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5 Feb 2008 : Column WA163
5 Feb 2008 : Column WA163
5 Feb 2008 : Column WA163
Tuesday 5 February 2008
Armed Forces: Northern Ireland Domestic Rates
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether service personnel in Iraq receive payment of £140 towards domestic rates in Northern Ireland on the same basis as those who live in Great Britain.[HL1644]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): All Service personnel, on operational deployment in Iraq and other designated operational areas, who pay rates in Northern Ireland will be eligible to claim council tax relief on the same basis as those deployed personnel who live in Great Britain.
Armed Forces: Pay
Lord Selkirk of Douglas asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Taylor of Bolton on 21 January (WA 2—3), whether they will provide the figures for December 2007. [HL1614]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): There were no overpayments recorded on the Joint Personnel Administration system for December 2007. There were, however, two underpayments of £105.00 and £37.75 respectively, due to a 24-hour delay in the issue of payable orders. Both underpayments were paid the following day.
Bail: Northern Ireland
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Rooker: The granting of bail is a matter for the courts and it is for the judge or magistrate, acting on the basis of the information before him or her, to make decisions on individual cases.
Banking: Proof of Identity
Lord Monson asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether financial institutions obliged to seek proof of identity from long-standing customers under money laundering regulations are required to request a counterpart driving licence in addition to a photocard licence, given that the former contains no additional information on the holder's identity. [HL1580]
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Lord Davies of Oldham: The UK's money laundering regulations require firms to identify their customers and to verify that identity based on material obtained from reliable and independent sources. The UK does not specify that firms carrying out those checks must see a driving licence.
Financial services firms carrying out these checks receive practical guidance from the Joint Money Laundering Steering Group (JMLSG). The JMLSG guidance discusses the wide range of evidence of identity that firms can accept. The latest JMLSG guidance was issued in November 2007, was endorsed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in December, and is publicly available on their website at www. jmlsg.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=754.
Bloody Sunday: Saville Inquiry
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
What has been the cost to date of the Saville inquiry; and when the inquiry expects to report. [HL1550]
Lord Rooker: The cost of the Saville inquiry is £181.2 million (as of December 2007).
The tribunal are currently engaged in compiling their final report. The tribunal have advised that it is not possible at this stage to give a precise indication of when the report will be submitted to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, due to the complexity and volume of evidence with which they are dealing. It is our understanding that the submission of the report is not imminent, and that recent media speculation that the report will be concluded in May 2008 has no basis in fact.
Children: Fostering
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether all local authorities are (a) assessing the suitability of privately arranged fosterings which have been notified; and (b) visiting children so placed every six weeks in their first year of placement, as required under the Children (Private Arrangements for Fostering) Regulations 2005 (SI 2005/1533). [HL1638]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Lord Adonis): In the year ending 31 March 2007, the last year for which we have data, in England, out of 1,420 new private fostering arrangements, 1,410 initial visits were carried out; in Wales 57 initial visits were made in respect of 60 notified private fostering arrangements. These initial visits form part of the process for assessing the suitability of private fostering arrangements. We do not collect data on the other safeguarding checks local authorities should be conducting.
Information is not held centrally, for England or Wales, on the number of visits subsequent to initial visits.
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These are devolved matters. While similar arrangements operate in Wales, where the Children Act 2004 also applies, there are different arrangements for private fostering in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Data Storage
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
Which persons outside the United Kingdom have or will have access to their national forensic databases. [HL1529]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): Currently, the only access to fingerprint data by persons outside the United Kingdom is through the law enforcement entity of a sovereign state that has signed the accords and protocols of Interpol. Searches are undertaken by prior consent on a case-by-case basis and are managed by the UK National Central Bureau (UK NCB) of the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
There are many initiatives to share DNA information internationally. However, no person or organisation outside the UK has, or will have, access to the National DNA Database (NDNAD). Any requests for information have to be processed by staff in the UK and disclosure is governed by strict guidelines.
The advent of the Schengen acquis and the PrĂ1/4m Treaty may, in due time, allow further access. However, these interfaces are yet to be defined.
Duty-free Allowances
Lord Marlesford asked Her Majesty's Government:
To what level the duty-free personal travel allowance will rise from £145; and on what date; and [HL1594]
What steps they take to enforce the present duty-free personal travel allowance of £145; and how many persons from outside the European Union passing through the green customs channel with up to £1,000 worth of goods who have been stopped in the last 12 months have been (a) warned and made to pay duty; (b) made to pay duty plus penalties; and (c) prosecuted; and [HL1595]
What is the amount of customs duty (including VAT) which was collected from travellers entering the United Kingdom from outside the European Union during the last 12 months; and [HL1596]
How many customs officers are currently employed at United Kingdom points of entry; and of these how many could be released for other duties if the free personal travel allowance were raised from £145 to £1,000. [HL1597]
Lord Davies of Oldham: On 1 December 2008, the tax-free allowance for travellers entering the EU by air and sea will rise to €430. This equates to about £290, which doubles the current allowance.
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HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) have around 4,500 officers who cover UK ports and airports. The officers are employed on a multi-functional basis, working on a wide range of duties, and not solely to enforce the duty-free personal allowance. It is therefore not readily possible to assess the direct impact of raising the personal allowance to £1,000, although any increase in the allowance would lead to an overall reduction in the administrative cost in collecting and accounting for duty.
To enforce the current duty-free allowance, officers intercept and challenge passengers following risk-based profiles. They also accept payment from passengers at red points. As statistics are not currently collated in respect of activities in relation to personal allowances, figures relating to the number of travellers with up to £1,000 of goods stopped in the green channel in the last 12 months cannot be obtained except at a disproportionate cost.
The total amount of revenue collected from travellers entering the UK in 2007 was £12.8 million. However it is not possible to differentiate between customs duty, excise duty and VAT except at a disproportionate cost.
EU: Galileo Project
Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the debate on 17 January (Official Report, cols. 1416—9), what were the circumstances in which the commercial backers for the European Union's Galileo project declined to proceed. [HL1599]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): The European Commission's working document of May 2007 accompanying the Commission Communication Galileo at a crossroad: The implementation of the European GNSS Programmes (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/energy_transport/galileo/doc /staff_doc_galileo_en_final_16052007.pdf), suggested that reasons for the failure included continuous unresolved disputes over the share of industrial work, unresolved negotiations on the transfer of design risk, the technical complexity of the programme, and insufficiently strong and clear public governance. Ministers at the Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council in June endorsed the Commission's analysis, and concluded that the deployment phase of the programme would best be carried out with an alternative procurement model.
Falkland Islands: Unexploded Ordnance
Lord Trefgarne asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Answer by Baroness Crawley on 29 January, whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the feasibility study relating to the removal of unexploded ordnance from the Falkland Islands. [HL1654]
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The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): On 20 November 2007 the final report of the joint working party for the carrying out of a feasibility study on the clearance of landmines in the Falkland Islands, and its two annexes, were made available on the Ottawa Convention website at www.apminebanconvention.org/meetings-of-the-states-parties/8msp/what-happened/day-1-sunday-18-november/). The Field Survey Report, produced by Cranfield University, was also made available. I will arrange for copies of all these documents to be placed in the Library of the House.
Forced Marriage
Lord Hylton asked Her Majesty's Government:
What measures they have in place for preventing forced marriages, both in Britain and between British citizens or residents and persons overseas. [HL1646]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): The Government's Forced Marriage Unit provides advice and assistance to British nationals facing forced marriage both in the UK and overseas. The unit also offers support to non-British nationals in the UK. The unit undertakes an extensive outreach programme to raise awareness of forced marriage issues among potential victims and relevant professionals. The Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act 2007, which is being implemented by the Ministry of Justice, will provide legislative safeguards to victims or potential victims within the UK. The Act is expected to be operational by autumn 2008. Under the Act, guidelines produced by the Forced Marriage Unit for police, health professionals, education professionals and social workers will be reissued on a statutory footing.
Gift Aid
Lord MacKenzie of Culkein asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether their consultation with charities on measures to increase the take-up of Gift Aid is now completed; and when the report of that consultation will be available. [HL1601]
Lord Davies of Oldham: The Gift Aid consultation closed on 30 September 2007. A summary of consultation responses is available on the HM Treasury website and a further report on progress will be made in the spring.
Health: Drug Tariff
Baroness Masham of Ilton asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the healthcare professionals who advised the Department of Health on reclassification of Part IX of the Drug Tariff were informed that this classification would be used as the basis of a proposed pricing system; and [HL1499]
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Whether the healthcare professionals who advised the Department of Health on reclassification of Part IX of the Drug Tariff will be reconvened to consider correcting the errors, omissions and inaccuracies identified by industry; and [HL1500]
How many errors, inaccuracies and omissions were identified by industry within the Department of Health's new Part IX Drug Tariff categories; and [HL1501]
What discussions they have had with (a) the British Association of Urology Nurses; (b) the Royal College of Nursing; and (c) the Association for Continence Advice, to assess the impact on the workload of specialist nurses if the Department of Health's proposals relating to Part IX of the Drug Tariff are implemented; and [HL1502]
What assessment they have made of the impact on specialist nurses' ability to comply with (a) the Nursing and Midwifery Council's Code of Professional Conduct; (b) national occupational standards outlined in Skills for Health; and (c) Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency standards on the use of medical devices should the Department of Health impose restrictions on follow up visits to stoma and continence patients; and [HL1503]
What assessment they have made of the risk of increased patient infections if visits from specialist nurses are capped, as proposed in the Department of Health's consultation on Part IX of the Drug Tariff. [HL1504]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The healthcare professionals who advised the department on the classification were asked to focus on whether or not products could meet similar medical need. They were not asked to consider price.
The panel will be reconvened but it will be extended to include representatives from industry and patients.
Over 5,000 items are listed in Part IX of the Drug Tariff. In relation to the proposed classification that was published in September 2007, 478 editorial changes have been requested; the majority could be considered errors, for example incorrect reference codes. In addition, 124 omissions have been identified mainly as a result of companies’ change of ownership during the course of this consultation. These will be corrected when the classification is revisited.
The role of National Health Service specialist nurses is outside the scope of this review and we do not anticipate that their workload will be affected. However, officials have met with representatives from the NHS, for example representatives from the Royal College of Nurses and the World Council of Enterostomal Therapists. They have also met with a nurse who specialises in childhood incontinence, as such patients have very special needs.
Under their terms of service, dispensing appliance contractors are not required to do anything but dispense an appliance. However, many of them employ nurses of their own; these nurses make home visits to patients
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Given this, in the proposed amendments to dispensing appliance contractors' and pharmacists' terms of service it states:
“‘Specialist nurse’ means a person registered in the Nurses' Part or Specialist Community Public Health Nurses' Part of the professional register maintained by the Nursing and Midwifery Council under article 5 of the Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001”.
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