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Baroness Andrews: No such assessment has been made. The Environment Agency has been given a greater role in spatial planning, including commenting

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on planning applications in flood-risk areas. This has been reinforced by the planning direction issued in January 2007 with respect to major developments, as part of the wider delivery of Planning Policy Statement 25 Development and Flood Risk.

Prisoners: Christmas Leave

Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many prisoners in Northern Ireland have been granted Christmas leave each year since 2000; and, of those, how many have failed to return. [HL390]

Lord Rooker: The following table provides the information 2000 for which details are not readily available.

The only prisoner granted home leave at Christmas in the past six years who remains unlawfully at large, is Paul Andrew Kervein, a Magilligan prisoner who was granted leave at Christmas 2006 and was due to be discharged eight weeks later.

Year	Prisoners granted Christmas home leave	Prisoners who failed to return to prison on time and became unlawfully at large	Prisoners still unlawfully at large on 23 November 2007
2001	187	4*	0
2002	184	5	0
2003	127	1	0
2004	99	3	0
2005	116	1	0
2006	100	2	1
* A further inmate sustained fatal injuries in a stolen car which was involved in an accident on 23 December 2001.

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Terrorism: Proscribed Organisations

Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:

In what circumstances they would favourably consider removing the Kurdish Workers Party from their list of proscribed organisations. [HL386]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): Each case is considered on its merits.

UN: International Agreements

Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether it is in the interest of those within the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom to have recourse to the international complaints mechanisms under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; and, if not, what is the reason. [HL303]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The Government remain to be convinced of the practical value to people in the United Kingdom of rights of individual petition to the United Nations. The United Nations committees that consider petitions are not courts, and they cannot award damages or produce a legal ruling on the meaning of the law, whereas the United Kingdom has strong and effective laws against discrimination under which individuals may seek remedies in the courts or employment tribunals.

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