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Afghanistan: Civilian Casualties
The Earl of Sandwich asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer tabled on
23 October [HL936], whether they have made an estimate of civilian casualties in Afghanistan as an indirect result of aerial bombardment since
- 7 October; and whether they can confirm a report that up to 250 such casualties occurred in three villages at Shalwalikot near Kandahar.[HL1708]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach): We cannot know for sure how many civilian casualties may have been caused indirectly by the coalition's air campaign over Afghanistan. While we investigate all such claims carefully, most cannot be verified, and I have no information about allegations of civilian casualties at Shalwalikot.
DfEE: Annual Net Running Costs
Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What was the annual cost of running the Department for Education and Employment in each year from 1997–98 to 2000–01.[HL1857]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland): The annual net costs of running the former Department for Education and Employment in each of the years in question were:
| Departmental Net Administration Costs | 1997–98 Outturn* | 1998–99 Outturn* | 1999–2000 Outturn | 2000–01 Provisional Outturn |
| Within the Departmental Expenditure Limit | £236 million | £249 million | £262 million | £258 million |
| From the Employment Opportunities Fund | £1 million | £3 million | £3 million | £4 million |
* Departmental resource accounts were first produced for 1999–2000. Figures prior to that have been converted from cash to provide an indicative set of figures on a comparable resource basis.
Lord Quirk asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: The framework for personal, social and health education for all key stages and citizenship at key stages 1 and 2 recognises that
in-school provision should complement the personal and social development of pupils provided at home. We believe our framework provides teachers with the flexibility to discuss the issues. However, in line with other subjects in the national curriculum, we rely on teachers' professionalism to choose appropriate materials, including relevant research findings, to support their teaching.
Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Following recent advice from the Expert Advisory Group on AIDS and the United Kingdom Advisory Panel for Health Care Workers Infected with Blood-borne Viruses, it is Department of Health policy to notify those patients who have been assessed as being at risk from healthcare workers found to be infected with the human-immunodeficiency virus.
It is no longer necessary to notify every single patient who has undergone an exposure prone procedure by an HIV infected healthcare worker because of the low risk of transmission and to avoid unnecessary anxiety being caused to large numbers of patients. Every effort should be made to avoid disclosure of an HIV infected healthcare worker's identity.
This new policy will bring the United Kingdom more into line with other countries.
Lord Chan asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The performance of hospitals in collecting ethnicity is measured by the Data Quality Indicator relating to admitted in-patient hospital statistics and published on the Hospital Episode Statistics website. Ethnic category also forms part of a data quality reporting tool made available on a monthly basis to regional offices.
The ethnicity code contained a valid value in approximately 64 per cent of records in the 2000–01 Hospital Episode Statistics dataset.
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the citizenship, parenting, sex and relationship education elements in the national curriculum are adequate to ensure that young people have access to research findings on the outcomes for children of widely ranging family structures.[HL1926]
Whether the human rights of a National Health Service specialist who wishes to keep secret the fact that he is carrying the AIDS virus override the human right of his patients to know such information.[HL1441]
What data they have collected on the performance of hospitals in their duty to collect and use ethnic group data of all admitted patients in England.[HL1921]
How, under the terms of the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001, they intend to police clinics and laboratories using cloned human embryos; how they intend to enable inspectors to distinguish between human embryos created by in
12 Dec 2001 : Column WA213
- vitro fertilisation and those cloned by cell nuclear replacement; and what penalties will be imposed upon those who violate the law.[HL1932]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Under the Human Reproductive Cloning Act 2001, the penalty imposed on a person who places in a woman a human embryo which has been created otherwise than by fertilisation is imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years or a fine or both. If a suspected crime under the Act is reported to the police, they will investigate it in the usual way. An embryo created by fertilisation is subject to the full regulation of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990.
Stem Cell Research: Funding
Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they intend to provide public funds to private companies involved in developing human embryonic stem cells for experimental and therapeutic purposes; and what account they will take of a company's intention to patent any results of such research for purposes of private profit.[HL1935]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: Government funding for stem cell research is primarily allocated by the research councils. The research councils do not normally allocate grants to private, for-profit companies. However, the Government announced in the Science and Innovation White Paper that targets would be set for participating departments to procure a proportion of their discretionary research and development expenditure from small and medium enterprises through the Small Business Research Initiative. The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Medical Research Council are participating in the scheme. Applications have been invited but it is not yet known if any of this funding will be directed towards stem cell research.
Foot and Mouth: Compensation
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on 27 November (HC Deb, 860W), what are the reasons for the decision not to pay compensation to farmers who were unable to move their livestock due to foot and mouth restrictions.[HL1773]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): There is no statutory provision for compensating farmers who are unable to move their stock. This position is consistent with policy adopted by previous governments when movement restrictions have had to be imposed to control the spread of a notifiable animal disease.
Livestock Markets
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When they anticipate that livestock markets will reopen for normal trade.[HL1774]
Lord Whitty: Some livestock markets have reopened in Scotland reflecting the lower number of foot and mouth disease cases there. A decision to reopen livestock markets in England and Wales will be made in the light of scientific and veterinary advice on progress with the eradication of foot and mouth disease. It is not possible to give a precise date but it is expected to be in the early part of 2002, provided there are no further outbreaks.
Refrigerators and Freezers: Disposal
Lord Greaves asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What advice they have issued, when and to whom, since the formal agreement of EC Regulation No. 2037/2000 on 29 June 2000.[HL1794]
Lord Whitty: Since EC Regulation No. 2037/2000 gained formal agreement, the Government have issued advice in a number of ways. These include a series of guidance booklets to industry and others, covering the key elements of the regulation and advice for specific industry sectors (also available on world-wide web), letters to and meetings with stakeholders and response to enquiries from individuals.
The department wrote to English local authorities in October and December to outline the requirements of the regulation, its likely impact, and to issue guidance on the storage of fridges and freezers.
Retailers and other stakeholders have been kept informed of the impacts of EC Regulation No. 2037/2000 through a series of stakeholder meetings (both general and specifically for retailers). The department has also written to small retail businesses through a number of trade associations to outline the impacts of EC Regulation No. 2037/2000 on the management of waste fridges and freezers.
The department's web-site www.defra.gov.uk contains information relating to all these issues. An information leaflet for house-holders wishing to dispose of their fridges and freezers has been developed and circulated to retailers and local authorities for their use.
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