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Iraq: ICRC Access to Detainees
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What information thy have about 909 Iraqi citizens and 604 Kuwaiti citizens and others detained or imprisoned in Iraq without trial: whether they will seek access by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) or other human rights monitors to all prisons and places of detention in Iraq in order to ascertain the fate of these persons; and whether they consider that a further United Nations resolution would be helpful.[HL782]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): The Iraqi regime has an appalling human rights record both where its own citizens and third country nationals are concerned. The most recent report of the UN Special Rapporteur, Max Van Der Stoel, on Iraq made clear that "widespread, systematic and serious violations of human rights continue in Iraq".
The ICRC and other NGOs have frequently sought and been denied access by the Iraqi regime to prisons and detention centres.
Security Council Resolution 687 requires Iraq to extend all necessary co-operation to the ICRC to provide access to Kuwaiti detainees held since the Gulf war. Iraq has consistently failed to abide by this.
The UK will work with EU partners for a resolution on Iraq at the forthcoming 54th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Lord Kennet asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they intend that the resolution now being drafted in the United Nations Security Council will clearly establish who is to determine (a) whether the terms recently signed up to by the United Nations Secretary General and the Government of Iraq are being breached; and (b) whether a military attack on Iraq may, in consequence, lawfully be launched.[HL808]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The resolution that the noble Lord refers to was adopted by the Security Council on 2 March as SCR 1154.
The text of the resolution makes three things clear; that the Security Council gives full backing to the agreement reached with Iraq by the UN Secretary General: that Iraq will face the severest consequences if it violates the terms of the agreement; that if Iraq complies in full sanctions can be lifted.
Iraq: UN Resolutions
Lord Kennet asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they expect the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) or the new inspecting body to show conclusively that there are weapons of mass destruction remaining in Iraq, or whether their continuing inability to prove a negative will result in sanctions on Iraq never being lifted.[HL809]
Baroness Symons of Vernhan Dean: In order for sanctions to be lifted, Iraq must comply fully with relevant security resolutions. To date, UNSCOM has been unable to report compliance because Iraq has chosen to pursue a policy of concealment, deceit and obstruction. We welcome the progress made by the UN Secretary General in Baghdad, whose Memorandum of Understanding, since endorsed by Security Council Resolution 1154, secured an unambiguous commitment from Iraq to allow immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to all sites, personnel and documents which UNSCOM believes to be connected with Iraq's proscribed weapons programmes. If Iraq finally honours its obligations under the relevant Security Council resolutions, we would see no barrier to the lifting of sanctions.
International Court of Justice: Judgments
Lord Monkswell asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 23 February (WA 60),
- whether they will place in the Library of the House copies of United Nations publication of summaries of judgments, advisory opinions and orders of the International Court of Justice 1948-1991 and of the Court's annual reports to the General Assembly for the years from 1991.[HL811]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: I understand that arrangements will be made by the Library of the House to have this material available for consultation.
Counter Battery Radar Project
Lord Mason of Barnsley asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the current position on the Counter Battery Radar project.[HL969]
The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Gilbert): I am pleased to inform the House that a contract for the Industrialisation and Production phase of the Counter Battery Radar project, COBRA, covering the requirements of France, Germany and the UK, was signed on 6 March 1998. The contract, valued in total at approximately £350 million, was placed with Euro-Art, a consortium consisting of Thompson CSF, SI Sicherungstechnik, RACAL and Lockheed Martin.
COBRA will provide the Army with the capability to locate and classify hostile rockets, guns and mortars accurately and at long range, and will act as a force detector. It will also be able to monitor breaches of ceasefire when deployed in a peacekeeping role.
The project is a good example of the benefits of collaboration with our European partners, and has given us the opportunity to procure technologically advanced equipment at a considerably lower cost than would have been the case had we pursued a purely national programme. The contract will result in around eight years of work for British industry.
Legislation, Parliament and the Sovereign
Lord Marlesford asked the Leader of the House:
- What are the precedents for a Minister of the Crown to give either House of Parliament the personal views of the Sovereign on the merits, acceptability or desirability of a piece of legislation being considered by Parliament.[HL908]
The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Richard): Precedents are often helpful in deciding the appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance, but House of Lords' procedures are not settled by precedent. As I told the House on Monday 2 March (H.L. Deb., col. 955), procedure should be based on common sense and applied with regard to the particular circumstances. There are no precedents directly relevant to the case which was the subject of my statement.
Lord Marlesford asked the Leader of the House:
- Whether he will indicate those circumstances, other than when a Bill is fundamentally personal to the Sovereign and her family, or when Her Majesty's views would very soon become apparent through other channels, in which they regard it as appropriate or desirable to make known to Parliament the private views of the Queen on a piece of legislation under consideration; and whether the two particular circumstances referred to justify the practice singly or only in combination.[HL909]
Lord Richard: A common sense approach to procedure means that every Bill must be considered separately. There is no circumstance which I can envisage where a Minister would make known to Parliament Her Majesty's views except on a Bill fundamentally personal to the Sovereign or her family and after full consultation with the Palace. I would expect the normal means of conveying the Queen's consent to Parliament to operate in the case of other Bills.
Sickness/Incapacity Benefit Recipients and Employment Levels
Lord Rea asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many people in the United Kingdom were receiving long-term sickness or incapacity benefit for each year from 1977 to 1997, by sex and by age category (for example: 15-30, 30-45 and over 45--or such other categories as are appropriate to the data; and how those figures compare with (a) employment and unemployment levels, and (b) life expectancy (or some other appropriate measure of the overall health of the same population), for the same years.[HL622]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Social Security (Baroness Hollis of Heigham): The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is set out in the tables. Detailed information on trends in life expectancy and other measures of health are published in Social Trends 28--1998 edition, published by The Stationery Office a copy of which is available in the Library.
| Unemployment benefits claimants (seasonally adjusted) | Workforce in Employment(1) | |||
| Male | Female | Male | Female | |
| June 1977 | 890,800 | 268,200 | Not available | Not available |
| June 1978 | 855,300 | 294,000 | 15,332,281 | 9,782,359 |
| June 1979 | 770,400 | 297,000 | 15,431,075 | 10,061,107 |
| June 1980 | 910,600 | 363,300 | 15,353,565 | 10,091,897 |
| June 1981 | 1,605,100 | 570,900 | 14,697,467 | 9,779,221 |
| June 1982 | 1,847,700 | 673,200 | 14,336,887 | 9,702,015 |
| June 1983 | 2,027,200 | 777,500 | 14,082,006 | 9,676,109 |
| June 1984 | 2,040,000 | 856,500 | 14,351,915 | 10,059,604 |
| June 1985 | 2,099,700 | 918,800 | 14,419,681 | 10,272,007 |
| June 1986 | 2,153,000 | 966,500 | 14,302,227 | 10,416,309 |
| June 1987 | 1,978,200 | 857,300 | 14,482,203 | 10,765,528 |
| June 1988 | 1,599,100 | 694,400 | 14,928,394 | 11,208,119 |
| June 1989 | 1,276,100 | 509,900 | 15,281,203 | 11,663,927 |
| June 1990 | 1,191,100 | 423,800 | 15,319,903 | 11,877,799 |
| June 1991 | 1,743,700 | 557,300 | 14,644,555 | 11,668,741 |
| June 1992 | 2,094,800 | 639,000 | 14,145,522 | 11,603,213 |
| June 1993 | 2,241,600 | 677,200 | 13,788,837 | 11,571,262 |
| June 1994 | 2,023,500 | 620,300 | 13,849,172 | 11,667,430 |
| June 1995 | 1,763,700 | 549,400 | 14,026,961 | 11,773,146 |
| June 1996 | 1,631,400 | 518,900 | 13,973,689 | 12,041,755 |
| June 1997 | 1,222,400 | 377,400 | 14,274,833 | 12,247,487 |
Source:
Office for National Statistics.
Notes:
(1) Includes employees, self employed, HM Forces and work related government training.
Note:
Where a "0" appears this means that no cases were picked up by the sample.
Source
1977-1978 2 per cent. clerical sample, 1979-1995 1 per cent. clerical sample.
1996-1997 5 per cent. sample of the computer system, excludes a small number of cases not on the system.
Note:
Figures not available for 1977.
Source
1978-1995 20 per cent. clerical sample. 1996-1997 100 per cent. count of the computer system, excludes a small number of cases not on the system.
1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986
Men
All Ages 421,250 461,100 503,900 506,000 516,211 552,807 592,907 638,200 672,581 706,100
Under 20 1,100 1,250 1,800 1,700 1,200 1,400 1,400 600 600 600
20-24 6,200 5,850 6,200 5,500 7,000 6,200 5,700 7,300 7,200 5,700
25-29 9,950 10,500 10,200 9,500 11,100 11,400 11,600 12,600 12,900 14,500
30-34 15,500 18,550 17,000 17,200 16,506 14,900 15,407 16,600 17,513 19,900
35-39 18,750 21,550 19,300 21,700 24,006 25,007 27,600 27,100 29,527 30,100
40-44 26,800 28,300 33,400 31,400 31,923 33,300 33,200 35,100 36,500 36,500
45-49 33,000 37,700 38,400 39,300 40,212 46,000 49,600 50,700 53,313 52,400
50-54 54,150 57,300 58,900 55,000 58,017 60,200 65,000 69,700 75,500 79,300
55-59 77,900 90,300 111,300 107,700 103,923 111,200 118,800 127,100 128,100 134,100
60-64 152,900 157,850 168,900 170,600 175,423 192,800 209,900 232,700 239,127 246,100
65 and over 25,000 31,950 38,200 46,400 46,900 50,400 54,700 58,700 72,300 86,900
Women
All Ages 84,050 96,100 106,000 108,500 116,364 130,300 143,907 158,800 176,367 193,100
Under 20 1,350 2,100 2,300 1,700 1,012 1,200 700 500 500 500
20-24 5,850 5,450 7,500 8,500 7,912 8,700 8,400 7,800 8,513 8,300
25-29 5,850 6,550 10,200 8,500 9,400 10,000 12,607 13,100 12,500 15,400
30-34 4,400 5,450 6,100 7,400 10,800 120,000 11,800 15,500 16,300 16,900
35-39 5,300 6,500 7,800 8,500 7,700 9,300 12,100 13,700 17,013 20,200
40-44 6,850 8,200 8,400 8,700 9,700 12,000 13,500 15,700 17,300 17,600
45-49 10,800 11,100 12,100 12,400 14,518 16,400 16,500 19,200 22,013 24,300
50-54 17,550 18,650 18,700 18,500 18,712 20,800 23,900 24,400 28,000 32,700
55-59 23,000 27,950 28,600 29,300 31,412 33,300 37,600 40,400 42,227 43,100
60 and over 3,300 4,150 4,300 5,000 5,200 6,600 6,800 8,500 12,000 14,100
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Men All Ages 754,400 807,800 859,600 916,800 976,100 1,063,500 1,156,000 1,217,000 1,261,700 1,210,680 1,146,660
Under 20 300 300 900 100 200 0 200 0 0 40 20
20-24 5,700 5,600 5,700 5,100 6,400 8,400 6,100 7,000 6,500 6,500 5,860
25-29 13,800 12,000 14,700 16,800 18,400 21,000 25,900 25,700 26,700 26,440 24,580
30-34 19,300 22,500 23,600 24,300 26,600 33,900 35,500 40,900 46,600 44,620 43,280
35-39 31,700 29,700 31,500 30,900 33,400 43,100 50,300 53,600 60,300 61,300 61,840
40-44 41,800 47,200 49,500 53,500 56,700 59,500 64,700 70,100 71,400 72,400 72,060
45-49 56,500 58,100 60,100 63,800 68,900 80,400 94,500 104,900 106,800 112,020 108,040
50-54 88,400 94,800 101,900 108,200 115,100 122,100 130,000 134,100 147,400 147,540 152,120
55-59 137,100 149,500 158,500 171,300 176,400 191,600 211,300 224,200 232,300 230,660 221,700
60-64 250,200 258,200 262,200 266,200 273,100 284,900 308,500 321,500 328,700 315,920 312,040
65 and over 109,600 129,900 151,000 176,600 200,900 218,600 229,000 235,000 23,300 193,240 145,120
Women
All Ages 213,500 239,700 266,400 292,100 329,900 375,400 424,000 464,200 505,200 481,720 485,400
Under 20 300 700 700 200 200 100 0 100 100 20 0
20-24 8,300 7,600 7,600 8,200 7,200 8,600 8,600 7,400 6,400 6,160 5,700
25-29 17,700 16,200 18,700 20,100 21,200 25,800 27,400 26,000 26,100 24,780 23,500
30-34 19,100 19,500 21,200 21,300 23,400 25,900 30,700 34,300 36,600 36,220 35,940
35-39 20,600 22,000 23,300 26,100 26,300 29,300 31,900 36,900 40,300 42,320 42,280
40-44 19,800 25,600 28,400 29,600 35,800 40,400 43,700 46,300 51,500 49,820 51,580
45-49 27,800 30,900 32,400 36,600 39,300 46,500 57,100 64,400 73,900 75,280 75,560
50-54 38,600 44,000 48,800 53,600 60,800 64,900 70,700 77,800 86,500 89,740 97,580
55-59 44,600 53,000 61,900 67,300 78,700 87,400 101,400 108,700 117,500 105,540 111,180
60 and over 16,700 20,200 23,400 29,100 37,000 45,500 52,500 62,300 66,300 51,840 42,080
1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986
Men
All Ages 17,150 18,080 17,935 17,375 18,875 21,835 22,500 21,790 23,700
Under 20 110 40 40 30 40 15 45 35 60
20-24 315 275 230 200 260 370 340 310 385
25-29 310 420 370 435 525 605 530 525 595
30-34 600 665 655 600 690 750 825 860 930
35-39 875 875 810 820 985 1,260 1,135 1,065 1,285
40-44 985 1,160 1,130 1,050 1,230 1,560 1,555 1,435 1,575
45-49 1,545 1,710 1,735 1,625 1,635 1,740 1,855 1,980 1,950
50-54 2,605 2,495 2,635 2,660 2,745 2,905 2,930 2,745 2,860
55-59 3,880 4,145 4,085 3,920 4,035 4,475 4,725 4,640 4,980
60-64 5,245 5,360 5,455 5,220 5,780 6,960 7,350 6,730 7,200
65 and over 680 935 790 815 950 1,195 1,210 1,465 1,880
Women
All Ages 5,915 6,650 7,065 6,145 7,045 8,400 8,695 8,830 10,255
Under 20 45 60 65 30 35 50 25 40 40
20-24 470 490 495 275 345 405 410 275 275
25-29 345 580 815 520 700 765 810 690 800
30-34 545 655 680 620 730 860 880 840 1,000
35-39 430 605 670 550 755 860 945 955 1,155
40-44 540 605 575 545 635 825 860 945 1,165
45-49 735 785 830 785 865 1,065 1,245 1,305 1,290
50-54 1,055 1,175 1,310 1,185 1,095 1,285 1,345 1,520 1,810
55-59 1,400 1,500 1,385 1,440 1,655 1,910 1,865 1,920 2,265
60 and over 150 195 240 195 230 375 310 340 455
1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997
Men
All Ages 25,410 27,690 29,960 31,740 33,315 34,920 34,950 35,080 42,320 45,775 45,454
Under 20 55 30 75 55 40 40 50 20 90 2 2
20-24 385 350 385 435 390 435 400 280 510 260 254
25-29 645 780 945 930 905 865 950 730 1,140 1,084 1,035
30-34 910 990 1,065 1,135 1,295 1,355 1,595 1,600 2,250 1,858 1,813
35-39 1,390 1,530 1,580 1,530 1,590 1,630 1,795 1,590 2,270 2,580 2,547
40-44 1,720 1,920 2,085 2,255 2,340 2,310 2,405 2,200 2,950 3,348 3,289
45-49 2,180 2,320 2,545 2,660 2,835 3,095 3,385 3,280 3,940 4,504 4,483
50-54 2,970 3,300 3,590 3,735 4,025 4,140 4,870 4,300 5,490 8,418 8,374
55-59 5,075 5,255 5,580 5,505 5,880 6,180 6,780 6,720 7,890 8,502 8,483
60-64 7,635 8,015 8,170 8,725 8,535 8,875 9,280 8,480 9,130 11,117 11,108
65 and over 2,465 3,200 3,940 4,775 5,480 5,995 8,440 5,880 6,660 8,105 8,085
Women
All Ages 11,385 12,955 15,045 16,590 17,545 18,830 21,285 18,740 24,600 27,131 26,942
Under 20 35 15 70 75 45 25 70 50 120 1 1
20-24 330 405 430 445 475 445 500 450 690 448 424
25-29 875 985 1,075 1,200 1,135 1,240 1,350 1,220 1,980 2,278 2,208
30-34 1,025 1,320 1,455 1,580 1,565 1,660 1,800 1,710 2,650 3,165 3,099
35-39 1,180 1,345 1,445 1,560 1,665 1,690 1,890 1,900 2,490 2,917 2,874
40-44 1,440 1,490 1,720 1,760 1,885 1,885 2,170 1,740 2,320 2,842 2,827
45-49 1,410 1,725 1,935 2,125 2,265 2,615 3,000 2,410 3,320 3,522 3,519
50-54 2,095 2,205 2,570 2,750 2,930 2,870 3,400 3,070 3,800 4,500 4,517
55-59 2,285 2,600 3,170 3,385 3,730 4,110 4,420 3,990 4,510 4,980 5,001
60 and over 710 865 1,175 1,610 1,850 2,190 2,675 2,200 2,720 2,480 2,472