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My right honourable friend has today written to Anna Walker, Chief Executive of the Healthcare Commission, to accept the conclusions of the report. This letter also asks that the commission use the powers available to it to ensure that trusts are following the good practice set out in the new code of practice on the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infection and to use its powers of intervention where trusts fail to do so.
The department will work closely with the trust, the strategic health authority, the Health Protection Agency and the local primary care trusts in addressing the recommendations in the report. As the conclusions have a wider applicability to the health service, the Chief Medical Officer and Chief Nursing Officer will consider this report over the summer and assess how the lessons learnt should be implemented both locally and nationally to reduce the risk from this infection. The department will also ensure that the report's conclusions inform the review of the current C. difficile guidance.
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Today also sees the publication of the latest information from the Department of Health's mandatory healthcare-associated infections (HCAIs) surveillance system. This information, which has been placed in the Library, brings together data on MRSA bloodstream infections, Clostridium difficile-associated disease, glycopeptide-resistant enterococci bloodstream infections and orthopaedic surgical site infections to help to assess trends in HCAIs.
This statistical report has been prepared by the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and is a part of our new approach to publication of HCAI data, where the HPA both manages the surveillance programme and publishes the data. An annual report will be produced every July to help to evaluate trends and to facilitate access to all the data.
Mandatory surveillance has shown a clear need to improve NHS performance and we believe that upgrading the level of surveillance and more rapid feedback of results will help performance. Therefore, we intend to move to quarterly publication as soon as it is feasible to do so.
Northern Ireland: Devolution
Lord Rooker: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Peter Hain) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
On 15 May, Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly were recalled to participate in a process to secure the full restoration of the institutions in Northern Ireland on or before 24 November. The Assembly rose on 7 July for Summer Recess and will reconvene on 4 September.
Following their discussions with the Northern Ireland political parties in Parliament Buildings, Stormont, on 29 June, the Prime Minister and Taoiseach issued a statement that again reiterated their commitment to the November deadline and called for all sides to commit to a period of genuine and frank political engagement on the outstanding issues in the months ahead.
A work plan was also published alongside the statement in order to assist the parties in their work between now and the November deadline. Both the statement and the work plan have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
The plan allows for the Committee on the Preparation for Government to continue its valuable work during the Summer Recess, and I have recently provided for the creation of subgroups within the committee to deal with the issues of devolution of justice and policing, changes to the institutions and the economic challenges facing Northern Ireland.
I have made it clear previously that, in the event that devolved government is not restored on or before 24 November, all MLAs' salaries and allowances will be cancelled with immediate effect. I have repeatedly stressed that it remains the Government's firm hope that devolution can and will be restored by that deadline, but I wish to ensure that MLAs have the fullest of opportunities to arrange their affairs in advance. My officials have therefore written to all MLAs explaining the implications of the termination
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Northern Ireland: MoD Civilians
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am pleased to announce the severance package for the estimated 1,500 MoD civilians in Northern Ireland being made redundant during the period 1 August 2006 to 31 December 2008 as a result of the process of normalisation.
The House will recall that, when I announced the package for the Royal Irish (Home Service) (R IRISH (HS)) on 9 March 2006 (Official Report, col. 961), I explained that a process of consultation would take place with the trade unions on the civilian redundancies in accordance with our duties under Section 188 of the Trade Unions and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. That consultation has now been concluded and the redundancy package has been decided.
First of all, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the dedication and commitment shown by MoD civilians in Northern Ireland over many years in supporting the Armed Forces and in helping to bring about the enabling environment for the current security normalisation programme. While normalisation is good news for Northern Ireland, it also brings substantial change for our civilian workforce, and my department has been working hard to draw up an enhanced redundancy package for those affected. I am now in a position to provide details of that package.
In addition to the normal occupational redundancy package (which, for the majority, will be compulsory terms under the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS)), affected staff will receive a flat-rate financial recognition award (FRA) payment of £14,000 gross. The payment is being made to MoD civilians based in Northern Ireland in recognition of a unique set of circumstances, which are a combination of the following factors:
the pressures and restrictions arising from their association with the Armed Forces in Northern Ireland, which they experienced while working for the MoD and are likely to continue to affect them in the immediate aftermath of being made redundant;the difficulties that they may experience as a result of normalisation and directly arising from their former association with the Armed Forces in Northern Ireland; andthe effect of those pressures being exacerbated by the fact that the whole of the R IRISH (HS) is being disbanded, affecting over 3,000 individuals and nearly 50 per cent of the civilian workforce are losing their jobs over a compressed timescale.24 July 2006 : Column WS155
In summary, during the period 1 August 2006 to 31 December 2008, MoD civil servants made redundant through the process of normalisation will receive:
redundancy compensation under the terms of their occupational redundancy scheme;access to the MoD outplacement service for a period of 12 months (an increase over the normal six months);a retraining allowance of up to £1,000 per person, anda flat-rate additional payment of £14,000 gross.The package, which goes significantly beyond statutory entitlements, is well deserved and we hope will be well received by MoD civilians in Northern Ireland. To put this into context, typically an individual who is aged 50 or over and made redundant between 1 August 2006 and 31 December 2008 will receive the immediate payment of an enhanced pension (and a tax-free pension lump sum for those in the 1972 section of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS)), redundancy compensation of up to six months’ pensionable pay and the FRA of £14,000.
To give examples, a 51 year-old band C with an average salary of £26,167 and 31 years’ service will receive a lump sum payment of £27,084 (this is the redundancy compensation and the FRA); in addition, they will receive their pension lump sum of approximately £30,419 and an annual pension. A 54 year-old band E/skill zone 3 with an average salary of £17,975 and 34 years’ service will receive a lump sum payment of £22,987 (this is the redundancy compensation and the FRA); in addition, they will receive their pension lump sum of approximately £25,136 and an annual pension. Those staff under the age of 50 and made redundant in the same period will typically receive a preserved pension payable at age 60, redundancy compensation up to three times their annual pensionable pay and the FRA of £14,000. To illustrate, a 34 year-old band E/skill zone 3 with an average salary of £17,975 and 16 years’ service will receive a lump sum payment of £43,958; and a 27 year-old band D/skill zone 4 with an average salary of £20,617 and nine years’ service will receive a lump sum payment of £29,463. These lump sums are the combined totals of redundancy compensation and the FRA. Redundancy compensation and the FRA combined will be tax free up to the first £30,000 in accordance with the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003.
This is a generous package for a unique set of circumstances for those MoD civilians in Northern Ireland made redundant between 1 August 2006 and 31 December 2008.
Outdoor Advertisements
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.
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The Government are consulting on draft regulations to control outdoor advertisements and an accompanying draft circular, as well as a partial regulatory impact assessment. The draft regulations and circular take forward proposals announced in 2000 and 2002 following earlier consultation. The new draft regulations will update and improve the current arrangements for controlling outdoor advertisements and make the legislation more responsive to rapidly changing forms of advertising. The draft circular will clarify the legislation and provide guidance to help to ensure that the system operates effectively.
The consultation period ends eight weeks from today and we expect to make the regulations and to publish the circular by the end of the year. Copies of the consultation documents are available in the House Library or via the DCLG website at www.communities.gov.uk/consultations.
The draft circular includes guidance and advice to local planning authorities on dealing with unlawful advertisements alongside motorways and trunk roads. This is part of a package of measures that we have adopted to get these unlawful advertisements removed. I will be writing to the leaders of councils in whose areas these unlawful advertisements are still being displayed, seeking their assurance that they will take action to get these advertisements removed.
Passports: Fees
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Joan Ryan) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Privy Council has made an Order in Council—the Consular Fees (Amendment) Order 2006—which gives authority for a revision in passport fees. The revision will take effect on 5 October 2006. The fee for a standard 32-page passport will increase from £51 to £66, while the fee for a 48-page passport will increase from £62.50 to £77. The fee for a passport for a child will increase from £34 to £45. The fee for an adult using the guaranteed one-week counter service for a standard 32-page passport will increase from £77.50 to £91, for a child from £70 to £80, and for a 48-page jumbo from £87 to £97. The fee for an adult using the guaranteed same-day service for a standard 32-page passport will increase from £96.50 to £108, for a child from £83 to £93, and for a 48-page passport from £104.50 to £114.50. The fee for a collective passport, for organised trips for schools and youth groups, will remain unchanged at £39.
This increase represents the second stage of the two-year fee agreement reached with HM Treasury last year. This followed a stringent review of costs to ensure that the fee for each type of passport service closely reflects the production costs accrued by that service and bears its share of the cost of consular protection services. This increase will deliver extensive improvements required in the ongoing efforts to combat passport and identity fraud.
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Passport Service: Annual Report
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Joan Ryan) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The UK Passport Service annual report and accounts 2005-06 have been laid before Parliament today and will be published shortly. Copies will be placed in the Library of the House on publication. This will be the last annual report and accounts issued by UKPS, whose activities were transferred to the Identity and Passport Service (IPS) from 1 April 2006.
Pensions: Financial Assistance Scheme
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My honourable friend the Minister of State for Pensions Reform (James Purnell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 6 June, I wrote to Members to advise them that I had commissioned a review of the administration of the financial assistance scheme and would report the outcome before the Summer Recess. In particular, I was concerned about ensuring that all eligible people receive payments as quickly as possible, that we ensure the most cost-efficient operation and that we examine a full range of options for the appropriate organisational location of the operations.
Today I have placed copies of the findings of the review in the Library. These show that obtaining data from trustees is the key to making payments and highlight the need to significantly strengthen the skills within the financial assistance scheme operations needed to obtain these data, concluding that this can best be achieved through an injection of skills from the private sector or the Pension Protection Fund. These skills can best be managed from within DWP.
The review has also identified the scope for some operational efficiencies and more detailed work will be undertaken to establish optimum staffing levels. In addition, it has concluded that the long-term governance of the operational unit is best placed in the Pension Service. Overall we expect these changes to increase the speed at which people receive help from the scheme.
I have now commissioned work to implement the findings and will update on implementation in the autumn.
I am also pleased to announce that today we have published the draft Financial Assistance Scheme (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2006. These regulations will bring into effect the extension to the financial assistance scheme announced in the White Paper on pension reform on 25 May. We will be consulting on the draft regulations over the next eight weeks and will publish a response to the consultation along with the final version of the draft regulations.
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Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland: Annual Report
The Attorney-General (Lord Goldsmith): I have today placed in the Library of the House copies of the first annual report of the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland and of its business plan for the coming year.
While the new service was formally launched in June 2005, it initially took work only from the six police districts that make up the PPS Belfast region. It has, however, been planned from the start as a regional service and the last year has seen good progress in rolling out the service over the whole of Northern Ireland.
In August 2005, the PPS western and southern region assumed responsibility for the conduct of all youth offences occurring in the PSNI’s Armagh, Banbridge and Newry and Mourne districts, as well as all prosecutions from the five police districts within Fermanagh and Tyrone. A new Lisburn office, serving as headquarters of the PPS eastern region, opened in March 2006 and will be fully operational by October this year, when it will add a further six police districts to those already within the PPS structure.
The rollout of the PPS will continue through this year and next, and when completed will operate from six regional offices planned for Belfast, Lisburn, Newry, Omagh, Londonderry and Ballymena. This regional approach, with each office having its own regional prosecutor, will encourage local involvement with the service, helping the community to understand its work and how it goes about reaching decisions, and thereby building public confidence in the criminal justice system. The annual report and business plan is part of this process and will be of interest to anyone with an interest in the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland or in criminal justice generally.
Regional Development Agencies: Annual Reports
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Industry and the Regions (Margaret Hodge) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have today laid before Parliament the annual reports and accounts for 2005-06 for the eight regional development agencies (RDAs) outside London. Copies have been placed in the House Library.
The annual report and accounts for London are presented to the Lord Mayor rather than before Parliament. I shall provide a copy to the House of Commons Library when these are available.
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The Government welcome the contribution that the RDAs have made during this year to driving forward economic development in their respective regions.
Also published today are the RDAs' reported outputs for 2005-06. These results are evidence that the RDAs continue to play a valuable role in improving the economic performance of the English regions; through working with their partners, the RDAs are making a real difference to the individual regional economies concerned. The figures cover the creation and safeguarding of jobs, the number of people helped to get a job, the amount of brownfield land brought back into use, the number of businesses added to the regional economies, the number of businesses helped to improve their performance, the number of learning opportunities created and the amount of private sector investment attracted benefiting deprived areas, all as a result of RDA activity.
Press releases on the outputs have been issued in each region. Copies of the output results have been placed in the House Library, and are available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/regional/regional-dev-agencies/index.html.
Scientific Procedures on Living Animals
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Joan Ryan) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I wish to announce that the publication Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals: Great Britain 2005 is being presented as a Command Paper (6877) today. Copies will be placed in the House Library.
This annual report meets the requirement in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 to keep Parliament informed about the use of animals for experimental or other purposes. It also forms the basis for meeting periodic reporting requirements at EU level. There has been criticism in previous years, including from a House of Lords Select Committee, of the report providing too much detail and not being very digestible or reader-friendly. Therefore, some changes have been made to improve the contents and layout of this publication with the intention of making it easier to comprehend and follow.
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