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Written Statements

Monday 12 October 2009

Armed Forces: Helicopters

Statement

The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Quentin Davies) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

Apache is currently providing vital battle-winning capability in support of UK and coalition forces on operations in Afghanistan. Building on the existing support arrangements in place, on 6 October I announced the award of a through life integrated operational support (IOS) contract to AgustaWestland for implementation of the Apache helicopter future support arrangements (FSA). This IOS contract is an output-based contract where specific levels of support are required to be achieved by industry while allowing industry to decide the optimum way to provide that support. Under the contract, one of the key areas will see AgustaWestland increasing the availability of the Apache helicopters from the current level to over 70 per cent, which will be of significantly benefit to front-line users. In addition the contract will reduce through life costs through AgustaWestland implementing continuous improvements in the service provided.

This contract will build on the existing effective and efficient engineering and logistical support for the Apache AH Mkl helicopter to the front line. The contract is valued at £439 million for the period to March 2014, with a price review thereafter, and transfers to industry further responsibility for Apache AH Mkl maintenance and support and associated risk of delivering the required output. The contract is forecast to deliver savings in the region of £50 million over the first contract period as compared to the projected costs of current support arrangements, with the potential to deliver further savings through life. This will be achieved while also increasing aircraft availability.

The contract represents another step forward in the helicopter plans set out in the MoD-AgustaWestland strategic partnering arrangement, strengthens our relationship with the industry, and will increase aircraft availability levels despite reducing through life costs. Progress with this IOS contract builds on the similar support contracts already in place for the Sea King and Merlin helicopters that have also been previously awarded to AgustaWestland.

Overall the Apache IOS contract provides excellent value for money for the taxpayer and delivers improved and efficient support to the front line.

Assisted Dying

Statement

The Attorney-General (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): Following the House of Lords judgment in Purdy v DPP the Director of Public Prosecutions issued his interim policy document on 23 September 2009, setting

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out the particular factors he would take account of when deciding whether to give consent to the prosecution of a person for the offence of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring [assisting] another to commit or attempt to commit suicide.

This policy was issued on an interim basis and at the same time the director announced he would start a consultation exercise that would last for three months. He is aiming then to publish his finalised policy in the spring of 2010. Copies of the interim policy and the consultation paper have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

The policy does not change the law but responds to the House of Lords judgment in the case of Purdy v DPP.

It has never been the rule in England and Wales that suspected criminal offences must automatically be prosecuted. Where there is sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of a conviction for assisted suicide, the director must, as with all offences, go on to consider whether a prosecution is needed in the public interest. In exercising that discretion, the director takes into account factors both for and against prosecution. These are set out in the code for Crown prosecutors. The consideration of evidence followed by a consideration of whether a prosecution is needed in the public interest constitutes the full code test.

In the case of Purdy v DPP the House of Lords considered that in the special case of assisted suicide the director should issue a policy document setting out the further public interest factors that may apply to this specific offence in order to give prosecutors and persons in Ms Purdy's position extra clarity as to the exercise of the prosecutorial discretion.

Each case is unique and will be considered on its own facts and merits with prosecutors continuing to apply the factors in the code for Crown prosecutors as well as the new interim policy.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

In November 2008 representatives of the farming industry, the veterinary profession and Defra officials formed the TB Eradication Group for England to make recommendations to Ministers on bovine TB and its eradication. Last week the group published a progress report, including a number of recommendations. The UK has also submitted a TB eradication plan for 2010 to the European Commission. In addition Scotland has recently succeeded in achieving regional officially TB free (OTF) status.

Bovine TB Eradication Group for England

I welcome the eradication group's report which shows the progress it has made since last November. I have had useful discussions with the group, and appreciate

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its hard work in starting to develop a long-term, risk-based eradication programme. It has made recommendations for changes that can be made now to tackle the disease through improved surveillance and control, which I have accepted and already started to implement. It has also considered and recommended measures to support farms subject to TB restrictions.

First, a change in our policy on inconclusive reactors conclusively to the TB skin test. To date we have allowed two re-tests of repeat inconclusive reactors. However, this risks leaving infected animals on farm, so from 1 January 2010 only a single re-test of repeat inconclusive reactors will be allowed before they are removed and slaughtered. This change brings us in line with EU law and follows a similar move earlier this year in Wales and Scotland.

Secondly, a change in the way that routine TB surveillance testing intervals are set. There are risks with the current approach of setting these on a reactive basis at parish level, in particular that it does not allow us to get ahead of the disease. The eradication group will be looking at more risk-based approaches. Since this will take some time to develop, an interim approach will be introduced for 2010. This is based on a more proactive assessment of TB incidence and risk. The resulting testing regime for 2010 will be more coherent and consistent than in previous years and increase the number of herds in the high risk areas which are tested annually, as well as increasing surveillance in areas at risk of TB spread by testing them every two years.

Finally, I understand the significant impacts TB restrictions can have. Following recommendations from the eradication group, Animal Health has introduced changes to make it easier for TB restricted farms to buy replacement stock and sell their own surplus cattle, without materially undermining disease controls. Further measures to reduce the burden on TB-affected farms will be introduced in the next few months. Farmers under TB restrictions should also have access to the best available advice. Defra officials are looking at how to support the provision of professional advice for TB-affected farmers, to be introduced early in the new year.

Defra is providing an additional £5 million of funding for increased testing, compensation of TB-reactor animals that are removed and slaughtered, and for advisory services. This will be found from savings elsewhere across Defra. There will be additional costs for some farmers, in terms of pre-movement testing requirements and TB restrictions; but I agree with the group that these are needed if we are to stop further spread and effectively tackle the disease.

The group's progress report addresses wildlife controls and the culling of badgers. I have had frank discussions with it on these issues and have agreed that they should remain on the group's agenda. I made it clear that the policy is that licences will not be issued to cull badgers for bovine TB control in England, and I will revisit this only under exceptional circumstances, or if new scientific evidence becomes available. The group said in its report that it cannot, at this stage, make a clear case for change on this basis.

I will place copies of the group's report in the Libraries of the House.



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The UK Bovine TB Eradication Plan was submitted to the European Commission on 15 September. The Commission's decision on approval and funding for our eradication plan will be published by the end of November. The eradication group contributed to the England sections of the plan.

Scotland is not included in the plan since it was granted officially TB free (OTF) status on 8 September. The Scottish Executive and industry are to be congratulated on this significant achievement.

While responsibility for bovine TB is devolved, Scotland's newly recognised status will affect the whole of the UK. Measures will be put in place to govern movements of cattle into Scotland from rest of the UK. All UK Administrations have been working with stakeholders to develop these, with measures expected to come into force in February 2010. My priority has been to minimise the impact on the industry in England, ensuring that the measures introduced are appropriate and proportionate, recognising that many parts of England are low risk. I have agreed with Richard Lochhead (Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and the Environment) that if there are outstanding details in November implementation should be delayed until final mutual agreement is reached.

Climate Change

Statements

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Davies of Oldham): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Hilary Benn) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

On 1 October 2009 Defra published guidance, in partnership with the Department of Energy and Climate Change, explaining how organisations should measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions as required under Section 83 of the Climate Change Act 2008. This followed a public consultation exercise on the draft guidance which closed on 7 August 2009.

The guidance is available on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website at http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/business/reporting/index.htm and copies will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): The UK Climate Change Act makes the UK the first country to set a long-term legal framework for reducing emissions over the next four decades. The Act has demonstrated decisive international leadership, showing the UK is committed to taking up its responsibility for reducing global emissions. As part of this commitment, Government will introduce the carbon reduction commitment, an energy efficiency instrument, next April. The CRC will help large public and business sector organisations reduce their emissions through improved energy efficiency and thereby save £l billion each year by 2020. I also intend that CRC will deliver emissions reductions of more than 4 million tonnes of CO2 per year by that time. Given the primary focus of the scheme on energy efficiency, CRC will now be known as the CRC energy efficiency scheme (CRC).

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Last Wednesday, the UK's Administrations published the government response to the third consultation on the scheme which was held between March and June 2009. That consultation related to the scheme's regulatory basis. The response finalises the policy for the scheme before its launch in April 2010.

Without new policies, emissions from public and business sectors will not achieve the carbon reductions we require over coming years. This group of organisations in particular has significant potential to achieve cost-effective energy efficiency savings. There are clear benefits from positive, immediate action to tackle climate change and investment that takes place in the next 10 to 20 years will have a profound effect on the climate in the second half of this century. Government are committed to ambitious targets to reduce the UK's CO2 emissions, and this will require contributions from all sectors of the economy and from across all parts of the UK.

The basic trajectory of CRC remains. The first introductory phase of the scheme until 2013 will have an unlimited number of allowances. Thereafter Government will set the number of allowances, which will decrease year on year to ensure that the potential for efficiency savings are realised. I will be taking the advice of the Committee on Climate Change before setting this cap in 2012, but anticipate that the scheme will ensure that large organisations play their full role in contributing to our emissions reductions of at least 34 per cent by 2020.

The UK Government have worked together with devolved Administrations and stakeholders in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure that the CRC is in keeping with our shared long term vision for a "light touch" yet robust scheme, which provides both financial and reputational incentives for these sectors to increase energy efficiency and deliver emissions reductions.

In light of feedback from the consultation, I am pleased to announce that I have adjusted the scheme to ensure that the financial impact from the purchase of allowances will be similar in all years. I have decided that the retrospective purchase of allowances for 2010-11 will no longer be required. Participants will be required only correctly to report their emissions in the first year. I have therefore halved the financial impact in the first year, compared to a double sale of allowances.

Other changes include the possibility for subsidiary organisations that would qualify in their own right to be able to participate in the scheme independently from their parent or fellow subsidiary organisations. This will give organisations greater flexibility to choose the approach that best works for them, without losing emissions coverage of the scheme. I have also given extra weighting in the second year to the measurement of early action, which will feature in the league table. This change responds to stakeholder feedback and better reflects the expected life of the contribution made by such early action to an organisation's energy efficiency.

The CRC is the only UK scheme focused on energy efficiency measures, and therefore the main league table on which revenue recycling is based will remain an energy efficiency league table. I have carefully considered

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stakeholders' views on the role of renewables in the scheme and in particular that many participants are also looking to invest in onsite renewable electricity generation to help play their part in a transition to a low carbon economy. I therefore want to recognise these efforts, alongside energy efficiency achievements, and will publish a second table which sets out the contribution made from both energy efficiency measures and the onsite generation of electricity from renewable resources, where this is also consumed onsite.

In achieving our climate change ambitions, it is critical that senior management throughout the economy are engaged in achieving these objectives. The CRC provides the policy framework to ensure that the existing best practice of our leading organisations will be more widely taken up, and that carbon becomes correctly considered, reported and valued. The scheme sits alongside the Guidance on How to Measure and Report Your Greenhouse Gas Emissions, published by the Government on 30 September, explaining how all organisations should measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions, including those organisations captured by the CRC. Investors and the public will increasingly make judgments about organisations' achievements on both saving energy and tackling climate change. I believe that the scheme will be an effective tool in helping the public and private sector play their part in avoiding catastrophic climate change.

Counterterrorism

Statement

The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My honourable friend the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury (Sarah McCarthy-Fry) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

The Government have today laid before the House a Statutory Instrument under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 containing a direction requiring the UK financial services sector to cease all business with the Iranian Bank Mellat and the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. This means that from today, financial and credit institutions will no longer be able to enter into new transactions or business relationships with these entities nor to continue with existing transactions or business relationships unless they are licensed by HM Treasury. Consistent with the commitment provided to the House during the passage of the Act, I would like to set out the reasons behind our decision.

The Treasury is satisfied, as required by the Act, that activity in Iran that facilitates the development or production of nuclear weapons poses a significant risk to the national interests of the UK. Iran continues to fail to meet its international obligations. Most notably, its nuclear programme presents an immediate challenge to the global non-proliferation regime. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA-the UN body charged with monitoring Iran's activities and ensuring that no nuclear material is being diverted to non-civilian applications) is being refused the access it seeks by Iran, which also declines to answer questions put to it by the agency's staff about alleged studies suggesting a military aspect to Iran's programme. As a result, the

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IAEA director general has stated that he is unable to verify Iran's nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful purposes.

Iran's ongoing improvement of its ballistic missile capabilities also continues to cause international concern. Its failure to answer questions from the IAEA about possible military dimensions to its nuclear programme increases concerns that its ballistic missile programme represents a potential nuclear delivery system.

The UK has for many years been clear that we would prefer a more productive relationship with Iran, and for Iran to take its place as a responsible member of the international community. We continue to work through the E3+3 and urge Iran to accept our, and US, offers of engagement in order to achieve a diplomatic resolution of the nuclear issue. The Government welcome the talks recently held between the E3+3 and Iran.

However, Iran continues to pursue its proliferation sensitive nuclear and ballistic missile activities in defiance of five UN Security Council resolutions. We cannot and will not ignore specific activities undertaken by Iranian companies which we know to be facilitating activity identified by the UN as being of concern, particularly where such activities have the potential to affect the UK's interests.

On the particular entities in question, vessels of the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) have transported goods for both Iran's ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.

Similarly, Bank Mellat has provided banking services to a UN listed organisation connected to Iran's proliferation sensitive activities and been involved in transactions related to financing Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programme.

The direction to cease business will therefore reduce the risk of the UK financial sector being used, unknowingly or otherwise, to facilitate Iran's proliferation sensitive activities.

Courts Service: Estates

Statement

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): My right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Jack Straw) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I will be making a Written Ministerial Statement tomorrow on this matter.

Defamation Proceedings: Costs

Statement

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

I issued the Government's response to the consultation paper Controlling Costs in Defamation Proceedings on 24 September 2009.



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The high level of costs incurred in defamation and some other publication proceedings have been the subject of criticism and debate in the courts and Parliament. The Government are concerned that the risk of excessive costs may force defendants to settle unmeritorious claims, which in turn may encourage a more risk-averse approach to media reporting and is a risk to freedom of expression.


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