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Radiators
Lord Jones of Cheltenham asked Her Majesty's Government:
What measures they are taking to encourage users of central heating to flush radiators regularly in order to avoid build-up of deposits. [HL4070]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): An amendment to the building regulations in 2006 introduced new provisions and guidance for the cleaning, flushing and water treatment
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Religious Extremism
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their reaction to the Centre for Social Cohesion's report Virtual caliphate: Islamic extremists and their websites. [HL4203]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Government welcome the report and have noted the recommendations made. Ww are aware that the internet is used by terrorists and violent extremists in the ways outlined by the Centre for Social Cohesion's report. A cross-government strategy is in place with the explicit aim of tackling terrorist and violent extremist use of the internet.
As part of this strategy, we are working both to reduce the amount of terrorist and violent extremist content available online and to work with and through the communities to use the internet as a platform to counter the terrorist and violent extremist message.
Religious Tolerance
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): Supporting mainstream voices is a key part of the Government’s strategy for preventing terrorism and violent extremism. There are a number of projects supported by government funding aimed at promoting tolerant understanding of Islam on the internet.
Roads: Northern Ireland M1
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many drivers were stopped and penalised on the M1 motorway in Northern Ireland between Balmoral and Black's Road for driving over 30 miles per hour when the temporary speed limit was 50 miles per hour; and, of these, how many have had their fines, penalty points or court summons cancelled. [HL4190]
Lord Tunnicliffe: The chief constable has provided me with the following Answer.
Records show that 16 drivers were given fixed penalty notices on the M1 motorway between Balmoral and Black's Road for driving over 30 miles per hour when the temporary speed limit was 50 miles per hour. All 16 fixed penalty notices were cancelled. The motorists' driving licences were either returned to them unendorsed
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A total of three motorists were dealt with via the prosecution process—no summons was issued with regard to any of these motorists.
Taxation: Road Fuel
Lord Cope of Berkeley asked Her Majesty's Government:
What yield they now expect from road fuel tax in 2008—09; and what was the yield in 1998—99 and in 2003—04; and [HL4127]
What yield they now expect from value added tax on road fuels in 2008—09 and what was the yield in 1998—99 and in 2003—04. [HL4128]
Lord Davies of Oldham: The forecast revenue for 2008-09 from fuel duty is £25.7 billion. This is published in table C.6 of the 2008 Financial Statement and Budget Report. The full table can be found at: www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/budget/budget_08/report/bud_bud08 _repindex.cfm.
Historic excise duty from road fuels revenues in previous years are published in the Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin. The revenue raised from road fuel in 1998-99 was £21.6 billion and in 2003-04 it was £22.8 billion. The full bulletin can be found at: www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=bulloil.
Updated projections will be published in the Pre-Budget Report later this year.
HM Revenue and Customs do not collect data on the amount of VAT paid on individual goods and services.
Terrorism: Promotion and Glorification
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
What systems they have in place for identifying websites that distribute Islamic extremist material; and what resources and personnel they have devoted to this task. [HL4195]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The PREVENT element of the Government's CONTEST strategy recognises the important role that extremist websites play in the radicalisation process. The identification and monitoring of such sites is part of our overall PREVENT delivery plan. It would not be in the interest of national security to provide specific detail of the resources and personnel devoted to this task.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment they have made of the contribution of online libraries containing Islamic extremist material to the radicalisation of British Muslims. [HL4199]
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Lord West of Spithead: The Government are concerned about the presence of violent extremist and terrorist material on online libraries in the same way as they are concerned about all forms of terrorist and violent extremist material on the internet.
Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 allows for the service of a notice by a constable where he or she is of the opinion that unlawfully terrorism-related material is available on an electronic service such as a website, on the person(s) responsible for that material. The notice requires that the unlawfully terrorism-related material is removed or modified within two working days. To date, no Section 3 notices have been issued, as the preferred route for removing such material from the internet is informal contact between the police and the ISP and this has so far always been effective.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether internet service providers are accountable for hosting websites with content that promotes terrorism; and if so, how. [HL4200]
Lord West of Spithead: Internet service providers are not responsible for monitoring the content that they host. However if they are found to be hosting material that encourages terrorism they can be asked to remove it, either informally by the police or formally through the issue of a notice under Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006.
Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 allows for the service of a notice by a constable where he or she is of the opinion that unlawfully terrorism-related material is available on an electronic service such as a website, on the person(s) responsible for that material. The notice requires that the unlawfully terrorism-related material is removed or modified within two working days. To date, no Section 3 notices have been issued, as the preferred route for removing such material from the internet is informal contact between the police and the ISP and this has so far always been effective.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment they have made of the effectiveness of requiring internet service providers to block websites with extremist content in reducing Islamic extremism. [HL4201]
Lord West of Spithead: Section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006 provides an effective mechanism for the removal of unlawfully terrorism-related material from the internet when it is hosted in the UK. It is more difficult to remove material that is hosted overseas and we are currently at the initial stages of exploring whether asking ISPs to block access to such material would be an effective option for restricting the availability of such material in the UK.
Trade: Francophone Countries
Viscount Waverley asked Her Majesty's Government:
What they are doing to encourage United Kingdom interests to engage with commercial opportunities in non-Commonwealth Francophone countries. [HL4292]
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Lord Bach: UK Trade and Investment provides tailored services that assist UK companies to exploit opportunities in overseas markets. It does this through dedicated UKTI resources in diplomatic posts in 99 markets:
Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belgium/Lux, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Rep, Denmark, Dominican Rep, Ecuador, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Occupied Palestine, Oman, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, UAE (Abu Dhabi & Dubai), USA, Venezuela, Vietnam and Yemen.
Additionally, lobbying and political support by heads of mission continues to be available to UK businesses in response to routine trade and investment inquiries in other countries on a case-by-case basis.
Transport: Fuel Prices
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
What recent forecasts have been made of the retail price of unleaded vehicle fuel in (a) six months' time, (b) one year's time, and (c) two years' time. [HL4118]
Lord Bach: The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform does not publish retail price forecasts for oil, including unleaded vehicle fuel.
It publishes oil, gas and coal price assumptions for the period till 2020, which are used in the department's analytical work, where relevant. The updated set of future oil price assumptions published in May 2008 can be found using the following links:
www.berr.gov.uk/energy/environment/projections/recent/page26391.html
www.berr.gov.uk/files/file46071.pdf
Transport: Heavy Goods Vehicles
Lord Taylor of Holbeach asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Jim Fitzpatrick, on 16 May (Official Report, Commons, 1841W), to what they attribute the regular increase in vehicle prohibitions relating to heavy goods vehicles. [HL4261]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) attributes the increase in numbers of prohibitions relating to heavy goods vehicles (HGV) to three main factors:
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Lord Taylor of Holbeach asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Jim Fitzpatrick, on 16 May (Official Report, Commons, 1841W), what proportion of the lorries referred to under the heavy goods vehicles heading for each of the years in question was not registered in the United Kingdom. [HL4262]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) issued the following number of prohibitions to foreign registered heavy goods vehicles (HGVs):
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| Foreign HGVs Prohibitions | All HGVs Prohibitions | Percentage of foreign HGVs Prohibitions | |
| (*) For 2007-08 figures for mechanical defects are not yet finalised. Those shown are provisional ones. | |||
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