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United States Supreme Court
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they have intervened in proceedings pending before the Supreme Court of the United States; and, if so, for what reason and upon what issues.[HL1406]
The Attorney-General (Lord Goldsmith): The Government have intervened in two cases currently pending before the US Supreme Court.
The Government, together with the Australian and Swiss Governments, filed an amicus brief on 23 January 2004 in the Sosa v Alvarez case which concerns the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). It is hoped that this case will serve as a test case on the scope of the ATS. The concern addressed by the Government's amicus brief is the use of
the ATS by US courts to gain extra-territorial jurisdiction over non-US nationals or companies.The Government also filed an amicus brief on 3 February 2004 jointly with the Irish and Netherlands Governments in the case of Empagran SA v Hoffman La-Roche Ltd. This case is of considerable importance for determining the future jurisdiction or scope of US competition law and the Government considered that it was important that the US courts are aware that their decisions have implications for competition regulation in jurisdictions outside the US.
Kosovo
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What assessment they have made of the extent to which the borders between (a) Kosovo and Albania and (b) Kosovo and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are adequately secured; and who controls these borders.[HL2046]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): Responsibility for border control points in Kosovo is held by the Kosovo police service under the authority of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo. Responsibility for the border security of Kosovo, including adjacent to the border with Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, rests with the NATO-led Kosovo Force. On the Macedonian side of the border, responsibility for border crossing points rests with the Macedonian border police, and for the rest of the border with the First Army Brigade. On the Albanian side of the border, the Albanian police are responsible for border control. We assess that Kosovo's borders with both Albania and Macedonia are adequately secured.
Guantanamo Bay: British Detainees
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answers by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 6 October 2003 (WA 23) and 22 March 2004 (WA 76):
(a) what representations they have received from constituency Members of Parliament concerning five former British residents held as prisoners at Guantanamo Bay;
(b) what are the names of the men in question;
(c) where they were arrested;
(d) whether the five men had refugee status or indefinite or exceptional leave to remain in the United Kingdom;
(e) whether the men are British protected persons under the British Nationality Act 1981 or subsequent legislation; and
(f) why Her Majesty's Government appear to have taken no steps to visit the men or to protect their interests.[HL2145]
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: In accordance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998, we are not in a position to give details requested in parts (a) to (d) of the question. I am withholding this information under exemptions 12 and 15 of Part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
We have received no indication from their families or lawyers that any of the British residents detained at Guantanamo Bay are British nationals or have the status of British protected persons. The Government are therefore not in a position to provide them with consular or diplomatic assistance
Lord Harrison asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The intergovernmental conference at the end of 2003 did not discuss the proposal from the Convention on the Future of Europe's External Action Working Group for the creation of an EU diplomatic academy. The Government would want to see details of any proposal before considering support.
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Our embassy in Damascus is monitoring events in the north-east of Syria following the recent disturbances in Qamishli. We have raised our concerns about the disturbances, and the standing of the Syrian Kurdish population with the Syrian authorities. While we welcome the current calm we will continue to closely monitor the situation.
Lord Moynihan asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they support the establishment of an academy to train European Union-based diplomats, so as to complement the work of the national embassies in promoting European Union initiatives, including its common foreign and security policy.[HL2167]
Whether they have made representations to Syria concerning recent killings by their security forces and about long-standing denial of citizenship and passports to numbers of ethnic minorities.[HL2188]
Which programmes funded by the Home Office and its sponsored bodies can be accessed by sports organisations to promote (a) social inclusion; (b) crime reduction; (c) drug reduction; (d) social cohesion; and (e) anti-racism.[HL1944]
5 Apr 2004 : Column WA190
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): Home Office funding that could be accessed by sport organisations includes: Positive Activities for Young People, Positive Futures, the Building Safer Communities Fund, the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's Purposeful Activity for Asylum Seekers and the Youth Justice Board's Youth Inclusion Programme. Although Home Office funding does not go directly to sports organisations, sport is recognised as a key mechanism for engaging individuals and communities. Indirectly sports clubs and organisations contribute much to the development of active and safe communities.
For example, diversionary schemes that engage young people in sports or recreational-based constructive activity targeted to steer those young people most at risk away from crime are a key to the Government's programme for reducing youth crime.
Positive Activities for Young People (PAYP) is a national scheme to provide developmental activities during all school holiday periods for young people at risk of becoming involved in offending.
PAYP received £25 million single pot funding for 2003–04, to which the New Opportunities Fund, Department for Education and Skills and the Home Office contributed, bringing together funding streams previously going into Connexions Summer Plus, Splash, Splash Extra and community cohesion activities.
The programme aims to reduce youth offending and encourage and support young people to return to education or training. The emphasis is on providing quality sports, arts and creative activities that are not only appealing but focussed on the young person's individual needs, equipping them with new skills, improving their self-esteem and breaking down ethnic and cultural barriers. Key worker support—provided through the Connexions service—helps those most at risk.
Another programme is Positive Futures, which is a national sport and activity-based programme for young people and is addressing the multiple issues associated with problematic substance misuse. It is targeted at marginalised young people in the 10–19 age range living in the top 20 per cent most deprived communities, according to the indices of multiple deprivation.
Although Positive Futures is primarily a drug prevention programme it addresses issues of social inclusion, crime reduction and community cohesion. 20 per cent of the 14,000 project participants last year were from black and minority ethnic communities. simone
Positive Futures brings together in one programme the support of a number of government departments and agencies including the Home Office, Department of Health, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Connexions (Department for Education and Skills), Sport England, Youth Justice Board and the Football Foundation.
Positive Futures is managed through local partnerships that appoint lead agencies to deliver sports, educational and drug awareness programmes. These lead agencies can be sports organisations (e.g. Toxteth Tigers Basketball Club, Leyton Orient Community Sports Programme, etc) crime reduction, drug services, charities, local authorities or voluntary/community agencies.
There are 107 projects in England and Wales in the top 20 per cent most deprived areas in the country (according to the index of multiple deprivation). There have been just fewer than 35,000 participants since its launch in 2000. It is funded nationally by:
- the Home Office (£15 million over three years from SR 2002),
- the Football Foundation £3 million over SR 2002 period),
- Sport England (£0.5 million for 2003–04).
Sports agencies could potentially be allocated funding under the Building Safer Communities (BSC) Fund to promote crime and drugs reduction. This fund, which totals £74 million this year is primarily allocated to crime disorder reduction partnerships (CDRP) to fulfil a number of crime reduction priorities, both national and local. But where CDRPs can demonstrate a clear link between certain youth inclusion interventions (such as sports activities) and crime reduction, BSC may in theory be used for that sort of activity and CDRPs may sponsor those activities and bodies to carry out local activities on their behalf.
All of the Youth Justice Board's prevention and early intervention programmes promote social inclusion, crime reduction, drug-use reduction, social cohesion and anti-racism. The Youth Justice Board's (YJB) funding is mainly channeled through youth offending teams (YOTs) and does not directly fund sports organisations to run any projects such as Youth Inclusion. However, sports organisations are involved in the delivery of activities within some of the projects funded by YJB. The 2003 evaluation of the Youth Inclusion Programme (YIP) did show that sporting interventions were the most popular form of intervention with young people at risk of becoming involved in crime. Many YIPs are linked to Positive Futures and have the same client group.
The Purposeful Activities for Asylum Seekers scheme provided funds for 38 organisations in 2003 that ran sporting activities. It is our intention that sports activities run under this funding scheme would help to promote social inclusion and anti-racism by bringing together asylum seekers with members of their local community in a friendly situation encouraging co-operation and communication.
Any organisation wishing to apply for Purposeful Activity funding is eligible to run sporting activities as long as they do promote social inclusion and community
cohesion. Organisations running sports-orientated events as a means of entertainment that could be interpreted as serving only asylum seekers and excluding the local community would not be eligible for funding. ra
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