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Housing: Shared Ownership
Lord Corbett of Castle Vale asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many homes were bought on the basis of shared ownership in (a) 1997; (b) 2001; and (c) the last year for which figures are available.[HL1439]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): The number of shared ownership completions in England through the Housing Corporation’s affordable housing programme and local authority social housing grant for 1996-97, 2000-01 and 2005-06 is as follows.
| 1996-97 | 2000-01 | 2005-06 |
| Source: Housing Corporation | ||
In addition, 1,487 homes were purchased in 2000-01 and 7,561 in 2005-06 under the Homebuy equity loan scheme which started in 1999. (Source: Housing Corporation)
Iraq: Camp Ashraf
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
What representations they have made to the Government of Iraq and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on the protection of 3,500 Iranian exiles in Camp Ashraf. [HL1678]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): We have encouraged the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights to ensure that any action taken with regard to Camp Ashraf respects the rights of the individuals involved and is in line with international standards. We understand that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been working with the Iraqi Ministry of Human Rights to assist the voluntary return of approximately 300 residents of Camp Ashraf.
Israel and Palestine: Prime Minister's Visit
Lord Dykes asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What has been the response in Israel and Palestine to the Prime Minister’s recent visit; and whether they will send an alternative United Kingdom emissary to effect a further visit to promote the road map negotiations.[HL1674]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): My right honourable friend the Prime Minister visited Israel and the Occupied Territories between 17 and 19 December 2006 to look at ways to relaunch the political process leading to a two-state solution. He discussed key issues with Prime Minister Olmert and Palestinian President Abbas. Reaction in Israel and the Occupied Territories was positive. Since his visit, Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas have met, and my right honourable friends the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary have met US Secretary Rice to discuss next steps. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary visited the region between 5 and 7 February.
Planning: Sustainable Buildings
Lord Dykes asked Her Majesty's Government:
What detailed items they expect to be incorporated in the new Code for Sustainable Buildings when a revised text is agreed between the various consultees. [HL1845]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): The Code for Sustainable Homes was published on 13 December 2006. It is intended to be the single national standard for sustainability in the design and construction of new homes. It covers the following items: energy efficiency, water efficiency, materials, surface water run-off, waste, pollution, health and well-being, management issues and ecology.
Pollution
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Which substances will not be covered by reporting requirements following the decision not to include the requirement to report releases from “land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement” in the Environment Agency’s pollution inventory. [HL1745]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): In March 2005, the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment and Heritage Service jointly consulted with external interested parties over possible changes to their respective Pollutant Release and Transfer Registers (PRTRs). The consultation presented three options for reporting releases from “land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement”. These were:
Option 1: report against the substance list for water from the proposed European PRTR regulation (which subsequently became the list for land in the published European regulation);
Option 2: report against a reduced but unspecified substance list (for example, metals only);
Option 3: report against the full proposed UK PRTR substance list for water.
Following comments received during the consultation, it was decided that reporting of the quantity of individual substances released to land following “land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement” would not be a requirement for all the UK PRTRs (this includes the Environment Agency’s pollution inventory). Operators are, instead, only required to report the quantity of material transferred off-site from an industrial site for “land treatment resulting in benefit to agriculture or ecological improvement” where this exceeds five tonnes per year.
Railways: Standing
Lord Berkeley asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 31 January (WA 65), to what does the percentage figure in the Answer relate, and what is the maximum time in minutes for which passengers are expected to stand on (a) London commuter; (b) other regional; and (c) intercity services. [HL1864]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: The percentage figure of 4.5 given in WA 65 relates to the number of passengers which may be carried in excess of the available capacity in either the morning or evening peak. This applies across all services and not individual services provided by an individual London commuter train operating company.
Train operating companies are expected to make reasonable endeavours to prevent passengers having to stand on London commuter services for longer than 20 minutes. There are no separate standards set for other regional and inter-city services.
Russia: Local Elections
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Whether they will discuss with the Russian Federation the alleged barring of a significant national political party from running in the St Petersburg city elections. [HL1747]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): The Government continue to be committed to a frank and ongoing dialogue with Russia on human rights and democratic freedoms. On 22 and 23 January, my right honourable friend the Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs, Ian McCartney, led the UK delegation during the latest bilateral human rights consultation with the Russian Government. We raised a wide range of concerns. We complement our structured dialogue on human rights with ongoing bilateral lobbying and EU initiatives, including EU/Russia human rights consultations twice a year.
Reinforcing the importance that we attach to respecting democratic values is a key element of our dialogue with Russia. Our embassy in Moscow and our consulate in St Petersburg follow closely federal and regional elections in Russia. We are concerned by any restriction on democratic norms in Russia, including the fair participation of political parties in elections, and we will continue to discuss with the Russian Government and relevant electoral officials questions, such as this, that arise from their conduct of elections.
Single/Double Summer Time
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What assessment they have made of the estimate by University of Cambridge scientists, reported in Nature on 25 January, that moving the clocks forward to give an extra hour of daylight in the evening could save around £485 million per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 170,000 tonnes. [HL1679]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): The saving in carbon dioxide emissions reported in Nature is equivalent to about 0.03 per cent of UK carbon dioxide emissions in 2005. However, research undertaken in 2005 by the Building Research Establishment on behalf of Defra found that, while moving the clock forward one hour throughout the year to align the UK with Central European Time would realise some savings in carbon dioxide emissions from domestic lighting and non-domestic cooling, those savings would be more than offset by increases in non-domestic lighting and cooling. The BRE estimates do not take account of any additional savings from reductions in peak demand leading to greater electricity generating efficiency. We have not analysed the overall financial costs and benefits that could result from the change. Work by the Transport Research Laboratory, commissioned by the Department for Transport and published in 1998, suggested that there could be a net saving of over 400 people killed or seriously injured per year, although as the total number of road accident casualties has fallen significantly since 1998, any casualty reductions arising from the change are also likely to have fallen. All those estimates are subject to considerable uncertainty, as the Nature article points out. Any changes to the UK time-zone would need to take full account of the effect on society as a whole.
Sport: UK Sport
Lord Luke asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Lord Davies of Oldham: UK Sport has employed the following number of people on 1 January of each year since 2004:
Terrorism: Biological Weapons
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What processes are in place for monitoring (a) disease outbreaks, and (b) biological weapons release on food and animals in the United Kingdom; and how the United Kingdom is supporting similar capacity-building in other state signatories to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. [HL1717]
The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Rooker): To prevent the introduction of a biological disease, the Animal Health Act 1981 and other legislation provide wide-ranging powers to implement and enforce a variety of robust control measures. These include the imposition of quarantine and movement controls on animals and premises, which provide an effective means of protecting the public and other animals while investigations are carried out.
Defra also commissions scanning surveillance to identify new and emerging diseases. There is an established network of experts who meet regularly to share information on newly identified conditions. Where necessary, work is commissioned to investigate further, prepare risk assessments and consider possible public health implications.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has developed “indices of suspicion” to help identify food contamination threats at an early stage. These include maintaining close contact with the Health Protection Agency, which will alert us to any information from its routine surveillance of human illness which might indicate a biological threat involving food. Similar arrangements exist through the health services in the devolved Administrations. The FSA also has an agreement with the State Veterinary Service and the Veterinary Laboratories Agency to alert the FSA immediately on finding any on-farm incident that may have implications for food safety and public health.
States party to the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention agreed at their sixth review conference in 2006 to address the issue of capacity-building, including in the field of disease surveillance, as a part of their inter-session work programme between 2007 and 2010.
Treasury: EU Nationals
Baroness Park of Monmouth asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many (a) executive, and (b) administrative posts are held by non-British European Union nationals in HM Treasury; how they were selected; and when the first non-British European Union national was recruited by the department. [HL1823]
Lord Evans of Temple Guiting: The number of posts held by non-British European Union nationals can be found in the table below. HM Treasury's records date back as far as 1982, and I can confirm that a non-British European national was employed at that date.
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