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Guidance on the PCO is being completed with DfES following limited consultation with key stakeholders including the Welsh Assembly Government. Feedback from practitioners will help inform the improvement of the guidance. It is intended that there will be a wider consultation exercise on the guidance before implementation of the PCO across England and Wales.
Patient Power Review Group
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): My honourable friend the Minister of State, Department of Health (Andy Burnham) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
As recommended by Ofcom in its report1 of January 2006, the department set up a patient power review group (PPRG) in February 2006 to explore whether communication services could be offered to hospital patients without charging as high a price for incoming calls. The PPRG has been considering:
all aspects of the charging structure;the requirement to install, with limited clinical exceptions, units at every bedside within a hospital site, irrespective of use;the requirement to offer services through a combined unit, offering television and telephone and capable of offering added value services; andthe need to clarify guidance on use of mobile phones in hospitals.Further work is needed to provide a considered response to the recommendations made in the Health Select Committee’s report on NHS charges published on 18 July. A final report will be published by December 2006.
Plutonium and Uranium: UK Civil Stocks
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My honourable friend the Minister of State for Energy (Malcolm Wicks) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The department will be placing the figures for the United Kingdom's stocks of civil plutonium and uranium as at 31 December 2005 in the Libraries of the House. In accordance with our commitment under Guidelines for the Management of Plutonium, we have also sent the figures to the director general of
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The figures show that stocks of unirradiated plutonium in the UK totalled 104.9 tonnes at the end of 2005. Changes from the corresponding figures for 2004 are a consequence of continuing reprocessing operations (e.g. as reflected in the increased quantity of unirradiated separated plutonium in product stores at reprocessing plants). HEU stocks decreased mainly as a result of down-blending. The increase in the civil depleted, natural and low enriched uranium figures reflects the increased stocks at the UK enrichment plant.
Post Office Card Account
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Plaskitt) has made the following Statement.
The Department for Work and Pensions ran a number of small-scale Post Office card account pilots between 13 February and 10 March 2006. The pilots tested various approaches to moving people, from having their benefit or pension paid into a Post Office card account to payments into a bank account, and they have provided us with some useful information on how customers react.
We have already shared the key findings with Post Office Ltd to help it identify customer needs as they develop new savings and banking products which are likely to be more attractive to many of their customers than the current Post Office card account. Post Office Ltd plans to start a three-month trial next week when it will be writing to 10,000 existing Post Office card account customers to encourage them to open one of its new Instant Saver accounts.
Among the key findings from the DWP pilots were:
many customers were not aware that they could use their bank account at the Post Office. This is not just an issue for those receiving a benefit or pension. There are around 20 million people who could access their bank account at a Post Office, but only around 10 per cent (2 million) per week actually do so. This is a huge untapped market which could bring vital new income into Post Office branches. DWP will work with Post Office Ltd and support it in its efforts to increase this market; once customers had moved from the Post Office card account and become used to their new routine, the vast majority (85 per cent) were happy using a bank account rather than a Post Office card account. Customers like the additional features of bank accounts and the flexibility to get their money when and where they want; andthere are opportunities for Post Office Ltd to respond positively to customer demand by providing new products which offer more features than the Post Office card account. Customers need to be properly informed of all of their options and the services that the Post Office offers.20 July 2006 : Column WS124
We will continue to discuss with Post Office Ltd and other key stakeholders how the needs of customers can continue to be met after the Post Office card account contract ends in 2010. DWP officials will also be discussing the findings from the pilots and our future payments strategy with customer representative groups and other key stakeholders over the next few months.
Our commitment to allowing people to continue to collect their benefit or pension in cash at the Post Office if they wish remains unchanged. Around 25 different bank accounts can be accessed at Post Office branches now, and we hope there could be more in the future, as well as new Post Office products.
I am placing a report of the pilot findings in the Library of the House.
Public Bodies: Chairmen
Lord Davies of Oldham: In my Answer of 6 July (Official Report, col. WA 76) to a written parliamentary Question about public bodies, the figure given for the salary of the chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority erroneously gave salary details for 2004-05. The correct salary for that position at 31 March 2006 is £124,649.
Railways: Regional Planning Assessments
Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Derek Twigg) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
Today the Department for Transport has published the West Midlands regional planning sssessment for the railway (RPA), the third in a series of 11 RPAs covering England and Wales. The West Midlands RPA covers the whole of the West Midlands region.
RPAs are the key link between regional spatial planning (including preparation of regional transport strategies) and planning for the railway by both government and the rail industry and are designed to inform the development of the Government's strategy for the railway. They look at the challenges and options for development of the railway in each region over the next 20 years, in the wider context of forecast change in population, the economy and travel behaviour. An RPA does not commit the Government to specific proposals. Instead it sets out the Government's current thinking on how the railway might best be developed to allow wider planning objectives for a region to be met, and identifies the priorities for further development work.
The area covered by the West Midlands RPA hasa population of just over 5.3 million of which2.5 million live in the West Midlands conurbation centred on Birmingham. While population levels are not expected to grow significantly, structural changes in the type of employment available and greater prosperity are expected to lead to more trips being made. Growth in rail passenger journeys is forecast for the region and it is expected that there will be
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Planning for railways in the West Midlands needs to take into account a changing economic and social context set out in the regional spatial strategy and regional economic strategy. I am particularly grateful for the contribution made to the development of the RPA by the regional assembly, Advantage West Midlands, local authorities and others.
The RPA clarifies the role of the railway in the region, its contribution to the economy and its place in the overall transport system, setting out where greater rail capability and capacity will be needed over the next 20 years, and the options for responding to that need. The focus of the RPA is making better use of the existing network but it also draws attention to the need to improve access to stations, including interchanges, and the expected need to increase train capacity to meet forecast growth in demand.
Copies of the document have been placed in the House Library.
Roads: M6
Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Minister of State for Transport (Stephen Ladyman) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
On the 19 July last year, I announced that I had asked the Highways Agency to carry out a detailed review to allow an informed decision to be taken on the case for building a new tolled Expressway to run parallel with the M6 between Birmingham and Manchester as an alternative to widening the existing M6 by one lane in each direction. This followed a consultation exercise undertaken in 2004 on the broad concept of an Expressway.
The Government have accepted the need for more road capacity in this corridor, as shown by the Midlands to Manchester multi-modal study (Midman), which reported in July 2002. The issue was how best that capacity could be provided. Given the high level of investment involved whatever option would be taken forward, it was clearly important that we properly considered the potential for the extra benefits that might be achievable from an Expressway.
The 2004 consultation document, M6: giving motorists a choice, suggested that the Expressway might be delivered more quickly than the widening, by avoiding the need to build new structures such as bridges, and avoid substantial disruption to traffic during construction. The evidence from the detailed development work undertaken by the Highways Agency has not borne this out.
The Highways Agency's modelling suggests that an Expressway would have a significant impact on both the levels and the mix of traffic using the Expressway and the M6. In particular, it is likely that the proportion of heavy freight traffic on the M6—which is already relatively high—would increase further, requiring additional infrastructure works at junctions to provide safely for traffic joining and leaving the road. This, together with providing for the appropriate range of
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Although on-line widening would necessarily involve some disruption to M6 traffic during construction, the phasing of works could mean additional capacity being provided sooner than an entirely new road, with efforts focused on the most heavily trafficked sections first.
The Highways Agency has held a series of seminars and meetings with stakeholders, to set out indicative plans for both options, and take feedback. On the basis of these more clearly defined propositions, few stakeholders regarded the Expressway as an attractive alternative to widening.
In the light of the further development work and stakeholder consultation, we have therefore decided not to pursue the Expressway alternative any further.
The Highways Agency has continued to progress the widening option and will now focus solely on that. This work will include examining the demand management measures needed to ensure that the benefits of additional capacity are locked-in.
A more detailed report on the options review has been placed in the Library of the House.
Social Fund: Annual Reports
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Plaskitt) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
I am pleased to announce publication of the annual report by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the Social Fund 2005-06 and the Social Fund Commissioner's annual report. The Secretary of State's annual report on the Social Fund for 2005-2006 (Cm 6856) was published today and has been laid before Parliament. Copies are available in the Vote Office and Printed Paper Office.
The report records that total gross expenditurein 2005-06, excluding winter fuel payments, was£917 million. That included more than 275,000 non-repayable grants and more than 2.2 million interest-free loans together worth over £742 million, and funeral and cold weather payments totalling more than£53 million. In addition, around 238,000 Sure Start maternity grants worth over £120 million were made, and over 8 million households benefited from a winter fuel payment at a cost of around £1.99 billion.
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The report also confirms that reforms to the Social Fund loan scheme were introduced from April 2006, with extra net funding of £210 million over the next three years to support the changes.
The Social Fund Commissioner's report has also been published today, and copies will be available in the Libraries of both Houses.
UK Trade and Investment
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Alistair Darling) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) launched today its new five-year strategy entitled Prosperity in a Changing World. This strategy sets out how UKTI will respond to the enhanced role envisaged in the Budget.
The new strategy describes how UKTI will take the lead to maximise the UK's ability to attract foreign direct investment, win market share in the new high growth economies and help business internationalise in a globalised world. It will lead government efforts to:
market the UK overseas as a key business partner and as the preferred location for inward investment;boost UK trade with, and secure investment from, emerging economies such as China and India;promote the UK's financial services sector and the City of London as the world's leading international financial centre;lobby overseas on regulatory issues and barriers to trade and investment; andtarget innovative R&D-intensive companies both for inward investment and as potential exporters.20 July 2006 : Column WS128
It outlines plans for UKTI to reform itself to become a more streamlined, entrepreneurial organisation, focusing on the ever-changing needs of its clients. UKTI will spearhead a more professional approach to marketing the strengths of the UK economy. It will allocate resources to front-line services where they can be most effective in adding value to the UK economy.
I am arranging for copies of the UKTI five-year strategy to be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Wilton Park: Annual Report
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): Wilton Park is an academically independent executive agency of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Its annual report and accounts for 2005-06 are laid before Parliament today.
Wilton Park celebrates its 60th anniversary in 2006. It continues to achieve high ratings from participants on the value of Wilton Park conferences. Building on last year's successes, nine overseas conferences are planned for 2006. There has been an increase in the number of participants from certain key areas, including international organisations and business.
Wilton Park's performance against agreed targets for 2005-06 is shown below.
| 05/06 Target | 05/06 Performance | |
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