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BBC: Funding

Lord Davies of Oldham: My right honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (James Purnell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

An independent report into the future funding needs of the BBC has been published today by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. The department commissioned PKF to carry out a financial review of the BBC's value for money plans, its bid for the next licence fee settlement and its
 
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commercial services. The report, which is available for viewing at www.bbccharterreview.org.uk, concludes that it,

but acknowledges that there are a number of areas where figures can only be finalised following policy decisions by Government. The work is part of a wider review to determine the level of the licence fee from April 2007, which also includes a public seminar with industry representation—to be held at the department on 5 May—and willingness to pay research which will provide information on the public's views.

Child Protection: Information Sharing Index

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Lord Adonis): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families (Beverley Hughes) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am today announcing the Government's decisions on how the details of practitioners providing sensitive services should be recorded on the information sharing index.

Section 12 of the Children Act 2004 provides for the establishment of an information sharing index. The Government announced during the passage of the Children Bill that there would be a public consultation on three issues relating to the operation of the index:

The consultation ran from 27 October 2004 to 19 January 2005. There were some strongly expressed concerns in response to the consultation that recording details of sensitive services, such as mental and sexual health and drug abuse, may deter children and young people from accessing those services.

The Government's response to the consultation was issued in a Written Ministerial Statement on 30 June 2005. In the light of the views expressed, the response set out decisions to implement a differentiated approach to recording details where for a limited number of services, restricted to targeted and specialist health services, consent would be required to record practitioner details on the index. The response committed my department to further work, with the Department of Health, to define those services that would, for the purposes of the information sharing index, be considered sensitive

The Government have decided that services related to sexual health, mental health and substance abuse should be the broad categories defined as sensitive.
 
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The following specific service areas are those where practitioner details should be included only with consent:

Currently, there are regulations covering disclosure of information about sexually transmitted infections which would not permit practitioners providing services in this area to include their details on the index even with explicit consent. The Department of Health plans to consult on regulatory change well before the index is implemented in 2008, which would then, subject to the will of Parliament, permit, with explicit consent, the inclusion of these details on the index.

The Government's response to the consultation stated that there would be a facility to override lack of consent to record practitioner details in sensitive services on the index, but to restrict it to carefully specified circumstances, in line with existing law, such as where there are genuine child protection concerns.

Where consent is given to record practitioner details for the sensitive service on the index, the child's index record will indicate to other practitioners that an unspecified sensitive service is working with the child. Online access to the sensitive service practitioner's name and contact details will be restricted to index management teams. A practitioner who wanted to contact the specialist service about the child would make a case to the index management team who would, as appropriate, broker contact with the sensitive services practitioner.

The Government announced on 8 December 2005 that the information sharing index will be implemented across all 150 local authorities in England by the end of 2008. We will seek Parliament's agreement in autumn 2006 to the main regulations to govern the operation of the index. We will consult publicly on draft regulations in the summer of 2006.

EU: Competitiveness Council

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Barry Gardiner) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
 
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I attended the informal meeting of the Competitiveness Council on Saturday 22 April, hosted by the Austrian presidency in Graz. My ministerial colleague Lord Sainsbury attended the Council on Friday 21 April.

At the morning session on 21 April, the Austrian Minister for Education, Science and Culture, Elisabeth Gehrer, chaired a discussion on the breakdown for the EU's research budget for the seventh framework programme 2007–13 (FP7).

Commissioner Potocnik presented the principles behind the Commission's revised breakdown for the budget for 2007–13 following agreement on the overall EU budget. The budget for FP7 would see a 60 per cent increase over current levels to an average of €7.8 billion per annum as opposed to €4.8 billion per annum under the sixth framework programme, but this was still a reduction on the Commission's original proposal in 2005. Ministers were unanimous in stating that the Commission's revised breakdown represented a good basis for negotiations, but all put forward suggestions for changes.

The presidency hoped that this discussion would allow the Competitiveness Council to agree a general approach on FP7 on 29–30 May 2006. This would provide a basis on which to negotiate with the European Parliament, which expects to complete its first reading of FP7 in June.

The afternoon session on 21 April was on "The Opportunities of Globalisation". There were presentations from Vice-President Verheugen on competitiveness through innovation; Commissioner Kroes on less and better state aid for growth and jobs; French Minister Francois Loos on competitiveness clusters; and Helmut List, CEO AVL List, on centres of competence.

Ministers showed general support for clusters as useful initiatives. Some member states thought EU co-operation on clusters was important, and a number have drawn up a national map of clusters. There was general support for Commissioner Kroes's plans to introduce some additional flexibility to EU rules on state aid for innovation. Member states were also supportive of improving access to risk capital for SMEs.

At the morning session on 22 April I participated in a discussion based on the Commission's revised proposal on the services directive. Austrian Minister for Labour and Economics, Martin Bartenstein, chaired the discussion, inviting Ministers to agree that the revised Commission proposal, based largely on the European Parliament's first reading text, should be swiftly agreed as an overall package with the aim of reaching political agreement at the Competitiveness Council on 29–30 May. Member states expressed support for moving forward quickly on the basis of the Commission's revised proposal but noted that important issues remained to be discussed.
 
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