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Questions for Written Answer: Disproportionate Cost
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
For Written Questions which are not answered because it is argued that to answer would be at a disproportionate cost, how the ceiling figure was arrived at and when; whether the amount has been increased; and who makes the judgment calculation. [HL1156]
Lord Davies of Oldham: The disproportionate cost threshold (DCT) currently stands at £700. Since 1991 the DCT has been set at eight times the average marginal cost of answering Written Parliamentary Questions. Marginal cost is taken as the direct cost of civil servants' time. Average cost is based on a sample of all Written Parliamentary Questions answered by those departments with the highest volume of Questions. Such samples are taken on a quinquennial basis, the next being due in 2009. In years between quinquennial samples, the Treasury applies indexation to the DCT but only increases it in £50 steps to avoid the need for frequent small increases. The last such increase was in November 2006.
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The DCT is an advisory threshold, not an obligatory one. Ministers can decide that a Parliamentary Question should be answered regardless of cost where it is in the public interest to do so.
Roads: National Parks
Lord Inglewood asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether alterations to trunk roads and their immediate surroundings in national parks should respect the landscape in which they are set. [HL1318]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: Government policy is to respect environmentally sensitive areas. It is set out in the integrated transport White Paper A New Deal for Transport.
Trunk road and motorway proposals that would have a significant effect on sensitive areas such as national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty are carefully assessed by the Highways Agency. Proposals would only proceed if there were a public interest where benefits clearly overrode environmental impacts, where there was no viable alternative, and where all reasonable steps had been taken to mitigate the environmental effects.
Landscape impact assessment carried out by the Highways Agency considers effects on landscape character, historic landscape character and the level of visual intrusion, and takes account of mitigation measures to reduce those impacts. Any remaining effects are reported to decision-makers.
Smoking: Hospitals
Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have any exceptions to the prohibition on smoking in public places that apply in National Health Service hospitals; and, if so, what is the extent of those exceptions. [HL1381]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): Exemptions from smoke-free legislation are set out in the Smokefree (Exemptions and Vehicles) Regulations 2007. A copy of the regulations is in the Library.
Smoking: Manchester
Lord Bradley asked Her Majesty's Government:
What estimates have been made of the number of people who have stopped smoking in the city of Manchester in each of the last five years. [HL1282]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): Information on the number of people who successfully quit smoking at the four-week follow-up (based on self-report) through NHS Stop Smoking Services in Greater Manchester Strategic Health Authority for
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Smokers who quit with the support of the National Health Service are significantly more likely to succeed. In the years since 2000, the number of smokers who have made use of the support available from the NHS Stop Smoking Services has increased by over 350 per cent.
The department runs highly effective campaigns to motivate and support smokers to stop smoking. During the last year, over a million people have responded to ask for support to stop smoking via the NHS smoking helpline, via the website gosmokefree.co.uk and the interactive TV link.
As a result of government action, smoking in England has decreased from 28 per cent of adults in 1998 to 24 per cent in 2005 (results for 2006 are due to be published on 22 January 2007.) These are the lowest smoking rates on record.
Suspicious Activity Reports
Baroness Neville-Jones asked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the total operational cost of the suspicious activity reports (SAR) regime to the Government since it was created, including capital establishment costs; and [HL1141]
What has been the total operational cost of the suspicious activity reports (SAR) regime to the Government in the past 12 months. [HL1142]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): Suspicious activity reports (SARs) are submitted to the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) in the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Some £12,792,502 has been spent on the operation of the UK Financial Intelligence Unit (UKFIU) since April 2006, when the Serious Organised Crime Agency
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This includes the running costs of the SARs transformation project. This is not contained within the FIU, but is an IT-enabled business change project entirely focused on improving the SARs regime. In addition, the overhead charge associated with running estates and IT for the UKFIU is currently around £1,200,000 per year.
Pre-SOCA figures are not available.
Terrorism
Lord Harris of Haringey asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Scotland of Asthal on 9 March 2004 (WA 156), whether the assessment that the threat of an electronic attack against the United Kingdom's critical national infrastructure that could disable a critical service is low has since been revised; and, if so, what is the current assessment of the threat posed by (a) a nation state; (b) a terrorist group; (c) an organised crime group; or (d) an individual. [HL1041]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Government's current approach towards the protection of critical parts of the national infrastructure is to focus on the reduction of vulnerabilities that might be exploited by a variety of methods including electronic attack. By reducing vulnerability, protection is afforded against a variety of threat actors, such as foreign states, terrorist organisations or criminals. Advice on effective security measures to prevent or mitigate electronic attacks to the national infrastructure is provided by the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and by the Communications Electronic Security Group (CESG), which is part of the Government Communications Headquarters.
In her recent Written Statement on protective security (14 November 2007, Official Report, Commons cols. 45WS-46WS), which included protection of the UK's critical national infrastructure (CNI), my right honourable friend the Home Secretary informed the House that there was a high standard of protectionof the CNI from the threat of terrorism. The CPNI and CESG are working effectively with government departments and the private sector to provide a proportionate level of
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Vehicles: Electric Power
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have considered incentive arrangements for electric-powered vehicles in this year's budget. [HL1322]
Lord Davies of Oldham: Electrically propelled vehicles where this is the sole means of power are already exempt from vehicle excise duty. The Chancellor keeps all taxation policy under review and considers all relevant economic, social and environmental factors in deciding future policy.
Zaire
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
Why photographs taken from Canberra overflights of eastern Zaire in November and December 1996 were not released; and to which agencies or Governments any information derived from the missions was communicated. [HL1121]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): Imagery from photo-reconnaissance missions is not normally released to the public. In this case, there was a particular need for the public to understand the scale and nature of the humanitarian problem, and a selection of images were subsequently released to the media. The Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre produced a report based on the imagery collected. That report was distributed within the department to the Permanent Joint Headquarters, Headquarters Strike Command and Headquarters Land.
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
What information they had received from United States military sources by 21 November 1996 on the number of refugees from Rwanda and Burundi who were present in eastern Zaire. [HL1122]
Baroness Taylor of Bolton: Any such information, if retained, is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate effort.
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