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The NHS Dental Services Division of the NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for establishing the probity of payment claims for dentists working in the National Health Service general dental services and making payments to them for the work they have done.
The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 require all providers of primary dental care that provide an activity specified in these regulations to register with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) from April 2011. The CQC will regulate dental practices to ensure they are meeting essential levels of quality and safety. In this connection, the commission's staff will conduct practice inspections, consult patients and analyse information on the work of the practices including any untoward incidents. Practices, which comply with existing regulatory requirements, should have little difficulty in meeting the CQC's standards.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of regulation on dental practices and their delivery of patient care.[HL607]
Earl Howe: The department consulted on proposals for the registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of primary dental care providers in March 2008 as part of a wider consultation on the scope of registration. The great majority of respondents who commented supported the proposal to register primary dental care. The department set out its response to the consultation indicating that providers would be required to register and published draft regulations for comment in March 2009. The impact assessment published alongside the then draft Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations in October 2009 assessed the transition costs to National Health Service providers of transferring into the registration system to be £4 million to £4.8 million, and the annual costs to be between £2 million and £2.4 million. All providers registered with CQC also have to pay fees. Fee levels will be consulted on by CQC and must be agreed by the Secretary of State.
Olympic Games 2012
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are the health and safety considerations that make the plan to build a wind turbine at the Olympic Park unfeasible.[HL537]
Lord Shutt of Greetland: A number of factors have influenced the withdrawal of the preferred bidder from this project. Amongst these, new safety legislation
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Subsequent industry feedback on the new safety directive, coupled with a challenging delivery timetable, revealed a limited commercial interest in the project, and led the Olympic Delivery Authority to conclude that the installation of a wind turbine was no longer feasible.
Pensions
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government what they estimate to be the cost of establishing and running an independent commission to review the long-term affordability of public sector pensions.[HL344]
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many public sector employees would be involved in a commission to review public sector pensions; and at what salaries they would be employed.[HL345]
The Commercial Secretary to the Treasury (Lord Sassoon): The Government have committed to establishing an independent commission to review the long-term affordability of public sector pensions, while protecting accrued rights, but decisions such as the number of public sector employees involved have yet to be taken.
The cost of establishing and running the commission will be dependent on the outcome of these decisions.
Quangos
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will arrange for regulatory quangos to include in their annual reports an estimate of the cost to their clients in the public and private sectors of compliance with their requirements.[HL595]
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will review the costs and proportionality of compliance with regulations administered by quangos.[HL600]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox): The Government do not currently have plans to require all regulators to compile estimates of costs to the public and private sectors in their annual reports.
However, the Government are committed to imposing "sunset clauses" on regulations and regulators to ensure that they are regularly reviewed.
The "one-in, one-out" rule will also mean that no new regulation is brought in without other regulation being cut by a greater amount.
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Railways: Franchises
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government on what legal basis firms taking over a rail franchise are required to pay a premium to the Government for agreeing to the transfer.[HL364]
Earl Attlee: The legal basis for a change of control payment is contained in the terms of the franchise agreement between the Secretary of State and the train operating company. These give the Secretary of State power to grant or refuse consent to a change of control and to attach conditions to his consent.
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will consider re-letting the East Coast rail franchise to a mutual company.[HL365]
Earl Attlee: There is nothing in the franchise-letting process to prevent a mutual company from expressing an interest to bid for a franchise. We run a competitive process in accordance with the Official Journal of the European Union rules and any bidder would have to submit an accreditation questionnaire to prequalify to bid for the franchise.
Railways: Overcrowding
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the number of additional rail carriages required to prevent routine overcrowding on (a) Northern Rail, and (b) TransPennine Express services; and how many additional carriages are being provided to those operators for that purpose.[HL391]
Earl Attlee: The Government are assessing their policy for managing crowding on the rail network in the light of overall spending constraints over the next few years. Proposals by the previous Administration for the purchase of additional carriages will be appraised and assessed for affordability, in parallel with the process for determining the Department for Transport's budgets for the spending review period.
Refugee and Migrant Justice
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will commission independent accountants to calculate the additional costs that will be incurred by public bodies as a result of Refugee and Migrant Justice going into administration, including the Legal Services Commission in redundancy costs, paying other providers to take over its clients, their own administrative expenditure and other costs.[HL554]
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To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord McNally on 16 June (HL185), what assessment the Legal Services Commission have made of any potential financial issues that arise from Refugee and Migrant Justice going into administration; and whether Refugee and Migrant Justice will be concluding cases on behalf of individual clients.[HL570]
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord McNally): HM Government will not be commissioning independent accountants to calculate the cost of Refugee and Migrant Justice (RMJ) going into administration. Any costs associated with RMJ will be absorbed within existing budgets. Where any provider ceases to have a legal aid contract for whatever reason, the LSC will make an assessment of any potential financial issues in the individual circumstances. This will include payments on account made, claims to be billed and whether for example the provider will be continuing to conclude cases for existing clients.
Whether RMJ will be concluding cases on behalf of its clients is a decision for the administrators. The LSC is working closely with the administrators and others to ensure that urgent arrangements are made so that clients continue to receive a good quality service and that where necessary other providers can undertake the work.
Shipping: General Lighthouse Authorities
Questions
To ask Her Majesty's Government how much Trinity House spent on the three-day visit in August 2009 by the Duke of Edinburgh; and whether that was funded from the General Lighthouse Fund.[HL448]
Earl Attlee: The visit of HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, Master of Trinity House, was spent on board THV "Galatea" during which time the vessel carried out programmed buoy servicing work off the south coast of England.
The additional cost of the Duke of Edinburgh's visit amounted to approximately £3,000. The costs were not funded from the General Lighthouse Fund.
To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress is being made on re-tendering for a replacement for the Trinity House vessel Patricia.[HL449]
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the General Lighthouse Authorities' fleet will be reduced in line with the C-MAR report's recommendations. [HL450]
Earl Attlee: The report by consultants C-MAR reviewing the General Lighthouse Authorities' fleet of vessels recommended that there was a need for an additional vessel to retain operational flexibility and to be able to meet emergency response requirements
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To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was spent on the e-Loran project up to April; and whether its funding, trials and development has ceased.[HL451]
Earl Attlee: Between 2007 and April 2010, close to £1.6 million was spent on the e-Loran project (a radio-navigation system which enabled ships and other users to determine their exact location). This figure included the cost of installing equipment at the site in Cumbria, funding the transmission, trialling performance, maintaining equipment and contract monitoring with the service provider.
The funding came from the General Lighthouse Fund and the Department for Transport. Any future funding, trials and development of the system will be appraised to determine its medium and long-term costs and benefits and suitability for continued support, as recommended in the recommendations of the Atkins report entitled "Assessment of the Provision of Marine Aids to Navigation around the UK and Ireland", and which the department is seeking comments.
Tourism
Question
Whether they will take steps to improve the competitiveness of the United Kingdom tourist industry. [HL507]
Lord Shutt of Greetland: The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport outlined a new approach to tourism on 11 June, which is designed to improve the competitiveness of the UK tourism industry and ensure we value the industry as a major national asset. We have set the industry a new goal to increase the proportion of UK residents' tourism spend that goes on domestic holidays to 50 per cent of their total tourism spend at home and abroad. We have also announced our intention to create a new fund with the aim of generating £1 billion-worth of PR and marketing activity.
The relevant press release can be found on the departmental website (http://www.culture.gov.uk/news/media_releases/7164.aspx). Copies will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Transport: Investment Schemes
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Attlee on 15 June (HL192), whether the details of the proposed reform of transport appraisals will be made open for public consultation.[HL521]
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Earl Attlee: In the coalition agreement we committed to reform the way decisions are made on which transport projects to prioritise, so that the benefits of low-carbon proposals are fully recognised. We will in due course consider: (a) to what extent the Department for Transport's appraisal framework should feature in this, alongside other inputs to prioritisation decisions; and (b) what public consultation would be appropriate.
Water Management
Question
To ask Her Majesty's Government what are their plans for implementing the European Union water framework directive.[HL644]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Lord Henley): The River Basin Management Plans published on 22 December 2009 set out how Her
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These actions in River Basin Management Plans will improve over 8,300 miles of rivers in England. The number of water bodies classed as good ecological status or potential will increase from 26 per cent in 2009 to 32 per cent by 2015. The plans also contain proposals for over 8,500 investigations to be completed by the end of 2012. This will provide the necessary evidence to take further action before 2015 where practical.
Examples of measures planned include: compliance with existing regulations, codes of practice and controls on the use of certain substances; England Catchment Sensitive Farming activities and agri-environment schemes; water efficiency measures; and installation of fish passes at priority sites.
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