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Lord Triesman: The majority of diplomatic missions in the United Kingdom pay the national non-domestic rates requested from them. They are obliged to pay only 6 per cent of the total national non-domestic rates value which represents payment for specific services such as street cleaning, lighting, maintenance and fire services. The total amount outstanding from all diplomatic missions is approximately £880,000.00. However, as at 1 July 2005 missions listed below owed over £10,000 in respect of NNDR. Ten additional diplomatic missions, who owe £10,000 or more in respect of national non-domestic rates, have made arrangements with the Valuation Office Agency to clear their outstanding debts and have not been included in this list.
Lord Triesman: During Foreign and Commonwealth Office Oral Questions on Tuesday 29 November, in response to a supplementary question from the honourable Member for New Forest West (Mr. Desmond Swayne), my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Jack Straw) said that "the United Kingdom has historically been paid significantly more than France over many years, notwithstanding the abatement that was secured in 1984" (House of Commons Official Report, col. 115). The Foreign Secretary should have said that "the United Kingdom has historically paid" rather than "been paid". I apologise to the House for this inadvertent error.
Lord Triesman: The General Affairs and External Relations Council (GAERC) will be held on 12 December in Brussels. My right honourable friends the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (Mr. Jack Straw) and the Minister for Europe (Mr. Douglas Alexander) will represent the UK.
The agenda items are as follows:
Annual Operating Programme 2006
The incoming Austrian presidency and future Finnish presidency will present their 2006 operating programme.
Financial Perspectives 2007–13
We expect the Council to focus on the outstanding areas where further progress is needed following the 7 December conclave, with the aim of providing a useful basis for working towards a deal at the European Council on 15–16 December.
Preparation for the December European Council
The presidency will update the Council on preparation for the December European Council and discuss the outstanding issues in relation to the European Council conclusions. The Council will also discuss the Commission and Council papers setting out priority actions for improving migration management with a focus on Africa, which were mandated by the Hampton Court Summit.
We expect the Commission to update the Council on the latest state of play in the WTO negotiations.
The Council is expected to have a further discussion on the EU's role in Kosovo, confirm EU agreement on a candidate to succeed Lord Ashdown as EU Special Representative in Bosnia, and discuss the Commission's opinion on Macedonia's EU membership application.
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The Council is expected to note the Commission's latest enlargement package, including the overarching strategy paper and country reports on all the enlargement and Western Balkan countries (including Bulgaria and Romania). The Council will also look to agree new accession partnerships for Turkey and Croatia and new European partnerships for the other Western Balkan countries.
European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP)
External Relations Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner will update the Council on achievements during the first year of implementation of European neighbourhood policy (ENP) action plans and highlight the critical priorities for implementation in 2006, both for the EU and the EU's partners.
We expect the Council to discuss and agree the EU-Africa strategy, which will then be adopted at the December European Council. This will be the first substantive discussion of the strategy by Foreign Ministers. Development Ministers have already discussed the Commission's Africa communication.
Following a request from Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, the Council will discuss the situation on the Ethiopian/Eritrean border, particularly how the EU might work with the UN to help resolve the dispute.
Baroness Amos: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Mr. Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Government are committed to ensuring that the pledges on Africa and development made at the G8 Summit at Gleneagles in July are implemented, and progress has already been made. At the international
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level, implementation will be monitored by the Africa Partnership Forum, as well as by the G8 group of countries and the EU. The Gleneagles implementation plan for Africa—a copy of which I am placing in both Libraries—sets out the Government's views on the key milestones which need to be achieved on Africa and development in the 12 months following the Gleneagles Summit. I am pleased that some of these have already been achieved, and the Government are working with their partners in developed and developing countries to ensure that the remainder are achieved as quickly as possible. This plan will be updated monthly as further progress is made.
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: My honourable friend the Minister of State for Pensions Reform (Stephen Timms) has made the following Statement.
I have today placed in the Library the latest quarterly progress report on pension credit, with figures to the end of September. The report gives the number of households and individuals receiving pension credit overall, broken down by the guarantee credit and savings credit and by Government Office region and parliamentary constituency.
The total number of households receiving pension credit at 30 September 2005 was 2.71 million, or around 3.30 million individuals. The average weekly award is now £43.54.
The figures show that there were just under 2.1 million households, or 2.48 million individuals, getting pension credit guarantee awards as at 30 September.
In future, pension credit caseload figures will be incorporated within the national statistics reporting framework. The multi-benefit release of national statistics in January 2006, including detailed pension credit figures for August 2005, will also include provisional headline pension credit statistics for November 2005.
Copies of the report are also available for honourable Members in the Vote Office.
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