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Baroness Morgan of Drefelin: The vast majority of looked after children do not commit offences. However, we recognise that as a group they are more likely to be subject to a final reprimand or warning or convicted of a crime than other children. To support local authorities to prevent looked after children becoming involved in crime, in 2005 the Government funded the
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To meet the commitments set out in the Care Matters White Paper and the Children and Young Persons Act 2008 we will be revising guidance to local authorities about how they must carry out their responsibilities towards looked after children. This revised guidance will include information about how we would expect looked after children to be supported and cared for to prevent them getting involved in offending, or, where they have committed offences, to minimise any further reoffending.
Gaza
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to assist the United Nations Secretary-General in seeking a positive response from Israel on the latest Gaza war crimes report. [HL3436]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): On 5 May, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon circulated a summary report of the UN Board of Inquiry (BoI) set up to investigate nine specific incidents involving UN property during the recent Gaza conflict.
We are deeply concerned by the findings of the board and believe that the inviolability of UN installations should be respected.
As we have said, we take seriously all allegations of breaches of international humanitarian law and have consistently stated that they should be properly investigated.
There are still some aspects of Israeli investigations being carried out. Once the outcomes of this and other investigations are clear we will consider the results carefully and assess whether further action is necessary.
Government Departments: Bottled Water
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills or its predecessors spent on bottled water in each of the past five years. [HL3525]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Lord Young of Norwood Green): Water at the department's offices is provided through the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the
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Neither of these organisations holds separate records of the bottled water supplied to DIUS, so the information requested is not available.
DIUS was a new department when it was created in June 2007. Records relating to the former Department of Trade and Industry and Department for Education and Skills are held by BERR and DCSF respectively.
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much the Department for Children, Schools and Families or its predecessors spent on bottled water in each of the past five years. [HL3563]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) was created as a result of the Machinery of Government changes in June 2007. Prior to June 2007, it was Department for Education and Skills (DfES). The spend figures are from bottled water made via the department's contract with Nestle Waters Powwow (NWP) in the past five years was:
The spend figures since June 2007 also include a portion of spend for Department for Universities and Skills DIUS (former DfES staff only). To separate this data would involve disproportionate cost.
The department's contract with NWP finished in November 2008.
Expenditure, including that on hospitality, has to be incurred in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity & Propriety.
Government Departments: Staff Absence
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the rates of staff (a) absence, and (b) sickness absence, were at (1) the Department for Transport, and (2) each of its agencies and non-departmental public bodies, in each of the past three years; and what the targets for the department were in each case.[HL3284]
The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Adonis): The information requested for absence (a) can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Sickness absence is monitored by the central department and its agencies on a monthly basis. All figures are shown in average working days lost (AWDL) over the period of the calendar year:
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| 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2010-11 Cabinet Office Target | |
- * Internal Target. The only Cabinet Office target is 7.5 days AWDL for the entire department. Individual targets have been set internally across the central department and the agencies to help us reach this overall departmental target.
The figures to 2006 have been previously published in the National Audit Office Report: The management of staff sickness absence in the Department for Transport and its agencies. The figures are based on an agreed departmental reporting methodology. Figures for 2007 onwards are in accordance with the Cabinet Office reporting methodology introduced for all government departments.
Government Departments: Websites
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many departments outsource their websites; and what plans there are to bring them in-house when current contracts expire. [HL3078]
Lord Patel of Bradford: Most department websites and the main government website for citizens, direct.gov.uk, are run largely by internal teams that take responsibility for the content and overall management, although technical delivery and hosting is usually outsourced. NHS Choices and businesslink.gov.uk are outsourced, with management of the contracts by the Department for Health and HMRC respectively. The COI website's guidance on costs of websites, applicable from April 2009, contains a detailed list of the components in running websites (appendix B) and departments are free to organise themselves in what they consider to be the most effective and efficient way. No central record is currently available.
Guantanamo Bay
Question
Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total cost of transport by air and car, including accompanying officials, involved in returning the following former detainees from Guantanamo Bay to the United Kingdom: (a) Omar Deghayes, (b) Binyam Mohamed, (c) Jamal Abdullah Kiyemba, (d) Bisher al-Rawi, (e) Jamil al-Banna, and (f) Abdenour Sameur. [HL3041]
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The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): All operations for returning UK residents from Guantanamo Bay involved officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and from our embassy in Washington, accompanied by officers of the Metropolitan Police Service to ensure the security of the flight and to comply with police procedures during the return. In all cases military or private charters were necessary both to ensure security and because no other flight were available from Guantanamo Bay to the UK.
Omar Deghayes, Jamil al-Banna and Abdenour Sameur were returned to the UK in December 2007. The total cost of the transport by air and car, including accompanying officials, was £163,129. This includes cost of the charter flight (£136,613) and other travel costs, including scheduled flights from the UK to the US for 16 accompanying police officers and officials.
Binyam Mohamed was returned to the UK in February 2009. The total cost of transport by air and car, including accompanying officials, was £121,269. This includes cost of the charter flight (£105,695) and other travel costs, including scheduled flights from the UK to the US for nine accompanying police officers and officials.
Bisher al-Rawi was returned to the UK in April 2007. The total cost of the transport by air and car, including accompanying officials, was £92,079. This includes cost of the charter flight (£76,079) and other travel costs, including scheduled flights from the UK to the US for eight accompanying police officers and officials.
Jamal Abdullah Kiyemba was not returned from Guantanamo Bay to the UK. Mr Kiyemba is a Ugandan national who was transferred to his country of nationality in February 2006.
Guantanamo Bay: Binyam Mohamed
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total cost, exclusive of travel bills, for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials and police officers who had responsibility to collect Mr Binyam Mohamed in Guantanamo Bay and accompany him back to the United Kingdom. [HL3019]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): An official from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and from our embassy in Washington took part in Mr Mohamed’s return to the UK. They were accompanied by a Metropolitan Police Service doctor and seven police officers to ensure the security of the flight and to comply with police procedures during the return.
The total cost, exclusive of travel bills, for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials and police officers who had responsibility to collect Binyam Mohamed in Guantanamo Bay and accompany him back to the United Kingdom was £3,709. This figure includes costs incurred for accommodation and subsistence for the two Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials,
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Health: Fragility Fractures
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking to ensure that recurrent fragility fractures are prevented, in light of the recommendations of the National Audit of the Organisation of Services for Falls and Bone Health of Older People, published by the Royal College of Physicians on 25 March. [HL3495]
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the strategic health authorities with regard to primary care trusts commissioning arrangements for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of fragility fractures and osteoporosis. [HL3496]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The forthcoming prevention package for older people will include a focus on best practice for commissioning falls prevention and care for people with fractures. This will support local organisations to improve falls and fractures services.
Our regional implementation strategy will support the implementation of the department's forthcoming commissioning framework on falls and fracture but it is for local commissioners to ensure that services are in place locally.
The department will continue to work closely with local stakeholders and other partners to plan our regional support activities in each of the strategic health authority regions to support improvements in falls and osteoporosis services for commissioners.
Health: Haemophilia
Question
Asked by Lord Morris of Manchester
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Chief Medical Officer at the Department of Health has revised his description of any risk to haemophilia patients of contracting variant CJD from blood given from donors who have subsequently died of vCJD as being "hypothetical", in light of a recent post-mortem having found vCJD in the spleen of one such patient; and how many patients have received blood from donors who have subsequently died of vCJD. [HL3312]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The department and the Health Protection Agency acknowledged in 2004 the possibility that all patients with bleeding disorders who had been treated with United Kingdom-sourced pooled plasma products
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To date, 802 haemophilia patients are registered on the United Kingdom Haemophilia Centre Doctors’ Organisation database as receiving clotting factors made from UK plasma pools containing a donation from a donor who later went on to develop vCJD.
In addition, there are 22 living recipients of blood components transfusion (this includes red cells, platelets and fresh frozen plasma) from blood donors who later went on to develop vCJD. None of these 22 recipients is a person with haemophilia.
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