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22 Jun 2009 : Column WA259

SurnameForenameAssociated Person Body

Khan

Kasem

Home Office

Faloon

Christopher

City High Principal of Board of Governors of Armagh

Curran

Brendan

District Judge Magill

Clarence

Gordon

Mental Health Review Tribunal

Phiri

Maureen

Home Office

Maguire

Elaine

Northern Ireland Housing Executive

Carmichael

Brigid

Mental Health Tribunal for NI

Mabeka

Linia

Secretary of State for NI

Daly

Alan

Prison Service Headquarters

Chinyoka

Ignatious

Home Office

Northern Ireland: Human Rights Commission

Question

Asked by Lord Laird

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: As stated in my Answer to the noble Lord of 30 March (Official Report, cols. WA 199-200), the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission's annual expenditure is published each year in its annual report and accounts, copies of which are placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

The Northern Ireland Office provides funding to the commission each financial year, which is a period of 12 months ending on 31 March. The commission's final expenditure in 2007-08 was £1.672 million and £1.744 million in 2008-09. The budget allocation for 2009-10 has been agreed at £1.657 million, based on consideration of the commission's draft business plan and discussion of the justification for the proposed spend. These figures include cash and non-cash payments.

Allocation of funding is reviewed with the commission during in-year monitoring rounds and regularly throughout the financial year.

Railways: Engineering

Question

Asked by Lord Bradshaw



22 Jun 2009 : Column WA260

The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): This is an operational matter for Network Rail as the owner and operator of the national rail network. The noble Lord should contact Network Rail's chief executive at the following address for a response to his questions: Iain Coucher, Chief Executive, Network Rail, Kings Place, 90 York Way, London, N1 9AG.

Railways: Network Rail

Question

Asked by Lord Dykes

The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): The Government are prepared to discuss reopening of a specific railway line where a local authority or passenger transport executive or region considers that this might be the best way of addressing local or regional issues. We have no plans to discuss with Network Rail or train operators the subject of reopening of lines generally.

Railways: Public Subsidy

Question

Asked by Lord Grocott

The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): Details of historic public subsidy for the railway is published by the Office of Rail Regulation in National Rail Trends. Copies of this document are available in the Library of the House.

Railways: Signalling

Question

Asked by Lord Bradshaw

The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): The Cambrian line is being fitted with a state of the art in-cab signalling system, the European rail traffic management system (ERTMS), which is fully compliant with European legislation on railway interoperability.

Reactor Animals

Question

Asked by Baroness Byford

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): The Government have not undertaken any research into whether the tabular valuation

22 Jun 2009 : Column WA261

mechanism has speeded up the removal of reactor animals. However, Animal Health has a 20-day target for removing TB-affected cattle and in between April 2008 and March 2009 they met this target in 88 per cent of cases.

Sir Alan Sugar

Question

Asked by Baroness Seccombe

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Baroness Morgan of Drefelin): The enterprise champion has not been asked to advise on any specific Bill. He is expected to provide advice to government on ways to ensure small firms and entrepreneurs make the most of the real help available from government and other organisations.

Waterways: Pollution

Question

Asked by Lord Dykes

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): We are in touch with a range of stakeholders, including farming representatives and others, regarding a variety of issues affecting water quality and the measures we propose in order to tackle them.

Farming organisations are fully inputting into a range of consultations that are currently being undertaken.



22 Jun 2009 : Column WA262

Working Time Directive

Questions

Asked by Baroness Finlay of Llandaff

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Darzi of Denham): The impact of the European working time directive on training and service provision has been a regular feature of advice from officials to the relevant Secretary of State since the directive was first introduced by the European Commission in November 1993.

Asked by Baroness Finlay of Llandaff

Lord Darzi of Denham: Trusts are being supported to implement the working time directive for their junior doctors in training and many have already done so. The aim is that the maximum number of services, consistent with patient safety, are supported to achieve compliance.

In January the Secretary of State for Health notified the European Commission of concerns that a number of hospital services delivering 24-hour immediate patient care, some supra-specialist services, and small, remote and rural units may need more time to achieve full compliance with the requirement for an average 48-hour working week. The notification set out the Government's intention to take up the option of a limited derogation under Article 17(5) of the European working time directive for services identified as needing more time. Derogation would allow services to plan for up to a 52-hour average week, up to August 2011 (exceptionally until 2012). This flexibility represents good National Health Service management.


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