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24 Feb 2009 : Column 97

House of Lords

Tuesday, 24 February 2009.

2.30 pm

Prayers—read by the Lord Bishop of Chichester.

Benefits: Winter Fuel Allowance

Question

2.35 pm

Asked By Baroness Wilcox

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My Lords, winter fuel payments are paid to people aged 60 and over to help to mitigate the effects of cold weather during the winter months. There are no plans to alter the eligibility criteria for winter fuel payments this winter. This year, the winter fuel payment is £250 for households with someone aged between 60 and 79, and £400 for households with someone aged 80 and over.

Baroness Wilcox: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for that Answer but, given the National Audit Office’s scathing report on the failure of the Government’s Warm Front programme to reach the poorest and most vulnerable of our people, I wonder whether he might like to look at this again. When are the Government really going to get it right on fuel poverty?

Lord McKenzie of Luton: My Lords, fuel poverty is a significant issue for the Government. We are committed to tackling it and have already put in place a number of measures to help those vulnerable to it. Since 2000, the Government have spent £20 billion on benefits and programmes to help those vulnerable to fuel poverty. In addition to this help, in September 2008 the Government announced an extra £1 billion package to tackle fuel poverty; the proposed new package includes £910 million towards the national home energy saving programme.

Baroness Thomas of Winchester: My Lords, will the Government consider extending the eligibility of this scheme to those in receipt of the higher rate mobility component of the disability living allowance who are under 60? I declare an interest in that I receive the DLA, although unfortunately I am not under 60. There is a limit to the number of woolly jumpers that people can wear when the weather gets very cold and they have very limited mobility.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: My Lords, as I explained, we have no plans to extend eligibility. We believe that the right way to support people who are disabled is

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through disability benefits, in particular the disability living allowance. At the moment, somebody on the highest rate of care component and the higher rate of mobility component would receive a benefit of something in excess of £113 per week. We believe that that is the right way. I should add that people who are disabled do not necessarily suffer the consequences of fluctuating weather conditions. For example, someone who is profoundly deaf will not necessarily have an extra need for support with their heating, compared with others.

Lord Tomlinson: My Lords, does my noble friend agree with me that the Government have done their share towards combating fuel poverty and it is about time that some of the utility companies accepted their responsibility? Although energy prices have been falling, that has not been reflected in consumer prices at anything like the speed that the increases were when energy prices started rising.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: My Lords, my noble friend is right that the energy companies need to do more, which is why the Government are engaged with them, particularly on data sharing, so that their efforts can be targeted on the most vulnerable. My noble friend is also right about energy prices. Domestic gas prices rose by 51 per cent in the year to September 2008 and domestic electricity prices rose by 31 per cent. While wholesale forward prices for gas and electricity have fallen by something like 40 per cent, that has not yet fed through into cuts to retail consumers, although some of the energy companies have at last announced some decreases.

Baroness O'Cathain: My Lords, is the Minister aware that the energy companies, particularly the gas and electricity suppliers to householders, are bombarding customers with various bits of literature? First, they have a self-read scheme, then they write and say that they do not have one and are going to do X, Y and Z instead. The documents are all in small type with lots of words and they go straight into the rubbish basket. What is Ofgem doing about making the companies more consumer friendly and making people who suffer from fuel poverty aware of what they can do and what they can get? I see that the noble Lord sitting beside the Minister is nodding in agreement.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: My Lords, the noble Baroness raises a relevant point, on which my noble friend was whispering in my ear. We are continuing to engage on the issue to make sure that the messages from the energy companies are clear and, importantly, targeted on the most vulnerable in particular.

Lord O'Neill of Clackmannan: My Lords, does my noble friend recognise that the fuel poverty lobby, of which I am happy to be an office bearer, both in Scotland and in the rest of the UK, has been advocating a gold standard for the relief of the poorest consumers? At the moment, we are allowing a free market in poverty subsidy rather than properly addressing the issue. The Government really have to grasp the legislative

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nettle and create a gold standard for fuel poverty assistance for the poorest consumers. We cannot allow the matter to be left to companies, which often fail to meet the undertakings that they have given to the Government because there is a lack of definition in what is required. The Government should show leadership on the issue.

Lord McKenzie of Luton: My Lords, I believe that we are showing leadership on the issue. We are continuing to engage with the energy companies. In the Pensions Act last year, we legislated on data sharing, which is an important component of making sure that we can share data on the most vulnerable so that the energy companies can play their part. As for what the Government are doing to play their part, in winter 2007-08 we made more than 12 million payments to more than 8.5 million households. In total, something like £2 billion was spent on winter fuel payments over the winter.

Lord Skelmersdale: My Lords, the winter fuel allowance is not the only way of combating fuel poverty. There are also cold weather payments to certain recipients of benefit. As these depend on weather stations and their hinterland, is the Minister satisfied that the stations are in the right places?

Lord McKenzie of Luton: My Lords, the noble Lord is quite right to say that cold weather payments are part of the support that is available. The Government have increased the allowance from £8.50 to £25 over the post-Christmas period. The Met Office advises that the network of 76 weather stations is sufficient to provide national coverage with a reasonable level of local sensitivity. Three main factors are taken into account in recommending links between postcodes and weather stations: the proximity of the station to the main centres of population; whether the weather station is reasonably representative of the local climatic conditions; and the speed and reliability with which information about temperatures can be obtained. These are reviewed on a routine basis and any representations made are taken into account. The noble Lord may be interested to know that, of the 76 stations, 61 have triggered cold weather payments during the current season. There has been a total of 156 triggers, rising from just one per area to as many as six.

Statute Law Database

Question

2.44 pm

Asked By Lord Low of Dalston

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My Lords, the statute law database is being updated in accordance with a priority list reflecting both specific requests and hits on legislation via the Office of Public Sector Information and statute

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law database websites. Those Acts likely to be affected by the equality Bill are unlikely to be up-to-date when the Bill is introduced. However, consolidated versions of the relevant legislation can be found on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website free of charge. The Library also has access to commercial databases.

Lord Low of Dalston: My Lords, perhaps the Minister would take this as a request in relation to the equality legislation and the statute law database. I thank him for his reply. In the light of the reported views of the Secretary of State for Business, can he confirm the commitment given in the discrimination law review that future equality legislation should involve no loss of protection for groups covered by equality legislation and should, indeed, enhance it where appropriate?

Lord Bach: My Lords, I thank the noble Lord. The way to get the statute law database up to date on this more quickly is for him and others to use the website so that priority is gained. I point out to the House the huge progress that has been made under successive Governments to enable online access to legislation, which has been free to all users since December 2006. On the noble Lord’s other point, on the proposed equality Bill, I can confirm what he said.

Lord Morris of Manchester: My Lords, can my noble friend say when the Bill will be published and whether there will be an easy-read version for the benefit of people with learning disabilities?

Lord Bach: My Lords, there will be an easy-read version of the legislation. I cannot give a date for when it will be published, but my understanding is that it is likely to be in the spring.

Lord Lester of Herne Hill: My Lords, does the Minister agree that it is in the best interests of employers, trade unions, business enterprises and ordinary men and women that we should replace the present opaque, lumpish morass of anti-discrimination legislation with a single equality Act that is user-friendly? Does he also agree that we need to devise a scheme whereby employers and trade unions are rewarded, if there is a proper job evaluation scheme, with some transitional protection to enable equal pay to be brought about at last, all these years after the 1970 Act?

Lord Bach: My Lords, we agree absolutely with what the noble Lord says about the need to change the morass that there has been in this field over a number of years. That is one of the main reasons for the Bill. On his second question, we are very much taking his expert views into consideration.

Lord Elton: My Lords, when a statute is on the database and up to date, and it is amended by order or some other means, I gather that there is a considerable time lapse before the amendment is made. Would it be possible to flag the version on the database so that people know that they have to look for other information?



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Lord Bach: Yes, indeed, my Lords. There can be a time lag. Making sure that legislation is on the database in the best possible way is still a huge enterprise that we are involved in. A user can find out whether there are outstanding effects to be applied via a warning notice that appears—I have seen one myself this morning—on the “results within legislation” page, listing the years from which there are outstanding effects on that legislation. Users may then link through to the “tables of legislative effects” page, recording all outstanding effects for each of the years from 2002 to the present. It is actually much easier to do that than the way in which I describe it.

Lord Lloyd of Berwick: My Lords, would it not be easier to keep the statute database up to date if we had less legislation?

Lord Bach: My Lords, that is, by its nature, absolutely true.

Lord Patel: My Lords, does the Minister agree that the equality Bill, as it applies to employment, should not discriminate against a person on a genetic basis?

Lord Bach: My Lords, I have to be careful that the noble Lord does not lead me down lanes of which I know little. His views and the expert views of the noble Lord, Lord Lester, will be considered. The Bill will be introduced soon.

Economy: Arts and Culture

Question

2.50 pm

Asked By Lord Harrison

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the arts and culture sector has an important contribution to make towards economic recovery. The past 10 years have seen sustained government investment in culture and our cultural institutions have succeeded in attracting new audiences, often to new publicly-funded facilities. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is working closely with its sponsored bodies to help the cultural sector continue to function effectively and manage the risks which the present economic situation presents.

Lord Harrison: My Lords, given the recent critical success of the British film, TV and music industries and the enduring contribution made by our theatres, museums and art galleries to the vital tourism and leisure industries, will my noble friend study the art aspects of the economic recovery programmes of President Obama and, indeed, of President Roosevelt? Will he invest in the arts to create more jobs, increase consumer spending and cheer us up a bit?



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Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, we certainly all take pride in recent successes, including the Oscar-winning British film, “Slumdog Millionaire”. Investment in the cultural industries produces rich pay-offs for the economy. We have seen significant investment in recent years, which shows itself in increased attendance at events throughout the United Kingdom, and in increased tourism, not necessarily in increased numbers of tourists—we all recognise the difficulties there—but in expenditure, which was up last year.

Lord Roberts of Conwy: My Lords, have the Government any estimate of the percentage contributed by arts and culture to our gross domestic product?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, as the noble Lord will readily appreciate, that is a difficult analysis but the percentage is certainly growing given our flourishing arts and culture in the United Kingdom and the great increase in attendance. Theatre attendance has increased not just in the London West End but right across the United Kingdom and the BBC is the biggest exporter of television services in the world. There is no doubt about the significance of this sector to the economy.

Lord Clement-Jones: My Lords, we can all take pride in the successes of our creative industries, not least this week with the Oscars and London Fashion Week. However, before the Government get too self-congratulatory, perhaps the Minister can explain why the Home Office does not appear to share his and the DCMS’s enthusiasm for the creative industries. He will no doubt be aware of the outcry over the new, heavier visa restrictions on non-EU artists visiting this country for performances and exhibitions. Will he and the DCMS champion those artists and ensure that the Home Office changes those regulations?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, I never thought that the noble Lord would accuse me of being self-congratulatory on behalf of the Government but rather of purely producing accurate facts about government performance. He has highlighted an important issue with regard to immigration into this country and to people entering the country. I do not underestimate that aspect but the Question is about the contribution to the economy as a whole. The noble Lord will recognise that the issue he raises is relatively marginal in those terms.

Lord Sheldon: My Lords, the arts and culture sector has had outstanding people who have contributed to this important development. Is it not important that the financial help that has been given is continued and, in certain circumstances, increased in order to retain the high standards that we have so far achieved and which we must continue?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right. He has been a supporter of this strategy over the period in which the Government have invested heavily in culture and the arts—right from the very beginning of our determination to end

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charges for access to British museums, which year on year has meant an increase in attendance. I can respond positively to my noble friend and thank him for his contribution on these issues.

Lord Brooke of Sutton Mandeville: My Lords, does the Minister accept that apart from economic considerations the greatest contribution the Government can make is to enhance the morale of artists, performers, administrators and audiences by accentuating the positive and by not being defensive?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord because he has also been a great supporter of the arts and culture as well as being a distinguished former Secretary of State. Of course these are difficult economic times and it is right that the question of the extent to which the creative industries can contribute to the economy should be addressed. I accept his point that the arts and culture sector should be valued in its own right as well as for the contribution that it makes to the economy.

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall: My Lords, without disagreeing in any sense with my noble friend’s point about the value of the arts for their own sake, is he aware that one of the highest grossing movies of all time, “Mamma Mia!” was directed by a British director, Phyllida Lloyd and written by a British writer, Catherine Johnson, whose careers both started in the subsidised theatre in this country? The film grew out of a very successful British theatre musical. Does my noble friend accept that that small investment at the early stage in the careers of artists and institutions can produce a significant economic return in the long run?

Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the House recognises my noble friend’s contribution to the arts. I thought last week that I would be citing “Mamma Mia!” in terms of the achievement of British films. I move to “Slumdog Millionaire” after eight Oscars. I am grateful to my noble friend for referring to “Mamma Mia!”, which is one of our more successful developments.

Lord Roberts of Llandudno: My Lords, I declare an interest as vice president of the Llangollen international music festival. I follow the question of my noble friend Lord Clement-Jones on our worry about new immigration rules and the effect on choirs of children from overseas competing in the UK. How will those problems be overcome so that children will still be able to come not only to Llangollen but to other festivals?

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