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Statutory Instruments.
A message was brought from the Commons that they have ordered that the Committee appointed by them on Statutory Instruments do meet with the Committee appointed by this House on Tuesday 5 July at a quarter-past four o'clock; it was ordered that the Committee of this House do meet with the Commons committee at the time proposed by the Commons; and a message was ordered to be sent to the Commons to acquaint them therewith.
House adjourned at five minutes before seven o'clock.
Written Statements
Wednesday 29 June 2005
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Anti-social Behaviour Orders
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My right honourable friend the Minister for Policing, Security and Community Safety (Hazel Blears) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am announcing today statistics relating to anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs). An ASBO is a civil order which protects the community from behaviour that has caused or is likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress to one or more persons not of the same household as the perpetrator.
ASBOs were introduced under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and have been available since April 1999. ASBOs can be issued to anyone aged 10 years or over. They impose restrictions on the behaviour of individuals who have behaved in an anti-social way and protect communities from often longstanding and highly intimidating activity.
Breach of an ASBO is a criminal offence and can lead to custody. The maximum penalty for breach of an ASBO is five years' imprisonment or a fine of up to £5,000 for an adult offender. The Home Office is notified by all courts of ASBOs issued.
Data on the number of ASBOs issued are updated quarterly. New figures for the period up to December 2004 are now available. These figures show that, for the period between April 1999 and December 2004, the number of ASBOs issued (as reported to the Home Office) was 4,649. The number of ASBOs issued in the quarter October to December 2004 is 17 per cent of the total number of ASBOs issued over all quarters and indicates that ASBO numbers for the latest quarter are double those of the same quarter last year (October to December 2003: 364 ASBOs).
Of those ASBOs issued, 52 per cent were to adults and 44 per cent to juveniles (4 per cent of ASBOs are age unknown). Fifty-five per cent were orders on application, 45 per cent were orders on conviction.
I intend to make a similar Statement to the House every quarter to provide an update on ASBOs statistics.
I have placed with the House Libraries a briefing note containing information about ASBOs and the ASBOs statistics issued today.
Complaints Audit Committee: Annual Report 2004–05
Baroness Scotland of Asthal: My honourable friend the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Nationality (Tony McNulty) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
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I am pleased to announce the publication of the independent Complaints Audit Committee (CAC) annual report for the year 2004 to 2005. Copies are available in the Library of the House and on the Immigration and Nationality Directorate's (IND) website.
This is the CAC's 11th report. Its role is to monitor the effectiveness of IND's procedures for investigating complaints about the conduct and efficiency of staff in IND. Its findings are extremely valuable to the organisation.
The annual report highlights a number of areas where IND could improve its customer service, supported by a number of recommendations. IND will use these recommendations to help inform its wider change and reform strategy, one of the key elements being to make IND a more customer focused organisation.
Fiddler's Ferry Power Station
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My honourable friend the Minister for Energy (Malcolm Wicks) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have today given consent under Section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to Scottish and Southern Energy's application to construct and operate flue gas desulphurisation plant at its Fiddler's Ferry coal-fired power station near Warrington. Planning permission has also been given subject to the inclusion of 52 conditions agreed with Warrington Borough Council.
Coal and other fossil fuels remain vital ingredients in our energy mix, but we need to reduce the impact that burning them has on the environment. Fitting flue gas desulphurisation plant at Fiddler's Ferry is a welcome step forward and will help reduce the damaging effects of acid rain.
Financial Services Authority: Annual Report 2004–05
Lord McKenzie of Luton: My honourable friend the Economic Secretary (Ivan Lewis) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The annual report 2004–05 of the Financial Services Authority has today been laid before Parliament. Copies are available in the Libraries of both Houses.
The report forms a key part of the accountability mechanism for the Financial Services Authority under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA) and assesses the performance of the Financial Services Authority over the past 12 months against its statutory objectives.
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Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman
The Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor (Lord Falconer of Thoroton): I am pleased to announce the start of the recruitment campaign to identify the inaugural Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman. The ombudsman will investigate judicial appointment complaints (including magistrate appointment complaints) and the handling of judicial conduct complaints.
The creation of the office of the Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman follows the passing of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 earlier this year.
National Archives: Key Performance Indicators 2005–06
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Baroness Ashton of Upholland):
KPI 1 A: To ensure that the unit cost of selecting and preserving the public records per metre does not rise above £97.
KPI 1 B: To ensure that the unit cost per information transaction with customers onsite and online does not exceed £4.04.
(A) To achieve the public service standard targets for the National Archives as follows:
to make newly opened records and their catalogues available to users in accordance with specified time targets;
to answer 98.5 per cent of written correspondence which is not a freedom of information, data protection or Environmental Information Regulations inquiry, within 10 working days;
to deliver 90 per cent of records requested by users for consultation in the reading rooms within 30 minutes on weekdays and 45 minutes on Saturdays;
to supply 98.5 per cent of record copying orders in accordance with the specified targets and standards; and
(B) To carry out three onsite satisfaction surveys and to achieve assessments of "good" or "excellent" from 90 per cent of those expressing a view.
KPI 3: Electronic Service Delivery
KPI 3: To develop direct digital access to popular records so that 165,000 digital record images are delivered to customers.
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KPI 4: To raise an awareness of TNA's holdings among under-represented groups in our user profile by means of a rigorous social inclusion programme, the chief targets of which are:
to begin the implementation of the Moving Here project, "Routes to the Future", which will capture and record the experiences of first and second generation settlers in England; and
to implement the "Government and People": the interaction of the state with the citizen operational selection policy, in all relevant records selection work in departments.
KPI 5: Raising the Public Profile of the National Archives
KPI 5: To raise the profile of the National Archives with the general public by achieving the following targets:
to implement year one actions in our new three-year marketing strategy, by launching a national promotional campaign to raise awareness of the National Archives and its services; ensuring the specification of the new search engine is consistent with user needs; increasing digitisation of visual material and making substantial additions to our network of licensed Internet associate services; and
to grow the website user base by a 15 per cent increase in numbers of users visiting the website more than once, taken from respondents replying to at least two surveys on TNA's web services.
KPI 6: To continue to support the development of effective records management across government by achieving the following targets:
to monitor and influence the effectiveness of records management in central government through the introduction of an integrated compliance regime with particular reference to the code of practice introduced under Section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and
to develop, in collaboration with other government departments, a statement of requirements towards the survival of digital records.
More information on these and other key targets is published in the National Archives' corporate and business plans.
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