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30 Apr 2009 : Column WS27



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Written Statements

Thursday 30 April 2009

Animal Procedures Committee: Appointments

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Identity, Mr. Shahid Malik, has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:

On behalf of the Home Secretary and the Minister for the Department of Health and Social Services and Public Safety for Northern Ireland, I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Hannah Buchanan-Smith, Mr Michael Dennis, Dr Ian Peers, Dr David Smith and Mrs Sarah Wolfensohn as members of the Animal Procedures Committee from 2 February 2009, each for a four-year term.

Professor Hannah Buchanan-Smith of the University of Stirling has considerable expertise and knowledge of primate behaviour and welfare. Professor Buchanan-Smith has also worked widely as a consultant to industry and researched, with the pharmaceutical industry, primate behaviour in laboratory environments.

Mr Michael Dennis, a microbiologist, of the Health Protection Agency has considerable experience in scientific procedures involving both rodents and primates, and including using Category 4 facilities (facilities that contain highly infectious human pathogens). Mr Dennis has also authored on the subject of care and management of laboratory animals.

Dr Ian Peers is a statistician with Astra Zeneca with experience of biostatistics and experimental design. Dr Peers has experience of working with a wide range of species (including fish and primates) and manages a global statistics resource.

Dr David Smith, a senior director for Astra Zeneca and president of the Laboratory Animal Science Association (LASA), has a thorough knowledge of industry practices, and excellent engagement with welfare interests and working across the spectrum of stakeholders in this field.

Mrs Sarah Wolfensohn, a veterinary practitioner with the University of Oxford, has a thorough working knowledge of the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, extensive experience of working with a wide range of species, in particular primates, but also including other regularly used laboratory animals and livestock, and has been involved in the design of animal facilities in the UK and overseas.

I welcome the contribution that each new member will bring to this important advisory committee.

Auction of Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Land

Statement

The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My right honourable friend the Minister of State at the

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Department of Energy and Climate Change (Mike O'Brien MP) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I should like to inform the House that the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has successfully concluded its auction process for the disposal of land adjacent to three existing nuclear sites at Bradwell in Essex, Oldbury in South Gloucestershire and Wylfa in Anglesey.

The successful bidders are:

Bow Bidco Wylfa Ltd (A consortium consisting of EON UK plc and RWE Npower plc) for the 178 hectares (438 acres) of land at Wylfa;Bow Bidco Oldbury Ltd (A consortium consisting of EON UK plc and RWE Npower plc) for the 48 hectares (119 acres) of land at Oldbury;EDF Development Company Ltd for the 200 hectares (493 acres) of land at Bradwell

The sale of these three sites is worth up to £387 million which the NDA will use to offset the cost of decommissioning and to further its core mission. The successful outcome of the auction demonstrates that major energy companies are gearing up for significant investment in low carbon energy in the UK.

Consolidated Fund

Statement

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Alistair Darling) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The sum of £1,555,162,313 was paid out of the Consolidated Fund on 30 March 2009 under Section 228(5) of the Banking Act 2009. The Treasury is satisfied that the need for this expenditure was too urgent to permit arrangements to be made for the provision of money by Parliament.

Cyprus: Call Out Order

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Bob Ainsworth) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

A new call-out order has been made under Section 56 of the Reserve Forces Act 1996 to enable members of the Reserve Forces to continue to be called out into permanent service and deployed to Cyprus as part of the UK’s contribution to the United Nations Forces in Cyprus (UNFICYP). The call-out order has effect until 30 April 2010.

Last year some 240 members of the TA, primarily from 32 Signals Regiment, were called out and deployed for six months in Cyprus as part of the UK’s contribution to UNFICYP.



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Defence Vetting Agency: Key Targets Financial Year 2009-2010

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Bob Ainsworth) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

Key Targets have been set for the chief executive of the Defence Vetting Agency for financial year 2009-10. These are provided below.

Key target 1: External validation of qualityTo achieve at least a 98 per cent satisfaction rating with 200 cases independently selected and reviewed from a random sample of security check (SC) and developed vetting (DV) cases completed in the preceding 12 month period.Key target 2: Delivering customer serviceTo maintain customer service excellence accreditation.Key target 3: Completing routine casesa. To complete 85 per cent of counterterrorist checks (CTC) within 30 calendar days. b. To complete 85 per cent of SCs within 30 calendar days.c. To complete 85 per cent of defence DVs within 100 calendar days. Key target 4: Completing priority casesa. To complete 90 per cent of CTCs within 10 calendar days.b. To complete 90 per cent of SCs within 10 calendar days.c. To complete 85 per cent of defence DVs within 30 calendar days.Key Target three and four represent net performance that excludes delays outside of DVA control. Key target 5: Completing aftercare casesa. All aftercare incident reports to be taken into action within seven calendar days of receipt.b. 80 per cent of scheduled aftercare to be taken into action within 30 calendar days of the due date.Key target 6: Improving efficiencyTo reduce the unit cost of output by 2 per cent.

Discretionary Social Fund

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, (Kitty Ussher) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

In order to offer further support to families on low incomes during the recession, the Chancellor’s Budget report on 22 April included the announcement that additional funding has been made available for Social Fund loans. In addition, to ensure that money is

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directed to those who are in the most need, the Secretary of State will be making changes to the discretionary Social Fund. The changes will take effect from 27 April 2009 for applications and awards made within the south-west region and from 8 June 2009 for the East Midlands region. This is because of the introduction of a requirement for third and subsequent living expense crisis loan applications to be usually completed at a face-to-face interview at a Jobcentre Plus local office. In addition, a customer will usually be limited to three non-aligned living expenses crisis loans within a 12-month rolling period. This will be where the first and subsequent awards are made within the south-west region on or after 27 April 2009 (8 June 2009 for the East Midlands region). Customers in these regions will be advised of the three non-aligned loan limit before taking out their first and second loans. Subsequent loans will still be available for customers who require assistance to meet living expenses:

A: as a consequence of a disasterB: in an emergency which — 1: is not a consequence of an act or omission for which the applicant or his partner is responsible, 2: the applicant or his partner could not have taken reasonable steps to avoid (as in guidance), regardless of the number of loans already taken out in a given year.

As part of the third and subsequent application interview, customers will be provided with a leaflet that gives customers local and national organisations that are available to provide money management advice. The leaflet has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

Health: Lord Bradley's Report

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My right honourable friend the Minister of State (David Hanson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 5 December 2007, my right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice announced that my right honourable and noble friend Lord Bradley, reporting jointly to the Department of Health and the Ministry of Justice, would carry out a review into the diversion of offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities away from prison into other more appropriate services.

The Government are very grateful to Lord Bradley for carrying out this review and to the many organisations and people who formed part of the consultation and contributed. The Government welcome the report and its analysis, identifying where further work or reforms are needed and setting out the case for change.

The Government recognise the need for reforms in this area and accept the direction set out in Lord Bradley’s report. In particular the Government will establish aHealth and Criminal Justice National Programme Board, bringing together the relevant departments covering health, social care and criminal justice, for children and adults. The board’s first priority will be to consider Lord Bradley’s recommendations in detail and to develop a national delivery plan by

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October 2009. The Government also accept Lord Bradley’s recommendation for a national advisory group to help ensure wider involvement from interested organisations. The Government would welcome comments on Lord Bradley’s recommendations and nature and constituency of the national advisory group by 31 May 2009.

Copies of Lord Bradley’s report have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and it is available at www.dh.gov.uk The Government’s response has also been placed in the Library and is available at www.justice.gov.uk The Government will make a further report to Parliament in October 2009.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health (Alan Johnson) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 17 March 2009 the Healthcare Commission, the independent health regulator, published its comprehensive report into the severe failings in emergency care provided by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005 and mid 2008. It was a catalogue of appalling management and failures at every level for which I apologised on behalf of the Government and the NHS in my Oral Statement to the House the next day.

I announced at the same time a range of measures, including two swift reviews into the circumstances at Mid Staffordshire to be led by Professor Sir George Alberti, National Clinical Director for Emergency Care, and Dr David Colin-Thomé, National Clinical Director for Primary Care.

Professor Alberti has looked at the hospital’s procedures for emergency admissions and treatment and its progress against the recommendations in the Healthcare Commission’s report. In addition, he looked at other related areas of work, including the quality of care issues highlighted in the report in relation to the medical admission wards 10, 11 and 12.

Dr Colin-Thomé looked into the circumstances surrounding the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust prior to the Healthcare Commission’s investigation to learn lessons about how the primary care trust and strategic health authority, within the commissioning and performance management systems that they operate, failed to expose what was happening in this hospital.

Those two reports were submitted me on 29 April and we are today placing copies in the Library together with the Government’s response.

The trust and the Government have accepted all of the recommendations of these reports.

The new health and social care regulator, the Care Quality Commission, will, together with Monitor and the PCT, take stock with the trust after three months. The CQC will do a follow-up review in six months. Monitor, the independent regulator for FTs, will hold monthly meetings with the trust to ensure it implements all of the recommendations.



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The NHS chief executiveDavid Nicholson will be writing to NHS organisations to bring these reports to their attention and asking them to ensure they implement all of the recommendations that are relevant to them. Monitor will be writing in similar terms to foundation trusts.

The Healthcare Commission report identified severe failings at Stafford Hospital. While much has been done to rectify these, the two reports indicate that work still needs to be done to ensure quality of care at the hospital reaches the highest standard. Swift and decisive action is being taken to ensure that is the case. Stafford Hospital was exceptional, not typical, but all those working in the NHS can learn from this experience so that such events do not occur again elsewhere.

Puma Review

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Bob Ainsworth) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am today placing in the Library of the House and on the MoD website a copy of two reports, The Puma ForceA Review of Contemporary Operating Issues, and the earlier report, A Strategic Review of the Puma Helicopter Force. These reports were undertaken by the Ministry of Defence as a prudent step following a number of Puma helicopter incidents in 2007. The reports are a comprehensive and honest examination of a wide range of issues, including Puma Force culture, training, flying and operational requirements, structure, leadership and management.

A Strategic Review of the Puma Helicopter Force was written for internal consumption and consequently contains sensitive information that we have needed to redact. I realise that this can make the document difficult to read and that is why The Puma ForceA Review of Contemporary Operating Issues was written and is also being published. This is an unclassified report, specifically designed to provide a clear narrative and allow the reader better to understand the context in which a series of incidents occurred and the actions taken and planned as a result. As a consequence of the latter, the Puma Force’s capability has been enhanced and the management of safety improved to minimise the risk of further accidents. Clearly, operational flying can never be risk free.

I would stress that there is no suggestion in the documents that the Puma is in any way unsafe to fly.

Regional Development Agencies: Board Appointments

Statement

The Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform & Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Davies of Abersoch): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Mr Pat McFadden) has made the following Statement.



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I am pleased to announce that I have decided to appoint two new business position RDA board members to the East of England Development Agency and the East Midlands Development Agency.

RDABoard member new appointees

East of England Development Agency

Dr Robert Swann

East Midlands Development Agency

Mr Michael Bryant

The appointments will start on 1 May 2009 and be for a period of two years and three months ending on 13 December 2011.

I am also pleased to announce that I have decided to reappoint fifteen existing RDA Board members who between them serve on seven of our Regional Development Agencies; listed below.

RDABoard member re-appointeesPeriod of Re-Appointment From 14 December 2009

Advantage West Midlands

Brendan Connor

3 years

East of England Development Agency

Peter McCarthy Ward

William Pope

Lord Edward Iveagh

3 years

3 years

3 years

East Midlands Development Agency

Tricia Pedlar

Haydn Biddle

3 years

3 years

ONENorthEast

Ruth Thompson

Paul Callaghan

Cllr Peter Jackson

3 years

3 years

3 years

South East England Development Agency

Alexander Pratt

Robert Goldfield

Pamela Charlwood

3 years

2 years

2 years

The South West of England Regional Development Agency

John Savage

3 years

Yorkshire Forward

Professor M Arthur

Cllr John Weighell

2 years

3 years


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