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Bosnia and Herzegovina: Export Licence Application

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): On 30 November 2004, the Government issued a licence for the export of training ammunition to the security department of the US Embassy in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Training ammunition is non-lethal, allowing for practice shooting without risk of serious injury. In this case, the equipment was for training purposes in support of the day-to-day protection of embassy personnel.

An EU arms embargo has been in place against Bosnia and Herzegovina since 1996. The purpose of the embargo is to aid the establishment of peace and stability for the people of the region, taking into account the need to ensure the safety of international troops and civilian personnel deployed. We fully support the EU embargo. However, in limited circumstances, we are prepared to make exemptions where denying an export would frustrate the purposes of the embargo. I am confident that granting an exemption to allow for the protection of diplomatic personnel is consistent with the embargo's aim of establishing peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

United States and United Kingdom Science and Technology Agreement

The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): As part of the continuing commitment to preparing and protecting the United Kingdom, my right honourable friend the Home Secretary has signed a memorandum of agreement with the United States, Co-operation in Science and Technology for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Other Homeland Security Matters.

The agreement establishes a framework for co-operation in science and technology and formalises the UK's strong relationship with the US in scientific research and development. This includes sharing scientific knowledge; increasing the exchange of information and personnel with expertise in these areas; and taking advantage of each country's research, development, testing and evaluation capacities.

The agreement represents the continuing commitment of the UK and the US to sharing knowledge, expertise and research in addition to development, testing and evaluation capabilities that will help us find the best technologies and tools to prepare and protect our citizens.

Royal Air Force: Manpower Drawdown

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Defence (Mr Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
 
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My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence informed the House in his Statement on 21 July (Official Report, Commons, 21/7/04; col. 348.) that changes in the force structure of the RAF and the achievement of planned organisational efficiencies would lead to a reduced RAF trained manpower requirement of around 41,000 by 2008. I can now inform the House that the RAF has completed initial work on how that reduction will be achieved, while maintaining a satisfactory balance of personnel with the skills and experience levels throughout the service to enable the delivery of operational capability in a more flexible, deployable and responsive way.

The RAF will achieve the required reduction from a current regular trained strength of around 48,900 through a balanced strategy of normal outflow, reduced recruitment and a targeted redundancy programme. The service is therefore reducing its recruitment targets by some 4,000—to around 6,000 in total—over the next three financial years and has identified a need for some 2,750 redundancies over the same period. Redundancy will be effected by a compulsory scheme, for which applications will be invited. It is hoped that as many of the redundancies as possible will be applicants but, in order to ensure the long-term balance of ability and experience across the RAF, it may not be possible to accept all applications received, in which case it may be necessary to select some non-applicants.

Applications for the first 450 redundancies are being invited today and those selected will leave the service by 31 March 2006. Details of the remaining redundancies—approximately 2,300—which are expected to be managed in two further phases, will be notified to RAF personnel when further work is complete.

Telecommunication Developments

The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker): My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am seeking to place a renewed emphasis on the importance of both the local planning authority and network operators participating in the annual roll-out discussion process described in the Code of Best Practice on Mobile Phone Network Development. The importance of this was recognised in Planning Policy Guidance note 8 (revised) Telecommunications (PPG8) and the code of practice and has recently been emphasised by the All-Party Group on Mobile Communications in its report into planning procedures. The report recognised the benefits of local planning authorities and operators working with the local community to review annual roll-out plans and to develop local strategies for telecommunication developments.

The Government believe that information sharing and negotiation at this early stage could greatly reduce concern and conflict when specific applications are submitted in line with the agreed local plan or strategy. Therefore, it is desirable that, in their local development frameworks, local planning authorities consider how
 
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to manage the developments needed to meet the growing demand for communication services. Where appropriate, authorities may need to consider developing a suitable policy basis for communication developments in their local development documents. Such policies must of course be in accordance with the national policy as set out in Planning Policy Guidance note 8 (revised) Telecommunications.

I am also reiterating the importance of effective pre-application discussions, especially in the absence of an agreed communications plan or strategy. It is of course open to local planning authorities to charge for such discussions under Section 93 of the Local Government Act 2003, if they consider it necessary or appropriate.

The code of best practice sets out the traffic light model, which is designed to help network operators and their representatives to identify issues that might arise should a site be selected for a telecommunication development and to help the preparation of consultation strategies to address such issues. It is important that the rating under the traffic light model is discussed with the local planning authority. In red and amber rated areas, the discussion should include consideration of the optional elements of the consultation strategy that will be undertaken by the applicant. In accordance with the code of best practice, it is reasonable for the local planning authority to expect that evidence of the consultation undertaken should be provided as part of the supplementary information sent with an application.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned a study by the University of Reading and Arup to assess the impact that the code of best practice has had since its introduction and how local authorities have implemented the code and how the public perceives its operation. The mobile network operators have also commissioned the second independent review of their "Ten Commitments", which will demonstrate in a quantitative way how their operations and procedures align with the requirements of the code. That will provide the Government with evidence on whether the code has been effective and whether there are any areas of weakness that need to be addressed. Informed by that evidence, the Government will consider whether changes to the code are appropriate.

Finally, in respect of the Court of Appeal case, First Secretary of State v T Mobile and others, on 12 November the court dismissed an appeal by the First Secretary of State against the decision of Sir Richard Tucker in relation to an application by T Mobile for a shared mast in Harrogate. In essence, the issue before the Court of Appeal was whether the judge in the High Court had dealt correctly with the extent to which public fears about the health risks arising from masts was material, when the development in question had the benefit of an ICNIRP certificate. Sir Richard had held that the inspector had misconstrued PPG8 when dealing with the issue in his decision letter.
 
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The Court of Appeal gave consideration to the policy guidance in PPG8. Taking into account that advice, the court found the First Secretary of State's policy to mean that in cases where an ICNIRP certificate existed, only in exceptional circumstances would it be legitimate for a local planning authority to take public fears about health risks into account. It agreed with Sir Richard that the inspector had misconstrued that advice and that his decision was therefore flawed. We will carefully review the transcript of the judgment of Lord Justices Pill, Mummery and Laws before deciding what action may need to be taken in the light of that judgment.

Officials in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will write to all local planning authorities and licensed communications code system operators drawing their attention to this Statement.

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