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Clarifying and expanding information gathering powers to ensure that the Treasury is able to request information from designated persons in all cases where this is necessary to ensure effective implementation of and compliance with the asset freeze.
Overall, these changes will improve the operation of the asset freezing regime, ensure that it remains fair and proportionate and help facilitate effective compliance by ensuring that prohibitions are more tailored and clearer in how they apply. The Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order will come into effect on 10 August 2009.
Children, Schools and Families
Schools Capital
The Minister for Schools and Learners (Mr. Vernon Coaker): It has become apparent in recent months that some local authorities are facing sudden and sharp increases in demand for primary pupil places. I am today announcing that £200 million of capital funding will be made available in the next financial year to authorities with exceptional need to assist them in building additional permanent primary school places by September 2011.
Detailed guidance on applying for this funding will shortly be made available by my Department. Local authorities will have four weeks to apply and I aim to announce allocations in September.
This funding is in addition to the £1.75 billion of additional investment being made available through the Primary Capital Programme over the next two years, which is supported by significant additional investment committed by local authorities. It is also in addition to the £939 million of capital investment which has been brought forward from 2010-11 to 2009-10 to accelerate thousands of school modernisation projects across England and support jobs and local businesses.
I am also announcing today that the following six local authorities will enter the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme this month: Barnet, Bolton, Hampshire, Peterborough, Sunderland and Wigan. Five of these authorities are new to BSF in line with our aim of getting all authorities into the programme as soon as is practicable.
These six authorities have now demonstrated satisfactorily to Partnership for Schools (PfS) that they are fully ready to start the full development of their projects. Another six local authority projects will join the programme in three months time, with a further six three months after that. This rate of starts will maintain the current rate of delivery of BSF.
This is a prudent and affordable rate of progress for our major strategic programme to renew our schools infrastructure, and which brings benefits for the wider community as well as children.
Communities and Local Government
Fire and Resilience
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr. Shahid Malik): I would like to inform the House about progress on the FiReControl project-part of our major programme of work to ensure that the fire and rescue service is fully equipped to meet the challenges and demands of the modern world.
Recent events, in both Camberwell and Edinburgh, have reinforced the very real significance of doing all we can to ensure the safety of the public and firefighters. FiReControl will provide the public and firefighters with very substantial safety benefits by establishing, for the first time, a linked national network of nine regional fire control centres across England. These will replace the current 46 stand-alone control rooms, operated in each fire and rescue authority (FRA) area.
On a day-to-day basis, the new system will improve firefighter safety, the management of incidents and both the efficiency and responsiveness of the service. Firefighters will have access to safety information and incident details through mobile data terminals, and satellite navigation and automatic tracking of fire appliances will enable more efficient use of resources. Emergency calls from the public will be automatically located and managed using spatial data right down to property level. Control rooms will share calls across the network to manage even the highest call volumes and thereby be more resilient in emergencies. The new network will also improve the country's ability to respond to terrorism, large-scale industrial accidents and natural disasters such as flooding.
FiReControl is a complex and demanding project that involves significant change to operating practices in the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) as well as the development and installation of a major new national IT system. In November 2008 my predecessor informed the House that the project was being rescheduled due to slower than expected progress with development of the new IT, and that we would continue to monitor
progress carefully as there could only be certainty on final timings once we had made progress through the earlier stages.
Good progress is being made on the building of the nine regional centres and the setting up of the local authority controlled companies that will manage the centres. The delivery and installation of equipment in local fire stations is also on track. However, in recent months it has become clear that technical problems with developing the IT system in a way which will meet all our and FRS requirements mean that further time is needed to complete the project.
I am proposing therefore to extend the delivery schedule by 10 months. This means that the first FRSs will switch over to the regional control centres in spring 2011 and the last will switch over by the end of 2012. We have discussed this in detail with the representatives of FRSs and local government, and we believe that this is a realistic timetable. Key Olympic authorities will switch over in time to prepare for the games, and the network will provide robust fall-back arrangements for all FRSs over the Olympic period. I am today publishing a full revised schedule for switch over of all FRSs in all regions and copies will be placed in the Library of the House.
To ensure consistent progress on this revised timescale, we have agreed with EADS, our main supplier, and with key stakeholders, a new approach to delivery to give greater assurance on short-term milestones and closer engagement with FRSs.
We remain committed to meeting all the upfront costs associated with the project and to the principle that no FRA will bear any additional cost as a result of FiReControl implementation. Once the new network is established, many FRAs are expected to make savings. These can be reinvested in local priorities and frontline services. We will be updating the cost figures contained in the FiReControl business case in due course to reflect today's rescheduling.
FiReControl continues to form an important part of the fire and resilience programme, which has already delivered very substantial benefits for the FRS. The new dimensions project has given the FRS new vehicles, equipment, and training to respond to terrorism and natural disasters. The Firelink project is delivering new digital communications technology, which is giving the FRS access to a world class communications system. FiReControl will build on this successful delivery.
Defence
Afghanistan Troop Levels (Autumn 2009 Roulement)
The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Bob Ainsworth): My right hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), announced in his statement to the House on 29 April 2009, that Headquarters, 6 (UK) Division would command the International Security Assistance Force's Regional Command (South) from November 2009 to November 2010, Official Report, column 46WS.
The next routine roulement of UK forces in Afghanistan will take place in October 2009. The force package that we plan to deploy will see the current lead brigade, 19 Light Brigade, replaced by 11 Light Brigade which will be committed to Afghanistan until April 2010.
Volunteer and regular members of the reserve forces will continue to deploy to Afghanistan as part of our integrated force package, and we expect to issue around 710 call-out notices to fill some 650 posts. On completion of their mobilisation procedures, the reservists will undertake a period of training and, where applicable, integration with their respective receiving units. The majority will serve on operations for six or so months. As part of this commitment, we expect up to 21 members of the sponsored reserves to be in theatre at any one time.
I shall make a further statement on the units we expect to commit under 11 Light Brigade's planned replacement formation, 4 Mechanized Brigade, nearer the time of their deployment.
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