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Coins
Lord McKenzie of Luton: My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Gordon Brown) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
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Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to approve my recommendation that the following coins should be issued in 2007:
a crown piece to celebrate the diamond wedding anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness Prince Philip;
a two-pound coin to mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire; and
a fifty pence piece to mark the centenary of the foundation of the scouting movement.
Collector versions of these coins will be released at a premium above face value and, during the course of the year 2007, the coins will also become available at face value from banks and post offices.
Committee on Standards in Public Life
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): The Prime Minister has today published the Government's response to the 10th report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life Getting the Balance Right: Implementing Standards of Conduct in Public Life. The Government have considered the committee's report with great care, and we would like to place on record our thanks to the committee for its thorough consideration of these issues. Our response to the main recommendations is as follows:
Ethical Standards Framework for Local Government
We consider that a move to a more locally based process for considering misconduct allegations against local government members, along the lines recommended by the committee, would be the most appropriate way of addressing local issues and ensuring the local ownership of standards.
To maintain a culture of good conduct and provide strategic support to enable councillors to manage conduct issues effectively, we feel there is an essential, continuing role for the Standards Board for England in supporting high standards locally, as also recommended by the committee.
The Government accept the committee's recommendation that more systematic information should be published by departments on their overall policy and approach to public appointments. The Cabinet Office will work with departments to ensure a more consistent approach.
The Government also recognise the important role of independent assessors in the process and believe that the accreditation of independent assessors should be given further consideration by the commissioner in consultation with the Cabinet Office and departments.
The Government are also attracted to the committee's recommendation for a Board of Public Appointments Commissioners, and for individual commissioners to each be linked to a small number of departments. However, such a proposal will have cost implications and the Government would therefore
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welcome the views of the Public Administration Select Committee, which is currently carrying out an inquiry into the role and independence of the ethical regulators of government.
Copies of the Government's response [Cm 6723] have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Company Law
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My right honourable friend the Minister for Industry and the Regions (Alun Michael) has made the following Written Statement.
The Chancellor announced on 28 November that the Government had decided no longer to require quoted companies to prepare an operating and financial review, in addition to the requirements of the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive.
I am today laying regulations which repeal the requirement on quoted companies to prepare an operating and financial review for financial years starting on or after 1 April 2005. They will need to include a business review as part of the directors' report, in compliance with the EU Accounts Modernisation Directive requirements. This is in line with the Government's general policy not to impose regulatory requirements on UK businesses over and above relevant EU directive requirements. I am today publishing guidance on the regulations.
We are committed to improving strategic, forward-looking narrative reporting by companies, and to enhanced dialogue with shareholders based on such reporting. We believe it is important for companies to report on non-financial issues relevant to the development and performance of the business, including, for example, environmental matters and human capital management, and they will need to do so under the business review requirements. The business review will need to cover principal risks and uncertainties as well as giving a balanced and comprehensive analysis of the business.
The contents of the business review cover much of the ground covered in the operating and financial review, but in less prescriptive form. The depth of analysis required is proportionate to the size and complexity of the business. A small company (namely, one which satisfies two of the following: turnover of not more than £5.6 million; balance sheet total of not more than £2.8 million; not more than 50 employees) need provide no such review. Also, the business review does not have the additional audit requirement specified for the OFR.
Companies that have been preparing to produce an OFR will be able to use that work to produce their business review. In addition, many companies have been producing a voluntary OFR for some years, and may wish to continue doing so using work that they have done toward the mandatory OFR. Or they may use that work to improve the quality and depth of their business review.
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The Government also believe that disclosures—both mandatory and voluntary—are only part of the picture. On their own, disclosures are insufficient to generate responses by businesses to the legitimate concerns of civil society. Dialogue with and pressure from stakeholders, including the public, NGOs, shareholders and government, is vital for achieving this outcome.
In order to have the maximum impact, it is important that the requirements for narrative reporting are properly calibrated, and neither impose an excessive compliance burden, nor push companies into a "tick box" or "boilerplate" approach to disclosure.
As regards enforcement of the business review requirements, the Financial Reporting and Review Panel has the legal authority to review a company's directors' report, for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2006 and, if necessary, go to the court to compel a company to revise its report.
The Company Law Reform Bill contains provisions relating to the operating and financial review. We intend to bring forward amendments to remove the need for a quoted company to produce an operating and financial review. In future such a company will have to produce a business review. I am today inviting views from interested parties by 15 February before we bring forward appropriate amendments to the Bill.
Counter Terrorism
The Minister of State, Home Office (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Charles Clarke) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 5 August, my right honourable friend the Prime Minister announced a 12-point plan of measures designed to tackle terrorism. This Statement sets out the very significant progress which has been made since that time. We will report again to Parliament on further progress before the Summer Recess.
To introduce new grounds for deportation and exclusion (including the drawing up of lists of extremist bookshops etc, engagement of which would trigger deportation; the negotiation of memoranda of understanding with relevant countries; and consultation on the introduction of non-suspensive appeals in respect of deportation).
The Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have worked closely together to identify extremists overseas who pose a threat to the UK and I have already excluded a number of individuals from the UK.
Work is under way to put together similar lists of individuals in the UK and we are reviewing the processes and mechanisms already in place for gathering national information on extremist activity. In respect of bookshops, the Terrorism Bill will make it illegal to disseminate material that may incite or be useful to terrorists.
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Memoranda of understanding have been concluded with Jordan and Libya and good progress is being made with other priority countries to which we wish to deport people. Notices of intention to deport where we would need to rely on assurances from the receiving state have been served on 29 individuals whose presence has been assessed to be a threat to national security. Most are detained pending the outcome of their appeal; four have been released on bail. It remains the position that we would consider legislation if legal obstacles were to arise in the process.
Following consultation with opposition parties, a provision has been included in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill which provides that in national security deportations any in-country appeal would be confined to ECHR issues and that matters of national security could be challenged only after the individual had been removed.
To create an offence of condoning or glorifying terrorism, anywhere, not just in the UK.
The Terrorism Bill now proceeding through Parliament contains many important measures that will assist the law enforcement and security agencies in the fight against terrorism, including the introduction of a new offence of glorifying terrorism in the UK or abroad.
To refuse asylum in this country automatically to anyone who has participated in terrorism, or has anything to do with it anywhere.
A provision has been included in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill which will allow us to deny asylum while respecting our obligations under the Refugee Convention.
To consult on extending the powers to strip citizenship, applying them to British citizens engaged in extremism, and making the procedures simpler and more effective.
Following consultation with opposition parties, provisions now included in the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill will, if passed, replace one of the existing criteria for deprivation of citizenship—that the person concerned, "has done anything seriously prejudicial to the vital interests of the United Kingdom"—with a test of the public interest. If passed, the Bill will additionally confer on the Secretary of State a power to remove a person's right of abode in the UK, again on "conducive" grounds, where this right derived from citizenship of a Commonwealth country other than the United Kingdom.
To consult on setting a maximum time limit for all future extradition cases involving terrorism.
Work is under way in consultation with Her Majesty's Court Service, the Crown Prosecution Service and the judiciary. This will involve better co-ordinating the responsibilities of all agencies with the aim of speeding up every stage of the process short of putting the case at risk or compromising fairness. Rashid Ramda has now been extradited and we will continue to prioritise cases such as these.
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To examine a new court procedure to allow a pre-trial process; and examine whether the necessary procedure can be brought about to give us a way of meeting the police and security service request that detention, pre-charge of terrorist suspects, is significantly extended.
We are currently examining ways of allowing more sensitive evidence, specifically evidence derived from intercept, to be produced in court. The Government have accepted the decision of the House of Commons that the maximum period of pre-charge detention should be extended to 28 days.
To extend the use of control orders for those who are British nationals and cannot be deported.
To date a total of 17 control orders have been made of which nine have been revoked because the individuals who were the subject of the orders are now detained under immigration powers pending deportation. Eight orders are therefore currently in force, one of which is in respect of a British national.
To expand the court capacity necessary to deal with control orders and other related issues. The Lord Chancellor will increase the number of special judges hearing such cases.
The Department for Constitutional Affairs is reviewing the capacity of the courts, specialist tribunals and the judiciary to deal with existing and anticipated caseload relating to terrorism, with a view to meeting the demands of counter-terrorism.
The judiciary has been very supportive of our efforts to improve the efficiency of terrorism-related trials. It has put in hand new procedures for the allocation, handling and case management of such trials. Her Majesty's Court Service is making an additional suitable court room available.
To proscribe Hizb-ut-Tahrir and the successor organisation of Al Mujahiroun, and to examine the ground for proscription to widen them and put forward proposals in the new legislation.
The Terrorism Bill widens the criteria for proscription. The list of proscribed organisations will be reviewed on the basis of the new Bill.
To review the threshold for the acquisition of British citizenship to make sure that it is adequate, and to establish with the Muslim community a commission to advise on how there is better integration of those parts of the community presently inadequately integrated.
The Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Bill will extend the requirement to be "of good character", which presently applies only to those seeking citizenship by naturalisation, to all applicants for citizenship except those relying on a provision in the 1961 UN Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness. I will establish a commission drawing on representatives of all faiths and communities and have written to faith leaders for their views on membership and terms of reference. I intend to make an announcement on this matter early in the new year.
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In addition, my department continued to work with representatives of the Muslim community, culminating in the announcement of a number of important initiatives including:
the creation of a National Advisory Council on Mosques and Imams;
the training and accreditation of imams; and
placing a greater emphasis on citizenship training for children attending madrassas.
To consult on a new power to order closure of a place of worship which is used as a centre for fomenting extremism, and to consult with Muslim leaders in respect of those clerics who are not British citizens to draw up a list of those not suitable to preach and who will be excluded from our country in the future.
I have today placed in the Library of the House and on the Home Office website the responses to the consultation paper Preventing Extremism Together: Places of Worship which was issued on 6 October. We received 66 responses in total, from a range of individuals, and representative national faith and law enforcement organisations. I am grateful to everyone who submitted views.
Respondents were clear that strengthening police and community partnership was the most effective way of dealing with the problem of extremism at places of worship, emphasising in particular greater exploitation of existing police channels by communities to report extremist behaviour earlier, citizenship training and, as was emphasised in the response from the Association of Chief Police Officers, the earlier use of existing legislation and operational techniques by law enforcement agencies.
This commitment to joint working and information sharing, alongside the provisions to tackle extremism in the Terrorism Bill and the positive recommendations that emerged from the Preventing Extremism Together report published on 10 November, represents a coherent package of action and, consequently, I will not seek to legislate on this issue at the present time, although we will keep the matter under review.
A database of individuals around the world who have demonstrated unacceptable behaviour is being developed.
To bring forward the proposed measures on the security of our borders with a series of countries specifically designated for biometric visas over the next year; and to compile an international database of those individuals whose activities or views pose a threat to Britain's security—anyone on the database will be excluded from entry with any appeal only taking place outside the country.
Embarkation controls were immediately introduced as a response to terrorists attacks in London. Fixed controls were introduced at major ports in support of Special Branch. The Immigration Service has the ability to re-establish a fixed embarkation control at one hour's notice in case of urgent operational need.
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Over the next five years, e-borders will transform our immigration control. Using new technology we will develop an integrated system to check travellers before they enter the UK and to prevent travel to those who have no right to enter or who are known security threats. E-borders will also enable us to take appropriate actions against passengers of interest to each of the border agencies, and to collect information on when people arrive and whether they leave.
With this approach we will be able to improve security, improve efficiency and improve data information flow and intelligence on people entering and leaving the UK. The introduction of high-tech e-borders will be combined with the phasing in of biometric passport-based ID cards to increase substantially our knowledge of who is coming in and out of the country.
We have already implemented biometrics operations in visa posts in Sri Lanka and East Africa; new operations began in Vietnam, Democratic Republic of Congo and the Netherlands in November 2005. As a result, biometric match data is available to entry clearance officers in these countries before a decision is taken. By 2008, all those entering the UK on a visa will have been fingerprinted and digitally photographed. Border control staff are working with the United Kingdom Passport Service (UKPS) to identify and provide authentication and verification of biometrically enabled travel documents.
As set out earlier, we have worked with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to establish an international database of individuals whose behaviour gives cause for concern.
In addition to work on the 12-point plan, I have given careful consideration to the views of those who have asked the Government to establish a full public inquiry into the atrocities of 7 July. The Government do not believe that such an inquiry would add to our understanding of the causes of those atrocities, in particular when there are parliamentary and other inquiries under way into these and related events. Additionally, to establish one would be to divert the attention of our police and security services during an extended period of time when they are still actively engaged in both the murder investigation which continues and the detection and prevention of further atrocities.
However, I believe that it is important to set out clearly an authoritative account or "narrative" of what happened before and around 7 July. Accordingly, my department will develop such a narrative which we intend should be published in due course. In doing so, it will work closely with the police and security services. In making final decisions on the content of the narrative to be published we will of course have due regard to the need not to compromise intelligence sources or put at risk possible prosecutions.
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