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Thursday, 7 February 2008.
The House met at eleven o'clock: the LORD SPEAKER on the Woolsack.
Prayers—Read by the Lord Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham.
Africa: Flooding
Baroness Rawlings asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What financial assistance they are providing to the countries in south-east Africa that are affected by the recent flooding.
Lord Davies of Oldham:My Lords, the UK has provided the following support in response to floods in southern Africa: £97,000 through Save the Children and £250,000 through Oxfam for emergency water and sanitation in Mozambique; and £300,000 to support the World Food Programme’s operations in Zambia. The UK is also the largest donor to the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, contributing £40 million this year. So far, US $4 million has been allocated from the CERF for priority operations in Mozambique including logistics, shelter and health.
Baroness Rawlings: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his Answer. This is the second year running that disastrous floods have hit the region. This year’s floods are coming close to the catastrophic 2000-01 floods which killed 700 people and displaced more than 500,000 people from their homes. The construction of the Cahora Bassa dam from 1969 to 1974 was meant to provide electricity to the southern African electric grid, but was also designed to regulate the flow of the Zambezi river and, in so doing, protect the people who inhabit the flood plains from perennial droughts and floods. The devastating floods show that the Cahora Bassa dam is not doing a great job. What are the Government doing to provide aid to develop the flood control mechanism?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, it is certainly the case that the water management of the Zambezi needs to be more successfully engineered than it has been in the recent past. There have been one or two catastrophic mistakes. The House will appreciate that the issues that face Mozambique and other states in southern Africa have also been created by the most adverse weather conditions, and now we are entering the cyclone period. DfID is concerned to play its full part in humanitarian aid to deal with the emergency, but the noble Baroness is right that we need to address ourselves to the longer run issues, in particular, the resettlement of people away from the immediate flood plain.
Lord Avebury: My Lords, in his reply the Minister did not mention the UN’s disaster relief emergency fund special appeal for $7.3 million which I understand has been seriously undersubscribed. Would the Government recommend that all contributions to funds
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Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, DfID is the largest donor to the emergency fund, so we can stand tall in that respect. We make it quite clear what our contributions are: others are more coy. I hear what the noble Lord says, but he will appreciate that getting international action in terms of openness is somewhat difficult. We concentrate on playing our full part. The co-ordination of agencies and emergency relief has been rather well done. It is never satisfactory because the demands are so huge, but it has been rather well done with regard to this emergency. We have not had great anxieties on that score. The problem, as the noble Baroness, Lady Rawlings, indicated, is that this is the second time in two years and the third time in seven years that the area has been devastated. That is why we need both water management and to protect people from the problems.
The Earl of Sandwich: My Lords, is this not an urgent matter? It is right for the noble Baroness to raise it at such length. Is it correct that one of the floodgates of Kariba is about to be opened next week thereby flooding something like 800 kilometres of the lower Zambezi? Hundreds of thousands of people have already been moved to resettlement camps which will now be flooded again. Mozambique is full of disaster preparedness plans. Will the Minister accept that it is governments who are inept, the people who are suffering and the organisations on the ground that are having to cope with this?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, it is clearly a subject about which one can be over wordy. I will be as brief as possible. The noble Earl is right that for hydroelectric purposes it is probable that the gates will be opened again. That helps to generate needed electricity, but of course there are consequences much further down the river which are affecting Mozambique badly. That kind of co-ordination is extremely difficult to effect and DfID has only a marginal part to play in that.
Lord Elton: My Lords, does Mozambique's membership of the Commonwealth give it any priority in its claim on our funds or on funds from the rest of the Commonwealth?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the House will recognise that the Government have been very concerned for a number of years to give more support to Africa. Of course, Mozambique, which was not a British colony but which became free and joined the Commonwealth, does benefit from the decisions of DfID and the Government as a whole to spend more on Commonwealth countries.
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Disabled People: Blue Badge Scheme
11.13 am
Lord Clement-Jones asked Her Majesty’s Government:
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the Department for Transport published a consultation document on 24 January 2008 on a number of proposals to improve the blue badge scheme. It includes proposals to extend the scheme to more people who genuinely need it together with better ways of administering and enforcing the scheme in order to cut down on levels of abuse.
Lord Clement-Jones: My Lords, the Department for Transport, in its draft response to the independent review of the blue badge scheme, referred to research which suggested,
- “the possible extension of the assessed eligibility criteria to include individuals with the most severe mental and behavioural disorders that require physical contact (‘attention’) to cross the road safely”.
What conditions specifically is the Department for Transport considering in addition to those that are currently included? Does it include the carers of those with severe autism?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, it may well be that the carers of those who suffer from severe autism will be included within the new scheme. For that very reason, we are conducting a more detailed consultation and working with interest groups to try to appraise the level of likely demand. We are open to suggestions. I hope we will be able to extend the scheme without extending the level of abuse, which I know is a concern for many people.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, as I understand the proposals, it is suggested that each applicant for a blue badge should be assessed by an independent assessor. The three central London boroughs of Camden, Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea already have a full medical or social assessment of every applicant. Will the Minister do what he can to see that those schemes, which have been working so well for so many years, are not interfered with even if a more general scheme is introduced?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, our intention is not to interfere with those schemes but to ensure the careful development of a coherent and understandable national scheme. At the moment you qualify for a blue badge if you get the higher rate of mobility allowance or the local authority assesses that you are in need. We are concerned to ensure that there is more comprehensive coverage for a range of disabilities, such as the one cited by the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, and that the scheme is understandable and can be properly enforced.
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Lord Dubs: My Lords, is my noble friend aware that some local authorities, particularly some of the inner London boroughs, have different criteria for parking with a blue badge? Anyone with a blue badge coming in from outer London may be faced with a totally different situation of which he or she may know nothing. Will my noble friend lean on the inner London boroughs so that there are uniform standards across local government so that disabled people know where they are?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the noble Lord makes a fair point. Clearly, there will be different restrictions in different areas due to the demands of different forms of traffic, and time restrictions will obviously vary if you are parking on a yellow line or double yellow lines in a bus lane or close to one, but he is right that we need to ensure that people have a common understanding of the system as it works across the country.
Lord Hanningfield: My Lords, at the same time as the Statement in January, the Government announced £500,000 for a blue badge centre of excellence scheme. Can the Minister explain exactly what that is and why the Government announced it before they had finished their consultation?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, it was a very sensible announcement designed to enable the Government to draw on good and effective practice in local government. I do not know whether the noble Lord’s local authority is best practice or not. If it is, we want to learn from it. It is for such reasons that we announced that £500,000 of funding, to ensure that we develop that good practice.
Baroness Masham of Ilton: My Lords, does the Minister agree that the needs of various disabled people are very different? For instance, some do not need so much space if they are walking, whereas those who have wheelchairs and are heavily disabled, and their carers, need more space. Could there not be a two-tier system?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I would not want to rule it out. I understand what the noble Baroness is saying, and perhaps it is one of the issues that can be picked up as part of the consultation. From what I have heard from noble Lords this morning, there is a desire for the eligibility criteria and the scheme to operate in a way which is coherent, nationwide in understanding and works well for people with different disabilities.
Lord Campbell-Savours: My Lords, does my noble friend recognise that if the system that operates in Westminster and the other central London boroughs were to apply right across the United Kingdom, it is probable that hundreds of thousands of current blue badge holders nationally would lose their entitlement?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, that is a hard judgment to make. Although I understand what the noble Lord is saying, we are trying to ensure that the criteria work well and are understandable and that
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Lord Bradshaw: My Lords, most of the discussion on my noble friend’s Question has centred on people who have access to cars, but many disabled people do not. The Government have legislated at great length and at great expense to the industry to make buses accessible to disabled people, and yet, as far as I know, nothing effective has been done to make it almost illegal to park a car in a bus stop and to back that up with sufficient penalties. All the equipment on buses enabling people to get on and off easily is being vitiated because buses cannot get to the kerb.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the enforcement of parking restrictions and restrictions on motor vehicles parking in bus spaces is a matter for the local authority and local police, and some of the campaigns have been highly effective in shifting misplaced motor vehicles. Although I congratulate the noble Lord on raising the issue, I think it is one for local government to take up with local police services.
Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville: My Lords, is the Minister aware of a fact which I do not think is treated on in last month’s impact assessment—that if someone parks improperly in a disabled space adjacent to, for instance, a supermarket, there is a well attested statistical possibility that they will have a criminal record?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the noble Lord has drawn attention to a significant point, that those found to have committed a traffic offence of some sort or other often have a criminal record. Simply finding someone who has committed a parking or similar offence can sometimes trigger a wider investigation into their criminal background.
Climate Change: Aviation
11.20 am
Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall asked Her Majesty’s Government:
What is their response to the report produced by Woodnewton Associates in December 2007, Aviation and Climate Change: Public Opinion and the Scope for Action.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, while the report helps to raise awareness of the issues around aviation and climate change, it does not present any new data and fails to acknowledge government action on the subject. The Government acknowledge that climate change is the single biggest issue that we face and to that end have introduced a comprehensive strategy for the sustainable development of aviation.
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Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall: My Lords, I thank my noble friend for that reply. Is he aware that his own department has recently published a survey that reveals that public attitudes to the impact of aviation on climate change are moving fast? Does he also accept that the Woodnewton report concludes:
“The debate so far has been framed so as to equate restrictions on aviation growth with stopping people from flying. In fact, even quite dramatic interventions would allow modest levels of aviation growth”?
Is it not time for the Government to take the lead in reframing the debate by moving away from their current predict-and-provide policies on airport capacity and aviation growth?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, the Government have undertaken some research into public opinion on this issue. We are taking a leading role, but I cannot agree with the noble Baroness’s conclusion. We have to invest in ensuring that the aviation industry works well because we live in a service economy and we need to ensure that our service economy works well in the future. Many jobs are dependent on it and it adds to the wealth of the nation. This is an interesting argument and debate but we have to have a broader view on it.
Lord Hanningfield: My Lords, no one has commented that in the past 10 years carbon emissions from aviation have nearly doubled, whereas in most other sectors they are going down. Surely there needs to be a rethink, particularly in the investment in two new runways in the south-east, which may not be necessary.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I am not sure what the Conservative Party policy is on aviation, but I do not think that the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, speaks entirely for his party. In 2006, aviation certainly accounted for something like 6.4 per cent of the UK’s reported carbon emissions, but we need to look at carbon emissions across the entire economy. If we concentrate just in one sector that would debilitate that sector and have a serious impact on the economic prospects of our country.
Lord Clinton-Davis: My Lords, does my noble friend agree that enormous progress has been made by European aviation, apart from Ryanair, which goes its own eccentric way? Does he agree that because the majority of flights are by their nature international, a solution must also be international? Now that the new Government of Australia and Senators McCain, Clinton and Obama share that view, are there refreshed grounds for optimism in that direction?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, we can take the optimistic view. Our Government have taken a leading role internationally in emissions trading. We have a coherent strategy and, of course, with the Climate Change Bill, we will take that a step further. Obviously progress can only genuinely be made over time through international co-operation.
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