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Lord Kennet asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Simon of Highbury: We do not intend to propose that the WTO should adopt any motto or slogan. However, the parties to the agreement establishing the WTO did recognise that "their relations in the field of trade and economic endeavour should be conducted with a view to raising standards of living, ensuring full employment and a large and steady growing volume of real income and effective demand, and expanding the production of and trade in goods and services, while allowing for the optimal use of the world's resources in accordance with the objective of sustainable development, seeking both to protect and preserve the environment and to enhance the means for doing so in a manner consistent with the respective needs and concerns at different levels of economic development" (preamble to the Marrakesh Agreement).
Lord Kennet asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Simon of Highbury: The Government, in common with their EU partners, have called for a comprehensive new round of negotiations in the World Trade Organisation. We see benefits for the UK, for developing countries in particular and for the world economy as a whole, if one item on the agenda of these negotiations could be the pursuit of an open, non-discriminatory and transparent framework for foreign investment. However, we also recognise that most countries currently operate restrictions in foreign investment in some circumstances, and that some restrictions will inevitably remain for the foreseeable future.
The main multilateral discussions which are being conducted on government procurement at the moment are in the WTO Transparency Working Group. The Government hope that these will lead in due course to a Transparency Agreement. This will not have any impact on preferences or local advantages, but will allow any interested parties to see what conditions apply to procurement opportunities.
Lord Kennet asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Simon of Highbury: Article 5.7 of the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Methods allows WTO Members provisionally to adopt sanitary or phytosanitary measures on the basis of available pertinent information in cases where relevant scientific evidence is insufficient. In such circumstances, members are required to seek to obtain the additional information necessary for a more objective assessment of risk and review the sanitary or phytosanitary measure accordingly within a reasonable period of time. No specific time scale is set or required for the completion of such studies.
Viscount Simon asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Simon of Highbury: The Government are planning to set up a Small Business Service with three main tasks: to act as a voice for small business at the heart of government; to simplify and improve the quality and coherence of government support for small businesses; to help small firms deal with regulation and ensure small firms' interests are properly considered in future regulation.
We want to ensure that opportunities for enterprise are open to all, and to create an environment where more entrepreneurs emerge and are successful.
The Small Business Service will be headed by a chief executive who will report to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and have direct access to Ministers across government. He or she will have a substantial and wide-ranging role, including:
One particular proposal is to set up the Small Business Service as a Next Steps Agency within the Department of Trade and Industry as from April 2000.
Lord Tebbit asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office (Lord Dubs): We do not have information on the number of persons who have died since 1963 in Northern Ireland at the hands of persons previously convicted of homicide, except where the perpetrator was convicted and sentenced for the murder.
In this case I can advise that one person has died since 1963 in Northern Ireland at the hands of a person previously convicted of homicide. The person responsible for the murder was at the time serving a sentence of life imprisonment for a previous murder conviction.
Further, I can confirm that our records show that since 1963 no one who had served a sentence of life imprisonment for murder, who was then released on licence, was reconvicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for a subsequent murder.
Earl Baldwin of Bewdley asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Hayman): The Medicines Control Agency (MCA) acts on behalf of the licensing authority (Ministers specified by the Medicines Act) and has a duty under the law to determine whether a product is a medicinal product. If new evidence were produced that a product which had not been classified as a medicinal product should be so classified, the MCA would look at that product.
Lord Jauncey's judgment predates the legislative framework set out in my earlier Answer of 12 May at
col. WA 147-148, and the Government are content, on the basis of the available evidence, that present arrangements provide the public with adequate protection. However, we are currently considering a review of the scientific evidence on fluoridation. Should this produce new evidence, the MCA would have a duty to look at the classification of products containing fluoride, including fluoridated toothpaste. Fluorides for the purpose of fluoridation of water supplies and the water itself are not medicinal products. Fluoride for fluoridation is a raw material, and these are usually starting materials and not medicinal products controlled under medicines legislation, and water is regulated partly under the Food Safety Act 1990 and partly under water legislation. The regulatory regimes for foods and medicines are mutually exclusive.
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