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Written Answers

Tuesday, 16 May 2006.

Alcohol

Lord Walton of Detchant asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Davies of Oldham: The Licensing Act 2003 and the associated statutory guidance are founded on four key objectives: the prevention of crime and disorder, public safety, the prevention of public nuisance and the protection of children.

The guidance to licensing authorities is therefore not an appropriate vehicle for the promotion of public health issues and cannot make mandatory provisions about signage in this regard.

Lord Walton of Detchant asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Davies of Oldham: The review of the guidance issued to licensing authorities under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 will consider the issue of irresponsible drinks promotions and price discounting, across both the on and the off trade.

We will be consulting on proposals for revised guidance in the summer and any changes will be in place by the end of the year.

Lord Walton of Detchant asked Her Majesty's Government:

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Lord Davies of Oldham: The review of the guidance issued under Section 182 of the Licensing Act 2003 will not consider the issue of adding a supplement to the licence fee in order to fund local authority costs for any campaigns designed to reduce the impact of alcohol abuse. That is because changes to the fees regime could not be effected through amendments to the guidance. Primary legislation would be required to widen the coverage of fees beyond recovering licensing authority costs for administration, enforcement and inspection. The Government have no plans to make such a change.

Armed Forces: Defence Council Instructions

Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): Defence council instructions are internal Ministry of Defence documents. As briefed to the House of Commons Defence Committee duty of care inquiry, we are currently in the process of renegotiating Home Office Circular 24/2002 which is the co-ordinated policing protocol between Ministry of Defence Police and Home Office Police. The revised protocol will include the Service Police and will incorporate much of the content of DCI GEN 117/2003.

Armed Forces: Helicopters

Lord Tebbit asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): The Chinook Mk3 procurement was first agreed and contracted for in 1995 and delivery was completed in January 2002. By May 2002 it had become clear that they could not be brought into use. The Ministry of Defence is currently considering options for the future of the aircraft. These eight Chinook would be in addition to the 40 currently in service that provide the Royal Air Force heavy-lift helicopter capacity.
 
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Armed Forces: RAF Logistics

Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): Royal Air Force reservists play a fully integrated role in all RAF activities, and will thus augment the Expeditionary Air Wings and air combat service support units' logistics and communication hubs as required.

Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Drayson: All Royal Air Force personnel are liable to be deployed overseas to support expeditionary operations, usually attached to an Expeditionary Air Wing. The length of deployments will vary according to operational circumstances but will generally be around four months; the roulement of personnel will differ slightly for each ACSSU, but the overall Royal Air Force target is that personnel should be on operations for no more than four months in every 20.

Benefits: Disability Premium

Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Our Green Paper A New Deal for Welfare: Empowering people to work proposed that the new employment and support allowance should not include the basic disability premium, but would provide additional help through a support component and employment support component. We need to consider the implications of this change for disabled people who may claim jobseeker's allowance, income support, housing benefit or council tax benefit after the introduction of employment and support allowance. We would consult if any further changes were proposed.
 
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Benefits: Under-25s

Lord Morris of Manchester asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): In the welfare reform Green Paper A New Deal for Welfare; Empowering people to work, the Government set out their proposals to pay employment and support allowance during the initial three-month assessment phase at "jobseeker's allowance basic rates".

The consultation period ended on 21 April and we are now preparing a report which will summarise the representations received and their impact on the proposals we intend to take forward.

Bus Lanes

Lord Bradshaw asked Her Majesty's Government:

Lord Davies of Oldham: The department wrote to consultees on 10 July 2002 seeking comments by 6 September 2002 on the draft regulations concerning the arrangements for imposing civil penalty charges for bus lane contraventions, the handling of representations, the procedure for adjudication and the procedure for enforcement when a penalty charge is not paid. A summary of the comments received was published on the DfT web site on 15 November 2004.


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