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The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead): The UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief's report was used as a reference document during the most recent EU-India Human Rights Dialogue in February 2009, when the issue of anti-conversion laws in relation to minority rights was discussed with Indian officials. UK officials will continue to participate in the EU-India human rights dialogue on these issues and encourage the relevant Indian authorities to safeguard minority rights, including the right to freedom of religion and belief.

Indonesia

Question

Asked by Lord Patten

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead): We have no plans to make representations on freedom of speech to the Government of Indonesia.

Indonesia has a dynamic and relatively free press and remains the only country in south-east Asia classed as "free" by Freedom House.

However, Law Number 4 of 1963 was eroded by the Press Law of 1999, which eliminated its application to newspapers, magazines and serials while leaving untouched its application to other printed materials.

However, the bans have had the net result of pushing up demand for the publications, which are widely available locally.

Infrastructure Planning (Environmental Impact Assessment) Regulations 2009

Questions

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): All applications for an order granting development consent have to be screened by the Infrastructure Planning Commission, unless the person who is seeking

9 Feb 2010 : Column WA117

development consent under Regulation 6(1)(b) has notified the IPC that an environmental statement will be provided.

In most cases, if an environmental statement is not proposed to be provided, then we expect the IPC will screen applications to determine if they are EIA development.

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The scale used is the standard scale of fines for summary offences found in the Criminal Justice Act 1982 Section 37.

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: An extension to an existing installation would only fall under Schedule 1 if it exceeded the thresholds at description 17 in its own right. The extension may, of course, still fall under Schedule 2.1(e).

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: There are 587 installations with over 85,000 places for broilers and with over 60,000 places for hens in England and Wales. Installations constructed after 14 March 1999 would have had to comply with the Town and Country (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (SI No. 293) Regulations which have the same thresholds as these are a direct requirement of EIA directive 85/337/EEC, as amended.

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: There are 271 installations with over 3,000 places for production pigs or 900 places for sows in England. Installations constructed after 14 March 1999 would have had to comply with the Town and Country (Environmental Impact Assessment) (England and Wales) Regulations 1999 (SI No. 293) Regulations. These have the same thresholds as they are a direct requirement of EIA Directive 85/337/EEC, as amended.

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The definition of the term livestock is taken directly from Annex II of the EIA Directive, which does not specify particular animal species.

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: The draft modification of a statutory provision would be contained as part of a draft order granting development consent, which must accompany an application to the IPC. As such it would be subject to examination and would be made available to the public in the same way as any of the other documents.

Asked by Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Lord McKenzie of Luton: Yes; any applications that do not meet the relevant threshold should proceed through the relevant consent regime.



9 Feb 2010 : Column WA119

Iraq

Question

Asked by Lord Dykes

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead): The Government have not collated figures for civilian casualties in Iraq. Throughout its military engagement in Iraq, the UK sought at all costs to avoid civilian casualties and took seriously its responsibilities and obligations under the Geneva Conventions.



9 Feb 2010 : Column WA120

Ministry of Defence: Pensions

Question

Asked by Lord Moonie

The Minister for International Defence and Security (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): The proportion of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) budget spent on pension contributions and the War Pensions Scheme in each year from 2005-06 to 2008-09 is:

Financial YearMilitary Pension Contributions1, 2 £billionCivilian Pension Contributions1, 3 £ billionWar Pension Payments Payments1 £ billionTotal £ billionProportion4

2005-06

1.407

0.345

1.069

2.821

6.9%

2006-07

1.421

0.346

1.039

2.806

6.8%

2007-08

1.462

0.363

1.014

2.839

6.4%

2008-09

1.502

0.344

1.000

2.846

6.2%

Footnotes:

1. Figures taken from MoD Departmental Resource Accounts for the appropriate Financial Year.

2. Military Superannuation Contributions Adjusted for Past Experience (SCAPE). Paid into the Armed Forces Pensions Scheme as a receipt.

3. Civilian SCAPE. Paid into the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme as a receipt.

4. The calculation of the percentage figures has been based on the sum of the outturn for (a) Departmental Expenditure Limits, including non-cash costs (depreciation, impairments and cost of capital) and (b) War pensions and allowances (Request for Resources 3).

In addition, payments made under the separately funded Armed Forces Pensions Scheme have been as follows:

2005-06-£2.8 billion;

2006-07-£3.0 billion;

2007-08-£3.2 billion; and

2008-09-£3.4 billion.

It is impossible to indicate what proportion of the defence budget is forecast to be spent on pensions. The defence budget is set during planning rounds which only look out over a three-year period (four in a Comprehensive Spending Review). Therefore, it is not possible to determine the pension costs as a proportion of the budget for future years. The next spending review is expected to start this summer for the years after 2010-11.

The forecast pension spend for the Armed Forces Pensions Scheme for 2014-15 is £4.7 billion.

The forecast pension spend for the War Pension Scheme for 2014-15 is £0.944 billion.

It is not possible to provide the forecast pension spend for the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme for the MoD as, other than the intelligence services, the information is only produced across the whole Civil Service and not broken out by individual employer.

Papal Visit

Question

Asked by Baroness Turner of Camden

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Kinnock of Holyhead): The forthcoming visit of the Pope to the UK will be a papal visit. As a papal visit it will have status equivalent to a state visit.

The costs of the visit have not yet been determined; as with state visits, certain elements will be borne by public funds.

Pensions

Question

Asked by Lord Craig of Radley



9 Feb 2010 : Column WA121

The Minister for International Defence and Security (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): The Armed Forces Pay Review Body last reported on the Armed Forces Pensions Scheme valuation in its 2007 report. Typically it is a quinquennial review and on that basis the next one is scheduled to feature in the 2012 Armed Forces Pay Review Body report.

Prisoners: Foreign Nationals

Question

Asked by Baroness Warsi

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): The table below shows the average sentence length and average time served for foreign national prisoners discharged from prisons in England and Wales in the past five years following the completion of a determinate sentence.

20042005200620072008

Average sentence length in months

Up to and including 6 months

3

3

3

3

3

Over 6 months and less than 12 months

9

9

9

9

9

12 months to less than 4 years

25

23

22

21

21

4 years to less than life

74

75

75

75

78

All sentence lengths

20

17

14

14

14

Average time served including remand in months

Up to and including 6 months

2

2

2

2

2

Over 6 months and less than 12 months

4

4

4

4

4

12 months to less than 4 years

12

11

11

10

10

4 years to less than life

38

38

39

38

37

All sentence lengths

10

9

7

7

7

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