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4 Dec 2008 : Column WS1
Written Statements
Thursday 4 December 2008
Airports: Heathrow
Statement
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Adonis): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Geoff Hoon) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
The 2003 White Paper The Future of Air Transport made clear that given the economic benefits to the United Kingdom, the Government support the further development of Heathrow by adding a third runway and exploring the scope for making greater use of the existing runways, subject to meeting strict local conditions on air quality, noise and improving public transport access.
The then Secretary of State, my right honourable friend the Member for Bolton West, made a Statement to the House on 8 July 2008 (col. 75WS) which explained progress following the Adding Capacity at Heathrow Airport consultation, which closed on 27 February 2008. She announced a further consultative exercise as part of delivering a full equalities impact assessment and the intention to inform the House of the decision on the future development of Heathrow before the end of the year. The further consultative exercise closed on 9 November 2008.
Since being appointed Secretary of State for Transport in October, I have had the opportunity to hear views from across the House in debate on 5 November and to begin considering the evidence, including the 70,000 responses to the consultation.
I share the desire on all sides of the House and among the wider public for this issue to be resolved. I am equally aware of the importance of reaching the right conclusion.
I know that there are strong views across a range of interests. I will ensure that I give proper consideration to the evidence before me and will therefore take more time before making an announcement to the House, in January 2009.
Armed Forces: Pay Review Body
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (John Hutton) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am pleased to announce that I have appointed John Steele, Mary Carter and the Very Reverend Graham Forbes as members of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body, each for a three-year term of office commencing on 1 March 2009. These appointments have been conducted in accordance with the guidance of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.
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Benefits: Conditionality Review
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Purnell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On Tuesday 2 December I received Professor Paul Gregg’s report on the effectiveness of the conditionality requirements that are currently applied to working age benefit claimants. This report, Realising Potential: A Vision for Personalised Conditionality and Support, was commissioned by my department earlier this year.
The report is wide-ranging and ambitious and looks at the effectiveness of welfare reform and how more unemployed people, lone parents and people with a health condition or disability can access personalised help and be supported back to work. Whilst the economic backdrop to the review is challenging it remains crucial to consider, debate and put in place further reforms to the welfare state to ensure we help as many disadvantaged people as possible to find work.
The report assesses the effectiveness of the current requirements that apply to the unemployed and to other groups. Evidence suggests that the requirements that apply to the unemployed on jobseeker’s allowance have been highly effective over the past decade. The work-focused interview regime that applies to other claimants has also had some success, but primarily for those closest to the labour market.
However the report recognises that the number of people getting support is still low compared to the number who actually want to get back to work. This means that many of the most vulnerable people are not accessing help that evidence tells us is effective. This denies the wider financial, health and well-being gains that come from working.
The report makes important recommendations around how to address the weaknesses that remain within the current benefit system to ensure more people can access support and get back to work. It suggests that almost everyone claiming benefits and not in work should:
be required to engage in activity that will help them to move towards, and then into, employment; have an empowered personal adviser with whom they will be able to agree a route back to work; be obliged to agree an action plan on the steps they agree with their adviser will help them; have a clear understanding of the expectations placed upon them (and why) and what the consequences for failing to meet these are; and be able to access a wide range of personal support on the basis of need not benefit label.The report makes clear that the department should not seek to realise this vision by expecting lone parents with younger children and people with a health condition or disability to be treated as though they were unemployed and be made to look for suitable jobs. This would be counter-productive, unreasonable and punitive. Rather the report recommends the creation of an entirely new
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The report also identifies some groups of people who should face no conditionality requirements whatsoever. These groups are lone parents and partners with very young children, carers with the most significant caring responsibilities and people with the most severe health conditions.
To realise this vision the report suggests that the right support needs to be made available, based on need rather than what benefit people are on. We also need to make sure those who deliver employment support, whether in Jobcentre Plus or the private and voluntary sector, have the right incentives to deliver the right support at the right time.
The department warmly welcomes the report; it will consider Professor Gregg’s findings very carefully and respond shortly.
Copies of Realising Potential: A Vision for Personalised Conditionality and Support have been placed in the Library of the House.
Devolution: Commission on Scottish Devolution
Statement
The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Davidson of Glen Clova): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On behalf of the Government I welcome the publication on 2 December of the first report from the Commission on Scottish Devolution.
The commission was set up by the Scottish Parliament and is fully supported by the UK Government. The commission’s mandate is,
- “to review the provisions of the Scotland Act 1998 in the light of experience and to recommend any changes to the present constitutional arrangements that would enable the Scottish Parliament to serve the people of Scotland better, improve the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament, and continue to secure the position of Scotland within the United Kingdom”.
Publication of this first report demonstrates the wide-ranging engagement the commission has undertaken across Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.
The Government will consider this first report in detail. We look forward to providing additional evidence to the commission and to receipt of its final recommendations in due course.
I have arranged for copies of the first report to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
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Corporation Tax Bill
Statement
The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My right honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Stephen Timms) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am pleased to tell the House that today we are introducing the Corporation Tax Bill. This is the tax law rewrite project's fifth Bill and is the first of two which will rewrite substantially the whole of the legislation relating to corporation tax. This Bill maintains the tax law rewrite project's high standards in making tax legislation significantly easier to use. This would not have been possible without the expertise, time and commitment of all those involved in commenting on the provisions during consultation and I would like to thank them and the members of the tax law rewrite project's steering and consultative committees for their invaluable help in making the project's work such a success.
The Bill was published in draft on 22 February 2008 for consultation and a response document reporting on the outcome of that consultation was published on 22 August this year.
The Bill rewrites the charge to corporation tax and the main provisions used by companies in computing their income. Its scope was agreed with the project's consultative and steering committees, which together include the main representative bodies and other users, and I am pleased for the wide support it has among the tax community. Like all previous Bills prepared by the project, it rewrites the law without changing its general effect. All the provisions have benefited from detailed consultation and the drafting style and structure are in line with that of the previous rewrite Bills.
Crime: Magee Review
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department (Jacqui Smith) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The House will wish to know that we have today published the Government’s response to Sir Ian Magee’s independent review of criminality information.
As I have said previously, we are grateful for the work that Sir Ian has done on the review and our response accepts the rationale behind all of his recommendations. These and the actions highlighted in our response encourage the better use, sharing and management of criminality information so that we can continue to reduce the risk of harm to the public whilst ensuring that information is held securely and shared only where it is lawful and proportionate to do so.
My introduction to the response is also the Government’s statement of intent on the improved management of criminality information and its use to
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We are building on these achievements and have begun a programme of work to take forward Sir Ian’s recommendations. This will often not involve doing new things, but instead means factoring the principles of the review into existing or planned pieces of work that we are already committed to delivering; for example, work to support the deportation of EEA nationals in appropriate circumstances and the developing identity management strategy.
Everyone in the public protection network needs to recognise how their jobs contribute to protecting the public and they need to be provided with the training and resources necessary so that they can properly make their vital risk-based decisions relevant to public protection.
This is not just about solving yesterday’s and today’s problems; it is also about trying to make sure that similar issues do not arise in the future. This will require long-term change to how public protection network organisations operate and more work across organisational boundaries.
This will take time, but we have also set ourselves clear short-term milestones. We are already establishing robust ministerial governance structures and will appoint an independent advisor to ensure we maintain momentum. By the end of January 2009 we will agree a strategic direction for criminality information management and will provide new guidance on managing risks across the whole public protection network by April. We aim to implement a number of steps to improve our business processes by the middle of next year, and by September staff training on managing criminality information will be enhanced.
This will take us some considerable way to meeting our key objective, which is to provide frontline public protection network staff with the information they need, in the format that they need, at the time that they need it so that they can protect the public. Our response to Sir Ian’s review is an important aspect of meeting that challenge.
Copies of the documents have been placed in the Vote Office.
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Crossrail
Statement
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Adonis): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Geoff Hoon) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
On 26 November 2007, my predecessor issued a Written Ministerial Statement (Official Report, House of Lords, col. WS 133-34) announcing that the heads of terms for Crossrail had been agreed between the Department for Transport and Transport for London.
The heads of terms outlined the financial and governance arrangements to be put in place to secure the effective completion of the Crossrail project. Copies of the heads of terms were deposited in the House Library on 26 November 2007. They have now been developed into a comprehensive suite of agreements which will ensure a robust governance structure to enable the project to be delivered on time and on budget.
The principal agreements of these are the Crossrail sponsors’ agreement (setting out arrangements between my department and Transport for London for the funding and governance of the Crossrail Project), and the project development agreement (setting out the relationship between the Department for Transport and Transport for London as joint sponsors and Cross London Rail Links, the Project Delivery Body). I am today placing in the House Library a copy of both agreements.
With the signing of these agreements, the project can proceed to its next phase of development, and the next milestone will be in late 2009. I intend to return to Parliament to offer an update on progress as appropriate, in particular after the conclusion of my department’s and Transport for London’s joint review of services which are to transfer from existing franchises to Transport for London’s control.
On 4 November, I laid before Parliament a Minute which set out the contingent liabilities that I, as the Secretary of State for Transport, will be entering into on the signature of these agreements.
The completion of these agreements marks the passing of another key milestone in the project, with main construction beginning in 2010 and the first services running in 2017.
Department for Work and Pensions: Winter Supplementary Estimate
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Purnell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department for Work and Pensions departmental expenditure limit will increase
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Within the departmental expenditure limit change, the impact on resource and capital is as set out in the following table:
| Change £k | New Departmental Expenditure Limit £k | |||||
| Voted | Non-voted | Total | Voted | Non-voted | Total | |
- 1 Depreciation, which forms part of resource departmental expenditure limit, is excluded from the total departmental expenditure limit since the capital departmental expenditure limit includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.
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