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Asked by Lord Greaves



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Baroness Andrews: Petitions are received, acknowledged, dealt with and responded to in the same way as other correspondence received by the department. A letter is also normally sent to the originator of the petition confirming receipt.

Asked by Lord Greaves

The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Davidson of Glen Clova): In 2007 the Scotland Office received one petition under the Private Legislation Procedure (Scotland) Act 1936. In accordance with the Act's General Orders, the petition was referred to the Examiner of Private Bills. There were no petitions under the Private Legislation Procedure Act (Scotland) 1936 in 2008. The Scotland Office does not record separately the number of other petitions received, and the numbers received in 2007 and in 2008 could only be ascertained at disproportionate cost.

Asked by Lord Greaves

Lord Davidson of Glen Clova: Procedures for dealing with petitions to the Secretary of State under the Private Legislation Procedure Act (Scotland) 1936 are set out in the General Orders under the Act. Other petitions received by the Scotland Office are processed in the same way as other items of correspondence. Subsequent correspondence would be with the person or organisation which organised the petition.

Asked by Lord Greaves

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government (Baroness Andrews): Our central correspondence IT system and website are not currently set up to record separately the number, text and responses to petitions. We will consider doing so as part of the design of a proposed replacement correspondence system.



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With regard to responding to the originator of petitions, it is the department's practice to respond to all letters unless a reply is specifically not requested. We would expect the reply to inform the petition organiser what steps the department has taken or proposes to take in response to the petition and its reasons for doing so. We do not record instances where letters are not sent.

We do not record centrally petitions which mention civil servants and have no plans to do so. Petitions mentioning civil servants will be dealt with like any other, with the exception that the department has a complaints procedure, concerning the department administrative practices or service delivery, to which members of the public are referred if they make a complaint or allegation. I have placed a copy of the procedure and guidance in the Library of the House.

Post Offices

Questions

Asked by Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform & Cabinet Office (Baroness Vadera): These are commercially confidential contractual matters for Post Office Ltd and Bank of Ireland.

Asked by Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay

Baroness Vadera: This is a commercially confidential contract and a matter for Post Office Ltd and Bank of Ireland.

Prisons: Extremism

Question

Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones



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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): There were no recommendations to counter religious extremism in this report.

The only recommendation relating to Muslim prisoners in chapter 9 (recommendations, housekeeping points and good practice) was:

9.8: Managers should explore the reasons for the alienation of many Muslim prisoners and take appropriate action. (HP5 1)

Belmarsh produced an action plan, including the following recommendations:

existing data will be analysed by religious registration and presented at the chaplaincy team meeting;MQPL (Measuring Quality of Prisoner Life) data and a report will be analysed to ascertain; differences by religion, and presented at the chaplaincy team meeting;prisoner forums to be used as part of the chaplaincy review to gauge attitudes and requirements of a cross section of chapel users. To be presented at the chaplaincy team meeting;Examine attitudes of Muslim prisoners in comparable situations (e.g. high security estate and London local prisons). To be presented at the chaplaincy team meeting;access research into attitudes of Muslims in the wider community. To be presented at the chaplaincy team meeting; andregular prisoner consultation groups will continue. Cross-functional work involving Imams to be enhanced. Advice of psychology team to be sought.

The establishment action plan was produced by functional heads and agreed with the governor and then approved by the director of high security.

Public Bodies

Question

Asked by Lord Selsdon

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform & Cabinet Office (Baroness Vadera): There are no Members of the House of Lords currently appointed to the Export Guarantees Advisory Council.

Public Houses

Questions

Asked by Lord Hanningfield



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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Communications, Technology and Broadcasting (Lord Carter of Barnes): The Government have no mechanisms in place for recording the number of public house closures, as premises licences are not confined to one type of premises or licensable activity, and may be granted for any premises (e.g. pubs, nightclubs, hotels and theatres) which choose to sell alcohol, provide regulated entertainment or supply late night refreshment, singularly or in any combination. However, since the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003, DCMS has collected statistics on an annual basis by financial year from licensing authorities on premises licences which lapsed, were surrendered or suspended.

Asked by Lord Hanningfield

Lord Carter of Barnes: The department does not hold the information in the format requested, but can provide information on the number of premises licences which were surrendered, lapsed or suspended since April 2006. Some of these may relate to premises which are not authorised to sell or supply alcohol, because under the Licensing Act 2003 premises licences and club premises certificates are not confined to authorising the sale or supply of alcohol; they can also provide regulated entertainment and/or late night refreshment.

Since the implementation of the Act, DCMS has been collecting alcohol, entertainment and late-night refreshment statistics on an annual basis by financial year from licensing authorities. During the period April 2006 to March 2007, 2,630 premises licences were surrendered, 232 lapsed and 70 were suspended, based on returns from around 76 per cent of licensing authorities. For the same period, 210 club premises certificates were surrendered, two lapsed and 13 were withdrawn.

The April 2007 to March 2008 bulletin reported 3,786 premises licences were surrendered, 423 lapsed, 18 were suspended by a court, and 44 were subject to a closure notice (based on returns from around 93 per cent of licensing authorities). For the same period, 255 club premises licences were surrendered, seven lapsed and 13 were withdrawn.

Rural Payments Agency

Question

Asked by Lord Marlesford



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The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The RPA has had the following financial corrections applied by the European Commission over the past five financial years:

2008-09—£140.475 million;

2007-08—£22.154 million;

2006-07—£3.049 million;

2005-06—£22.608 million; and

2004-05—£12.170 million.

It is not possible to provide a detailed list as requested because it would incur disproportionate costs, but in summary:

payments are deducted from subsequent claim reimbursements, two months after the correction decision is formally published, but with the exception of late payment penalties, which are deducted at the time of the claim being submitted. In this case the correction decision is retrospective;the largest reductions have been approximately £60 million for the failure to meet payment deadlines on SPS 2005 claims and approximately £55 million for the inaccurate determination of the area eligible for payments under the arable area payment scheme (AAPS) in 2004 and 2005; andthey have been financed via a separate ring-fenced budget.

Safeguarding Children and Development Unit (Project Violet)

Question

Asked by Baroness Warsi

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Home Office has not provided any financial or human resources to the Safeguarding Children and Development Unit. This unit is part of the Metropolitan Police Service and was initiated in 2005 as a response to public and community concern about the abuse linked to belief in spiritual possession.

The team was instigated to identify prevention opportunities for certain types of child abuse and actively engaged with the Congolese community delivering training, implementing safeguards and establishing networking infrastructures to help eradicate the practice. With the knowledge gained via Project Violet, the partnership team also advises on investigations and, where able, offers practical support such as attending strategy meetings and identifying expert witnesses on cultural practises for court purposes.

Project Violet has now moved to a reactive phase and provides specialist advice to all police services.



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Wales: Drug and Alcohol Crime

Question

Asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): Data collected centrally on recorded crime do not identify whether offences are drug- or alcohol-related. The recorded crime statistics do include data for specific drug offences recorded by the police in Wales, and these are given in the table for the past three financial years. Data for 2008-09 are not yet available.

Drug offences recorded by the police in Wales, 2005-06 to 2007-08
Number of offences
Offence2005-062006-072007-08

Trafficking in controlled drugs

1,285

1,354

1,623

Possession of controlled drugs (cannabis)

5,962

6,445

7,677

Possession of controlled drugs (excluding cannabis)

2,223

2,707

3,381

Other drug offences

28

22

19

Total

9,498

10,528

12,700

Wales: Muggings and Burglaries

Question

Asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The available information comes from the police recorded crime statistics. Mugging

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is a popular rather than a legal term and it comprises robbery, attempted robbery and snatch theft from the person. Police recorded crime does not separately record the small category of snatch theft.


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