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25 Mar 2010 : Column 424W—continued
Olympics
Olympic Games 2012: Construction
Charlotte Atkins: To ask the Minister for the Olympics how much freight is planned to be transferred by water to the main Olympic site in each of the next 12 months. [323340]
Tessa Jowell: The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) is committed to transporting 50 per cent. of materials to the Park, by weight, using sustainable methods, i.e. rail or water. The ODA is currently exceeding this target with almost 64 per cent. of material transported to the Park by sustainable methods.
The ODA will continue to actively encourage its supply chain to utilise rail and water facilities. While it is not within the ODA's remit to stipulate how many deliveries should be made to the Olympic Park by its supply chain, it is expected that there will be at least three barge movements per week as fit out work on the venues increases.
Charlotte Atkins: To ask the Minister for the Olympics what plans she has for development of the wharf at the main Olympic site. [323341]
Tessa Jowell: The Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) constructed a temporary wharf on Waterworks river for the construction phase of the programme to provide contractors with the opportunity to move material into and out of the Park by water. It is currently intended that this temporary wharf will be decommissioned in the spring of 2011. However, the ODA is currently exploring potential usages for sections of the Wharf during the games and this work is ongoing.
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Colombia: Human Rights
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the number of bodies in the mass grave recently discovered in La Macarena, Colombia. [324176]
Chris Bryant: The mass graves in La Macarena were first brought to the attention of our embassy in Bogota in November 2009.
Our ambassador asked the Colombian Government, namely Carlos Franco, Director of the Presidential Human Rights Programme in Colombia, for information on the alleged mass graves. We received a reply on 16 February 2010, which I shared with Carolina Hoyos, a human rights activist whom I met on 16 March. According to Mr. Franco there are 650 corpses properly identified in their graves buried during the last 20 years. There are approximately 350 corpses not identified during the same 20 years. The burial of non-identified people at La Macarena's cemetery has been properly registered in the control books kept by the municipal authorities and the officers in charge of the cemetery's administration. We will continue to monitor developments in the investigation into these mass graves.
I was dismayed to learn of the killing of Mr. Hurtado in the La Macarena region, who was President of the Human Rights committee of La Catalina. Our ambassador in Bogota raised Mr. Hurtado's assassination with the Director of the Presidential Human Rights Programme and the Head of the International Relations Unit at the Colombian Prosecutor's Office.
Conflict Resolution
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what Government funding is available for assistance to coexistence projects in other countries. [323628]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: For the current financial year (2009-10) the UK has provided over £100,000 of financial support to promote coexistence projects in Israel. The Government will look to fund several projects which will promote human rights in Israel in the next financial year. We cannot, as yet, confirm how much will be allocated to coexistence projects next financial year.
Middle East: Peace Negotiations
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department is taking to assist coexistence education projects in Israel. [323629]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The UK has provided financial support to educational projects which promote co-existence between Jewish and Arab children in Israel.
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assistance his Department is providing to projects to promote a shared society between Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel. [323630]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Government have spent over £100,000 in the current financial year to support projects and organisations that develop co-existence between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel.
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with his Israeli counterpart on equality between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. [323632]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The UK regularly raises concerns regarding equality issues. I discussed the issue of Israeli minorities in a meeting with the Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister on 9 February. We also highlighted the issue in the 2009 Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report on Human Rights, which was published on 17 March.
Poland: Anti-Semitism
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what reports he has received on the defacing of monuments at the former Plaszow concentration camp near Krakow on Saturday 13 March 2010; what recent discussions he has had with the government of Poland on anti-Semitism in Poland; and if he will make a statement. [324377]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: We condemn the act of vandalism against the monuments at the former Plaszow concentration camp and all instances of persecution and discrimination against individuals and groups wherever they occur.
Polish politicians have spoken out strongly against this act. Polish Foreign Minister Sikorkski said:
"The people who did this deserve the highest condemnation. This is something which ruins Poland and which I personally am ashamed of."
Polish Cardinal Dziwish has apologised to Jewish people on behalf of all Christians for what happened.
Our embassy in Warsaw was in touch with non-governmental organisations and relevant Government representatives that deal with and monitor anti-Semitism on 16 April 2009. The Polish Government highlighted some of their initiatives in their interim report, responding to a 2007 memorandum, to the Council of Europe Commissioner for human rights. This can be found on the Commissioner's website:
http://www.coe.int/t/commissioner/News/2009/090420Poland Report_en.asp
Culture, Media and Sport
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether his Department provides subsidised gym facilities for its staff. [324565]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department does provide subsidised gym facilities for its staff.
Departmental Consultants
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport pursuant to the answer to Baroness Warsi of 17 March 2010, Official Report, House of Lords, column 188WA, on Government Departments: consultancy services, which public affairs company provided the administrative support to the All-Party Horticultural Working Group with funding from the Royal Parks Agency. [324621]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Bellenden Public Affairs provided support to the All-Party Horticultural Working Group with funding from the Royal Parks Agency.
Departmental Internet
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether his Department and its agencies have incurred any expenditure on Google Adwords in the last 12 months. [323967]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department and its agencies have not incurred any expenditure on Google Adwords in the last 12 months.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what his Department's policy is on the use by its officials of computers for recreational web browsing (a) at lunchtimes and (b) other normal working hours; and for what reasons access to tobacco-related websites is blocked. [323975]
Mr. Bradshaw: My Department's policy on internet usage is as follows:
Do not access the internet during working hours for purposes other than those for which you are employed. Any personal use should be limited, carried out in non-working hours and should not interfere with the performance of your duties nor with the Department's IT/networking systems and services.
Access to tobacco-related websites is blocked because they have no relevance to the work of the Department.
Ofcom: Standards
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what steps he takes to monitor the performance of Ofcom; and if he will make a statement. [323565]
Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.
The Office of Communications (Ofcom) is the regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries. Ministers do not monitor Ofcom's performance because the regulator is independent of Government and is accountable directly to Parliament. Ofcom is required to report annually to Parliament through the annual plan and report and accounts.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Commercial Waste
14. Mr. Goodwill: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether he plans to review arrangements for the collection of commercial waste following its recent redefinition. [324062]
Dan Norris: A change in the definition of municipal waste will not alter local authority responsibilities on commercial waste. The vast majority of commercial waste is managed by the private sector and we do not expect this to change. However, we do want to promote more sorting and recycling of commercial waste and have a number of measures in place including funding for pilot trade waste recycling points and collection schemes.
Bovine Tuberculosis
17. Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent progress has been made in tackling the spread of bovine tuberculosis. [324067]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Veterinary Medicines Directorate yesterday issued an authorisation for a tuberculosis vaccine for use in badgers. This has been made possible by the hard work of the researchers at the Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the Food and Environment Research Agency and reflects 10 years and £11 million of DEFRA-funded research and development. This injectable vaccine will be used in the Badger Vaccine Deployment Project to commence in six areas in England from July.
Recommendations from the October 2009 progress report of the TB Eradication Group for England have been implemented, including enhanced TB surveillance and control and additional support to farmers under TB restrictions.
Common Fisheries Policy
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what his Department's objectives are for the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy; and if he will make a statement. [324065]
Huw Irranca-Davies: The UK's response to the Commission's Green Paper on reform of the Common Fisheries Policy sets out our objectives to achieve prosperous, sustainable exploitation of fish stocks. This response makes clear that there must be more regionalised decision-making; genuine integration of fisheries with other marine policies; longer-term management planning; greater flexibility and certainty in the system; and a mechanism to ease the transition to a sustainable and profitable future.
Lost Life Report
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he plans to take in response to Natural England's report, Lost life. [324070]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Our plans are already set out in "Conserving Biodiversity-the UK Approach". We have set targets to 2020 to increase the range and populations of priority species and the extent and quality of priority habitats.
Drains
Christopher Fraser: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs for what reasons the Environment Agency has not introduced its General Binding Rules in England and Wales to prevent the abuse of the drainage system from non-agricultural, commercial and domestic industries in accordance with its original timetable. [323844]
Huw Irranca-Davies: Following DEFRA's consultation on non-agricultural diffuse pollution in 2007, we made a decision to progress each policy option separately. For example, we have recently consulted on options for legislative mechanisms to control phosphates in domestic laundry cleaning products in the UK. We have also proposed a requirement for developers to consider sustainable drainage systems for surface water for all new developments in the Flood and Water Management Bill.
As part of this, the use of a legislative approach based on general binding rules (GBRs) is another of the options which we are developing. While we are not in a position to hold a consultation in the near future, as policy develops and further evidence of the impact of GBRs is gathered, we may hold a consultation. To commit to any policy on further development of GBRs we must be confident that any action would be of benefit to the environment, and that the economic and social impacts of the action are assessed.
More information about policy work is available on our website at:
Food Supply: Government Assistance
Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps his Department is taking to assist the food industry in the current economic climate. [324059]
Hilary Benn: Government are taking a number of steps to support the UK food industry which is our biggest manufacturing sector, including the Food 2030 Strategy, more investment in research and development, consulting on a supermarket ombudsman, the agri-skills plan and the work of the task forces to assist the pig sector and to encourage more production and consumption of fruit and vegetables.
Gangmasters
Mark Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will review the effectiveness of legislation on gangmasters. [324055]
Dan Norris: I am content that the Gangmasters Licensing Act 2004 provides an effective regulatory framework, allowing the Gangmasters Licensing Authority to take a robust approach in enforcing its provisions.
We have recently laid revised regulations which clarify when a licence is required and correct an anomaly in the application of the Gangmasters Licensing (Exclusions) Regulations 2006 which was identified following recent representations made by my hon. Friend.
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