| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service: Funding
Lord Tugendhat asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What arrangements they have made to fund the Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service after the present grant ceases in December.
Earl Ferrers: My department has today written to the Chief Executive of the Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service with an offer of government support for the next three years.
During the passage of the Housing Bill earlier this year, there was general agreement on all sides of the House that the Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service have provided an extremely valuable service over the last three years in guiding both landlords and tenants through the complexities of the leasehold enfranchisement procedures.
The offer of further grant is conditional on the Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service expanding their role beyond providing free initial advice to both landlords and tenants on leasehold enfranchisement procedures, including the amendments to that legislation set out in the Housing Act 1996. In addition, the Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service will provide advice on the new measures in the Act aimed at resolving leasehold management disputes.
We envisage that in this respect their most important task will be to help landlords and tenants make use of the new procedures allowing leasehold valuation tribunals to resolve such disputes.The Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service are being offered a grant of £259,900 for the period from 1st January 1997 to 31st March 1998. In addition, the Leasehold Enfranchisement Advisory Service have received offers of support form private sector organisations worth £32,250 over the same period. Subject to a satisfactory review of performance and continuing private sector support, we expect that further Government grant will be offered for the two subsequent financial years.
Local Government Ombudsman Service: Review
Lord Tugendhat asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What conclusions have been reached in the review of the Local Government Ombudsman Service in England.
Earl Ferrers: In February 1996 my right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government, Housing and Urban Regeneration announced that we were proceeding with the second stage of the review--focusing on the efficiency and effectiveness of the Commission for Local Administration in England as an investigatory body--in parallel with consulting interested parties on the wider issues raised about the Commission for Local Administration's future in the review's first stage. In August 1996 the second stage reviewer presented his report to my right honourable friend and to the Chairman of the Commission for Local Administration, and we concluded our consultation.
We have now carefully considered all the recommendations of both stages one and two of the review, together with all the comments which we received from our consultation. The Commission for Local Administration has also considered carefully those recommendations directed to it. We have today arranged for copies of a paper setting out our response to these recommendations to be placed in the Library of the House. We have also arranged for copies of the review's second stage report to be placed in the Library.
On the issues raised by the review's first stage, we have concluded that there needs to be a wholly independent body--an ombudsman--to which citizens who are aggrieved in their dealings with public bodies can turn, if there is to be a guarantee that complaints of maladministration will be fully and equitably investigated. Accordingly, we confirm our earlier provisional view that the Commission for Local Administration's principal role should continue to be as a wholly independent, investigatory body for complaints of maladministration relating to local government in England. We also confirm our earlier view that there should in general continue to be a voluntary approach to the provision of local complaints systems in local government.
The review's second stage concludes that the cost of the Commission for Local Administration is a fraction of the cost of resolving a similar number of complaints through legal processes, and makes a range of recommendations for performance improvements covering issues of accountability, jurisdiction, powers, management systems and financial accountability, and quality of service. We believe that overall these recommendations provide a package of measures for significantly modernising and improving the Local Government Ombudsman service in England, and we intend to take them forward as set out in the paper which we have today placed in the Library.
Advertising Hoardings: A.12 Trunk Road
Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the large advertising hoardings displayed along the north side of the Witham bypass on the A.12 trunk road are consistent with their policies for the protection of the countryside, in particular, the views expressed in the Department of the Environment's recent Quality in Town and Country initiative: and, if not, what steps they will take to have them removed.
Earl Ferrers: The Government are determined to protect the countryside from inappropriate development, whilst encouraging quality and good design in the built environment through the quality initiative. We have put in place a system which enables local planning authorities to control the siting of advertising hoardings and which requires them to consider the impact of proposals on the appearance of the area and on public safety. Advice in our planning policy guidance note on outdoor advertisement control makes it clear that such advertising is out of place in the open countryside.
Decisions to allow hoardings on the edge of an industrial estate which borders the A.12 trunk road at Witham were properly arrived at by the local planning authority, Braintree District Council. The Council, who also own the site, will be reviewing the suitability of the hoardings next year.
Franchising Director: Objectives
Lord Skelmersdale asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they have revised their instructions and guidance to the Franchising Director.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Transport (Viscount Goschen): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport has today written to the Franchising Director enclosing a new, consolidated version of his objectives, instructions and guidance (OIG). This consolidated version, which is being produced for ease of reference, does not change the Franchising Director's objectives, nor does it materially alter his instructions and guidance, other than to omit those sections of the previous version
of the OIG which are now out of date. A copy of the letter, and the attachments to it have been placed in the Library of the House.Plutonium Cargoes: Flights
Lord Jenkins of Putney asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When aircraft were first permitted to overfly the United Kingdom with cargoes of plutonium for reprocessing here; how many times has it occurred, and whether they will end the practice.
Viscount Goschen: Airlines can only carry dangerous goods (including radioactive material) in United Kingdom airspace provided they have been authorised to do so by the Civil Aviation Authority under the terms of the Air Navigation Order. Authorisations for airlines to carry dangerous goods (including radioactive material) through United Kingdom airspace have been issued, at least, since 1966, at which time the United Kingdom utilised the International Air Transport Association's restricted articles regulations as the regulatory standard for the air transport of dangerous goods (these were replaced, as the United Kingdom standard, in 1983 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation's Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (ICAO)).
Since 1990 there have been 36 shipments carrying material for reprocessing, of which 16 were internal flights and 20 were from Europe. The shipments were carried out using packages approved by the department as the Competent Authority of the United Kingdom and by the countries of origin, in accordance with current UK legislation and the requirements of ICAO. There are no plans to halt these flights.
UK-United Arab Emirates: Defence Accord
The Earl of Northesk asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What progress has been made in the negotiation of a defence co-operation accord with the Government of the United Arab Emirates.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe): The Governments of the United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates have signed today a Defence Co-operation Accord (DCA) in Abu Dhabi. The accord provides for the strengthening of military co-operation between the UAE and the UK in a number of fields, including training, the conduct of combined exercises, the provision of modern defence equipment and related services to the UAE Armed Forces and the development of joint military plans and military deployment strategies for the defence of the UAE. Under the terms of the accord the UK is committed to assisting the UAE in deterring threats or preventing aggression against the UAE and, in the event of such aggression taking place, to implementing the
joint military plans which are judged appropriate for the defence of the UAE. Discussions will now take place on these military plans and military deployment strategies under the auspices of a joint military committee; the accord will take effect once these discussions are complete.The accord builds upon the 1971 treaty of friendship between the UK and the UAE and upon the longstanding history of co-operation between our two countries on defence. It is a welcome sign of our close and valuable relationship and it underlines our continuing commitment to working with states both in the Gulf and outside it to secure security and stability in a region of strategic importance to the UK.
Property Advisers to the Civil Estate (PACE)
Lord Denning asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the answer of Earl Howe on 12th November 1996 (HL Deb., col. WA 96), whether proceedings by or against PACE (Property Advisers to the Civil Estate) are subject to the provisions of the Crown Proceedings Act 1947 and otherwise of no effect.
Earl Howe: The Crown Proceedings Act 1947 does apply to proceedings by or against PACE, and the
Cabinet Office would be the appropriate authorised government department for the purposes of Section 17 of that Act.Ministers: Disclosure to Parliament
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answers given by Lord Howe on 13th November 1996 (WA 104-106), whether they will summarise the differences between the position before 7th November 1996 and thereafter in the definition of the duties of Ministers and Civil Servants as regards disclosure to Parliament.
Earl Howe: The Government have always attached the highest importance to the duty of Ministers and their civil servants to provide as full and accurate information as possible to Parliament, a point stressed in Questions of Procedure for Ministers and in the Civil Service Code. The Government's response to the Public Service Committee's report on ministerial accountability and responsibility, published on 7th November, reinforced the Government's commitment to openness but made clear that in future decisions on whether or not to withhold information would be decided in accordance with and explained by reference to relevant statute or the Government's Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
| Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |