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Charities: Voluntary Registration
Baroness Rendell of Babergh asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether there are any changes in the current policy on the voluntary registration of charities.[HL4923]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord Filkin): The current regulations which made registration voluntary for charities connected with a number of religious bodies expire on 1 October 2002. I am today laying a new statutory instrument to extend those regulations until 1 October 2007. The Performance and Innovation Unit, as part of its review of the legal framework for charities, is considering the matter of exception and its report will be published in due course. The extension of the regulations will allow time for the implementation of any changes which the report may recommend.
Chapelcross Power Station
The Earl of Mar and Kellie asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How the generating capacity of Chapelcross power station (75MW) will be replaced, given the imminent closure of that power station.[HL4749]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): It is for the market, not government, to decide if and by what means the generating capacity of Chapelcross should be replaced.
LenaState Retirement Pension: Postponement of Receipt
Lord Vinson asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Hollis of Heigham on 13 May (WA 24), whether, when offering old age pensioners the opportunity to postpone their pension until 70, they will make clear that the pensioner will not recover the pension forgone until they reach the age of 84, beyond their estimated expectation of life.[HL4789]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham): People defer taking their state pension for a variety of reasons and it is their choice. We have advised in our literature that people who are considering deferring should seek independent financial advice.
The State of the Countryside Report 2002
The Duke of Montrose asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Why they failed to provide the Printed Paper Office with original copies of The State of the Countryside report 2002 in time for the Oral Question on the report on 13 June.[HL4758]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Whitty): The State of the Countryside report 2002 is a Countryside Agency publication. It was announced by way of a Press Release on 28 May and was freely available on the Countryside Agency's website from this date.
The final fully bound report is not due to be published until early July and a copy will be placed in the Printed Paper Office at that time.
DEFRA: Regulatory Reform
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What proof they have that their efforts to reduce the burden of regulation, as identified in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs' departmental report 2002, are successful.[HL4808]
Lord Whitty: The departmental report identified the mechanisms by which we try to minimise the burden of regulation. These include the necessary checks and balances required under the regulatory impact system to ensure that regulation is necessary and proportionate and the risks, options, benefits and costs are fully explored. Such procedures are subject to review and refinement to ensure that all relevant issues are considered.
Implementation of the majority of the Red Tape Review recommendations, and those in the Better Regulation Task Force report on environmental regulations and farmers can be regarded as a success since they addressed issues identified by industry. Money has been saved in direct costs to industry as well as time saved in paperwork; for example, by implementing a simplified procedure for granting "own use" approvals for imports of pesticides with a reduced fee, by streamlining intervention procedures, by better co-ordinated cattle inspections and the introduction of electronic IACS forms. The abolition of glucosinate testing of oilseed rape will save industry £1 million. From questionnaires completed by farmers participating in the 2002 slaughter premium scheme, 47 per cent of those returning the questionnaires found
the form better than the previous year, whilst only 2 per cent found it worse. Better forms play an important role in reducing the administrative burden on farmers.More recently the department contributed 59 proposals for regulatory reform in the Government's regulatory reform action plan published in February 2002, covering all aspects of DEFRA's responsibility. Many of these will be implemented in the next two years; others will be in the longer term. They involve changes to EC legislation, reform of some domestic legislation, major reviews of whole areas of enforcement, inspection and information handling to ease the burden of compliance.
While some regulation is necessary, we have a long-term strategy (2007) to introduce risk-based environment regulation across all sectors including agriculture. New risk-assessments, standardised permits, better reporting arrangements will keep charges down and reduce the bureaucracy of regulation. We are working towards an integrated solution to the problems of regulation and agriculture by developing a whole farm approach. This is a long-term strategy that will be developed in close consultation with industry and other stakeholders.
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