| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
The Lord Bishop of Winchester: I must say that it was not apparent to me that the Bill allowed that. That is why I asked the question, among others, on Second Reading. Does the Minister remember the statement on page 25 of the report of the Interdepartmental Working Group? This is a statement of its own rather than a part of the material that it reported others making. The left-hand column on page 25 states:
- "Many people revert to their biological sex after living for some time in the opposite sex, and some alternate between the two sexes throughout their lives. Consideration of the way forward must therefore take into account the needs of people at these different stages of change".
I was interested to read that at the time. It seems to me that this is simply a prudential element that the Government would be wise to include. I confess that I am not persuaded by the Minister's response. It seems to me to be a rather straightforward enactment. I can understand his anxieties about new subsection (3). That may be thought to restrict the activities of the panel. Otherwise, it seems a proper suggestion, particularly in the light of the work of the interdepartmental group.
Lord Filkin: I do not seek to be contentious. I gave the only answer that I could give in honesty to the noble Baroness, Lady O'Cathain—that the Bill allows exactly what she wants. It is a matter of fact.
Lord Tebbit: Can the Minister say where the Bill allows for the revocation of a certificate on the ground that it was falsely obtained?
Lord Filkin: To my recollection the Bill does not. I have had a further thought. The panel can be informed of any fraud. Under Clause 8(5),
- "the Secretary of State may refer the case to the . . . Court"
Lord Tebbit: I have often had that experience myself, when I have been in the position of the noble Lord.
Lord Chan: The Minister said that the provision is in the Bill. Could it be made more explicit so that there is a statement of that nature for anyone who wants to revert after having had a gender recognition certificate?
Lord Filkin: I do not believe that we should confuse parliamentary draftsmanship by stating facts that are clear to lawyers. I am happy to state the position on Report and to write confirming it. I do not intend to change the Bill.
Baroness O'Cathain: I am very grateful to the Minister, and I am particularly grateful to the other participants in this brief discussion on a matter that I
consider very serious. I shall read the debate in Hansard. For the moment, however, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Clause 7 [Applications: supplementary]:
Lord Goodhart moved Amendment No. 44:
- Page 4, line 21, after "specified" insert "by order made"
The noble Lord said: In moving Amendment No. 44, I wish to speak also to Amendment No. 45. These amendments too are derived from the report of the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. They raise the same issues as are raised by our Amendment No. 21, and could perhaps have been included in the same group.
Our amendments provide for orders prescribing forms and fees made under Clause 7 of the Bill to be made by statutory instrument. In fact, neither our amendments nor those in the same group in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, involve a parliamentary process. That is plainly unnecessary for an order that does no more than specify the form and manner of the application. It is not usual—although perhaps it should be—for orders that specify the fees. However, we believe that they should at least be made by statutory instrument which, of course, makes them more easily accessible. Nowadays statutory instruments appear on the Internet and are far more easily available than orders made without any parliamentary process. I beg to move.
Baroness Buscombe: I shall not detain the Grand Committee. I support the amendments in the names of the noble Lords, Lord Goodhart and Lord Carlile. My amendments are designed to achieve similar ends. My Amendment No. 46 and the consequential Amendment No. 106 can serve only to enhance transparency within the system by requiring a Secretary of State to publish regulations that develop and expand on the details of Clause 7. Applicants can then turn to the regulations as a guideline on what form and manner they can be expected to use to make their application and how large a fee they will have to pay.
In this instance as well as in Amendment No. 22, where I called for regulations on the additional information or evidence that the Secretary of State could require from an applicant, the details may vary over time and hence should not be written into the Bill. But the case by case variation would not be so great as to prohibit the Secretary of State from publishing regulations on both the form and manner of application and the fees payable.
Lord Filkin: Clause 7 allows the Secretary of State, after consultation with Scottish Ministers and the Department of Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland, to specify the form and manner in which an application is to be made. It also enables the Secretary of State to determine the level of fees that should be charged for making applications to the gender recognition panel.
It will, of course, be necessary to change the format of application forms from time to time to reflect changing needs. Those are administrative alterations to addresses, telephone numbers and the like, and it would be wasting parliamentary time to bring such issues before it. We envisage that the application form itself will be readily available, for example, on the Internet, and hence that transparency is already achieved.
The application form does not stipulate the criteria for recognition. Those are outlined on the face of the Bill and the application form is merely the vehicle for communicating evidence to the panel. To change the criteria for recognition would, of course, require the legislation to come before Parliament again.
The amendments, in so much as they suggest that the format of the application form should be a matter for Parliament, take parliamentary scrutiny too far. If it is to be efficient, it is vital that the panel has the flexibility to do its job and to determine how best to receive the information in accordance with the Act.
Subsection (2) allows the Secretary of State to set the fee or fees. The Bill confers that power on the Secretary of State to enable a degree of flexibility. However, since the Bill was drafted I have considered the matter in detail in the context of fees for other judicial matters and have come to the conclusion that, given the arguments advanced, this situation should be changed. Of course, such fees are routinely changed. They are increased annually with inflation. Furthermore, given that Parliament has oversight of court fees and the like, it seems to me that it is right to extend the power to fees for applying to the panel. Therefore, I accept the spirit of the amendment and shall introduce a government amendment on Report to give effect to that.
The suggested amendment to Clause 23 is unnecessary as any fee or fees would be set by order, not by regulation.
Lord Goodhart: I am most grateful to the Minister for what he said on the subject of fees. The provision that he mentioned is appropriate and I look forward to seeing the Government's amendment on it. In view of that, we shall not bring forward any further amendment on the order regarding the application forms. I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
[Amendments Nos. 45 and 46 not moved.]
Lord Evans of Temple Guiting: This may be a convenient moment for the Committee to adjourn until tomorrow at 3.30 p.m.
The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Viscount Simon): The Committee stands adjourned until Wednesday 14 January at 3.30 p.m.
- The Committee adjourned at half past seven o'clock.
Written Statements
Tuesday 13 January 2004
Northern Ireland: Priorities and Budget 2004–06
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Finance and Personnel in Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement:
Following consultation on the Government's draft priorities and budget for Northern Ireland, which were launched on 6 October 2003, I am today setting out the Government's priorities and spending plans for Northern Ireland departments for the next two years, 2004–05 to 2005–06.
When devolution was suspended in Northern Ireland we pledged that we would work tirelessly to rebuild trust across the political parties and bring about an early restoration of devolved government. We have worked, and we will continue to work, towards that aim. However, for as long as direct rule continues we are determined to govern in an open and fair way to improve the delivery of public services for the people of Northern Ireland in ways that meet their needs and expectations.
The priorities and budget which we are publishing today build on the progress made by the Northern Ireland Executive under devolution and continued by Northern Ireland ministerial team since devolution was suspended. It is our view that the policies and priorities identified in the former Executive's draft programme for government in September 2002, and continued in Building on Progress—Priorities and Plans which I announced in December 2002, remain relevant in the context of the economic and social challenges facing Northern Ireland. For this reason we have retained the five priorities as the basis for our work over the coming year.
The continuing priorities for delivery of public services in Northern Ireland therefore are:
Working for a Healthier People;
Investing in Education and Skills;
Securing a Competitive Economy; and
Developing North/South, East/West and International Relations.
We want to ensure that the four key cross-cutting themes announced by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in his Statement on progress and priorities in June last year are fully reflected in all aspects of our work. These themes are:
(i) Tackling sectarianism, community division and disadvantage;
(ii) Equality, rights and victims;
(iii) Improving service delivery; and
These priorities and themes are central to the work of government in Northern Ireland and as such they are reflected in, and permeate through, all aspects of the priorities and budget we are announcing today.
Sectarianism and inter-community conflict act as barriers to social and economic growth and recovery and as a disincentive to investment. Building trust and confidence between and within communities, promoting equality of opportunity and justice for all, developing social capital and tackling sectarianism are key priorities for us.
Tackling poverty and social exclusion continues to be a key priority for us. Under devolution the former Executive adopted new targeting social need as its strategic approach to combating poverty and committed to evaluating the effectiveness of this approach. This review is now complete and we will soon publish and consult on proposals for future policy and strategy to combat poverty and social exclusion.
We are committed to working in partnership with the voluntary and community sector, which plays a vital role in community development and in helping to promote social inclusion and tackle disadvantage and community division. We will therefore continue to support and facilitate better partnership working with the sector.
In pursuing these priorities we will seek to work in partnership with social and economic partners and to harness actions within and across departments and agencies to achieve measurable improvements in equality, poverty and disadvantage and community cohesion. We will continue to promote respect for cultural diversity and community understanding through a broad range of policies and programmes.
We remain fully committed to driving forward the equality and human rights agenda, which was central to the work of the former Executive. Work will continue across departments and agencies to ensure that equality considerations are fully mainstreamed into policy development across government, and that there is effective operation of the statutory duties under Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.
In acknowledging our fundamental accountability to the people of Northern Ireland we recognise the importance of being able to demonstrate what is being achieved from the resources available to us. A particular focus of the priorities and budget we are announcing today is on improving the delivery of public services. We are committed to ensuring better public services for the people of Northern Ireland through improvements in the delivery of these services.
Last spring, departments published reform plans setting out priorities for reforming key services to improve the quality and delivery of services to the public. Those plans represented a useful first step, but the challenge now is not only to identify new ways of improving service delivery through reform and modernisation, but also to demonstrate how and when improvement has been achieved. For this reason we have selected a number of key targets in the public service agreements which are of particular importance and which my ministerial colleagues and I will review on a regular basis over the coming year and beyond. These key targets reflect the cross-cutting themes underlying the priorities and budget and cover a number of key public services including health, education, employment, the environment, roads and transport and economic development.
Turning specifically to the budget, I am now in a position to confirm our plans for 2004–05 and 2005–06, building on the proposals we outlined in the draft budget which we launched in October last year. The key development is a clear shift of spending power from consumption to investment. This is a clear step to increase the drive for significant reforms in the way public services are delivered in Northern Ireland, so that we can do even more to promote reinvestment than we had planned up to now.
In the course of last year's national spending review, the Chancellor allocated significant additional resources to Northern Ireland for the period up to April 2006, and the region's share of the sustained additional provision for health in 2006–07 and 2007–08. This year the resources available to us remain essentially those allocated at that time, supplemented by local revenue and the use of the borrowing power available under the reinvestment and reform initiative as well as some £15 million for Northern Ireland announced in the Chancellor's Pre-Budget Report in December.
As I have indicated, improving the delivery of public services is a key focus of the budget being announced today. We will do this by ensuring that the progress of reform and modernisation is accelerated to provide better public services, and by continuing to take forward the significant programme of infrastructure development initiated under the reinvestment and reform initiative. This means some significant downward pressure on administrative costs in departments and non-departmental public bodies.
The budget allocations we are announcing today have been determined taking account of the level of revenue necessary to secure access to borrowing under the reinvestment and reform initiative. After taking
account of the additional revenue from the introduction of rating of vacant property and the phasing out of industrial derating an increase of approximately 9 per cent on the domestic regional rates and 3.3 per cent in the non-domestic sector is necessary. If we assume that district councils increase their domestic rates by around 6 per cent this will mean an increase of around £35 per year—less than 70p a week—in the average domestic rates bill and will ensure the continuation of the infrastructure development necessary for our public services. The strategic investment programme which I announced in February last year provided for spending on infrastructure development in excess of £2 billion. The continued access to borrowing, which has been secured through increased revenue from rates, means that we can continue to maintain the momentum of the strategic investment programme, the total value of which is now in excess of £2.7 billion.The resources available to us over the next two years provide for an increase of nearly 14 per cent in spending on services. This is a substantial allocation which will provide for sustained economic growth and development across all key public services.
The budget allocations reflect our commitment to improve public services through sustained investment. Capital allocations for almost all the key public services have been increased above the levels in the draft budget.
In seeking to provide better service delivery, a key objective of this budget is to ensure that more resources are directed to front-line services by reducing bureaucracy and increasing efficiency. The budget provides for a reduction in departmental administration costs for the majority of departments of around 2 per cent for next year, with further reductions in 2005–06, compared with the draft budget in October.
Health remains the Government's top priority in Northern Ireland. The budget provides for a rise of more than 16 per cent in spending on health over the next two years. This will enable investment in priority services such as renal, cancer and other critical care services and will provide for enhancement to community, primary and intermediate care services and services for the elderly and those with mental illnesses.
Spending on education will increase by almost 11 per cent over the budget period. The increased resources will enable schools to build on the impressive educational achievements of pupils in Northern Ireland. It will also enable government to address a number of pressing issues in the education sector including the continuation of existing support measures for schools in interface areas which are being adversely affected by continuing community tension. The schools estate will benefit significantly from investment under the strategic investment programme with projects in excess of £246 million being taken forward over the next two years.
The budget provides for increased spending on regional development of more than 15 per cent over the next two years. This reflects the substantial additional resources for investment in roads, water and transport infrastructure, including a number of major capital programmes, and public/private partnership schemes to the value of some £530 million.
In agreeing the priorities and budget we have sought to ensure that resources are allocated to key public services to secure continuation of the required infrastructure development, fundamental to the effective delivery of key services such as health, education and regional development. At the same time we have sought to ensure that the planned allocations and the processes for managing them will secure the necessary improvements for better public services.
The priorities and budget fully reflect our determination to ensure that during this continuing period of suspension we will govern in an open and fair way to improve the delivery of public services for the
people of Northern Ireland in ways that meet their needs and expectations.I have placed copies of the Priorities and Budget 2004–06 document in the Library.
Civil Service (Management Functions) Act 1992: Delegations and Authorisations
Lord Bassam of Brighton: Since the last report to Parliament, (Official Report, Commons, 28 January 2003, col. 34WS) new authorisations have been made to the Assets Recovery Agency and to the Chief Land Registrar, HM Land Registry from 20 February and 1 October 2003 respectively.
The authorisations were made subject to the condition that recipients comply with the provisions of the Civil Service Management Code as amended from time to time. Copies of the Civil Service Management Code are available in the Library of the House and electronically at www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/civilservice/managementcode/index.htm.
| Next Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |