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Since publication of the White Paper, we have proceeded quickly to the next stages to support implementation of our programme. We have:
held a series of national listening events in May to support the launch. Over 630 delegates attended drawn from the NHS, the professions and representative bodies. The events gave delegates the opportunity to consider and to discuss our plans in more detail, including a number of key ideas for structural change which the Government believe are necessary to underpin the White Paper programme. We will publish our report of those events alongside the forthcoming consultation;announced in the NHS Next Stage Review Final Report that a new independent advisory non-departmental public body, Medical Education England, will advise the department on education, training and workforce planning for pharmacists, as well as doctors, dentists and healthcare scientists; held events to discuss with pharmacists and others implementation and delivery options for the vascular risk assessment programme, including offering vascular checks throughpharmacies;subject to Royal Assent,the Health and Social Care Bill has completed its passage through both Houses. In due course, a new General Pharmaceutical Council will be created to oversee the pharmacy profession. Consultation on the proposed Order for the Council will begin in the summer and it is intended to hold consultation events GB-wide in September and October; andpublished responses to our consultation on the responsible pharmacist. We will lay regulations before Parliament in early autumn to implement a new statutory framework that will support pharmacists in using their clinical skills and those of pharmacy staff to improve patients' access to a wider range of services. are publishing later today the national template for a service specification for chlamydia screening, to support primary care trusts commissioning of a locally commissioned enhanced service. This will be available on the website of NHS Primary Care Contracting at www.pcc.nhs.uk;will shortly advertise the posts of the two new pharmacy national clinical directors. They will17 July 2008 : Column WS94
Highways Agency: Annual Report and Accounts
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Tom Harris) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
The Highways Agency annual report and accounts for 2007-08 is published today under Section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. A copy of the report will be placed in the House Library. Copies are available from the Vote Office.
Housing and Regeneration
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Hazel Blears) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today publishing Transforming Places; changing lives: a framework for regeneration. This document sets out an ambitious package of proposals—for consultation—that aim to shape the way that regeneration is carried out in future in England. Publishing the framework fulfils a commitment from the 2007 sub-national review of economic development and regeneration.
We have made great strides in regeneration in the past 10 years, narrowing the gap between the most deprived neighbourhoods and the rest. The new approach builds on what we know works.
The framework contains a renewed focus on ensuring that regeneration tackles the underlying economic challenges to increase social mobility and support people to reach their potential, regardless of where they live. Specifically, the measures proposed aim to:
ensure that regeneration investment is co-ordinated and prioritised in the right places, with public, private, and third sector organisations working together in the same places towards a shared vision;devolve power—decisions about where to invest should be made as locally as possible, so this framework proposes an approach to prioritisation that starts with communities and their councils, and aims to align investment behind local and regional regeneration priorities—making programmes fit places, not places fit programmes; and,17 July 2008 : Column WS95
The framework proposes that all regeneration should be aligned behind three priority outcomes:
improving economic performance in the areas that have not yet made the same progress as other areas;improving rates of work and enterprise in these areas; andcreating sustainable places where people want to live and can work, and businesses want to invest.The consultation is accompanied by an impact assessment. Copies have been placed in the House Library or it can be accessed via the Department for Communities and Local Government website at: www.communities.gov.uk/publications/citiesandregions/transformingplaces.
Consultation closes on 31 October 2008.
Issuer Liability
Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Kitty Ussher) has made the following Written Statement.
The Treasury is today publishing Extension of the Statutory Regime for Issuer Liability. This sets out the Government's response to the Davies Review of Issuer Liability and contains proposals to extend the statutory civil liability regime for issuer misstatements to the market, established in Section 90A of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000.
Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.
Legal Services Board
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Bridget Prentice) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Legal Services Act received Royal Assent on 30 October 2007. Two of the key elements of the Act are the provision of a Legal Services Board (LSB) and the establishment of an Office for Legal Complaints (OLC). The LSB will be an overarching regulator and the OLC will deal with all complaints about regulated legal service providers.
I am pleased to announce that following open and fair competition, regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, the Lord Chancellor has appointed:
Terence Connor; Stephen Green; William Moyes; Barbara Saunders; and Nicole Smith as the lay members; andRosemary Martin; Michael Napier; Andrew Whittaker; and David Wolfe as the non-lay members.The board members will take up post from 1 September 2008. The appointments will run for three years.
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Local Transport Bill
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Transport (Rosie Winterton) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
The Local Transport Bill, currently before Parliament, contains measures to improve public transport and tackle road congestion.
Assuming the Bill receives Royal Assent, the Government propose to issue guidance and make secondary legislation to support the implementation of various provisions in the Bill. In preparation for this, and to inform debate in the remaining parliamentary stages of the Bill, the Department for Transport will shortly be publishing consultations covering:
draft guidance and regulations relating to quality partnership schemes and voluntary partnership agreements (to apply in England and, partly, in Wales); anddraft regulations needed to implement the new flexibilities for the community transport sector (to apply throughout Great Britain).The Office of Fair Trading will also shortly be consulting on joint guidance with the department, explaining how competition law applies in the bus market. This guidance will be relevant in England and Wales.
The draft guidance and regulations, and accompanying consultation papers, will be made available on the Department for Transport website, and copies will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Other consultations related to the implementation of the Bill are expected to be published later in the year.
Money: ATM Machines
Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Kitty Ussher) has made the following Written Statement.
Following the March 2005 Treasury Committee report on ATM (automatic teller machine) charging, the Treasury invited the chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, the right honourable John McFall, to chair a working group on ATMs to take forward work on key issues. The working group, which included banks, independent ATM operators and consumer groups, published its report on 13 December 2006.
The working group announced an agreement to provide around 600 new free cash machines across 1,707 target low-income areas that it identified as lacking convenient access to these machines. To achieve this, a market-based financial incentive—known as a financial inclusion premium—was introduced, to encourage ATM operators to place or retain free ATMs in deprived areas with a low expected volume of transactions. The working group also agreed to implement improved transparency rules for charging cash machines. Since publication of the working group report, LINK has assessed around 10 per cent of the identified low-income areas as unsuitable for an ATM location as there is no centre of population.
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The Government are pleased to report that the industry has, over the 18 months following publication of the working group's report, made excellent progress towards its goals of placing around 600 non-charging machines in low-income areas across the UK, with around 2 million individuals on low incomes standing to benefit.
As of 30 June 2008, sites for 562 of the 600 new ATMs required have been identified. Of these, 419 new free machines are already in use and issuing cash to the public. 74 per cent of these ATMs that are based in the target deprived areas receive the financial inclusion premium. Encouragingly, nine of these new cash machines have proved so popular that their level of withdrawals means that they have now graduated from the financial inclusion premium scheme.
Banks, building societies and independent ATM operators have all contributed new free-to-use cash machines; independent ATM operators have provided or are in the process of supplying around 35 per cent of the confirmed new non-charging ATMs. The UK ATM network, LINK, is continuing to work with its member banks and ATM operators to identify suitable sites in the remaining target areas, and is engaging closely in this exercise with Members of Parliament, local authorities, consumer councils and retailers.
The benefits in terms of financial inclusion are clear. Data from LINK suggest that the new ATMs currently in operation or under contract will enable almost 1.3 million residents in the target low-income areas to access cash more conveniently and manage their money more effectively.
In terms of improved transparency, operators of cash machines that charge users for withdrawals and that can upload screens remotely have met the end-June 2007 deadline to improve the on-screen standards of at-a-glance signage. This means that it is clear to a consumer when a charge is applied when withdrawing cash. Good progress was also made by operators in enhancing external signage by end December 2007.
The Government are encouraged by the substantial progress achieved, and would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those involved in extending free access to cash to those who need it the most.
Full details about progress made are available on the LINK internet website at: www.link.co.uk/atm/access_to_cash_progress/index.html.
I will be issuing a final Statement on the progress stemming from this initiative this December.
National Offender Management Service
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Jack Straw) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today publishing the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) agency framework document which sets out the Government’s vision for NOMS and how it will be governed as an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. Copies have been
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NOMS has the twin aims of protecting the public and reducing reoffending. It is responsible for commissioning and delivering adult offender management services both in custody and in the community in England and Wales. The agency is central to the Ministry of Justice’s work to deliver better outcomes for society, improve further the effectiveness of the criminal justice system, and take forward recommendations for streamlining management structures and reducing overhead costs following Lord Carter’s latest review of prisons.
National Probation Service: Chief Inspector
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Jack Straw) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am delighted to announce that the appointment of Andrew Bridges CBE as HM Chief Inspector of Probation for England and Wales has been extended until 31 March 2010. Mr Bridges’s expertise and knowledge will continue to play a key role in enabling the probation inspectorate to deliver a credible and effective inspection programme for the Probation Service and Youth Offending Teams.
National Statistics: Annual Report
Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The National Statistics annual report for 2007-08 is being published and laid before Parliament today. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House and can be accessed on the National Statistics website.
Planning Inspectorate: Annual Report
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Parmjit Dhanda) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
My right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Hazel Blears) is today laying before the House a copy of the Planning Inspectorate’s annual report and accounts for 2007-08.
The report gives an overview of the performance of the inspectorate and demonstrates the importance of a credible, accessible planning tribunal service which is open, transparent and impartial. It also highlights the ways in which the inspectorate is supporting the Government’s drive for a faster and fairer planning system.
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The report reveals that the planning inspectorate in England hit 25 per cent more of its key performance targets this year. In addition, it significantly reduced the backlog of its oldest cases. The inspectorate had also halved the waiting time for setting public inquiry dates for planning appeals to just 10 weeks by the end of the year.
In Wales the planning inspectorate has again performed to a high standard meeting all but one of its ministerial targets. The total number of planning appeal decisions has increased by nearly 4 per cent since 2006-07. My noble friend Lady Andrews has agreed with Jane Davidson AM, Minister for Environment Sustainability and Housing for the Welsh Assembly Government, that the inspectorate’s targets for its main areas of casework in 2008-09 should remain unchanged.
Copies of the report have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Regional Spatial Strategies
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Parmjit Dhanda) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is today publishing proposed changes to the draft revisions to the regional spatial strategy for the south-east (the south-east plan).
The regional spatial strategy forms part of the statutory development plan for every local authority in the south-east, and sets the framework for the production of local development frameworks and local transport plans. It provides the spatial plan for the development of the region, providing the policy framework for employment, housing, transport and the environment over the next 20 years.
The current strategy, initially published as Regional Planning Guidance 9, became the regional spatial strategy in September 2004 with the enactment of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act. A draft revision of the regional spatial strategy was submitted to Government in March 2006 by the South East England Regional Assembly. It was subsequently tested in an examination in public (EiP) between December 2006 and March 2007 and the report of the independent panel which conducted the examination was published in August 2007.
The Secretary of State has considered the recommendations of the independent panel and has taken into account the representations made on the draft revision and any recent changes in government policy.
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