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Gulf War Illnesses
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Tom Watson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
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A key principle of the Government's approach to addressing the health concerns of veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf conflict is that there should be appropriate research into veterans' illnesses and factors that may have a bearing on these.
As a key part of that research, the Ministry of Defence has sponsored an investigation by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Porton Down, into the possible health effects of the combination of vaccines and tablets given to troops at the time of the 1990-91 Gulf conflict to protect them against the threat of biological and chemical warfare. The main body of work involved monitoring multiple factors in marmosets for up to 18 months following the administration of vaccines and/or pyridostigmine bromide (the active ingredient in nerve agent pre-treatment tablets). Interim results were announced on 1 April 2003 (Official Report, col. 55WS).
Papers reporting final results from two elements of the main study have now been published in the online version of the journal Pharmacology Biochemistry and Behavior and hard-copy publication will follow. A summary of the papers is available on the articles in press section of the journal's website www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00913057. The papers report that there were no long-term changes of biological significance in cognition, muscle function, general health, brain electrical activity and sleep that could be attributed to administration of vaccines and/or pyridostigmine bromide.
The publication of these findings in a peer-reviewed journal should be welcomed by Gulf veterans in addressing a key area of concern to them. It represents a further step towards meeting the department's commitment to investigate these issues. Further results on the immunological aspects of the study will be published in due course.
House of Lords Appointments Commission: Annual Report
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has today placed the House of Lords Appointments Commission annual report for 2004-05 and 2005-06 in the Libraries of both Houses. The Government are grateful to the members of the commission for the report and their valuable work.
Housing and Planning Delivery Grant
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
In our December response to the Kate Barker review of housing supply, we committed to reform the planning delivery grant to support local housing delivery and to conduct a wider consultation on local planning and housing incentives. Today we launch the
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The Government’s aim is to encourage local authorities to respond more effectively to local housing demand. Over 200,000 new households are formed each year, but last year just under 170,000 additional homes were built, with upward pressure on house prices as result. The Government believe that local authorities do not have sufficient incentives to respond to housing need.
Under our proposals, a performance-related grant would be paid to local authorities as a reward for meeting the housing needs of the community and for improving planning performance. The proposal is part of the Government’s package of measures to improve housing affordability and our commitment to create and maintain sustainable communities.
The Government’s aim with a new grant would be to encourage local authorities to become active in the delivery of new housing to meet local housing demand. The grant would be awarded to local authorities with high levels of demand that are delivering additional housing. The proposal envisages that the grant would continue to resource planning to ensure effective delivery of the new planning system.
We are also consulting on the criteria to allocate £120 million of planning delivery grant for the financial year 2007-08. Within this allocation, we are proposing to increase the percentage of planning delivery grant awarded to support housing. This is to ensure that the grant better supports areas that are delivering high numbers of new homes and areas struggling with issues of low demand. We plan to announce the first part of this grant in November 2006, with further announcements planned for spring 2007.
Copies of the Planning Delivery Grant 2007/08: Proposed Allocations Criteria have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and the document is available on the DCLG website at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1501792.
The housing and planning delivery grant consultation paper will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses tomorrow and will be available from tomorrow afternoon on the DCLG website at www.communities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1017165.
Housing and Regeneration
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today updating the House on the housing and regeneration review, launched in April this year by the Deputy Prime Minister and David Miliband.
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This Government have an ambitious agenda for housing and regeneration. My letter of 12 July to the Prime Minister outlined my vision for developing mixed communities and increasing the supply of affordable and market housing. Delivering this agenda requires a step change in our activities. It is therefore vital that we get our delivery arrangements absolutely right, with clear, focused and accountable delivery chains.
The current review of housing and regeneration provides an important opportunity to build on the existing strengths of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation and to ensure a coherent approach to delivering new housing and mixed sustainable communities. We must make the most of the skills and expertise of these bodies and maximise the use of private investment, public subsidy, landholdings and assets to support and deliver local and regional housing and regeneration strategies.
At the same time, the creation of the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) as a new strategic department, focused on delivering for people and places, offers an opportunity to evaluate our wider departmental delivery chain for housing and regeneration. I have therefore asked my officials to undertake further work in three key areas.
First, I have asked officials, in addition to addressing the Housing Corporation and English Partnerships, to examine the DCLG's delivery functions to determine the scope for rationalising existing delivery-focused activities across the piece. Secondly, I have asked officials to undertake a distinct stream of work on modernising the regulation of affordable housing, particularly in the light of the increasing involvement of the private sector. Finally and relatedly, I have asked officials to carry out further work and analysis on the range of potential modernisation and structural options for reform.
I will make a further announcement in the autumn on my plans for creating a modern, dynamic delivery chain to support stronger communities and to create places in which people feel proud to live.
Law Commission
The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): I have appointed Mr Justice Terence Etherton to be chairman of the Law Commission from 1 August 2006. He succeeds Mr Justice Roger Toulson, whose term of office will then be completed.
I have decided that the needs of the Law Commission are usually best met by having a member of the senior judiciary as chairman. This follows a consultation in the 2004 consultation paper, Appointment of Law Commissioners, and the response paper issued in 2005. As a result, I have decided to propose to Parliament amendments to the Law Commissions Act 1965 so that the chairman can be recruited from the senior judiciary as and when appropriate. I will do so when legislative time and opportunity allows.
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Lebanon and Gaza
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am deeply concerned about the humanitarian situation in the Lebanon and in the Gaza Strip.
In Lebanon, the crisis has led the UN to estimate that at least 500,000 people have been displaced. Insecurity and damaged infrastructure are making it difficult to reach those in need of medical care, food and water supplies. The supply of electricity has stopped to most villages and towns in southern Lebanon. Stocks of fuel will be exhausted in two weeks. Factories producing medicines, milk, wood and housing supplies have been destroyed. It is clear from aid agencies that they need immediate and safe access to the displaced and the wounded and those requiring humanitarian assistance. I support the proposals by the UN and ICRC for safe humanitarian access, but ultimately the security situation needs to stabilise in order to ensure that vital assistance can get to where it is needed.
We have responded to international appeals for humanitarian aid. Following the initial response that I announced last week, I am today committing a further £2.2 million to support humanitarian relief, including for the UN flash appeal, which has been launched today. The UN Central Emergency Response Fund is also providing an initial contribution of $5 million, of which the UK share is $1.4 million (£770,000). This brings the total UK commitment to £5 million, and we stand ready to do more as needed. DfID is deploying two humanitarian advisers to the region. Two stabilisation and recovery advisers will join them shortly. The Post Conflict Reconstruction Unit is helping cross-government planning for the UK's contribution to stabilisation and recovery, immediately hostilities cease.
The situation in Gaza is also very difficult. Following the Israeli attack on Gaza's only power station, electricity is limited to supplies received from Israel. Households receive six to eight hours’ electricity per day. Electricity is vital for hospitals and clinics, which need constant supplies of power to run medical equipment and to keep drugs at constant temperatures. It is needed to pump fresh water to houses and to treat sewage. It is essential for the safe storage of food and for processing flour to make bread. Most households in Gaza are receiving two hours of water per day. This means that they do not have reliable access to water for drinking, personal hygiene and washing clothes. According to the World Health Organisation, cases of diarrhoea among refugee children in Gaza in early July were 50 per cent higher than at the same period last year. Humanitarian supplies are vital. The Rafah crossing was opened temporarily on 18 July to allow those stranded at the crossing in desperate conditions to enter and the Karni crossing was temporarily opened for humanitarian and commercial imports, but both are now closed again. Action is needed to ensure
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In April, the UK made a contribution of £15 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides basic services for Palestinian refugees in Gaza, Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East. This is helping UNRWA to provide healthcare and other basic services to Palestinian refugees, who comprise 70 per cent of Gaza's population. The EU collectively provides over half of UNRWA's funding and the UK last year was the third largest bilateral donor.
The European Union has established a temporary international mechanism to support the basic needs of the Palestinian people. The mechanism will provide support to health, education and social affairs, help to pay for utilities and assist the very poorest Palestinians. The UK stands ready to allocate up to £12 million to the mechanism, plus our share of the European Community contribution, giving a total of up to £25 million. The mechanism has already enabled much needed fuel supplies for emergency generators after Gaza's only power station was damaged by military action. These fuel deliveries are keeping hospitals open, water pumps going and waste treatment plants open. The mechanism will soon start making payments to health workers in both Gaza and the West Bank to ensure that they can continue to provide essential medical care. We welcome the decision of G8 leaders to immediately expand the mechanism to provide wider assistance to the people of Gaza, and we are working closely with the quartet and others to ensure that this happens.
The UK is also providing assistance to the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs to enable it to monitor closely the humanitarian situation in Gaza to assist donors and others to make sure that help gets to those who need it most.
It is particularly important for the humanitarian welfare of innocent civilians in Lebanon, Israel and Gaza that there is an end to the violence on all sides. The UK Government support efforts to put in place a durable ceasefire.
Ministerial Gifts 2005-06
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has today published a list of gifts received by Ministers. The list provides details of gifts received by Ministers valued at more than £140 for the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006. Copies of the list have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Ministerial Travel 2005-06
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): Expenditure on ministerial overseas visits for the past three financial years and for the year 1996-97 is as follows.
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| Year | Expenditure £million |
| 1 The figure for 2005-06 reflects payments made so far for travel undertaken in the period; a few bills have yet to be submitted to departments for payment. | |
A list of all visits overseas undertaken by Cabinet Ministers costing £500 or more during the period 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2006 has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The list provides details of the date, destination and purpose of all such visits and the cost of Ministers’ travel and accommodation where appropriate.
MoD: Far East PoW and Civilian Internees Scheme
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Tom Watson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Late last year, it emerged that inconsistent criteria had been used for deciding payments over the history of the ex-gratia payment scheme for former Far East prisoners of war and civilian internees. In response to this, my predecessor, the then Veterans Minister (Don Touhig), agreed that there should be an independent investigation to examine how the use of inconsistent criteria had arisen and why this had not been exposed earlier. Mr David Watkins, a retired senior civil servant from the Northern Ireland Office, was appointed to undertake this work and his findings were presented to me on 7 July. A copy of his report has been placed in the Library of the House.
The report finds no evidence of culpable behaviour by individuals but identifies a number of shortcomings with the scheme's development and administration and makes recommendations designed to avoid any recurrence.
I am grateful to Mr Watkins for an investigation that has been thorough and far-reaching, and has included consultation with the key representatives of those who were adversely affected by the errors. I welcome his report and can say now that we accept the overall thrust of its recommendations. We will analyse it in more detail, in consultation with other interested departments, and I intend to give a more detailed response in a further Statement after the Recess.
While the errors in administering the scheme were deeply regrettable, I would echo the report's recognition of the admirable work undertaken by the then War Pensions Agency and others that allowed the scheme to be introduced in a remarkably short timescale, with some 14,000 payments made within three months of the scheme's introduction and a total of over 25,000 payments now made.
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Finally, I know that there has been a residual concern that a number of those who do not qualify under the scheme may be experiencing hardship. To respond to this concern, my officials have been in discussion with the charity that provides support in such cases among those from the UK who were once prisoners of war or civilian internees in the Far East. I am pleased to announce that the Ministry of Defence will shortly be providing financial assistance to support the charity's work in dealing with such cases and to help to publicise the recently announced changes to the criteria, as a result of which eligibility under the scheme has been extended to those who can show a close link to the UK since the Second World War.
NHS: Healthcare-associated Infections
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.
The Healthcare Commission has today published its investigation into outbreaks of Clostridium difficile at Stoke Mandeville Hospital (Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust). Copies of the report have been placed in the Library. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State commissioned this report to establish:
whether the trust's systems and processes for the prevention and control of infection were adequate during the two outbreaks;the current state of the trust's systems to control this infection; andthe lessons to be learnt from these outbreaks, both for the trust and the wider NHS, about how best to reduce the risk of C. difficile infection.The Healthcare Commission's report identified the factors involved in the first outbreak and concluded that a failure to implement appropriately the lessons learnt from this, combined with an inadequate governance system, led to a delay in controlling the second outbreak. Since the outbreaks, the trust has improved infection control practice and consequently strengthened patient safety.
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