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Department for Culture, Media and Sport: Definition of "Culture"
Lord Inglewood asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their definition of the word "culture" in the title of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. [HL2881]
Lord Davies of Oldham: What makes up "culture" is diverse and constantly developing and is not something that can easily be put in a simple definition. However, the cultural work of the department includes architecture and the historic environment, the Royal Parks and Royal Palaces, the performing and visual
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arts, museums, galleries, libraries and archives, creative industries and tourism.
Department for Transport: Secondments
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many individuals within the Department for Transport are currently on secondment from BAA, and vice versa; and what are the details of those secondments. [HL3070]
Lord Davies of Oldham: There have been no secondments between the Department for Transport and BAA since the department was created in 2002.
Department for Transport: Transport Research Laboratory
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there has been an internal review within the Department for Transport in the past year in respect of the award of contracts between the department and the Transport Research Laboratory; and, if so, (a) what was the title of the official who authorised the review, (b) why the review was conducted, and (c) what was its timescale. [HL3027]
Lord Davies of Oldham: Contracts for transport-related research and consultancy services, including those awarded to the Transport Research Laboratory, were reviewed as part of the department's supplier management programme. The review was undertaken under the direction of the central department's head of procurement as part of an ongoing review of key suppliers to the department.
Doctors: CueDoc
Lord Campbell-Savours asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the total cost of CueDoc, which provides general practitioner cover to the National Health Service in North Cumbria, in each of the past three years, including all expenses and remuneration. [HL2694]
The Minister of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): The information requested is not held centrally.
EU Flag
Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have any proposals to legalise the flying of the European Union flag; if so, when these
- proposals will be brought forward; and in what form. [HL2787]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Baroness Andrews): As previously announced the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will shortly be consulting on new draft Control of Advertisements Regulations which will include a provision to allow the EU flag to be flown without having to apply to the local authority for express consent. All national flags already benefit from this exemption. We expect the new Control of Advertisements Regulations to come into force in 2006.
EU: Free Trade Agreements
Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 5 July 2004 (WA 64), with which non-European Union countries the European Union has free trade agreements which have entered into force since that date. [HL1997]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): The EU-Algeria Association Agreement came into force on 1 September 2005. The autonomous trade measures concessions agreement to Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro was extended for a further five years at the 7 November General Affairs and External Relations Council.
Extraordinary Rendition Flights
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the statement by the Lord Davies of Oldham on 8 December (Official Report, col. GC 169), whether the Chicago convention needs to be interpreted and applied in a way which is compatible with the obligations imposed by the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, the European Convention on Human Rights and customary international law, so as to ensure that the states parties to the convention do not exercise the right to international air travel in a manner which facilitates acts of torture or inhuman or degrading treatment in breach of international human rights law. [HL2958]
Lord Davies of Oldham: Her Majesty's Government abide by their obligations under international law and would not facilitate the transfer of an individual from or through the UK to another state where there were grounds to believe that the person would face a real risk of torture. The Government believe their
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application and interpretation of the Chicago convention is entirely compatible with their other international obligations.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the statement by the Lord Davies of Oldham on 8 December (Official Report, cols. GC 168–69), whether foreign aircraft involved in acts of rendition by or on behalf of the intelligence, security or police services of the United States are considered to be state aircraft or civil aircraft for the purposes of the Chicago convention; and, if the latter, what are their reasons; and [HL2981]
Further to the statement by the Lord Davies of Oldham on 8 December (Official Report, cols. GC 168–69), whether foreign aircraft involved in acts of rendition by or on behalf of the United States require special authorisation from the United Kingdom before flying over or landing on United Kingdom territory, in accordance with Article 3(c) of the Chicago convention; and, if not, what are their reasons for not requiring this authorisation; and [HL2982]
Whether authorisation has been sought during the past three years for state aircraft to fly over or land in the United Kingdom while engaged in acts of rendition for or on behalf of the United States. [HL2983]
Lord Davies of Oldham: I refer the noble Lord to the Written Answer given by my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to the right honourable and learned Member for North East Fife (Sir Menzies Campbell) on 12 December (Official Report, Commons, 12/12/05; col. 1652W).
Flood Defences
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
How much each local authority has received specifically for flood defences in each of the past eight years, broken down (a) on a per capita basis of population in each local authority; and (b) by miles of coastline per local authority. [HL2792]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Bach): Defra has policy responsibility for flood risk management in England, funds most of the Environment Agency's flood-related work and grant aids individual capital improvement projects undertaken by local authorities and internal drainage boards. The programme to manage risk is driven by these operating authorities; Defra does not build defences or direct the authorities on which specific projects to undertake.
The Environment Agency is the principal authority with responsibility for flood risk management in England, including risk from flooding by the sea. Local authorities do very much less work in this area
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and this will reduce further as responsibility for some of the watercourses they currently manage is transferred to the agency.
This funding for local authorities is a mixture of direct capital grant and supported capital expenditure (revenue) (SCE(R)). SCE(R) is approved by Defra and results in revenue support grant from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) over several years. SCE(R) replaced supplementary credit approval (SCA) after 2003–04.
Local authorities also receive a large amount of grant and SCE(R) from Defra for capital improvement projects to manage the risk from coastal erosion. These often provide significant benefits against flooding from the sea but I regret that I would not be able to identify the grant that could be considered to be related to this particular benefit without incurring disproportionate cost.
I have arranged for a copy of the information requested to be placed in the Library of the House. Local authorities receive further revenue support grant from the ODPM for other—for example, maintenance and operational—spend on flood risk management but I have not included this.
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