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Written Answers
Thursday 23rd May 2002.
Rights of the Child: Optional Protocol
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they intend to ratify the Optional Protocol to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.[HL4255]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Amos): The UK signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography in September 2000 and does intend to ratify this instrument.
India and Pakistan
Lord Ahmed asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What steps they are taking to prevent the possibility of a nuclear war over the escalating tension between India and Pakistan along the line of control and international borders.[HL4367]
Baroness Amos: My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has spoken several times during the current crisis in South Asia to President Musharraf and Prime Minister Vajpayee. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is in frequent contact with his Indian and Pakistani counterparts and other international partners about this issue. He most recently spoke to his Indian counterpart on 18 May. We are urging Pakistan to clamp down visibly and definitively on terrorism, in line with the commitments given in President Musharraf's speech of 12 January. We continue to impress on both countries that their differences will best be resolved through dialogue, not violence.
Juvenile Offenders: Electronic Monitoring
Lord Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What plans they have to apply electronic monitoring technology to juveniles released from the custodial part of the detention and training order.[HL4494]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker): Section 62 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Services Act 2000 provides for the electronic monitoring of prisoners released on licence. By virtue of Section 62(5)(a), this includes young people during the community element of a detention and training order (DTO).
Electronic monitoring of those released from detention and training orders is already available in 84 youth offending team areas as part of the Intensive Supervision and Surveillance Programme overseen by the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales.
Section 102(4) of the Powers of Criminal Courts (Sentencing) Act 2000 empowers the Secretary of State to release an offender, in the case of an order of eight months or more but less than 18 months, one month before the half-way point; and, in the case of an order of 18 months or more, one month or two months before that point.
The availability of electronic monitoring enables us to consider how we can make further use of the powers in Section 102(4) to provide a useful transitional phase in the reintegration of trainees from custody back into the community.
We therefore propose to use electronic monitoring as a condition of the release of trainees serving a DTO of eight months or more for a period of one or two months prior to their current release at the half-way point. This form of release will be a normal feature of DTOs except in the case of trainees convicted of sex offences or serious violent offences. The possibility of release on electronic monitoring at this stage in the DTO will not be available to trainees who have exhibited violent or destructive behaviour to people or property within the secure facility or made exceptionally bad progress against the training plan as a result of consistent failure to co-operate or failure to take responsibility for their behaviour.
Criminal Cases Review Commission
Lord Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What re-appointments or appointments are to be made to the Criminal Cases Review Commission.[HL4495]
Lord Rooker: Her Majesty has approved the re-appointment for a further term of the following existing members of the Criminal Cases Review Commision:
- Sir Frederick Crawford (Chairman)
- Mr Laurence Elks
- Mr Tony Foster
- Mr Karamjit Singh
- Mr Baden Skitt.
- Mr Michael Allen
- Mr Mark Emerton
- Mr John Weeden.
Huw
Wrongfully Convicted Prisoners
Lord Desai asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they have concluded their consideration of the report of the working group on an advice
- service for wrongfully convicted prisoners and whether they have made final decisions on the matter.[HL4496]
Lord Rooker: After careful consideration of the report and recommendations of the working group, we have decided to establish an advice service for such individuals. The service will operate as a pilot project for an initial period of 12 months and will be provided by the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux. The project will be subject to rigorous monitoring and evaluation during this pilot phase. Decisions on future service provision will be made in the light of evidence from the evaluation. To inform the evaluation process we have also decided to establish a consultative group whose members will be drawn from a range of organisations and individuals with an interest in this issue. Expressions of interest in membership of this group are now being invited.
Lymphoma
Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What are the latest figures for the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's disease in the United Kingdom, categorised by sex and age; and what is the percentage rise in incidence since 1982.[HL4248]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, dated May 2002. Huw
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the latest figures for the incidence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin's disease in the United Kingdom, categorised by sex and age; and the percentage rise in incidence since 1982. (HL4248)
The latest available cancer incidence figures are for the year 1998. The number of registrations of newly diagnosed cases of Hodgkin's disease and NHL by sex and age group for the United Kingdom are given in the table below.
| Hodgkin's disease(1) | Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma(2) | |||||
| Age group | Male | Female | Male | Female | ||
| 0–14 | 43 | 17 | 75 | 25 | ||
| 15–24 | 118 | 95 | 62 | 52 | ||
| 25–34 | 155 | 159 | 176 | 118 | ||
| 35–44 | 150 | 93 | 337 | 210 | ||
| 45–54 | 96 | 67 | 609 | 464 | ||
| 55–64 | 78 | 56 | 887 | 715 | ||
| 65–74 | 97 | 68 | 1,169 | 1,070 | ||
| 75–84 | 41 | 50 | 919 | 1,030 | ||
| 85+ | 6 | 21 | 267 | 429 | ||
| All ages | 784 | 626 | 4,501 | 4,113 | ||
Sources:
England, Office for National Statistics.
Wales, Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit.
Scotland, Information and Statistics Division.
Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Cancer Registry.
(1) ICD10 code C81.
(2) ICD10 codes C82–85.
Cancer incidence data for 1982 are not available for Northern Ireland. The percentage changes in incidence of Hodgkin's disease and NHL for Great Britain between 1982 and 1998 are given in the table below.
(4) ICD9 code 201, ICD10 code C81.
(5) ICD9 codes 200 and 202, ICD10 codes C82–85.
The Earl of Sandwich asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The Government are committed to exploring the full range of options for increasing the amount of finance available for development purposes. However, as the Commission's February 2002 report Responses to the Challenges of Globalisation made clear, there are a number of practical issues such as coverage and enforcement that would need to be resolved before any of these proposals could become feasible. International initiatives such as these, which require co-ordinated implementation, rely ultimately on the political will of many national governments to make them work.
Hodgkin's disease(2)
Non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma(3)
1982 1998 % change 1982 1998 % change
Male 3.0 2.7 -13 8.7 14.3 +65
Female 1.8 2.7 +48 6.0 10.4 +72
(3) Per 100,000 population, using the European standard population.
What is their response to the European Commission proposal for an international air transport tax to finance aid and development; and whether such a tax would be an effective and more workable alternative to the currency transactions tax.[HL4375]
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