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Business in the Community (Race for Opportunity);
Council for Ethnic Minority Communities, Northamptonshire (Limited);
Friends, Families and Travellers;
MENTER (Minority Ethnic Network Eastern Region);
Network for Black Professionals;
North of England Refugee Service;
Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust;
the Workers' Educational Association (WEA);
Funding is subject to agreeing detailed work programmes and monitoring and reporting arrangements. Organisations will be expected to show how they make effective use of the financial assistance to deliver real impact.
The fund will support a range of organisations working to tackle race inequalities and promote equality of opportunity for people of all ethnic groups. It will enable organisations to contribute to policy making.
Taxation: Avoidance
Statement
The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My right honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Stephen Timms) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Government are taking action today to counter tax avoidance schemes involving capital allowances on plant or machinery.
Legislation will be introduced in the Finance Bill 2010, to prevent tax avoidance through the transfer of an entitlement to benefit from capital allowances on plant or machinery, used for the purpose of a trade, where the tax written down value of the plant or machinery exceeds its balance sheet value (latent capital allowances).
The proposed legislation will apply where there is a change of ownership of a company as part of arrangements, one of the main purposes of which is to transfer to the purchasing group an entitlement to benefit from the latent capital allowances available to the company which is purchased.
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The proposed legislation will also apply where there is a change in ownership or profit-shares of a consortium company, or partnership involving companies, as part of arrangements where one of the main purposes is to transfer the entitlement to benefit from the latent capital allowances. Draft legislation, which will take effect from today, 21 July 2009, will be published as soon as practicable.
A technical note explaining the material that will be contained in the Finance Bill 2010 will be published on HMRC's website today.
Copies of today's HMRC technical note have been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses and are accessible on the HMRC website at http:/www.hmrc.gov.uk.
Transport: Drivers' Hours
Statement
The Secretary of State for Transport (Lord Adonis): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Paul Clark) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
I am today publishing a consultation document seeking views on the current UK domestic drivers' hours rules. These rules prescribe driving and duty limits along with some break and rest requirements for drivers of goods and passenger vehicles that are not covered by the EU drivers' hours rules. This includes most drivers of vans, and bus drivers on routes no more than 50 kilometres in length.
The domestic rules were introduced to support road safety by ensuring that drivers of commercial vehicles had sufficient breaks and rest.
The department is now reviewing these rules and as part of this process needs to better understand the views and experiences of those who are affected by them in their working lives. Although the consultation document proposes no legislative changes at this stage, the responses received during the consultation will inform the initial consideration of potential policy options, which will then be the subject of further consultation.
Copies of the consultation will be made available in the Libraries of both Houses.
UN: Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Jonathan Shaw) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The period during which the Explanatory Memorandum and Command Paper for ratification of the Optional Protocol to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities were laid before
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As my previous Statements of 3 and 27 February and 22 June indicated, the optional protocol builds on the convention by establishing two additional procedures in respect of implementation and monitoring of the convention itself.
The first is a procedural avenue that, subject to meeting conditions set out in the optional protocol, will enable individuals or groups of individuals to bring petitions to the UN committee that has been established to monitor implementation of the disability convention if they believe that their rights under that convention have been breached. The second is an inquiry procedure giving the committee authority to undertake inquiries when reliable information is received into allegations of grave or systematic violations of convention rights.
Having ratified the convention itself on 8 June, and in now moving to the final step in ratifying the optional
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Youth Crime Action Plan
Statement
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Secretary of State for the Home Department, Mr Alan Johnson, has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
In conjunction with the Secretary of State for Justice and Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, I will tomorrow publish Youth Crime Action Plan-One Year On.
This document sets out progress made since we published the Youth Crime Action Plan in 2008, and describes the action we will take over the next year.
Copies of the document will be placed in the Library of the House.
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