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Home Office: Restructuring
The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos): My right honourable friend the Prime Minister has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today announcing machinery of government changes to the Home Office and the Department for Constitutional Affairs. These changes build on the “Security, Crime and Justice” strand of the Government's policy review, which sets the broad direction for the Government’s policy response to security, public protection and criminal justice system issues over the next decade.
The Home Secretary will be developing our capabilities to tackle the threat posed by terrorism. The security and counterterrorism changes will have immediate effect. Alongside this, a new Ministry of Justice will be established, with the National Offender Management Service and lead responsibility for criminal law and sentencing policy being transferred from the Home Office to the Department for Constitutional Affairs to create the new Ministry of Justice. This change will take effect from 9 May.
I have today placed in the Libraries of both Houses a paper by the Cabinet Office, which sets out these changes in further detail.
All those working in the field of counterterrorism, particularly the police, security and intelligence agencies, have worked unstintingly to protect the country from the threat that we face. Our counterterrorism capabilities are among the best in the world. However, the continuing and growing threat from terrorism means that the Government must develop and improve their counterterrorism and security capabilities, and their governance.
I am therefore strengthening the role of the Home Secretary and the capabilities of his department in facing the terrorist threat. While critical areas of the counterterrorism strategy are overseen by other Secretaries of State, notably the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, the Home Secretary has the lead responsibility for the strategy in relation to security threats in the UK, including their overseas dimension.
A new ministerial Committee on Security and Terrorism will be established, subsuming the current Defence and Overseas Policy (International Terrorism) Committee and the counter-radicalisation aspects of the Domestic Affairs Committee's work. The Prime Minister will chair the committee, with the Home Secretary normally acting as deputy chair, although other Ministers such as the Foreign Secretary and the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government will deputise as appropriate. It will be supported by a sub-committee focusing on counter-radicalisation, which will be chaired by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. The committee will meet regularly, and will be supported by a more frequent meeting focusing on the threat to the UK, which will be chaired by the Home Secretary.
In order to support the Home Secretary in his new role, an Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism will be established in the Home Office. This will report to the Home Secretary. The Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism will take on overall responsibility for the CONTEST strategy, reporting through the new ministerial committee. The Government will also establish a research, information and communications unit in support of the struggle for ideas and values. This will be based in the Home Office, reporting to the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government.
The changes set out here are aimed at producing a step change in our approach to managing the terrorist threat to the UK and winning the battle for hearts and minds. These changes do not alter the responsibilities of the Foreign or Defence Secretaries, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government or other Ministers, or the strategic and operational reporting lines of any of our security and intelligence agencies. The Cabinet Office will retain its role supporting the Prime Minister on national security and counterterrorism.
A new Ministry of Justice will be established. The National Offender Management Service, including the Prison Service and National Probation Service, will move from the Home Office to the Department for Constitutional Affairs on 9 May, to form the new ministry. The Home Office will retain its other existing responsibilities, including for policing, anti-social behaviour, drugs, overall crime reduction, immigration, asylum and identity, in addition to its responsibilities for security and counterterrorism.
The Ministry of Justice will be responsible for policy on the overall criminal, civil, family and administrative justice system, including sentencing policy, as well as courts, tribunals, legal aid and constitutional reform. It will help to bring together management of the criminal justice system, meaning that, once a suspect has been charged, their journey through the courts and, if necessary, prison and probation, can be managed seamlessly.
The Ministry of Justice will take the leading role in delivering a fairer, more effective, speedy and efficient justice system, and in reducing reoffending. In doing so, it will, with the Home Office and the Attorney-General’s office, respect the vital roles and independence of the judiciary and the prosecuting authorities.
Public protection and crime reduction will continue to be the core focus of government policy. The Government have made clear that prison will continue to be necessary to protect the public from the most serious offenders, although some non-dangerous offenders do not need to be in custody because their offending can better be addressed through non-custodial means. The Government have announced plans to build a further 8,000 prison places by 2012, having already increased capacity by 19,700 since 1997.
Criminal law and sentencing policy will move to the new Ministry of Justice. In order to maintain the Government’s clear focus on public protection, the Home Secretary will continue to have a core role in decision-making in this area, reflecting his responsibilities for crime reduction. The Secretary of State for Justice will work with the Home Secretary, the Attorney-General and other Ministers to ensure flexible and effective responses to different types of crime, from anti-social behaviour to serious and organised criminality, including through the expansion of summary powers. Government policy in this area will, in future, be decided by a new Cabinet committee on crime and the criminal justice system, chaired by the Prime Minister.
Responsibility for the Crown Prosecution Service and the other prosecuting authorities will remain with the Attorney-General, who has a statutory duty to superintend them. The prosecuting authorities are an integral part of the criminal justice system, and the Ministry of Justice will continue to work with the Attorney-General’s office to deliver a world-class criminal justice system.
The existing trilateral arrangements have been a success in delivering improvements to the criminal justice system, and will continue under the new structure. To facilitate this, there will continue to be a shared National Criminal Justice Board and an Office for Criminal Justice Reform, based in the Ministry of Justice, which will work trilaterally between the Home Office, the Ministry of Justice and the Attorney-General’s office.
The relationship between the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice remains vital, and strong working-level agreements will be put in place between, for example, the National Offender Management Service, the police, and the Immigration and Nationality Department.
Housing: Building Control
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Angela Smith) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today publishing a short report by my department on options for the future development of the building control system. This report follows in-depth discussion with a wide range of stakeholders over the last year, which has raised a number of areas of concern and highlighted the need for reform to the system to ensure that it is fit for purpose now and in the future. This report is not a statement of intended government policy. It is an indication of those ideas which we believe have the greatest potential for reforming the building control system effectively and which we intend to develop further before issuing a full consultation document later in the year.
The package outlined in the report includes possible reforms in six broad areas:
the future of building control—establishing the vision and strategy for future delivery; modernising the system—effective risk-based inspection and enforcement;new routes to compliance—minimising the burden;a customer-centric approach—improving guidance and other tools to aid individual compliance;improving our approach to regulation—stability and forward planning; and performance management and future capacity.The report can be accessed via the Communities and Local Government website at www.communities .gov.uk/buildingregs and is also available in the Libraries of both Houses.
Housing: Major Works Bill
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
This Statement reports progress on the Government’s review of the complex issues raised by the high major works bills now faced by some owners of ex-council flats (leaseholders). It sets out the progress and further steps that the Government will take to address these issues, while looking for other sustainable solutions in the longer term.
Tenants who buy flats from local authorities, and people who buy flats formerly owned by local authorities, are responsible for contributing towards the cost of repairing, maintaining and improving the properties in which those flats are situated.
Some current works of repair, maintenance and improvement to local authority properties are generating high major works bills, particularly in London. We have commissioned research into the impact on leaseholders and have published the results on our website at www.communities.gov.uk/index .asp?id=1504262.
We recognise that substantial major works bills may cause difficulties for some leaseholders and have consulted widely on the implications with all the stakeholders.
Our review has mainly focused on the range of ways in which local authorities can help leaseholders to pay their bills. It has also considered how landlords currently communicate with leaseholders on scheduled major works and their costs.
Leaseholders do not always have to pay the full amount that their lease requires. Major works charges are capped to no more than £10,000 in any five-year period when the works are funded by specified government grants.
Ways of helping leaseholders to pay their bills
Local authorities can already help leaseholders to pay their bills in a number of ways:
they may reduce bills to no more than £10,000 in any five-year period if the leaseholder would not benefit from the works financially or would face exceptional hardship in paying it;they must offer loans to leaseholders who have bought their flats under the right-to-buy scheme, if they apply within a specified time, and they may give loans to leaseholders under other circumstances; they may allow leaseholders to pay their bills by monthly instalments and over an extended period, or defer payment until the property is sold; and they can buy back properties from owners who are in financial difficulties—when doing so, they receive financial assistance from the Government.Some local authorities offer leaseholders the HouseProud equity release scheme managed by the Home Improvement Trust. A number of lenders also offer other equity release products that can be tailored to people’s needs.
Taken together, these offer leaseholders a wide range of options. But we have found that these are not all available in all areas.
We think that more can be done in the short term to help leaseholders to deal with high major works bills by means of these existing options, with enhancements and additions in the longer term.
But the alternative of simply extending the existing scheme for capping bills would bring severe problems. Capping all major works bills to £10,000 while taking no account of ability to pay would be very expensive—in London, this could, on current figures, cost more than £40 million.
But we recognise that there may be people whose financial resources are so squeezed that more targeted action may be needed. So we will do the following.
We will make it clear to local authorities that they should:
inform and advise all leaseholders who face particularly high major works bills about the available payment options; offer the full range of available payment options to help leaseholders to pay their bills, and share best practice to ensure that this happens everywhere; and use existing resources, such as for private sector renewal, which they are already expected to target towards those in need and on low incomes, to assist leaseholders in hardship.We have in addition increased funding for LEASE so that social sector leaseholders can obtain authoritative advice and help at an early stage and LEASE can expand its alternative dispute resolution and mediation role in respect of social sector service charge disputes that arise.
We will work urgently with lenders and independent financial advisers, landlords and leaseholder representatives to develop the use of existing equity release/equity loan schemes (including HouseProud).
In the longer term, we also intend to legislate to enable local authorities to offer equity loans to leaseholders, and to buy back shares in properties so that leaseholders in difficulties do not have to revert to being tenants.
We are continuing to look further at ways in which to address this complex and sensitive issue. These actions represent work in progress. We will also actively monitor developments to ensure that all concerned focus on the best ways of tackling these issues both now and in the future.
Insolvency Service
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Truscott): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations and Postal Services (Jim Fitzpatrick) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have today agreed to the publishing of the Insolvency Service’s corporate plan for the period 2007 to 2010.
The Insolvency Service plans to deal with some 77,000 new insolvencies in the year to 31 March 2008 principally as a result of a further increase in personal bankruptcies. Its planning assumption for the level of redundancy payments and other insolvency-related claims is 90,000 in the year.
Action will continue to be taken against bankrupts and company directors in respect of financial misconduct or dishonesty and I have asked the service to increase its enforcement output by 7 per cent over that achieved in 2006-07. The companies investigation branch will continue to investigate the affairs of companies in the public interest and I have set targets in relation to the timeliness of dealing with complaints made and the handling of investigations that follow from those complaints.
The service’s “Enabling the Future” strategy, a major programme of IT-led investment, will deliver savings over the period of the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review and I have therefore set the service a target to have reduced its case administration fees by 15 per cent by 31 March 2011.
The corporate plan is available at: www.insolvency.gov.uk.
I have also set the Insolvency Service the following targets for the year 2007-08:
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Maintain the cost of redundancy payment processing at the 2006-07 baseline | ||
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Increase satisfaction level of redundant employees from 74.2% to |
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