the county court and 56 per cent. in the magistrates court are completed within 40 weeks.
To maintain the “very satisfied” element of the HMCS court user satisfaction survey at or above the 2007- 08 baseline of 41 per cent.
More information on these and other key supporting targets are published in the “HM Courts Service Business Plan for 2009-10”. Copies of the business plan for 2009-10 have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Copies are also available in the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.
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