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25 Jun 2008 : Column WA245
25 Jun 2008 : Column WA245
25 Jun 2008 : Column WA245
Wednesday 25 June 2008
Aviation: Ministerial Meetings
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
On how many occasions Ministers and officials from the Department for Transport have met with representatives of Flying Matters since January 2006. [HL4041]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: We have no record of any such meetings having taken place.
Aviation: Research Projects
The Countess of Mar asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether there is a prohibition on the Civil Aviation Authority contacting current and former pilots to ask them to participate in a research project for which ethical approval has been obtained. [HL4087]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: Section 23(1) of the Civil Aviation Act 1982 provides that no information which relates to a particular person and has been furnished to the CAA in pursuance of an Air Navigation Order shall be disclosed by the CAA except in certain specified circumstances which include the consent in writing of the person concerned. While the CAA would not be prohibited from writing to pilots to ask them to participate in a research project, the CAA would be prohibited from releasing pilots’ addresses to a third party for this purpose.
British Citizenship
Lord Goodhart asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Citizenship, Immigration and Borders Bill, included in their draft legislative programme for 2008—09, will give effect to their undertaking, given in the debate on the UK Borders Bill on 11 October 2007, to enable children born outside the United Kingdom between 1 January 1949 and 7 February 1961 inclusive to obtain British citizenship if their mother (but not their father) was a British citizen at the date of their birth. [HL3970]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): Amendments to Section 4C of the British Nationality Act 1981, to remove the requirement for a person applying for registration under that section to have been born after 7 February 1961, will be made at the earliest appropriate legislative opportunity.
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British Coal Compensation
Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract asked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment they have made of the fine of £495,000 imposed by the Legal Services Complaints Commission on the Law Society for its complaints- handling plans for the Legal Complaints Service and Solicitors Regulation Authority between 2007 and 2009; and whether an external management team should be brought in to supervise and manage the regulatory operation pending the transfer of such responsibility to the Office for Legal Complaints. [HL4103]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The Government appointed the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner in 2004 as an independent regulator of the Law Society's complaints-handling functions and the Government do not intervene in the decisions of the commissioner. However, it remains the Government's view that the Law Society and LSCC should work together effectively to deliver sustainable improvements for consumers.
The Government recognise that, with the encouragement of the commissioner, the LCS has made significant improvements in its complaints handling. It will be important that this standard of service is maintained in order to facilitate the smooth transition to the new regime established by the Legal Services Act 2007.
The Office for Legal Complaints will be a completely new organisation that is independent of the legal professions. Therefore, once the Office for Legal Complaints becomes fully operational, the professional bodies’ own arrangements for handling complaints will cease and the government bodies with oversight of these—the Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman (OLSO) and the Office of the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (OLSCC)—will no longer be required.
Based on current planning assumptions, the OLC will become fully operational in late 2010, the OLSCC will close in March 2010 and the OLSO will close no earlier than December 2010.
Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the Law Society has complied with the direction of the Legal Services Complaints Commission to give notice by 13 June of the date when it will pay the Ministry of Justice £275,000 in discharge of the penalty imposed by the commissioner. [HL4104]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The Government appointed the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (LSCC) in 2004 as an independent regulator of the Law Society's complaints-handling function and her decisions or directions are a matter solely for the commissioner. However, we understand from the Office of the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner that as at close of play on 13 June a response had not been received.
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Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract asked Her Majesty's Government:
What assessment they have made of whether the Legal Complaints Service has operated in breach of the Miners' Compensation Claims—Policy Statement issued by the Compliance Board of the Law Society on 15 January 2004, as reaffirmed by the chairman of the Regulation Board of the Solicitors Regulation Authority and the chairman of the Consumer Complaints Board of the Legal Complaints Service. [HL4105]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The Government appointed the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (LSCC) in 2004 as an independent regulator of the Law Society's complaints-handling function. The Government do not have a role to intervene directly in the affairs of the Law Society. The commissioner has powers to make recommendations to the Law Society and Issue 10 of the Commissioner's Special Report stated:
“The LCS Board should now review both the 2004 policy of the Law Society and its overarching policy of allowing complaints in exceptional circumstances, and produce a more pragmatic policy to accept all legitimate complaints from miners”.
It is for the Commissioner to assess whether this recommendation has been followed.
The department is in regular contact with the Law Society to ensure that it continues to make progress in dealing with complaints against solicitors' handling of coal health cases.
Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they plan to meet the Legal Services Ombudsman and Legal Services Complaints Commissioner in order to review the performance of the Law Society, in particular the Legal Complaints Service and Solicitors Regulation Authority, in the British Coal litigation. [HL4108]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The Government appointed the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner (LSCC) in 2004 as an independent regulator of the Law Society's complaints-handling function. The Government do not have a role to intervene directly in the affairs of the Law Society. However, it remains the Government's view that the Law Society and LSCC should work together effectively to deliver continued and sustainable improvements for consumers. The Government have encouraged the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner and the Law Society to be involved in a conciliation process with a third party in order to deliver an agreed new plan for complaints handling.
Both the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform will continue to work with the LCS, the LSCC, the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO), coalfield MPs and other bodies, to ensure that all claimants under the coal health scheme understand their rights to redress through the LCS where deductions have been made wrongfully from their compensation awards.
25 Jun 2008 : Column WA248
Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 21 April (WA 222—3) concerning the Rother Valley pilot and retired miners' complaints against solicitors in the British Coal litigation, whether the Answer took account of the findings of the Legal Services Complaints Commissioner that the figures for miners' complaints provided by the Legal Complaints Service increased not because of awareness raising, but because of complaints made through a Member of Parliament. [HL4159]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: It is our understanding that, in collecting data on miners' complaints, the Legal Complaints Services did not differentiate between those complaints that resulted from the Rother Valley initiative and those that had been brought in other circumstances.
The Legal Services Complaints Commissioner, in her report, believed that the way the LCS had set up its monitoring systems had shortcomings and that the tracking of pilot cases could be more informed. Issue 7 of the report suggested:
“For pilot areas, LCS should ensure that all complaints are separately recorded as pilot complaints. Mechanisms should be in place to enable tracking and monitoring of ongoing progress to inform the end of pilot evaluation”.
Lord Lofthouse of Pontefract asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Hunt of Kings Heath on 21 April (WA 222—3) concerning their plan to provide the Law Society with details of claimants in the Coal Health Compensation Scheme, (a) how many such claimants there were; (b) how many claimants' details have been provided to the Law Society; (c) how many claimants have been contacted by the Law Society; and (d) what was the outcome of those cases. [HL4160]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The LCS continues to engage solicitors on a bilateral basis on the issue of inappropriate deductions and has been encouraged by a number of responses received in relation to redress. We understand that the first phase of the scheme saw 3,643 in the Rother Valley contacted, with approximately 10 per cent of those contacted registering a complaint. Phase two of the scheme has led to 11 firms provisionally agreeing to write to their clients, amounting to a total of 306,872 claims.
Once the position has been further established, the LCS intends to commence a staged mail-out to remaining claimants of those firms not willing to co-operate with them. To assist the LCS in its planning assumptions, BERR has provided statistical data on claimants by solicitor and constituency. Once a firm plan has been established BERR will be providing the individual claimants’ contact data to it. I also understand the LCS has continued to work with individual Members of Parliament engaged in the resolution of these issues in their constituencies.
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Both the Ministry of Justice and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform will continue to work with the LCS, the LSCC, the Legal Services Ombudsman (LSO), coalfield MPs and other bodies, to ensure that all claimants under the coal health scheme understand their rights to redress through the LCS where deductions have been made wrongfully from their compensation awards.
Children: Commissioner and UN Convention
Baroness Walmsley asked Her Majesty's Government:
When the Children's Views and Interests Team in the Department for Children, Schools and Families became the Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Team; and [HL4288]
What are the functions of the Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Team; and whether any of these functions did not apply to the Children's Views and Interests Team; and [HL4289]
What number and grade of civil servants work in the Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Team; and [HL4290]
How the Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Team relates to similar teams in the devolved Administrations. [HL4291]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Lord Adonis): The Children's Views and Interests Team changed its name to become the Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) Team in September 2007, to reflect the team's main functions.
The Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and UNCRC Team's functions are: central government sponsors for 11 Million (formerly the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England) non-departmental public body; policy responsibility for the role of the Children's Commissioner for England; co-ordination of the UK Government's report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; and co-ordination of the Department for Children, Schools and Families' Children and Youth Board. The team also manages a number of grants to external organisations made through the department's Participation Fund and the Children, Young People and Families Grant Programme. These functions also applied to the Children's Views and Interests Team.
The Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and UNCRC Team is made up of three civil servants: one grade 7, one senior executive officer and one executive officer.
The Children's Commissioner Sponsorship and UNCRC team regularly liaises with counterparts in the devolved Administrations. On the basis of information supplied by officials in the devolved Administrations the numbers and remit are comparable to the Children's
25 Jun 2008 : Column WA250
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act: Offences
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will issue guidance as to whether the act of filming an extreme sexual act, as defined by the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, may constitute participation for the purposes of the defence in Section 66 of that Act. [HL4230]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): Section 66 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act provides a defence for those who participate in an act or acts portrayed in extreme pornographic images with the exception of bestiality images or images of necrophilia which depict a real corpse. The defendants must prove, on the balance of probabilities, that they directly participated in the act or acts portrayed in the image and that the act(s) did not involve the infliction of any non-consensual harm on any person.
The defence cannot be claimed by onlookers and this will include those filming an activity if they are not also participants in the activity.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
On what date they will bring Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 into force. [HL4231]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The current planning date for implementation of Sections 63-67 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008, which make illegal the possession of extreme pornographic images, is January 2009. The date will be confirmed nearer the time.
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
When they will issue guidance to the police and the Crown Prosecution Service concerning the implementation of Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008; and whether they will promulgate this guidance to the public. [HL4232]
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath: The police and the Crown Prosecution Service will each develop their own guidance for implementation of Sections 63-67 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008. The Explanatory Notes for the Act are already available on the Office of Public Sector Information website at: www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2008/en/ukpgaen_20080004_en_1.
25 Jun 2008 : Column WA251
The Ministry of Justice will also provide further information about the offence for members of the public closer to the date of implementation, which is currently planned for January 2009.
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