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The Minister for International Defence and Security (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Bob Ainsworth) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The supplement to the 2010 report of the Armed Forces' Pay Review Body (AFPRB) making recommendations on the pay of service medical and dental officers has been published today. I wish to express my thanks to the chairman and members of the review body for their report.
The AFPRB has recommended no increase in basic military salary for all defence medical services (DMS) accredited consultants and accredited general medical and dental practitioners. The AFPRB has also recommended a 1 per cent increase for certain non-accredited officers and a 1.5 per cent increase for junior non-accredited officers and cadets. In addition, the AFPRB recommended no increase in the values of national clinical excellence awards and distinction awards and a 1 per cent increase for DMS trainer pay and general medical practitioner associate trainer pay.
The AFPRB recommendations are to be accepted in full, except for the 1.5 per cent recommendation for junior non-accredited officers and cadets, which will be abated to 1 per cent mirroring the decision on the Doctors' and Dentists' Review Body recommendation, with implementation effective from 1 April 2010.
Copies of the report are available in the Vote Office and the Library of the House.
The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My honourable friend the Exchequer Secretary has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 7 December 2009 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the launch of the Asset Protection Agency (APA), an executive agency of HM Treasury.
The role of the APA and relationship with HM Treasury has been set out in the APA framework document, copies of which were deposited in the Libraries of both Houses at the time of the announcement.
After careful consideration of the APA's activities in managing the asset protection scheme ("the scheme") since its launch, the Chancellor has decided on a further delegation of decision-making to it from HM Treasury. Previously the APA was authorised to make decisions or exercise rights delegated to it in furtherance of the asset management objective.
Under the new delegation it will also be able to consider the reduction of risk to the taxpayer when making decisions or exercising any of the rights that have been delegated to it.
This change reflects our continued commitment to run the scheme efficiently and ensure tight management of the taxpayer's risk.
An amended framework document that reflects this change has been published today and deposited in the Libraries of both Houses. The document is also accessible via the HM Treasury website at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk.
The Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Myners): My honourable friend the Exchequer Secretary has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Government have published a discussion paper on building society capital and related issues as announced in Budget 2010. It will be available from the House Libraries and is on the Treasury website.
The discussion paper seeks views on the issues raised by the building societies experts' group convened by the Government in 2009, including future options for capital raising by building societies in the light of ongoing regulatory reform.
The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): On 31 March, I published Beyond Copenhagen: The UK Government's International Climate Change Plan (Cm 7850), setting out the key elements of UK strategy leading up to COP16 in Mexico and beyond.
The strategy reflects the fact there is much unfinished business following the outcome of the Copenhagen climate talks in December 2009. The conference made significant progress in some areas, but did not live up to our expectations, or those of many countries round the world.
Beyond Copenhagen argues that we should build on what was achieved at Copenhagen but also go further.
The main achievement at Copenhagen was agreement of the accord. The accord includes commitments to limit global temperature increases to no more than 2 degrees Celsius, to climate finance approaching $30 billion fast-start finance to 2012 with a long-term goal of $100 billion a year by 2020 and for the first time provides a common international framework that includes all the world's major economies. Since the summit more than 70 countries (accounting for around 80 per cent of global emissions) have put forward mitigation targets and actions which, if they deliver at the high end of their ambitions, would be consistent with global emissions peaking before 2020, an important step towards achieving an emissions trajectory consistent with 2 degrees.
The document affirms the importance of delivering against the commitments made in the accord. This includes commitments on emissions reductions, forestry, measurement, reporting and verification and on finance. It highlights the importance both of getting fast-start finance flowing and also of the work of the UN Secretary-General's High Level Advisory Group on Climate Finance, co-chaired by the Prime Minister and Prime Minister Meles of Ethiopia.
The Government continue to believe that this action has to be backed by a comprehensive legally binding agreement. The UK wants to see progress in the UNFCCC negotiations towards a legally binding agreement, with progress under the Copenhagen accord built on in the formal negotiations. To ease that process we signal that we would agree to an appropriately designed second Kyoto commitment period provided others enter into comparable legally binding arrangements.
We also believe we need to strengthen the UNFCCC process and will be working with the Government of Mexico, among others, to do so.
Copies of Beyond Copenhagen have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
The Advocate-General for Scotland (Lord Davidson of Glen Clova): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Government welcome the Scottish Affairs Committee's report on the inter-parliamentary recommendations made by the Commission on Scottish Devolution. The commission, established by the Scottish Parliament in December 2007 and supported by the UK Government, produced its final report in June 2009. The report set out a package of measures designed to review 10 years of experience of devolution and to recommend changes to enable the Scottish Parliament to serve the people of Scotland better, to improve the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament and continue to secure the position of Scotland within the United Kingdom.
The Government welcomed the final report from the Commission on Scottish Devolution on its publication and responded formally with a White Paper Scotland's Future in the United Kingdom on 25 November 2009. Of the 63 recommendations, 42 were for the Government to consider and 39 were accepted in the White Paper, including a radical package of reform to the financial accountability of the Scottish Parliament. The Government signalled their commitment to bring forward legislation as soon as possible in the next Parliament for those matters outlined in the White Paper that require it.
The Scottish Affairs Committee's consideration followed a letter from the Speaker of the House of Commons to both the Scottish Affairs Committee and the Procedure Committee to ask for their views on how the recommendations in Part 4 of the Calman
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Response to the committee's recommendations and findings
The Scottish Affairs Committee's report provides consideration of the recommendations made by the Commission on Scottish Devolution in relation to strengthening co-operation and communication between the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament. These recommendations cover the following areas of co-operation and communication:
operation of the Sewel convention between parliaments;increased involvement of Scottish MPs on Public Bill Committees where the Sewel convention is engaged;introduction of a regular "state of Scotland" debate and re-consideration of the "self-denying ordinance";ensuring that Standing Orders allow greater co-operation between committees in the Commons and Scottish Parliament;consideration of a "Scottish Super Grand Committee";examination of the access arrangements for MSPs and removal of the equivalent barriers in the Scottish Parliament;discretion for committees and parliaments to invite Ministers to appear before committees of either parliament;continued role for MPs and Scottish Affairs Committee in scrutinising the shape and operation of the devolution settlement; andenhanced communication and co-operation between the House of Commons and the Scottish Parliament, including appropriate resourcing to enable this to happen and a recommendation for secondment and exchanges of staff.All of these recommendations relate to the operation of effective inter-parliamentary relations. These are matters for the House, as acknowledged by the Government in the White Paper. Where the committee recommends changes to Standing Orders the Government will give consideration to bringing forward the necessary Motions early in the next Parliament.
In the White Paper the Government agreed that a strong relationship between the UK Parliament and the Scottish Parliament was an essential part of a framework for co-operation within the UK. We also welcomed the support shown by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament to consideration of how to strengthen their relationships in its White Paper.
The Government believe that the third report from the Scottish Affairs Committee provides a very positive response and a strong framework for improving co-operation in line with the recommendations from the Commission on Scottish Devolution.
The Minister for International Defence and Security (Baroness Taylor of Bolton): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Kevan Jones) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
As part of the Government's continuing commitment to investigate Gulf veterans' illnesses openly and honestly, data on the mortality of veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf conflict are published regularly. The most recent figures for the period 1 April 1991 to 31 December 2009 are published today as a national statistic notice on the Defence Analytical Services and Advice website.
The data for Gulf veterans are compared to that of a control group known as the "Era cohort" consisting of Armed Forces personnel of a similar profile in terms of age, gender, service, regular/reservists status and rank, who were in service on 1 January 1991 but were not deployed to the Gulf. As in the previous release, the "Era" group has been adjusted for a small difference in the age profile of those aged 40 years and over, to ensure appropriate comparisons.
Key points to note in the data are:
there have been 1,095 deaths among the Gulf veterans and 1,111 in the age-adjusted Era comparison group; and the 1,095 deaths among Gulf veterans compare with approximately 1,828 deaths which would have been expected in a similar sized cohort taken from the general population of the UK with the same age and gender profile. This reflects the strong emphasis on fitness when recruiting and retaining service personnel.These statistics continue to confirm that UK veterans of the 1990-91 Gulf conflict do not suffer an excess of overall mortality compared with service personnel that did not deploy.
The full notice can be viewed at http://www.dasa.mod.uk.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Thornton): My honourable friend the Minister of State, Department of Health (Gillian Merron) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Further to the Government's response to Lord Archer of Sandwell's report on NHS-supplied contaminated blood and blood products, which we published on 20 May 2009, I wish to inform the House that we have decided to bring forward a review of the Skipton Fund, which makes ex-gratia payments to those infected with hepatitis C as a result of their treatment.
The unintended and tragic consequences of these treatments have seriously impaired the lives of many people, together with those of their families. We have
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It will be an independently chaired review. The terms of reference, membership and conduct of the review will be agreed in conjunction with the devolved Administrations.
I would also like to take this opportunity to confirm payment of £100,000 to the Haemophilia Society, as promised in our response of 20 May 2009.
I would like to reiterate this Government's sympathy for those affected by these treatments many years ago, before screening tests and methods of viral inactivation became available. We remain fully committed to supporting them in the best way we can.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Baroness Thornton): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Ann Keen) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
Maternity and Early Years-Making a Good Start to Family Life published on 16 March 2010 contained an error on page 9 regarding the times when babies are offered immunisations. The correct sentence is:
An erratum note has been placed in the Library and in the copies that are available for honourable Members from the Vote Office. A corrected version of the document is also available at www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/Publications PolicyAndGuidance/DH_114023.
The Attorney-General (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): On 15 July 2003, Lord Goldsmith, then Attorney-General, announced to the House the publication of the report and recommendations of the honourable Mr Justice Butterfield following his review of the then practices and procedures relating to disclosure, associated investigation techniques and case management in Her Majesty's Customs and Excise's criminal cases. Lord Goldsmith and the then Economic Secretary to the Treasury had invited him to examine the circumstances that led to the termination of a number of prosecutions relating to London City Bond (LCB) in respect of alleged alcohol diversion fraud, in Liverpool Crown Court on 25 November 2002.
During the course of the Butterfield inquiry, a number of unrelated prosecutions in respect of alleged money laundering collapsed in circumstances which
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At the same time, the Metropolitan Police were conducting a criminal investigation (Operation Gestalt), which initially commenced in relation to the (LCB) prosecutions but which developed additional strands (Operation Tappert) as their inquiries progressed. As a result, Mr Justice Butterfield suspended the second part of his inquiry into the money laundering prosecutions (to avoid prejudicing the police inquiry) but completed and published his report of the main part of his inquiry in 2003.
The criminal investigations proceeded until their eventual conclusion in 2009 when, in respect of each strand of the investigations, the Crown Prosecution Service concluded that criminal proceedings were not justified.
The Attorney-General, with the agreement of the present Financial Secretary to the Treasury, has concluded that it is not necessary or desirable to invite Lord Justice Butterfield (as he now is) to complete the second part of his inquiry. Among other reasons, the passage of time means that any review would be focusing on practices which existed some years ago that have long since changed, and which were essentially of a similar kind to those examined in the report published in 2003. Moreover, the functions of HM Customs and Excise have since passed to Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs-which is subject to the same inspection and complaints regimes as other law enforcement bodies such as the police-to the Serious Organised Crime Agency and the UKBA.
Finally, a key recommendation of the Butterfield report that the prosecution function of HM Customs and Excise should be carried out by a wholly independent prosecuting authority to restore confidence in fair and effective prosecutions has been successfully implemented under the leadership of David Green QC. The Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office, established in 2005, now forms an important part of the Crown Prosecution Service under the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Baroness Royall of Blaisdon: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Shaun Woodward) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
I have today published and laid before Parliament my fifth annual report on the operation of the agreement between the British and Irish Governments which established the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC). This report covers the period 18 September 2007 to 17 September 2008.
In line with a commitment made by my predecessor, this report also contains the audited accounts of the IMC for the twelve-month period ending 31 March 2008.
The report covers the 17th and 18th report on paramilitary activity and the 19th report on the leadership of PIRA and assessment of the completion of the
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I am very grateful to the commissioners of the IMC for the continued commitment, focus and dedication they have shown during this reporting period, and for their continued efforts in promoting and maintaining a peaceful society and a stable and inclusive devolved Government in Northern Ireland.
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