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Cyprus
Question
Asked by Lord Maginnis of Drumglass
To ask Her Majesty's Government who attended the meeting in 10 Downing Street on 20 April on Cyprus with the Prime Minister and Foreign Office Ministers; what groups or organisations those people represented; and whether the official Turkish Cypriot representative in London was invited or consulted. [HL3645]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): A meeting on Cyprus took place in 10 Downing Street on 29 April 2009. My right honourable friends the Prime Minister and the Minister for Europe, Caroline Flint, met five Turkish Cypriots, including representatives from women's groups, London Turkish Radio, and political parties such as the Labour Party, Cumhuriyetci Turk Partisi (CTP) and Toplumcu Demokrasi Partisi (TDP). The aim was
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Deen International
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Malloch-Brown on 30 March (WA 181—2), how they plan to evaluate the effectiveness of the £495,021 paid to Deen International. [HL3745]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): Independent monitoring and evaluation is being conducted by the University of Islamabad, which will produce a report assessing the effectiveness of the campaign. Additional evaluation reports have been commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Islamabad and London. The combined findings will inform the FCO on the effectiveness of the campaign and be taken into account when deciding whether to move beyond the pilot phase.
To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord West of Spithead on 7 May (WA 145), how much funding (a) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, (b) each of its agencies, and (c) non-departmental public bodies, have given to (1) the British Muslim Forum, and (2) Deen International, in each of the past five years. [HL3692]
Lord Malloch-Brown: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has provided the following funding to Deen International over the past five years:
financial years 2005 to 2007: no funding;
financial year 2007 to 2008: £61,875;
financial year 2008 to 2009: £597,562; and
financial year 2009 to 2010: no funding to date
No additional funding has been provided by agencies or non-departmental public bodies associated with the FCO. No funding has been provided to the British Muslim Forum.
Development Aid
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the criteria for out-sourcing aid and development work that would otherwise be undertaken by the Department for International Development. [HL1970]
Lord Tunnicliffe: Development projects cover a wide range of specialist skills and experience that may not be available in-house and would not be appropriate for the Department for International Development (DfID) to develop. Each project is designed and resourced to meet the specific needs of developing countries in the
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Diplomatic Recognition
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria they use to determine whether to recognise a new or breakaway state. [HL3677]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): The general criteria that we apply for recognition of an independent state remain as described in the Written Answer dated 16 November 1989 (Official Report, col. 494) by the then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
Earnings
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what were the percentage changes in public and private sector average earnings including bonuses in each quarter of the past three years; and what was the annualised differential in growth or decline in average earnings including bonuses between the two sectors in those three years. [HL3862]
Lord Patel of Bradford: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, National Statistician, to Lord Laird, dated May 2009.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question concerning public and private sector average earnings. (HL3862)
The table below provides information on the growth rates (three month average on the same three months a year earlier) in average earnings including bonuses in each of the two sectors for each quarter in the past three years. The third column shows the difference between the two series, calculated on the rounded data. The final column shows the annual average of this difference for the past three years.
Growth in average earnings including bonuses
(Three month on a year earlier, seasonally adjusted data)
| Public sector | Private sector | Difference | Annual average | |
The information in the first two columns is published every month in the Integrated Labour Market First Release. Longer runs of data are available on the National Statistics website at:
www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1944
www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/tsdtablesl.asp?vlnk=emp.
Energy: Carbon Emissions
Question
Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach
To ask Her Majesty's Government with reference to the review by the National Audit Office of the data collected by the Building Research Establishment and published in March 2007 by the Sustainable Development Commission, what actions they have taken to reverse the trend of carbon emissions by departments. [HL3629]
Lord Patel of Bradford: The Government have met their target to source at least 10 per cent of electricity from renewables by 31March 2008. The 2007-08 performance data, published by the Sustainable Development Commission in December 2008, showed that 22 per cent of the Government’s electricity was derived from renewable sources.
Equal Pay
Question
Asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill
To ask Her Majesty's Government in light of the report in the Financial Times of 5 May, whether there is a gender pay gap in Ofsted; if so, what is the percentage difference; and what are the reasons for the difference. [HL3722]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): This is a matter for Ofsted. HM Chief Inspector, Christine Gilbert, has written to the noble Lord and a copy of her reply has been placed in the Library.
Letter from Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, to Lord Lester of Herne Hill, dated 19 May 2009.
Your recent parliamentary Question has been passed to me, as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector, for reply.
Your Question referred to an article from the Financial Times, which quoted figures derived from the annual Civil Service employment survey compiled by the Office for National Statistics. The figures highlighted by that article covered permanent full time senior civil servants (SCS) in post at 31 March 2008.
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Ofsted is committed to equality and diversity and has a range of initiatives underway to support this part of our work. At present, Ofsted has a high percentage of women in senior posts and, notably, six of our eight most senior officials are female. A calculation of the mean salaries of the male and female senior civil servants in post at 18 May 2009, gives a 3.6 per cent difference in favour of female staff.
A copy of this reply has been sent to the right honourable Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, and will be placed in the Library of both Houses.
EU: External Tariff
Question
Asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the European Union's current average external tariff.[HL3307]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): The World Trade Organisation (WTO) estimates that the EU's simple average applied external tariff in 2007 was 5.2 per cent. On a trade weighted basis, the WTO estimates that the EU's average applied tariff was 3.0 per cent in 2006. This does not include any trade preferences given through free trade agreements and the EU's generalised system of preferences.
EU: Historical Analysis
Question
Asked by Lord Pearson of Rannoch
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the Government's policy towards the European Union has been influenced by the analysis of the history and purpose of the European Union presented in The Great Deception, by Christopher Booker and Richard North. [HL3773]
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): No.
Financial Ombudsman Service
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their relationship with the Financial Ombudsman Service. [HL3909]
The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is operationally independent from Government.
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Gaza
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have they had with the Government of Israel regarding the supply of humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza. [HL3792]
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will raise the issue of the blockade of Gaza with the Israeli Foreign Minister; and whether they will request Israel to allow all necessary humanitarian supplies into Gaza. [HL3793]
Lord Tunnicliffe: The humanitarian situation in Gaza is of serious concern. The UK Government have consistently lobbied for unrestricted access for food and other humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
The Prime Minister, the Foreign Secretary, the Secretary of State for International Development, and officials from both the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have raised the need to reduce the constraints on goods entering Gaza with the Israeli Government.
More recently, the Foreign Secretary raised the issue of access with Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, during a meeting on 6 May; with the UN Security Council in his speech on 11 May; and with Foreign Minister Lieberman on 13 May during his visit to the UK.
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 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 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.[HL3282]
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change & Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The average number of working days lost per person due to sickness absence for Defra and its agencies for each of the past three financial years for which figures are available is shown in the table below. Information on absence rates for Defra's non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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