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Wednesday 1 December 2010

Volume 519 No. 82

HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Wednesday 1 December 2010

£5·00

© Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2010 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected]

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House of Commons Wednesday 1 December 2010 The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock PRAYERS [MR SPEAKER in the Chair]

Oral Answers to Questions SCOTLAND The Secretary of State was asked— Energy 1. John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab): What (a) recent meetings he has had and (b) meetings he plans to have with representatives of Scottish Power to discuss the energy industry in Scotland. [26707] The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore): I have regular meetings with the energy industry, including with Scottish Power, and will continue to do so, given the sector’s importance to the Scottish economy. John Robertson: I thank the Secretary of State for his answer. He says that he has had these meetings, yet British Gas, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy have said that on no occasion has he ever discussed the price hiking that these companies are undertaking. When will he try to support the people of Scotland by doing something about the price hikes? Michael Moore: What I recognise is the importance of ensuring that we get a fair deal for consumers, as well as for the shareholders—the companies are concerned about that. As the hon. Gentleman will know, Ofgem has announced an inquiry into consumer protection and competition in the sector. I expect that to be a very thorough process. Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/ Co-op): I am glad to see that the Secretary of State was able to get back from Scotland to be here today, despite the cold weather and the travel difficulties. Given that cold weather, and the increase in energy bills that many people have experienced, is he aware of the concern among many of my constituents and many others that the most vulnerable people will struggle to pay their bills, when they should be entitled to be on social tariffs? Will he therefore undertake to convene a summit of the six energy companies to discuss, in particular, what they are doing to ensure that people who should be on social tariffs are on them, and that people in Scotland are not left cold at home this winter? Michael Moore: I am glad of the hon. Gentleman’s welcome, and I appreciate, as he will, that many people in Scotland, and indeed in the whole of the United Kingdom, have been struggling to get to work and go about their business today. He rightly focuses on temperature

and the fact that this will cause extra difficulty for people, so I am sure he will welcome the fact that we are maintaining the cold weather payments and the winter fuel allowance. I am certainly happy to discuss ideas of getting together with the different energy companies to make sure that they are properly focused on the needs of their customers. Asylum Seekers 2. Anas Sarwar (Glasgow Central) (Lab): What discussions he has had with the UK Border Agency on the cancellation of its contract with Glasgow city council to provide services to asylum seekers. [26708] 5. Pete Wishart (Perth and North Perthshire) (SNP): What recent discussions he has had with the UK Border Agency on the welfare of asylum seekers in [26711] Scotland. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (David Mundell): The Secretary of State and I are in regular contact with the Home Office on matters relating to asylum seekers. I understand that the UK Border Agency is working closely with support organisations in Glasgow to ensure that there is minimum disruption to those affected by the termination of UKBA’s housing contract with Glasgow city council. Anas Sarwar: I thank the Minister for that answer. Does he think it acceptable that no detailed discussions were held between UKBA and either Ypeople or the Angel Group ahead of the decision to scrap the contract with Glasgow city council, even though they will be made to take responsibility for more than 1,000 asylum seekers in the city? Will he agree to meet representatives of all those involved in the dispute, so that he can make an informed contribution to the Immigration Minister? David Mundell: I will certainly be happy to meet the hon. Gentleman and other people who have an interest in this matter. I know that he has already had the opportunity to meet UKBA, and I think that he will share with me the positive view that although the people involved will no longer have a contract with Glasgow city council and will instead have one with another provider, many of them will stay in the same properties and that will minimise disruption. Pete Wishart: Does the Minister even start to understand and appreciate the outrage that exists in Scotland about the treatment of asylum seekers? This is not just about the Glasgow situation, appalling though that is; it is also about the detention of children and the operation of the section 4 card. Will he get down to the UKBA to explain that we look at these issues very differently in Scotland and we expect the UKBA to act accordingly? David Mundell: I do recognise that there are concerns in Scotland about how the matter in Glasgow was handled, and the Immigration Minister accepts that the correspondence with those affected could have been much better handled. I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will welcome, as I do, the inquiry that the Scottish Affairs Committee is conducting into relations in Scotland with UKBA.

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Jo Swinson (East Dunbartonshire) (LD): I welcome the Minister’s acceptance that the correspondence could have been handled better on the cancellation of the Glasgow contract, because as a result of letters sent out by UKBA, vulnerable people, including many families, were left in a state of extreme anxiety about where they would be living. Can he reassure us that lessons will be learned from this, so that such mistakes are not repeated in future? David Mundell: Indeed, I can give the hon. Lady that assurance. As soon as these issues came to light, the Secretary of State for Scotland was in contact with the Immigration Minister. There is a recognition that the correspondence was inappropriate, and a number of measures have been taken. For example, everyone affected will have at least 14 days’ notice if they have to move. Progress has been made. The initial letter was regrettable, but the situation will be better in future. HIV 3. David Cairns (Inverclyde) (Lab): What recent discussions he has had with the (a) Secretary of State for Health and (b) Scottish Executive on strategies to [26709] reduce the incidence of HIV in the UK. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (David Mundell): I am in contact with the Secretary of State for Health and the Scottish Government on a range of matters. As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Government published their public health White Paper yesterday. As that is taken forward, close attention will be paid to the lessons that can be learned from the Scottish Government HIV action plan. David Cairns: I am grateful to the Minister for that answer. On world AIDS day, it is worth reminding ourselves of the rather obvious fact that viruses such as HIV do not respect borders. Will he reassure me that as the Government seek to draw up their sexual health and HIV strategy they will work closely with all the devolved Administrations to ensure a coherent and joined-up approach? That is the only way that we will slow the spread of the virus, which has already claimed far too many lives. David Mundell: It is indeed appropriate that the hon. Gentleman has asked his question on world AIDS day. He is to be commended for his work as chairman of the all-party group on HIV and AIDS and for his work on the “Halve It” campaign. The Secretary of State will shortly meet the Minister for Public Health in Scotland, Shona Robison, and I shall ensure that this matter is on the agenda. Iain Stewart (Milton Keynes South) (Con): Will my right hon. Friend give an undertaking to discuss with the Scottish Government the findings from the eight pilot projects that the Department of Health is running to extend HIV testing in primary care hospitals and community centres? David Mundell: I am happy to give that undertaking. As the hon. Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns) intimated, HIV and AIDS know no borders and the rest of the United Kingdom can learn from what has happened in Scotland, just as Scotland can learn from what is happening elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

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Economy 4. Mr David Amess (Southend West) (Con): What recent discussions he has had with the First Minister on the relationship between the UK Government and Scottish Executive with regard to economic policy under the devolution settlement. [26710] The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore): I have had a number of exchanges with the First Minister in recent weeks. Yesterday, the Scotland Bill was introduced in this House. If enacted, the Bill will strengthen devolution by giving the Scottish Parliament a financial stake in the Scottish economy while maintaining the economic strength we all desire from being in the United Kingdom. Mr Amess: Now that we know that the Scottish nationalist party—[HON. MEMBERS: “National party.”] It put Holyrood’s tax-raising powers out of commission for two years without telling the Scottish Parliament. Does the Secretary of State agree that the Scottish Government should be made more accountable for their financial management to such an extent that there should be a closer relationship between economic growth and how much money is spent? Michael Moore: My hon. Friend makes some interesting observations. I can confirm that the Scotland Bill, if enacted, will provide exactly what he asks for. It will empower the Scottish Parliament, increase its financial accountability and secure Scotland’s place in the United Kingdom. Angus Robertson (Moray) (SNP): Where the Scotland Bill makes a real difference to the lives of people in Scotland and to the Scottish economy, it will have the support of the SNP. During the passage of the legislation in this House, will the Secretary of State and his Tory colleagues accept improvements that will deliver additional powers that will give the Scottish economy a competitive advantage? Michael Moore: I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s initial comments. As he is aware, the Bill introduced yesterday and the Command Paper that goes with it are the result of the work not just of the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats but of the Labour party and others across Scotland. I hope that we will get proper engagement. I am confident that the measures in the Bill get the balance right for Scotland. They are right for this time and I am sure that they will pass the test of time. Angus Robertson: The Secretary of State knows that many of Scotland’s leading businessmen and women issued a statement this week, in which they said that there must be “real economic levers to help sustain recovery and grow the economy.”

Will the Secretary of State and his Tory colleagues reconsider their plans and consider improvements to the legislation, such as devolving corporation tax to help business grow? Michael Moore: I listen carefully to a range of opinion from business and elsewhere about the future of Scotland’s—

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Mr Speaker: Order. I apologise for interrupting the Secretary of State. I do not know what the hon. Member for Blyth Valley (Mr Campbell) had for breakfast this morning, but I am not sure that it has had the desired effect. [Interruption.] Order. The hon. Gentleman must not rant at the Government Chief Whip or anybody else. He must calm himself—it is better for his health if he does. Michael Moore: If I can repeat what I was saying before your intervention, Mr Speaker, I listen carefully to a range of opinion from across business and different sectors of Scottish society. The business community was well represented in the Calman commission, which produced and supported the proposal. We will continue to listen to a range of opinion, but we have no intention of devolving powers over corporation tax. Mr Alan Reid (Argyll and Bute) (LD): In 1997, the Scottish people voted to give the Scottish Parliament tax-varying powers, but in a disgraceful and secret decision, the SNP Government gave up those powers. I welcome the Scotland Bill. Will the Secretary of State assure us that those tax-varying powers will remain with the Scottish Parliament and that the Bill will be phrased in such a way that, were the SNP ever elected again, it would not be able to give up those powers in a secret decision?

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Ann McKechin: Unfortunately, yet again Scotland’s youth are not the Secretary of State’s priority. His party does not think twice about dancing on the head of a pin. In its autumn edition of “Scottish News Extra”, which is turning out to be one of Scotland’s better reads, his colleague, the Business Secretary, is described as “launching a scathing attack on the previous government’s unfair tuition fees which still have to be paid by Scottish students studying elsewhere in the UK. He likened tuition fees to the infamous poll tax.”

Now that his colleague has said that he may abstain on the forthcoming vote to increase tuition fees in England to £9,000, will the Secretary of State confirm whether he will support the increase, whether he will vote against it in support of the 3,000-plus Scottish students who are directly affected, or whether he will be absent again from the vote? Mr Speaker: Order. In replying, the Secretary of State must bear in mind that we are referring to economic policy rather than higher education policy. Michael Moore: It is interesting that the hon. Lady interpreted the question by seeking to get away from anything that might focus attention on Labour’s record on the economy and on our determination to create the conditions that will get us back to sustainable growth for Scotland and the United Kingdom. Scotch Whisky

Michael Moore: As my hon. Friend knows, the consequences of the Scottish Government’s decision not to maintain the Scottish variable rate have been debated in the Scottish Parliament in recent days. The fundamental difference between the existing arrangements and what will follow if the Bill is enacted is that the Bill will create a Scottish income tax that sits alongside United Kingdom income tax, and there will be a requirement to set that rate every year. That is a fundamental change, and it will bring the accountability and empowerment that I discussed earlier, which will be a good thing for Scotland. Ann McKechin (Glasgow North) (Lab): It is shocking that both the UK and Scottish Administrations are failing to prioritise job growth. While there was a slight fall in UK-wide unemployment last month, the jobless total for Scotland continued to increase. The latest figures show that in Campbeltown an astonishing 13 claimants are chasing every available job. Our youngest people are suffering the most, and if Labour wins in 2011, we are committed to continuing the future jobs fund to help them into work. Why is the Secretary of State set on removing that vital support, while at the same time supporting tax cuts for our biggest banks, which are at the root of our economic problems? Michael Moore: That was an interesting insight into the Opposition’s economic policy, although I realise that Opposition Front Benchers are divided on exactly what it should be. I remind the hon. Lady that we are dealing with the consequences of the largest deficit in peacetime history—£155,000 million. We took urgent action to deal with that, which has drawn us back from the danger zone. We will announce proposals in due course on the Work programme which will replace the future jobs fund. We are dedicated to ensuring that we create the conditions for growth and for a private sector-led recovery to deal with the problems that we inherited.

6. Mr Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con): What recent discussions he has had with representatives of the Scotch whisky industry; and if he will make a [26712] statement. The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore): I regularly have exchanges with the industry and will be meeting the Scotch Whisky Association in the near future. Mr Holloway: The Prime Minister’s recent trade delegation to China succeeded in securing geographical indication of origin status for Scotch whisky. How much will that be worth to the UK trade balance? Michael Moore: The importance of the Scotch whisky industry, not just to Scotland but to the United Kingdom, is shown by the fact that it contributes roughly £4 billion to our economy, £3 billion of which is represented by exports. At the moment our exports to China are very small in comparison with those to the rest of the world. This important new concession—this agreement with the Chinese—which we very much welcome, will ensure that we can grow our exports in China as we have done in the rest of the world. Mr Brian H. Donohoe (Central Ayrshire) (Lab): I declare an interest as secretary of the all-party group on Scotch whisky and spirits. What representations has the Secretary of State made to the Treasury in connection with the imbalance in the tax on whisky? Michael Moore: As the hon. Gentleman will know from his distinguished position, the industry is well represented in discussions with the Treasury at all times throughout the year, as it was under the previous Administration. I continue to have discussions with my Treasury colleagues on this very important issue, and will continue to do so in the months ahead.

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Stewart Hosie (Dundee East) (SNP): The Secretary of State will know that only yesterday the Scotch Whisky Association said that the Treasury’s review on alcohol tax was a missed opportunity. Will he confirm to the House today that he will make specific representations to his Treasury colleagues for fair taxation of all alcoholic drinks based on their alcohol content only, and no other spurious issues? Michael Moore: The hon. Gentleman has a distinguished record of following these issues very carefully. He will have made representations, as has the industry. The review was concluded a few weeks ago and will report in due course. As I said in answer to the earlier question, I will continue to discuss these issues with the Treasury. Commonwealth Games 7. Greg Hands (Chelsea and Fulham) (Con): What assessment he has made of the lessons learned from the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth games which could inform his Department’s contribution to the 2014 Glasgow [26713] Commonwealth games. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (David Mundell): The Commonwealth Games Federation is currently leading a formal review of the Delhi games. The Scottish Government and Glasgow 2014 games partners are participating in that review, and will be seeking to identify the key messages to inform planning for the 2014 games. The Scotland Office will do whatever we can to contribute to a successful games in 2014. Greg Hands: The Minister will know that one of Delhi’s troubles was in attracting the top athletes. What will the UK Government do to ensure that the best from across the Commonwealth come to Glasgow in 2014? David Mundell: As the hon. Gentleman will appreciate, most of the responsibilities in respect of the 2014 Commonwealth games are devolved and rest with the organising committee. I have already met the leader of Glasgow city council and assured him that the UK Government will do everything that we can to support a successful games. Economy 8. Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): What recent discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on measures to promote economic growth in [26714] Scotland. The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore): I have regular discussions with ministerial colleagues on this issue. In the spending review, the UK Government took decisive action to reduce the inherited record deficit. Along with the June Budget, the spending review has set the conditions to promote a balanced economy and sustainable economic growth for all parts of the UK. Julian Smith: The Scottish Government used to be very keen on the economic growth achieved by Ireland. Will the Secretary of State assure me that, as well as taking measures to promote growth, he will ensure that the First Minister has fiscal responsibility at the top of his agenda?

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Michael Moore: All of us are very concerned about what has happened to Ireland in recent months, and our Government have set out some very important steps that we are taking to contribute to the recovery in Ireland and other parts of Europe. We need to ensure Scotland’s place within the stability of the United Kingdom. The Scotland Bill, given its First Reading in this House yesterday, will ensure that we give Scotland the tools to achieve that, and I hope that it will be an Act in due course. Mr Frank Roy (Motherwell and Wishaw) (Lab): For every job vacancy in Lanarkshire there are 10 people on jobseeker’s allowance. Indeed, in Motherwell and Wishaw, that figure rises to 12 or 13. What priority will the Secretary of State give to the Lanarkshire economy to ensure that it gets back on track as quickly as possible? [Interruption.] Mr Speaker: Order. There are far too many private conversations of a noisy character taking place in the Chamber. I want to hear the Secretary of State. Michael Moore: I recognise the challenges faced by Lanarkshire and other parts of the Scottish economy and by those who are looking for a job. As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, I visited Lanarkshire recently and met people who are working their way into employment, and students at Motherwell college. We have to keep focused, and we have to put in place the right conditions to ensure that we achieve a sustainable recovery across the country. I believe that the measures we are taking will ensure that that happens. Sir Robert Smith (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): The Secretary of State will know from his visit to the north-east of Scotland just how important the region is, not just to the Scottish economy, but to the UK economy as a whole. We received a welcome boost this week with the announcement of the extension of the runway at Aberdeen airport and improvement in that transport link, but will he emphasise to the Scottish Government that all transport links in the north-east need to be improved? They do not need new levers to improve Scotland’s economy; they need to use the existing levers, as well. Michael Moore: My hon. Friend makes an important point. Our Government here in the United Kingdom are committed to ensuring that we invest in infrastructure that will support growth, and we have produced other support for business that is geared towards growth, but I take his points about the Scottish Government. His points will have been heard, and I am sure that they will form the basis of further discussions between myself and Scottish Ministers. VAT 9. Pamela Nash (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab): What recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the effect on average household outgoings in Scotland of raising the rate of value [26715] added tax to 20%. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (David Mundell): The VAT rise is part of the Government’s credible plan to tackle the largest deficit in peacetime history. Difficult decisions are necessary, but as a

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consequence we will get our country back on a sustainable economic footing, to the benefit of everyone. Pamela Nash: Does the Minister not agree that the rise in VAT—the most regressive tax, by his party leader’s own admission—will hit the poorest in our society hardest, particularly in Scotland, where incomes are lower and jobs continue to be lost? David Mundell: What I acknowledge is that the Labour Government left us with a deficit £12 billion larger than they had told us, and that if we do not tackle that deficit everyone in Scotland will be worse off. [Interruption.] Mr Speaker: Order. This sort of noise is very discourteous. I want to hear Fiona O’Donnell. Fiona O’Donnell (East Lothian) (Lab): Thank you, Mr Speaker. The voluntary sector in Scotland plays a vital role in supporting some of our most vulnerable families. The increase in VAT will cost Scotland’s voluntary sector dearly. What is the Minister actually doing to support that sector, so that it can deliver his vision of a big society? David Mundell: This Government are committed to supporting the voluntary sector in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK, but the hon. Lady should tell people in that sector and elsewhere in Scotland that the rise in VAT is a consequence of her party’s Government’s overspending. MOD Hospital Unit 10. Katy Clark (North Ayrshire and Arran) (Lab): What discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on commissioning a Ministry of Defence [26716] hospital unit in Scotland. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (David Mundell): Although there are currently no plans to extend the existing network of Ministry of Defence hospital units, I can assure the hon. Lady that the Government recognise the importance of maintaining world-class medical services for our armed forces in the UK. Katy Clark: Despite the increase in the number of injured coming back, we have no MOD hospital unit in Scotland. Organisations such as the Royal British Legion Scotland believe that there should be one. Will he meet the Royal British Legion Scotland, myself and any interested colleagues to discuss the matter? David Mundell: Indeed, I am happy to meet the hon. Lady and any colleagues. It is important to say, though, that many military personnel are treated extremely well in non-military hospitals in Scotland, where they are closer to their friends and family.

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trends remain mixed. This Government will continue to create the conditions to foster sustainable and balanced economic growth. Mr Davidson: What steps are the Government taking to ensure that unemployment in Scotland does not rise to the level in the Republic of Ireland—part of the circle of misery? Does he agree with me that a small country and bad banks result in misery for working people? Michael Moore: I am happy to agree with the hon. Gentleman that Scotland benefits hugely from being part of the United Kingdom, and under our proposals set out in the Scotland Bill, it will firmly stay within the United Kingdom. Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con): Does the Secretary of State agree that current levels of unemployment in Scotland are the fault of 13 years of mismanagement by the previous Labour Government and that the people of Scotland need to back this coalition Government to give Scotland a chance again? Michael Moore: Since this Government came to office, they have taken decisive action to tackle the issues that we inherited—a record deficit of £155,000 million. We have pulled Britain back from the danger zone, we are setting out the conditions for sustainable economic growth, and that is the right way for this country. Economy 12. Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con): What recent estimate he has made of levels of economic growth and inward investment in Scotland. [26719] The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore): The latest official statistics show strong economic growth in Scotland in the second quarter of this year. We are determined to ensure that Scotland will benefit as the Government tackle the deficit to secure growth, and provide the confidence that businesses and individuals need to invest. Mel Stride: Can my right hon. Friend tell the House whether those figures support the claim made by the last Labour Secretary of State for Scotland that the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) would be a “kamikaze” Prime Minister who would “plunge” Scotland “back into recession”? Michael Moore: Funnily enough, I completely disagree with that assessment. I am pleased to say that not only has the Prime Minister led the Government’s efforts to get us away from the danger zone that the economy was in, but he has set out a constitutional path for Scotland that will enhance its economic growth and keep it within the United Kingdom.

Employment PRIME MINISTER 11. Mr Ian Davidson (Glasgow South West) (Lab/Co-op): What recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of employment in Scotland; and if he will make a [26718] statement.

The Prime Minister was asked—

The Secretary of State for Scotland (Michael Moore): In recent months, the numbers in employment have been rising in Scotland, though overall labour market

Q1. [27558] Margaret Curran (Glasgow East) (Lab): If he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 1 December.

Engagements

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The Prime Minister (Mr David Cameron): This morning I returned from Zurich, where I have been meeting decision makers, aiming to convince them of what a brilliant World cup England could host in 2018. On my return, I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall have further such meetings later today. Margaret Curran: May I give the Prime Minister Glasgow’s best wishes in the bid for England? I mean that most sincerely. In a recent Lib Dem leaflet in Scotland, the Business Secretary compares tuition fees to the poll tax. Is it acceptable for the Business Secretary to say one thing in the House and, when campaigning for votes in Scotland, to condemn that policy? The Prime Minister: I thank the hon. Lady for what she says about the England 2018 World cup. I know she would never mislead the House, so I know that what she said was utterly sincere, and I am sure it is shared by Members, whatever part of the United Kingdom they represent. On tuition fees, let us look at the system that we are introducing. Under the new system, nobody pays anything up front. Every single student will pay less per month than they do currently. Half a million students will benefit from the increase in maintenance loans. It is time we started looking at the substance of the issue, rather than just the process. Q2. [27559] Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con): The Prime Minister explained how he is shuttling between London and Zurich in support of England’s World cup bid. Can he update the House on how that bid is progressing, please? The Prime Minister: I am grateful for that question. England 2018 has a very strong bid. With regard to the technical aspects, we have the stadiums, the facilities and the transport networks. We have the enthusiasm in our country for football and we can put on an absolutely first-class World cup. I know that many people will ask, “Are you spending too much time on something that might not succeed?” I would say, “If you don’t get on to the pitch, you have no chance of winning.” We should all get behind the bid. Edward Miliband (Doncaster North) (Lab): I start by wishing the Prime Minister well as he plays his part in efforts to secure England’s bid for the 2018 World cup. As he says, ours is a fantastic bid and all of us will be hoping for a successful outcome tomorrow. We note that the Deputy Prime Minister is away on official business, and left the country before the tuition fees vote, but of course we understand that he had urgent business to attend to in Kazakhstan and we wish him well in that. The Office for Budget Responsibility forecast on Monday was hailed as a great sign of success by the Chancellor, but I want to test out what it will mean for families up and down the country. The Prime Minister has been telling us for months that under his plans unemployment will fall next year, but on Monday the OBR said that unemployment would rise next year. Can he explain why that is the case?

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The Prime Minister: First, I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his kind remarks about the England 2018 bid. I know that the former Prime Minister worked extremely hard on it, and I know that there is cross-party support for it. We need to maintain that as we go into the vital last 48 hours. The right hon. Gentleman asked about the OBR forecast, which the Chancellor announced on Monday. Let me stress again that these are independent forecasts, published for the first time independently, and not interfered with by a Chancellor of the Exchequer. On unemployment, what the Office for Budget Responsibility found is that unemployment this year will be lower than previously forecast. It has not altered its forecast for unemployment next year, for which it is forecasting a rate of 8%, but it is forecasting increases in employment all the way through the forecast period. Above all, what the forecasts showed is that our policy of trying to cut the deficit and get growth at the same time is working. Edward Miliband: What the OBR actually shows is that growth will slow next year compared with the forecast, and that is what will mean that unemployment will rise. What the Prime Minister needs to explain is why unemployment will fall next year in the USA, in Germany and in other major industrial countries, but will rise in the United Kingdom. Why is that the case? The Prime Minister: I know that the right hon. Gentleman is determined to talk down the economy, but even he will find difficulty in finding depressing statistics in the OBR’s report, because, generally speaking, what it reported was good news for the UK economy. It finds, and the last European Commission forecast report found, that average UK growth for the next two years will be higher than in Germany, France, the US, Japan, and the eurozone, or the EU average. It would be more worth while for us to debate across the Dispatch Box how we get the country’s growth rate up. What reforms do we make to try to make our economy more efficient? Has he got something to say about that, or is it another blank page? Edward Miliband: The Prime Minister asks how we get the growth of the economy up—absolutely right. What we should not do is put up VAT next year from 4 January and cut public spending by £20 billion. That is why the OBR says that we will have the weakest recovery from recession for 40 years. I come back to my point about unemployment. Can he tell us when, over the five years of the Parliament, unemployment will return to pre-crisis levels? That tests the strength of the recovery. When will it return to the levels before the recession? The Prime Minister: We inherited an 8% unemployment rate, and the OBR says that it will be 6% by the end of the Parliament. He asked the question, he gets the answer. Let me just remind the right hon. Gentleman of something. At the last election, the Labour party, himself included, said that if we cut £6 billion out of the Budget, it would end in catastrophe for the British economy. He was proved completely and utterly wrong. Edward Miliband: Mr. Speaker, have you ever heard a more complacent answer to a question? Families up and down the country are worried about their jobs and

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unemployment will rise next year, and all the Prime Minister can say is that it is some kind of rosy scenario. Let us take the rise in VAT, because that is one of the reasons why unemployment will rise next year. Can the Prime Minister tell us what impact that will have on economic growth and jobs next year? The Prime Minister: First of all, let me deal with VAT precisely. The former Chancellor, the right hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Mr Darling) said: “VAT would have allowed you to pay off a sizeable chunk of the deficit.”

That is the policy that the last Chancellor supported. If we had followed over the last six months the advice of the Leader of the Opposition, we would be linked with Portugal, with Ireland—[HON. MEMBERS: “No.”] Yes. We would not be standing here today discussing how we will get faster growth and lower unemployment; we would be sitting around discussing how to rescue and bail out Britain. Edward Miliband: Okay, Mr. Speaker—[[HON. MEMBERS: “Ooh!”] You can rewrite history for only so long. Let us be—[Interruption.] Let us be absolutely clear about this—[Interruption.] Mr Speaker: Order. We are wasting the time of BackBench Members. Let us hear the Leader of the Opposition. Edward Miliband: The deficit was 2.5% of national income before the crisis—the recession—hit all around the world. It went up all around the world; it was a global economic recession. The question is: should we cut too far and too fast, which is what the Prime Minister is doing, so that there are four years of sluggish recovery—the most sluggish recovery from recession in 40 years? Why does the Prime Minister not answer the question? Is this the most sluggish recovery from recession in Britain for the last 40 years? Yes or no? The Prime Minister: This is one of the fastest recoveries in Europe, and the point is, if we had followed the right hon. Gentleman’s advice we would not be discussing recovery; we would be discussing meltdown. He can have a blank sheet of paper about the future; he cannot have a blank sheet of paper about the past. We know we were left a record budget deficit; we remember “no more boom and bust”; we remember all the things that he was responsible for. I have to say to him that, after all that—and he has been doing the job for the last three months—people are beginning to ask, “When’s he going to start?” Edward Miliband: With that answer, it is no wonder that today we learn that the Foreign Secretary describes this gang as the “children of Thatcher”. It sounds just like the 1980s—out of touch with people up and down the country. Why does the Prime Minister not admit that he is complacent about the recovery and complacent about the people who will lose their jobs? And it is they who will pay the price. The Prime Minister: Not waving, but drowning. My mother is still with us, so she is able to testify that what the right hon. Gentleman has just claimed is not literally true, but let me say this: I would rather be a child of Thatcher than a son of Brown. [Interruption.] Mr Speaker: Order. I call Tobias Ellwood.

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Mr Tobias Ellwood (Bournemouth East) (Con): Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Prime Minister will be aware that British citizens affected by the 7/7 bombings were supported by the criminal injuries compensation scheme. However, when such attacks take place abroad, such as in Bali, Mumbai or Sharm el Sheikh, no such compensation for things such as prosthesis and long-term care exists. Does the Prime Minister agree that any Britons caught up in terrorist attacks deserve our support, no matter where in the world that attack takes place? The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is entirely right to raise that issue. People who are victims of terror, whether at home or overseas, deserve our support, as he says. People might not know, but my hon. Friend’s brother was tragically killed in the Bali bombing—that horrific attack that took place some years ago. We are looking at this very difficult issue of trying to make sure that, when we consider criminal injuries compensation and what has been proposed for injuries overseas, we have a fair and reasonable system. The Justice Secretary is looking at that, and we will come forward with proposals. Q3. [27560] Lindsay Roy (Glenrothes) (Lab): The Prime Minister’s Government are spending £4 billion so that councils can promote wellness, £2 billion on reorganising the NHS, £100 million on electing police commissioners and £2 million on a happiness survey. Does that not demonstrate that the Prime Minister has lost touch with reality? The Prime Minister: No, it does not. Let me take— [Interruption.] Generally speaking, I think the hon. Gentleman should cheer up a bit. Let me take the issue of NHS reform. Even with the settlement that we have set out for the NHS, which involves real-terms increases each year, if we stand still with the NHS and keep the current system, we will find it running into very severe problems each and every year. So, it is necessary to reform the NHS, it is necessary to cut out bureaucracy and it is necessary to reduce management costs, so that we have a system where we actually try to create a healthier nation and, therefore, reduce the demands on our NHS. That is what our reforms are all about. Q4. [27561] Mr Philip Hollobone (Kettering) (Con): Along with Jamaica, Nigeria and Vietnam, the Irish Republic has one of the largest groups of foreign national prisoners in the UK. Given that we are about to lend it more than £7 billion, could the Irish Republic be persuaded to pay for the incarceration of those people by taking them back to jails in their own country? The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend makes an extremely good point. We are looking at how we can transfer prisoners who are foreign nationals from the UK to other countries. Obviously with Ireland the situation is slightly different, because of the long relationship between our countries. The previous Government announced that they would not routinely support the deportation of Irish nationals from the UK; that was announced in February 2007. Since then, there has been a European directive that is helpful, because it makes more automatic the removal of prisoners to other countries. But there is

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still the specific issue with Ireland, and I will ask my right hon. and learned Friend the Justice Secretary to look at it to see whether we can do a little better. Mrs Louise Ellman (Liverpool, Riverside) (Lab/Co-op): The Government are cutting their teaching grant to Liverpool university by 30%, to Liverpool John Moores university by 70%, and to Liverpool Hope university by 97%. Is this a policy for closing down opportunity? The Prime Minister: No, this is a policy to make sure that we have a strong university sector in this country. [Interruption.] Opposition Members can object, but it was the Conservatives and the Labour Government who set up the Browne review. I would recommend that hon. Members read the Browne review, because with the alternative of staying where we are now, we would either have to cut student numbers or find universities struggling. What Browne has come up with is a proper answer for a strong university sector for the future. Q5. [27562] Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD): Does the Prime Minister agree that when this Government are devising policy they should look at the evidence of what works in tackling reoffending, substance abuse and youth crime, rather than relying on the tub-thumping, shroud-waving, ambulancechasing antics that pass for a policy-making process in the Labour party? The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point. The fact is that with the difficulties of the budget deficit and the spending problems that we have, we do not have any choice but to look at the evidence and make sure that what we do works and is cost-effective. I think that we should start with the issue of drug rehabilitation, because if we can reduce drug-related crime and cut those costs we will make very great progress. Steve Rotheram (Liverpool, Walton) (Lab): Will the Prime Minister carry out an urgent check on the satellite navigation system used in ministerial cars? My concern is that just a few short months ago the Deputy Prime Minister could not be stopped from driving himself from university campus to university campus, but since he has got his chauffeur-driven ministerial car, he has not been seen near a student union. Is the sat-nav broke, or has he simply lost his political direction? The Prime Minister: That was a wonderfully involved metaphor. At least the Deputy Prime Minister can make up his mind whether to join a demo or not—the Leader of the Opposition cannot even decide whether to sit on the fence. Q6. [27563] Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con): Last week the governors of Christleton high school in my constituency made the decision to apply for academy status. However, before they made that decision, they faced a barrage of opposition from trade unions and local Labour party activists. What message would the Prime Minister send to those who seek to undermine much needed reforms of public services in order to fulfil old-fashioned, outdated, left-wing ideology?

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The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend is entirely right. The academy movement—just like the city technology colleges before it—has brought greater independence and greater authority to head teachers and has led to an improvement in educational standards. If Labour Members have got any sense, they will not back off from it, and they should tell their friends in the trade union movement to stop objecting to new academies. Q7. [27564] Lisa Nandy (Wigan) (Lab): I have recently come across workers in Wigan who were forced by gangmasters to work 12 hours a day, seven days a week, below the minimum wage, and were threatened and bullied when they complained. Why have the Prime Minister’s Government failed to take any action to tackle this issue? Will he join me in supporting the Gangmasters Licensing (Extension to Construction Industry) Bill and help to bring an end to this appalling abuse? The Prime Minister: This is a problem, and it is not one that has arisen suddenly under this Government—it has been a problem for many years. There are problems with gangmasters not paying the minimum wage, and we need to make sure that this is properly policed. Q8. [27565] David T. C. Davies (Monmouth) (Con): Does the Prime Minister agree that the Olympics offer a golden opportunity to encourage more disabled people to take part in sport? Would he like to pay tribute to the Welsh Paralympic team, who we hope will be visiting the Welsh Affairs Committee in February? Should my right hon. Friend be available on that day, he would be very welcome to come and give his best regards. The Prime Minister: I am happy to endorse what my hon. Friend says. As to his invitation, as he is an amateur boxer, I should probably say yes immediately. It is great that the Paralympics are returning to their birthplace for London 2012, and I am sure that it will be a great showcase for sporting talent. Obviously, I wish the Welsh team well. Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): As the happy son of Paisley, may I too wish the Prime Minister well in his bid to bring the World cup to the United Kingdom? Will he support the campaign of the historic town of Ballymena in County Antrim to achieve city status during Her Majesty’s jubilee year? The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman is not only metaphorically, but biologically the son of Paisley—he is on safe ground there. I shall certainly look at the matter that he raises. I know that campaigns for city status can gain great traction. Before I start endorsing every single one, I shall look at what he has said, but I am sure that there is a strong case. Q9. [27566] Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con): The Prime Minister may have noted that the Leader of the Opposition approaches economic questions with the acumen of a novice out of his depth. By the next general election, families in my constituency will each have paid back £21,000 in Government debt. Will the Prime Minister resist Opposition demands to scale back on the deficit-reduction measures?

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The Prime Minister: I will certainly resist those demands. The fact is that we inherited a situation that was completely unsustainable. Not just the Conservative party made that point; the Governor of the Bank of England, the CBI, the Institute of Directors, the OECD and the IMF were all saying that the previous Government did not have a proper plan. We needed a plan, we have got a plan and we should stick to that plan. Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South) (Lab): I wish the Prime Minister well in his efforts in Zurich and hope that we will get the right result tomorrow. There was a great debate in the House yesterday on school sport partnerships and there was consensus that something needed to be done. There was an offer from the shadow Front-Bench team to try to come to an arrangement on the issue. Will he look at it urgently with the Secretary of State for Education? I am sure that we can resolve this matter, because it is important that sport is available to all. The Prime Minister: I know that the hon. Gentleman was a very successful Sports Minister in the previous Government. I thank him for his endorsement of the 2018 bid and all that we are doing to win for England. The hon. Gentleman’s point about school sport is important. I am looking carefully at yesterday’s debate. We all have a shared interest: we all want good sport in schools and more competitive sport, and we all have to ensure that money is spent well. Everyone accepts that not every penny was spent well in the past. There is a quite bureaucratic system. The Secretaries of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport and for Education are working hard on this issue. We are talking with head teachers to ensure that what we come up with works on the ground. I hope that we will be able to make an announcement soon. Q10. [27567] Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con): The plans to link London and Manchester by high-speed rail will bring huge economic benefits to my constituency and the greater north-west. Does the Prime Minister agree that anyone who wants to eliminate inequality between north and south should support High Speed 2? The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend makes the right point in the right way. I understand that there will be difficulties with High Speed 2 in terms of the impact on some hon. Members’ constituencies and on some neighbourhoods. However, it is true to say that Governments of all parties for 50 years have tried to deal better with the north-south divide and to bring our country closer together. I profoundly believe that high-speed rail and good transport links are a really good way of making that happen. This measure could succeed where others, frankly, have failed. Q11. [27568] Tony Lloyd (Manchester Central) (Lab): The community of Collyhurst in Manchester has waited patiently and stoically with its insecure doors and draughty windows, while it has seen huge regeneration across large parts of Manchester. The Prime Minister will understand the sense of anger and despair in that community last week when the Minister for Housing and Local Government announced that its regeneration will not go ahead. Will the Prime Minister or the Minister for Housing and Local Government

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meet my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer) in Collyhurst with tenants’ representatives to see how the matter can be taken forward? The Prime Minister: I will make sure that the Minister for Housing and Local Government does as the hon. Gentleman says. The regional growth fund will be available for investment in those sorts of areas, and the replacement of regional development agencies—the local enterprise partnerships—will, partly because they will be more locally based, have a finer-tuned ear to local problems such as the one that the hon. Gentleman raises. Q12. [27569] Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) (Con): With the renewed prospect of travel chaos for British Airways passengers, will the Prime Minister condemn the leader of Unite’s implied threat to families when he said to them, “Don’t go on holiday”? The Prime Minister: Opposition Members do not seem to think it is serious that we now have trade union leaders who actually say that there is no such thing as an irresponsible strike. There is such a thing, and those who are bankrolled by the unions ought to speak up about it. Q13. [27570] Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab): Every year, about 25,000 people die from thrombosis in hospitals, which is two to three times greater than the number of people who die from hospital-acquired infection, yet many of those deaths are avoidable if hospitals follow the NHS guidance on blood clot risk-assessment. What are the Prime Minister’s Government doing to ensure that the UK’s No. 1 hospital killer becomes the NHS’s No. 1 health priority? The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point, and I know that he is chair of the all-party group on thrombosis. In answer to his question about what we are going to do, the first thing is to make available more information. It was a freedom of information request by the all-party group that showed that only 14 acute trusts in England were even close to meeting the goals for risk-assessing patients submitted to hospital for the dangers of thrombosis and blood clots. He is right, and the best thing that we can do is provide more information. That will help us to ensure that hospitals are coming up to the mark. Stephen Williams (Bristol West) (LD): The Prime Minister will be aware, I am sure, that today is world AIDS day. What are the coalition Government doing to ensure that the tide of HIV is stemmed both at home and abroad? The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to raise that issue, and to say that we need to look at what is happening both at home and abroad. Abroad, the biggest decision was to maintain the commitment to 0.7% of gross national income going to our aid budget, and we make a very big contribution out of that budget to the battle against AIDS globally and to ensuring that antiretroviral drugs are made available. We also have to look at home, where there are worrying signs of infection rates that are still extremely high. We need to get the message out today and on other days about the importance of safe sex and the precautions that people should take.

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Q14. [27571] Grahame M. Morris (Easington) (Lab): I have just got back from a visit to Israel and the west bank, and I was shocked to witness with my own eyes 13-year-old Palestinian children in leg irons and manacles in Israeli military prisons. That is one of numerous breaches of the UN charter and of article 49 of the fourth Geneva convention. Whether or not the Prime Minister is the legitimate son of Thatcher, I am sure that as a father he would join me in condemning that appalling practice, but what will the British Government do to put pressure on the Israeli Government to comply with their obligations under international law and to relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people in both the west bank and Gaza? The Prime Minister: The hon. Gentleman raises an extremely important point. Every country should obey the Geneva convention and the other conventions that it has signed, and Israel should be no exception to that. Ministers in the Government I lead raise those issues with Israeli Ministers, as we should, and that is extremely important. The fact is, what we really need is a long-term settlement of the Palestinian issue, and we want a two-state solution. It is very important that we put pressure on both sides at all times to ensure that we make progress. The lack of progress only plays into the hands of the extremists, and we can see that all the moderates in the middle east who are trying to make progress are being undermined by our failure to do better. Q15. [27572] Priti Patel (Witham) (Con): If the Human Rights Act is “a glaring example of what is going wrong in our country”,

when will the Government put the human rights of the law-abiding majority above those of dangerous convicted criminals? The Prime Minister: It is right that we should be replacing the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights. I have personally looked at the matter long and hard and believe that there is no better solution than that. We are committed to starting a process of looking at that to see whether we can remove some of the nonsenses that have grown up over recent years and show that we can have a commitment to proper rights, but they should be written down here in this country. Eric Joyce (Falkirk) (Lab): The Government have announced an injection of £50 million of new money into the interim cancer drugs fund. Can the Prime Minister say whether there will be Barnett consequentials for Scotland, because that is new money? The Prime Minister: We have not made any changes to the Barnett formula, so if that is Barnett-able, as it were, there will be consequentials, and if it is not, there will not be.

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Bob Russell (Colchester) (LD): Does the Prime Minister think it fair that a war widow has to pay income tax on her war widow’s pension? The Prime Minister: My hon. Friend raises a very good point. We need to look at all those sorts of issues under the work that we are doing on the military covenant—there are very complicated issues of pensions and interaction with taxes. I do not want to give a flip answer from the Dispatch Box; we have a proper process of looking at the military covenant, which is the right way to do things. Caroline Lucas (Brighton, Pavilion) (Green): Climate finance will be critical at the ongoing climate summit at Cancun. Although I welcome the fact that the Government have pledged £2.9 billion to the global climate fund, will the Prime Minister confirm that any future money pledge will be additional to existing aid budgets, and can he say what further innovative funding mechanisms he plans to employ to deliver the UK’s share of the annual $100 billion pledged at Copenhagen? The Prime Minister: The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise that. Although Cancun will not achieve the binding global agreement that we want, it can make important steps towards that, so we can stay on track. On climate finance, first, we will stick to what was set out previously on the limit in the aid budget for money used for climate change purposes, although there are very real connections between climate change and poverty; and secondly, there is a commitment, which we will keep to, of £2.9 billion for climate change finance. Britain is a leader on that, but as she said, we must look at innovative ways of levering in more money from other parts of the world, including—frankly—from some fast-growing areas which, when Kyoto was first thought of, were very underdeveloped and are now fast-developing countries. We need to help them, but the finance should not flow only from us. Daniel Kawczynski (Shrewsbury and Atcham) (Con): Will the Prime Minister have urgent talks with the Leader of the House and the Business Secretary on introducing legislation for a national regulator or ombudsman for supermarkets before more suppliers are decimated by their conduct? The Prime Minister: We have new arrangements in terms of ensuring that supermarkets treat farmers fairly. All of us as constituency MPs have heard stories about supermarkets behaving very aggressively towards farmers, and it is right that there is a proper way of trying to police that independently, so that our farmers get a fair deal for the food that they produce.

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Point of Order 12.32 pm Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab): On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I should like to secure advice on an answer that was provided to me yesterday during questions to the Attorney-General. In response to my question—[Interruption.] Mr Speaker: Order. May I appeal to hon. and right hon. Members who are leaving the Chamber to do so quickly and quietly? It would be helpful if I could hear the point of order from the hon. Lady—I might then be in a position to respond to it. Chi Onwurah: I asked the Solicitor-General about the UK’s failure to sign up to the proposed EU directive on preventing and combating the trafficking of human beings. He said that the UK was a signatory, and repeated that in response to a question from my hon. Friend the Member for West Dunbartonshire (Gemma Doyle). However, that is not the case: the UK has opted out of the proposed directive. Could you advise me, Mr Speaker, on what is the best way for the SolicitorGeneral to correct his mistake? Mr Speaker: I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her point of order. The short answer to her question is that the best way for a mistake to be corrected is for the Minister, if he has made a mistake, to correct it. We are about to hear from the hon. and learned Solicitor-General. The Solicitor-General (Mr Edward Garnier): There was a degree of confusion; the hon. Lady’s question was too general. I answered the question correctly. There are two European directives, one of which is signed, and one of which is not, hence the confusion. The former right hon. Member for Airdrie and Shotts, now Lord Reid, signed on behalf of the Government the European directive to which I referred in my answer yesterday. The hon. Lady may have referred to a different directive that has not yet been signed, so we were both right and we were both wrong. Mr Speaker: I do not want in any sense to treat this matter with levity, but I hope the Solicitor-General will understand if I say that that absolutely ingenious response is proof of the argument that no reply from a lawyer is ever simple. The Solicitor-General rose— Mr Speaker: Order. We are grateful to the hon. and learned Gentleman. The hon. Lady has put her view very fairly and squarely on the record. We will leave it there for today. I am grateful to the hon. Lady, and indeed to the Solicitor-General.

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Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (Amendment) Motion for leave to bring in a Bill (Standing Order No. 23) 12.34 pm Alison McGovern (Wirral South) (Lab): I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 to broaden the scope of the general duty of library authorities so as to include a duty to provide related cultural facilities alongside the library service; and for connected purposes.

At a time of global economic turmoil, it may seem strange to some to want to talk about culture. However, I would like to quote in favour of doing so one of this country’s finest economists, Maynard Keynes. On the publication of the first annual report of the Arts Council in 1945, he said: “The day is not far off when the economic problem will take the back seat where it belongs, and the arena of the heart and the head will be occupied…by our real problems—the problems of life and of human relations, of creation”.

He was right about that. The economic problems that we face are real, many and serious; however, culture and its role in our towns and cities is highly important. I want to raise the matter in my ten-minute rule Bill, in order to put on record my concerns about what could happen to culture in some of our towns, cities and counties in Britain. There is real fear out there that there could be not just cuts in the arts sector—everybody appreciates that there will be cuts and that the cultural sector will need to bear its share of efficiencies—but the total withdrawal by some local authorities from providing cultural services. I give the example of Somerset, which recently cut all 160,000 of its direct grants to arts and cultural bodies, while Bedfordshire looks set no longer to fund its music service. I draw on my own experience as a councillor in the London borough of Southwark, where I had to watch the local authority close the only children’s museum in London. That showed me the importance of ensuring that local authorities continue to prioritise culture. Of course local funding choices are important. I would not dream of telling local authorities what to do—by and large. The Government’s role in giving local authorities enough funding will have a massive part to play in determining whether they can provide decent cultural services. Nor do I want to be prescriptive. I am not introducing my Bill in order to tell local authorities that one kind of culture is good for them. Diversity in the cultural services provided by our local authorities is a truly good thing. In my experience, great local authorities lead on culture in places as diverse as Kent, Merseyside—my part of the world—and Leicester. We have some visionary local authorities. I pay tribute to what they do in ensuring that our towns and cities are places we can be proud of, and where there are public spaces that bring people together to share in their history and heritage. The reason for my suggestion is to start a debate. The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 gives the Culture Secretary an important role. It enables the Culture Secretary, if they feel it necessary, to say to a local authority, “You’re in danger of not providing sufficient library services. I want you to stop with those plans.

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[Alison McGovern] They’re not good enough for the people in your area. They need a library service that provides public education”—and for a very good reason. My argument is that this public education role should be extended to the wider cultural service. There are lots of people in local authorities up and down the country who are fearful of what is to come. My question is what kind of country do we want to be? Do we want to be the kind of country where culture is, by and large, for those who already access it? Or do we want to be the kind of country where culture is for everybody and where local authorities fulfil their responsibility in involving people? I know that there is a real appetite among local authorities to take on that role. When I put the word out that I was seeking to ask leave to introduce my Bill, I asked people to come forward with examples. I would like to quote Councillor John Warmisham from Salford. I do not know whether Councillor Warmisham agrees with my Bill—he might not—but he told me that the best example of what can be done is that of Salford Quays: “First we had the Lowry, which attracted the Imperial War museum in the north, and this laid the foundation for MediaCity. This will give us more jobs than when we had the docks in Salford”.

That, coming from a local councillor, is a powerful example of the good that culture can do. There is sometimes a view in the cultural sector that local authorities do not care about cultural services because they do not consider them to be as important as housing or social services, but there are many councillors out there who really do care. I want this Bill to start a debate, to highlight those councils that do great work and to determine whether we need protection in law for the cultural services provided by local authorities. I think that we do; and we at least need to have that discussion. In Merseyside, we know—probably better than many other parts of the country—the massive value of culture to places. Of course, this is about the economy, and I must mention the impact that City of Culture ’08 had on Liverpool, Merseyside and the wider north-west. I know that people will understand the importance of that, but this is also about the strength of community that was created at the time. People have pointed out to

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me examples of the work that went on to bring culture not only to Liverpool city centre but to the wider area of Merseyside. I know from experience in my own constituency how empowering it was for the young people and older people in our communities when the cultural services in the local authorities brought them together to discuss their history and their heritage. We need to ask whether that needs some protection in law. The 1964 Act has been a vital backstop to our library services at a time when they feel under constant threat of being de-prioritised, driven down and questioned. I have every sympathy with local authority leaders, who are having to make terribly difficult decisions, but the 1964 Act is an important check on what might happen. It ensures that we will never have to face the situation that my own grandfather faced when he was growing up in the inter-war years. He used to go to Liverpool central library and, I confess, he used to steal books because it was not possible to borrow library books for free at that time. The Act is important because it provides a backstop and enables the Government to question any local authority that is proposing to decimate its library services. We all know the importance to our own constituencies of the local art gallery, the museum and the local theatre. We have all seen young people from our schools gain confidence from coming into the theatre for their first performance. My reason for introducing the Bill is simply to ask whether we want to be the kind of country in which those services are available to everybody. Do we want the Secretary of State to take responsibility for those services? Such a task need not be prescriptive or demanding, and it would not require a large amount of funding, but it would allow local people to appeal to the Secretary of State and say, “Please stop. We don’t want our local cultural services to close.” That is important for all of us. Question put and agreed to. Ordered, That Alison McGovern, Tristram Hunt, Stephen Twigg and David Miliband present the Bill. Alison McGovern accordingly presented the Bill. Bill read the First time; to be read a Second time on Friday 17 June 2011, and to be printed(Bill 118).

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Fixed-term Parliaments Bill [3RD ALLOCATED DAY] Further considered in Committee [DAWN PRIMAROLO in the Chair] Clause 2 EARLY PARLIAMENTARY GENERAL ELECTIONS Amendment proposed (24 November): 5, page 2, line 11, leave out from ‘Government’ to end of line 14. —(Mr Cash.) Question again proposed, That the amendment be made. The Second Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Dawn Primarolo): With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Amendment 22, page 2, line 12, leave out ‘14’ and insert ‘ten working’. Amendment 36, page 2, line 14, at end insert— ‘(2A) In reckoning for the purposes of subsection 2(b), no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is prorogued or during which the House of Commons is adjourned for more than four days.’.

Amendment 37, page 2, line 14, at end insert— ‘(2B) Where the House of Commons passes a motion of no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government, the Prime Minister shall tender his resignation to Her Majesty within a period of seven days of the motion being passed. (2C) On tendering his resignation under subsection (2B), it shall be a duty on the Prime Minister to advise Her Majesty to appoint as his successor the person who appears to him most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons.’.

Amendment 25, page 2, line 24, at end add— ‘(6A) In this section a “motion of no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government” shall be— (a) in the terms “This House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government” or (b) in the terms “This House has no confidence in the Prime Minister”.’.

12.44 pm The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Harper): Being in this position almost persuaded me of the merits of knives, which at least enable us to conclude debates at approximately the point at which everyone else has spoken. I remind the Committee that the amendments deal with the mechanism providing for an early general election following a vote of no confidence, as set out in clause 2(2). Last week, on the second day of this Committee stage, we engaged in a wide-ranging discussion both of the merits of the various amendments and of the Bill. Before I deal with the amendments, let me respond to some of the questions raised by Members last week. My hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest (Mrs Laing), who is present and who speaks for the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, asked a number of questions relating to the constitutional consequences of a vote of no confidence under the Bill. She was particularly concerned about the possibility of a Government’s forcing a general election by refusing to act both in accordance with conventions and in the spirit of the Act. She gave the example of a Government

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who engineered a vote of no confidence in themselves, or who sought to trigger a series of elections close to one another by refusing to resign after an election result. If a Prime Minister who would presumably be seeking to be re-elected in a subsequent election engaged in such constitutional shenanigans, he or she would first suffer a political penalty at that election. If a Prime Minister behaved in an absolutely unconstitutional fashion, there would always be the ultimate long stop: Her Majesty the Queen could dismiss the said Prime Minister. That is the ultimate check and balance in our system. Clearly it would require an extraordinary set of circumstances, but it is the position that would obtain if our unwritten or other conventions were breached in a really appalling fashion. Mr Richard Shepherd (Aldridge-Brownhills) (Con): By what constitutional authority does the Minister cite the extraordinary proposition that the long stop of the constitution is that the Queen may dismiss a Prime Minister? Mr Harper: Her Majesty the Queen appoints the Prime Minister. If the Prime Minister were to behave in an unconstitutional fashion, the Queen would have the right to dismiss the Prime Minister. Mr Shepherd: So that is the Minister’s new interpretation of a constitution, or of defined practice over the years. Mr Harper: It is not an invention; it is the constitutional position. Mr Shepherd: No, it is not. Mr Harper: Yes, it is. Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con): I cannot think of an example of such a position since the reign of Queen Victoria, who refused to accept Robert Peel as Prime Minister, and I think it inconceivable that it would arise in a modern constitution. Mr Harper: I did say that there would have to be an extraordinary set of circumstances for the Prime Minister to behave in such a constitutionally outrageous way. They would be circumstances in which a Prime Minister was abusing and stretching the constitution in order to stay in office and avoid the consequences of losing a vote of confidence in Parliament. Jacob Rees-Mogg: I think that that is extraordinarily unlikely. It is theoretically possible that the Queen could refuse assent to a Bill, but that has not happened since the reign of Queen Anne. Such constitutional anomalies remain theoretical, but so theoretical that it is inconceivable that they would arise whatever the emergency. I really feel that to rely on that for the passage of the Bill is most unsatisfactory. Mr Harper: I am not relying on it for the passage of the Bill. I was referring to the issue raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest, who last week, on behalf of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, raised some potential scenarios with which she was uncomfortable. I believe, and the Government believe, that those scenarios are indeed, as my hon.

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[Mr Harper] Friend says, theoretical, and extremely unlikely to happen. My point is that if a Prime Minister behaved unconstitutionally in such a theoretical and extremely unlikely way, a mechanism that already exists would be invoked. However, the Government contend—and I agree with my hon. Friend on this—that both sets of circumstances are highly unlikely. It is our contention that the eventuality to which my hon. Friend has referred would not be necessary, because a Prime Minister would not behave in a way that stretched constitutional convention to breaking point. Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab): I must say that this is the second very worrying route the Minister has gone down. He is saying that if the Prime Minister were to behave unconstitutionally, the monarch would act. How would the monarch know whether the Prime Minister had acted constitutionally or unconstitutionally? Mr Harper: I am not setting out anything that is groundbreaking; this is the position that exists now. I agree with my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset (Jacob Rees-Mogg) that there would have to be an extraordinary set of circumstances; indeed, I said as much. I did so because I was referring to a point my hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest made last week in raising some concerns of the Select Committee’s concerns. My view is that those concerns are not well founded because the events they address are extremely unlikely to happen and are only really theoretical in nature, but there is a response to them if they were to happen. Mrs Eleanor Laing (Epping Forest) (Con): Will my hon. Friend reassure the Committee that it is the Government’s intention to fulfil their duty and that of Parliament to protect the Crown from being put in a position where the monarch would ever have to make such an important constitutional decision? Mr Harper: Absolutely. I can certainly say on behalf of this Government that this Government and this Prime Minister would never wish to put Her Majesty the Queen in such a position. Clearly, I cannot speak for Governments of the future, however. Mr Bernard Jenkin (Harwich and North Essex) (Con): I think it would help the Committee if the Minister could cite an academic paper, some judicial text or something else that bears out this notion that Her Majesty the Queen would interfere in politics in the way he is suggesting she would. Can he quote anything? Mr Harper: The position is that Her Majesty the Queen appoints Prime Ministers and the ultimate constitutional long-stop is that if a Prime Minister behaves in a way that is outwith the constitutional position, the monarch can dismiss the Prime Minister—but that is the long-stop constitutional safeguard in our system. Mr Jenkin: Her Majesty would have to take advice on such occasions. From whom would she take advice?

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Mr Harper: Her Majesty would, indeed, take advice from, for example her Privy Council and her other legal advisers. Chris Bryant: Let us be absolutely clear: as I understand it, the Minister is saying that if the Prime Minister were “unconstitutionally”—to borrow the Minister’s word—to engineer a motion of no confidence in himself, for instance by tabling a motion of confidence in himself and urging his supporters to abstain, the monarch would sack him. Mr Harper: I am not setting out particular scenarios. I was making the point that we can set out some theoretical propositions that have not happened and that we think are extremely unlikely to happen. I was simply setting out that if such a theoretical and unlikely event, to use the words of my hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset, were to happen there is a constitutional long-stop. That was all I was saying, and I think the hon. Gentleman is making rather too much of it as it is not a new point. Sir Peter Soulsby (Leicester South) (Lab): Although we may well accept that the scenarios we are talking about are unlikely, they are none the less possible, and while they remain possible would it not be desirable for the Government either to accept the Select Committee’s amendments or, indeed, to bring forward some of their own to make sure that should such unlikely events occur, there is a clear road map for the sovereign to follow? Mr Harper: The fact is that some of these things can happen under our existing constitutional position; they are not triggered by anything we are providing for in this Bill. Our flexible constitution has worked rather well over the years in dealing with events that have not been thought of in advance, and I see no reason to undertake a rather more significant constitutional rewrite. This Bill is intended to do one specific thing, which is remove from the Prime Minister the power to seek a Dissolution of Parliament. It makes the necessary changes to do that, but it does not seek to make changes that are not necessary to do that; it does not seek to go wider than achieving that particular change, and I think that is very sensible. My hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest also asked last week how the Bill strengthened the power of the House to throw out a Government. Giving statutory effect to the vote that could bring about a general election, rather than simply relying on the conventions, strengthens the power of the House. The Bill transfers from the Prime Minister to this House the power to decide whether there will be an early general election. If I remember rightly, my hon. Friend did, however, say that she is broadly supportive of the measures in the Bill, as, I think, is the Select Committee. The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) asked a number of questions last week. He asked whether the Bill should contain a provision to ensure that a motion of no confidence is given precedence so it is debated without delay. He is aware—he mentioned this last week—that there is a convention that the Government find time to debate a motion of no confidence tabled by the official Opposition. That is a long-standing convention, which has been followed by Governments. Also of

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course, it would always be open to the Opposition to table an amendment to a Government motion, changing it to one of no confidence to ensure that that was debated. The hon. Gentleman also raised a number of related points about whether particular votes could be considered motions of no confidence and whether it was appropriate for the Speaker to rule on such matters. I think I am right in saying that he was concerned that the Bill would give too much discretion to the Speaker. The Government do not consider that to be the case. We would expect the Speaker by and large to take a fairly literal approach to clause 2(2). We do not think the Speaker would be left with appreciably more discretion in dealing with this sort of question than he already has, for example under the Parliament Act 1911 when he has to certify whether a Bill is a money Bill. That is a decision he makes; it is for him. It seems to me that that is a sensible amount of discretion for the Speaker to have, although I accept it is on a different issue. Chris Bryant: The Minister is right, of course. In fact, at present Members of the House of Lords are fiercely contesting the Speaker’s decision on whether certain Bills are money Bills. My point, however, is that all that that determines is whether or not it can be debated in another Chamber, whereas under this measure it would determine whether or not we had a general election and the Government had fallen. That is a very big decision to be placing in the hands of the Speaker, which heretofore has never been in the hands of the Speaker. Mr Harper: There are two issues there. I will not dwell on the money Bill issue to any great extent, because if I were to do so you would rule me out of order, Ms Primarolo, but I have read the account of the debate in the other place to which the hon. Gentleman refers and the other place is not challenging the Speaker’s ability to rule on whether a Bill is a money Bill. It is simply disagreeing with the consequences of that, and arguing that if something is a money Bill it is perfectly appropriate for the upper House to debate it in Committee and pass amendments to it, recognising that legally those amendments will have no effect if the House of Commons chooses not to take them into account. The upper House is therefore not challenging the Speaker’s right to make that decision. The hon. Gentleman is also not right to say that this is about the Speaker deciding, effectively, whether to bring down the Government. That would be a decision for the House. The Speaker would have to make a decision about certifying something as a vote of confidence. As we debated last week, it would be extraordinary if the House were debating a motion of confidence—which the Speaker would certify as such—with everybody remaining in ignorance of the fact that it was a motion of no confidence in the Government. I simply do not think that would happen. Everyone would be very well aware of the fact that it was a motion of confidence—that it had that import to it. It would be for the House to vote on the matter, and the Speaker would then certify in a way that means the decision is outside the ambit of the courts. Mark Durkan (Foyle) (SDLP): As the Minister just appeared to touch on, under the Bill the Speaker issues the certificate only after the vote has taken place, not

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before. Therefore, would not the Labour amendment that specifies what is and what is not a vote of confidence be much better in everybody’s terms? 1 pm Mr Harper: I shall deal with the specific amendments shortly, when I set out why the Government think that they are unnecessary and that their drafting makes them flawed. If the hon. Gentleman does not think I have adequately dealt with his point, he will be able to intervene on me and I will happily take such an intervention. We have debated the fact that there is also a purpose in the Bill’s not specifying the exact words in legislation, because such an approach gives the House some necessary flexibility. I will return to that in a moment. Let us consider the amendments in order. Amendment 5 was tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), who is not able to be here today because he is away on other parliamentary business. He explained that his amendment would remove the 14-day period before an early election was called in the event of the Speaker certifying that the House had passed a vote of no confidence. It is right to say that there would be circumstances in which it would be appropriate to move to an early election when the House determined that we should do so, and the Bill provides for that in clause 2(1). But it is perfectly possible that there may be circumstances within a fixed term in which a legitimate Government could be formed from the composition of the House as it then stood, so it would not be appropriate to insist on an election. Members will have been elected for five years, and they are able to give their approval to a Government formed from within their ranks without the need necessarily to go to the country. The House can decide to do so, because under our proposals if a vote of confidence is lost and no Government can be formed within 14 days who subsequently receive a vote of confidence, a general election would take place. It seems sensible to give the House the opportunity to test whether a Government can be formed. My hon. Friend’s amendment contained a fundamental misunderstanding about what a Prime Minister should do in the event of a Government losing the confidence of the House. Two things can happen. One possibility, under our current system, is that a Prime Minister remains in office but invites Her Majesty to dissolve the House and call a general election. Thus the Prime Minister does not resign immediately, and that is what happened when the House expressed its lack of confidence in the Government in 1979. Mr Callaghan did not resign when he lost the vote of confidence; he resigned only when he lost the subsequent election. Alternatively, the Prime Minister could resign almost straightaway after losing a vote of confidence, as happened in January 1924 when the Government’s motion for the Loyal Address after the Queen’s Speech was amended: Prime Minister Baldwin resigned and the Labour Opposition formed a Government. This Bill seeks to encapsulate that double-sided convention. At the moment, if a general election has an unclear outcome, the Prime Minister is able to test his support in the House of Commons. If the House then signalled that it did not have confidence in that Government, that Prime Minister would go and a new one could be appointed. Amendment 5 would insist that another general election took place, and if the result of that

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[Mr Harper] general election was unclear, we could end up having a succession of general elections. Amendment 5 would force such elections to be held. In countries that have fixed-term Parliaments it is very common for there to be a period of Government formation after a vote of no confidence before an election is triggered. That is what happens in Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Sweden, so we are proposing an approach that has much precedent, which we think is sensible. We cannot ask my hon. Friend the Member for Stone to withdraw his amendment, because he is not here and thus unable to do so. However, we urge Members who are here not to insist on it being pressed to a Division. Mr Jenkin: I have been in touch with my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), who makes things complicated because he does not text people. He is in Budapest representing the European Scrutiny Committee, but he has suggested that it would be in the interests of the scrutiny of this Bill to press the amendment to a Division, and one or two of us will attempt to do so. Mr Harper: As I said, my hon. Friend the Member for Stone is away on parliamentary business and, as he has perhaps not reached 21st century methods of communication, my words are unlikely to reach him in a timely way. So I can only urge him not to press his amendment to a vote, but I suspect that the decision on that will be for others, not for him. Chris Bryant: As it happens, I agree with the Minister on this amendment. However, the one area that it will be worth considering on Report is whether it would be sensible to have a motion of confidence on the forming of a new Government after a general election, which should be treated in a slightly different way. Such an approach would address the 1924 situation that he suggests. Mr Harper: The hon. Gentleman makes a good point, which has been raised by others. I believe I am right in saying that the hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen), the Chairman of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform, has said he is keen on the idea of installing Prime Ministers with an explicit vote in the House—he was speaking for himself there, not for the Committee. That would be a further change to our system and, as I said in answer to the hon. Member for Leicester South (Sir Peter Soulsby), we have made the necessary changes in the law to take away the Prime Minister’s right to call an early general election, but we have not gone further. I shall think about what the hon. Member for Rhondda said and see whether we think it has merit. The hon. Gentleman’s amendment 22 seeks to replace the 14 days that we set out in the Bill for that Government formation period with a period of 10 working days. He is supportive of a Government formation period, because he would not be attempting to keep one through this amendment were he not. I think he was wanting to understand why we chose the period that we did, using calendar days rather than working days. The reason why we did so was because the calendar day period is fixed and certain, whereas working days are not, as they are dependent on things such as bank holidays.

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Two legitimate concerns are involved here, and they were touched on last week. There is a concern that the number of business days in the 14-day period would be curtailed or that the date of the no confidence vote could mean that the date for the Government formation vote fell on a non-working day. Our view—I am interested to hear the hon. Gentleman’s—is that discussions on Government formation would not stop on weekends and bank holidays; I suspect that they would continue, given that having a Government is probably the most important thing for the country. There are two ways around a scenario where the vital 14th day when the vote of confidence is due falls on a day when the House would conventionally not be sitting. The first is to arrange that the no confidence motion be taken on a day that means that the House will be sitting 14 days later. The alternative is for the House simply to sit on what would traditionally have been a non-sitting day. There is nothing to prevent the House from sitting, if it chooses to do so, on a bank holiday, a Saturday or a Sunday. Non-working days are not days when the House cannot sit, even though it does not do so. There are precedents for the House sitting on such days when emergencies have happened. I believe I am right in saying that the House was recalled to sit on a Saturday when the Falkland Islands were invaded by the Argentines. Holding a vote on whether a new Government did or did not have the confidence of the House would be sufficiently important that it would be in order for the House to sit that day, even if it was not a conventional day. Chris Bryant: The Minister is right in relation to the Falkland Islands, and I believe that the House has also sat on a Sunday on the demise of the monarch. That is precisely why we did not specify “sitting days” in this amendment; we used the term “working days” because that is the language used throughout the rest of the Bill. We sought to provide a degree of flexibility; otherwise, over Easter, when there are bank holidays on the Friday and the following Monday, there might be a sustained period when the House would find it inconceivable to sit but the Government might, none the less, want to be able to do their business. Mr Harper: For the purposes of this particular set of motions, the only business that we would be talking about the House undertaking would be holding a vote on whether or not a new Government who had been formed had the confidence of the House. Given the things that the Government are responsible for, it would be important to have a clear Government in place for the financial markets and at difficult times. We know from experience and we can see it from what happens in other countries. Therefore, the Government formation negotiations would want to be concluded and it would benefit the country, the Government and the House for the House to vote on that without inordinate delay. If there were a number of bank holidays or other holidays in the way, that could be dealt with. [Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman asks about Good Friday. As I have said, the alternative is that we could arrange things by moving the no confidence vote so that it was 14 days before a sitting day. Conventionally, no confidence motions are given time in the House very soon after they are tabled, but as long as the Government were prepared to table such a motion

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very soon and agreed that with the Opposition, it would not necessarily have to be tabled the next day. I do not think that it is an inordinate problem. We think that it is sensible for there to be a fixed timetable for a Government to be formed so that everyone has some certainty. That is why we picked the time period that we have. My hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest spoke in support of amendments 36 and 37, which are also tabled in the names of other members of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform. Amendment 36 would make the 14 days in a period following a Government defeat a period that would not include periods of Prorogation or Adjournment for more than four days. Although I do not think that this is the intention behind the amendment, its effect would be to permit the 14-day period for Government formation to be prolonged potentially indefinitely if the House was prorogued or adjourned. The Government do not think that that is appropriate. We think that the 14-day period strikes the right balance between giving parties in this House time to discuss and see whether a Government can be formed and not allowing things to go on for so long that the country is plunged into a period of uncertainty. We do not think that amendment 36 is acceptable. Amendment 37 provides that a Prime Minister must resign within seven calendar days of losing a vote of no confidence and recommend to the monarch a successor who appears to them to be the person most likely to be able to command the confidence of the House. I think I am right to say—my hon. Friend the Member for Epping Forest will correct me if I am wrong—that the purpose of the amendment is to avoid a situation in which a Prime Minister who has lost a no confidence vote wishes to remain in power and asks the monarch to prorogue Parliament to avoid an alternative Government receiving a vote of confidence, thereby forcing a general election.

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Mr Harper: I think I have set out why I do not think that that is likely. As we have heard, there are lots of theoretical possibilities that are very outlandish—I do not propose to rehash the conversations that we had at the beginning of this debate—but the Government do not think that they are realistic risks and that is why we do not think that amendments 36 and 37 are acceptable. Let me turn now to the last amendment in this group, amendment 25, which was also tabled by the Opposition. It specifies the wording of motions of no confidence for the purposes of clause 2(2). It aims to remove the discretion of the House over its wording and that of the Speaker in his certifying of a motion of no confidence. The Government recognise that no confidence motions might take different forms, as they do now, but we do not want to remove the flexibility entirely. That raises an issue, which we will come to in the next group of amendments, to do with the House’s exclusive cognisance. If we try to set out in statute the precise form of a no confidence motion, that could raise the risks to which the Clerk of the House has alluded. We think it is better for the Speaker’s certificate to be conclusive and for the Speaker to determine the nature of that certification. As I said when we touched on this matter in debating a previous group of amendments, if there were doubt—I think it unlikely that there would be—about whether what the House was discussing was a motion of no confidence, it would seem to be sensible for the Government, the Opposition and the Speaker to ensure that Members were clear on that point when they were debating it. I cannot believe that there could ever be a debate in this House about a motion of no confidence in the Government in which Members were sitting there completely unaware that they were debating the future of the Government of our country. 1.15 pm

Mrs Laing: Yes. Mr Harper: My hon. Friend says that that is indeed the purpose of the amendment. However, I think amendment 37 is defective, because it rules out the possibility of what happened in 1979 occurring again. As I have said, Prime Minister Callaghan did not resign as a result of the no confidence motion. He remained in office, asked Her Majesty the Queen to dissolve Parliament and resigned when he lost the subsequent general election. That outcome remains a possibility under the Bill. My hon. Friend’s amendment would have meant that he would have been forced to resign before the result of the election was known. I do not think that that would have been a sensible outcome. Mrs Laing: I fully appreciate the Minister’s point. Amendments 36 and 37 might well be technically defective—in any case, I have no intention of pressing them to a vote, as I said—but the Select Committee’s purpose was to ensure that this issue was properly discussed and scrutinised on the Floor of the House. Will the Minister reassure the House that he and his colleagues are satisfied that it would not be possible under the Bill’s provisions for the Government to seek indefinite prorogation in order to avoid a vote of confidence and a general election?

Mr Nigel Dodds (Belfast North) (DUP): Of course, the Minister is right about the reality and the politics of the situation. He should remember, however, that we are talking about a situation in which legislation has been introduced and that legislation is always challengeable in the courts. Once things get into the courts, who knows what will happen regarding the interpretation of the provisions? For the sake of clarity and certainty, what is wrong with setting out the precise terms that must be used so that there can be no doubt? That goes to the issue in amendment 6, tabled by the hon. Member for Stone (Mr Cash), which sets out provisions for the avoidance of doubt. Surely there is merit in making it absolutely clear and plain. Mr Harper: I shall not attempt to rush forward to the certification procedure, because we will debate it when we discuss the next group of amendments. Let me turn to the specific amendment before the Committee. I do not think amendment 25 achieves the certainty that the right hon. Member for Belfast North (Mr Dodds) suggests would be desirable. It states that a motion of no confidence “shall be”, not “must include”, so it is not clear whether the motion would have to consist exclusively of the specified text or whether that text could be part of a motion, such as if it were added to a Government motion by amendment.

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[Mr Harper] The Opposition’s amendment tries to specify the text of the no confidence motion, but does not try to achieve equivalent clarity as regards the motion of confidence that would have to be passed within 14 days by an alternative Government in order to avoid a general election. The amendment is trying to achieve some certainty—that was what the hon. Member for Rhondda said—but I do not think it does. I also do not think it is desirable or appropriate to try to set out the text of the motions in the Bill. The Government think that clause 2(2) provides a clear and practical mechanism that gives statutory effect to a vote of no confidence. I have set out the Government’s concerns about the amendments and I hope that hon. Members will not seek to press them to a vote. Mr Shepherd: I should like to press amendment 5 to a vote, with the consent of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash). The Second Deputy Chairman: The question is, that the amendment be made. Hon. Members: Aye. Hon. Members: No. The Second Deputy Chairman: I think the Noes have it. Mr Shepherd: We wanted to press the amendment to a Division, Ms Primarolo. The Second Deputy Chairman: I need to hear you pressing the amendment, Mr Shepherd. I need you to shout louder for me. I am happy to do it again, but I need to hear the vote. Question put, That the amendment be made. The Committee divided: Ayes 6, Noes 498. Division No. 136] [1.17 pm AYES Campbell, Mr Ronnie Davies, Philip Hollobone, Mr Philip Robertson, Mr Laurence Shepherd, Mr Richard

Turner, Mr Andrew

Tellers for the Ayes: Mr Bernard Jenkin and Mr David Nuttall

NOES Abbott, Ms Diane Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Austin, Ian Bacon, Mr Richard Bain, Mr William Baker, Norman Baker, Steve

Baldry, Tony Baldwin, Harriett Banks, Gordon Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barron, rh Mr Kevin Barwell, Gavin Bayley, Hugh Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Benn, rh Hilary Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berger, Luciana Berry, Jake Betts, Mr Clive

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blackwood, Nicola Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blunkett, rh Mr David Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brady, Mr Graham Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Brennan, Kevin Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Buckland, Mr Robert Burden, Richard Burley, Mr Aidan Burnham, rh Andy Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cable, rh Vince Cairns, Alun Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Gregory Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Carswell, Mr Douglas Caton, Martin Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coaker, Vernon Coffey, Ann Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Cooper, Rosie Cox, Mr Geoffrey Crabb, Stephen Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Cruddas, Jon Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon

Darling, rh Mr Alistair Davey, Mr Edward Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Geraint Davies, Glyn Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick De Piero, Gloria Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle, Gemma Doyle-Price, Jackie Dromey, Jack Duddridge, James Dugher, Michael Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Dunne, Mr Philip Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellman, Mrs Louise Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Fitzpatrick, Jim Flint, rh Caroline Foster, Mr Don Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Garnier, Mr Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Glen, John Goggins, rh Paul Goldsmith, Zac Goodman, Helen Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Grayling, rh Chris

836

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Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Greatrex, Tom Green, Damian Green, Kate Greening, Justine Greenwood, Lilian Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffith, Nia Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Gwynne, Andrew Hague, rh Mr William Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hamilton, Mr David Hammond, rh Mr Philip Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Harris, Mr Tom Hart, Simon Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Healey, rh John Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendrick, Mark Hendry, Charles Hepburn, Mr Stephen Herbert, rh Nick Hermon, Lady Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hinds, Damian Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hollingbery, George Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Hosie, Stewart Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Hunt, Tristram Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Illsley, Mr Eric Irranca-Davies, Huw Jackson, Mr Stewart James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, Mr David Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Mr Marcus Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa

1 DECEMBER 2010

Joyce, Eric Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Kawczynski, Daniel Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kelly, Chris Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lammy, rh Mr David Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Lavery, Ian Laws, rh Mr David Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leech, Mr John Lefroy, Jeremy Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Leslie, Chris Lewis, Brandon Lewis, Mr Ivan Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Lloyd, Tony Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Long, Naomi Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Main, Mrs Anne Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon May, rh Mrs Theresa Maynard, Paul McCabe, Steve McCarthy, Kerry McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McClymont, Gregg McDonagh, Siobhain McDonnell, Dr Alasdair McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Mearns, Ian Menzies, Mark Metcalfe, Stephen Michael, rh Alun Miller, Andrew Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Mordaunt, Penny Morden, Jessica Morgan, Nicky Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mudie, Mr George Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Nandy, Lisa Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline Norman, Jesse O’Brien, Mr Stephen O’Donnell, Fiona Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Onwurah, Chi Opperman, Guy Ottaway, Richard Owen, Albert Paice, Mr James Paisley, Ian Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Pearce, Teresa Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perkins, Toby Perry, Claire Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Pound, Stephen Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John Qureshi, Yasmin Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reid, Mr Alan Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rogerson, Dan Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Joan Ruffley, Mr David

Russell, Bob Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Sandys, Laura Sarwar, Anas Scott, Mr Lee Seabeck, Alison Selous, Andrew Shannon, Jim Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Shelbrooke, Alec Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simmonds, Mark Simpson, David Simpson, Mr Keith Singh, Mr Marsha Skidmore, Chris Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, rh Mr Andrew Smith, Angela Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Julian Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Smith, Sir Robert Soames, Nicholas Soubry, Anna Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Thurso, John Timms, rh Stephen Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Trickett, Jon Truss, Elizabeth Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vara, Mr Shailesh Vaz, Valerie Vickers, Martin

838

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Walker, Mr Charles Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Walley, Joan Watkinson, Angela Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Hywel Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger

1 DECEMBER 2010

Williams, Stephen Williamson, Chris Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Phil Wilson, Mr Rob Wilson, Sammy Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain Wright, Simon Yeo, Mr Tim Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Noes: Mark Hunter and Jeremy Wright

Question accordingly negatived. The Second Deputy Chairman: When, after voting, Members remain in the Lobby behind the Speaker’s Chair, they need to be quiet; otherwise it is impossible to hear the vote in the Chamber. Amendment proposed: 36, page 2, line 14, at end insert— ‘(2A) In reckoning for the purposes of subsection 2(b), no account shall be taken of any time during which Parliament is prorogued or during which the House of Commons is adjourned for more than four days.’.—(Sir Peter Soulsby.)

Question put, That the amendment be made. The Committee divided: Ayes 202, Noes 297. Division No. 137] [1.35 pm AYES Abbott, Ms Diane Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Austin, Ian Bain, Mr William Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Bell, Sir Stuart Benn, rh Hilary Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cairns, David Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin

Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Cooper, Rosie Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Cruddas, Jon Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon Darling, rh Mr Alistair Davies, Geraint Davies, Philip De Piero, Gloria Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Efford, Clive Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Evans, Chris Fitzpatrick, Jim Flint, rh Caroline Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Healey, rh John Hendrick, Mark Hepburn, Mr Stephen Hermon, Lady Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hollobone, Mr Philip Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Jenkin, Mr Bernard Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa Joyce, Eric Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Leslie, Chris Lloyd, Tony Long, Naomi Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCabe, Steve McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McDonnell, Dr Alasdair McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Mearns, Ian Michael, rh Alun

840

Miliband, rh Edward Miller, Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela Nuttall, Mr David O’Donnell, Fiona Onwurah, Chi Owen, Albert Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Qureshi, Yasmin Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Joan Sarwar, Anas Seabeck, Alison Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Singh, Mr Marsha Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, rh Mr Andrew Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Mr Andrew Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Whitehead, Dr Alan Williamson, Chris Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Ayes: Phil Wilson and Mr David Hamilton

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NOES Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Bagshawe, Ms Louise Baker, Norman Baker, Steve Baldry, Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cairns, Alun Campbell, Mr Gregory Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Carswell, Mr Douglas Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Cox, Mr Geoffrey Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Duddridge, James

Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Dunne, Mr Philip Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Featherstone, Lynne Foster, Mr Don Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Garnier, Mr Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Glen, John Goldsmith, Zac Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Gray, Mr James Grayling, rh Chris Green, Damian Greening, Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Hague, rh Mr William Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, rh Mr Philip Hammond, Stephen Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hinds, Damian Hollingbery, George Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Hosie, Stewart Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Jackson, Mr Stewart Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Jones, Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leech, Mr John Lefroy, Jeremy Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Lewis, Brandon Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Main, Mrs Anne May, rh Mrs Theresa Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline Norman, Jesse O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Ottaway, Richard Paice, Mr James Paisley, Ian Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel

Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Ruffley, Mr David Russell, Bob Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shannon, Jim Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Simmonds, Mark Simpson, David Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, Nicholas Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Truss, Elizabeth Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vickers, Martin Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa Walker, Mr Charles Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Watkinson, Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whittaker, Craig Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Hywel Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger

842

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Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Mr Rob Wilson, Sammy Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Jeremy

1 DECEMBER 2010

Wright, Simon Yeo, Mr Tim Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Noes: Mark Hunter and Mr Shailesh Vara

Question accordingly negatived. Mr Jenkin: I beg to move amendment 6, page 2, line 15, leave out subsection (3) and insert— ‘(3) Any certificate of the Speaker of the House of Commons given under this section shall be conclusive for all purposes and shall not be presented to or questioned in any court of law whatsoever.’.

The Second Deputy Chairman: With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: Amendment 23, page 2, line 17, at end insert— ‘(4A) The Speaker shall issue a certificate under subsection (1) or (2) within 24 hours of the relevant conditions being met under subsection (1) or (2).’.

Mr Jenkin: Amendment 6 stands in the name of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), who, as I mentioned earlier, is abroad on other House business as Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee. We are at a curious juncture in the Bill and, indeed, in our constitutional history. The background to the amendment is the tension, since time immemorial, between this House’s ability to function immune from judicial interference, and the courts, which periodically have sought to limit the extent to which we can continue our business unimpeded by the courts. That was, of course settled—to a degree—in the Bill of Rights in 1789— Mr Geoffrey Cox (Torridge and West Devon) (Con): 1689. Mr Jenkin: Sorry, 1689. My hon. and learned Friend will keep me up to the mark, because he is much more of a lawyer than I am. In recent years, however, the tension between the courts and the independence of this House has been thrown into relief. I remind the Committee of cases such as the one brought by Lord Rees-Mogg for judicial review of the ratification of the Maastricht treaty after this House had passed an Act of Parliament. Jacob Rees-Mogg: I would like to clarify that the judicial review case brought by my noble kinsman was not in any way to challenge what had happened in this House. It was to challenge the use by Ministers of the royal prerogative, which is why the judicial review was allowed by the courts. Mr Jenkin: I stand corrected—again. I fear that that may occur rather often during my presentation. The case relating to the Hunting Act 2004 was certainly an attempt to impede the free functioning of Parliament in its judicial function. In addition, an attempt was made to judicially review the lack of a referendum on what was then the Lisbon treaty. There are other examples of that tension, not least over the arrest of my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green), and I believe that only today, in connection with another matter, are the limits of the courts being resolved.

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The present situation begs for something that many have recommended for some time: that this Parliament should have a privilege Act to delineate clearly the immunities of Parliament in relation to the functioning of the courts, but we are in an even more tense situation because we are arranging our constitution in other areas that question the very sovereignty of the House. We now have a Supreme Court and it is widely known that many jurists who serve at various levels of the judiciary take differing views of the notions of parliamentary sovereignty and parliamentary privilege. There was recently a case concerning the possible effective expulsion of an hon. Member as a result of a judicial decision. I do not comment on its merits as it is still sub judice. I merely advert to the fact that it represents another testing of the boundaries between the courts and Parliament. We are told not to worry—the Bill’s provisions are immune from the courts, and nobody is going to interfere in what we decide is a Speaker’s certificate, certificating a vote of no confidence that satisfies the majority. When we are blandly and bluntly told that by the Government and at the same time told by the Clerk of the House who has bravely and independently—in his constitutional capacity as an independent guardian of our constitutional arrangements—issued a memorandum, to which I shall refer later, that flatly contradicts the Government’s view, we are obliged to take the matter very seriously. I cannot think of a precedent, other than the Parliamentary Standards Bill, where a Government flatly refused to accept the advice of the Clerk of the House on a question of the potential justiciability of legislation before the House. The Bill before us is a major change to the constitutional settlement of this country, and it is backed by people in the Government who we know favour a written constitution—an entirely different constitutional settlement. That raises the question whether the Government have got it right when they say that the Clerk’s fears are to be disregarded. With the indulgence of the Committee, I shall quote rather extensively from the memorandum submitted by the Clerk as written evidence to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. He states that the Bill is “to make statutory provision for matters which fall within Parliament’s exclusive cognizance and which may affect the established privileges of the House of Commons as well as upsetting the essential comity which has been established over a long period between Parliament and the Courts.”

Erskine May makes it clear that “cognizance” refers to the right of both Houses “to be the sole judge of their own proceedings, and to settle—or depart from—their own codes of procedure.”

The Clerk is clear in a bald statement in paragraph 12 of his memorandum: “The Bill brings the internal proceedings of the House into the ambit of the Courts, albeit indirectly by the route of Speaker’s certificates.”

He goes on to explain how that occurs under clause 2(2), which we have already debated. In paragraph 16 he states: “The provisions of this subsection make the Speaker’s consideration of confidence motions and the House’s practices justiciable questions for determination by the ordinary courts.”

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That should be obvious. We know that Crown prerogative, as exercised by the Prime Minister, is subject to judicial review. We know that statute is subject to judicial review. We know that proceedings in the House and Standing Orders have not hitherto been subject to judicial review or judicial question. The Bill provides a connection between what happens in the House and in the rest of the world. We are providing a bridge of law that brings the courts into the House. Tristram Hunt (Stoke-on-Trent Central) (Lab): Does the hon. Gentleman think, therefore, that the amendment goes far enough? The solution, as the Clerk of the House sees it, is for the Speaker’s certificate to be provided for not in statute but under a Standing Order, which would prevent the courts from interfering in the proceedings of the House. Mr Jenkin: The hon. Gentleman makes an extremely important point, to which I shall return. The entire Bill could be dealt with through Standing Orders. The only reason we have a Bill is either that a Bill is favoured by those who want to move towards a written constitution—I do not remember that being in anybody’s manifesto— Chris Bryant: Ours. Mr Jenkin: There we are. Perhaps that is why the Opposition support the Bill. We have just had a Division in which 400 right hon. and hon. Members were in the No Lobby and only a handful of us in the Aye Lobby. That underlines the curious consensus in favour of certain principles of the Bill. I do not think either of the elected parties in the coalition was in favour of a written constitution—[Interruption.] That is two parties, but the one that won the election certainly did not— Chris Bryant: To clarify, I think the Liberal Democrats were in favour of a written constitution, and we were in favour of looking at a written constitution. Mr Jenkin: I do not remember that being a great issue in the general election, but we are, in effect, creating one of the standard features of a written constitution, thereby tempting the courts to start interfering in the internal workings of the House. Mr Harper: For the avoidance of doubt, the Government’s position is that they are not in favour of moving to what is more accurately said to be a codified constitution. Many of our constitutional principles are, of course, written down, just not in one document. It is not the Government’s position to do so. I hope that cheers my hon. Friend up. Mr Jenkin: I am grateful for that assurance. The Minister, who in all these debates has shown impeccable manners and tact despite the pressure he is under, should be looking for an alternative way of delivering this part of the coalition agreement, to which the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) alluded. The Speaker’s decisions will be taken under immense political pressure, as he decides what constitutes a confidence motion, what amendments might be tabled to amend a confidence motion, whether, if carried, that would invalidate the motion, whether the amendment could constitute a motion of confidence, and the consequences of amendments being carried or the motion being carried.

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I quote again from the Clerk’s memorandum: “As these would become justiciable questions, the courts could be drawn into matters of acute political controversy.”

I respect the fact that many in the House think we should have a Supreme Court like the European Court of Justice in the European Union or the Supreme Court of the United States, which is essentially a political court, but that is a very big constitutional change. We ought to have a royal commission about it, there ought to be debates on the Adjournment about it and the implications of drawing the courts into politics, if that is what we are going to do, ought to be properly explored. The way in which the Supreme Court is appointed to make it accountable for its political judgments is another important question. We are importing continental and American-style jurisprudence into our judicial decision making. Some judges are becoming more and more adventurous about how they interpret statute and where they feel entitled to make judicial interpretations, and the Bill invites them to decide when there might be a general election under particular circumstances. Jesse Norman (Hereford and South Herefordshire) (Con): Will my hon. Friend distinguish between two things: judicial activism, where there is extraordinarily little evidence that judges in this country are overreaching, although the same is not necessarily true in Europe and in the European Court, and impingement on the prerogatives of Parliaments, which is what the Bill covers? We should be focusing on the latter point. 2 pm Mr Jenkin: I am perfectly prepared to accept that point. I refer to judicial activism only because there are champions of judicial activism who would like the courts to be more judicially activist. The Bill creates circumstances whereby we tempt judicial activism, which is contrary to our legal traditions. It increases the danger of the Government’s assurances simply not being delivered, or of their not being able to make these assurances with any confidence. The Clerk, in his memorandum, specifically says: “In the case of Clause 2(3) it would be for the court to determine whether a document issued by the Speaker was a ‘certificate’ for the purposes of that clause. It is not impossible for a court to take the view that what appeared to be a certificate was not a ‘certificate’”.

The memorandum has been considered by the Select Committee, which attempted, in the short time available, to conduct pre-legislative scrutiny. It reached two principal conclusions. Paragraph 8 states: “The Government needs to respond to the concerns expressed by the Clerk of the House of Commons about the potential impact of clause 2 of the Bill on parliamentary privilege.

Paragraph 9 states: “The purpose of the Bill needs to be achieved without inviting the courts to question aspects of the House’s own procedures or the actions of the Speaker, except where this is absolutely unavoidable and clearly justifiable.”

The qualification reflects the fact that on the Committee there was some disagreement about the seriousness of the threat and between those who are in favour of a written constitution and those who are in favour not of a written constitution but of the settlement that relies upon our immunity.

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[Mr Jenkin] On whether there are alternative ways of achieving the Bill’s intentions without the risk of judicial interference, the Committee noted, in paragraph 38: “As the Committee has noted, setting out the requirement in Standing Orders would not be satisfactory because Standing Orders can be amended, suspended or revoked by a single simple majority vote of the House of Commons only.”

That is not correct. I have taken further advice from the Clerks and I have a letter from the Clerk Assistant and Director General, Mr Robert Rogers, which, if the Committee will indulge me, I will quote. He explains that there is a precedent of super-majorities in Standing Orders being used, for example, on closure motions in the 1880s. He says: “As to the practical issue of a “super-majority” SO being able to be amended or repealed only by a super-majority, I see no difficulty. The Speaker would be the arbiter of whether a motion…either was (a) orderly and (b) had been agreed to; he would be bound by the Standing Order (which should perhaps contain an explicit prohibition on “notwithstanding”-type Motions), and his decision would be beyond any external review.”

That neatly and devastatingly removes the need for the entire Bill. We could be operating entirely through Standing Orders, which would be protected by the super-majority that the Government want to embed in legislation for general elections. It leaves the question of why the Government are resisting this advice. Amendment 6 is a more elaborate way of saying what the Government have already put in the Bill. I would be the first to accept that it may be regarded as a more elaborate bit of sticking plaster, because the clause will be subject to judicial interpretation. A certificate could not be presented to the courts—not even the Speaker could present one to a court for adjudication. The word “whatsoever” in the amendment means that we are referring not just to our own courts, but to the European Court of Human Rights, which is not just a figment of some Eurosceptic’s imagination. The Clerk himself has adverted to the fact that the ECHR, under article 10, could be adverted to as a cause for judicial review. If a Member of Parliament was prevented from voting in the motion of confidence, they could say that their vote should be taken into account for a valid certificate to be issued by the Speaker. They could therefore mount a challenge saying that the certificate was not valid because they were prevented from voting. A question also arises if sick colleagues cannot get into the Lobby and are nodded through. Would that constitute a ground for challenging a vote of confidence? Jesse Norman: Was not there an example in the 1970s of whether a Member had been able to vote? There was a tied vote and Harold Lever, I think I am right in saying, felt that he had not been able to exercise his vote? He might have had grounds under this Bill, if the Clerk is right, to invoke the care and attention of the courts. Mr Jenkin: My hon. Friend adverts to an extremely relevant precedent. What would happen if a two-thirds majority was obtained, or not obtained, by just one vote, or the Speaker interpreted the result as a vote of confidence where there was one vote in it that was represented by somebody who was or was not present for whatever reason? These are very dangerous areas.

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I have two final points, and I am grateful for the indulgence of the Committee in allowing me to quote extensively from documents. The Bill is being driven by an extraordinary consensus on some issues and by the fact that it is so close to the survival of the coalition that it is difficult openly to debate it. The Prime Minister said before the election that Committee stages of Bills should not be whipped, so that what a Committee thought can be understood. The Whips are out in force today, and I do not think that we will really find out what Members think about it. However, that invites the other place to look at the privilege and immunities of the House, and to propose comprehensive amendments that protect Parliament from judicial review. Mark Durkan: Is the hon. Gentleman satisfied that either the Bill or amendment 6 would protect against judicial intervention on the ground of failure to issue a certificate—a controversy that could easily arise, particularly in the light of provisions in respect of a motion of no confidence? The certificate issues only after the 14-day period has been allowed—it does not issue at the time of the debate or just after the vote, but later on—and there could be controversy about the failure to issue a certificate or about whether a certificate could be issued. Someone might try to bring that to the court. Mr Jenkin: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The amendment, as drafted by my hon. Friend the Member for Stone, deals with only one aspect of the matter, and, given our limited time to scrutinise this enormously important Bill, I explicitly invite the other place to look carefully at all the aspects and the advice of the Clerk. One of its own Committees is considering the matter and might well come up with different conclusions from those of the Commons Political and Constitutional Reform Committee. The Lords sorted out the IPSA Bill, under which they kept our proceedings immune from the courts, and I very much hope that they will do the same with this Bill. My concluding point is a general one about the Bill but is relevant to the amendment. I do not think that I can recall a major constitutional measure that was so closely associated with the survival of one Administration. We have to pinch ourselves when we think of what we are doing in reality: we are completely changing our constitutional settlement at the behest of a coalition, so that it can remain in power for five years. I do not even think that that is ethical. Parliament’s immunity is basically being screwed up, and, although a Bill can at least be repealed, once the courts have been allowed into our proceedings, we will never get them out again without a major break in the constitution such as in 1689. All that can be forestalled if the Minister simply says, “These matters cannot be resolved today,” because they cannot be resolved on the basis of parliamentary counsel’s advice to Ministers about the drafting of Bills. We need the other place to give the highest and most independent legal advice to ensure that we do not inadvertently bring about what the Government themselves do not want to see. Chris Bryant: Many thanks are due to the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin), who has done us a great favour by pointing out some of the

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problems in this small aspect of the legislation. He is absolutely right to say that large parts of the Bill exist only for the preservation of a single Administration. I do not know the appropriate Latin equivalent of ad hominem legislation, but this is “ad administrationem” legislation, which is why some provisions will not stand the test of time. The best that we can do is try to ensure that the elements of real peril are tidied up. The hon. Gentleman was right in several regards, but not in one. He talked about the IPSA Bill having been miraculously improved in the other place, but none of us really thinks that we ended up with a perfect situation or that nirvana arrived by virtue of that Bill. However, on the Bill before us—I suspect this would also apply to the other constitutional Bill that we recently scrutinised—he is right that if there were a free vote, none of the legislation would go through at all. Mr Jenkin: If the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill had been separate Bills, I do not think that either would have gone through. On the IPSA Bill, at one stage there was a proposal to allow IPSA to adjudicate on and punish Members for breaching the rules. That would have driven a coach and horses through our traditional immunities under the Bill of Rights, but it was removed in the other place. Chris Bryant: Indeed. As the hon. Gentleman said earlier, a privileges Act will be needed at some point, and I hope that the Government turn to such legislation. I realise that there are problems with any written or “codified”—to use the Minister’s term—constitution, because one risks making it justiciable and must then decide what will be the justice that oversees it. Will it be a supreme court or a constitutional court, such as many other countries have? That is a debate for another day, however. 2.15 pm The issue of the Speaker’s certificate can be addressed only in relation to how it is operated in motions of no confidence, so I do not intend to stray far, Mrs Primarolo, from the specific issues involved. Nevertheless, in the previous debate the Minister said that all the amendments dealt with wildly hypothetical situations. Those were not his precise words, but broadly speaking that is what he meant, and he was right in a sense. When one starts writing bits of the constitution into statute, however, one has to provide for the hypothetical situation that suddenly arises when, for example, voters have cast their votes not so conveniently as to provide for a single majority party in government, or when a party—as has happened regularly over the past 200 years—has collapsed into two parties and is not able to sustain itself in power. It is important that we consider the unlikely outcomes that might transpire, because if they were to transpire they would provide us with an enormous constitutional headache, and we would have literally no means of sorting them out, because we would have no other court to appeal to in order to sort out the constitutional row. For instance, if the monarch decided to sack the Prime Minister—this point was raised earlier—other than revolution I know of no other means that we would have to enforce what we all understand to be the proper constitutional settlement.

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I presume that the Government have drawn up the provision on the Speaker’s certificate as they have done in an attempt to mirror provisions in the Parliament Act 1911, as amended of course in 1949. In an attempt to ensure that in accordance with the Bill of Rights the courts did not interfere in parliamentary proceedings, that legislation tried to provide a cast-iron process whereby the Speaker could certificate that certain Bills were money Bills and did not, therefore, have to go through the same process in the House of Lords as other Bills. It also provided that if a money Bill were amended or not passed by their Lordships within a certain period—I think it is a month—it would be automatically be sent to Her Majesty for Royal Assent. I also presume that the Government have used that legislation to draw up the legislation before us, because section 1(3) of the 1911 Act states that “the Speaker shall consult, if practicable, two members to be appointed from the Chairmen’s Panel at the beginning of each Session by the Committee of Selection.”

That process still occurs, and Mr Speaker doubtless went through it before he recently certified several Bills as money Bills. There is a difficulty, however, with transposing that provision directly into provisions for a situation in which the Government have lost a motion of no confidence, or into measures that provide the Speaker with a series of fairly significant powers. The Speaker will get to decide when to issue that certificate. As the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex has already said, that means that the Speaker will decide whether nodding people through when Members are on the parliamentary estate and a Whip, by agreement between the Whips from both sides, nods them through at the end of a vote by saying, “And two more,” is allowed. The Speaker will decide also, for instance, whether 14 days have passed since the no confidence motion has been carried. That is important, because past debates on a motion of no confidence might have started at 3.30 in the afternoon, but they certainly did not finish by midnight; sometimes, they took up the whole of the next day’s business. In parliamentary terms, Members were still on the first day, so the question whether 14 days had transpired would be a moot point. Further, the Speaker will decide what is a motion of no confidence. I therefore presume that, similarly, he will decide what is a motion of confidence. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that many of those issues could be dealt with in Standing Orders. That would be very helpful to the House on the question of what counts as a motion of no confidence or of confidence, in particular, because this is a matter not of partisan advantage or ideological divide, but of trying to ensure that there are practical measures to obviate a constitutional disaster should the moment arise. It would be helpful if the Minister were able to tell us whether he is minded to suggest to the Deputy Leader of the House that there should be motions to change the Standing Orders of this House to make some of the conventions that currently exist part of Standing Orders. For instance, there is the question whether we should have in Standing Orders the provision that when the Opposition demand a motion of no confidence it should usually be provided, say, within 24 or 48 hours, or provision concerning how the Speaker goes about the certification process.

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Mr Shepherd: I am a little puzzled as to why the hon. Gentleman comes to the conclusion that this needs to be codified in any way. Our history demonstrates quite openly that this House comes to such a resolution by the processes of the House. When Mr Chamberlain won the famous Norway debate, he recognised that there was no confidence in him personally. These matters are eventually decided by the House and by the judgment of individuals. Surely that is the better way of doing it. Chris Bryant: In a sense, that is an argument against the whole Bill which I understand. I know that the hon. Gentleman is not saying that this is a conspiracy, but I think that the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex feels that a bit of a cosy consensus has developed around the fact that there should be a codification of fixed-term Parliaments. We agree with that codification. However, once one starts to codify one element, one has to codify rather a lot of them. That is why I have wanted to codify what counts as a motion of no confidence and what should be a motion of confidence. Perhaps we should have tried to codify it in a slightly different way so that, for instance, a motion to amend the Loyal Address could also be considered as such, as in 1924. Mr Jenkin: What the hon. Gentleman is suggesting might well be sensible in one respect, but I fear that it will not prevent the courts from having a go at this. Indeed, if what constitutes a motion of confidence is codified in our Standing Orders, the courts will then be interpreting whether our Standing Orders reflect what could be regarded as such. If he wants clarity and is seeking to provide a better definition, this has to be put into the legislation. Of course, that reflects the point that we are tempting the courts to interfere in the proceedings of this House. Chris Bryant: That is an interesting point. The Bill of Rights refers, I think in section 9, to the fact that proceedings in Parliament shall not be touched by any other court. The moot point then is what constitutes a proceeding in Parliament. There have been many discussions about this over the past couple of years, not least in relation to the arrest of the hon. Member for Ashford (Damian Green). The hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex is right in one sense. However, I have presumed—this is the advice that I had when I sat on the Government Benches as Deputy Leader of the House—that parliamentary privilege covers proceedings in Parliament and the whole of the Standing Orders of this House, because that how this House chooses to proceed. I think that there is greater security in the Standing Orders of the House. Another issue is how we ensure that the Speaker is not dragged into a partisan contest, particularly at a moment of great political drama. As I said in an earlier debate, my concern is that if it is left for the Speaker to have to determine all these elements, the Speaker’s impartiality is compromised. Another strange element of the Bill is the provision that says that before the Speaker issues his certificate, he shall consult the Deputy Speakers. That mirrors the provision in the 1911 Act whereby the Speaker, before issuing his certificate on a money Bill, has to consult two members of the Panel of Chairs. What happens if all the Deputy Speakers disagree with issuing the certificate?

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Why should the Speaker have to consult? One presumes that it is simply a matter of fact, although I suppose we all know that facts are rarely clearly delineated and are rather more subjective than most people would want to admit. The point is, however, that this puts the Speaker and potentially the House in peril, because people may want to contest any one of the various elements of the Speaker’s decision. One of the matters that would almost certainly arise if there were any contest as to whether the certificate was being rightly issued is what the Deputy Speakers had said. That is an unfortunate direction for us to take. We have tabled an amendment, on which I hope to divide the Committee, on the timing of when the Speaker issues the certificate. At the moment, the Bill makes no provision whatsoever on when the Speaker’s certificate should be issued. One therefore presumes that it could be a month, two months or several months after the passage of two weeks. Let us say, for instance, that after a motion of no confidence has been carried, the Government try to reform themselves with a different concatenation of political parties and do not manage to secure a new motion of confidence, but there are still patently ongoing negotiations that are nearing their closing phase. Would it then be all right for the Speaker not to issue a certificate at that point but to wait until such time that another Government had been formed? The difficulty is that if the Speaker chose not to do so, who is to gainsay the Speaker? There is no provision in the Bill for what would happen if the Speaker has not done what the Bill requires. For all those reasons, I believe that this element of the Bill is flawed. I also believe that certain elements should not be in statute but should be in Standing Orders in order to provide greater certainty for the House by taking them within the concept of proceedings of this House. Above all, I want to ensure that there is no uncertainty about the specific provision as to when the Speaker has to act and when the Speaker may act. Jesse Norman: I wish to speak in favour of the amendment. First, may I congratulate my hon. Friend and neighbour the Minister on the very calm and effective way in which he has steered this legislation through the House? None the less, it seems to me that a basic issue with the legislation remains unresolved. It has been described in this House as a matter of parliamentary privilege, but in fact it concerns the fundamental principle of parliamentary sovereignty. One thinks of the magisterial words of A.V. Dicey: “The principle of Parliamentary sovereignty means neither more nor less than this, namely that Parliament thus defined”—

by which he means the King or Queen in Parliament, rather than just Parliament itself— “has, under the English constitution, the right to make or unmake any law whatever: and, further, that no person or body is recognised by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of Parliament.”

That is the cardinal principle at issue today. It is worth saying that our parliamentary sovereignty remains intact in principle. It remains open to this House to repeal, if it so wished, the Act of Settlement 1701 by simple majority. The sovereignty of Parliament can thus be deliberately limited in its effects by this House—for

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example, by treaty—but it should not be limited by accident, by inadvertence or by over-confidence. There is a risk—a small risk—that this will happen under these provisions. The Clerk of the House has advised in writing and in testimony that to include parliamentary voting procedure in statute would risk judicial scrutiny of the proceedings of this House, and possible legal challenge. It is important to note that this is not merely the view of the Clerk of the House, but also the view of Speaker’s Counsel, and it has legal authority behind it. That is simply because the functions described under the clause are statutory functions, and it would therefore be for the courts to determine whether those functions are lawfully exercised. That is, of course, advice rendered to the House, not to the Government. 2.30 pm This issue was rightly taken up by the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee in its report on the Bill. In response, the Government relied on expert witnesses to show that the Bill would avoid unwarranted legal challenge. As has been discussed, the Clerk recommended a way past the problem, which was that the procedure should be written into Standing Orders, but that was rejected by the Government. In my judgment, it is perfectly legitimate for the Government, after due consideration and on legal advice, to insist on their preferred approach of including the relevant procedures in the legislation, rather than in Standing Orders. Nevertheless, we are discussing a separate issue—related, but separate. I believe that the Government would be well advised to accept the amendment for three reasons. First, as with all legal issues, this issue is not absolutely clear; it does not admit of certainty. The Government have relied on expert advice, but when Dawn Oliver and Anthony Bradley gave testimony to the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, both experts acknowledged the small but clear risk of judicial challenge. They stated that precedent and statute are being relied on that may themselves require new legislative support. As has been noted today, that risk would be magnified by the heat and time pressure of an election. I would like to correct something that I said earlier to the Committee with reference to Harold Lever, by quoting from the evidence of the Clerk of the House before the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee: “I won’t bore the Committee with too many precedents, but I couldn’t resist this one. This is from 1974 and it’s to do with the passage of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Bill. I will read a very short extract from the Journal of that year. ‘Mr Harold Lever, Member for Manchester Central, acquainted the House, That in the Divisions on Amendments…to the Trade Union and Labour Relations Bill…he was recorded as having voted with the Noes, but he had to inform the House that he was not within the Precincts of the House at the time of those Divisions and that in consequence his vote ought not to have been so recorded.’”

The Clerk continued: “In this case, when Mr Lever came to the House and acquainted the House about his absence, the whole procedure was declared null and void, including the Third Reading of the Bill. The Bill had to be called back from the House of Lords and the whole process had to happen again.”

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Secondly, I think that the Government should accept the amendment because there is a clear trend of more public decisions falling under the scrutiny of the courts. I do not think that that is currently happening in domestic law, and in my view fears over judicial activism are misplaced. Nevertheless, we now have an independent Supreme Court that might not always exercise the restraint and care that has been shown by the present generation of judges in acknowledging and preserving the principle of parliamentary sovereignty. The European Courts are taking a greater interest in domestic matters. The European Court of Human Rights has heard at least one case that the British courts would not consider on the grounds that it fell under parliamentary jurisdiction. European judges have expressed concern over the lack of remedies against the exercise of parliamentary privilege. Mr Jenkin: My hon. Friend is making an extremely important point about the European Court of Human Rights. As soon as something gets into the Court, it respects no immunities whatsoever—nor does the European Court of Justice, but that is not adverted to in this case. Once a case is in that system, we do not know where it will lead. The European Court of Human Rights certainly would not respect the limitations of the 1689 Act. Jesse Norman: I do not wish to comment on the procedure or intention of the European Courts, but I note merely that it is true historically that their scrutiny has extended itself over time. It is noted less than it should be that European judges have expressed concern about the exercise of parliamentary privilege and about the lack of remedies that people possess against its exercise. The final reason why the Government should look again at the amendment is that the consequences of a mistake could be momentous. In the short term, a dissolution of Parliament and thereby an election could hang on it. In the longer term, there could be wider political and constitutional implications of judicial scrutiny of our power. The amendment is simply worded, it offers an additional layer of protection for Parliament against a serious threat, and it does so at little or no additional cost. I urge the Minister to give it serious consideration. Tristram Hunt: I, too, shall speak to amendment 6, which would take us some way in the direction in which we should be heading to protect this place from the actions of the courts. Every day, as the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) said, we see growing evidence of interference by and elements of activism in the courts. We now have the Supreme Court in Parliament square, and large buildings tend to have large consequences. The emeritus professor of public administration at University college London, Professor Gavin Drewry, has recorded a major shift towards cases of public law, with some high-profile cases having a constitutional air:

He concluded:

“The establishment of the Supreme Court is an important constitutional landmark, and it would be surprising if the Court itself were to stand completely aside from the ongoing process of constitutional development.”

“I don’t think I need labour the point of what this would mean in terms of a no confidence vote.”

There is a strong sense of certainty that the Supreme Court will be involved.

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[Tristram Hunt] It is apposite to be discussing this Bill after this morning’s judgment in the case of three former Members of this House, Morley, Chaytor and Devine, and also a peer, against their claim of parliamentary privilege. In his summation, Lord Phillips noted that “extensive inroads have been made into areas that previously fell within the exclusive cognisance of Parliament.”

His statement should be of major concern to parliamentarians when considering the Bill, and in particular to Ministers, who I hope have read and digested the judgment and are coming to sensible conclusions about it. If I may, I shall quote Lord Phillips at greater length: “Where a statute does not specifically address matters that are subject to privilege, it is in theory necessary as a matter of statutory interpretation to decide a number of overlapping questions. Does the statute apply within the precincts of the Palace of Westminster? If it does, does it apply in areas that were previously within the exclusive cognisance of Parliament? If so, does the statute override the privilege imposed by article 9? In practice there are not many examples of these questions being considered, either within Parliament or by the courts. If Parliament accepts that a statute applies within an area that previously fell within its exclusive cognisance, then Parliament will, in effect, have waived any claim to privilege.”

Those are damaging and dangerous comments, which have wide repercussions. Lord Phillips argues that the ultimate judgment of such matters rests with the courts. He quotes approvingly a letter written on 4 March 2010 by the Clerk of the Parliaments to the solicitor acting for Lord Hanningfield which had been approved by the Committee for Privileges: “Article 9 limits the application of parliamentary privilege to ‘proceedings in Parliament.’ The decision as to what constitutes a ‘proceeding in Parliament’, and therefore what is or is not admissible as evidence, is ultimately a matter for the court, not the House.”

We should consider that evidence and the actions of a growing number of judges in considering the Bill. Mr Jenkin: Bluntly, what the hon. Gentleman is averting to is a power struggle. The question is whether the House will stand up for its immunities or give them up. The Bill is an indication that we want to give them up. Tristram Hunt: I agree with the hon. Gentleman and with the fundamental basis of his analysis, which is that the constitutional reform programme is driven by the immediate necessities of the Government in the context of this Parliament. We are making major decisions that will have wide ramifications in the functioning of the constitution of the United Kingdom, based on a political programme and timetable. That is never the best way in which to develop deep consensus thinking about the constitution. I would finally raise a point that the Clerk of the House has also raised. As he put it in a note to the Committee in the other place, “given that a draft Parliamentary Privileges Bill has now been announced, why deal in advance and separately with a matter affecting the proceedings of the House of Commons in legislation”,

if it is not for the specific political purposes of the current Government? Mr Shepherd: I am more and more puzzled about the Bill as we go on, but there are two propositions in this group of amendments. I support amendment 6, in the

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name of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), and I am grateful for the important contribution of my hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman). Indeed, I was elated at the time of the election to hear that Jessye Norman had been elected to the House. I spent six months seeking out that fantastic opera singer—I got the wrong individual, as you will appreciate, Ms Primarolo, and I am very grateful to have encountered my hon. Friend on the Floor of the Committee. Jesse Norman rose— Chris Bryant: He wants to sing. Sing for Britain. Jesse Norman: No. Hon. Members will be pleased to hear that I do not propose to sing, but I am pleased to report that I have managed to overcome the quadruple handicaps of being tall, white, English and male. Mr Shepherd: And formidable handicaps they often are. The endeavour of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone and those who support the amendment was to provide some form of belt-and-braces approach. None of us is confident that it can work, because the aspirations and ambitions of several of our lords justices have given one an uncertainty as to where they are heading in the rewriting of the constitution. I am also mindful of the European Court of Human Rights. We have an inferior court that we call a Supreme Court and a superior court that we call a court of human rights, and on top of all that we have another court called the European Court of Justice. Somewhere in there I can see a demented Prime Minister making an application for unfair dismissal as a result of a vote to every one of those courts in turn, while we watch on, as though it were a Gilbert and Sullivan pantomime. I shall support the amendment. Similarly, I will support amendment 23. The matter has to be determined quickly and appropriately, so I shall not waste the House’s time having indicated the actions that I will take. Mark Durkan: Like the hon. Member for AldridgeBrownhills (Mr Shepherd), I shall speak in support of amendments 6 and 23, which are both attempts to earth the Bill against some of the dangerous shocks that could be created for the House in the future. To make some of my points, I will have to refer to what the Minister said about the previous group of amendments. In the debate on the previous group, the Minister said that he could think of no circumstances in which a debate on a motion of no confidence would take place without the House knowing that it was a motion of no confidence, even though the Bill requires the Speaker to issue a certificate only after a period of 14 days has elapsed—it does not specify how long after. That creates a situation that we all have to consider before we even go into the danger of what will happen when the matter goes to the courts. Let us first look at the difficulties and controversies that will be created in this House. If a motion of no confidence can be played like a wild joker, and any motion can be converted into one, then whenever there is a controversial issue or one involving Opposition or rebel tactics, the Speaker will be asked early in a debate, “Will you signal whether you would be

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minded to say that this debate is certifiable? Will you declare that we are going through a potentially certifiable chain of political and constitutional events?” Of course, the Speaker might wish to say, “You are trying to draw me into a matter of controversy”, because he might not be privy to what Whips are saying to Members about the significance of a particular motion. 2.45 pm What would happen if the Speaker said that a motion was not certifiable, and the Prime Minister subsequently decided that the nature, colour and content of the debate meant that it had been a motion of no confidence in him rather than in the Government, as in the example of the 1940 debate mentioned by the hon. Member for Aldridge-Brownhills? Somebody could announce from the Dispatch Box, on either the Opposition or Government side of the House, that as far as they were concerned, there had been a motion of no confidence. Would that mean that the Speaker’s ruling was somehow removed or overturned? If anybody wanted to contest in court either the issuing of a certificate or the failure to issue one, that sequence of events involving the Speaker and Front Benchers could become relevant. It could become a matter of contest and controversy being presented in court. Even short of the matter getting to the courts, we are already potentially compromising the Speaker. He will constantly be hostage to inquiries as to whether a particular motion could be treated as a motion of no confidence, and his ruling could at any time be upstaged from the Treasury Bench. Mr Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): My children once asked me, “What does a heffalump look like?” I said, “You’ll know one when you see one.” Has that not been the case with confidence motions throughout history? The House has known one when it has seen one, and we are in danger of over-complicating the process in the Bill. Mark Durkan: I have a lot of sympathy with what the hon. Gentleman says, and that was why I indicated my support for earlier amendments that would have narrowed the ambiguity and reduced the possibility of political and procedural chicanery, with which the Bill is riddled. Chris Bryant: Will my hon. Friend point out to the hon. Member for Broxbourne (Mr Walker) that there is a picture of the heffalump in several of A. A. Milne’s books? Mark Durkan: I accept that point fully. Mr Walker: I shall admonish my children for not being better read. Mark Durkan: I will acknowledge these interventions no further. To return to the matter at hand, let us be clear that the Bill’s provisions are open to all sorts of contests, questions and controversies. As I have said, I believe that the Minister was wrong to say that the House will know in all circumstances when something is a vote of confidence. If he wanted to make that incontrovertibly so, he would need to provide either in Standing Orders or in the Bill for a formal indication by the Speaker that a certificate could be issued prior to the period set out

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in the Bill, which starts 14 days after a motion. That, in turn, would bring the Speaker into areas of political controversy and intervention. Amendment 6 is clearly aimed at ensuring that those difficulties do not make the issuing of a certificate, or possibly the failure to issue one, a matter of controversy that can be brought to the courts. In discussing previous amendments, Members alluded to affairs currently in Oireachtas Éireann and in the Dail. Those affairs may be relevant this week, because an opposition party there has indicated that it might take to the courts the question whether, under the constitution, the agreement that the Irish Government have entered into has to be subject to a vote of the Dail. Let us not rule out circumstances in which a party here, possibly a party of Opposition, could feel that the Speaker had wrongly declined to issue a certificate, or that the Government were using all sorts of procedural chicanery to prevent certificates being issued and to reset the clock. That party might then feel obliged to take the matter to court if it felt that it faced dead ends and chicanery in Parliament. That is exactly the situation that was threatened in Dublin this week given what the Irish Labour party justice spokesman said. Let us not join the Minister in completely dismissing all such possibilities. I do not want to move from Dublin to Northern Ireland affairs, but I have some experience of what happens in practice. I was involved in negotiating and implementing the Good Friday agreement, including as a Minister and Deputy First Minister. Ministers told this House that procedures would follow their own course and that political matters would not end up in the courts, but then I found that my election as Deputy First Minister was taken to court—when I was jointly elected with David Trimble—because all sorts of rules were bent and twisted and the clock was reset by Secretaries of State and others. The Northern Ireland Act 1998 set a clear six-week period, but Secretaries of State discovered that if they suspended things for 24 hours, there would be a new six-week period. Whenever there is a facility to contrive a completely new situation and dispose of a statutory deadline, it is used—whenever Ministers are told that in case of emergency they can smash the glass, they do so. Completely contrary to the assurances and explanations given to the House when we debated the 1998 Act, a number of Secretaries of State found themselves doing that. In addition, Assembly Members redesignated to pass particular votes, even though they said that they would not, and so on. In the context of the Bill, people have said that a Government would never put themselves in the embarrassing position of activating a vote of no confidence in themselves or cutting corners, ignoring rules or resetting clocks so that they can bypass dates and deadlines, but the Northern Ireland experience shows that that is not so. The exigencies of the moment, and the demands for stability and good governance, can be used as circumstantial excuses. Let us not pretend otherwise. If we are trying to provide for fixed-term Parliaments with clear, fixed and guaranteed arrangements, we must go further than the Bill does. It leaves too much power in the hands of the Prime Minister and the Executive when there has been a motion of no confidence, and in respect of their influence over the decision of whether a motion is one of no confidence or otherwise.

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[Mark Durkan] I therefore ask the Minister to acknowledge that there are shortcomings in the Bill. Some of the amendments have their own shortcomings, but they do not diminish the serious problems with the Bill. If he will not accept amendments 6 and 23, will he agree to work in another place and in the House at another time to make his own amendments, so that the Bill does not create those difficulties and controversies? Under the Bill, the Speaker could be the subject of controversy. What if there are differences between the Speaker and Deputy Speakers on the question whether to indicate in advance that a motion is certifiable? More importantly, as the hon. Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) said, I believe that such matters could find themselves before a court, not only because somebody might want to contest the fact or content of a certificate, but more importantly because people might want to contest the failure to issue a certificate or the fairly questionable proceedings in advance of it. We do not want the Speaker of the House of Commons to be caught in the same position as Scottish football referees. They have been accused of taking and changing decisions in relation to subsequent arguments and events. Let us protect the office of the Speaker and this House. Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con): I rise to make a brief contribution. I have listened with great interest to the debate and I await with even greater interest the Minister’s response to the very well advocated position on amendment 6, with which I have great sympathy. It seems blindingly simple to me. Clause 2(3) stops at the words, “for all purposes.” The comparison with section 3 of the Parliament Act 1911 has been made, so why not include the extra words, “and shall not be questioned in any court of law”?

The amendment proposes the use of the word “whatsoever”, which was no doubt an attempt by my hon. Friend the. Member for Stone (Mr Cash) to deal with the European question—that is perfectly legitimate and I understand entirely the reason for his wording—but the point is the same: if such a provision was good in 1911, why is it not good now? If anything, the balance between Parliament and the courts has deteriorated, as the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) eloquently outlined. The balance is now extremely fine, and it is in danger of being overturned in favour of judicial activism. It may well be that reliance will be placed upon the residual powers of article 9 of the Bill of Rights, but as an Act of Parliament, that too is subject to judicial interpretation. Over the years, it has been interpreted in a variety of ways by the courts. Notably, it has been impliedly waived or restricted by this House. Section 13 of the Defamation Act 1996 is a good example of Parliament deciding, in effect, to allow its privilege to be qualified. I have strong views on the wisdom of that legislation—it was foolish and has led to unintended consequences, which are at the heart of this debate. No Member of Parliament wants a diminution of its authority or power. This is an elected Chamber and we represent the people of this country. Sovereignty means just that. It is right that all hon. Members worry—even if it is sounds like lawyers’ caution—about any further unintended diminution of our authority. That is why I

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support amendment 6. Why not change clause 2(3) to put things as far beyond doubt as possible, mirroring what legislators did in 1911, to ensure that the spectre of the judiciary questioning and second-guessing the proceedings of the House does not become a reality? Mr Cox: I had not intended to speak, and I shall be extremely brief. Most of my remarks will be addressed to the Minister in the hope that he can provide the clarification in substance to the questions asked by my hon. Friends and Opposition Members, which I should like to reinforce. My first question is precisely that which my hon. Friend the Member for South Swindon (Mr Buckland) just asked. Why not add the proposed words? If clause 2(3) is intended to be an instruction to the courts that a certificate shall not be challenged, on the face of it there could be no real reason, unless the Minister has thought of something that others have not thought of or been advised otherwise, why the injunction of my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), which is more expressive, explicit and detailed, should not be added. Will the Minister elucidate the purpose of stopping short at the word “purposes” and not going on to be as explicit as possible? I ask that because historically, ouster clauses in administrative law have not been conspicuously successful. The courts have not paid very much attention to interpreting their duty to examine such issues, and often even where the ouster clause has been passed. [Interruption.] I see from the sedentary reaction of my hon. Friend the Member for Somerton and Frome (Mr Heath)—the Deputy Leader of the House—that the reason may be that such provisions are so pointless that there is no point in going any further. If that is the reason, it would be helpful if the Government made that clear, so that Members could consider that. I have to tell him that I do not consider the provision to be pointless—I would not imagine that the Government would do anything that was pointless in drafting the legislation. The Parliamentary Secretary, Office of the Leader of the House of Commons (Mr David Heath) indicated assent. Mr Cox: I see my hon. Friend nodding sagely. That provision therefore must have a function. If that function can be increased in its effect and efficacy by adding the proposed words, why not incorporate them? 3 pm That brings me to my second point. If it is necessary under clause 3(3) to try to instruct the courts that the certificate should not be justiciable—that it should not be considered—that must imply, as does my hon. Friend’s reaction from the Front Bench, that the Government are aware that the courts may well, even in remote and possibly extreme circumstances, become ensnared in the examination of these issues. One can see considerable skill and intelligence at work in the drafting of the Bill. One sees that it is intended not to be tempting to the courts. If we codify too much in statute, the danger is that the courts would be drawn into examining whether the preconditions for a motion of confidence had been met, whether the definitions were properly complied with and so on. What the legislation seems to be doing—if

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this is the intention, it is a laudable one—is enacting, in broad outline, so as to make it clear to the courts, that the critical questions of definition and discretion are still for the House and the proper authorities of the House. It is a statute that is intended to preserve a certain flexibility and suppleness so that the courts are not drawn into examining such issues, whereas they would be if we laid down too precise a definition of the concepts that they involve. I appreciate that, and I see the point of it. It no doubt forms part of the Government’s confidence that the courts will not ordinarily enter into that territory. However, the mere presence of that ouster clause suggests that the Government are aware that in some circumstances they might. As the Government have indicated—albeit via a sedentary reaction—they are plainly aware that ouster clauses do not always work. That suggests to me that the Government are content—or at least have made a strategic decision—that in certain circumstances the judicial authorities may come to interpret and consider this legislation. I accept that that is highly unlikely in the ordinary case, given the amount of discretion, the amount of territory left to the Speaker and the ill-defined nature of many of the concepts. It would be a bold court indeed that entered into a discussion of such issues and allowed them to become the subject of a judicial review. Mr Jenkin: We all know that we are talking about heated and potentially controversial circumstances. If there was a raging controversy about alleged malpractice in our proceedings or surrounding them, and if public opinion was strongly supportive of one view or the other, there would be intense pressure on a court to intervene. Does my hon. and learned Friend not think it would be difficult for a court not to intervene under such circumstances? Mr Cox: No, I do not think that. Intense pressure is precisely what an independent judiciary is set up to resist. One would expect and hope for that from a senior judge. We are fortunate in the judiciary we have in this country. I hope that hon. Members will reflect carefully on some of the language that we have used in this debate today. It is not the case that the judiciary have an appetite to assume the powers of this House. Indeed, in my experience the preponderance in the judiciary is to be careful and scrupulous in the way they observe the parameters of judicial power. The problem is—if I can extend this parenthesis as briefly as I may—that we have invited the judiciary into the territory time after time, since the European Communities Act 1972, which fundamentally altered the constitutional arrangements in this country. It essentially meant that there was a higher constitutional court, namely the European Court of Justice—we already have it—which presupposes and believes it is capable of trumping domestic law. That ultimately led to a decision in a case called Factortame, in which an Act of Parliament was set aside by the House of Lords, on the basis of the seniority—or superiority—of the European Union’s law. Then we had the Human Rights Act 1998, which preserves—or attempts to preserve—a careful balance. Nevertheless, it invites the courts into consideration of the policies and legislative objectives—almost on the basis of their merits—that this House has always considered

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to be its prerogative and to fall within its exclusive sphere. The courts are careful, but they themselves acknowledge that the Human Rights Act has invited them further into that territory. Chris Bryant: The hon. and learned Gentleman is making an important contribution, and he is right about the reluctance of the courts, for the most part, to intervene and tread on our toes, as it were. However, the truth is that those elements of parliamentary privilege that attach because of not wishing to interfere with proceedings in Parliament get very fuzzy at the edges. Indeed, there are areas where others want the courts to express a view. My anxiety is not that there would be a challenge when the Speaker had issued a certificate, but that a challenge would be far more likely when the Speaker had decided not to do so. Mr Cox: I have heard that observation made, and I hope that the Minister will be able to address it. I do not feel quite as concerned as hon. Members who have expressed their views on that point, and I will say why. A court would very soon see through an argument that went: “The Speaker has not issued a certificate in circumstances where we”—the party bringing the application to the court—“think he should have done.” The reason is that if a certificate is conclusive for all purposes, so must the absence of a certificate be. I do not believe for a moment that a court would see the matter any other way when the Speaker had chosen not to make a certificate. Otherwise, we would have to have a provision in the Bill saying that if the Speaker chooses not to certify, that should not be challenged either. It must be implied that if a Speaker made a deliberate and conscious choice not to certify, the absence of the certificate—that choice—must equally be conclusive, and I think that most courts would see it that way. One could argue that that should be explicit in the Bill, but for my purposes, I would not have thought a court would find impressive an argument that said that a Speaker who decided not to certify could be judicially reviewed, whereas if he had certified—let us say, in the negative—he could not be. That would be pointless. Mr George Howarth (Knowsley) (Lab): The issuing or non-issuing of a certificate is a slightly false comparison. The issuing of a certificate would result in action—providing that it was not challenged successfully in a court—whereas the non-issuing of a certificate would, I presume, simply preserve the status quo. Mr Cox: What is the point of a certificate? It is not going to be challenged in a court, because the Government and this House will instruct the courts not to look at it. The point of the certificate is merely to express in writing the Speaker’s view that something had been a motion of confidence. If he does not issue a certificate, it is plainly the case that he has reached the view that it is not a motion of confidence. However, it is highly unlikely that the mere fact that a Speaker had produced that view but not committed it to a piece of paper would induce the courts to enter that territory and issue what used to be called a writ of mandamus—it is now called a mandatory order—to force him to do so. I find that improbable and implausible. I hope that the Minister will draw some comfort from that, but he should not draw complete comfort from it, because the mere fact

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[Mr Cox] that we are considering whether the courts would or would not be able to enter this territory will induce litigants, lobby groups and political groups to bring these very applications before the courts to test out the territory. It will not be long before the courts start to consider the extent to which the Bill allows them in, and the extent to which it does not. That is where the hon. Gentleman of whose constituency I am shamefully ignorant— Chris Bryant: Stoke-on-Trent. Mr Cox: The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) quoted the recent judgment of Lord Phillips, and that is important because Lord Phillips made it plain that the courts will reserve the power to define the parameters of parliamentary prerogative and privilege. If the Bill remains enacted in the law of this country for a long period, which I rather doubt, there will inevitably be a point at which the courts are invited in and at which they will start to examine the extent to which they can and cannot become involved. Their view might not entirely coincide with that of the Government. For example, the question of whether a certificate is valid might arise. The Bill states: “A certificate under this section is conclusive for all purposes.”

A court might well feel entitled to consider whether, as a matter of law, it is in fact a certificate. In the past, that is the way in which ouster clauses have been outflanked. I am asking the Minister to consider this matter, and I am asking from the heart. I have noticed that, from time to time, he has found many of the interventions by Members not altogether to his taste. Perhaps the smile of the Cheshire cat is always seated on his face during these debates simply because of his serene command of his brief and his sublime confidence in the merits of this legislation. However, I ask him to address the consciences of many of the Members on his own side who have deep and sincere concerns. My hon. Friend the Member for Aldridge-Brownhills (Mr Shepherd) is among them, and when he rises to speak on matters of the constitution, he must always be listened to with respect. He may not be a lawyer but, by Jove, his instincts on the constitution are proud and honoured by a long tradition in this House. I pay tribute to him for standing up with such integrity and for such a long time for the traditional view of the constitution in this House. It is not a bad thing to stand up for tradition. It is not wrong to honour the way in which our forefathers constructed the constitution, the wisdom of it and the value that it has conveyed down the ages to the inhabitants of this country. Will the Minister address this matter? I hope that I have expressed myself modestly by saying that I do not endorse or adopt many of the more exaggerated flights of fantasy that have occasionally been bandied about the Floor of the House. However, it surely cannot be denied that there is some risk and some legitimate cause for concern, when this matter seems to prey on the minds and the consciences of so many Members of this House who are motivated by entirely sincere reasons, rather than merely by the need to hear the sound of their own voice. I ask the Minister to address those concerns with the sincerity with which they have been expressed.

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Mr Harper: I am grateful for those kind words from my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr Cox). When Mr Hoyle was in the Chair last week, he made it clear that he did not intend to have a stand part debate on this clause as we will have touched on all parts of it when debating the amendments. Before I move on to considering the amendments, it is worth putting into context the parts of the clause about which Members are concerned. I think I am right in saying that the concerns expressed about privilege and about whether the courts should intervene have almost exclusively related to clause 2(2), which deals with motions of confidence. Interestingly, the Clerk of the House, in his evidence and in conversations with me, was not concerned about subsection (2), given that it uses a perfectly well-precedented certification procedure. His concern—I think I explain it accurately—was with subsection (1), which covers the certification of an early general election, rather than with the certification procedure in principle. His concern was with the nature of the procedure that had to take place before the Speaker certified. In other words, not only would the House have had to pass a motion on a Division, but a particular number of Members would have had to vote. 3.15 pm Members expressed concern about motions of no confidence and the extent to which courts would want to interfere in them, but the Clerk of the House was exclusively concerned about clause 2(1), which deals with the House voting on a motion for an early general election, because of the two-thirds majority. Mr Jenkin: At the risk of repeating what I have already read out from the Speaker’s memorandum, I want to ensure that we are not speaking at cross-purposes. In paragraph 16 of the Committee’s report, the Clerk makes it very clear, in discussing clause 2(2), that “The provisions of this subsection make the Speaker’s consideration of confidence motions and the House’s practices justiciable questions for determination by the ordinary courts.”

I do not think that the Clerk could have been clearer: it is subsection (2) that he is concerned about. Mr Harper: I had a conversation with the Clerk about the certification, with the majority being specified. The Government decided to place the provisions on the early general election in statute rather than relying on Standing Orders because, as I stated in the memorandum I placed in the Library on 13 September, we cannot achieve the policy objective by relying on Standing Orders, which can be changed by a simple majority— Mr Jenkin: That is not true. Mr Harper: Let me just finish this point, then I will take an intervention from my hon. Friend. Standing Orders can be changed by a simple majority. The Government’s view was that, if that was the case, the power to dissolve Parliament early would effectively be left with the Prime Minister. Mr Jenkin: I beg to suggest that, if the Minister had listened carefully to what I said earlier, he would have heard me reading from a letter I had received from

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Mr Robert Rogers, who made it absolutely clear that it is possible to entrench a Standing Order of this House with its own super-majority. I am astonished that the Government do not understand that, and that the whole basis of this Bill seems to rest once more on the denial of advice given by the Clerks of the House. Mr Harper: My hon. Friend cited in the letter from Robert Rogers a reference to existing Standing Orders, which require a particular majority for an event to take place. I think he mentioned the requirement for 100 Members to vote for a closure motion. There is no precedent for a Standing Order, passed by a simple majority, to entrench itself and require that it cannot be changed, other than by a vote of this House on a different majority. The Government know of no precedent for that, and no Member has given an example of one. If a Standing Order provided that an early general election could be held only after a vote with the specified majority, and if that Standing Order could be changed by a simple majority vote in the House, it would be open to the governing party, at the behest of the Prime Minister, to change the Standing Order and to trigger an early election based on the whim of the Executive. That is exactly what we are trying to remove under the Bill. The Government believe that if the policy objective is to be achieved, the procedure must be specified in statute. Mr Shepherd: If that is so—and I accept it as such—why does it not apply to the statute itself ? Mr Harper: I think we have touched on that before. Once the Bill becomes an Act of Parliament, it cannot be changed purely by a majority vote in the House of Commons. The decision would have to be made by Parliament, which would also engage the other place, in which the Government do not have a majority. Even after—[Interruption.] I anticipated that reaction. Even after the appointment of the new list of working peers, the governing parties together will have only 40% of the peers in the upper House; 60% will be Labour peers, Cross Benchers or Lords Spiritual. The fact that this will be an Act of Parliament makes it impossible for a majority vote of a governing party to bring about an early general election, which is our policy objective. Chris Bryant: The Minister is right in saying that the main difference is that the matter would have to be dealt with in the second Chamber. As I understand it, however, the coalition agreement states clearly that the Government’s aspiration is to create enough peers to meet the proportions formed by each of the parties in the general election. That would provide a majority of 56%—quite apart from the fact that, as far as I can see, virtually every remaining Liberal Democrat Member in the country will be a member of the Second Chamber. Mr Harper: I will not dwell on this issue at length, Mr Evans, because if I did so you would rule me out of order, but the coalition agreement does not say that. It says that we want to make the upper House more representative of the result in the general election, not exactly in line with it. The hon. Gentleman simply is not right. The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent Central (Tristram Hunt) quoted from a judgment. I will not be drawn into the specifics of the Chaytor case—although the Supreme

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Court has given its judgment, there are ongoing criminal trials—but the flaw in the hon. Gentleman’s argument lies in the fact that the case concerns the administration of the expenses scheme. The House of Commons has never asserted exclusive cognisance of the expenses scheme. It has never said that the scheme, its administration and the matters that flow from it are parliamentary proceedings, which is why that is not a good example. Moreover, the Supreme Court’s judgment recognises the exclusive right of each House of Parliament to manage its own affairs without interference from the other, or from outside Parliament. My hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex quoted the views of the Clerk of the House. If the Government were alone in their view and the Clerk’s views were shared by everyone else, my hon. Friend would have a stronger case. The Political and Constitutional Reform Committee and the Lords Constitution Committee have taken a great deal of evidence, and the weight of independent expert evidence has supported the Government’s view. For example, Professor Robert Blackburn of King’s college London said—and I think that this is in line with the comments of my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr Cox)— “In my view, the government’s Fixed-Term Parliaments Bill has been technically well-drafted by the Cabinet Office’s parliamentary counsel, particularly in avoiding judicial review of its provisions on early elections by way of Speaker’s certificates”.

The hon. Member for Nottingham North (Mr Allen), the Chairman of the Political and Constitutional Reform Committee, said: “In the very limited time that we had to look at this matter, the Clerk was the only person to raise this question, and the academics who have been referred to—Professor Hazell, Professor Blackburn and others—completely disagreed with the view put forward by the Clerk.”—[Official Report, 13 September 2010; Vol. 515, c. 632-3.]

Tristram Hunt: The point was that we did not have enough time to hear other voices that might have agreed with the Clerk of the House, owing to our having to rush our consideration of the Bill and to the speed with which the Government are pushing it through. Mr Harper: That was also the experience of the Lords Constitution Committee—and, in fact, we have not been rushing the consideration of this Bill. We published it in July, Second Reading was in September, and this is the third day of the Committee stage, in December. We are hardly rushing forward at an enormously swift pace. Months have elapsed. I feel sure that if hundreds of constitutional lawyers and academics agreed with the Clerk and disagreed with the Government, we would have heard from them. Mr Andrew Turner (Isle of Wight) (Con): Does my hon. Friend understand that the Committee had to rush through its work on this Bill and the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill at the same time? Mr Harper: I am prepared to accept that consideration of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill has been proceeding faster than consideration of this Bill, but I cannot accept that this Bill is being considered at a great pace. It was published five months ago, we have reached only the third day of the Committee stage, and the Report stage is still to come. I believe that

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[Mr Harper] we have been proceeding at a sensible pace. Indeed, today’s proceedings were added when the Government realised that Members wished to engage in the debate at greater length. Chris Bryant: The Minister seems to suggest that all the evidence apart from that of the Clerk of the House falls into the other camp. The Committee listened to the various witnesses and reached a rather different conclusion—that the purpose of the Bill needed to be achieved without the courts being invited to question aspects of the House’s own procedures or the actions of the Speaker—and urged us to move in a rather different direction from the one advocated by the Government. Mr Harper: The Committee was quite right. I agree that we need to ensure that the courts do not question those matters. In a moment I will deal with the amendments and the Government’s reason for believing that the language we have used about the well-precedented use of Speaker’s certificates prevents the courts from questioning the Act. My hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex observed that judges were not more interventionist. I believe there is evidence that there has been more judicial activism in judicial reviews of Executive decisions, but as far as I am aware there is no evidence that the courts have become more interventionist in challenging parliamentary proceedings. Executive decisions and decisions of Parliament are quite different from each other. Although the Supreme Court has a new name, it has no greater powers than the judicial Committee of the House of Lords that it replaced. I do not think that my hon. Friend’s concerns are well judged. My hon. Friend also referred to the European Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights. The European Court of Justice can deal with matters related to European Union law; nothing in the Bill would engage it. Similarly, the functions of the Speaker under the Bill do not engage any of the rights conferred by the European Court of Human Rights. I think it was only last week that the Joint Committee on Human Rights agreed with that when it said that the Bill’s provisions did not need to be brought to the attention of either House on human rights grounds. My hon. Friend the Member for Hereford and South Herefordshire (Jesse Norman)—who is not in the Chamber, as he has had to fulfil a long-standing and important engagement to attend a meeting elsewhere in the House— expressed concern about the European Court of Human Rights. In fact, it has shown the utmost respect for parliamentary privilege. In a 2003 case, A. v. United Kingdom, it was specifically held that article 9 of the Bill of Rights did not violate the convention by preventing an applicant from taking defamation proceedings against an MP for words said in parliamentary proceedings. The European Court of Human Rights strongly supported the contention that courts would not become involved in these matters. I agree with my hon. and learned Friend the Member for Torridge and West Devon, who said that owing to the very nature of these events—the fact that they would be politically highly charged—judges would not be keen to rush in and engage in questions that are

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rightly to be resolved by political rather than legal means. I have heard no evidence, apart from assertion, that courts would do anything different. Mark Durkan: I gave the example from 2001 when, on the third attempt, David Trimble and I were jointly elected as First and Deputy First Minister by the Northern Ireland Assembly. That was taken to the courts. Yes, the courts did not touch on issues connected with the Assembly’s standing orders, but they did entertain the suggestion that the Secretary of State had failed to use the power and duty, given to him under law, to set a date for an election if no First and Deputy First Minister have been elected after six weeks. The Secretary of State did not do so, claiming that because he had notice of the potential to elect us, which had been issued by the end day of the six-week period, he could interpret the deadline differently. The court did not throw out the case and the judges—competent, serious, senior judges— divided on the issue. In the light of that precedent, the assurance of the hon. and learned Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr Cox) does not stand. 3.30 pm Mr Harper: The hon. Gentleman makes my point for me. He accurately sets out the fact that at issue was not a proceeding in Parliament—a decision of this House—but an executive decision by the Secretary of State. As I have said, there is lots of evidence that courts will challenge Ministers’ decisions, and one can argue about whether they will be right to do so; Ministers would probably argue they are not, but everyone else would probably argue that they are. The case the hon. Gentleman raises involved an executive decision; it was not a decision of this House or a proceeding in Parliament, and it is not protected under article 9. Mark Durkan: But what we are talking about is related to the closest equivalent in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 of the certificate powers being given to the Secretary of State. Sections 31 and 32 of the 1998 Act provide for the early Dissolution of the Assembly and early elections. They are the exact same powers, except that in Northern Ireland the Secretary of State has the powers of an “over-Speaker”, rather than their being vested in the Presiding Officer. They are the equivalent powers, however. Mr Harper: No, I think there is a rather crucial difference. The powers in that Act are given to a Minister— they are not proceedings in Parliament. That leads me nicely on to amendment 6— Chris Bryant rose— Mr Harper: But the hon. Gentleman is keen to get in. Chris Bryant: Sorry, but the Minister is using the phrase “proceedings in Parliament” as though it were a self-evidently clear concept, but a great deal of legislation and case law has analysed various different aspects of it and it is nowhere near as clear as he might presume. Mr Harper: No, and that leads to where I was going, which was to turn to amendment 6 and to explain why we are using the language of the device of a Speaker’s

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certificate. There are precedents that have stood the test of time, which is why Professor Blackburn expressed the feeling in the quotation I read that parliamentary counsel had drafted the Bill well. My hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash) tabled amendment 6 and my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex spoke to it. I can see why they would want to use the wording in the Parliament Act 1911, but the Bill says the Speaker’s certificate is “conclusive for all purposes” and the Government do not think inserting the words “shall not be…questioned in any court of law”

adds anything. The 1911 wording has, indeed, stood the test of time, but it used the language of the early-20th century. Later legislation used different wording. The House of Lords Act 1999 used exactly the wording we have used, which provides that certificates of the Clerk of the Parliaments on questions of whether an hereditary peer is one of the excepted 92 hereditary peers are conclusive. The provisions have worked well in practice, whereas wording consistent with the Parliament Act 1911 could bring into question whether protections in more recent Acts were meant to be an inferior sort of protection. We think that would be undesirable. Provided certificates are conclusive for all purposes, it is perfectly adequate to show that it is for the Speaker to decide whether the conditions for an early election have been satisfied, not for the courts or the Executive. The effect and the intention of the drafting are perfectly clear. Although the additional words in amendment 6 might appear attractive, they would not add anything to the protection in the Bill. There is no evidence or reason to think the courts would want to trespass on what would effectively be highly politicised issues or that they would not continue to regard matters relating to the internal operation of the House as “proceedings in Parliament”. I should also like to deal with the wording in amendment 6 that seeks to prevent a Speaker’s certificate issued under clause 2 from being “presented” to a court. I can see why my hon. Friend the Member for Stone is trying to do that, but it seems to me that that takes a step backwards. Being able to present the certificate to the court is the simplest and easiest way of informing the court that the conditions for an early election exist and the Speaker has made the decision. That stops the court being tempted to dwell on proceedings in Parliament; it has a clear piece of paper that explains that the Speaker has made that determination and the court need go no further. Mr Cox: Let us suppose that the Speaker issued a certificate that omitted one of the matters that the statute required him to certify. Would it not be open to a petitioner to argue in court that there had been a failure to comply with the conditions that made a certificate valid and that the court was entitled to examine whether it was a certificate before obeying the ouster that prevents it from challenging the certificate? Mr Harper: My hon. and learned Friend makes a point that relates to the use of certificates, but what he describes would be perfectly true of the certificate that the Speaker issues on money Bills and the certification that he issues under the Parliament Act. Those are well precedented and have stood the test of time. The courts

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have been content to hold that the fact that the certificate has been issued by the Speaker is indeed conclusive for all purposes and they have not sought to challenge it. Mr Cox: We are dealing with a fundamentally different sphere here. Whether or not a Bill is a money Bill is the kind of decision that is suitable only for a legislative Assembly, but on this matter the courts would regard themselves as guarding the right to an election, which is a fundamental right of the population of this country. If Parliament had prescribed that an election should take place and a certificate was defective because it did not stipulate one of the requisite terms, the courts may regard that as an area into which they ought to go to safeguard the right to an election. Mr Harper: If a certificate was issued by the Speaker, we would be having an election, not stopping one taking place. I do not think that my hon. and learned Friend’s concern that the courts would hold that the population were being deprived of an election would apply. The language used in the Bill was chosen for exactly the reasons I have suggested. We have used well-precedented, tried and tested language; it has stood the test of time. It is perfectly true to say that people can make groundless applications to courts on all sorts of things, but courts quickly dismiss them and prevent them from proceeding further. We are confident that these proposals are robust and will not have the effect that hon. Members suggest. In the few minutes remaining, I wish to discuss amendment 23, because the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) suggested that he wanted to ask you, Mr Evans, whether he could press it to a Division. The amendment proposes a 24-hour time limit for the issuing of the Speaker’s certificate. I can superficially see why that might be attractive, but it sets some conditions that might introduce elements casting doubt on the validity of the certificate if it were delayed, even if it were by only a few minutes, or if it were issued close to the time limit. Thus, the amendment would enable people to question the certificate. We should therefore rely on the standard practice, whereby the Speaker’s certificate is the conclusive provision. Given what I have said, I hope that hon. Members will not seek to press their amendments to a Division and that we are able to proceed with the debate. Mr Jenkin: I am most grateful, Mr Evans, for the opportunity to reply to the debate. I regret that I feel compelled to press this matter to a vote, but I feel that the Minister’s response has been wholly unconvincing. We are faced with adamant and clear advice from the Clerk of the House that the Minister has chosen to dismiss as irrelevant. Let me remind the House what the Clerk said: “The provisions of this subsection make the Speaker’s consideration of confidence motions and the House’s practices justiciable questions for determination by the ordinary courts.”

That includes “what constitutes a confidence motion, the selection of amendments to such Motions and the consequences of their being carried”.

He goes on to say: “As these would become justiciable questions, the courts could be drawn into matters of acute political controversy.”

The Minister has not responded with anything substantive to defeat that advice.

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[Mr Jenkin] Moreover, the Minister has rested his justification for the Bill on the assertion that it would not be possible to write these provisions into the Standing Orders, which would be automatically immune. Let me read from the Clerk’s memorandum again. He said that “a Standing Order regulating the matters in the Bill could provide for its staying in effect unless repealed by a specified majority”,

meaning that it could be entrenched, “for example by…equal to or greater than two thirds of the number of seats in the House. Not only is the principle of specifying majorities already written into the Standing Orders of the House, but in the past the House has also required a relative majority for reaching decision.”

My hon. Friend the Minister also dismissed the comments that I read from Mr Robert Rogers, the Clerk Assistant and Director General, who made it clear that we can not only write into our Standing Orders provisions requiring super-majorities, but entrench a—[Interruption.] I am rather distressed that the Minister is not even listening to what I am saying. We can entrench a Standing Order with its own super-majority so that it could be removed only by a super-majority, if that is what the House chose to do. The whole basis of the Government’s advice remains contested by the Clerks. The basis of the Bill—that this has to be done through statute—also remains contested by the Clerks. I doubt that we will win the vote in the Committee this afternoon, but the Minister has failed to give a full response or to acknowledge any of the points that have been made. His subsection refers to a Speaker’s “certificate under this section”, which is very unspecific. At least the amendment states “Any certificate of the Speaker of the House of Commons given under this section shall be conclusive for all purposes”.

That word “any” and the reference to the Speaker make it clear that whatever the Speaker issues is uncontested, rather than leave it open to the courts to determine whether the certificate presented by the Speaker complies with the legislation. I am afraid that the Minister has not satisfied me and I do not think that he has satisfied a great many of my colleagues on the Government Benches or in the official Opposition. I want to press the amendment to a vote. Question put, That the amendment be made. The Committee proceeded to a Division. Tessa Munt (Wells) (LD): On a point of order, Mr Evans. At lunchtime today I was sitting in the Terrace cafeteria and, for the second time in a fortnight, I was unable to hear the Division bells at all. There was nothing to indicate that a vote was taking place. Can you facilitate Members’ ability to vote if they are sitting in that area, perhaps by asking the Badge Messengers to inform them that a vote is taking place while the problem is sorted out? The First Deputy Chairman of Ways and Means (Mr Nigel Evans): Thank you for that point of order. I must say that I have taken a number of points of order in a similar vein since taking the Chair on 8 June, and this is clearly worrying for Members as well as irritating for the Chair. I will instruct that the matter be fully investigated, not just in the area that the hon. Lady has spoken about, but throughout the parliamentary estate. Clearly,

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

872

it could affect the outcome of a vote. In the short term, I ask that, every time there is a Division today, a messenger goes particularly to that part of the House to ensure that Members are made aware that a Division is taking place. The Committee having divided: Ayes 231, Noes 295. Division No. 138] [3.42 pm AYES Abbott, Ms Diane Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Austin, Ian Bain, Mr William Balls, rh Ed Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Bell, Sir Stuart Benn, rh Hilary Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Buckland, Mr Robert Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cairns, David Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Coffey, Ann Cooper, Rosie Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cruddas, Jon Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon Darling, rh Mr Alistair Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint Dobson, rh Frank Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank

Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Field, rh Mr Frank Fitzpatrick, Jim Flint, rh Caroline Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hendrick, Mark Hepburn, Mr Stephen Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hollobone, Mr Philip Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa Joyce, Eric Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kendall, Liz

873

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Leslie, Chris Lloyd, Tony Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Main, Mrs Anne Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McDonagh, Siobhain McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Mearns, Ian Michael, rh Alun Miliband, rh David Miller, Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela Nuttall, Mr David O’Donnell, Fiona Onwurah, Chi Owen, Albert Paisley, Ian Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Qureshi, Yasmin Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Robertson, Angus

Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Joan Sarwar, Anas Seabeck, Alison Shannon, Jim Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Shepherd, Mr Richard Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simpson, David Singh, Mr Marsha Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Mr Andrew Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walker, Mr Charles Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Wilson, Sammy Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Woodcock, John Woodward, rh Mr Shaun Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Ayes: Mr David Hamilton and Mr Bernard Jenkin

NOES Adams, Nigel Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Bagshawe, Ms Louise Baker, Norman Baker, Steve Baldry, Tony

1 DECEMBER 2010

Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Malcolm Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cairns, Alun Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Duddridge, James Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Dunne, Mr Philip Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Featherstone, Lynne Field, Mr Mark Foster, Mr Don Fox, rh Dr Liam Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Garnier, Mr Edward

Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Gray, Mr James Grayling, rh Chris Green, Damian Greening, Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Harvey, Nick Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hermon, Lady Hinds, Damian Hollingbery, George Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Hunter, Mark Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Jackson, Mr Stewart Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leech, Mr John Lefroy, Jeremy Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Lewis, Brandon Lilley, rh Mr Peter

874

875

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Lloyd, Stephen Long, Naomi Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Ottaway, Richard Paice, Mr James Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robathan, Mr Andrew Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Ruffley, Mr David Russell, Bob

1 DECEMBER 2010

Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Simmonds, Mark Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Julian Soames, Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vickers, Martin Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Watkinson, Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Mr Rob Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Simon Yeo, Mr Tim Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Noes: Jeremy Wright and Mr Shailesh Vara

Question accordingly negatived.

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

876

More than three hours having elapsed since the commencement of proceedings, the proceedings were interrupted (Programme Orders, 13 September and 24 November). The Chair put forthwith the Questions necessary for the disposal of the business to be concluded at that time (Standing Order No. 83D). Amendment proposed: 23, in clause 2, page 2, line 17, at end insert— ‘(4A) The Speaker shall issue a certificate under subsection (1) or (2) within 24 hours of the relevant conditions being met under subsection (1) or (2).’.—(Chris Bryant.)

Question put, That the amendment be made. The Committee divided: Ayes 229, Noes 302. Division No. 139] [3.56 pm AYES Abbott, Ms Diane Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Austin, Ian Bain, Mr William Balls, rh Ed Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Bell, Sir Stuart Benn, rh Hilary Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cairns, David Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Coffey, Ann Cooper, Rosie Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon Darling, rh Mr Alistair

Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Dobson, rh Frank Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Farrelly, Paul Field, rh Mr Frank Fitzpatrick, Jim Flint, rh Caroline Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hepburn, Mr Stephen Hermon, Lady Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hollobone, Mr Philip Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George

877

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa Joyce, Eric Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Lloyd, Tony Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McDonagh, Siobhain McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Mearns, Ian Michael, rh Alun Miliband, rh David Miller, Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela Nuttall, Mr David O’Donnell, Fiona Onwurah, Chi Owen, Albert Paisley, Ian Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby

1 DECEMBER 2010

Pound, Stephen Qureshi, Yasmin Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Joan Sarwar, Anas Seabeck, Alison Shannon, Jim Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Shepherd, Mr Richard Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simpson, David Singh, Mr Marsha Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Mr Andrew Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Wilson, Sammy Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Woodcock, John Woodward, rh Mr Shaun Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Ayes: Mark Hendrick and Mr David Hamilton

NOES Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny

Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Bagshawe, Ms Louise

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Baker, Norman Baker, Steve Baldry, Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Malcolm Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cairns, Alun Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Cox, Mr Geoffrey Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Duddridge, James Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Dunne, Mr Philip Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Evans, Graham

Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Featherstone, Lynne Field, Mr Mark Foster, Mr Don Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Garnier, Mr Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Gray, Mr James Grayling, rh Chris Green, Damian Greening, Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Harvey, Nick Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hinds, Damian Hollingbery, George Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Jackson, Mr Stewart Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi

878

879

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leech, Mr John Lefroy, Jeremy Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Lewis, Brandon Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Long, Naomi Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Main, Mrs Anne Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline Norman, Jesse O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Ottaway, Richard Paice, Mr James Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John

1 DECEMBER 2010

Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reevell, Simon Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robathan, Mr Andrew Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Ruffley, Mr David Russell, Bob Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Simmonds, Mark Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vickers, Martin Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa Walker, Mr Charles Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Watkinson, Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Mr Mark

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Mr Rob Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Jeremy

880

Wright, Simon Yeo, Mr Tim Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Noes: Mark Hunter and Mr Shailesh Vara

Question accordingly negatived. Amendment proposed: 25, in page 2, line 24, at end add— ‘(6A) In this section a “motion of no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government” shall be— (a) in the terms “This House has no confidence in Her Majesty’s Government” or (b) in the terms “This House has no confidence in the Prime Minister”.’.—(Chris Bryant.)

Question put, That the amendment be made. The Committee divided: Ayes 229, Noes 298. Division No. 140] [4.08 pm AYES Abbott, Ms Diane Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Austin, Ian Bain, Mr William Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Bell, Sir Stuart Benn, rh Hilary Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cairns, David Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Coffey, Ann Cooper, Rosie Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cruddas, Jon Cunningham, Alex

Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon Darling, rh Mr Alistair Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Dobson, rh Frank Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Farrelly, Paul Field, rh Mr Frank Fitzpatrick, Jim Flint, rh Caroline Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom

881

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hepburn, Mr Stephen Hermon, Lady Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hollobone, Mr Philip Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa Joyce, Eric Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Lloyd, Tony Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Long, Naomi Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McDonagh, Siobhain McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Mearns, Ian Michael, rh Alun Miliband, rh David Miller, Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela

1 DECEMBER 2010

Nuttall, Mr David O’Donnell, Fiona Onwurah, Chi Owen, Albert Paisley, Ian Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Qureshi, Yasmin Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Joan Sarwar, Anas Seabeck, Alison Shannon, Jim Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Simpson, David Singh, Mr Marsha Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Mr Andrew Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Wilson, Sammy Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Woodcock, John Woodward, rh Mr Shaun Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Ayes: Mr David Hamilton and Mark Hendrick

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill NOES

Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Bagshawe, Ms Louise Baker, Norman Baker, Steve Baldry, Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Malcolm Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cairns, Alun Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Carswell, Mr Douglas Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Cox, Mr Geoffrey Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Duddridge, James

Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Dunne, Mr Philip Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Featherstone, Lynne Field, Mr Mark Foster, Mr Don Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Garnier, Mr Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goodwill, Mr Robert Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Gray, Mr James Grayling, rh Chris Green, Damian Greening, Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Harvey, Nick Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hinds, Damian Hollingbery, George Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Hunter, Mark Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Jackson, Mr Stewart Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph

882

883

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Jones, Andrew Jones, Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Lefroy, Jeremy Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Lewis, Brandon Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Main, Mrs Anne Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline Norman, Jesse O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Ottaway, Richard Paice, Mr James Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire

1 DECEMBER 2010

Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reevell, Simon Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robathan, Mr Andrew Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Ruffley, Mr David Russell, Bob Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Simmonds, Mark Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vara, Mr Shailesh Vickers, Martin Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa Walker, Mr Charles Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Watkinson, Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Mr Rob

884

Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Simon Yeo, Mr Tim Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Noes: Miss Chloe Smith and Jeremy Wright

Question accordingly negatived. Question put (single Question on successive provisions of the Bill), That clauses 2 to 4 stand part of the Bill. The Committee divided: Ayes 306, Noes 218. Division No. 141] [4.21 pm AYES Adams, Nigel Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Baker, Norman Baker, Steve Baldry, Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Birtwistle, Gordon Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Brazier, Mr Julian Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Bruce, rh Malcolm Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cairns, Alun Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Carswell, Mr Douglas Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian

Colvile, Oliver Cox, Mr Geoffrey Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey Davey, Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Duddridge, James Duncan Smith, rh Mr Iain Dunne, Mr Philip Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Featherstone, Lynne Field, Mr Mark Foster, Mr Don Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Garnier, Mr Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Gray, Mr James Grayling, rh Chris

885

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Green, Damian Greening, Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Harvey, Nick Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hermon, Lady Hinds, Damian Hollingbery, George Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Hunter, Mark Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Jackson, Mr Stewart Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Knight, rh Mr Greg Kwarteng, Kwasi Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leech, Mr John Lefroy, Jeremy Leigh, Mr Edward Leslie, Charlotte Lewis, Brandon Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Long, Naomi Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Main, Mrs Anne Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick

1 DECEMBER 2010

McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Metcalfe, Stephen Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline Norman, Jesse O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Ottaway, Richard Paice, Mr James Paisley, Ian Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Prisk, Mr Mark Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Reckless, Mark Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reevell, Simon Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robathan, Mr Andrew Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Ruffley, Mr David Russell, Bob Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shannon, Jim Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Simmonds, Mark Simpson, David

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward

Vara, Mr Shailesh Vickers, Martin Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa Walker, Mr Charles Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Watkinson, Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Mr Rob Wilson, Sammy Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Simon Yeo, Mr Tim Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

Tellers for the Ayes: Miss Chloe Smith and Jeremy Wright

NOES Abbott, Ms Diane Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Austin, Ian Bain, Mr William Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Bell, Sir Stuart Benn, rh Hilary Berger, Luciana Betts, Mr Clive Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Bryant, Chris Buck, Ms Karen Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cairns, David Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom

Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Coffey, Ann Cooper, Rosie Corbyn, Jeremy Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Creasy, Stella Cruddas, Jon Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon Darling, rh Mr Alistair Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Dobson, rh Frank Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Farrelly, Paul Field, rh Mr Frank Fitzpatrick, Jim

886

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Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Flint, rh Caroline Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Godsiff, Mr Roger Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hanson, rh Mr David Harman, rh Ms Harriet Harris, Mr Tom Havard, Mr Dai Healey, rh John Hepburn, Mr Stephen Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hollobone, Mr Philip Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Irranca-Davies, Huw James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Johnson, Diana Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa Joyce, Eric Kaufman, rh Sir Gerald Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Lloyd, Tony Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCann, Mr Michael McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg

1 DECEMBER 2010

McDonagh, Siobhain McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine Meacher, rh Mr Michael Mearns, Ian Michael, rh Alun Miliband, rh David Miller, Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morden, Jessica Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela Nuttall, Mr David O’Donnell, Fiona Onwurah, Chi Owen, Albert Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Qureshi, Yasmin Raynsford, rh Mr Nick Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruddock, rh Joan Sarwar, Anas Seabeck, Alison Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Singh, Mr Marsha Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Smith, Owen Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Trickett, Jon Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek

Fixed-term Parliaments Bill

Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris

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Wilson, Phil Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Woodcock, John Woodward, rh Mr Shaun Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Tellers for the Noes: Mr David Hamilton and Mark Hendrick

Question accordingly agreed to. Clauses 2 to 4 ordered to stand part of the Bill. Schedule CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS ETC Amendments made: Government amendment 14, page 4, line 9, at end insert— ‘Parliament Act 1911 (c. 13) 3A In the Parliament Act 1911 omit section 7.’.

Government amendment 15, page 4, line 16, at end insert— ‘7A In section 119(2) after “mourning” insert “(but, in relation to a parliamentary general election, excluding any day to which rule 2 of the parliamentary elections rules does not apply by virtue of rule 2(2A))”.’.

Government amendment 16, page 5, line 9, at end insert— ‘(3A) Omit paragraph (2)(ii) and the “and” before it.’.

Government amendment 17, page 5, line 18, at end insert— ‘But, in relation to any proceedings commenced afresh by reason of a candidate’s death, this paragraph is to be ignored.”.’.

Government amendment 18, page 5, line 18, at end insert— ‘9A In rule 6A(4) in Schedule 1 after “rule 2(1)” insert “(subject to rule 2(2A))”.’.

Government amendment 19, page 7, line 10, at end insert— ‘15A In section 22(2A) after “1983” insert “(subject to rule 2(2A))”.’.—(Mr Harper.)

Schedule, as amended, agreed to. The Deputy Speaker resumed the Chair. Bill, as amended, reported. Bill to be considered tomorrow Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): I now have to announce the results of the Division deferred from a previous day. In the Division on the Question relating to the Scottish Parliament, the Ayes were 317 and the Noes were 212, so the Ayes have it. [The Division list is published at the end of today’s debates.]

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National Policy Statements [Relevant documents: The Third Report from the Energy and Climate Change Committee, Session 2009-10, on The proposals for national policy statements on energy, HC 231, and the Government’s response thereto, and the Minutes of Evidence taken before the Energy and Climate Change Committee on 30 November, HC 648-i.] 4.35 pm The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Charles Hendry): I beg to move, That this House has considered the matter of the draft Energy National Policy Statements.

The revised draft national policy statements for energy set out national policy, which must be considered in determining whether consent should be granted to infrastructure projects that are examined by the Infrastructure Planning Commission. As right hon. and hon. Members will be aware, the previous Administration consulted on a suite of draft energy national policy statements between November 2009 and February 2010. Alongside that consultation, Parliament undertook scrutiny of the draft national policy statements. Scrutiny in this House was undertaken by the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change, which held a number of oral hearings, requested written evidence and published a report of its findings, together with 30 recommendations and conclusions. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the then members of the Committee for the important work that they undertook and the thoroughness with which they approached it. This afternoon’s debate is part of Parliament’s scrutiny of the draft energy national policy statements, so I will talk about the purpose of national policy statements and the changes that we have made to them, the parliamentary scrutiny process required for national policy statements, and the coalition Government’s proposals for planning reform. The statements are complicated, lengthy documents that cover all aspects of energy policy, so I will talk at some length in introducing them. I hope that the House will bear with me. I will also give way to any interventions from hon. Members wishing to raise concerns. However, before going into the detail of the national policy statements, I would like to take a moment to set out the background to the coalition Government’s energy policy and the need to build new major energy infrastructure, as it is against that background that such massive new investment is required. Our energy policy is based on four pillars: energy saving, more renewables, new nuclear, and clean coal and gas. That includes the green deal, which we believe will help to bring existing buildings up to 21st-century efficiency standards. We are taking steps to reduce demand for gas through both energy efficiency measures to help improve our energy security, and demand-side response, through interruptable contracts for large users that will ensure that domestic users are prioritised in an emergency. A reduction in demand will also help to improve our energy security. Under the green deal, home owners and businesses will be able to get energy efficiency improvements without having to pay cash in advance. The private sector will provide the up-front funding, receiving its money back from the energy savings on household bills. That will help to save energy, reduce carbon and protect energy consumers from price rises through greater energy savings.

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John Robertson (Glasgow North West) (Lab): I commend the hon. Gentleman on the work that he did on the Energy and Climate Change Committee, and on which he congratulated everyone involved—they say that selfpraise is no praise, but there we go. My great worry, and that of many of my colleagues on the Opposition Benches, is that the poor will always suffer. While everybody else is looking for ways of saving money, they cannot do so. What will his Government do to help people who perhaps cannot afford to do what is necessary to make the savings that he is talking about? Charles Hendry: The hon. Gentleman has often raised this issue in the Select Committee in the past, and it should be at the heart of our thinking. At this time of year, when people are struggling to pay their bills, how they will pay them in the future is a matter of great concern to us. The nature of the green deal is that it does not depend on the creditworthiness of the individual householder. A charge will be set against the future energy bills of their property, with the condition that the total cost of the energy efficiency measures should be such that it can be repaid through that extra charge over a period of 20 or 25 years. So the people living in those properties will get the immediate full benefit in terms of warmth and reduced energy consumption, but the charge will be brought back over time. We think that this policy has been devised in a way that has at its heart the interests of those who are fuel poor and have difficulty in paying their bills. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to say that, in all these issues, there are massive costs for consumers. Our job as a Government is to find ways of trying to drive down the number of units that consumers will be using. The green deal is part of that process, as is smart metering. Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/ Co-op): May I issue an appeal to the Minister and his colleagues that, as the green deal mechanism is being finalised and formulated, it should not be targeted at only cavity wall and loft insulation? There are many properties in my constituency and elsewhere for which that would be no use at all, and some of those properties are among the least fuel efficient. Charles Hendry: The hon. Gentleman brings to the House a huge amount of expertise on these issues and I very much welcome his contribution. He has touched on an issue that is at the core of our thinking on how to take the green deal forward. He is absolutely right to say that, while a significant number of houses would be helped if it were to address issues of cavity wall and loft insulation, there are many that do not have cavity walls and many that need additional measures. We are looking at the role that boilers can play in regard to energy efficiency, because that area has not been given sufficient attention in the past. The key will be to find a range of measures that are relevant to each individual property, the savings from which will justify the investment over time. I can give the hon. Gentleman an absolute assurance that the type of houses that he is talking about in his constituency, in mine, and in many others across the country will be very much included as the green deal is developed.

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Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con): In my constituency, many properties are not on the gas network, and there are no plans to expand the network into many of the small villages there. Will those properties be able to access alternative sources of heating through the green deal, perhaps through air source heat pumps and so on? Charles Hendry: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for the work that he has done to highlight issues such as these. We said in the coalition agreement that prioritising off-grid customers would be an important part of what we are seeking to do. However, the help for them will not come through the measures in the green deal. His constituents will of course be eligible for support for energy efficiency measures through the green deal, but the renewable heat incentive will give them support for other mechanisms such as air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and solar thermal installations. There will be a different funding mechanism for that, and we have confirmed that £860 million will be made available for the renewable heat incentive. We will set out the precise details of that in the next few weeks, and it will target precisely the people that he is most concerned about in that respect. Albert Owen (Ynys Môn) (Lab): The Minister has been very effective in campaigning for the extension of the gas network throughout the United Kingdom, but what he has just said will be of little comfort to people in many areas who simply want a choice. At present, they have oil or liquefied petroleum gas, but they want mains gas, which is often located only a few hundred yards away from their village or hamlet. Do the Government understand their frustration? Given that the market is failing them, would it be possible for incentives to be given in this regard, and for the regulator to ensure that those gas connections can take place? Charles Hendry: The hon. Gentleman raises an important point. Certainly, encouraging people to install renewable heat sources, particularly in off-grid properties, is part of the solution. He is absolutely right to say, however, that for many people, the convenience of being on the grid will be their primary concern. It must be extremely frustrating to live in a house close to the grid that is unable to benefit from it. Ofgem is working to ensure that the grid is extended, but that is obviously a gradual process. We are considering different ways of dealing with the problem. Grid development is mentioned in the planning policy papers, but we are introducing other measures such as the renewable heat incentive, to help people who currently have no alternative to heating oil or liquefied petroleum gas. I hope that it can be said that we are dealing with the issue comprehensively.

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Charles Hendry: My hon. Friend is right to draw that to the House’s attention. As a result of one of the changes that we have made, local authorities are now allowed to sell electricity directly to the grid. Rather than merely being able to host new facilities, they can now become involved in these processes as partners. They can sell the electricity that is generated, and benefit from the feed-in tariffs or other financial packages that are available. I hope that, in difficult times, councils throughout the country will see such measures as an important potential income-earner and a way of encouraging their communities to move in a low-carbon direction. That is a critical part of Government policy. We have said that there will be special help for the most vulnerable. The new energy company obligation will provide additional funds for those who are most in need and for homes that are hard to treat, which may need additional support. Our policy also involves the electricity market reform programme, which is a wholesale redesign of our electricity market. There is no doubt that that process, which will begin in a few weeks, is the most fundamental reform of the market for 30 years. It involves a new way of encouraging people to invest in electricity generation, and I cannot over-emphasise the importance that we attach to it. The power sector needs to lead the way when it comes to cutting carbon. Charlie Elphicke (Dover) (Con): Many of my least well-off and most vulnerable constituents fear that in five years’ time the lights may go out. What action can the Government take to deal with the backlog of infrastructure repairs? Charles Hendry: I am keen to reassure my hon. Friend. A couple of years ago, the outlook was a cause for great concern. The recession reduced demand by 5% or 6%, and, although it has grown again, it has not reached its previous level. What appeared to be a serious pinch point now seems to have been pushed further out, but that does not give grounds for complacency. We all know that cold winters and, in particular, cold still days place immense demand on the system, and we need to take action to deal with that. As much as £200 billion of new investment may be required in our electricity infrastructure. We have to rebuild it. It would have been much better for the country if more of that work had been done before 6 May, and it would have been much better had there not been a five-year moratorium on new nuclear and a delay of some years in new installations. I applaud the conversion of the last Administration, which began to put us back on track, but a number of years were lost. John Woodcock (Barrow and Furness) (Lab/Co-op) rose— Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab) rose—

Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) (Con): Do not local councils also have an important role to play? Cornwall council, for example, is undertaking a project involving feed-in tariffs. It will work with the third sector in using the money that it earns from installing solar panels in the county to help those in the greatest fuel poverty—who, as other Members have pointed out, are often off grid—not only through energy-efficiency schemes but by providing heat from more appropriate sources, such as ground-source heat.

Charles Hendry: I will give way shortly, but I hope I shall be forgiven if I do not do so immediately, as I am in full flight. We need to establish a structure that will give people an incentive to invest in new nuclear, clean coal, coal with carbon capture, renewables—in regard to which we have great potential—and new gas plant, along with gas storage. We are alive to all the challenges, and we are moving forward on all fronts.

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John Woodcock: The Government talk a great deal about blank pages. Have they whitewashed their time in opposition, when one party was dead set against nuclear and the other wanted it to be a last resort? If they have converted, that is fine, but let us at least have a bit of candour about the process through which the Minister has got to where he is now. Charles Hendry: The hon. Gentleman is new to the House and he might therefore be unaware of the extent to which we worked very constructively with the previous Secretary of State, the now noble Lord Hutton, and others to try to ensure that we took this agenda forward. As the hon. Gentleman has been a special adviser however, he will be aware that nuclear was taken off the agenda for five years. There was a Government White Paper that said, in effect, “We do not see a need for new nuclear in this country.” There were no qualifications to that statement; it was just stated that there was no requirement, full stop. For five years, that delayed the development of new nuclear. I completely applaud the work of the previous Secretary of State, which has contributed to our country becoming one of the most exciting in the world for new nuclear development. The reality is that we were constructively involved in that process, but for five years nuclear was taken off the agenda. Martin Horwood (Cheltenham) (LD): To be candid, the Minister may know that, as per the coalition agreement, many Liberal Democrat Members are still absolutely opposed to nuclear power. Will he confirm that at no point in the last 30 years has it been impossible for private investment for nuclear to come forward, and if Government policy was not preventing that, why does he think no private investment did come forward in the last 30 years? Charles Hendry: The Government are seeking to address a comprehensive range of issues to do with new nuclear. There have been planning issues; for example, the Sizewell B project took five or six years just to go through the planning stage. Also, regulatory justification is a legal requirement, and that process had to be gone through. Last week, a measure on that passed through this House with a massive majority of over 500 to a couple of dozen, so there has been a significant step forward in that respect. The long-term cost of waste management also needs to be known, and that figure is now being made clear and given to the industry. Other barriers to investment are also now being addressed. Therefore, although it is technically right that there was nothing to stop people investing in new nuclear, it is also absolutely clear that the circumstances did not encourage people to come forward with new proposals. John Robertson: I should declare an interest: I am chair of the all-party group on nuclear energy. I think the Minister is being slightly disingenuous towards the Opposition. It was Labour who led the fight to put nuclear back on to the table. It was not that it had been taken off the table; it was just that nobody really wanted to touch it, including Ministers who were Members of this House at the time. Therefore, in a spirit of cross-party coalition, will the Minister accept that we did our bit in getting nuclear back on to the agenda,

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and does he agree that now is the time to make sure that these new power stations are built for the benefit of this country Charles Hendry: I am keen that this coalition should get larger and grander every day, so I am delighted to welcome the hon. Gentleman to it. I agree with what he said. I have already twice given credit to the previous Secretary of State. I am very happy to pay tribute to him and the previous Prime Minister for the role they played in putting nuclear back on the agenda. In response to the question of my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke), I think it is true that the challenges we face today are in part a result of not enough construction having been carried out early enough. If there had been more construction in our energy infrastructure over recent years, we would not now be faced with the mountain of needing £200 billion of new investment. Angela Smith (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab): I am glad to hear that the future of the nuclear industry in the UK will be a good one. Will there, however, be a good future for the UK supply chain for the nuclear industry, particularly in terms of the construction of these stations? What will the Government do to support the supply chain? Charles Hendry: We are very keen indeed to see the supply chain benefit. We talk to the companies that are looking to invest in this area, and they are very keen to use British know-how, skills and businesses. The Westinghouse approach is to buy where it builds. Therefore, together with Arriva, it has been setting up workshops around the country to encourage people to show the contributions and skills they can bring. From our point of view, this is a critical part of the project. We want them to partner British companies and, as part of that process, we believe there is an opportunity for them to sell that package internationally as well. That is absolutely at the heart of what we want. Angela Smith: Why, therefore, do the Government refuse to support Forgemasters in its bid to play a strategic part in the development of the supply chain for the future of our power stations? Charles Hendry: The hon. Lady is very familiar with the argument. We have said that we looked at the issues as we came into government and we identified those that were based on affordability, not on their importance. We believe that Sheffield Forgemasters makes an extremely important contribution in this area. The Government’s position has been clear and what we now do not understand is the Opposition’s position. We had a vote on regulatory justification last week, which approved two specific reactor types, the Westinghouse and the Areva designs. In that vote the shadow Business Secretary, the shadow Chancellor and the shadow Energy Secretary voted against the approval of those designs. How can the shadow Business Secretary make a case for Sheffield Forgemasters when he has voted against the exact design that it is supposed to be supporting? There is a complete hole in the Opposition’s policy in this area. I hope that this shadow Minister will rise to his feet to give us clarity on those issues, but when three members of the shadow Cabinet vote against the heart of the nuclear policy, the Opposition’s policy is in tatters.

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Huw Irranca-Davies: The hon. Gentleman would not expect me to agree that our position is in tatters. As I made clear to him in the debate on the justification orders in Committee, when they went through with our support, we would very much welcome an opportunity for the Minister, alongside his colleagues, to go back to Sheffield Forgemasters and argue the case for making sure that it can be part of the supply chain. He is continually reluctant to do so. I suspect that that is not necessarily because of his reluctance, but because his colleagues are reluctant to argue the case. Charles Hendry: I had hoped that the hon. Gentleman, for whom I have the highest regard, was going to explain what his shadow Cabinet colleagues had done in that vote. During that debate two weeks ago, we had agreed fundamentally on the need for regulatory justification and he was speaking officially on behalf of the Opposition, yet when it came to the deferred Division in this House a week ago today three of the most senior members of the shadow Cabinet voted against those reactor designs being approved. If they had won that debate, the whole nuclear programme in this country would have been brought to a standstill. If the Opposition are to have credibility in this area, we need to understand why the shadow Chancellor, the shadow Business Secretary, who is the one who will lead on issues relating to Sheffield Forgemasters, and the shadow Education Secretary, who is one of the most senior members of the Labour party, chose to try to stop nuclear power in its tracks. Mr Stewart Jackson (Peterborough) (Con): Is the stark contrast between those on the two sides of the House not shown in the fact that the financing arrangements for Sheffield Forgemasters were cobbled together in the dying weeks of the Labour Government whereas just five months into a Conservative-led coalition Government we have a comprehensive, coherent national infrastructure plan for the next five to 10 years? That is the difference between government and opportunism. Charles Hendry: My hon. Friend makes a very important point. In the months just before the election an enormous number of commitments were made, and one of the first things that we had to do as an incoming Government was to identify which of them were affordable. We went through that process extremely thoroughly—I think we have been robust about it—and Sheffield Forgemasters entirely understands the decisions that we have made. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills leads on supporting businesses in these areas and my Department feeds closely into that process. We want Sheffield Forgemasters, which is an outstanding example of a British manufacturing company, to have a key role to play in the future. However, on the basis that I have outlined, we did not believe it was appropriate for the loan to go ahead. John Woodcock: I hope the Minister will accept that it is important to correct what the hon. Member for Peterborough (Mr Jackson) said if the Government are to retain credibility on this issue. Does the Minister accept that the issue of this loan was being negotiated for more than a year, including the time when Lord Hutton was Business Secretary, and that it was very carefully considered by that Department over that period?

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Charles Hendry: I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that intervention. As a new Government coming in, we had to look at the financial commitments that we were inheriting. We had to decide which were bad decisions—the Sheffield Forgemasters loan absolutely did not come into that category—and which were the decisions we viewed as simply not affordable. Of course we would love to be able to shower money on a range of good projects around the country, but there is no scope for doing so. As we know from the former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, there was no money left. That was what the outgoing Government told us. Several hon. Members rose— Charles Hendry: I am keen to get back to some of the areas where there is consent and general agreement, but I will of course give way to the Opposition spokesman. Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank the hon. Gentleman for giving way. Will he acknowledge that this issue is pertinent to our debate on our national infrastructure and the supply chain? It is my clear understanding, unless the Minister can disabuse me of this, that only one other global supplier makes the piece that Sheffield Forgemasters was going to make. If the company had been given that repayable loan, which would have been repaid to the Government in short order, it would have led the global supply chain—not just for the UK but for export—in the reactors that we passed the justification orders for last week. It is a clear own goal. I ask the Minister to go back to his BIS and Treasury colleagues to see whether there is still an opportunity to bring the measure forward. It is not too late. Charles Hendry: The hole in the argument is that the hon. Gentleman makes that case on behalf of the Opposition when the shadow Business Secretary, shadow Chancellor and shadow Education Secretary voted against the nuclear programme. As long as the shadow Cabinet has anti-nuclear sentiments at its highest level, any suggestion that the Opposition want a nuclear renaissance is fundamentally questionable. Albert Owen rose— Charles Hendry: I am keen to move on to other issues, but as the hon. Gentleman has such a strong constituency interest in new nuclear I shall give way. Albert Owen: The hon. Gentleman and I were both very solid on nuclear power in the last Parliament when the then Leader of the Opposition thought that it should be a last resort. I am pleased that the new Secretary of State and the Prime Minister have made their journey and are in the same position as the Minister and I. The point about the supply chain is important. I know—the shadow spokesman is right—that if this work does not go ahead in Sheffield, Korea is the next port of call. That is not in the British interest. Will the Minister consider that as we go through these new policies and talk about infrastructure, so that we can keep British jobs and British business in the supply chain to help the nuclear industry? Charles Hendry: I have said several times that our decision is no reflection on the quality of the workmanship at Sheffield Forgemasters. The Government came in,

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identified that £1 in every £4 of Government spending was borrowed, believed that that position was unsustainable and had to make difficult, tough choices about the right way forward. Several hon. Members rose— Charles Hendry: I would give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Dover, but he was the one who made me depart from my extremely consensual speech into this area of great contention. I am keen that we should get on to the issues of planning policy that are at the heart of our debate. Dan Byles (North Warwickshire) (Con): To come back to the future of nuclear power in the UK and the comments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke) about keeping the lights on, Germany is now considering extending the lives of its reactors by up to 12 years. I am a great supporter of the idea that we need to replace our nuclear reactors with new nuclear reactors, but is there any scope in the Department’s plan to extend the lives of our current reactors to try to bridge that gap? Charles Hendry: My hon. Friend raises an important issue. The situation in Germany is very different from the situation here. The plan in Germany had been to have an artificially early closure of the nuclear fleet, and Chancellor Merkel’s Government have allowed them to operate for their full lives. They have reversed a decision that would have brought about early closure. The approach that we have always taken in the United Kingdom is that plants should operate for their safe life. If there is an independent assessment that they can operate for longer than had been planned, that should be considered. The case here is based on safety and security issues and some recent life extensions have been given, which we welcome. At the end of the day the extensions are a bonus rather than a building block in energy policy, but my hon. Friend makes an important point. I want to get back to some of the key areas of the debate. Our concern is that the existing market framework will not deliver the scale of investment needed in renewables, nuclear and carbon capture and storage, all of which have significant up-front costs. Our electricity market reform programme will examine the reforms necessary to restructure the electricity market to decarbonise the power sector by the 2030s while maintaining security of supply and affordable prices. We must move quickly to give investors certainty about our reforms because of the long lead-times in developing new generation capacity. Our reform of the planning system for major infrastructure, including for major energy infrastructure, also has an important role, as does the consultation on the revised draft energy national policy statements. Reducing demand for electricity wherever possible is important in meeting our energy objectives. Our 2050 pathways analysis shows that total UK energy demand from all sources will need to fall significantly by 2050. As I have mentioned, the green deal will save energy in the home and non-domestic buildings. We will also roll out smart meters to help to reduce demand. However, those savings will be offset by increases in other areas, such as the increased use of electricity in industrial and domestic heating and in transport. Our 2050 pathways

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analysis suggests that demand for electricity may even double by 2050, as we plug into the grid to power our cars and heat our homes. Decarbonising surface transport is essential to meet our target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, as we are required to do by law. We expect electrification to play a major role in achieving that. While electric vehicles can be powered up overnight by fluctuating electricity generation, trains, for example, will need more base load generation. We have already announced £900 million of investment in the electrification of train lines from London to Didcot, Newbury and Oxford, and for lines serving Liverpool, Manchester, Preston and Blackpool. In the new year, we will consult on the next steps for building a national high-speed rail network, which will free up capacity to allow a shift of freight from road to rail and provide an attractive low-carbon option for travelling between our major cities. Some 80% of journeys in the UK are currently made by car, and cars will continue to play an essential part in our national transport infrastructure. The Government announced in the spending review investment of more than £400 million in measures to promote the uptake of ultra-low-carbon vehicle technologies. That includes the plug-in car grant, which will be available from January 2011 and which will provide a grant of 25% of the vehicle price up to £5,000. We are also continuing the plugged-in places programme, which supports the development of electric vehicle recharging infrastructure in strategic locations. As part of the coalition agreement, we have also undertaken to mandate a national network of vehicle recharging facilities. We want to see more decentralised and community energy systems, such as microgeneration, make a contribution to our targets on reducing carbon emissions and increasing energy security. However, we do not believe that decentralised and community energy systems are likely to lead to the significant replacement of large-scale energy infrastructure, which is why there is an urgent need for new major energy infrastructure. Neil Carmichael (Stroud) (Con): I have flicked through the plans, and I cannot see any reference to hydro-power in the context of micro-schemes. Do the Government intend to support hydro-power and particularly small-scale projects? Charles Hendry: The Government are committed to taking us forward, and I welcome my hon. Friend’s support in that respect. Hydro has an important contribution to make. The Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker), who has responsibility for climate change, set out how we can hope to achieve that ambition in his recent speech on the subject. Most issues that we are discussing today relate to major applications of more than 50 MW. Most hydro schemes will fall below that threshold and will therefore be subject to local planning decisions. The section of the energy policy statement that deals with renewable energy does not cover major hydro schemes, such as major schemes involving tidal flow, because at this stage there is no evidence of a serious application for such a scheme of more than 50 MW. If that happens, we will need either to review the national

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[Charles Hendry] policy statement or to introduce one specifically for marine technologies. In this country, we have a network of rivers, which are a potential source for electricity generation that we are keen to see harnessed. Ian Swales (Redcar) (LD): The Minister has discussed the urgent need for new renewable electricity generation capacity. If that is the case, why is the banding review of renewables not reporting until August 2012 with implementation in March 2013? Will he consider speeding up that process, so that we can get the capital that is waiting for, for example, biomass power stations released and get such projects under way? Charles Hendry: One of the issues for investors in this area is certainty. They want to be able to plan for the long term and to know what rate of support they will get under whatever mechanism is in place. A date of 2013 enables people to plan a transition to whatever the banded level will be after that. I understand the need for early clarity, and if there are ways we can provide that, we shall seek to do so. We seek to work constructively because we understand that the alternative can be a hiatus in investment, with investment dropping off for a period of years in advance of the threshold and the level of support changing. It is important, in terms of national interest, to have a continuous flow of investment. I turn now to the issues that have been covered in the energy national policy statements. Perhaps it would be helpful if I briefly set out the purpose of the documents before us today. The revised draft energy national policy statements consist of a suite of six national policy statements and a number of associated documents. They are not intended to set out new energy policy. They are consistent with and explain current energy policy and how it relates to the planning consent process. Similarly, we are not using national policy statements to change the standard for consenting projects. They neither raise nor lower the bar on how a major energy infrastructure project is examined and consented. They are there to explain how such decisions should be made. They set out the consenting policies that need to be considered in the examination of major energy infrastructure and the decision on whether to grant or decline consent. At the same time, they will ensure that new major energy infrastructure projects respect the principles of sustainable development. They will allow not only the Infrastructure Planning Commission but developers and local residents to see the basis on which applications must be considered. There is an overarching energy national policy statement that sets out the Government’s policy on energy and energy infrastructure development; an energy need statement on the need for new nationally significant energy infrastructure projects; the assessment principles that need to be taken into account in examining and deciding on proposals for energy infrastructure development; and generic impacts for all energy infrastructure, and how they should be assessed and mitigated to ensure that the right balance is reached between securing our energy needs and protecting the environment. There are also five technology-specific energy national policy statements, covering fossil fuel electricity generation; renewable energy infrastructure, which deals with onshore

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wind, offshore wind and energy from biomass and/or waste; gas supply infrastructure and gas and oil pipelines; electricity networks infrastructure; and nuclear power generation. David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con): We know that we are legally required to reduce carbon emissions by about 80% in the next 40 years. Can we fulfil that requirement, given that of the 59 GW of new capacity required in the next 25 years, 33 GW of which is needed from renewables, we have only 2 GW currently under construction? The other 26 GW that is needed will, presumably, come from low-carbon nuclear. The Government have made enormous progress in this area—I acknowledge that—but would there be more scope to look at nuclear if we, for whatever reason, did not hit those targets? Charles Hendry: I pay tribute to the work that my hon. Friend has done as an ardent supporter of the Heysham plant in his constituency and of the case for a new plant in that area. The role for nuclear has been set out clearly in the national policy statements. We believe that it has a fundamental role, but we also have to be realistic about what is achievable. We have identified sites that could be used for 16 GW of new nuclear power, but that is as much as the energy companies believe can be constructed over the next 15 years, which is the time scale that the national policy statements cover. That is not necessarily the end of the ambition, but it looks like what is achievable and realisable over those 15 years. There is no doubt about the Government’s ambition in terms of new nuclear. Martin Horwood: On the subject of what is realistic, and referring back to what the Minister was saying about sustainability, is he aware that the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management has said that current known reserves of economically extractable uranium may last only between 40 and 85 years? Given that other economies are also investing in new nuclear, we may be looking at the lower end of that scale rather than the higher, so new nuclear cannot be regarded as sustainable in any real sense. Charles Hendry: I have certainly heard that point before. The OECD has a fundamentally different view of the availability of uranium stocks, and there is work to be done in plutonium reprocessing, which would provide an additional source of fuel. Furthermore, work is being done on the development of thorium reactors, which do not give rise to many of the concerns that people have about uranium reactors. A great deal of progress can be made and, at the end of the day, the decision is for investors to make. If they do not believe that there is sufficient uranium to power their plants for their lifetime, they will not make that investment. They will base their decision on the facts available to them and they will need to be reassured about the availability of stocks. The overarching national policy statement contains information on the impacts that need to be considered for all energy infrastructure, while the technology-specific NPSs contain additional information on the impacts that are specific to each technology. They take into account the appraisals of sustainability. We have revised the AOSs for the non-nuclear NPSs substantially, which is why we are a carrying out a fresh consultation.

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We believe that the revised appraisals put readers in a much better position to evaluate the revised draft NPSs. The revised AOSs give a clear picture of the likely significant impacts at the strategic level of consenting energy infrastructure projects in accordance with the NPSs, by reference to a wide range of relevant environmental, social and economic factors. They also explain more clearly why we have not chosen a number of alternative policies that others proposed, but which would not have been as good in meeting our overall objectives of maintaining safe, secure and affordable energy supplies while moving to a low carbon economy and reducing carbon emissions by 80% by 2050. We have made significant changes to the statement of need in the overarching national policy statement. It now includes research that was not available for the first draft, including more detailed analysis of scenarios to achieve an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050. We have also included more detail on what is required for an economic feasibility assessment to ensure that fossil fuel generating stations are carbon capture-ready. Neil Carmichael: The NPS gives great support to those of us who support a green investment bank because it provides a framework for investment, which is necessary to the platform of support that investors might require. How important does the Minister think the green investment bank will be in delivering some of the outcomes? Charles Hendry: The Government have committed £1 billion to the green investment bank, with additional funding to follow in due course. I am extremely pleased that the Environmental Audit Committee is to examine how the bank might work. Infrastructure banks in other countries—for example, the one in Holland, which was funded with ¤2 billion of initial capital, but brought in ¤100 billion of additional finance—can play a critical role, particularly in getting business through the so-called valley of death. Returning to the technology-specific NPSs, we have revised the fossil fuels policy statement—document No. 2—to clarify the requirements for carbon capture readiness in terms of technical and economic feasibility in line with the request made by the Energy and Climate Change Committee. Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab): On carbon capture and storage, will new applications for gas-fired power stations be treated the same as applications for new coal-fired power stations in that they will have to be carbon capture-ready before they can be accepted at the planning stage? Charles Hendry: A new coal plant will have to be equipped with some degree of carbon capture and storage capability—we have made it clear that there will be no role for unabated coal in the future—whereas a new gas plant will have to be carbon capture-ready, because of the much lower levels of emissions associated with modern gas plants. Emissions from the most efficient coal plant are perhaps 750 grams per kWh, whereas the figure for the most sophisticated gas plant is perhaps 350 grams per kWh. Given the significant difference in emission levels, we are looking at requiring CCS to be part of the programme. That is why we have allocated

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£1 billion, which is more than any Government anywhere in the world have allocated to a single plant. We are keen to take forward the development, but we have also said that as part of the subsequent pilot projects 2 to 4, we are keen to see whether that can be applied to gas. Ian Lavery: The Minister said that £1 billion had been invested in the carbon capture and storage programme. There were four initial demonstration plants, the first of which is to be a coal-fired demonstration plant. The contract will be awarded, I believe, in December 2011. Will that not take most of the £1 billion? If so, is he confident that moneys will be available to secure the phase 2, 3 and 4 carbon capture and storage projects? Charles Hendry: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. The £1 billion is specifically and only for that project. As I said, that is more than any Government anywhere in the world have allocated to a single project. The additional plants will be funded either by the levy introduced in the Energy Act 2010, or from general taxation. We are looking at the best way forward in terms of deliverability and the Treasury is examining the issue. The funding of projects 2 to 4 is separate from the funding of project 1, which has the £1 billion available to it. The revised renewables NPS has taken particular account of comments on biomass sustainability for generating stations using biomass as fuel. We have also revised the text regarding noise from onshore wind farms, which is different from general industrial noise, so a specific assessment methodology is used to take that into account. The method of assessing noise from a wind farm is described in “The Assessment and Rating of Noise from Wind Farms”, known as ETSU-R-97. The report recommends noise limits that seek to protect the amenity of those living close to wind farms. The recommended noise levels are determined by a combination of absolute noise limits and noise limits relative to the existing background noise levels around the site at different wind speeds. Policy document 4 relates to gas supply and oil pipelines. We have clarified that the gas supply infrastructure and gas and oil pipelines NPS covers only oil and natural gas pipelines and not CO2 pipelines, which will be an important matter in relation to carbon capture and storage development. We have also added a new section describing the impacts on gas emissions due to the flaring or venting of gas. Policy paper 5 relates to electricity networks. We have tried to make sure that Government policy on undergrounding and the need to treat each application case by case is expressed more clearly. I welcome the decision by the Institute of Engineering and Technology to make an authoritative investigation of the costs of undergrounding, particularly in relation to the issues that the hon. Member for Wells (Tessa Munt) has raised, so that we can have a clear fact-based assessment of the different costs involved. Tessa Munt (Wells) (LD) rose— Charles Hendry: I thought that might encourage the hon. Lady.

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Tessa Munt: Thank you. Will that investigation examine the cost of under-sea infrastructure as well? I understand that the project will look at networks not just underground, but under-sea. Is that correct? Charles Hendry: That is my understanding of the report. We are all keen to have a fact-based scientific assessment of the relative costs. I know that in the hon. Lady’s constituency and many others there has been great concern and a need to know the costs of different ways of dealing with the issues, so I hope the report will examine the under-sea aspects as well. Tessa Munt rose— Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con) rose— Charles Hendry: I will give way to my hon. Friend, who has some issues in Suffolk. Dr Coffey: Thank you. We do indeed have issues in East Anglia, and in Suffolk in particular. We have an enormous number of offshore wind farms, yet the green impact of pylons across our countryside is hardly palatable. I welcome the changes being made, and hope that we will have more detailed calculations of the costs and the impact of the benefits. Charles Hendry: I shall give way again to the hon. Member for Wells and deal with both issues together. Tessa Munt: How can I and my constituents be assured that the study is wholly independent and is not in any way informed or directed by National Grid? Charles Hendry: I would hope that the nature of the Institute of Engineering and Technology, and its track record for independence and fact-based assessment, would be sufficient to assure everyone that a thorough approach will be taken. There is no doubt in any of our minds that if anybody tried to steer its conclusions one way or the other it would publicly require them to go away. I am absolutely satisfied that the process will be independent and robust, but in due course the institute will publish the full report so that it can be peer-reviewed. Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab): Before the hon. Gentleman leaves EN-5, will he reflect on the question that he raised previously about investment in new infrastructure through the electricity markets as they stood, and the extent to which that investment stayed in existing equipment to shore up the electricity market? In the new circumstances, where investment in infrastructure will increasingly be required before the replacement of plant, will EN-5 reflect that change fully? If not, could the energy market reforms that he will undertake shortly inform a revision of EN-5 to take those new circumstances into account? Charles Hendry: We have to see the national policy statements as part of the process. They are an integral part of an improved planning process, but they are not the full package. Electricity market reform will also be a key element in incentivising people to invest. Let me give an example of how things are changing. I was recently with Ofgem launching the second round of offshore grid transmission infrastructure bids. More

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than 100 different organisations, most of which were new players in this area, were keen to take part in that process, which was started by the previous Administration. A number of new organisations—new financial institutions—want to invest in our energy infrastructure, which is extremely encouraging, but to see the full package of these measures it will be necessary to ensure that they see the planning changes and the funding mechanisms that will drive it forward. Andrew Percy rose— Charlie Elphicke rose— Charles Hendry: I shall take a couple of interventions and then seek to conclude my remarks. Andrew Percy: While we are on the subject of new players coming into our energy industry, I invite the Minister to visit north Lincolnshire and the site of the South Humber Gateway project, where we hope to cluster a number of offshore wind farm manufacturers with the potential to create 5,000 jobs initially, possibly rising to 20,000. It will be incredibly important to our region, so I invite the Minister to join me and my hon. Friend the Member for Cleethorpes (Martin Vickers) on a visit some time soon. Charles Hendry: I know that both my hon. Friends have done sterling work in pushing the case for the South Humber Gateway. I would be delighted to see the planned work to get a clearer understanding of the ambition. It is typical of many of the ambitions of people who see a fantastic new opportunity emerging in the energy sector, and we are keen to encourage that. I imagine that my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke) will make a similar plea for a visit. Charlie Elphicke: I do not wish to trouble the Minister to come down to east Kent, but for the benefit of the House will he say how many power stations were brought into operation during the last Parliament? The only one that we in Kent can recall is the dirty Kingsnorth power station. On the need for more funding and the need to build infrastructure and green infrastructure, I recall that during the last Parliament not many power stations were brought on line. Charles Hendry: A number of gas powered plants were brought on stream. The last nuclear power station was Sizewell in the 1990s. There has not been a new clean coal plant yet because people need to know how the carbon abatement technology will move forward. Gas has been the fuel of choice: 60% of the consented plant—12 out of 20 GW—is gas. What people want to build remains to be seen, but there is significant interest. We now need the policies to drive this forward. I want rapidly to conclude my remarks with a few additional points— Christopher Pincher (Tamworth) (Con) rose— Charles Hendry: An enormous number of colleagues are keen to speak in the debate, but with your forbearance, Mr. Deputy Speaker, I will allow my hon. Friend to intervene as he is a member of the Select Committee.

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Christopher Pincher: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for being so generous. May I take him back to his earlier remarks about energy security and how the national policy statements will feed into our energy security? Energy security not only relates to the Department of Energy and Climate Change, but has an impact on the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and the Department for Transport. How do the threads in our national policy statements interweave to ensure that across all those Departments we have a holistic approach to energy security? Charles Hendry: One thing that has struck and impressed me most as an incoming Minister has been the extent to which Departments work constructively together, with information shared appropriately and buy-in from every Department on policy proposals. My Department clearly leads on the energy market and the Treasury is critically involved in setting a carbon price, which we believe is part of the process, but there is a holistic approach and investors are looking at that to make sure that there is joined-up government. I want to close, so perhaps I can respond in my winding-up speech to any additional points about the exact way in which we will take the process forward. Having spoken for the best part of an hour, I feel that many hon. Members on both sides of the House will wish to have a chance to contribute fully to the debate. In conclusion, our reforms of the major infrastructure planning process will ensure much greater democratic accountability. Ministers will be responsible for decisions to consent to or refuse major infrastructure development, and there will be a binding vote in the House on whether to approve national policy statements. Our debate today is about whether the House has considered the matter of the draft energy national policy statements, and I look forward to listening to it and having the chance to hear the expertise that so many hon. Members have to offer. Several hon. Members rose— Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans): Order. As the Minister says, a number of Members will be trying to catch my eye during this debate. Therefore, I am introducing a seven-minute limit on speeches. 5.31 pm Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I have indicated to you through the usual channels that, if it is your wish, I am more than happy to forgo any concluding remarks so that more people have time to make their contributions. I welcome this general debate about national policy statements, which is timely and necessary. I thank the Energy and Climate Change Committee for its continuing effort and expertise and, of course, the Committee on Climate Change for its recommendations and analysis. We share much of the Minister’s analysis of the challenges, but that is not surprising because, as I say with some humility, my predecessors laid the groundwork that he is continuing. We are glad to see him and his colleagues taking up the baton with such relish, because they do so at a critical juncture, when delay and dithering would be

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terminal to investor certainty, UK energy security and our low-carbon future. There is a real need to get on with that work. On that thought, the shadow Front-Bench team and I—and I am sure the whole House—send our best wishes to the Secretary of State and his team on their negotiations in Cancun. In government, Labour adopted the world’s first legally binding framework to cut emissions, by 80% by 2050, signalling our clear intent and leadership on tackling climate change. My right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) played a difficult hand with some great skill and not insignificant personal commitment at Copenhagen when he was Secretary of State, and although the job has not become any easier, we hope that the new Secretary of State will keep the momentum going. Let us reprise where we are, as laid out in the documents before us. One quarter of the UK’s generating capacity will close by 2018, and as much as 30% will need to be replaced by 2020. Without prompt action we face an electricity generation gap in the next 10 to 15 years as our nuclear and coal-powered stations are retired. World energy demand is rising and often highly politicised; as North sea reserves decline, we are increasingly reliant on imported oil and gas; and, as the Minister says, electricity demand is forecast to double over the next 40 years. That will require rapid decarbonisation of the electricity sector, diversification of the energy sector with a decreasing reliance on fossil fuels and unabated combustion, and an increasing reliance on renewables, low-carbon energy and decentralised energy. We will also require development of carbon capture and storage and renewables technology for the UK and for international markets. We will need to create sufficient capacity to meet electricity generation needs at all times, and we will need to put the necessary supply chains in place. I will not go over the issue of Sheffield Forgemasters again, as it has been well aired already. We will require the development of smart grid and electricity networks to meet the needs of a reconfigured, smart and diverse electricity infrastructure and, of course, investment in gas infrastructure. Ian Lavery: The doubling of the electricity recovery rate over the next 40 years is vital. As was mentioned, the first phase of the four demonstration plants will cost up to £1 billion. Does my hon. Friend agree that it is essential that funding is found from somewhere to fund phases 2, 3 and 4 if we are to meet our electricity requirements over that period? Huw Irranca-Davies: Yes, I agree entirely. It was wonderful news that after a slight delay to do with the coalition agreement, getting things in order, and some wrangling with the Treasury, we had the announcement that £1 billion would be available—the commitment that the Labour Government had made to the first phase of CCS on a commercial scale. However, it is equally essential that we have phases 2, 3 and 4. I am sure that the Minister is committed to continuing that wrangling with the Treasury to ensure that we find the mechanisms that will allow that to happen, and promptly. We need it for coal, but we also need it for gas. I welcome the in-principle announcements that have been made about phases 2, 3 and 4, but what we are waiting for, as with so much else, is the detail to make it certain.

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Angie Bray (Ealing Central and Acton) (Con): Given that the previous Government had a complete lack of policy on energy, threatening constituents such as mine with the possibility of their lights being switched off for long periods in the next 10 years or so, I find it a bit rich that the hon. Gentleman is lecturing us somewhat, although I appreciate the consensus on some issues. Does he at least agree that the national policy statements brought forward by this coalition Government are a great step forward in attracting the kind of investment that we need to ensure that the lights are left on? Huw Irranca-Davies: Well, we can debate who can claim credit for the NPSs. Of course, they were instigated and developed under the last Labour Government, but I give credit where it is due; I will come to that in a moment in looking at some of the detail. We agree that there has been some improvement in the intervening six months—it will be nine months by the time they are eventually signed off—but they were in darn good shape before, and they were ready to go. The hon. Lady pushed me on trying to claim the credit entirely, but these are the Labour Government’s documents. They have been refined and improved, but they were already in place. Charlie Elphicke: Will the hon. Gentleman give way? Huw Irranca-Davies: Let me make a tiny bit of progress. This short debate is informed by the ongoing consultation—or perhaps I should say, for the benefit of the hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton (Angie Bray), reconsultation—on the national policy statements. The coalition Government have taken this opportunity to pause, to reflect, and to revise them. In a way, that is a good thing, because it has allowed more time for deliberation, but—let us be frank—it will also have cost a vital eight or nine months by the time that the final NPSs are produced in January. That is a luxury that has inevitably led to a delay in our national efforts to secure a long-term energy security future. Nicky Morgan (Loughborough) (Con): Is it not the case, though, that the report by the Energy and Climate Change Committee criticised the previous Government for leaving it quite so long to get to the stage where the NPSs were being considered? It published its report in March 2010, when the Government had had from 2005 onwards to put them in place. Huw Irranca-Davies: Indeed. The hon. Lady will have noticed that between March 2010 and now an election got in the way. The national policy statements were in place, and this Government, had they so chosen, could have picked them up and run with them, or alternatively, as happened when we came into office in 1997 and had our policies ready to go having worked them up with the civil service, they could have got on with it straight away. We will be nine months delayed by the time we have these documents before the House for full consideration. Dr Thérèse Coffey rose— Huw Irranca-Davies: I will make a little progress.

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Although I welcome this debate, we now have only one hour and 20 minutes to debate issues that, as I am sure the Minister will agree, are critical to our national strategic energy needs and to the balance between those needs and democratic accountability at national and local levels. Unlike the over-long process of reconsultation, this short debate demonstrates all speed, but limited accountability. It will therefore be impossible to do justice to the six core energy documents and the accompanying materials. This must be seen instead as a useful staging post to a much longer debate in this place in Government time. I will begin with some points on the reform of planning in relation to NPSs, in response to the Minister’s opening remarks. Martin Horwood: Before we leave the question of Labour’s legacy, can the hon. Gentleman put a figure on the unfunded liabilities for cleaning up the last generation of nuclear power? Some estimates put it as high as £160 billion. Does that sound accurate to him? Huw Irranca-Davies: That question should probably be put to the Minister. I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s long-held position on nuclear power. I pay credit to the Minister and the Government for pulling the coalition into a semblance of agreement on nuclear—albeit with the odd person against it—which means that we can move forward. Labour’s Planning Act 2008, which underpins this matter, made the planning system for major infrastructure quicker, more efficient and much more predictable. It laid the conditions for essential new investment in the UK’s infrastructure, including large-scale, low-carbon energy projects. The coalition Government have a responsibility to ensure that their plans, which include scrapping the Infrastructure Planning Commission, do not add delays or remove the clarity and certainty that industry needs to invest in new renewable and nuclear capacity, and low-carbon energy. I give credit to the coalition Government and the Minister, because they have wisely decided, despite the unnecessary delay, to continue with the Labour Government’s national policy statements, with the revisions, rather than wait for wholesale reform of the planning system. That is a welcome recognition of the excellent work of the Labour Ministers who formerly occupied the Minister’s office and of my right hon. Friend the Member for Doncaster North. Christopher Pincher: The hon. Gentleman waxes eloquent about the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband). Can he therefore explain why the Public Accounts Committee, when it reviewed the Department of Energy and Climate Change, said that it lacked a definite sense of energy and purpose under the now Leader of the Opposition? Huw Irranca-Davies: The ball is now firmly in the court of the Minister. There is an issue with the urgency and delivery of some the Government’s ambitions that we share. They must get on with it. Rather than take further interventions, I will get into the nitty-gritty. Some of my questions for the Minister arise from his appearance yesterday before the Energy and Climate Change Committee, which, as usual, did a very good job.

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When we return to this matter with the finished articles in front of us—the final, beautifully honed, polished NPSs—will we be afforded adequate time? Will each national policy statement have adequate, separate parliamentary time in line with the coalition Government’s stated aim of enhancing parliamentary scrutiny of NPSs in their planning reforms, or will they be mixed together like a bag of all-sorts? If the coalition Government are true to their aims, the Minister should help us through the usual channels to push for days, not hours, to debate the NPSs. Much as we dearly love the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government—we may ask who would not do so, when he is described on the front page of his website as “an absolute star” and a “saintly figure”, among other less self-effacing and more humorous things—when it comes to debating energy NPSs, we want the Minister of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change, the hon. Member for Wealden (Charles Hendry), or the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. We want them—no one else will do. Can the Minister guarantee that he and his DECC colleagues will not be squeezed out of their seats by the right hon. and saintly Member for Brentwood and Ongar? In the coalition’s drive for parliamentary scrutiny, I am sure that the Minister will be able to confirm today that there will be a separate vote on each NPS, having been unable to confirm it yesterday to the Energy and Climate Change Committee. To mix the nuclear issue with those of fossil fuels, renewables, pipelines and the electricity network infrastructure would tax the wit of Wilde and the wisdom of Solomon. For us mere mortals, will he make representations through the usual channels to ensure that the votes are separate? Will the Minister explain to the House why he has set against the calls to make an NPS amendable? We understand that there will be a take-it-or-leave-it vote. It would be interesting to hear the justification for taking scrutiny so far but no further. He might have a very strong rationale for that position, such as wanting to avoid the unpicking of an NPS that has been through exhaustive consultation, but we need to hear it. There is a more fundamental point to be made about the parliamentary scrutiny of the NPSs, which goes to the very heart of the planning reforms that the Government are developing. The argument advanced by the coalition is that democratic accountability is best assured by laying the NPSs in front of the House and making a Minister, hopefully this Minister, answerable for them. In fact, he said back in June: “A fast and efficient planning system is critical for facilitating investment in much needed new energy infrastructure. By abolishing the Infrastructure Planning Commission we will ensure that vital energy planning decisions are democratically accountable.”

His colleague the Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government, the right hon. Member for Tunbridge Wells (Greg Clark), went further, saying: “Today the coalition is remedying those deficiencies by putting in place a new fast track process where the people’s elected representatives have responsibility for the final decisions about Britain’s future instead of unelected commissioners.”

Yet we understand that for the Minister, the consideration of the NPSs is a quasi-judicial decision. He has described it as such. Ministers, formerly myself included, are used to making quasi-judicial decisions and are made aware

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of the very strict limitations that bind them. His decision is strictly limited, involves the application of policy to a particular set of facts and requires the exercise of discretion and the application of the principles of natural justice. It is not a prescription for localism, political interference or ministerial hokey-cokey. It is about policy and facts. May we safely assume that the NPSs, once presented to the House by the Minister in January, will be a fait accompli? May we assume that he will have satisfied himself, in a quasi-judicial role, that the NPSs presented are fit for purpose? He will listen to fellow MPs, but his mind will be made up. On that basis, will he tell us, first, what is the point of putting the NPSs to the House if they represent his full and final view? Secondly, if he has a mind to amend them, what specific examples can he give that would cause him to change his quasi-judicial view and alter the documents, and what further time delay would ensue? Charles Hendry: I hesitate to intervene on the hon. Gentleman after my own comments went on for quite a while, but I wonder whether I can provide clarity on that issue now. The quasi-judicial aspect relates to a ministerial decision on a planning application, not to the approach taken to the national policy statements themselves. We are in the course of a three-month consultation, which will finish on 24 January. There will quite possibly be amendments to the NPSs after that, which will be in the final version put before the House for debate, assessment and a vote. We do not have a quasi-judicial capacity in that respect. My comments about acting in a quasi-judicial capacity related to ministerial decision making on individual planning applications under the rules set out in the NPSs. Huw Irranca-Davies: I thank the Minister for that intervention, but will he clarify two things? Has he just said that NPSs will be amendable on the Floor of the House. He will sign off and present NPSs to the House, but will he sign them in a quasi-judicial role, or will he perform such a role only in respect of individual planning applications? Charles Hendry: There is confusion between the approval process for NPSs and the role that Ministers will take in respect of individual planning decisions when the IPC has been abolished. On individual planning decisions, Ministers will act in a quasi-judicial capacity, but on NPSs, a revised consultation period to take account of the initial representations—we felt that improvements needed to be made—will end in January. If further revisions are necessary, a document will be put to the House for its final consideration and approval. Huw Irranca-Davies: Is the Minister suggesting that the final document will be amendable and subject to a decision by the House, as I think I heard him say from a sedentary position? It would be helpful if he could clarify that, because we are talking about significant decisions over the future energy needs of this country. It is important that the House knows whether it is voting on a batch of NPSs or on each one individually and for how long they will be debated. It is also important that the House knows whether it has the ability to amend NPSs. If so, would that cause delays? My assumption is that if the House changes any individual NPS, it will need further consideration and possibly consultation.

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[Huw Irranca-Davies] The Minister’s officials would certainly become involved, and relevant stakeholders would need to be consulted. There would be a minimum of 13 weeks’ consultation, as recommended by civil service guidelines, but possibly a heck of a lot more. It would be helpful to get some clarity on those issues before we debate NPSs. Charlie Elphicke: Speaking of clarity, can the shadow Minister explain why we are threatened with the lights going out in 2015? Should he and his party not apologise for that shocking situation? Huw Irranca-Davies: If the hon. Gentleman is seeking apologies, may I suggest that he starts by knocking on the door of No. 10? He should ask the Prime Minister why it took so long for him to move from a position of equivocation on nuclear new build to a position of indifference. Following Labour’s leadership, the Prime Minister finally rowed in behind on the need for nuclear new build. The five-year hiatus to which the Minister referred happened, as someone remarked earlier, because there was no appetite in the country or among the body politic to move forward on new nuclear. We showed leadership; certain individuals rowed in behind, but it took them a long time to do so. For the sake of taxpayers, who are always in the mind of the coalition Government, will the Minister tell us what he knows about the cost of abolishing the IPC? What are the costs of the transition to the new major infrastructure unit within the planning inspectorate? Will there be savings for the taxpayer, and if so, will he or the Government publish those figures after the debate? In the absence of the much anticipated localism Bill, where in the reformed process does localism rear its lovely head? Will the Minister explain how parliamentary scrutiny of NPSs, which represent the Minister’s opinion on the strategic needs of the UK, allows for localism? If the answer to that question is not in the Government’s response and if we will not be told in January, where is it? What is the expected lifespan of NPSs? I ask that for a very good reason. The Minister recently spoke with clarity and purpose at a meeting of the World Coal Association, which I was pleased to attend, and made a bold prediction. He said with certainty that next spring, he would draw a line in the sand on his forthcoming decisions on a range of market mechanisms and incentives, including electricity market reforms, carbon floor-pricing, emissions performance standards, capacity payments and so on. The NPSs are part of that line in the sand, giving investors certainty for years ahead, yet they do not stand alone. There are so many “What ifs?”, and the Minister has to take these into account—it is like multidimensional chess. I know that the Government do not particularly like the idea of school sport, as we discovered yesterday, but the Minister has been indulging in his favourite sport with his ministerial colleagues—an extreme sport known as Treasury-wrangling. After some delay, he came out with a partial win, announcing the first stage of commercial CCS—carbon capture and storage—which has delivered, after a slight delay of six months, the first part of Labour’s commitment to CCS. We look forward to him rapidly bringing forward not only that pilot, but the three others, including a pilot on gas CCS. However,

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may I urge—or should it be “nudge”, in the Government’s new lexicon?—the Minister to get on with that pronto? He has honestly and publicly acknowledged that there is no future for coal in the UK unless that technology is made to work. However, there is also a global imperative, as developing nations rush towards their own coal-powered futures. As such, this Government must avoid any further delay on the complete CCS programme of work. However, what if CCS on a commercial scale does not work? What if there are delays because of cost, lack of funds or complexity, or because the technology to bring it forward is not available on time, or even not at all? We all want CCS to succeed—we all say that it has to succeed—and we are full of hope that it will, both for UK energy security and abating the global exploitation of fossil fuels. However, a reasonable man—and a reasonable Minister—cannot just assume that that will happen, and must therefore make contingency plans. Martin Horwood: Given that carbon capture and storage technology has been in use on a commercial scale in the United States for some 40 years—albeit not on the same scale as that envisaged for the power stations in question—what does the hon. Gentleman imagine the technical barriers will be? Huw Irranca-Davies: I am glad to say that I am not an engineer, but that is exactly the point behind the large-scale commercial CCS pilots. That is exactly why we are running them, and we all hope that CCS will work. Indeed, I recognise the hon. Gentleman’s confidence that it definitely will work. However, there are some nagging “What ifs?”. What if CCS is not delivered on time, or cannot happen because of the technology, the scale or the investment? In my short time in this post, I have come to realise that the Minister’s Front-Bench colleague, the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle (Gregory Barker), positively exudes enthusiasm. Indeed, he leaves a trail of enthusiasm wherever he goes, and for every conceivable energy source. His enthusiasm is demonstrated in photo-ops around the country and around the world, but what if the latest enthusiasm for decentralised energy, which the Minister mentioned, and combined heat and power is not realised, because the electricity grid is not smart enough to make it work locally or because the right incentives are not in place, or for other reasons? I have a final “What if ?” for the Minister: the nuclear “What if ?”. He has been categorical in recent days— heroically categorical—that new build nuclear is on schedule for 2017-18. Yet he knows that the Health and Safety Executive will not be issuing final certificates next year on the two designs that this House has taken through in the past few days through justification orders, but will instead issue interim certificates. There is more work to be done on the designs and, equally importantly, the build speed of new nuclear, as evidenced by delays internationally, in Europe, the US and Asia. The coalition Government have struggled to come to terms with their identity crisis on nuclear—do they love it or hate it, and will they unequivocally support it or sit on the fence—but the Minister deserves some credit for helping his Lib Dem comrades down off the fence. However, the industry still waits for the long-term certainty of market signals that will bring forward the investment at all, let alone on time. So, there are “What ifs?” on

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nuclear, decentralised energy and CCS, as well as on other things, if only we had the time to discuss them in this short debate. Martin Horwood rose— Huw Irranca-Davies: I will not take another intervention because there are other people waiting to speak. Meanwhile, part 3 of the overarching energy policy statement details new electricity projections. It outlines the need for 59 GW of new capacity by 2025, of which as much as 33 GW will be from renewables, thus leaving a significant potential gap, on top of the energy gap that we already acknowledge, if the Minister’s best laid plans do not come to fruition. This raises the question of how the Minister can avoid re-carbonising instead of de-carbonising the energy sector if an unabated dash for expensive imported gas rushes in to fill the looming energy gap. The dash for gas and the energy gap could be made far worse if any of the “what ifs” were to happen. The Minister has honestly and openly accepted that gas will form part of our journey to a de-carbonised future, but how will he ensure that we do not stumble into a new generation of unabated gas use by default? As a former Minister, I recognise the problem of dealing with highly complex issues and scenario planning. I therefore ask the Minister to share with the House his scenario planning and risk analysis for the energy market, before we come to debate the national policy statements in detail on the Floor of the House in January. If there is to be real democratic accountability, the House needs to see the complete assumptions on which the Minister is making his case for the NPSs and for the energy market underpinning them. We assume that these have been done. If nuclear, CCS, decentralised energy or a whole host of other variables were delayed or undeliverable, what is plan B, plan C or plan D, and would any of them allow us still to reach our aims on energy security and low carbon energy? In that regard, what is the Minister’s response to the recommendation of the Committee on Climate Change, in response to the proposals for national policy statements on energy, that the Government act on the Committee’s proposal that the widely accepted concept of fully de-carbonising the electricity sector by 2030 should be made explicit in Government policy and NPSs? It has been widely accepted anyway, and it would drive the achievement of the 2050 targets on greenhouse gases. The Committee asserts that making explicit that commitment would drive forward decision making on new generating capacity and give certainty to investors regarding the Government’s overarching energy policy. Dan Byles: The shadow Minister has highlighted the concern that many of the Government’s plans are predicated on CCS working and on investment in nuclear coming through, and he has asked what plan B is. Can we look forward to hearing from those on his own Front Bench what their plan B would be if they were in government? Huw Irranca-Davies: I can give the hon. Gentleman a guarantee that we are committed to assisting the Government to deliver this, but to ignore the potential scenarios of not making good in any one of these areas would be to bury our head in the sand. There are real concerns that there could be delays in one of these

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areas, and if that were to happen, we, as a constructive Opposition would have to work jointly with the Government to fathom a way in which we could still deliver de-carbonised energy, hit our carbon reduction targets and deliver energy security and affordable energy. I have not even touched on the issues of the green deal and the green investment bank that were raised by other Members earlier. That is why we need to see the Government’s working assumptions, the detail behind the Minister’s development of these NPSs and, as soon as possible, the proposals for electricity market reform. I am pleased that the Minister is talking a lot about the intentions behind the NPSs, but we are really up against time. I know that he will once again stand up and say that that is all the fault of the previous Administration, but actually it was the previous Administration who put in the foundations for what the coalition Government are now rightly taking forward. We will look to the Government to make good, and we will be constructive in helping them, but the House and the Energy and Climate Change Committee need to be able to wrestle with the facts as well as with the broad thrust of the statements. I have spoken longer than I intended to, and I look forward to hearing the comments of other Members. 6.3 pm Damian Collins (Folkestone and Hythe) (Con): We have had a tour de force from the Minister and the shadow Minister on many of the issues in the national policy statements for energy. I shall restrict my comments to an issue that affects my constituency, which is the list of suggested nuclear new build sites and, in particular, the Dungeness site. At present, there is an A station and a B station at Dungeness, and the site was included on the previous Government’s original list of 11 sites to be consulted on. Before the general election, it was removed from the list after the initial stage of the consultation, and it has remained off the list of potential sites to be taken forward within the national policy statement in the draft consultation that has been presented to Parliament. I have already discussed the issue in debates in the House and in Westminster Hall and I do not want to go over all the ground again, but I do want to deal with some specific points raised by the draft national policy statement which may be of interest to other Members. Let me say first that I am grateful to the Minister for the interest that he has taken in the subject, for his time, and for agreeing to meet me later in the month, along with representatives of Shepway district council and Kent county council, to establish whether any progress can be made. I note from the draft statement that the Government consider the site of Dungeness nuclear power station to be a credible site for a new power station should the principal concerns about it be addressed during the rest of the consultation period. Those concerns lie chiefly with Natural England’s objection to the development in a special protected area, a Natura 2000 reserve with a European designation. Dungeness is the only site under consideration in the initial consultation in which development would take place within a protected area. There are problems with the other sites that the Government believe can be solved, but the problems affecting Dungeness remain.

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[Damian Collins] My constituents have particular concerns. They are typical of many communities living alongside nuclear power stations who have grown used to them, and are gratefully respectful not only of the energy that they contribute but of the large amount of employment that they bring to the communities that they serve. The existing Dungeness B station brings about £20 million a year into the local economy in Romney Marsh and in my constituency. That is not to be sniffed at: it would be difficult for a community to obtain the same amount of investment from any other source. My constituents’ concerns lie with Natural England’s objections, with which the draft statement deals in some detail. The statement gives an answer, but it does not provide much further consideration that could help us to address some of those concerns. One objection is that building on the vegetated shingle at Dungeness would damage the site, and that that damage could not be mitigated. The counter-argument is that there would be a relatively small amount of development, and that a new nuclear power station would take up less than 1% of the entire protected area and thus could not be said to damage the integrity of the whole site. Natural England, however, believes that the damage will be greater, and that it will be impossible to mitigate. We would like to know what further study could be conducted. Some of the land that would be lost has been developed before: it is not virgin territory that has never been disturbed. Much of the area that would be disturbed by the building of a new power station was disturbed when the existing power station was built. We would like any further study to consider the areas containing flora and fauna, and the vegetation on the shingle, which is the reason for the designation. Natural England says that if that vegetation is lost, it would not come back, but in parts of the peninsula it can be seen that where vegetation has been disturbed and lost, it has grown back. Is a further study possible? Could it be said that Natural England’s concerns are not as great as it would have us believe, and that there is room for mitigation? We would welcome some guidance, either from the Government or through the process that is taking place. At present, the response seems to be an absolute “no”, although there have been a series of detailed considerations. EDF Energy, the owner of the current site, has made three presentations to the Government during the consultation, and Shepway district council has presented the Department with its own report, written by Ian Jackson. I know that those views have been considered, but we have been given no further detailed information about why they have been rejected, and we would like to know how we can make progress. The behaviour of Natural England raises a different concern. A view is developing among local people that Natural England is not particularly interested in the opinions of others, but is interested only in its own opinion, and that that colours its desire to extend the protected areas beyond the current Dungeness site. At the end of last month, Shepway district council passed a motion which includes the following paragraph: “This Council therefore rejects any need for the extension of the Dungeness, Romney Marsh and Rye Bay area nature conservation designations. It further looks to Natural England to work with

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the local population and businesses to find a more collaborative and integrated approach in preference to the prescriptive approach it is currently favouring.”

We would certainly welcome that. Turning to the nature of the national policy statements, the site report on Dungeness states: “Given the nature of the issues at Dungeness, it may be easier to ascertain that there will not be adverse effects on the integrity of the SAC at the detailed project level of an application for development consent.”

My concern in that respect is that no energy company would take forward such a proposal for Dungeness if it were not included in the list of preferred sites. The Minister said to the Energy and Climate Change Committee yesterday that national policy statements “set the framework for major planning decisions. I think that the thoroughness with which they address those issues gives investors a significant amount of security.”

I agree; that is what the national policy statements are for. However, if a site is not included in a list, even though it can in theory be taken forward, no one will do so without a degree of certainty. I therefore wonder whether Dungeness could be included within the draft NPS, but with caveats listing the concerns of Natural England, which could then be addressed at a later stage. I would like us to be able to get to that stage first, however. 6.10 pm Dr Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab): We have a scandalously short time in which to address these issues this evening. I have calculated that if we were to stack vertically the documents we are talking about this evening—important documents fundamental to the future of our energy planning—the pile would be 7 inches high. We have therefore been allocated 21 minutes per inch of document. As I have seven minutes, I will address just one third of the documents by focusing on EN-1 and EN-5. However, I hope the powers that be will press through the usual channels for a lot more time in the Chamber to discuss these documents as they go through the consultative phase, because it is just not right that we have such a short time to get to grips with them. EN-1 is an overarching policy document setting out our energy planning framework for the future. It deals with our climate change commitments, and our commitments to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050. That, in turn, means the documents have to address the decarbonisation of the UK’s energy supply. The Committee on Climate Change wrote to the Secretary of State for Energy on 17 June, stating baldly: “The path to meeting the UK’s 2050 target to reduce emissions by 80% requires that the power sector is largely decarbonised in the period to 2030 (e.g. average emissions should be about 100 g/kWh in 2030 compared to around 500 g/kWh currently).”

I assume that the Government largely agree with the Committee on Climate Change that to meet the requirements of our climate change budgets this, or something like it, should be the scenario and that that will be reflected in the planning documents that are published. After all, if we are to achieve these goals we cannot just hope they will happen; we need to plan for them, and to achieve them through a combination of planning signals, market incentives and supply and trading arrangements.

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EN-1 states that under some of our pathways some revisions have taken the scenario beyond 2025 towards the 2050 targets. It states:

“it would be for industry to determine the exact mix of the remaining 26 GW of required new electricity capacity, acting within the strategic framework set by the Government”.

“Under some of our 2050 pathways, energy would need to be virtually emission-free”.

If industry decides as it appears to be deciding, it will choose gas. If it is to be gas and that gas is unabated or only partially abated, the decarbonisation of our electricity supply will not happen.

Tessa Munt: Does the hon. Gentleman agree that the Infrastructure Planning Commission successor body appears to be carbon-blind in its decision making under the arrangements? The IPC successor body should give significant weight to any project’s carbon emissions and ensure that cumulative emissions from the various projects do not jeopardise the UK’s carbon targets and their budgets. The national policy statement should provide an additional safeguard to that process. Dr Whitehead: The hon. Lady is absolutely right. In response to the Energy and Climate Change Committee report examining the previous national policy statements the Government have accepted they need to undertake some sort of spatial planning arrangement which will look at the cumulative impacts between various arrangements as they progress. She is also absolutely right that in this NPS that question of decarbonisation of supply needs to be part of the process, not anterior to it. The current level of emissions of our energy supply means that if we are to get to that position, gas at about 450 grams per kWh unabated probably will have no part to play in the energy economy by 2030—when abated, it comes in at about 100 grams per kWh. What are we planning? What are we looking for in these overarching documents? According to EN-1, we are planning to require a capacity of about 113 GW of installed power sources by 2025, which is a substantial increase on 2010 levels because of the penetration of wind, in particular. According to the scenario of that capacity projection, wind needs greater capacity to balance its variability. So the 113 GW, which is an increase on the about 80 GW of installed capacity that we have at the moment, will need to be installed by that point. However, 22 GW are expected to go offline, including most nuclear plants and a number of power plants, under the large plant directive and the industrial emissions directive. So 59 GW of new power will need to be built between now and 2025, one way or another. If we reach the renewables targets for wind, and we probably will, given the amount of wind power already in planning, we will have about 33 GW of wind power on the grid. That means that we will need 26 GW of new build non-renewables or non-wind. Of whatever type, they will, for the reasons I have outlined, need to be low-carbon or lowish-carbon. Some 8 GW are under construction and almost all that construction relates to gas. That leaves a balance of 18 GW. Some 9 GW is not under construction but has planning permission. The Government dismiss that as uncertain, but 5 GW of that relates to gas; plans for a further 7 GW are under consideration, most of which also relates to gas. So it appears that most of the current gap is set to be made up by gas. As the Select Committee has been told by the Committee on Climate Change, more gas is in the pipeline in terms of planning, permissions or build than we need for that future decarbonisation strategy to work. The NPS says that

David Mowat (Warrington South) (Con) rose— Dr Whitehead: I am sorry but I have to make progress because I will not get injury time for the second intervention I take. Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Lindsay Hoyle): You will, Alan. Dr Whitehead: Okay, then I will take the intervention. David Mowat: Thank you for your help on that matter, Mr Deputy Speaker. I agree with the hon. Gentleman’s point about decarbonisation, but it prompts the question: how much cost penalty would he advocate as reasonable in order for us to go down the route of a totally carbon-free mix in the way he is suggesting? Each household in the country already pays about £50 for the renewables obligation. The implication of his remarks is that the sum should be very much higher. I wonder whether he has thought about that. Dr Whitehead: Indeed I have. I think we will find out considerably more about that in the material that will come out on energy market reform, particularly the details on what a carbon floor price will look like and what capacity payments will look like to keep the energy balance more decarbonised in future. Yes, that will add costs to the system and there need to be circumstances in which those can be abated for the public, but that is a particular issue for the energy market reform material to address. When the Minister was asked in the recent Energy and Climate Change Committee sitting about the gap that I have mentioned he said that it is possible that 16 GW of the 18 GW gap could be new nuclear. That represents 10 new nuclear power stations by 2025, and although that would solve the gap problem it has the unfortunate downside of being inherently implausible. The Minister may want to rectify what he said in the light of that implausibility at a future date. The Committee on Climate Change’s estimate for the nuclear roll-out, produced in 2009, said that there would be a maximum of three nuclear power stations online by 2020, even based on optimistic build and planning time scenarios. Indeed, as we have seen, the timing of the justification process has already slipped. That leaves a gap that is not filled by nuclear. It is clear at the moment that there is an apparent contradiction in our national planning statements. We want to decarbonise our supply, but for 2025 we are pushing towards having a majority of gas as opposed to a small amount of peripheral gas at peaking periods, which is what our future energy supply should be based on. That is compounded by NPS EN-5, which attempts to collate permissions for plant and line. It will therefore replicate the question of providing grid capacity for plants as they stand and not provide new grid capacity

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[Dr Whitehead] for plants that are not yet completed and that will be needed for a decentralised and decarbonised future energy supply. I do not have time to go into the matter of electricity storage, but I hope that the NPSs will pay some attention to that question. It is not true that electricity cannot be stored, as NPS EN-1 says. It can be stored and storage must be a future part of our increased capacity, as the Minister mentioned in the Select Committee yesterday. I hope that the Minister will reflect on that. 6.21 pm Richard Graham (Gloucester) (Con): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to contribute to this stimulating debate, which is fundamentally focused on the process of establishing the Government’s important plan for the greatest increase in energy capacity and generation that we will see in our lifetimes. It is required, of course, to avoid a situation such as the one described by the line, “The lights are going out all over Europe; we may not see them lit again in our lifetimes.” That phrase was used by Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Secretary at the beginning of the first world war, as a metaphor for the catastrophe that was enveloping our continent, but by 2014 it could be the reality of our energy situation. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister on leading us towards a plan and through a process that will attract the enormous new investment of some £200 billion that is required to replace a third of all power stations in the next 10 years. I want to touch briefly on one aspect of it, which is the nuclear energy part. I am conscious that the shadow Minister said earlier that our overall energy situation was in “darn good shape” and “ready to go”. If new nuclear power stations had been under starter’s orders for 13 years, there must have been a terrible problem with the starter’s pistol. Today those plans are closer to becoming reality, not least because of the contribution made by EDF and its plan for a new nuclear power station. It is worth reminding Members that EDF took over the eight existing nuclear power stations previously operated by British Energy from Barnwood in my constituency. It is also worth noting EDF’s considerable investment, which will benefit people all over this country, of £20 billion towards the next new power station. That is almost twice EDF’s initial investment in buying British Energy. With the new generation of nuclear power stations come one or two other things I want to make the House aware of. First, the Barnwood nuclear power academy is becoming the training academy for nuclear engineers not just from this country but from all over Europe, and it brings thousands of young engineers to learn their trade in the centre of England. It is also running the country’s leading apprenticeship scheme, with some 400 apprentices studying on a four-year course. I am optimistic that before the Gloucestershire apprenticeship fair in February of next year, the academy will offer more apprenticeships in finance and human resources as well as in the core business of engineering on the operations side. Nuclear power is critical to the future of our energy supply and to employment opportunities in the energy sector—EDF will create some 2,000 jobs over the next 10 years. It is also important in terms of

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employment opportunities for our young through an ever-expanding apprenticeship scheme. That illustrates how important it is, first, to attract foreign investment to Britain; and secondly, to set up a framework and a robust plan so investors have the confidence to fulfil their part in the important new energy capabilities that the Minister is shaping us towards. I conclude by saying that I hugely look forward to hosting a visit by the Minister to Barnwood soon to see at first hand the enthusiasm in my constituency both for tackling the energy shortages in our country and for building new nuclear power stations. Overall, the national policy statements will contribute hugely to having a more robust process, and I will certainly vote in favour of them this evening. 6.26 pm Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/ Co-op): I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this debate. I served for a short time on the Energy and Climate Change Committee before being moved on to other things. As the Minister and the shadow Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), made clear in their opening remarks, the policy statements are important, and it is crucial that we have the opportunity to debate them—I hope that we will have more opportunity to debate them than the short time that is available this evening. Bearing in mind that several Government Members want to speak, I will try to curtail my remarks to less than seven minutes, if possible. As the Minister has said, policy statements are crucial to energy security, our capacity and our ageing plant, which needs to be replaced. As the hon. Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) said, they are crucial to investment, which can create and sustain jobs in the industry and the supply chain—I know that many Members on both sides of the House have a definite interest in that. I will not repeat the issues with Sheffield Forgemasters, other than to say that it is a crying shame that opportunities to develop, nurture and create jobs and skills will be enjoyed by other parts of the world, when we are focused on trying—in the words of the Prime Minister—to “rebalance the economy”. I want to touch on a couple of issues, to which I hope the Minister will respond. Many Members are more than aware of the huge frustration at the time it takes to move an infrastructure project from planning to building and to being ready for use—the clock is, as we all know, ticking. The previous Government looked to address that frustration through the Infrastructure Planning Commission. There are concerns that by choosing a different route—by making the IPC part of the Planning Inspectorate—the Government might be subjecting the certainty that investors need to further delays. In moving to that model, I hope that some reassurance will be given that delays will not result in investment decisions not being taken or in investment being taken elsewhere. That is absolutely crucial. The Minister knows from our discussions that I welcome the Government’s commitment to carbon capture and storage and to the pilot project at Longannet. That is the right project, given the speed with which existing coal technology can be retrofitted and be up and running.

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As my hon. Friend the Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) said in an intervention, it is also important that gas forms part of future carbon capture and storage projects. I have heard the Minister refer to that, but I would be grateful if he reaffirmed it and gave further information. Otherwise, we will miss out on technology that can be developed, tested and used in this country, which goes back to my earlier point about some of the jobs and skills that can be nurtured in this country but exported elsewhere. When the Prime Minister and others go off to China, India and other parts of the world evangelising for UK manufacturing industry, there is potential for jobs to be created in the whole of the UK, not only in one part. That can help to join up the parts of the policy agenda. I want to touch on some of the issues of electricity market reform. I know that I am getting a reputation for being able to bore on about transmission charging for ever, but I have about two minutes, so I will bore on about it briefly. As the Minister will be aware, there is considerable concern in some parts of the industry that investment decisions are being limited by the current transmission charging regime. Although the Ofgem review is being conducted—I welcome Ofgem’s recent change in stance—we have to be absolutely clear that as the electricity markets are reformed the transmission charging regime changes too. It was designed primarily for the pre-renewables world and is not serving our interests in achieving our overall targets for reducing carbon. There is potential for that industry to develop, partly, but not entirely, in Scotland, where investors could be put off making a number of decisions on projects as a result of the current transmission charging regime. There has been a lot of talk about the importance of the green investment bank. The idea originated under the previous Government and has been carried forward under this Government. It is crucial that we get the model right. It has to be about levering in green investment on a certain scale if it is to have any positive impact. I use my last few seconds to reiterate my plea to the Secretary of State for Scotland—which he seemed to begin to agree with—that the green investment bank be based in Scotland, given the industry and the expertise that is there. 6.32 pm Sarah Newton (Truro and Falmouth) (Con): I am pleased to be called to speak in this important debate. Like many MPs, I believe that the first responsibility of any Government is the security of its citizens, and I take that responsibility very seriously. Securing our energy supplies is vital for the well-being and prosperity of the people who sent us here to represent them. The failure of the previous Government to invest, despite the so-called boom years and their great appetite for spending other people’s money, has led to our being far too dependent on imports to supply our national energy needs. Why? As we are discovering from so many other areas of policy that we have inherited, the reason is the previous Government’s failure to fix the roof while the sun was shining. There has been a lack of coherent and consistent policy to enable the UK to have a secure energy supply. Like any industry, the providers of energy need a clear and timely planning process, and the national policy statements are a step in the right direction. Along

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with proposals that we anticipate in the localism Bill, they will create the right processes that will enable the development of sustainable and secure energy supplies for the UK. I believe that the new policies should provide an efficient and democratically accountable system, and a fast-track process for major infrastructure projects. There is no doubt that there is an urgent need for a new energy structure in the UK. In developing that structure, the right balance must be struck between consenting to and building new energy infrastructure and the importance of protecting our environment and the quality of life for those who live in the communities where that important infrastructure is located. Jacob Rees-Mogg (North East Somerset) (Con): I wonder whether my hon. Friend might also emphasise the great importance of ensuring that energy is affordable for the poorest people in the country. There are some high-falutin’ ideas that seem to add cost for consumers, and they should be opposed. Sarah Newton: I very much agree. Far too many people in constituencies such as my hon. Friend’s and mine, especially in rural areas, are living in real fuel poverty and enduring the hardship associated with high energy bills. In establishing the right balance between environmental protection and the need to build new infrastructure, my hon. Friend the Minister must take very seriously the points my hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) made about Natural England. Many of us up and down the country face the problems he described. I welcome in the draft statement the recognition of the important role that local authorities will play in the development and consideration of proposed major energy projects. The extent to which local authorities wish to be involved in the planning process has always been, and will continue to be, up to them, but the new regime is a significant improvement, giving local government statutory rights in the process and ensuring that its views are adequately taken into consideration. In addition, rather than imposing additional costs, there are potential savings for local government from the new regime, as shorter hearings and quicker decisions should ensure that in future local authorities do not incur the costs incurred now. As hon. Members will be aware, I represent a constituency in Cornwall, where we aspire to be world leaders in the new low carbon industrial revolution. As a result I have a particular interest in how the relevant parts of the NPS support the development of renewable energy. We are blessed with an abundance of natural resources that make us ideally situated to develop significant quantities of low carbon electricity to feed into the national grid. In the universities of Exeter and Plymouth and the Camborne school of mines, we have a world-leading knowledge base in renewable and sustainable energy. In local companies such as GeoScience and Kensa Engineering, we have pioneering and highly skilled engineering companies. The wave hub off Cornwall’s north coast is the first of its kind in Europe and it enables the testing of prototype wave and tide devices. We have great light for photovoltaics, an abundance of onshore wind and the hottest rocks in the UK. What we do not have is a national grid infrastructure able to take

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[Sarah Newton] the anticipated volumes of electricity that can be generated locally to be fed into the grid. I believe that the NPS will help to tackle that wholly unsatisfactory situation. Although I understand the Government’s reasons for feeling that there is no urgency about including technologies such as wave and tide in the NPS until large-scale commercially viable schemes have been developed, I urge the Minister to keep them in mind for the next round and subsequent revisions and, in the meantime, to do all he can to support that sector of renewable energy generation and to keep a watching brief on how the Marine Management Organisation handles its responsibilities. He will not be surprised to hear a similar plea from me for deep geothermal energy generation, which has the potential to contribute 5% of the UK’s electricity. That technology, which is tried and tested in other countries—often developed by UK engineers—is yet to receive the support it deserves from Government in this country. With my hon. Friend’s assistance, I hope to reverse that. Given the scale of the challenge ahead, it is vital that NPS is capable of being revised and updated, so that, as we learn more about new and emerging technologies and develop an evidence base for their capacity to deliver energy into the grid and to contribute to the Government’s aim of decarbonising electricity production, they are supported and given the chance that inclusion in the NPS will provide. 6.39 pm Andrew Percy (Brigg and Goole) (Con): It is a delight to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton), who spoke about the energy potential of the hot rocks of Cornwall. I shall say something about the energy potential of the East Riding of Yorkshire and north Lincolnshire, which it is my privilege to represent. My rocks may be a little colder, however. We already contribute significantly to the energy infrastructure of this country, not least through the power stations just outside my constituency and the constituency of my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis), at Drax and Eggborough, as well as through the coal-fired power station at Keadby in my constituency. There are also the potential opportunities that I raised with the Minister earlier with regard to offshore wind at the South Humber Gateway. I shall not mention in the presence of my neighbour, my right hon. Friend and the Member for Haltemprice and Howden, onshore wind turbines, as he and I are engaged in a number of skirmishes with various developers. I welcome today’s debate, which has ranged much broader than simply the national policy statements. We have gone into many wider areas of energy policy. The national policy statements will contribute to putting our energy policy on a much more secure footing, which we recognise is essential if we are to attract the necessary investment to keep the lights on in this country, as other Members have mentioned. I shall speak about two issues associated with the potential for offshore wind. I mentioned earlier the potential for clustering the manufacturing for offshore

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wind at the South Humber Gateway, which has been progressing somewhat slowly through the planning system, owing to similar problems to those mentioned by other Members in relation to Natural England. In fairness to both Natural England and the developers, I should say that there has been significant movement in recent days and we may well get agreement. The planning structure is a problem for us because the developers are looking at sites not just in the UK, but internationally. Unless we get that right, we risk losing a potentially huge amount of investment, in this case to other countries in Europe. I was pleased to hear the Minister talk about the review of overhead lines, which are another massive issue in my constituency. The national grid seems to criss-cross all over some beautiful Lincolnshire and east Yorkshire countryside. I shall follow the proceedings with interest. On the relationship between national policy statements and local councils, I echo some of the concerns expressed by the Energy and Climate Change Committee, which said: “We are concerned that the current status of the NPSs within the wider planning system is, at best, ambiguous.”

I note the Government’s response, which states that “the degree to which Government policy, including the policy in the NPS, or draft NPS, is relevant to any particular planning application . . . is not for Government to prescribe.”

They go on to say that they therefore do not believe that any additional guidance is necessary. I ask the Minister to reconsider that. Having served as a local councillor for 10 years, I know that it is an undeniable attraction to planning officers to look for leadership from national Government in local planning decisions. Could we have a clearer statement that the NPSs will not impact on local planning decisions and should not be used as an excuse? We saw regional spatial strategies often being drawn into planning applications, where they had no real role. The temptation is irresistible to many planning officers to look to national policy for guidance. Perhaps that can be considered in more detail when we debate national policy statements next year. I welcome the general direction of policy. The debate today has been interesting, with the Minister and the shadow Minister working on a consensual cross-party basis on many topics. That is significant on a subject that is so important to the country. I look forward to seeing the Minister at the South Humber Gateway shortly, and I thank him for that. 6.43 pm Dan Byles (North Warwickshire) (Con): I shall keep my remarks brief, as I am conscious of time. It is extremely important that we get energy policy right. It is right that the Department has reconsulted on it, rather than rushing ahead, as it might have done. If we get energy policy wrong, we will live with the consequences for decades to come. There is a huge infrastructure challenge. As has been mentioned, we need to replace about one third of our entire energy generating capacity in the next 10 years. All our nuclear power stations bar one will be off line by 2023, and we need to rebuild substantially, if not completely, our energy transmission infrastructure if

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we are to move towards a smart grid, which we will need to enable the 21st century energy infrastructure that we are trying to put in place to work. This huge infrastructure challenge translates into a huge investment challenge. Some £200 billion of investment is required in the coming years. To put that into context, I point out that it is approximately one third of the entire investment in energy infrastructure that the whole of Europe will require. EDF is looking at spending some £20 billion on what we hope will be the first of a new generation of nuclear power stations. That £20 billion represents the largest single investment by a French company outside France, I think ever, but certainly since the second world war. We need another nine just like that if we are to hit our £200 billion. At the risk of over-emphasising this issue, let me say that we absolutely have to get the investment climate right. We need to put in place a stable regulatory and investment climate that will give investors the confidence to invest staggering sums of money for 30 or 40-year timelines and beyond. The investment challenge here is probably the biggest single part of the issue that we are discussing today. I therefore strongly welcome the broad degree of cross-party consensus that we have on our emerging energy policy. Investors must have the confidence that we will not lurch from one energy policy in this country to another with potential changes of Government, but work together and put something in place that will give the confidence for 10, 20, 30, 40 years or more. That is all I want to say. It is a plea as much to those on the Opposition Front Bench as to those on the Government Front Bench. We must ensure that we put together an investment and regulatory regime that will not change, that will be stable and give the confidence that is necessary if we are to have the investment that we need. 6.46 pm Tessa Munt (Wells) (LD): I will return to my favourite subject of the electricity grid, particularly as it affects Somerset, Suffolk and the other areas that have been mentioned today. Electricity networks have a significant effect on the beauty and tranquillity of the countryside, and to date the industry has been guided by a set of principles called the Holford rules in routing new overhead lines. I particularly want to note that the second draft of the NPS on electricity networks proposes to weaken the standing of the Holford rules. The latest draft says only that decision makers “should bear them in mind”.

That is likely to mean that there will be no requirement on either the electricity companies to demonstrate that they have sought to avoid damaging impacts on important areas of landscape, or that the decision maker should base its evaluation for proposed overhead transmission line schemes on whether the Holford rules have been met. Neither does there seem to be an expectation that the mitigation measures suggested in EN-5, at paragraph 289, should be carried out for schemes where one or more of the Holford rules are not met. The effect of this will be seriously to weaken the protection of the countryside from unnecessary or intrusive energy infrastructure. The other minor points that I would like to make include the wording of several sections of the NPS where minor changes of wording could have major

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impacts. I will write to the Minister in detail about those if I may, but certainly there are paragraphs in EN-1 that relate to the historic environment where there is weakened protection for non-designated but still important heritage assets, and there are impacts on the visual landscape that relate to the regional economy departing from existing protections for nationally designated areas such as national parks or areas of outstanding national beauty. In addition, EN-1 also seems to advise applicants on how to circumvent green belt protection. Finally, I cannot reflect the comments that were made earlier, and I should like to be sure that there is some way in which local authorities can negotiate a realistic contribution from developers, especially, for example, for residents in my area, which will be providing a storage facility for nuclear waste on a temporary basis that I understand to be somewhere in excess of 100 years. 6.49 pm Charles Hendry: We have had a good debate. It has been brief, but it is part of the process, not the end, and there will be further opportunities to discuss the issues at length when the House returns in the new year. We have had a very good mix, involving national interest and a great tour of the energy opportunities horizon in the constituencies of many Members on both sides of the House. One of the most encouraging outcomes of the debate is the recognition that, throughout the country, people are looking at how we can generate electricity in a new way. Where are the new opportunities? The hot rocks in Cornwall and the cold rocks in Yorkshire—the great opportunities that we find around us—are something that we should truly celebrate as we look at the issue. The hon. Member for Ogmore (Huw Irranca-Davies), who speaks for the Opposition on these matters, talked about who should take the credit, Labour Ministers or Conservative Ministers? I do not think it should be any of us, because it should be our incredibly hard-working officials, who have done almost all the work in getting us to our current position and an outstandingly good job on a very complex set of documents. The hon. Gentleman talked about the delay. We wish that there had not been one, but we recognised that in the previous draft statement there was a flaw in the appraisal of sustainability, and we felt it right to re-interpret that in order to make it stronger and clearer. Because that was so fundamental and in the overarching national policy statement, it seemed right that we should re-consult on all the statements, and it has been absolutely the right way to take the matter forward. On the question of how the process will move forward, we have assumed that there will be a debate about the national policy statements overall and, at the end of the day, votes on the individual statements, but we do not anticipate the scope for hundreds of amendments to them. We have changed the previous Government’s decision that there would be no vote at all, because we believe it important that, as part of this democratic process, the House should have the chance to vote on them. The hon. Gentleman asked also about the role of localism. There is a difference between the nationally critical strategic infrastructure, which we deal with in the national policy statements, and the local agenda,

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[Charles Hendry] where we believe that local authorities should have significantly more power when deciding on the issues that come to them below the 50 MW. Of course, the views of local people, directly and through their local authorities, will be an integral part of individual planning applications, and they will be heard. I shall pick up on some of the other points that have been raised during the debate. My hon. Friend the Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Damian Collins) talked about Dungeness, and from our conversations and his consistent representations, I understand where he is coming from. We recognise that the development of a new nuclear power station at Dungeness would be a continued source of employment and bring economic benefits to the surrounding area, but the Government are obliged by law to consider adverse affects on the integrity of European-protected sites which might be caused by development and to consider alternative sites if those impacts cannot be mitigated. Dungeness is not on the NPS, because we have not yet been persuaded that a new nuclear power station could be built there without having adverse impacts on the integrity of the Dungeness special area of conservation, or that adverse impacts could be avoided or mitigated. The Dungeness SAC is the most important shingle site in Europe, so after careful consideration of the representations made so far our view that Dungeness should be excluded has not changed. The consultation is continuing, and, if additional evidence that changes that conclusion emerges in the course of the meeting that I will have with my hon. Friend and his local authority’s representatives, or in written submissions, we will take it into account. The hon. Member for Southampton, Test (Dr Whitehead), who speaks with such authority, raises several issues, but I shall focus on the role of gas. We see a need for gas, but part of the issue is that we have inherited a situation in which new nuclear cannot be built until the end of the decade, because its construction did not start earlier. Further, when it comes to the mass roll-out of renewables, we are third from bottom in the whole EU. We have great ambition but start from a long way behind. Carbon capture and storage on a major commercial scale cannot play a massive role until the end of the decade, although our ambitions for that are high. Gas will therefore have to be part of the process; that is the simple, practical reality. Gas-powered stations can be built quickly; gas requires lower capital expenditure than other technologies, so the write-off period is lower; and importantly it is flexible, so it can back up other, more inherently variable technologies. Of course, the issue of emissions will be critical. That is why we are taking forward the work on the carbon floor price and looking at emissions performance standards and the other measures that will be brought to bear, which investors will need to take into account as they make decisions on these critical investments. The time scale of that is now almost upon us. In the next few weeks, before Christmas, we will set out how the electricity market reform process will work. My hon. Friends took me on a fascinating tour of the country. We heard about the nuclear opportunities in Gloucester and the great training opportunities at the

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Barnwood EDF facility. My hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Richard Graham) is absolutely right to talk about the skills agenda and the supply chain opportunities that we are determined to realise. My hon. Friend the Member for Truro and Falmouth (Sarah Newton) focused on energy security and the issues surrounding the wave hub and deep geothermal resources. I look forward to visiting those facilities with her in due course. My hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) talked about the supply chain and his concerns about power lines, which we completely understand. My hon. Friend the Member for Wells (Tessa Munt) spoke about the Holford rules. We will reflect on the concerns that she expressed, but we must also have clarity about what benefit local areas will achieve from these new investments. That is at the heart of the localism Bill. Thinking about how local communities should benefit in terms of business rates and other direct benefits coming into their communities will completely transform the relationship between these facilities and the communities who host them. That will be an important element as we move forward. The hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Tom Greatrex) speaks with great authority on these issues, and the House benefits from his expertise. He is absolutely right that time is not on our side. The whole purpose of what we are trying to do is to remove the barriers to new investment in these areas. We are absolutely clear that there will be no public subsidy for new nuclear, but we must then remove the other potential barriers—the regulatory barriers—to ensure that that investment can go ahead. On carbon capture and storage, I can absolutely give him the assurance that we are looking to gas as part of the next projects. The market-sounding exercise showed a significant interest in gas, and we will therefore open up this competition to gas plants as well. The hon. Gentleman talked about EMR and the cost of transmission. We have to look at this in a new way. People will not build power plants if they do not believe that they can get their power to market. Historically, power plants were built in the coal centres or outside the big industrial centres; now, we are looking at new places for them to be built. We have to look at this afresh, and I am delighted with the work that Ofgem is doing to look at the best structure for the process. I will leave others to deal with the issue of the location of the green investment bank. Finally, I want to deal with some of the points made by the hon. Member for Ogmore. He mentioned “what if ?” scenarios. He was right to do that, but we are in that “what if ?” environment because of the situation that we inherited. After 13 years, we have to get £200 billion of new investment coming into the infrastructure. If more decisions had been made to take forward the role of nuclear and not to have the five-year moratorium, we would be significantly further advanced, and the challenging energy situation in the middle of this decade would not have applied in the same way. My hon. Friend the Member for North Warwickshire (Dan Byles) talked extremely clearly and effectively about the energy security needs that we have to address. It is possible that CCS may not work, or that the price may be too high, but if we do not push the process forward and take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities that we have in this country, we will

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always be followers and never be leaders. That is why we have been so keen to take forward that technology. The hon. Member for Ogmore suggested that decentralised energy may be unable to deliver as much as we hope, and he may be right. However, we are right to try to look at what can be done locally, although we are doing it against the backdrop of how much more should have been done historically. In the end, this all comes back to the broad portfolio of policies that we are putting forward—the need to have clarity on national planning issues, which is exactly what these documents are about, and the need to have clarity on the market structure that will exist. The hon. Gentleman talked almost as if EMR—the market reform process—was his own idea. Seven months ago, Labour Members were saying that there did not need to be a price on carbon, that there should not be an emissions performance standard, and that we did not need capacity payments. We are having to reinvent a market in order to take us forward and give us the security that we need. This is part of a package. I hope that he is in no doubt about our determination to achieve that and to drive it forward. Let me assure my hon. Friends, and all hon. Members that we totally understand everything that needs to be done to drive forward investment in this area. We will take nothing for granted. Our goal is to make this the most attractive place in the world in which to invest in new energy infrastructure. We are determined to do that and we look for consensus and partnership to take it forward. This debate has been a constructive and important part of that process. I hope we can conclude that we have had a good debate on these issues— 7 pm Motion lapsed (Standing Order No. 9(3)).

Business without Debate DELEGATED LEGISLATION Motion made, and Question put forthwith (Standing Order No. 118(6)), OFFICIAL STATISTICS That the draft Official Statistics Order 2010, which was laid before this House on 13 October, be approved.—(Mr Goodwill.)

Question agreed to.

Libel Law Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—(Mr Goodwill.) 7 pm Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con): If the world has a capital of free speech, it is Britain. If it has a centre of free speech, it is this Chamber, as you know well, Mr Speaker. Yet in the last few years, Britain has become a watchword for something else—the use of our libel law to suppress free speech. This is not an esoteric philosophical issue. Free speech is the mother of freedom of thought and freedom of thought is the mother of many virtues, including integrity, individualism and creativity. That is why Britain has a vigorous and successful tradition of high culture and science, as well as of democracy. As I will demonstrate, all those virtues of British culture have been suppressed, to a greater or lesser extent, by our libel law. As a Parliament, we have failed to defend one of our nation’s primary virtues—free speech. We have also failed in the duty to protect the weak and vulnerable from the rich and powerful. More often than not, it is the rich and powerful who use the libel laws to intimidate the less wealthy and the less powerful, as I shall demonstrate. Perhaps the best demonstration that English libel law has become a weapon of the rich and powerful is the extent to which they choose to use the English courts over any other option and over the courts of any other country. When Boris Berezovsky sued a Russian TV company, he did so not in Russia, where the deed occurred, but in England. Similarly, Roman Abramovich chose to sue an Italian newspaper not in Rome, but in London. In 2004, the Saudi billionaire, Khalid bin Mahfouz, launched a libel action against Rachel Ehrenfeld, the American author of “Funding Evil: How Terrorism Is Financed—and How to Stop It”. The book claimed that Mahfouz financed al-Qaeda. It was not published here, but it was available online. Mahfouz brought the case not in America or Saudi Arabia, but in Britain, and the court awarded him substantial damages. As a direct result, New York law was changed to prevent British judgments applying in the US and American national law is undergoing the same change. Those rich men each brought their cases under the English judicial system, rather than in the appropriate forum, because English libel law is complex, clumsy, expensive and draconian. It is 140 times more expensive to defend a libel case in England than in other European nations. As a result, it favours the wealthy man who has the most financial stamina and can afford the most expensive lawyers. Although libel tourism is not the most important weakness in English libel law, it is the starkest symptom of how unfair it can be, compared with every other jurisdiction in the modern world. Perhaps the best domestic example of this grotesquely expensive system is the Naomi Campbell case. A newspaper wrote about her drug problem. It was sued and lost on the grounds of breach of confidentiality. Although the story was true, the legal fees alone cost more than £1 million. How did all that come about? English libel law was largely developed centuries ago by English judges, as an alternative to duelling to protect the honour of gentlemen.

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[Mr David Davis] I am sure that no Member wants to see Hampstead heath littered with the bodies of dead journalists, but I am not sure how much of an improvement that new law was. It has been compounded with undoubtedly well intentioned European Union and European Court of Human Rights law, and we have ended up with dreadful unintended consequences. One of the most egregious consequences has been the rise of the so-called super-injunction, which bans any reporting of a case at all. The most extreme of those was the Trafigura case, which you will remember, Mr Speaker. Trafigura was accused of dumping toxic waste on the Ivory Coast, and for a while its lawyers secured a ban on the reporting even of questions in Parliament. In so doing, they overturned the absolute right to free speech fought for and won more than two centuries ago by John Wilkes. That is a suppression of free speech in this country that no one in the House should countenance or tolerate. There is worse yet: the crushing of free speech in science and medicine. Both those disciplines advance by conjecture and refutation, through the advancing of theories and the testing of them by experiment. Free dispute and unfettered argument are essential to that process. Yet we are witnessing, time and again, the use of English libel law by powerful commercial interests to suppress legitimate discussion of scientific fact and medical effectiveness. That is not entirely new. A famous member of this House, William Cobbett, was bankrupted by a lawsuit in 1797 after he pointed out that the practice of bleeding victims of yellow fever probably killed a number of them. He fled the lawsuit and the victims continued to be bled, and of course continued to die. In modern times, the starkest example was the thalidomide case. For some time, The Sunday Times was prevented from publishing articles alleging negligence in the manufacture and distribution of the drug, which, as Members will remember, caused terrible deformities in the children of women who took it in pregnancy. That judgment was eventually overruled, and the law was rebalanced slightly to favour free speech in the Contempt of Court Act 1981. Unfortunately, however, there are still actions by commercial companies and other vested interests to suppress criticism of medical products and practices. I shall give an example. Henrik Thomsen, a Danish radiologist, raised concerns that Omniscan, a drug used to enhance medical scanner images, was causing crippling pain and even death in a few patients. Despite the fact that medicine advances by a process of critical appraisal, the maker of the drug, GE Healthcare, sued him in the British courts, clearly in order to silence him. The suit has been resolved, but another medical specialist, the eminent cardiologist Peter Wilmshurst, has faced similar treatment. At a cardiology conference not in Britain but in Washington DC in 2007, he criticised a product made by an American company, NMT Medical, to deal with symptoms of hole-in-the-heart syndrome. NMT sued Mr Wilmshurst not in America but in the English courts. He courageously decided to fight the case, specifically to defend free speech. Time and again, commercial companies take such action to silence critics. The proper, responsible,

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scientific way of dealing with criticism in medicine is tousb present the data and confront the argument. Using the law to silence legitimate criticism is to put shareholder interest above public health and, sometimes, public safety. The best known case in England, of course, is that of Simon Singh, who essentially called some of the claims of chiropractors bogus. The British Chiropractic Association sued him and, after a protracted legal battle, lost. Nevertheless, he ended up hundreds of thousands of pounds out of pocket in addition to losing two years of his life—two years of stress, anxiety and the prospect of financial ruin. A less courageous man would have buckled, and indeed most do. That, of course, is the purpose: to intimidate critics out of saying anything, or to force a humiliating retraction, effectively gagging the press from reporting such criticism. The tactics used are carefully refined. They are known as “lawfare” and are designed to focus the financial intimidation on the individual who is least able to bear it. The most recent demonstration of that nasty tactic would be ludicrous—bordering on the farcical—were it not so serious in its wider implications. It involves a product, elegantly called “Boob Job”, sold at £125 a jar and produced by a company called Rodial. The Daily Mail sought the advice of a leading consultant plastic surgeon, Dr Dalia Nield, of the London Clinic. As one might expect, she questioned its effectiveness and suggested that if it had the physiological effects claimed for it by its producers, it might be dangerous. Rodial threatened Dr Nield with legal action. It has not threatened the Daily Mail, which carried her comments, because it has the resources to fight back, just Dr Nield, to get the maximum intimidation for the minimum risk. The proper response of any self-respecting company would be to publish the detailed composition of its product and the data supporting its claims, and engage experts to test those claims and carry out safety tests. That would be the approach of a respectable company, but I am afraid that Rodial has not taken such an approach—it has taken instead the approach of a charlatan and a bully. Of course, Rodial is not alone. When NMT threatened Peter Wilmshurst with a lawsuit, it did not threaten the BBC, which broadcast his comments, because the BBC can fight back. When the chiropractors sued Simon Singh, they did not sue The Guardian, which published his comments, because The Guardian can fight back. That is why it is called ″lawfare″—it is the deployment of judicial shock tactics against the most defenceless part of the opposition. It is a disgraceful tactic, and it should not be possible under any decently balanced judicial system. The effect of “lawfare” is to chill free speech in science, medicine and many other areas. In this age of the internet, that chilling effect does not stop at our borders. We should remember that English is the language of science. The impact of our dysfunctional laws will become more global as more corporations come to understand what they can do to use our laws to suppress criticism. Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab): I wanted to highlight the fact that “lawfare” operates not merely in science. My constituent, Hardeep Singh, has been battling for four years in the ludicrously named case of

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His Holiness v. Singh. He has been accused by a sex cult leader in the Sikh tradition of libel, and it has taken up four years of his life and thousands of pounds to defend his claim in a religious dispute that, in my view, is not able to be decided by the courts. Mr Davis: The hon. Lady is entirely right. I used science and medicine to demonstrate the starker effects of “lawfare”, but she has demonstrated one of the reasons why we debated the law on religious hatred: to allow unfettered discussion of religion, which is another great tradition of British democracy. I apologise to her constituent because I think of his case as Singh II, but it is just as important as the Singh case I cited, because both demonstrate only too clearly that we must get a grip on British libel law to prevent it damaging every aspect of our culture and tradition of free speech. That brings me to what we should do. Regrettably, there is no single, simple solution. This week is the first anniversary of the Libel Reform Campaign, which encompasses campaigning organisations such as PEN, Index on Censorship, Sense About Science and others. There are a variety of issues that we need to address. The cost of defending libel cases should be brought down. One step would be not to remove jury trial, but to introduce a tribunal process to deal with all but the most serious cases. The Minister might also care to tell us about his Green Paper—published a few weeks ago, I think—in which he talks about contingent fee arrangements and their possible reform, which might be another way of reducing costs. The law should focus on protecting individual reputation, without allowing heavy-handed commercial intimidation. One step towards that might be not to allow commercial companies above a certain size—in fact, really rather a small size—to bring such suits unless they can, in advance, demonstrate financial damage. The public interest defence—again, this is something that the hon. Lady will be interested in—is too vague and unhelpful to authors of legitimate criticism. A stronger and clearer defence than that provided by the so-called Reynolds defence should be instituted. In particular, there should be a broader definition of what constitutes fair comment. In the light of what I have said about scientific and medical concerns, such a definition should be designed to exclude scientific and medical dispute from the courts completely. There should be intelligent limits on what constitutes multiple publication. For a court case to be brought in Britain, a significant proportion—certainly more than 10%—of the publication should have been in Britain. As the House can see, there are many proposals—I have given only a short list—that need to be considered. I should like the Minister to confirm that the Government will be introducing a Bill in 2011; that he will consult Index on Censorship, PEN, Sense About Science and other campaigners before publishing it; and that the Government will correct this unintended and unwanted systemic failure in our judicial system. I shall finish by quoting the Appeal Court judges in the Simon Singh ruling. Speaking about the words used by Simon Singh in his criticism of the chiropractors, they said that his “opinion may be mistaken, but to allow the party which has been denounced…to compel its author to prove in court what he has asserted by way of argument is to invite the court to become an Orwellian ministry of truth.”

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The judges went on to quote Milton, writing about his visit to Italy, from 1683 to 1689: “I have sat among their learned men…and been counted happy to be born in such a place of philosophic freedom, as they supposed England was, while themselves did nothing but bemoan the servile condition into which learning among them was brought…that nothing had been there written now these many years but flattery and fustian. There it was…I found and visited the famous Galileo, grown old a prisoner of the Inquisition, for thinking in astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licensers thought.”

When the judges had finished quoting Milton, they said: “That is a pass to which we ought not to come again.”

I say to the Minister: it is a pass that the coalition Government ought not to allow to come again. To achieve that, we need clearly thought through and thorough reform of this bad law, to put free speech back at the pinnacle of public life in Britain. 7.18 pm The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Jonathan Djanogly): I am grateful to my right hon. Friend the Member for Haltemprice and Howden (Mr Davis) for securing today’s debate on such an important and contemporary issue. Let me start by confirming that the Government are firmly committed to reviewing the law on defamation in order to protect free speech, and that is reflected in our coalition agreement. My noble Friend Lord McNally confirmed that commitment in July by announcing on behalf of the Government that we will publish a draft defamation Bill for consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny in the first Session of this Parliament, with a view to introducing a substantive Bill as soon thereafter as parliamentary time allows. Our core aim in reviewing the law is to ensure that responsible journalism, academic and scientific debate and the valuable work of non-governmental organisations are properly protected, and that a fair balance is struck between freedom of expression and the protection of reputation. We want to ensure that the right balance is achieved, so that people who have been defamed are able to take action to protect their reputation where appropriate, but that free speech is not unjustifiably impeded. Ensuring that the right balance is struck is a difficult and sensitive exercise. It raises complex issues on which a wide range of differing views are likely to be held. In recognition of that, I can confirm to my right hon. Friend that we believe that any reform proposals will need to be the subject of extensive consultation, and that publication of a draft Bill for pre-legislative scrutiny, together with a full public consultation, represents the most effective approach to achieving substantive provisions that focus on core issues of concern where legislation can make a real difference. Since Lord McNally’s announcement, the Ministry of Justice held informal discussions with a range of people and organisations with an interest in defamation law to ensure that their views are taken into account. These included: non-governmental organisations and libel reform campaigners; claimant representatives and members of the legal profession; representatives of the media and the publishing industry; internet service providers and other internet-based organisations; and

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[Mr Jonathan Djanogly] representatives of the science community. I can confirm to my right hon. Friend that they included, as he requested, Index on Censorship, PEN and Sense About Science. My right hon. Friend featured the position of the science community very strongly in his remarks. It would be inappropriate for me to comment on many of the cases that he mentioned, given that proceedings are pending. I can confirm, however, that we are very much aware of the concerns about the harmful impact that the current law is having on scientific debate. The case of Simon Singh and his brave stand for his beliefs have been widely reported, and I was pleased to hear his position being clearly explained this evening by his MP, the hon. Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart). We want to ensure that any provisions that we introduce will help to address those concerns and enable robust scientific and academic debate to flourish without being hampered by the threat of libel proceedings. The discussions that we held were extremely helpful in identifying areas in which concerns exist and the possible approaches to tackling the difficulties that arise with the current law. We have also had the benefit of being able to consider the range of issues raised in the private Member’s Bill on defamation that was introduced earlier in the year by Lord Lester of Herne Hill. That Bill was also the subject of a debate called by my hon. Friend the Member for Maldon (Mr Whittingdale) in Westminster Hall in July this year on behalf of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, which he chairs. It is good to see him here this evening. It is not possible for me to indicate today precisely what provisions might be included in the Government’s draft Bill on defamation. However, a range of issues have been the subject of much discussion and debate over recent months, and I can confirm that we are giving careful consideration to them, to assess whether it is appropriate to include provisions in the draft Bill. They include the need for a statutory defence relating to the public interest and responsible journalism. Concerns have been expressed by non-governmental organisations, the scientific community and others that there is a lack of certainty over how the common law defence established in Reynolds v. Times Newspapers applies outside the context of mainstream journalism, and that this creates a chilling effect on freedom of expression and investigative reporting. This is a complex area of the law, and we are considering whether and how a statutory defence could be framed in a way that is beneficial and appropriate for a range of different contexts. We are also considering libel tourism. My right hon. Friend gave various examples of that. There is a widespread perception that the English courts have become the forum of choice for those who wish to sue for libel, and that that is having a chilling effect on freedom of expression. I have to say to him, however, that there are mixed views over the extent to which libel tourism is a real problem. Research conducted in the context of the libel working group’s consideration of this issue did not show a significant number of actual cases involving foreign litigants in the High Court in 2009. However, non-governmental organisations have indicated that a major problem arises from the threat of libel proceedings by wealthy foreigners and public figures, which is used

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to stifle investigative journalism, regardless of whether actual cases are subsequently brought—hence the fact that the number of cases alone might not accurately reflect the extent of the problem. We are considering possible options carefully in reaching a decision on the way forward, including the proposal of the Ministry of Justice libel working group for procedural steps to tighten the rules and practice in order to head off inappropriate claims at the earliest possible stage, in cases where court permission is required to serve a defamation claim outside England and Wales. In doing so, we are of course keeping in mind the fact that there is relevant European legislation—in particular the Brussels I regulation—on jurisdictional matters. We are also considering the difficulties caused by the “multiple publication rule”—whereby each publication of defamatory material gives rise to a separate cause of action subject to its own limitation period—in relation to online material. The effect of the rule is that publishers are potentially liable for any defamatory material published by them and accessed online. That applies however long after the initial publication the material is accessed, and whether or not proceedings have already been brought in relation to the initial publication. We are considering how we could frame a single publication rule to remove the current threat of open-ended liability. We are also considering a range of other aspects of the law. They include the possible need for provisions on renaming and codifying the existing defences of justification and fair comment; on the basis on which an action for defamation can be brought and whether it should be necessary for claimants to show that they have suffered substantial harm; on the ability of corporations to bring defamation actions; on trial by jury; on defamation in the context of internet publication; and on issues relating to absolute and qualified privilege. There is much ground to cover My right hon. Friend asked about the use of superinjunctions. I can tell him that the Master of the Rolls has set up a committee to examine their use. We look forward to seeing the outcome of its work soon. We are pressing ahead with our work to ensure that publication of the draft Bill and the accompanying consultation paper takes place on as timely a basis as possible in the new year. As well as considering the substantive law, we are determined to ensure that costs in all civil proceedings, including defamation, are proportionate. In that context, the Secretary of State for Justice announced to the House on 15 November that the Government were consulting on proposals for reform of civil litigation funding and costs in England and Wales. We are seeking views on the implementation of a package of recommendations made by Lord Justice Jackson in his “Review of Civil Litigation Costs”. The Government are grateful for Sir Rupert Jackson’s report, in which he argues cogently that the costs of civil litigation are too high and are often disproportionate to the sums at issue. I also accept his fundamental argument that achieving proportionate costs and promoting access to justice go hand in hand. The key proposal on which we are consulting is the one to abolish recoverability of success fees and “after the event” insurance premiums under conditional fee agreements. Defendants who lose their cases are currently liable for those additional costs, which are often substantial. Abolishing recoverability would mean that claimants

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had to pay their lawyers’ success fees, and would therefore take an interest in the costs being incurred on their behalf. It is clear that if the current situation continues, and claimants continue to have no interest in the legal costs of their own lawyer if they win or in those of the defendant’s lawyer if they lose, the “have a go” compensation culture can only grow. As well as consulting on that key proposal for reform of CFAs, we are seeking views on implementing a package of Sir Rupert’s recommendations that balances measures for defendants with measures affecting claimants. They include introducing qualified one-way cost shifting, increasing general damages by 10%, strengthening part 36 arrangements, which encourage parties to make and accept reasonable offers, and allowing damages-based agreements in civil litigation, otherwise known as contingency fees. It is hoped that the proposals will result overall in more proportionate costs in all civil proceedings including defamation, while enabling those

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who need access to justice to obtain it. The consultation on reform of civil litigation funding and costs closes on 14 February 2011, and in due course the Government will publish a response setting out the next steps. I hope that I have reassured my right hon. Friend and other colleagues that we are taking focused and proportionate action that takes account of many of the issues involved. I believe that it is very important to ensure that the law achieves a fair balance between freedom of expression and the protection of reputation, and that steps are taken to bring the cost of proceedings under control. I thank my right hon. Friend again for the valuable contribution to the ongoing debate on these issues that he has made today. Question put and agreed to. 7.29 pm House adjourned.

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Deferred Division CONSTITUTIONAL LAW That the draft Scottish Parliament (Elections etc.) Order 2010, which was laid before this House on 25 October, be approved.

The House divided: Ayes 317, Noes 212. Division No. 135] AYES Adams, Nigel Afriyie, Adam Aldous, Peter Alexander, rh Danny Amess, Mr David Andrew, Stuart Arbuthnot, rh Mr James Bacon, Mr Richard Bagshawe, Ms Louise Baker, Steve Baldry, Tony Baldwin, Harriett Barclay, Stephen Barker, Gregory Barwell, Gavin Bebb, Guto Beith, rh Sir Alan Benyon, Richard Beresford, Sir Paul Berry, Jake Bingham, Andrew Blackman, Bob Blackwood, Nicola Blunt, Mr Crispin Boles, Nick Bottomley, Peter Bradley, Karen Brady, Mr Graham Brake, Tom Bray, Angie Bridgen, Andrew Brokenshire, James Brooke, Annette Browne, Mr Jeremy Bruce, Fiona Buckland, Mr Robert Burley, Mr Aidan Burns, Conor Burrowes, Mr David Burstow, Paul Burt, Lorely Byles, Dan Cable, rh Vince Cairns, Alun Cameron, rh Mr David Campbell, Mr Gregory Campbell, rh Sir Menzies Carmichael, Mr Alistair Carmichael, Neil Carswell, Mr Douglas Clappison, Mr James Clark, rh Greg Clarke, rh Mr Kenneth Clifton-Brown, Geoffrey Coffey, Dr Thérèse Collins, Damian Colvile, Oliver Cox, Mr Geoffrey Crabb, Stephen Crockart, Mike Crouch, Tracey

Davey, Mr Edward Davies, David T. C. (Monmouth) Davies, Glyn Davies, Philip Davis, rh Mr David de Bois, Nick Dinenage, Caroline Djanogly, Mr Jonathan Dodds, rh Mr Nigel Dorrell, rh Mr Stephen Dorries, Nadine Doyle-Price, Jackie Drax, Richard Duddridge, James Dunne, Mr Philip Ellis, Michael Ellison, Jane Ellwood, Mr Tobias Elphicke, Charlie Evans, Graham Evans, Jonathan Evennett, Mr David Fabricant, Michael Fallon, Michael Farron, Tim Field, Mr Mark Foster, Mr Don Fox, rh Dr Liam Francois, rh Mr Mark Freeman, George Fullbrook, Lorraine Fuller, Richard Gale, Mr Roger Garnier, Mr Edward Garnier, Mark Gauke, Mr David George, Andrew Gibb, Mr Nick Gilbert, Stephen Gillan, rh Mrs Cheryl Glen, John Goldsmith, Zac Goodwill, Mr Robert Gove, rh Michael Graham, Richard Grant, Mrs Helen Gray, Mr James Grayling, rh Chris Green, Damian Greening, Justine Grieve, rh Mr Dominic Griffiths, Andrew Gummer, Ben Hague, rh Mr William Halfon, Robert Hames, Duncan Hammond, rh Mr Philip Hammond, Stephen Hancock, Matthew Hands, Greg

Deferred Division

Harper, Mr Mark Harrington, Richard Harris, Rebecca Hart, Simon Haselhurst, rh Sir Alan Heald, Mr Oliver Heath, Mr David Heaton-Harris, Chris Hemming, John Henderson, Gordon Hendry, Charles Herbert, rh Nick Hermon, Lady Hinds, Damian Hollingbery, George Hollobone, Mr Philip Holloway, Mr Adam Hopkins, Kris Horwood, Martin Howarth, Mr Gerald Howell, John Hughes, Simon Huhne, rh Chris Hunter, Mark Huppert, Dr Julian Hurd, Mr Nick Jackson, Mr Stewart Jenkin, Mr Bernard Johnson, Gareth Johnson, Joseph Jones, Andrew Jones, Mr David Jones, Mr Marcus Kawczynski, Daniel Kelly, Chris Knight, rh Mr Greg Laing, Mrs Eleanor Lamb, Norman Lancaster, Mark Latham, Pauline Laws, rh Mr David Leadsom, Andrea Lee, Jessica Lee, Dr Phillip Leech, Mr John Lefroy, Jeremy Leslie, Charlotte Lewis, Brandon Lewis, Dr Julian Lilley, rh Mr Peter Lloyd, Stephen Long, Naomi Lopresti, Jack Lord, Jonathan Loughton, Tim Luff, Peter Lumley, Karen Macleod, Mary Main, Mrs Anne Maude, rh Mr Francis May, rh Mrs Theresa Maynard, Paul McCartney, Jason McCartney, Karl McLoughlin, rh Mr Patrick McPartland, Stephen McVey, Esther Menzies, Mark Mercer, Patrick Miller, Maria Mills, Nigel Milton, Anne

Mitchell, rh Mr Andrew Moore, rh Michael Mordaunt, Penny Morgan, Nicky Morris, Anne Marie Morris, David Morris, James Mosley, Stephen Mowat, David Mulholland, Greg Mundell, rh David Munt, Tessa Murray, Sheryll Murrison, Dr Andrew Neill, Robert Newmark, Mr Brooks Newton, Sarah Nokes, Caroline Norman, Jesse Nuttall, Mr David O’Brien, Mr Stephen Offord, Mr Matthew Ollerenshaw, Eric Opperman, Guy Osborne, rh Mr George Ottaway, Richard Paice, Mr James Paisley, Ian Patel, Priti Paterson, rh Mr Owen Pawsey, Mark Penning, Mike Penrose, John Percy, Andrew Perry, Claire Pincher, Christopher Poulter, Dr Daniel Pritchard, Mark Pugh, Dr John Raab, Mr Dominic Randall, rh Mr John Redwood, rh Mr John Rees-Mogg, Jacob Reid, Mr Alan Rifkind, rh Sir Malcolm Robertson, Mr Laurence Rogerson, Dan Rosindell, Andrew Ruffley, Mr David Russell, Bob Rutley, David Sanders, Mr Adrian Sandys, Laura Scott, Mr Lee Selous, Andrew Shannon, Jim Shapps, rh Grant Sharma, Alok Shelbrooke, Alec Shepherd, Mr Richard Simmonds, Mark Simpson, David Simpson, Mr Keith Skidmore, Chris Smith, Miss Chloe Smith, Henry Smith, Julian Smith, Sir Robert Soames, Nicholas Soubry, Anna Spelman, rh Mrs Caroline Stanley, rh Sir John

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Deferred Division

Stephenson, Andrew Stevenson, John Stewart, Bob Stewart, Iain Stewart, Rory Streeter, Mr Gary Stride, Mel Stuart, Mr Graham Stunell, Andrew Sturdy, Julian Swales, Ian Swayne, Mr Desmond Swinson, Jo Swire, Mr Hugo Syms, Mr Robert Teather, Sarah Thurso, John Timpson, Mr Edward Tomlinson, Justin Tredinnick, David Truss, Elizabeth Turner, Mr Andrew Tyrie, Mr Andrew Uppal, Paul Vaizey, Mr Edward Vara, Mr Shailesh

1 DECEMBER 2010

Vickers, Martin Villiers, rh Mrs Theresa Walker, Mr Charles Walker, Mr Robin Wallace, Mr Ben Watkinson, Angela Weatherley, Mike Webb, Steve Wharton, James Wheeler, Heather White, Chris Whittaker, Craig Whittingdale, Mr John Wiggin, Bill Willetts, rh Mr David Williams, Mr Mark Williams, Roger Williams, Stephen Williamson, Gavin Willott, Jenny Wilson, Mr Rob Wollaston, Dr Sarah Wright, Jeremy Wright, Simon Young, rh Sir George Zahawi, Nadhim

NOES Abbott, Ms Diane Ainsworth, rh Mr Bob Alexander, rh Mr Douglas Alexander, Heidi Ali, Rushanara Austin, Ian Bain, Mr William Banks, Gordon Barron, rh Mr Kevin Bayley, Hugh Begg, Miss Anne Bell, Sir Stuart Benn, rh Hilary Berger, Luciana Blackman-Woods, Roberta Blears, rh Hazel Blenkinsop, Tom Blomfield, Paul Blunkett, rh Mr David Bradshaw, rh Mr Ben Brennan, Kevin Brown, Lyn Brown, rh Mr Nicholas Brown, Mr Russell Burden, Richard Burnham, rh Andy Byrne, rh Mr Liam Cairns, David Campbell, Mr Alan Campbell, Mr Ronnie Caton, Martin Chapman, Mrs Jenny Clark, Katy Clarke, rh Mr Tom Clwyd, rh Ann Coaker, Vernon Coffey, Ann Cooper, Rosie Crausby, Mr David Creagh, Mary Cruddas, Jon

Cunningham, Alex Cunningham, Mr Jim Cunningham, Tony Curran, Margaret Dakin, Nic Danczuk, Simon Darling, rh Mr Alistair Davidson, Mr Ian Davies, Geraint De Piero, Gloria Denham, rh Mr John Dobson, rh Frank Donohoe, Mr Brian H. Doran, Mr Frank Doyle, Gemma Dromey, Jack Dugher, Michael Durkan, Mark Eagle, Ms Angela Eagle, Maria Edwards, Jonathan Efford, Clive Ellman, Mrs Louise Engel, Natascha Esterson, Bill Evans, Chris Fitzpatrick, Jim Flint, rh Caroline Fovargue, Yvonne Francis, Dr Hywel Gapes, Mike Gardiner, Barry Gilmore, Sheila Glass, Pat Goggins, rh Paul Goodman, Helen Greatrex, Tom Green, Kate Greenwood, Lilian Griffith, Nia

Deferred Division

Gwynne, Andrew Hain, rh Mr Peter Hamilton, Mr David Hanson, rh Mr David Harris, Mr Tom Healey, rh John Hendrick, Mark Hepburn, Mr Stephen Heyes, David Hillier, Meg Hilling, Julie Hodge, rh Margaret Hodgson, Mrs Sharon Hosie, Stewart Howarth, rh Mr George Hunt, Tristram Illsley, Mr Eric James, Mrs Siân C. Jamieson, Cathy Johnson, rh Alan Johnson, Diana Jones, Graham Jones, Helen Jones, Mr Kevan Jones, Susan Elan Jowell, rh Tessa Joyce, Eric Keeley, Barbara Keen, Alan Kendall, Liz Khan, rh Sadiq Lammy, rh Mr David Lavery, Ian Lazarowicz, Mark Leslie, Chris Lewis, Mr Ivan Lloyd, Tony Llwyd, Mr Elfyn Love, Mr Andrew Lucas, Caroline Lucas, Ian MacNeil, Mr Angus Brendan Mactaggart, Fiona Mahmood, Mr Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mann, John Marsden, Mr Gordon McCabe, Steve McCarthy, Kerry McClymont, Gregg McDonagh, Siobhain McDonnell, Dr Alasdair McFadden, rh Mr Pat McGovern, Alison McGovern, Jim McGuire, rh Mrs Anne McKechin, Ann McKinnell, Catherine Mearns, Ian Michael, rh Alun Miller, Andrew Moon, Mrs Madeleine Morrice, Graeme (Livingston) Morris, Grahame M. (Easington) Mudie, Mr George

Munn, Meg Murphy, rh Mr Jim Murphy, rh Paul Murray, Ian Nandy, Lisa Nash, Pamela O’Donnell, Fiona Onwurah, Chi Owen, Albert Pearce, Teresa Perkins, Toby Pound, Stephen Qureshi, Yasmin Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Jonathan Riordan, Mrs Linda Robertson, Angus Robertson, John Robinson, Mr Geoffrey Rotheram, Steve Roy, Mr Frank Roy, Lindsay Ruane, Chris Ruddock, rh Joan Sarwar, Anas Seabeck, Alison Sharma, Mr Virendra Sheerman, Mr Barry Sheridan, Jim Shuker, Gavin Singh, Mr Marsha Skinner, Mr Dennis Slaughter, Mr Andy Smith, rh Mr Andrew Smith, Angela Smith, Nick Soulsby, Sir Peter Spellar, rh Mr John Stringer, Graham Stuart, Ms Gisela Sutcliffe, Mr Gerry Thomas, Mr Gareth Thornberry, Emily Timms, rh Stephen Trickett, Jon Turner, Karl Twigg, Derek Twigg, Stephen Umunna, Mr Chuka Vaz, rh Keith Vaz, Valerie Walley, Joan Watson, Mr Tom Watts, Mr Dave Whiteford, Dr Eilidh Whitehead, Dr Alan Williams, Hywel Williamson, Chris Wilson, Phil Wilson, Sammy Winnick, Mr David Winterton, rh Ms Rosie Wishart, Pete Woodward, rh Mr Shaun Wright, David Wright, Mr Iain

Question accordingly agreed to.

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Westminster Hall Wednesday 1 December 2010 [MR JAMES GRAY in the Chair]

Candour in Health Care Motion made, and Question proposed, That the sitting be now adjourned.—(Jeremy Wright.) 9.30 am Mr Robert Syms (Poole) (Con): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. I start with an apology: I cannot possibly do justice in this debate to all those who have suffered as a result of mistakes made by the national health service. I know that a lot of people are paying attention to this debate, and I will do my best to make the case for a duty of candour in health care, particularly a statutory duty. That would be progress. In the House, if an hon. Member makes a mistake, however outrageous, everybody thinks that it is fair enough as long as they apologise quickly. I want to put forward the arguments for why honesty is the best policy and why it is best to acknowledge that mistakes are made in medicine and in the health service. That is part of the medical process. If people inform relatives, put their hands up and say, “We made a mistake”, that is a far better way to proceed than what seems to have happened in the past. I would like to thank Peter Walsh from Action against Medical Accidents for assisting me as I prepared for this debate. Over the next few weeks, Ministers are due to decide on their preferred option for honouring a commitment to require openness when things go wrong in health care. During the 2010 general election, the Liberal Democrat manifesto stated: “We will: require hospitals to be open about mistakes, and always tell patients if something has gone wrong.”

I do not often quote from the Liberal Democrat manifesto, but it is probably important to do so under current circumstances and the coalition. That pledge was also included in the coalition programme for government: “We will enable patients to rate hospitals and doctors according to the quality of care they received, and we will require hospitals to be open about mistakes and always tell patients if something has gone wrong.”

That has clearly been lifted from the Liberal Democrat manifesto. The White Paper, “Liberating the NHS”, stated: “We will enable patients to rate hospitals and doctors according to the quality of care they received, and we will require hospitals to be open about mistakes and always tell patients if something has gone wrong.”

That shows consistency running from the original Liberal Democrat manifesto to the coalition programme for government and the White Paper produced by the Department of Health. Those commitments have been widely interpreted and welcomed as going some way towards the introduction of a statutory duty of candour in health care. Such a move has been advocated for many years by patient groups and others, including the ex-chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson. Recently, Ministers have made it

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clear that as well as the possible introduction of an explicit statutory duty of candour, they are also considering not altering or adding to the statutory regulations, but merely issuing new or refreshed guidance to existing regulations contained in the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. It is implied that that is more likely to be the favoured option because there is an extreme reluctance to add or alter statutory regulation. I will speak about those two options, with a view to encouraging support for the introduction of a statutory duty of candour. Action against Medical Accidents has campaigned on that matter for a number of years, and representatives from that charity met with a Health Minister to try to put forward their case about the right way to proceed. Put simply, the situation is unacceptable. It comes as a shock to most people, particularly patients and members of the public, to know that health care organisations are in breach of no rules and will face no sanctions if they cover something up or decide not to inform a patient—or, in the case of a fatality, their relatives—that something went wrong during an operation or health care. Probably more by accident than design, the current system tolerates cover-ups and denials. People ask how that can happen in a modern, ethical health service, and the vast majority of people would agree that honesty with patients and their relatives is a moral and ethical requirement. There is an abundance of guidance on the issue, and best practice dictates that honesty, or being open, is the only course of action. We know that there are a million incidents in the national health service each year, about half of which cause some harm. Within those cases, there are many serious incidents, so it is a large problem. When something goes wrong, most people want someone to explain what happened to their relative, mother, father or daughter. In part, such behaviour is part of the professional code for individual doctors and nurses, and is recognised as a central component of an open and fair patient safety culture. However, the failure to be open and honest when things go wrong is not uncommon. Although many trusts or PCTs do act openly, a significant minority tell patients nothing. Something must be done to provide parents and relatives with a flow of information and an honest approach. Patients and their families are unfairly denied crucial information about what happened during their health care procedure, and they may never learn the truth. If they do, they are often deeply traumatised by the initial dishonest response to something going wrong. It is not unusual to find people who have spent decades campaigning under difficult circumstances to find out what happened to one of their relatives. If patients suspect that something has gone wrong but have to fight to get the truth, they lose all confidence in the health care system and are more likely to take legal and disciplinary action. The NHS and health care organisations have failed to develop a learning culture and the ability to learn from errors and make things safer. Instead, they have developed a culture of defence or denial; they do not want to see themselves in the newspapers. The situation in England became even worse when the previous Government introduced the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009, which came

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[Mr Robert Syms] into force in April 2010. That introduced a statutory requirement on health care organisations to report anonymously incidents that caused harm to the national incident reporting system. However, it did not include an equal requirement on the organisation to inform the patient or their relatives. Therefore, an organisation is not currently in breach of the regulations if it covers up an incident from patients or relatives. It may be bad practice, but there is no real sanction as long as it sends an anonymous report to the system. An organisation will be ticked off if it does not send a report for the purposes of national measurement, but it will not be ticked off it fails to be open and honest with a patient or their relatives. Let me draw the Chamber’s attention to a document produced by Action against Medical Accidents entitled “The need for a statutory duty of candour in healthcare.” It is a good article for those who want to look at the more detailed requirements involved. I pay tribute to my constituents, Derek and Joan Bye. As MPs, we deal with many constituents, but Mr and Mrs Bye have had to put up with a horror story following the death of their daughter, Helenor Bye, who died on 27 April 1978 in south Wales. There was a catalogue of medical errors. The parents were lied to, records were altered and their MP, John Morris, then the right hon. Member for Aberavon, held a debate in the House of Commons on 27 November 1979, volume 974, columns 1253-64. He called for a public inquiry, although that was turned down. The situation was compounded by the fact that body parts were taken from Helenor Bye, some of which have been returned over the years. The last time body parts were received by the parents was in 2005. They have been through the most horrific period because of what happened to their daughter, what happened subsequently and, more importantly, because all along the line they felt that they were being lied to and that people were not being open and honest. Mr and Mrs Bye have become doughty campaigners for a more honest and honourable system of health care. They have also campaigned on their concerns about the drug Epilim. I cannot do justice to that campaign today, but if any journalist wants to know what can go wrong, I advise them to look at the case of Mr and Mrs Bye. They have had a very rough time. Action against Medical Accidents calls for a change in the law and the introduction of a statutory duty of candour. It is called “Robbie’s law” because of the case of Robert Powell, who died on 17 April 1990, aged 10. His parents have campaigned for over 20 years to try and get justice. Similar things happened to them, such as changed medical records, and there was a catalogue of events, but they still do not feel that they have justice. Their campaign has continued under several Secretaries of State. The case is currently with the Welsh Assembly, and Mr and Mrs Powell are waiting to hear whether there will be a public inquiry into what happened to Robbie. Will Powell, who feels passionately about putting right what happened to his son and getting to the truth, has been a doughty campaigner for a long time. I pay tribute to him. All the people whom we are talking about are, in their own way, fighting for the truth, not only to find out what happened to their loved ones, but so that such

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things do not happen again to someone else. This debate is about setting out a context and a better way of doing things, so that we have a much more honest and honourable system and families do not have to spend 10, 20 or 30 years going through absolute hell. Mr Bye told me that the start of the healing process is learning the truth and knowing what has happened to one’s relative. That is a very important point. The Government have two options to consider. They can go for an explicit duty or for more guidance. Ministers often go down the guidance route. When the NHS constitution was being debated in the previous Parliament, the then hon. Member for Wyre Forest, Dr Richard Taylor, who served with me on the Health Committee, raised the issue of openness and whether we could go further down that route. He was informed by the then Minister of State, Mike O’Brien, “No, we can do it all through guidance,” yet guidance so far has not produced the results that we need. Department of Health officials met representatives of Action against Medical Accidents and other stakeholders on 16 November 2010, when the two options were discussed in some detail. I shall go through the pros and cons of both. Option 1 is no new statutory duty but refreshed guidance in respect of the existing CQC regulations. The pros of that are that it would require no new legislation or change in the regulations. Dr John Pugh (Southport) (LD): Is not the difficulty with guidance the fact that guidance is already in place and any other guidance would simply reiterate what it says? Clearly, guidance by itself is not doing the trick in this case. Mr Syms: The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point, because we have to change the whole culture of the national health service and I am not sure whether guidance will do that. An argument can be made that the existing CQC regulations, backed up by clearer guidance, could be interpreted as making it a requirement to be open. For example, regulation 17 has been cited. It says that service users should be provided with adequate information and support in relation to their care or treatment. The guidance could clarify that that includes telling them if something has gone wrong. However, one of the cons is that, as the hon. Member for Southport (Dr Pugh) said, that would be in effect no different from the current situation. Such guidance and the existing regulations already existed when the policy to introduce a requirement was agreed. They were clearly not seen as sufficient then. Given that the Department of Health was of the firm opinion previously that the existing regulations, even with the guidance alongside them, did not constitute a statutory duty to be open with patients when things go wrong—because at that stage they were not supporting a statutory duty—it is hard to see how that could be credible now. Such a measure would be unlikely to be enforceable. Lawyers would no doubt have a field day if, given the above, the CQC tried to impose sanctions on a trust based on such a tortuous and dubious interpretation when the opportunity to be clear and specific had not been taken. Even if such a measure were enforceable, the CQC would be unlikely to give it a high priority,

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given the number of clear statutory obligations already spelt out in the regulations themselves, rather than developed by supporting guidance. Option 1 would not have anything like the same impact as introducing a specific statutory duty, if it had any impact at all. The Department of Health would be trying to say, “This has always been the case, but we didn’t realise it and didn’t think it was important enough to make it clear.” That option would fail to deliver positive opportunities for sending a clear, unequivocal message about the importance of being open and would fail to support a major culture change. It would not deal with the bizarre situation whereby there has already been, since April 2010, a statutory obligation to report anonymously to the national incident reporting system patient safety incidents that cause harm, but there is no equal requirement to tell the patient or a relative. It would send the message that being open with patients is not important enough to justify a minor amendment to the regulations. Option 2, which I prefer and think should be given serious consideration by the Government, is to introduce a specific statutory duty by amending the existing CQC registration regulations. That would send a clear, unequivocal message about the importance of being open, which would support and underpin other initiatives to develop a more open and fair culture. It would be enforceable. The CQC has confirmed that it would be practical for it to enforce such a measure. Of course, it would be a condition of registration with the CQC. It would have real impact: boards and management could not escape noticing the change or recognising the need to comply. At the moment, even when doctors or nurses want to be open with patients, sometimes the management of PCTs or of hospitals are less keen. We must send a clear message so that the whole organisation undergoes a major culture change in how it deals with patients. Option 2 would balance out the existing statutory regulation where it is a statutory obligation to report anonymously patient safety incidents that cause harm but there is no equal requirement to tell the patient or a relative. It would not add to the regulatory burden on health care organisations, and I think that it would enjoy public confidence, which is a very important thing to have in this area. That option would be relatively easy to achieve. The con is that it would require a change in the regulations, so there would possibly be some legislation. In my opinion, option 2 is the best way to go. It is not something that is supported only by a few oddbods; such a change has the support of many people, including many senior people in the medical profession. I know that there are concerns about compensation and litigation, but the evidence from the United States, where many insurers now do insist on a more honest system, is that when people receive an apology, they are less likely to sue. When they find out what happened to their relative, they accept that mistakes are sometimes made and they are less likely to pursue lengthy and costly legal action. People are sometimes pushed into legal action by the sense of injustice that they feel when their relative has undergone harm or perhaps died in the course of treatment. They feel a sense of injustice and are then driven to take that action. Of course, many of the costs to the NHS are from the legal fees, not necessarily the money paid out in compensation.

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I shall go through a list of some of those who would support a statutory duty of candour. I have already mentioned Sir Liam Donaldson, the ex-chief medical officer, who formally recommended a statutory duty in 2003. Harry Cayton, chair of the Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence, has also supported such a duty. The late Claire Rayner, who was a doughty campaigner on behalf of patients, and a former nurse, supported it. Professor Aidan Halligan, the former deputy chief medical officer for England, who is currently chief of safety at Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust, is completely supportive of the proposal. There is also Sir Graeme Catto, the immediate past president of the General Medical Council; Sir Donald Irvine, a past president of the GMC; Sally Taber, director of Independent Healthcare Advisory Services; Cure the NHS; Patient Concern; and Sufferers of Iatrogenic Neglect. There is broad support in the LINks—local involvement networks—organisation for the view that what has been described is an important thing to do. In recent years, we have become aware of a major disaster at Stafford hospital. It has affected not one or two people, but hundreds of them. Of course, it has been the subject of much debate, many statements in the House and a lot of real concern, but had there been a statutory duty of candour, the management of Stafford hospital would not have been able to get away with the poor standards of treatment and nursing and the fact that many hundreds of people lost their lives. Such a duty is a very important and practical measure, and if the NHS is to mean anything to the people of this country, being open and honest with those who have suffered as a result of what are sometimes unavoidable accidents is the best way to proceed. There are clear benefits to introducing a statutory duty, and there is an historic opportunity in that regard. I listened to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State talking over the weekend about more transparency. Introducing such a duty would be a brave step, because all the advice from people in the Department of Health would be, “Careful, Minister. Don’t do anything that might have long-term costs.” However, in the modern age—an age of freedom of information, when thousands of documents appear on the internet—it is not unreasonable that a cornerstone of the NHS in this century should be that people are up-front and honest, and tell the truth when something goes wrong. Things inevitably do go wrong—not necessarily deliberately, but simply because that is the way of the world and medical science. People can then understand what has happened to their relatives. As my constituent Mr Bye said, “The start of the healing process after the loss of a loved one is to know the truth of what happened.” It is a very poor thing if Governments cannot tell the truth. One has to acknowledge that truth has not always been the essential component of the NHS that it should be. I propose that the Government give serious consideration to a statutory duty of candour, because that is the best protection for those who use the health service and for higher standards. The best protection is that all of us believe in honesty in public life. 9.50 am Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this morning, Mr Gray. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member

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[Tom Brake] for Poole (Mr Syms) on securing the debate and on lucidly and concisely setting out precisely why the Government should look carefully at a statutory duty of candour. I have not heard any effective arguments against it, but I will come on to some arguments from opponents. My hon. Friend set out why the duty would boost public confidence and he rightly pointed out that an apology—as we have probably all experienced—often, first, helps to secure closure for a family if a loved one has been involved in a tragic accident, and, secondly, can defuse a difficult situation that could end up in the courts for years afterwards. He has rightly set out the reasons why a duty of candour is a necessity. My hon. Friend started by quoting from the Liberal Democrat manifesto, and I would expect nothing less in the coalition, so there is no need for me, as a Liberal Democrat, to do so. He also mentioned that the proposal has been carried through to the coalition agreement and, subsequently, into the NHS White Paper, which— although it perhaps does not contain a proposal as specific as a duty of candour—certainly makes it clear that hospitals need to be open about mistakes and always tell patients if something has gone wrong. One development to which he did not refer was the fact that legal aid will no longer be available in cases of clinical negligence, which I hope the Minister will pick up on in her response. I wonder whether that will have an impact and whether that strengthens the case for a duty of candour. As I said in my opening remarks, there are opponents of a duty of candour. A briefing has been sent to Members by the Medical Protection Society, which is a “leading provider of comprehensive professional indemnity and expert advice to…health professionals around the world.”

The briefing states that the society is committed to promoting openness in health care and supports the principle in the NHS White Paper that hospitals should be open about mistakes and always tell patients if something has gone wrong. However, it goes on to say that the MPS strongly believes that a change in culture would be more effective than a statutory duty. However, I agree with Action against Medical Accidents, which also briefed me for the debate. It said that perhaps the MPS is missing the point: it is not a question of a duty of candour or a change in culture, as it is perfectly possible to have both. Indeed, the duty of candour is one way of supporting and underpinning a change of culture so that health care organisations are always open and honest with patients when things go wrong. The MPS says that it has been advocating that change in culture, and it is true that a number of organisations have been advocating it for the past 50 years or so, but the desired change has not happened. I am not sure how much longer one can wait for it. There is an issue about guidance and about how seriously organisations take guidance when they are statutorily required to do other things. There is always a risk that guidance gets left aside while organisations focus on statutory duties. As the MPS said, it is correct that there is a professional duty for doctors and nurses to be open with patients in the event of a mistake, but there is a wider issue about there being no statutory duty on all health care organisations to promote and support that practice in their organisations. As my hon.

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Friend the Member for Poole said, the medical professionals may want to be open but, unfortunately, they are being advised by managers, who are not subject to the same professional codes and perhaps believe that less openness is the best course of action. My hon. Friend referred to the Stafford case, and, as I understand it, it was a legal officer who sought to suppress the doctor’s report in that case. When the General Medical Council was asked to confirm how many cases it had brought against a doctor specifically for a breach of this part of its code, it confirmed that it has not brought a case against a single one. My hon. Friend also referred to the very sad case of Robbie Powell and the sterling efforts that the family have made. I am pleased to see that Mr Powell has joined us here today. Mr James Gray (in the Chair): Order. Tom Brake: I am sure that Mr Powell will be listening carefully to what is said and reading the remarks in Hansard later. That family have played a major role in bringing this issue to our attention and are working with AvMA to promote what they hope will become Robbie’s law. The MPS has provided information that I think works against its case. Its research shows that, at the moment, a third of doctors are not prepared to be open and honest when an accident occurs. If so many doctors feel constrained from or concerned about being open when an accident has occurred, it supports the case for a culture of candour. The MPS also refers to states in the United States where there is a duty of candour and where it perceives that there may be a difficulty in enforcing the duty. In his remarks, my hon. Friend the Member for Poole made it clear that the Care Quality Commission has confirmed that it could and would enforce a statutory duty, and would be in a position to do so, if that were part of its regulations. Another issue that the MPS raised, which we need to respond to, is that the proposed duty would not include near misses. It is arguing against the duty of candour, but at the same time saying that it would be a problem if near misses were not included. I understand that there is a general agreement that, although it might the norm for near misses to be reported to the patient, there would be discretion in cases in which reporting a near miss might cause unnecessary harm. There is recognition that the near miss issue needs to be addressed carefully. One important fact is that, whether it is a duty or a requirement, it must apply to all health care organisations. If there was one thing in the coalition agreement that was slightly remiss, it was the fact that it referred only to hospitals, but there is a wider health body that we need to include. I am sure that the Minister will clarify in her response that the duty of candour, or the requirement, would need to apply not only to the patient but, sadly, if the patient has died as a result of the accident, more widely to include family members. It should not be strictly restricted to the person who had the misfortune of suffering the accident. Dr Pugh: My hon. Friend mentions hospitals, but does he not accept that there are severe diagnostic failures at primary care level? Failures to refer can seriously imperil life, so they, too, need to be encompassed in the duty of candour.

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Tom Brake: I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, and I entirely agree. A duty of candour must not be restricted simply to hospitals, because, as he rightly says, GPs in primary care and other health care providers regrettably also make mistakes. A duty would need to encompass more than simply hospitals, as was initially proposed in the coalition agreement. I entirely support the points that my hon. Friend the Member for Poole made in opening the debate. There is strong, overwhelming evidence in support of a duty of candour. Guidance has not done the job, and a duty of candour really would open up the system and make sure that families and those who have suffered are, and know they are, entitled to receive information about an accident. That would make it much easier for them to arrive at closure. Regrettably, under the current system, people must all too often use great energy and perseverance to extract with great difficulty information that they should be entitled to from the outset. 10 am Dr John Pugh (Southport) (LD): I thank the hon. Member for Poole (Mr Syms) for introducing this important and timely debate and for putting the Government’s dilemma so succinctly and accurately. I also pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake), who has done as much as anybody in this place to raise the issues of a duty of candour and patient rights. I do not know whether anybody caught Ian Hislop’s programme about do-gooders on the BBC this week, but in it he described the creation of the journal The Lancet. It was set up by a young doctor, who, among other things, wished to expose some of the deficiencies in the appalling surgical practices at that time. He was greeted with wholesale acrimony from much of the medical profession and he was successfully sued. That shows that there is resistance in most businesses and professions to acknowledging error. In an excellent book published some time ago, the sociologist Erving Goffman suggested that people in all organisations—whether in health, business, teaching or policing—have a vested interest in supporting their colleagues, playing as part of a team and working together to minimise the reputational loss that their organisation can suffer. He analysed in particular detail how that can happen in health services right across the world, although it must be said that such things do not always happen for bad reasons. People have duties of loyalty to colleagues and a genuine concern for the organisation to which they belong—for its reputation and, where admitting to errors might seriously imperil it, for its very survival. People inside organisations often recognise that mistakes will happen in their organisations. I have worked in the teaching profession all my life, and I have not always been very overt about my colleagues’ deficiencies, even when that sometimes has involved people suffering from alcoholic intoxication when they should not. There are therefore circumstances in which people cover up. There is also probably a belief in many organisations that the internal resolution of problems is the best way to proceed. However, there is a huge downside; confidence is eroded by simply taking such a path. Worse still, false confidence persists; in other words, there are palpable

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and demonstrable errors in organisations, but nobody finds out about them until it is too late. Errors remain uncorrected, and poor performance is undeterred or, in some cases, it worsens. That is where the duty of candour fits in, because it will, on a voluntary or simply a request basis, lessen the problems. There is an enormous amount of evidence not only that patients want the NHS to be candid with them, but that the NHS finds it hard to be candid. The Department of Health itself spoke of a culture of denial in the NHS—denial about error and, more seriously, about negligence. No one believes that things will necessarily improve if nothing is done. No willing provider entering the frame will find it easier to be more candid than NHS organisations; in fact, they might have other motives for covering up. They might be answerable to others apart from members of the public, such as shareholders and the like. There is therefore a genuine concern to get things right. Every Member of the House of Commons has probably come across a case, or several cases, where they feel that things have gone badly wrong. In my intervention on my hon. Friend the Member for Carshalton and Wallington, I mentioned primary care. A young man in my constituency—he was a relative of a friend of my daughter’s—went to his GP five times to complain of listlessness, a lack of energy and so on. He was brushed off with suggestions that he needed more rest and less stress. He was told that he perhaps had glandular fever, but no blood test was done. Eventually, when one was done, it was discovered that he had late-stage leukaemia. My children attended his funeral. That clearly was a failing. I am also familiar with the ongoing case in my constituency of a TV soap star with a disabling condition that was brought on by receiving the wrong diagnosis and the wrong treatment. Similarly, I had the long-running case of a lorry driver with severe hypertension who was prescribed Viagra for other complaints, even though Viagra increases blood pressure. The thought of a lorry driver being prescribed a drug that can imperil not only him but members of the public is quite disturbing. A woman in my constituency was falsely diagnosed with cancer and treated for it until, on the spur of the moment, she decided to request a check of the X-rays. Staff then found that the X-rays that they had been using, and which they had assumed were correct, were those of another person. That woman had spent a year in absolutely harrowing circumstances. More disturbingly, we do not know whose X-rays were assigned to her. Presumably, that person was not given the treatment that this woman was wrongly given. Each of those cases leads to a prolonged complaints procedure, involving the ombudsman and the Care Quality Commission. In other cases, as other Members have indicated, there have been accusations that records have been altered. The whole process is inordinately cumbersome and difficult. To some extent, it exists because there is no candour where candour would probably be the solution. On top of that, there are the systemic failures—the Mid Staffordshires, the Bristol heart babies and so on. To be fair, the Government recognise that this all comes with the territory of running the modern health service, and they are, to some extent, endeavouring to deal with

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[Dr John Pugh] the problems. Lots of things are going on, and we all want to applaud and support what the Government are doing on quite a few issues. We also applaud the previous Government for having initiated some of these things. Incident reporting has got better, which is wholly desirable. Complaints are monitored, which is good and a move wholly in the right direction. There is more intensive recommending of procedures. The NHS is more of a learning body than it ever used to be; good practice is disseminated, while bad practice is identified and controlled. There is a general beefing-up across the piece of NHS guidance—particularly to the secondary care sector—about things not to do, things that will help and things that will avoid mishap. Right across the profession, there is a constant stressing of professional ethics, as spelt out by the General Medical Council or whoever. In the past few days, we have had the phenomenon of publicising outcomes, with efforts by Dr Foster and, presumably, the Department of Health to see that outcomes are properly tracked. Mr Syms: It is interesting that it is sometimes non-NHS organisations such as Dr Foster, rather than the NHS itself, that put their finger on the things that go wrong. The NHS is a wonderful organisation generally, but most of my constituents would be surprised that there is not a duty of candour already. One reason why we have not got one is that we find out that we do not only when we actually have a problem. Dr Pugh: Dr Foster is probably doing what the Government will eventually get around to doing, and it will presumably prompt the Government to do that more expeditiously. In some cases, private organisations may find it slightly easier than the Department of Health to progress such matters, but a lot of internal consultations and procedures will need to take place. Such organisations do not need to be answerable for how they treat the bodies within the NHS. A recent key development is the Government’s willingness to ensure immunity for whistleblowers, and to encourage whistleblowing when appropriate. That is a good thing, but there is evidence that whistleblowers still take genuine risks. For instance, they may not be sacked or redeployed, but they may experience difficulties getting employment elsewhere in the health service. I know of cases in which genuine whistleblowers have regretted the professional outcome that has resulted. Such Government measures are self-evidently to the good, but they are not the same, equivalent to or a substitute for a duty of candour. Frankly, not all errors will be reported and not all complaints will get bottomed out. As others have said, guidance is ignored, professional ethics can be flexibly interpreted, and outcomes, whether published by Dr Foster or others, often come too late or are too general for individual cases. As I pointed out, although whistleblowers may have temporary immunity, that may not last. The Department of Health spoke of a culture of denial; but if such a culture exists, it needs to deal with it. The argument against a statutory duty of candour—that, in a sense, the simple duty to be open with patients or relatives when requested is otiose or redundant—is not sustainable. It cannot be used as a genuine reason for

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Government reticence or hesitation. I therefore ask why the Government are hesitating when they are going ahead with so much else. A duty of candour is a disincentive to cover up, and it takes away the risk for whistleblowers. Statutory duties are important. I give a parallel example. Local authority reporting officers, usually directors of finance, have the job of identifying when a council is spending money in a reckless and improvident way. They have always been in that position, but prior to there being a statutory duty to show the council the red card they were often bullied by the political establishment. As a result, they unwillingly had to consent to the deployment of council resources in ways that were reckless. Without a statutory duty, the same sort of thing can happen in health institutions. People can be put under a lot of pressure, and unless they can say, “But I have the statutory duty to report this,” they will find themselves in appreciable difficulties. If we all believe in transparency—and we do at the moment—the duty of candour must be part of it. It keeps patients informed of their genuine situation. It is entirely in line with what the Secretary of State says again and again—it is a good quote, which I paraphrase, about no action being done to me without my consent. That is the gist of what he says. Why, then, do we hesitate, given the coalition agreement? The Liberal Democrats are clearly on board, and many Conservative Members genuinely support it. Indeed, the coalition agreement is emphatic. I have the perception that somewhere in the background in the Department of Health the voice of Sir Humphrey can be heard. Just as the Minister is about to initiate a statutory instrument on the subject, someone in the civil service—I do not accuse the Permanent Secretary— says, “That is a very brave decision, Minister.” The Minister is thus persuaded that his decision may not be as positive as appeared at first sight. If one thinks about it, a candid admission of error or, worse still, of negligence is intrinsically damaging and potentially expensive. I have seen stats suggesting that the potential damage to the NHS, if every person who had a complaint pursued it legally to the nth degree, might be a bill of something like £10 billion. That is half of the internal savings that the NHS needs to make. However, the stats also show that litigation costs against the NHS are far less than that. The unnerving feeling inside the Department of Health is that if it goes for a statutory duty—I believe that it should—that picture might change dramatically, as the number of complaints that end up in successful and expensive litigation mushrooms. Tom Brake: Does my hon. Friend agree that, because the information is now in the public domain, another consequence might be that the number of accidents will reduce because people will take the necessary action to ensure that such things do not happen? Dr Pugh: One sincerely hopes so. I was a member of the Committee that considered the NHS Redress Act 2006, which I believe is not yet in force. The sort of thinking suggested by my hon. Friend was behind that Act, but the same forces that are delaying the duty of candour are probably responsible for delaying its implementation. I cannot recall there being much dissent

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among the parties as to the merits of that legislation. The idea was that complaint costs would reduce if we had an open policy of admitting errors, patients surrendering none of their legal rights but simply being given the apology and the explanation that they wanted. As the hon. Member for Poole said, people who wish to pursue a complaint against the NHS if they believe that their treatment has gone wrong are not looking for money. They are looking not only for an explanation and an apology; they are looking for an assurance that whatever happened to them or their relative will not happen to others. Prior to the NHS Redress Act 2006, we looked hard at the costs of litigation in the NHS. Yes, it cost the NHS a lot of money; and, yes, something could have been done to reduce it. The really depressing thing, however, was that the bulk of the money went into the lawyers’ pockets on either side. The NHS is not about helping to boost lawyers’ profits. The 2006 Act seemed to offer an alternative to litigation, which everyone would support, but the nagging fear in the Department of Health was that it would become a platform for litigation—that if someone admitted a fault it might be a sound basis for taking legal action. Are those fears well grounded? I believe that we do not precisely know, but we all have our own feelings on the subject. People cite the Michigan case in the United States, where they went outright for a duty of candour, and litigation costs to the health service have declined. The duty of candour is not something that can be piloted, and once it has been done one cannot withdraw it. To go ahead with it is almost an act of faith. I am very keen on the concept of evidence-led policy, but I see evidence-led policy debates taking place in the Department of Health. If we go ahead with a statutory duty of candour—and I firmly believe that we should—it will be a statement about what sort of NHS we want. I conclude by quoting Sir Liam Donaldson, the former chief medical officer for England. He said, “To err is human, to cover up is unforgivable”.

Regardless of the risks, I doubt whether the Government want to do what is unforgivable. 10.19 am Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. Every 36 hours, NHS services are used by some 1 million people, the vast majority of whom receive safe and effective care. None the less, as in every other health care system in the world, not all care in the NHS is as safe as it could be, and too many patients are harmed by it, sometimes seriously and even fatally. Modern health services are delivered in a highly complex, often pressurised, environment, and involve the care of many vulnerable and seriously ill patients. More than any other environment in which risks occur, health care is reliant on people taking difficult decisions that rely on judgments that are not always straightforward or clear cut. In such circumstances, things can and do go wrong. Sometimes, as I know from my own experience, the consequences can be very serious for the patient, their family and their carers. Patients and their families have a right to know if something has gone wrong, to get an explanation of what has happened and to receive an apology and,

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if appropriate, compensation. As hon. Members have mentioned, it is also vital that professionals and NHS organisations learn lessons from mistakes to improve care for patients and, wherever possible, to save taxpayers’ money by reducing the cost to the NHS from clinical negligence claims. During the past decade, important progress has been made on improving patient safety in the NHS. Last year, the Health Committee’s report on patient safety acknowledged that the previous Government became one of the first in the world to make it a priority to address patient safety across the whole health care system. A unified system for reporting incidents and learning from them was introduced, and it was centred on the national reporting and learning system and the National Patient Safety Agency. The creation of this system was, in a large part, down to the pioneering work of Sir Liam Donaldson, and I should like to pay tribute to him for his work on this vital issue. Since the establishment of the data reporting system, the number of reported incidents has increased significantly, which is a good thing. At the last count, more than 3 million incidents had been reported, ranging from very minor incidents to the more serious ones. The NPSA has worked hard to improve patient safety, both nationally and within individual NHS trusts. I personally experienced such work when I was director of the Ambulance Service Network at the NHS Confederation. We set up a programme of work, with patient safety leads in ambulance service trusts, front-line paramedics, PCT commissioners of ambulance services and the NPSA to identify the particular areas of care where mistakes were being made—it is often in the handover period—and to share best practice to prevent such mistakes. I question some of the comments that have been made this morning about managers wanting to cover up problems. In my experience, both managers and professionals have difficulties in blowing the whistle on their colleagues. I just want to put it on the record that the ones that I have worked with have wanted to be open and to learn the lessons. My experience has shown me that the NHS needs to do more to improve patient safety. As identified by the Health Committee’s report and Ara Darzi’s next stage review, there is still huge under-reporting across the system, because, as hon. Members have said, there is too often a “blame culture” in the NHS. I agree with the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) that this is not just an issue about hospitals. Primary care, which accounts for 95% of patient contacts with the NHS, accounts for only 0.25% of reported incidents. Although substantial progress has been made, patient safety is still not always a top priority for NHS boards. Most importantly, patients still too often feel that the NHS is not genuinely open and honest with them when a mistake is made. In 2005, the National Audit Office’s 2005 report, “A safer place for patients” found that only 25% of NHS trusts routinely inform patients when an incident has taken place, and an astonishing 6% admit to never informing patients. Like other hon. Members, I have seen such practice in my own constituency. Patients feel that mistakes are not promptly or openly admitted to and they have to battle the system to—in the words of

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[Liz Kendall] the hon. Member for Poole (Mr Syms)—“get at the truth”, which, so often, is the start of the healing process. Last week, I went to a meeting at the University Hospitals Leicester NHS Trust with two of my constituents, Mr and Mrs Harkisan-Hall, who lost their son in the hospital’s neo-natal unit. It was only at the coroner’s inquiry that they found out that the two qualified nurses on the unit were both on a break at the same time, leaving a nursery nurse in charge of very vulnerable children. They felt that they had to battle to get that information, and they still have not seen the full reports of what the staff said. Like them, I believe that that is unacceptable. Mr Syms: The hon. Lady makes a good point. One point that I meant to make was that if people do not hear what has happened, coroners can find it difficult to determine how someone has died. If people are not honest about what has happened to a particular individual, coroners do not have the full information. Liz Kendall: In this particular case, interviews were conducted with the two qualified nurses. The trust did not read both transcripts together and did not see that both nurses were on a break at the same time. People are astonished that such simple things happen, and it is vital that we learn from this process. Before I go on to talk about the duty of candour, I want to discuss two concerns about the Government’s policy in relation to patient safety. It is important that hon. Members do not look just at the duty of candour in isolation from what is going on in the rest of the NHS, including on patient safety. My first concern is the Department of Health’s decision to abolish the National Patient Safety Agency and to move responsibility for this issue to the new national NHS Commissioning Board. There are real concerns about whether the board will have the necessary skills, experience and time to focus on such a vital issue when it will also be responsible for setting NHS outcomes, assessing whether GP consortiums are delivering on those outcomes, commissioning a whole range of specialist services and managing contracts for all primary medical services. That is a huge agenda for any board, even without adding responsibility for patient safety. Will the Minister tell us what resources and how many staff from the NPSA will be transferred to the NHS Commissioning Board? Which NPSA activities will the board take on? For example, will NPSA continue to publish patient safety alerts and bulletins and other guidance to identify key problems and help spread best practice? Will it also run workshops with leads for patient safety in individual providers, such as those I was involved with in the Ambulance Service Network? Will the national Patient Safety First Campaign, which was launched last year, and the annual patient safety week, which was held early this month, have the staff and resources to continue? My second concern relates to the Government’s reorganisation of the NHS and fact that the service needs to make efficiency savings worth some £20 billion over the next three years, as the NHS chief executive said. The first report on adverse incidents in the NHS

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was drawn up by Sir Liam Donaldson in 2000. Its key recommendation was that the NHS must be open and honest and learn from its experiences. To do that, the NHS must become, as the report’s title suggests, “An organisation with a memory”. But the Government plan to abolish many of the very organisations that have worked hard to build this memory and understanding of how to improve patient safety. If the NHS has to make efficiency savings worth some £20 billion, there will inevitably be job losses and posts frozen, some of which could include those staff who have worked hard to learn lessons from the mistakes that have been made in the NHS. How will the Minister ensure that the NHS retains its “memory” on patient safety when PCTs and strategic health authorities are being abolished, new GP consortiums are being established, community services are being transferred to different providers and staff posts are being frozen and reduced? In particular, what steps has she taken to ensure that managers and front-line staff who have knowledge and expertise in patient safety are retained in the NHS at a time when the Government want to cut management costs by 45% and make efficiency savings of £20 billion? Finally, I want to talk about the duty of candour. As hon. Members have said, the introduction of a statutory duty of candour was first recommended by Sir Liam Donaldson in his 2003 report, “Making Amends”. I agree with hon. Members that there is a strong case to look again at this issue, as a Health Committee report recommended in 2009. I think that it was the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington who said that too often the debate is split between those who want a statutory duty of candour and those who think the NHS should instead focus on creating a culture of candour. Of course, changing the practice of individual staff and organisations does not require legislation, but I think that we can see from existing laws, such as those that helped to reduce drinkdriving, those that introduced the smoking ban and others, that legislation often plays a vital role in changing culture and behaviour. Some professional bodies are concerned that a duty of candour would make it less likely that incidents would be reported. I am not convinced that that would be the case, particularly if the duty is combined with an: “exemption from disciplinary action for those reporting adverse events or medical errors—except where there is a criminal offence or where it would not be safe for the professional to continue to treat patients”.

That was the recommendation of Sir Liam Donaldson back in 2003. Others question whether a statutory duty could be imposed when it might be difficult to specify or enforce sanctions. That concern has not prevented other parts of the world from introducing legal duties, including some US states, Sweden, France and Denmark. It is also worth noting that the Equality Act 2010, which was introduced by the last Government, imposes a number of legal duties on public bodies to consider the impact of their policies and decisions on different groups, without specifying what the sanctions will be if those duties are not complied with. The final argument against a statutory duty of candour is that patients might end up trusting professionals less, because they have to report a mistake rather than

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because they want to. I think that the far greater risk for doctor-patient trust is the perception, and too often the reality, that professionals do not tell patients when things go wrong. I know that if a mistake was made in my own care, or in the care of one of my family or friends, I would want to know—and indeed I believe that I have the right to know. To conclude, I think that the NHS has made important progress on improving patient safety and it has started to try to change its culture, to become more open and honest. However, the evidence shows and hon. Members have clearly demonstrated in this debate that the NHS is still not as open as it should be, not only with its own staff, but—crucially—with patients. The abolition of the NPSA, the huge reorganisation that the NHS is about to undergo and the future cuts in numbers of staff actually make a stronger case for having a duty of candour in place. The White Paper, “Liberating the NHS”, says that the Government will: “require hospitals to be open about mistakes and always tell the patient when something has gone wrong”.

It also says that that requirement will be implemented by summer 2011. So I just want to ask the Minister to clarify if that means that the Government are proposing a statutory duty of candour? Also, will she now agree to bring together patient groups, professional bodies, experts on the duty of candour in this country and abroad, as well as those who represent NHS trusts—such as the NHS Confederation—to discuss how we can all best move forward on this vital issue? 10.34 am The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anne Milton): Thank you very much, Mr Gray. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time. I also want to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Poole (Mr Syms) on securing this debate. As Chairman of the Regulatory Reform Committee, he is no doubt acutely aware of some of the issues that exist around regulation, not least those that exist around the duty of candour. His humility and recognition of the impossible task that we face here today—to truly reflect the pain and suffering of those who have suffered as a result of medical harm—does him considerable credit. We take candour and openness in the NHS extremely seriously. Everybody does, because it is a vital issue. As anyone who has ever been treated knows, a health care system is not just about how quickly someone is seen or how quickly their stitches come out; it is also about trust. Trust is fundamental—between patients, the patient’s family and health care professionals—and we must do everything we can to ensure that that trust is upheld. As the hon. Gentleman may be aware, one of the early references to a statutory “duty of candour” was included in “Making Amends”, a 2003 report, which I know hon. Members have referred to. It was a consultation paper from the then chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, and it set out proposals for reforming the approach to clinical negligence in the NHS, suggesting “a duty of candour requiring clinicians and health service managers to inform patients about actions which have resulted in harm”.

The paper also proposed to foster an environment of openness and honesty among all NHS staff; it encouraged “integrity”, which is a word that we perhaps do not use

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often enough, and it proposed exempting those who report adverse events or medical errors from disciplinary action, unless there are serious extenuating circumstances. It is a key belief of the coalition, and I would hope all Members of the House, that the focus should be on the performance of the organisation rather than on penalising individuals who bring matters of concern out into the open. The hon. Member for Southport (Dr Pugh) has already mentioned whistleblowing. I think that the point is that this debate is not necessarily about the protection of whistleblowers or a right to whistleblow; it is perhaps about a duty to whistleblow. It is important to note the good work that is currently being done to promote candour. The previous Government should be congratulated for providing staff with advice and support to help them to communicate with patients, their families and carers following harmful incidents. The Health Act 2009 requires all NHS organisations to be aware of the NHS constitution, which places a duty on NHS staff to acknowledge mistakes, apologise for them, explain what happened and put things right. The professional codes of practice for doctors and nurses contain a similar duty. As somebody who trained as a nurse and worked in the NHS for 25 years, I think that professional codes of practice and professional standards are not talked about often enough. We look for someone to blame: we look for the organisation to blame; we look for the board to blame, and we look for the chief executive to blame. What we do not talk about is individual professional standards and I feel particularly strongly that we need to do everything that we can to raise those standards right up. The National Patient Safety Agency has been running its own campaign to promote candour in the NHS, as the hon. Member for Leicester West (Liz Kendall) said. That campaign, entitled “Being Open”, is a long-term process rather than a short-term push. It encourages the provision of verbal and written apologies to patients, their families and carers; it promotes continual communication with those involved in incidents, and it requires thorough record-keeping of all “Being Open” discussions and documents. However, we all know that still more needs to be done, as hon. Members have said and as I know myself from my own constituency casework; I have a number of people who have continually fought to try to get the truth about what happened to their relatives. The recent White Paper, “Liberating the NHS”, states that “we will require hospitals to be open about mistakes, and always tell patients if something has gone wrong”.

It is quite simple: we expect the NHS to admit to errors; apologise to those affected, and ensure that lessons are learned to prevent errors from being repeated. In one year, the NPSA receives notification of more than one million incidents. Most of those incidents result in no harm and we welcome the high level of reporting. However, the incidents that result in harm obviously cause distress and anguish for the patients and families involved. In those cases, it is even more important that the lessons are learned and that organisations are open with those who have been affected. Dr Pugh: I want to ask about the future of the NPSA. If it is going to be brought within the national commissioning body, will a Chinese wall be established

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[Dr Pugh] between the NPSA and the other operations of that body? It crosses my mind that risks can allegedly be increased or decreased by commissioning decisions themselves. Under those circumstances, the NPSA has got to be free to impute itself, as it were, if the national commissioning body is going to be part and parcel of the same organisation. So, can the Minister assure me that there will be no conflict of interest when the NPSA is placed within the national commissioning body, which may itself—through its commissioning procedures—be one of the risk factors? Anne Milton: The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. That is terribly important. It is not only important to have Chinese walls and be seen to be separate; it is important to be separate. I will come to that point in detail in a minute. Measuring openness is not as straightforward as measuring reporting. We welcome high levels of reporting, as they are an indicator of an open and supportive culture of patient safety, but there are still reasons why people within the NHS and organisations shy away from openness. Without a doubt, professionals who strive for excellence are reluctant to admit errors. The higher up the tree one is, the harder it is to say, “I’ve made a mistake.” All of us face that issue in our professional lives. People may have unfounded concerns about possible admissions of liability, even though apologising when something has gone wrong is not in any way an admission of liability. The fine line between the two sometimes prevents people from saying what relatives want to hear: “I am so sorry this happened.” That is not necessarily saying, “I have made a mistake.” It is such a shame when professionals resort to a defensive stance, often encouraged by myths about where liability lies. Also, at times, they may fear reprisal, blame and even bullying. We are considering options for introducing a requirement for openness and will make a decision in due course. The hon. Member for Southport felt that we were hesitating, and was concerned about possible evidence of Sir Humphreys in the Department. We are considering, not hesitating. It is important to get it right. Members have discussed the three options, but I will run through them quickly and mention a few relevant issues. The first option is using what is in the existing Care Quality Commission registration requirement regulations. It is already mandatory for NHS trusts to report all serious patient safety incidents. We could also require organisations to demonstrate that they have met the openness requirement, which would not require new legislation. It makes sense to use existing means to detect and investigate trusts that are not as open as they should be. The counterargument is that that approach is not specific enough, and that the wording of the guidance would need to be made more explicit. We have seen many cases in which guidance has failed. The second option involves introducing a new legal, statutory duty of openness explicit within the CQC regulations. That would send a clear signal about the importance of openness and provide patients and campaigners with a single clear duty that they could use to demand full disclosure. However, the Government

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want to create new legislation only when absolutely necessary, although when necessary, it should be done. We would need to ensure that any new legislation or new approach was not counter-productive. We want to make it easier for staff to come forward; we do not want new legislation to have unintended consequences. The third option involves incorporating an openness requirement into the new NHS contractual, performance and commissioning processes, to which the hon. Members for Leicester West and for Southport referred. It certainly appears possible to pursue openness through the new commissioning arrangements. For instance, it could be written into standard NHS commissioning board requirements that providers commit to being open. The hon. Member for Leicester West asked whether the NHS commissioning board would have time to take a role on patient safety. In many ways, safety underpins all commissioning decisions. Any decision on any service commissioned should have safety wrapped around it. That is fundamental. As with any complex matter, each of the options has its pros and cons. It is imperative that a decision on the issue is not rushed. I reassure the hon. Lady that campaigners and organisations have good access to officials within the Department, and I am sure that all their views will have been taken into account when a decision is made, because we are aware of the importance of getting it right. It is terrible to think that the first duty of the NHS is to do no harm. Safety wraps around everything that we do. The hon. Lady also mentioned the decision to abolish strategic health authorities. I understand that SHAs are the performance managers of trusts, yet that did not help in Staffordshire. In many ways, bringing commissioning decisions closer to the patient within general practice will mean that decisions about care and its consequences rest where they should. Liz Kendall: The Minister raises the important issue of Stafford and the lessons to be learned there, and says that the SHA did not take action. Obviously, we will wait for the outcome of the independent inquiry, but as responsibility will move to GP commissioning consortiums, can she tell us whether any of the GPs in the area raised concerns about Stafford, or whether any of them have submitted evidence to the inquiry? I am not aware that they have. Anne Milton: I did not point a finger at the SHA; I pointed out that SHAs were performance managers. Where performance fails, one must ask oneself what was happening in the management of that performance that it could fail so abysmally. The hon. Lady must not forget that the GP consortiums will involve a much wider range of professionals in commissioning decisions than just GPs, including a lot of people involved in care. They will not necessarily consist only of NHS professionals. Voluntary bodies and other organisations that provide care will also have input. The sad truth is that when things go wrong, relatives want to know what happened, as my hon. Friend the Member for Poole pointed out, but they do not always find out. They want the truth and honesty, but we often see precisely the opposite. Doors close, the shutters go down and NHS organisations resort to a defensive stance, sometimes quite aggressively. My hon. Friend

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mentioned his constituents the Byes and the Powells, who have campaigned endlessly for the truth and continue to campaign. I pay tribute to all the people, some of whom we do not know about, who use their own tragic circumstances to ensure that the same thing does not happen to others. Their efforts should never be underestimated. Tom Brake: The Minister said that the NHS sometimes adopts an aggressive stance. I remind her of my question to her about the possible impact of withdrawing legal aid in clinical negligence cases. Often, families use such cases as a way of trying to secure an apology because one has not been forthcoming. If that option is not available to them, it reinforces the need for a duty of candour. Anne Milton: The hon. Gentleman pre-empts me by a second; I was about to come to legal aid. My experience is that even with legal aid, the courts are rarely an option for most people. Allowing discretion on the reporting of near misses would, I fear, open another minefield beyond which people could hide, as he also mentioned. I have certainly brokered meetings between NHS organisations and my constituents to try to bring them together and make the NHS organisations stop feeling so defensive. I have been an advocate for people in my constituency just so they could hear what happened. I should think that many hon. Members rely on personal relationships, particularly within hospital trusts, for such purposes. Maybe they know a supportive medical director to whom they can say, “Look, this family, this couple or these relatives just want to know what happened; this isn’t going to go anywhere.” That is a leap of faith. The NHS organisation has to say, “Fair enough”. When that happens, closure can follow. The hon. Member for Southport rightly pointed out that accidents occur across the NHS and mentioned, in particular, the failure to diagnose in general practice. That is an ongoing, rumbling issue that I hear about not only as a constituency MP, but as a Minister. I thank him for recognising that the solution to getting to a situation where we have effective measures in place to ensure candour is a dilemma. It is not an easy decision. He is also right to point out that the NHS is not alone in protecting itself. My goodness me, we know a lot of professions that close their doors when one of their members is under attack—the legal profession is one. People just want the truth, but sadly the shutters go down and the doors close, and closure cannot be achieved. Mr Syms: I am pleased with the way the Minister is responding to the debate and recognise that a statutory duty of candour is one of a range of measures that the Government are considering. However, if they decide not to take that route initially, it is important that they do not rule it out, because the culture change that is needed might not come about as a result of what they are doing, but we will still need to get there at some point. I still think that a statutory duty of candour would be the biggest and most successful leap towards that goal—the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington made a good point on that—but even if the Government choose not to go there, they should not rule it out, because I think that ultimately that is where we will end up.

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Anne Milton: I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention and am sure that the report of this debate will aid people in making their decisions on the matter. On the point raised by the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington on legal aid, I understand that the Ministry of Justice proposal on restructuring and refocusing the scope of legal aid is currently out for consultation. There will still be an exceptional funding route for those not eligible for legal aid, but he might want to raise that specific point with the MOJ because it is important. The hon. Member for Southport rightly picked up on the fact that we included in the White Paper the principle of “No decision should about me, without me”, and that probably needs to be extended to situation where harm happens. A few Members mentioned international precedents, but we must be slightly careful, because what happens abroad cannot necessarily be transported to this country. Those precedents tell us that there can be problems in adopting a statutory duty of candour. It can be difficult to measure success and, therefore, find any evidence of where success or failure has occurred. We must also be mindful of the differing health care and legislative environments that exist around the world when looking at international examples. In Pennsylvania, for example, we have been told that a complicated set of requirements makes enforcing its version of a statutory duty particularly problematic. In conclusion, there are complex issues at play in relation to a statutory duty of candour, and views are held on both sides of the argument for and against such a duty. What we can say, as has been documented in the White Paper, is that we are absolutely set on achieving that change in culture to achieve openness and candour in the NHS and all organisations that provide care. We are exploring those complex issues carefully. The culture of secrecy and denial is a disease that needs to be cured, but to do so we need to understand and treat its causes at their source, rather than simply treating the symptoms with an ineffective plaster. As my hon. Friend the Member for Poole stated, the start of the healing process is about learning the truth. The Government will need to decide how we can provide the environment, with or without legislation, in which the truth can come out immediately—in a timely fashion— and openly. We need inspirational leadership and highly developed management skills in our NHS leaders to create that change in culture to create an open atmosphere among staff, not the closed culture that we have seen. We need a culture that replaces the fear of the consequences of openness with the courage to recognise that openness, honesty and truth will, ultimately, not only give families what they need to heal their wounds and achieve closure, but allow staff to learn from their mistakes, raise their standards and raise the bar on their professional standards. The Government will consider all that when making the decision, but Members should rest assured that everything that has been said today and all the effort to highlight the issue will be taken in account to ensure that we get the right system in place to give people what works. 10.55 am Sitting suspended.

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PACE (Stop and Search) 11 am Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con): I appreciate the opportunity to have this debate. The shorthand definition of the code of practice that I wish to consider is “stop and search”, but it also includes “stop and account”. The draft guidelines recently issued by the Government state: “The primary purpose of stop and search powers is to enable officers to allay or confirm suspicions about individuals without exercising their power of arrest.”

We would all recognise that that is an important part of policing powers, but some issues arise from it and I have some questions to which I should appreciate a response from the Minister. My interest arises partly from my membership of the all-party parliamentary group on race and community and from conversations that I have had with the Runnymede Trust and the StopWatch coalition, both of which have alerted me to issues of the context in which the proposed changes and guidelines are being made. The most significant issue is disproportionality between people of different ethnic origins. A black person is at least six times as likely as a white person to be stopped and searched by the police. It is twice as likely to happen to an Asian. That is grossly disproportionate and those ratios have remained stubbornly constant in the past five years. The report “Stop and think”, which was produced earlier this year by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, included research findings that “black and ethnic minority youths were over-represented in the criminal justice system. This over-representation started at the point of entry into the system, and largely continued as young suspects and defendants passed through it.”

If the very first part of a person’s interaction with the criminal justice system is disproportionate, there may be consequential effects at other stages in that system. The black population of England and Wales is approximately 2.6%, but black people represent 14.8% of incidents of stop and search, 7.6% of arrests and 14.4% of the prison population. I think that anyone would find those statistics chilling. It is a rare thing for me to say I agree with Bernie Grant, the former Member of Parliament for Tottenham, but in 1997 he said: “Nothing has been more damaging to the relationship between the police and the black community than the ill judged use of stop and search powers. For young black men in particular, the humiliating experience of being repeatedly stopped and searched is a fact of life”.

Of course society has moved on in 13 years, but, as the statistics have shown, disproportionality is still significant. Stop and search is not a power that is used occasionally. Last year, there were more than 2 million instances of stop and account by police and more than 1 million of stop and search. That amounts to more than 10,000 a day, which is not only disproportionate, but shows widespread and pervasive use in our society. I accept—and this is probably much of the intent behind Government moves—that the recording of information accounts for considerable police time. It is estimated by the Daily Mail that the proposed changes will save 450,000 hours of police time by eliminating the stop-and-account element and 350,000 hours of police

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time by reducing stop-and- search forms. Those are welcome savings in police time, to enable our police to spend more time in their jobs on the beat, and in helping citizens by combating crime. However, against a backdrop of considerable community concerns, and severely disproportionate impacts, perhaps the Minister could assist with the answer to some questions. The first is about the removal of the requirement to record stop and account. As I have said, that represents 2 million actions by the police each year, so it is certainly clear that removing the requirement to record stop and account will save considerable police time. However, as we have not yet ended disproportionality, is the Minister concerned that we would lose an important source of information on fairness? I understand that it would be possible for chief constables to re-institute stop-and-account searches if local concerns were expressed. That is a very welcome part of the proposals, but how will the local pressure be voiced? What would constitute a valid local concern and how would it be differentiated from concerns thought to be invalid? I would also appreciate the Minister’s views on the decision by Suffolk police to de-fund the stop-and-search reference group. What message does that send to people who have concerns about disproportionality and the reliance on the raising of concerns by local voices? On the same point, what role does the Minister see for the Equality and Human Rights Commission? Are steps such as the enforcement action warning that it issued this week to Thames Valley police and other forces seen as part of the community response to disproportionality in stop and account and stop and search? The Government have—and I welcome this—removed parts of the justification for section 60 stop and search on the grounds of race. The National Black Police Association said the original draft proposal “opens the door to racial targeting that could be based on gossip, malice and outright racial prejudice.”

Perhaps I might use this opportunity to thank the Minister for, and congratulate him on, the changes, and for his statement: “Previous guidance did not place any restrictions on use but now it will make clear than an individual characteristic such as ethnicity should never be the sole basis for any search.”

That shows the direction of travel of the Government. They will look at areas where there is disproportionality and seek to eliminate that. They will look at areas where ethnicity is misused in policing, and ensure that that no longer happens. I would welcome the Minister’s comments on the background to the draft guidelines and the change. Section 60 stop and search is a very significant power that we provide to the police. It enables the police to stop and search an individual where there are no grounds for suspicion of the particular individual, in a designated area, for a period of 24 hours. Nationally the black population of the country, as I said earlier, is about 2.6%, but they represent 32% of stops and searches under section 60. That means that under the police power to stop and search with no grounds for suspicion of the individual concerned, a black person is 26 times more likely than a white person to be stopped. That is a shocking statistic and everyone, including members of the police force, will want that ratio to be changed.

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The usage of this blanket power, which does not rely on individual assessment or suspicion, has grown over the past few years. In 2004-05, there were 45,600 incidences of section 60 stop and search being used. Just three years later, in 2008-09, the figure had more than trebled to 149,955. This is a specialised, exceptional power akin to those available under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. Does the Minister believe that there should be specialist oversight of the authorisations that chief constables are using to invoke this power? I am not aware of any areas where there is currently national oversight over particular actions by chief constables, but given that the use of these authorisations is growing and disproportionate, and given that these very powerful measures are targeted on an area, not an individual, I would greatly appreciate it if the Minister could tell us what oversight, if any, there could be over them. Other issues are related to the information collected on the stop-and-search form. Again, I think that the proposals are being introduced with the good intention of reducing the amount of police time that is spent on form filling. The Minister may, in an offhanded way, have called it box ticking, but I am sure that he accepts that some of this information is valuable. I want to alert him, therefore, to some reasons why some of the information that will be lost from these forms might be valuable, and he might want to consider how such concerns could be addressed. The first piece of information that will be lost from the stop-and-search form is the name of the person who has been stopped and searched. How will it be possible to identify and measure repeat stops and searches that might amount to harassment? If an individual is stopped and searched routinely by the police, that will be evident from the current form because the individual’s name will have been collected, but it will not be evident under the proposed change. How might we deal with concerns about harassment if that information is lost? Secondly, as a result of the targeting of individuals in a community, there might be community concerns. How will the community have the information that it needs to identify and measure whether particular individuals are being targeted? There is, therefore, not only the individual concern; there will also be a community concern if four or five individuals are routinely stopped and searched and people feel that their community is being unfairly targeted. The second piece of information that will be lost is whether injury or damage was caused as a result of the search. If that information is not collected, my concern is that we might leave the police open to allegations that some injury or damage was caused. How will it be possible to identify and account for incidents of the misuse of force? The corollary of that is the issue of how the police will be guaranteed protection against allegations that an injury did occur. The third piece of information that will be lost relates to whether anything was found as a consequence of the search. One of the concerns about the use of stop and search relates to how effective it is in tackling crime. With so few stops and searches resulting in an arrest, how will we know how effective stop and search is likely to be if we have no information about whether anything is found as a consequence of a search? Overall, stops and searches have resulted in an arrest rate of about 10% to 13%, which means that nine out of 10 stops and

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searches—3 million in total—do not result in an arrest. Three million is a widespread trawl through our communities, and that can have counter-productive effects by separating the police from the communities that they serve. Over the past few years, since the quote from Mr Grant, progress has been made. Our police have done an enormously good job of reaching out to communities. We need to do more of that, but stop and search is not necessarily one of the main ways to do it. We need look only at the effectiveness of one of the important powers in section 60 in tackling knife crime. A review of statistics from 11 London boroughs with a high incidence of knife crime showed a broad correlation between the incidence of knife crime and the number of stops and searches—when there are a large number of knife crimes, the police carry out more stops and searches. However, there is no correlation between the number of stops and searches and a reduction in knife crime. Let me give an example. In 2008-09, Tower Hamlets and Islington both experienced approximately 305 knife crimes. The police in Tower Hamlets responded with a stop-and–search rate that was two and a half times that of Islington. Although knife crime fell by 11% in Tower Hamlets, it fell by nearly 25% in Islington where such a large number of stops and searches were not carried out. People in those communities want knife crime dealt with. However, stop and search does not appear to be a tool that helps and we must look at alternatives. In his response, perhaps the Minister will talk about initiatives other than stop and search that can be used to reduce the disproportionality of the statistics on ethnicity in our criminal justice system. For example, the practice-oriented package initiative that was introduced in Stoke-on-Trent reduced the disproportionality ratio from six times the national average to just 1.5 times that average. In Cleveland, the number of stop and searches was reduced by 80%. That reduced the disproportionality in stop and search and also reduced the crime rate. Will the Minister also endorse police innovations in tackling drugs without the use of stop and search, which has been done to good intent? I understand, appreciate and support the Government’s efforts to reduce the waste of police time spent collecting information that is not helpful in tackling crime. I believe and understand that the Minister shares my concerns about disproportionality and wishes to ensure that police powers are used correctly. I welcome the change to the draft guidelines that have stopped ethnic profiling from being written into our legislation. That move is welcome, but considerations and concerns remain about the continuation of stop and account without the recording of information, and about the reduction of information in the stop-and-search forms. I look forward to hearing the Minister’s response. 11.17 am The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert): First, may I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bedford (Richard Fuller) on securing the debate and on raising the issues in such a forceful way? Such matters continue to generate a significant amount of public interest and highlight some of the concerns about front-line policing that we are keen to address.

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[Nick Herbert] We are keen to ensure that officers strike the right balance between necessary bureaucracy for the sake of accountability—which is important—and irrelevant form filling that wastes the time of the police and the public, and impacts unduly on citizens going about their business by asking unnecessary questions. It is important to understand how policing, and the bureaucracy that surrounds it, impacts on community relations. Procedures such as stop and account and stop and search are most effective when local communities understand them and support their use. There is a difference between stop and account and stop and search, and we must be mindful of ensuring that the processes associated with them are not confused. Stop and account is where an individual is asked to account for their presence, actions and so on, but they are not searched. It can be one step on from the general conversations that officers have with members of the public every day. Stop and search clearly goes further than that. It is an intrusive procedure and therefore a cause of more concern among local communities. Many of the proposed changes to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 code of practice A are necessary to reverse the increase in paperwork generated by the last Government. In our judgment, that paperwork hampers police operations and leads to encounters with the public that are ineffective, bureaucratised and poorly understood. We need officers on the street to record only information that is of value, and it may differ from situation to situation and from force to force. I do not want to see in place measures that discourage proper interaction between police officers and members of the public. Let me explain the rationale behind our stop-and-account proposals. The abolition of the national recording requirement for stop and account will potentially free up around 450,000 hours of police time, allowing officers to increase the quality—and shorten the duration—of these brief encounters, and enabling forces to be more responsive to the communities that they serve. I share my hon. Friend’s concerns about the level of disproportionality in the use of police powers. However, when the statistics for stop and account are examined more closely, it appears that it is not used in a disproportionate manner across England and Wales. It is also fair to say that there is less concern about the operation of stop and account than there is about stop and search. That is why we are removing fully the national requirement for recording stops and accounts, leaving local recording to a local decision where a local need is identified. Individual police forces know their own communities better than Whitehall. Increasingly, they will be answerable to their local communities, as we have set out today with the introduction of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill. Those forces should know the extent to which the operation of stop and account is a matter of particular local concern. They are best placed to analyse their own statistics and understand how they use the tactic and how it impacts on ethnic minority groups locally, and they should be held to account by their elected police and crime commissioners, with the scrutiny of new police and crime panels to ensure the proper use of such procedures.

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The Government understand that stop and search is a very different tool and is far more intrusive. It is right that its monitoring and use should continue, both nationally and at a local level. We are reducing the number of pieces of data to be completed on a stop-and-search record from 12 to seven, saving more than 300,000 hours of officers’ time every year as well as reducing the duration of these encounters for those stopped and searched. My hon. Friend expressed concern about some of the pieces of data that will be removed. However, key information about each encounter will still be recorded, including the self-defined ethnicity of the person stopped, which is obviously the critical information, and we have made minor amendments to code A to encourage the further use of mobile technology to reduce even further the time taken to record each stop and search. The 12 recording requirements used during a stop-andsearch encounter will be reduced to seven: ethnicity, the object of the search, the grounds for the search, the identity of the officer carrying out the stop and search, the date, the time and the place. Such requirements do not prevent police officers from recording information that they feel would be useful intelligence, but it is not necessary as a Government requirement for such information to be held in a stop-and-search record. Our amendments to the guidance on the use of section 44 stop-and-search powers follow the Home Secretary’s announcement on 8 July, which curtailed the use of this power in the light of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Gillan and Quinton v. United Kingdom. My hon. Friend also raised issues around section 60 stop-and-search powers, both in terms of the guidance supporting officers’ use of this power, and the disproportionality figures that have been reported in the press recently. Let me assure my hon. Friend and all hon. Members that there was never any intention on the part of the Government to encourage the use of ethnic profiling or unlawful discrimination in the use of this power—far from it. The original draft of the guidance contained wording that had been introduced in code A by the previous Government in 2003 in relation to the police’s use of section 44 powers. The original draft explained that all authorisations had to be supported by clear intelligence and that, on occasion, intelligence could suggest a possible suspect description that included characteristics such as race, age, sex and so on. However, it also stipulated that race should never be the sole reason for stopping someone under section 60. The guidance was evidently not clear enough and was misconstrued. We therefore considered the responses to the statutory consultation and have redrafted the relevant paragraphs to include all protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. We have stated clearly that unlawful discrimination will not be tolerated. I must, however, warn against judging the use of a key tool such as section 60 purely on a national statistic. The figures cited in the press about black people being 26 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched under section 60 are potentially misleading if they are not examined a little more closely. In 2008-09, 76% of all section 60 stops and searches were conducted by the Metropolitan Police Service in London. Therefore, to assess the use of that power against the national population’s ethnicity breakdown is deceptive. We need

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to compare that 76% with the ethnicity of the population of London and the remaining 24% with the rest of the country. When we do that, we find that the use is not so disproportionate. The power is used to tackle specific issues relating to serious violence and, in particular, knife crime. The Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department, my hon. Friend the Member for Old Bexley and Sidcup (James Brokenshire), who is responsible for crime prevention, recently responded to a debate in this Chamber on youth violence and was very clear about how we need to protect our communities against violent crimes. The use of section 60 as one of the many tools that the Metropolitan police use as part of their continuing action against knife crime receives significant support from communities in London. The Metropolitan police have gone to great lengths since the start of Operation Blunt 2—their programme of action against knife crime—to increase community engagement. An example of that is the young Londoners engagement programme, which explains why the powers are so important and the dangers of carrying knives. The Metropolitan police are in the process of reviewing their operational use of the power, and all boroughs have been reminded that they must be proportionate in their use of section 60. Neighbourhood policing—such a rare thing at the time of the Macpherson inquiry in the late 1990s—is now embedded throughout the country in such a way as to give the public far greater confidence in the way in which their police service operates. The Government are determined to do everything that they can to ensure that neighbourhood policing is protected, despite the budgetary challenges that confront forces. We are also determined that the British tradition of policing by consent should flourish, and that can happen only if the public understand why the police do what they do and, just as importantly, if the police understand how their actions are perceived by the public.

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My hon. Friend the Member for Bedford referred to the role of the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The commission has praised the “Next Steps” process developed by the National Policing Improvement Agency, which is being used by the police in, for example, Merseyside and Dorset, as well as Lewisham in London. It helps the police to understand the way in which they use stop and search and how the population of an area and the apparent levels of disproportionality might in some circumstances not present a true picture. The early feedback on “Next Steps” is positive, and we hope to be able to expand it to other areas shortly. I have been impressed by the way in which my hon. Friend has raised these issues. Since the general election, there has not been a great deal of debate in the House about these issues or the changes that we propose to make. There may be debate in relation to the orders that we have laid to change the PACE codes, but I would welcome the opportunity for further discussion with my hon. Friend and other hon. Members. I would be happy to convene a meeting with key representatives of the police, including the deputy commissioner of the police in London if he would be willing, in order to talk about their use of stop and search, why they believe that it is such an important tool in their fight against knife crime, why they believe that it has public consent and how they are alive to the important issues of disproportionality that can be raised. In summary, stop and search is a vital tool. The challenge for the Government and the police is to ensure that the powers are used fairly and with the support of the community, and it is a challenge that I am confident we will meet.

11.30 am Sitting suspended.

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HIV 2.30 pm Mr Edward Leigh (in the Chair): The sitting is resumed. Hon. Members: Hear, hear! David Cairns (Inverclyde) (Lab): That might be the best cheer I get all day. I welcome you to the Chair, Mr Leigh. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship in this important debate. I also thank Mr Speaker for allowing this debate on HIV services in the UK to take place on world AIDS day. I have been in Parliament for nine years, but I am still ignorant about how debates are selected—whether there is a lottery or whether Mr Speaker has a say in the matter. If he does, I thank him; if it was a lottery, I thank the Fates for timetabling this debate on 1 December. I begin with a point of clarification. This is not for the benefit of hon. Members present in the Chamber, as they are well aware of the procedures of this place, but for those who are watching the debate on television or the internet, and those who will read the account of the debate in days to come. This debate will focus mainly on HIV in the UK, but that is not because we think that HIV outside the UK is not a problem, or because we are unaware of the scale of HIV in the developing world. Africa has 10% of the world’s population but 72% of the deaths from AIDS, and we are aware of that. However, parliamentary procedure means that different Departments respond to the debates on different days, and today it is the turn of the Department of Health, not the Department for International Development. Therefore, although an enormous number of points could be raised about the global AIDS epidemic, I will in the main restrict my comments to HIV in the UK. With your indulgence, Mr Leigh, I might also sneak in a few comments about the international scene; I alerted the Minister about that in advance. If colleagues are anxious to hear about the international aspects of the HIV epidemic, I should say that a world AIDS day reception will be held this evening at 7 pm in the CPA Room. You are invited, Mr Leigh, as are all hon. Members, friends and colleagues. Mr Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op): My hon. Friend is performing a service by raising the issue of HIV/AIDS in the UK. Does he also recognise that many people, both inside and outside the country, want to know what the UK Government intend to do about the future funding of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria? That body has an excellent record in getting drugs to people with TB, malaria and particularly AIDS, many of whom are still in desperate need. David Cairns: I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who was a distinguished and long-serving Minister at DFID. In a sense, it is a false dichotomy to say that there is an AIDS epidemic in the UK and an AIDS epidemic in Africa and never the twain shall meet. One of the largest at-risk populations in the UK is the African community––people who come from Africa and are HIV positive, or those who contract the disease in the UK within the African community. I will speak about that in a moment.

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My hon. Friend is correct to highlight the need to address the problem of the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Over the past few years, one of the most effective ways of doing that has been through the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The last Government had a good record in ensuring that the global fund was initiated, then adequately resourced. During the most recent meeting of the fund in October, high, medium and low targets were set for the level of replenishment. Unfortunately, the global community failed to hit the low target, let alone the medium or high targets. I understand why the Government do not come forward and state the exact figures for the replenishment of the fund. Through DFID, they are conducting a multilateral aid review, and until they decide their priorities, they cannot say how much will be made available for the global fund. Until we can provide a figure, I encourage Ministers to let the world know, at least with rhetoric, that we remain committed to the global fund. Much of the world looks to the UK for an international lead in tackling AIDS, and other countries will be looking to our figures for the replenishment of the global fund before making their commitments. The Government have an excellent opportunity to set a global lead. I was going to make those points about the international community at the end of my speech, but I have made them now. Let me return to matters for which the Minister is responsible—she will be pleased to hear that—rather than the rest of the world. I will make three points about how we should respond to the ongoing HIV epidemic in the UK and our public policy priorities. First, I will speak a little about prevention, secondly I will discuss testing and treatment and thirdly I will say something about care and support. Those three things do not exist in isolation; they are not, to use fabled management-speak, in “silos.” One point leads into another, but for the purposes of the debate I will say a little about each issue in turn. The backdrop to this debate is not only the ongoing financial constraints under which all Governments around the world are operating, but the NHS reconstruction and reconfiguration that the Government have embarked on, as well as the messages contained in the public health White Paper, launched yesterday by the Secretary of State. Because the national health service is undergoing a process of change and transition, there is some uncertainty. Until we get answers to some of the questions that we raise, that uncertainty will continue. As I pointed out in the main Chamber this afternoon, although the Minister’s responsibility on such matters is constrained to the NHS in England, the HIV virus does not respect geographical borders. It is incredibly important for the Government to work closely with the devolved Administrations in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast to ensure a coherent, joined-up approach. That is the only way to tackle the virus in a way that will see a reduction in the number of people affected and reverse the rate of increase in new cases of the disease. Therefore, although I am addressing the NHS in England, the message must be heard by those who configure the NHS in the devolved Administrations. I was pleased to hear that the Secretary of State for Scotland will meet the Minister responsible for health in Scotland tomorrow, and will put that important issue on the agenda.

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The first issue that I mentioned was prevention. In the early days of the epidemic, not much was known about the virus. There were no drugs and no effective treatment. Messaging was, by necessity, extensive and untargeted. Those of us old enough will remember the adverts with the collapsing tombstones and the gravelly voice telling us about the new virus—AIDS—and how dangerous it was. We remember the posters and the radio adverts, which were essentially blanket advertising for the whole UK. People debate the relative impact of those messages, but we remember that campaign many years after it happened, so it did have some impact. The situation of those who have HIV in the UK today means that that type of mass media advertising is not perhaps the best way of getting a message to those most at risk. That point was made in the foreword to the “Halve It” document, by Lord Fowler, about which I will speak shortly. Lord Fowler was a distinguished former Secretary of State for Health and Social Security, and he is remembered very fondly by people who work on behalf of and alongside those with HIV and AIDS for the forward-looking approach that he took. As he acknowledges, such mass communication messages are no longer relevant, and the campaign must be more targeted. Will the Minister tell us whether the Government’s strategies on sexual health and HIV propose to target messages on specific, at-risk communities, and particularly but not exclusively on younger gay men, for whom some of the safe sex messages may have been lost in time, and the African community? Those communities are not mutually exclusive, of course, but the messaging to each will have to be different. Particularly now that more heterosexual people are contracting the virus, many of whom are in the African community, there is a pressing need to develop messaging that speaks to that community and to its values and structures, whether through Church or faith networks or whatever, so that we can overcome some of the ignorance and stigma in the black African community in this country. I would be grateful for the Minister’s comments on what she proposes to do about that. Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con) rose— David Cairns: I am happy to give way to a vice-chair of the all-party group on HIV and AIDS. Pauline Latham: Does the hon. Gentleman accept that, in addition, white heterosexual people who perhaps have got divorced recently, after having had a monogamous relationship for many years, are now going out into the world of single dating and getting into a mess because they do not realise that HIV/AIDS is out there in the heterosexual community? Is that not an expanding area that we should also be targeting? David Cairns: The hon. Lady is right. I was saying that the messaging should not go exclusively to gay men and to people in the African community. There must be a message for everyone, but the messaging needs to be differentiated. There will need to be different messages to different people, within relative constraints. I hope that the Minister will deal with her point. There is concern. I am of the generation that came to maturity at the time when the AIDS epidemic—well, I might not have come to maturity yet; it is probably up for debate whether I have reached maturity.

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Mr Thomas: Don’t do yourself down. David Cairns: Yes, I am doing myself down here. I am of the generation that came to adulthood when the virus was making its first big impact, so those messages really stayed with me. I wonder whether that is the same today, particularly, although not exclusively, for young gay men of 17, 18 or 19. We cannot be squeamish about this issue. We must speak a language that they hear and will listen and respond to. I do not expect the Minister necessarily to go into that in detail today, but I want an assurance from her in that regard. I know, particularly given her former career, that she is not squeamish about these things, and we cannot be squeamish when people’s lives are at stake. Of course, one way to prevent the spread of the virus is to ensure that everyone who is HIV-positive knows that they are HIV-positive—knows their status—and is receiving the correct drug treatment. It is not widely appreciated that when someone who is HIV-positive is on the correct level of antiretroviral drug treatment, they become significantly less infectious. I had not appreciated that—I must confess that that was ignorance on my part—until fairly recently. It means that treatment for one person is prevention for another. When an individual is on ARVs and is less infectious, that helps to constrain the spread of the epidemic and when people know their HIV status, it alters their sexual practices. Most of the evidence and studies show that. The more people we can test and the more HIVpositive people who know their status and are receiving the right treatment, the more we will do to prevent the spread of the virus. Jenny Willott (Cardiff Central) (LD) rose— David Cairns: I am happy to give way to another vice-chair of the all-party group. Jenny Willott: I have just had a baby and I was tested automatically for HIV during my pregnancy. Does the hon. Gentleman agree that extending such automatic testing could play a valuable role in identifying cases very early so that people can receive the treatment that, as he said, will not only help them with their own medical needs, but prevent them from spreading the condition? David Cairns: The hon. Lady makes an excellent point. I think that it was my right hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St Pancras (Frank Dobson), when he was Secretary of State for Health, who introduced automatic testing in pregnancy. If we look at the graph, we see that the tail-off is quite astonishing: once opt-out testing was introduced for pregnant women, the numbers of babies being born HIV-positive plummeted. Of course, the issue is not just about babies. Quite often when we are talking about the prevention of mother-to-child transmission, we focus on the baby, but a woman is involved as well. As the hon. Lady rightly says, if a woman’s own HIV-positive status has been diagnosed at the beginning of pregnancy, she can be put on the correct course of ARVs. That is why, in the northern world, mother-to-child transmission has been, if not completely eliminated, massively reduced— because not only ARVs but the correct education about

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[David Cairns] breastfeeding are making an enormous difference. However, almost 500,000 babies born in Africa every year are HIV-positive. That is completely preventable— entirely avoidable. If pregnant women are tested and put on ARVs, they do not need to pass on the virus. It is one of the great scandals of our age that something that is solvable—we have solved it here—could be solved throughout the world with the correct financial support and the political will, but it has not been. Mr Thomas: Is not one of the conclusions that can be drawn from the comments made by the hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott), as well as from my hon. Friend’s point about mother-to-child transmission, that we need to ensure that the Department of Health and DFID work closely together so that the lessons of success in dealing with HIV in this country can be properly worked into our development policy abroad? Is it not therefore a concern that DFID’s HIV/AIDS team seems to have shrunk very small—if indeed any cadre of skills in this area is left in the Department at all? David Cairns: I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He has far greater knowledge of these matters from within DFID than I have. If what he says is true, clearly it is a very worrying development. I was fortunate enough to meet some members of the HIV/AIDS team in DFID a few weeks ago. Whether or not the team is smaller than it used to be, it is certainly very committed. I also met some DFID workers when I was in Kenya a few months ago, and they are doing a tremendous job. It is to the credit of the Government that they have protected the international development budget, but of course there will be reprioritising within that budget. Part of what we are doing as an all-party group is ensuring that these issues are not lost in the reprioritisation. This is what people find very frustrating about the international dimension of this issue. Enormous progress has been made and the tide is beginning to turn. If we withdrew funding or support or lost the political will at this stage, it would be a disaster and a tragedy, not least because in five years’ time we would have to return to the matter, because we could not let the number of deaths and new infections let rip as we saw happen in the 1980s and 1990s. Mr Thomas: Will the all-party group, as part of its thinking about the Government’s multilateral aid review, also consider funding for the new UN women’s agency? I ask that in the context of the comments from a previous UN Secretary-General, who said that AIDS in many parts of the developing world has an increasingly female face and that we need to ensure that we continue to champion efforts to tackle issues relating to gender equality—for many reasons, of course, but in particular to help with the fight against AIDS. David Cairns: My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. The new agency has real potential to make a difference. We are all relieved that some of the world’s appalling, oppressive, anti-women regimes that were muscling in have been set to one side, which will allow the agency to focus on the issues that he mentioned.

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A saying that we hear over and again now in Africa is that the face of the epidemic is female. That is not just because of mother-to-child transmissions, but because of the disempowerment of women and the limiting of women’s ability to make choices about their own sexual and reproductive health. Of course, that is not the case solely in Africa; it is the case elsewhere in the world as well. However, it is a particularly pressing problem in Africa and one that we must not lose sight of. I was talking about the need to ensure that people who are HIV-positive know that they are HIV-positive. That is why the all-party group is pleased to support the Halve It campaign, which is composed of many agencies, clinicians and groups advocating on behalf of people with HIV. It is campaigning to halve the number of late diagnoses by 2015. That is an ambitious target, but the document sets out steps that can be taken to meet it, and I would be grateful for the Minister’s comments on them. Yesterday, I was pleased that when I urged the Secretary of State for Health, while he was making his statement on the public health White Paper in the House, to look at the Halve It campaign, he gave an undertaking to do so and see whether it could form part of the HIV and sexual health strategy. I would be grateful if the Minister confirmed that she will look at the campaign’s document, particularly at the steps that can be taken to halve the numbers of late diagnoses and of those living with undiagnosed HIV by 2015. I shall press on because I know other hon. Members are keen to take part and I want to hear the Minister’s reply. Once a person is diagnosed––I shall speak about some of the hurdles in a moment––the virus changes from being in its potentially lethal undiagnosed state, which poses a wide public health risk due to how it can be transmitted, to being a more normal—I use that word advisedly—long-term managed condition. That brings different challenges with it. One thing that we are looking for in the detail of the NHS restructuring plan is how people will access services in the long-term managed phase of the condition. Who will commission those services, particularly in lowprevalence areas? Until those questions are answered, there will be uncertainty in the community. I want the Minister to answer specifically the question of who will commission HIV services in the new restructured NHS. Will it always be the GP? Is the GP the best placed person to do so? Do GPs have the time and the expertise, particularly in low-prevalence areas? I am sure that GPs in much of London, Brighton, Manchester or Glasgow have the necessary expertise because they have the caseload, but in other areas that might not be the case. Is a one-size-fits-all approach across the NHS the right solution or is something a little more granulated necessary to deal with the full complexity of the issue? We have to face up to the fact that a lot of people who are HIV-positive simply do not want to access services through their local GP. Whether it is wise or unwise, it is understandable in some areas, particularly in smaller towns or villages, where everyone knows everyone else, and you know who works in your GP’s surgery and they know everybody and everything about you. Under those circumstances and given that the stigma prevails, and the myths, misunderstandings and prejudice that people with HIV face, it is understandable that there are those who will not want their status to be known in their own

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community. In evidence put forward yesterday by the National AIDS Trust, we saw how many people face discrimination in the workplace due to their HIV status. AIDS is a complex condition. It affects people physically, emotionally and psychologically. In that complex mix, it is important that the NHS is responsive to that and allows people pathways to treatment that might not always be the same in every place. I would be grateful for the Minister’s views on that.

Jenny Willott: Will the hon. Gentleman also suggest that we need to tackle the stereotypes about the kind of person who might have HIV? That is one issue for people who do not go to their doctor, or who do go but whose GP does not pick up on it. As the hon. Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) mentioned earlier, GPs may not think that a middle-aged, heterosexual white woman is likely to be HIV-positive. We need to tackle those stereotypes.

Mr Russell Brown (Dumfries and Galloway) (Lab): I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. Because stigma is still attached to this condition, people in rural localities, such as mine, will seek advice and help from further afield, thereby distorting the figures on the prevalence of the condition in certain parts of the country.

David Cairns: The hon. Lady is correct. Part of the education of GPs must be about looking at the symptoms, not only what the GP imagines a typical at-risk person would be. Having said that, we need to show that those within high-risk groups of people are being tested as well. The tremendous progress that has been made in testing in the past few years is truly astonishing. Someone can be tested and have the result in less than a minute. I hope that he will not mind me mentioning it, but the hon. Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Simon Kirby) saw this first-hand last night when he received a test through the services provided by the Terrence Higgins Trust in the House, and he had the result in less than a minute. Testing is not the long drawn-out process it was years ago, but can be done much more quickly. Finally, on care and support, people are living longer with the virus, which is a very good thing, but it brings with it challenges and complications—physical, emotional and mental. It is very important that we understand the need to have a strategy for people living longer with HIV. The AIDS support grant is no longer ring-fenced, and I am not arguing that it should be re-ring-fenced, but I am arguing strongly for it to stay within the grants that go to local government as a specified budget line. In that way, local people can hold their local authority to account in exactly the way that the Secretary of State outlined yesterday. It is his belief that local people should be able to see the services being provided for them, and argue for services. If the AIDS support grant disappears as a title altogether and is subsumed into the general pot of money that local government gets, local people will not be empowered to come forward and demand the kind of services for which money is being made available. In conclusion, I hope that the Minister will address some of the concerns about the AIDS support grant and the Government’s vision for it. I hope too that she will be able to calm some of the fears and uncertainties out there on how HIV services are to be commissioned, how they will be accessed, and how they will be supported under the new NHS that the Government have in mind.

David Cairns: My hon. Friend is absolutely right. He represents an area that is not only largely rural but on the borders of Scotland and England, which brings me to the point I mentioned at the very beginning. I imagine that many of his constituents will be accessing HIV services in Carlisle, for all sorts of reasons, but partly due to the stigma still associated with the condition. They do not want to access services in small villages and towns. Ultimately, we have to get to a situation in which there is no stigma, prejudice or discrimination and people can happily access GP services for a long-term managed condition, as people with diabetes, asthma and other long-term managed conditions can. Until such a time, we have to be sensitive to these issues. Another reason why people are wary about always accessing services through GPs is the lack of awareness and understanding that many GPs demonstrate. Part of the reason why we have so many late diagnoses is that GPs do not pick up the telltale signs often enough. An alarming number of people had seen their GP on many occasions during the 12 months before they were eventually diagnosed as HIV-positive, and it was not picked up that they might have been HIV-positive. An astonishing number of people had been in-patients in the 12 months preceding their diagnosis; they were almost certainly HIV-positive while they were in hospital, but it was not picked up. A lady recently got in touch with the all-party group—a middle-aged, professional, white lady—who had suffered serious recurrent health problems for two years and had seen numerous clinicians, including a GP on many occasions, before anyone thought to offer her an HIV test, which brings me back to the point that the hon. Member for Cardiff Central made. That lady was a textbook case: she had every symptom and yet her GP never thought to offer her an HIV test. That is clearly happening across the country, which explains why we have 22,000 people who are HIV-positive, but do not know it. It is not the case that none of them ever visits their doctor—they regularly visit their GPs, perhaps they even go into hospital as in-patients, and yet their status is not picked up. That is a public health disaster because the ability of those people to infect others is much greater than it would be if they were receiving the correct course of ARVs. We need assurance that, within the restructuring, GPs will get very good guidelines and necessary training, and be encouraged to offer people an HIV test in the routine manner suggested earlier, to tackle undiagnosed HIV.

Mr Edward Leigh (in the Chair): Order. Five Back Benchers have intimated that they wish to take part. I intend to call the wind-ups at about 3.30 pm. Hon. Members can do the maths, so I ask for brief speeches from now on. 3 pm Mike Weatherley (Hove) (Con): I congratulate the hon. Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns) on securing this important debate, whether by skill or fortune. The Hove and Brighton area has one the highest rates of HIV in the UK. Many of my constituents live with the virus, and others have friends and colleagues that do so. It is a great privilege to speak up for them on any day, but especially on world AIDS day.

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I wish to make two clear points. First, HIV does not always conform to stereotypes. HIV does not affect only young men on the gay scene, or people in or from Africa. As we heard earlier, it also affects white, middle-aged and older straight men and women. Until politicians, policy makers, doctors and the general public take that fact on board, dealing with HIV will continue to be hard work. Secondly, 26% of all who live with HIV in the United Kingdom are undiagnosed. Tackling this must be a priority. In Brighton and Hove City primary care trust, about 450 people are HIV positive without knowing it. The Government and local services must do everything that they can to bring the number down, and I am determined to do what I can to support the NHS at the local level in this task. My two earlier points are linked, because it is precisely those who are not in what are known as high-risk groups who get diagnosed the latest. Heterosexual men have the worst rates of late diagnosis, at 65%. That is possibly because they are less likely to consider themselves at risk, as we heard earlier, and unlike women they will never be tested in ante-natal settings. It could also be because clinicians may not consider them to be at risk. Heterosexual men over 50 years old have the worst rates of diagnosis; 73% of those not diagnosed until over the age of 50 are diagnosed late. HIV comes in many shapes and sizes. At 54%, more than half of new diagnoses in 2009 were among heterosexuals, something that surprised me when researching for the debate. At 51%, more than half of HIV-diagnosed individuals accessing HIV care in 2009 were infected through heterosexual sex. The proportion of heterosexual diagnoses in which people are believed to have been infected in the UK has risen year on year throughout the epidemic. From 2003 to 2007 it doubled from 12% to 24%, and it continues to rise. It is now about 32%. The over-50s represent one in five of all adults seen for HIV care in 2009. That is due to an ageing cohort of people diagnosed previously, as well as an increase in new diagnoses among older people. I dwell for a moment on the growing cohort of people of more than 50 years of age that live with HIV. This cohort will be bringing new needs to the NHS, and it should be ready for them. As people get older, they see more of their GPs. Many older people living with HIV suffer side effects from treatment; overall, they report twice as many other long-term non-HIV conditions as their non-HIV positive peers. As a consequence, they need to spend more time in health care, including primary health-care settings, than their peers. That makes their relationship with non-HIV specialist doctors almost as important as their relationship with HIV doctors. The Terrence Higgins Trust surveyed about 400 people aged over 50. It found that

are among the best in the world. However, we must not be complacent, as parts of the NHS in our area will be less HIV-aware, as we heard earlier. I urge the Minister to work with her colleagues, the all-party group on HIV and AIDS and charities such as the Terrence Higgins Trust to tackle the problem. Training for GPs and surgery staff could be one way to do so. Medical care is not the only service needed by older people. In the same Terrence Higgins survey, fewer than one in 12 older people with HIV said that they would approach a mainstream organisation for older people for support. Age UK and the Terrence Higgins Trust are working to change attitudes and to improve understanding of HIV in mainstream social care and social networks for older people. Again, I hope that the Minister will listen to the views of people living with HIV as her Department moves to create a social care system fit for the 21st century. I turn next to late and undiagnosed HIV. Of all adults diagnosed with HIV in 2009, 52% were diagnosed late, when their CD4 count dropped below 350. People with the worst rates of late diagnosis are over the 50s. Recent research suggests that the majority of those people will have had previous contact with their doctors. Late diagnosis, whatever the age, is a problem; if treatment is not started promptly, it can do serious damage to the body and severely cut life expectancy. HIV treatment is excellent, and if diagnosed promptly, one can live to an old age. It is not right that some of my constituents will not have this opportunity by being diagnosed too late to benefit from it. It even makes financial sense to treat people early; it is much cheaper to have people someone stable on HIV treatment than it is to treat them for the endlessly recurring serious conditions that can result from undiagnosed HIV. HIV treatment also reduces viral load; as a result, those who are diagnosed and on treatment are less likely to pass on the virus. Now is the time, while we are focusing on public health and while we are worrying about public finances, to take action to tackle late diagnosis and undiagnosed HIV. I am proud to say that people in Brighton and Hove are not sitting back waiting for someone to come up with a solution but are already working hard to tackle the problem. There have been two pilot studies in our area looking into ways of reducing undiagnosed HIV, using clinicians in the area. Of 596 people tested, only two positives were found. However, even more people were identified through an anonymous survey done by the university of Brighton. I urge as many people as possible to be tested, because of the 3,872 anonymous tests 54 were positive. My constituency is proof that HIV can affect anybody, whatever their background, age or sexuality. As more people with HIV grow to old age, we must ensure that they receive services of which we can be proud. Such services should include prompt diagnosis.

“respondents repeatedly told stories of discrimination, ignorance and poor clinical treatment in generalist healthcare, particularly in primary settings.”

3.6 pm

The survey concluded that there was important work to be done to address HIV discrimination in primary care settings, as doctors there may not be so familiar with people that have the virus. In Hove and in Brighton, we have some of the most HIV-aware clinicians in the country, and our specialists

Ian Austin (Dudley North) (Lab): I am delighted to take part in this debate. First, it gives me the opportunity to congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns) not only on securing the debate but on the important work that he does in chairing the all-party group on HIV and AIDS. Secondly, it gives me the

[Mike Weatherley]

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opportunity to recommend to the Minister the work of Summit House Support. It is a fantastic charity, led by its chair Claire Pennell and its chief executive Suzanne Callen; for the last 18 years, the organisation has provided phenomenal services and support for people with HIV and AIDS in Dudley and Sandwell. Thirdly, it gives me the opportunity to thank the Minister and her Department for the support that Summit House receives from the Department of Health through the Dudley and Sandwell primary care trusts. Finally, it gives me the opportunity to raise a number of points that I know are of interest to the staff at Summit House Support and those who work in the field. I am delighted that the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government has written to local authorities promising to increase spending on AIDS support over the next 10 years—I understand by £10.5 million. Is the Minister able to tell us how organisations in the HIV sector such as Summit House Support can safeguard the way in which local authorities decide to spend their grants? Will there be criteria for allocation, a needs assessment or some sort of ring-fencing process that considers the real needs of those with HIV? We have heard that is often a hidden group, so it needs to be done through specialist agencies, and it is fair to say that some of those working in the field are extremely concerned that money could be sidelined for other uses by local authorities if things are not monitored correctly. As my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde said, people living with HIV are worried about the GP commissioning proposals now being considered. HIV is clearly a specialist area, and GPs historically have not had much interaction with those who have to live with it. In some cases, there is not the relationship of trust that should exist. Many people living with HIV are genuinely frightened or concerned about the proposals. The current sexual health strategy will end shortly. What plans do the Government have to write a new strategy, given that the sexual health agenda has changed since 2004? Has the Minister also considered the extent to which NHS employees are routinely trained in HIV routes of transmission? I understand from the service users I met at Summit house that staff who have received such training and who understand the facts about transmission and infection are likely to be able to deal with people infected with HIV more effectively than those who have not had such training. Does the Minister think that training in HIV routes of transmission should be incorporated into employees’ standard training if is not already part of it? Finally, would the Minister be prepared to visit Dudley to see first hand the fantastic work done at Summit house? If her diary does not allow her to do that, would she be prepared to let me bring people from Summit house to meet her in London? 3.10 pm Stuart Andrew (Pudsey) (Con): May I say what a pleasure it is to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Leigh? I congratulate the hon. Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns). I am rather reassured that, after seven years, he does not know how these debates are chosen, because I certainly do not have a clue after seven months.

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This is a significant day. It is a day to remember those who are no longer with us, it is a day to acknowledge and pay tribute to those who have worked so hard on this issue and, crucially, it is a day to raise awareness. On the first of those issues, the scars on those who have lost people, particularly in the early years, are clearly raw. Thankfully, I do not know anybody who has died from AIDS, but I have friends who do, and they recall the pain and suffering vividly. It is important that we remember those who have died and acknowledge their suffering. There is a wonderful quote in the film “Philadelphia”, where someone says that social death precedes physical death. That was certainly true in the early days, but I hope that things will get a lot better as time goes on. It is important, however, to look at how far we have come. This is also a day to acknowledge those who have done so much. I pay tribute to each and every person and organisation for their work. There are too many organisations to mention, but I would like to pay tribute to the National AIDS Trust and the Terrence Higgins Trust. I would also like to mention two individuals. The first is the chief executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, Sir Nick Partridge, who is here. He has done a tremendous amount of work over the years, and he should be acknowledged. The second is Lord Fowler, and I was pleased last night when he was acknowledged for the work that he did in the very early years. Perhaps most importantly, today gives us an opportunity to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS here and abroad. I know that we are concentrating on the UK today, but I hope that we will have an opportunity to talk about the issues abroad, because they are significant. The latest figures from the Health Protection Agency show that more people than ever are living with HIV. Last year, there were more than 6,000 new diagnoses, which is fewer than the year before, but only slightly. That emphasises that this is still a major problem. As many Members have mentioned, statistics also show that slightly more than half of new diagnoses are among heterosexuals, but the rate of infection in the gay community is still very high. Worryingly, there is an increase in diagnoses among those over 50, as my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Derbyshire (Pauline Latham) rightly said. We have also heard about the quarter of people with HIV who are undiagnosed. That is a huge problem, which really needs addressing. I represent a constituency in Leeds, where the prevalence of HIV cases is average for England, with about 850 people receiving treatment and care in the city. Again, however, many of those people have been diagnosed very late, which highlights the need for early diagnosis. We also have a growing African population in the city, and there is a real link between HIV abroad and in the UK, as more and more people move around the world. In addition, we have one of the most vibrant gay scenes in Yorkshire, and I hope that we can encourage as much focus as possible on those two groups, because prevention really is the key. It is important to mention the campaigns of the 1980s. The Conservative Government of the mid-1980s faced a massive challenge on an emerging issue, and even the best experts were learning day to day. Those campaigns were scary. I was at school at the time, but I

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[Stuart Andrew] remember them, and they still have an impact on me. As the hon. Gentleman said, those old campaigns were not exactly targeted, but they were highly effective. Developments in medicine these days mean that people with HIV can expect to live well into old age. This generation could be forgiven for thinking that the problem has gone away, and that is a big problem, particularly in the young, at-risk groups. In the 1980s, HIV had already taken root among gay men in this country. Meanwhile, a devastating HIV/AIDS epidemic was about to take off in Africa, with inevitable consequences for this country and others. It is now estimated that, by 2012, there could be close to 100,000 people with the virus in this country. That is a tenfold increase on the 1980s figures, so the problem has not gone away. I pay tribute to groups such as CHAPs, which have worked with community groups all over the country, and I am lucky that we have such groups in my constituency. [Interruption.] I notice, however, that I need to get a move on, so I will get rid of some of the pages of my speech. Let me quickly say that I am delighted that we are highlighting some of the work that has been done over the past few years, although I should emphasise that work still needs to be done to save lives. There needs to be foreign aid, education and greater testing. Let me also say how happy I am that HIV and sexual health have featured highly in the public health White Paper, and that is important. It is also important that we acknowledge the problem in socially disadvantaged cases. Finally, there is no one silver bullet when it comes to preventing HIV transmission, but we can, through a range of interventions, start to reverse this epidemic. Like the Government of the 1980s, the coalition faces a considerable challenge in tackling HIV. Unlike that Government, however, the coalition can draw on 25 years of experience in dealing with the epidemic and in understanding what works and what does not. I wish them well. 3.17 pm Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns) on securing a debate on such an important topic. HIV policy has long been close to my heart, and it is a pleasure to be able to speak in the debate. It is important that I can speak on an issue that affects my constituency so greatly. Although we are discussing the effects of HIV in the UK, we cannot do so in isolation; we need to discuss many global issues as well, and I am sure that we will have an opportunity to do so. Today, however, I want to address issues relating to the UK and particularly to my constituency. Ealing primary care trust has the seventh highest prevalence of HIV in a country that has more people living with the disease than ever before. Rates of new infections in the UK remain high, and, as my hon. Friend said, the number of over-50s infected with HIV trebled between 2000 and 2009. It is obvious that a new policy has to be developed to deal with these pressing new issues. One of the most important factors in this complex issue, which we must acknowledge straight away, is diagnosis. Roughly one in four people with HIV in

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Ealing do not even know that they have it. That is roughly the same ratio as at the national level. When HIV is discovered early, people can be treated and go on to live normal lives with near-normal life expectancies. On the other hand, late diagnosis leads to more AIDSrelated illnesses, increased pressure on the NHS and a higher rate of onwards transmission. We have too high a rate of diagnoses being made at a point when treatment should already have started. As hon. Members have said, in 2009 52% of people diagnosed with HIV were diagnosed too late, and 73% of those who died were diagnosed too late as well. What can we do to ensure early diagnosis for all cases of HIV? The Health Protection Agency believes that all new members of GP surgeries in PCTs with high prevalence rates, including Ealing, should be offered an HIV test. We need to go further, and provide incentives to GPs and other health care workers to encourage HIV testing. We also need to improve antenatal testing. We already have good provision for HIV testing of unborn babies. Even though one in 450 women who give birth is HIV-positive, only 30 babies born last year had the virus. However, we could go further. I want to comment briefly on the growing link between HIV cases and mental health. Obviously, meeting the mental health needs of a population is important in itself, but concentrating on people with HIV can have a particularly beneficial effect, both clinically and in costeffectiveness. People with depression have a more adverse reaction to their HIV treatment in general. It is cheaper for the NHS to invest in 10 sessions with a clinical psychologist than to pay for costly treatments further down the line because someone did not take the initial treatment properly. Those sufferers receiving the right psychological support are less likely to miss their medication, more likely to react positively to treatment, and less likely to pass on the disease by engaging in unsafe sex; such aspects of the matter can cost more in the long run if the right support is not established immediately on diagnosis. It is therefore important for the Department of Health to integrate HIV sufferers into long-term mental health strategies. Although I am pleased that drugs for HIV sufferers will be ring-fenced in the health budget, social care and protection for HIV sufferers, which is often provided through local authorities, will not be. Social services are hugely important for people with HIV, and a squeeze on their budget is likely to have a detrimental effect on the mental health status of many HIV sufferers and cost much more in the long term. I am aware that through the CSR an announcement was made of an increased allocation to social care for people with HIV. I now want the Department of Health to inform local authorities of their likely budgets as soon as possible, so that councillors can start to plan a thorough care plan for people living with HIV. Only through that long-term planning for mental health cases, more social care and a greater push for early diagnosis can we really start to tackle the problem of HIV in this country, and ensure that nothing stops people with HIV living normal lives. 3.23 pm Pauline Latham (Mid Derbyshire) (Con): I am delighted to be speaking under your chairmanship, Mr Leigh, and I congratulate the hon. Member for Inverclyde

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(David Cairns) on obtaining this timely debate on world AIDS day. What is good about the debate is the unanimity between the parties. We often have heated debates, but we all appreciate the importance of today’s debate for people suffering from HIV/AIDS. Now that the recent tough economic choices have been laid on the table, we are able to take an opportunity to review what is and is not working in the UK and try to make improvements. HIV/AIDS is a serious virus that poses a risk not only for those who are already suffering from it but also those around them. The ease of transmission of the disease means that, if we do not bring the number who have it back down from 83,000 or so, we run the possibility of letting the virus dictate our actions, instead of taking pre-emptive measures. Unfortunately, as a member of the Select Committee on International Development, I have seen at first hand that once the virus gets into sections of society where it becomes more prevalent, it can, left unchecked, destroy countless lives and families. Britain is a world-leader in international development, and central in the international community’s voice and actions against HIV/AIDS worldwide. However, to be a credible voice and to make an inroad into the virus worldwide we need a credible tactic of beating the virus at home. Funding has been flatlining in recent years and we risk, if we are not careful, losing more than two decades of progress that has been made in fighting the epidemic. The White Paper offers more flexibility to the health service, by offering GPs more control over the budgets that they inherit and how they spend the money allocated to them. Perhaps outlining the financial rewards of early screening will help to strengthen the argument. The Health Protection Agency recently estimated that the prevention of one new HIV infection saves the public purse between £280,000 and £360,000 in direct lifetime health care costs. That is a staggering amount per new diagnosed case. In 2008, had all of the UK’s 3,550 acquired infections been prevented it would have saved approximately £1.1 billion in direct health care costs. Alternatively, we can look at the money that could be made, not saved, by early diagnosis. People living with HIV who have an early diagnosis can contribute wealth to the nation by staying in work for longer and therefore paying more in taxes; they are able to manage their health better, which results in their taking fewer days off sick. They can plan for their financial future so as not to require incapacity benefit in such large numbers, and by having quick access to antiretroviral drugs they can ensure that they do not require full-time carers, who are often family members, for so long. That means that their family can go out and work and contribute to the national purse. Of course, financial reward is not the only benefit of diagnosing HIV early. The significant social benefits to early diagnosis are equally if not more important. For instance, a 35-year-old male diagnosed early with HIV, and with quick access to antiretroviral therapy, would now be expected to live to 72—only a few years less than someone who would be deemed a perfectly healthy man. Early diagnosis enables people who are HIV-positive to take positive steps in protecting others through safe sex. A recent study of newly diagnosed HIV-positive

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men who have sex with men reported that 76% had eliminated the risk of onward transmission three months after diagnosis. If the test comes back negative, of course, it allows the recipient a wake-up call and a chance to change their habits and think about the risks that they have been taking. In that way they are more than likely to help to prevent a future case of HIV in the UK. Early diagnosis also allows the correct antiretroviral drugs to be prescribed. That in turn reduces the viral load and subsequently reduces the chances of transmitting HIV. By giving people the opportunity to take quick and effective measures against the virus we are putting them back in charge of their lives; they are not having their lives dictated by HIV. I should like the Minister to take note that women, and indeed men, who have been raped should automatically be monitored to ensure that if they suffer from HIV/AIDS it will be diagnosed extremely early; that is not something that they have chosen. The truth of the matter is that the male gay community and the black African community are most susceptible to HIV infection owing to cultural sexual practice. There is a role for civil society in bringing UK levels of HIV down by bringing early diagnosis to those groups and deconstructing the stigma attached to screening for the virus. Everyone gets scared, intimidated and embarrassed from time to time and those natural feelings might be a barrier, preventing people in those at-risk communities from seeking early diagnosis. Coming out of the financial turmoil of the past few years, it is important that we should take every opportunity that is given to us to make positive changes to the previous norm. We have the opportunity to put early screening at the heart of the public health White Paper and to create a social practice in which the stigma of screening is broken down through the participation of civil society. However, I believe that there is only one mention of HIV/AIDS in the White Paper. I simply ask that we do not let the opportunity slip away. Positive changes to the current HIV strategy can and should be made: most importantly, they need to be made. 3.29 pm Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab): I am pleased to have the opportunity to speak in this important debate on world AIDS day, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns) on securing the debate. Let us remember that some people who are suffering from HIV/AIDS, or suspect that they are, will have supportive partners, be in supportive communities and face the future with some positivity. Many, however, will be very frightened and very alone. It is a good thing that we in this Chamber can openly debate this issue and its ramifications, because it will reassure not just communities, activists and lobbyists but individuals who may read and see the debate this afternoon. We must remember that we have moved some way since the early frightening adverts in the 1980s. No one who saw those adverts, with the tombstones collapsing and the voice of doom, has ever forgotten them. We should congratulate Norman Fowler on taking up the cause and using the power of his Department to put it in front of the public.

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[Ms Diane Abbott] When we look at some of the indices around HIV/AIDS, we see that there has been an increase in HIV testing among gay men. Testing rose from 58% in 1997 to 72% in 2008. We have seen a plateau in new diagnoses among gay men, and we now see a consistently high rate of condom use among them—at least nine out of 10 now use condoms. The fact that we have seen such progress is partly a tribute to the people who took up the issue all those years ago. It is also a continuing tribute to the communities, activists and health providers who provide both care and commitment, and we need to acknowledge that today in this debate. However, there is still some way to go. How we go forward on HIV/AIDS will be a test of the reorganisation of both the NHS and public health that has been announced in recent months. In principle, I do not think that anyone in this Chamber is opposed to the reorganisation, but it is just this sort of issue, which is not consistent across the country, that is not necessarily well represented in GPs’ lists and has different levels of information across the country; there may not be as much information in rural areas as there is in Brighton and London. That will be a test of the reorganisation’s effectiveness. We know that AIDS can affect anyone, and that apart from the gay community the largest community affected by HIV/AIDS is that made up of black African men and women; currently, 38% of new HIV diagnosis is among that group. The stigma attached to HIV in that community cannot be overstated, and it very much hampers efforts to reach out to people and achieve early diagnosis. The problem among black African men and women— and among other groups, as well—is that they present late and are therefore diagnosed late. That not only gives them a poor prognosis; it means that the cost of treatment is much more expensive than it need be. That is true of any individual or any group that presents late. Another issue with black African men is that even though they may be having sex with men, they refuse to consider themselves as gay. They think that HIV is something for the gay community and not for them, so they end up presenting very late indeed. They are more likely to be undiagnosed and to live in areas in which a relatively high proportion of the population are not on their GP’s list, so they are not really interacting with the authorities. I should like to use this debate to stress the importance of educational and informative work generally and with the black and African community in particular. We must do more with the Churches, because that is probably the most effective way to reach those groups. Any Sunday morning, there will more people in African-led churches in Hackney than at any political party meetings for 12 months of the year. We need to normalise testing and offer it in a much wider range of settings—not just for black and African men and women, but for the population as a whole. I was routinely tested when I had my son 19 years ago and thought nothing of it. We need to make testing more routine so that people do not think, “If I go for this test, it will badge me as someone at risk.” Universal testing may well be a step too far, but we need to make testing available in a wider range of contexts.

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My hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde said that he did not want to talk about international issues, but given that 38% of new HIV diagnosis is among black African men and women, I do not apologise for raising the issue of funds for the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. I know that that is not a matter for the Minister and I do not expect her to respond on the specific point. None the less, will she pass on to her colleagues the very concerning fact that the global fund is £13 billion short of what it needs? If the UK was to raise its pledged amount in line with France and other western European countries, the fund would be able to go to private sector donors such as the Gates Foundation and reach the amount of money it needs. In that context, I should like to mention—again, I do not expect the Minister to respond on this point—that in the next few weeks we will have EU trade talks with India in Brussels. There is a great concern that as a consequence of the trade talks, India might not be able to produce the cheap generic drugs that have played such a huge role in the fight against AIDS in Africa. That would be a blow not so much for Indian industry, but for the millions of people in Africa who have benefited from access to cheap generic drugs. HIV/AIDS is no longer a death sentence, which is good news. Thanks to new drugs, research and greater understanding, people are now living with HIV. As one of my hon. Friends said earlier, we have 65,390 people in the community living with HIV. In fact, it is increasing faster among the over-50s than among any other group, which raises new issues that were not considered in the era of the adverts with the crashing tombstones and the voice from above. My hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, Southall (Mr Sharma) mentioned the issue of depression and how that interconnects with sufferers of HIV/AIDS and the support that they need in relation to that. There are ongoing concerns about care and support that were not an issue 20 years ago. If we are to offer sufferers from HIV/AIDS equity of health care and, as far as possible, a good quality of life, we must consider care and support, within the new health service and local authority structures, as we have not in the past. As I said at the start of my remarks, the reorganisation of the commissioning of health care and of the public health service will be tested by this issue. Many ordinary people on the ground will judge the reorganisation by how issues such as this are dealt with. I stress, as my hon. Friends have stressed, the importance of a national strategy. We need to consider how it can go forward under the new arrangements. Will the Minister tell us who will be responsible for commissioning and funding the information work that is needed now more than ever—in particular, the specific education work that goes into the communities that I have mentioned? Who will be responsible for commissioning preventive work, care, treatment and support? I will listen with interest to the Minister’s responses to those questions. I welcome the new public health arrangements in principle. Public health has been a core activity of local government since the 19th century and so, as a former local councillor, I am glad that public health has “come home” to local authorities. However, because I know

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local authorities and how they work, I want to be convinced that it is possible effectively to ring-fence the public health funds that they will receive. I imagine that what some local authorities will do—or will be tempted to do, conceiving themselves to be under financial pressure—is to rebadge existing work in the areas of social care and environmental health as public health expenditure, and the new funds that all of us in Westminster Hall imagine are there for public health will melt away in the current climate. So this will be a test, as much as anything else, of how far it is possible effectively to ring-fence public health funds once they fall to local authorities. Then there is GP commissioning, and the issue of HIV/AIDS will be a test of that system. The important thing with GP commissioning is that GPs should commission for their community and not for their list. As an east end Member of Parliament, I know that there are many public health issues that manifest themselves more extensively among people who are not actually on GPs’ lists, for a whole number of reasons. Tuberculosis is a case in point. A disproportionately high number of people who suffer from TB are not on a GP’s list, for a number of reasons. HIV will be a test of the extent to which GP commissioning consortia will commission for the community as a whole and not just for the people who are on GPs’ lists and present themselves for treatment. It will be important to know what will happen to some of the survey work that is carried out by organisations such as the London Health Observatory; I had a meeting with representatives of that organisation this morning. That survey work is the only way of seeing what the trends are in issues such as HIV. It is easy for us to say this afternoon that 43% of HIV/AIDS sufferers are in London, many more are in Brighton and so on. However, we live in a globalised environment and there are trends and changes. Only survey work—not only national survey work, but sometimes precise survey work—can track what is really happening with HIV/AIDS. Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP): I understand that some of the figures that have been released in the past year for those who have just been diagnosed with HIV show that it is not just a young person’s disease any more; it also affects those who are 50-plus or 55-plus. I wonder whether the hon. Lady is aware of that. If she is, what does she feel should be done to address that issue of those in an older age bracket who are now succumbing to the disease? Ms Abbott: That is an important point, and it is one that I touched on earlier. It shows that anyone can find themselves— 3.42 pm Sitting suspended for a Division in the House. 3.51 pm On resuming— Ms Abbott: In conclusion, I congratulate all those who have campaigned, worked and raised consciousness on this issue over 20-odd years. Improvements have been made, partly through the efforts of communities and campaigners and partly through the commitment

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of people in the House, but we face new challenges due to the reorganisation of the NHS and the fact that a generation of people are now living with AIDS. I look to the Minister to answer some of the questions asked in this debate, particularly about how the reorganisation will affect the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and to reassure us that the information needed in a range of communities will be publicised. I will listen with interest to her response. 3.52 pm The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anne Milton): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Leigh; I do not believe that I have been in this position before. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Inverclyde (David Cairns) for securing this debate. I congratulate him on his chairmanship of the all-party parliamentary group on HIV and AIDS, and I congratulate the group itself on continuing to raise awareness in Parliament, in the UK and internationally. Today, as we all know, is world AIDS day, so this debate is timely; I believe that Mr Speaker has some influence over when debates occur. It is an opportunity to reflect on what we have achieved, where we stand and the challenges ahead, many of which have been mentioned. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Pudsey (Stuart Andrew) for his gracious comment that this is a chance for us to pay tribute to those whom we have lost along the way to the present improvements in life expectancy for those with HIV/AIDS. A dear friend, Eric, with whom I worked in the 1980s, died from AIDS; I am sure that many of us know people who lost their lives. It is so tragic when we consider the advances made. The hon. Member for Inverclyde focused on the situation in the UK. The hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington (Ms Abbott) mentioned the global situation. It is important to note that the number of new infections decreased by 19% between 2009 and 2001. Today, more than 5 million people have access to life-saving antiretrovirals. That is more than a thirteenfold increase in five years, but significant challenges remain. More than 33 million people are living with HIV, 2.1 million children are infected and the World Health Organisation estimates that at least 10 million people still need treatment. There is a great deal more to be done, and no room for complacency. I would like to mention my noble Friend Lord Fowler, and welcome the announcement of next year’s inquiry into HIV and AIDS. Like the hon. Member for Inverclyde, I am old enough to remember when the disease came on the scene. A great friend of mine, a professor of virology who went over to the States, came back and said that it was extraordinary to see an acquired deficiency, as the disease’s name suggests. He talked about a curious illness that people were getting. At that time, a tremendous amount of work was being done by many people, not least my noble Friend, to fight HIV/AIDS. It is still a powerful model for public health campaigns; we cannot forget those tombstones. Such images enabled a lot of the preventive work from which we still benefit. I reassure the hon. Member for Inverclyde that mass communication had an effect. The rate of sexually transmitted diseases decreased across the board. However, he also mentioned targeted messages, which is where we need to focus our efforts.

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[Anne Milton] Although prevalence is relatively low in the UK population as a whole, some groups are disproportionately affected, including men who have sex with men, and black African communities. In 2009, they accounted for 42% and 36% respectively of the 65,000 individuals living with diagnosed HIV infection. However, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hove (Mike Weatherley) rightly pointed out, stereotypes are dangerous, and the figures that I have quoted must be used with caution. 3.56 pm Sitting suspended for a Division in the House. 4.4 pm On resuming— Anne Milton: My hon. Friend the Member for Hove also mentioned the specific problems with late diagnosis, which I shall return to. The outlook for most people with HIV in the UK is more positive than it used to be, and the vast majority can now plan for their future with a great deal more certainty, which is to be welcomed. We must not forget that we have the dedicated work of many scientists around the world to thank for that, along with action from Governments from both sides of the House. However, challenges remain. As Members have pointed out, despite our successes, a quarter of people with HIV do not know that they are infected and so are unable to benefit from the treatment available, and they can unwittingly infect others. Around half of the newly diagnosed infections are diagnosed late, after the point at which people should have started treatment. The hon. Member for Ealing, Southall (Mr Sharma) raised that as an ongoing and growing problem, along with the fact that many of the people affected have serious mental health problems. The mental health and well-being of people with HIV and AIDS is seldom mentioned, but it is extremely important to recognise. I share the concerns raised in the debate about the need to reduce the number of people with HIV who are undiagnosed or diagnosed late. We need to increase testing, especially in those areas that have a higher prevalence of HIV. We have seen a good uptake of HIV testing in sexual health clinics and antenatal settings, but all health care professionals need to be alert to the importance of offering appropriate HIV tests. Ms Abbott: Does the Minister have any practical proposals for increasing testing, such as different contexts in which it can occur? Anne Milton: I thank the hon. Lady for raising that point, which is important. I will return to it later in my remarks. The hon. Member for Cardiff Central (Jenny Willott) mentioned the automatic testing when she had her baby. The Department of Health has funded eight pilot projects, which have now been completed, that looked at the feasibility and, importantly, acceptability of providing an HIV test as part of routine services offered to newly registered adults. I am encouraged by the findings from those projects, which confirm that offering HIV tests in GP practices, hospitals and community settings is acceptable to patients.

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The pilots picked up a significant number of previously undiagnosed people in high prevalence areas. It is good news that people are happy to be tested, because it means that we can pick up cases of HIV that would otherwise be missed. We are working on the best approaches to expand HIV testing in a variety of settings and, as the hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington said, that is really important. If a wide variety of settings was available, a GP practice is not necessarily where people would go for a test—far from it, I would say. I am also pleased to note that, thanks to the leadership and drive of local HIV clinicians and others, findings from the pilots in Brighton, Lewisham and Leicester have now been embedded in local practice, which is to be congratulated. The Health Protection Agency will publish its final report on the pilots early next year, which many people will look forward to seeing. We need to see what we can do to put into practice what we have learnt. It is vital to increase testing for HIV, as it is for a number of sexually transmitted diseases, so we continue to fund targeted programmes for the groups most at risk from HIV in the UK. We have also funded the Medical Foundation for AIDS and Sexual Health to provide training resources for health care professionals in secondary care. I would like to thank the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin), who kindly sent me a note to explain that he has had to leave the debate, for raising the work of Summit House Support. We will be looking at the findings of the pilots I have mentioned, and I would certainly not like to miss an opportunity to go to Dudley, should the opportunity arise, to have a look at what Summit House Support is doing. For HIV, as for all STIs, prevention remains the most important response. In the UK, the majority of HIV infections are sexually transmitted, and the vast majority of those could have been prevented; that is a message that we really must hang on to. 4.9 pm Sitting suspended for a Division in the House. 4.15 pm On resuming— Anne Milton: We need to ensure that safer sex messages are clearly communicated and understood by all. I think that we also have to clamp down a bit on irresponsible marketing. I have been approached by those who are unhappy about the promotion of DVDs and other material promoting “bareback” sex. We need to address such issues and I know that a lot of people and organisations, such as the Terrence Higgins Trust, are doing all they can to stop the promotion of such material. To those who are most at risk of HIV in the UK, I say that the Government work very closely in partnership with the Terrence Higgins Trust, the African Health Network and a huge number of other voluntary and community groups. Yesterday we published a White Paper on public health and later this month we will publish a number of supporting documents, including a public health outcomes framework. We will be thinking about what the best outcomes might be for HIV and they will be included in

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that document. I know that Members will look at that document with care and feed back to us their feelings on it. In the spring, we will publish a position paper on sexual health which will, of course, include HIV. That paper will take into account many of the issues that have emerged this afternoon. David Cairns: I will let the Minister catch her breath and I appreciate that we are really up against the clock. She says that there will be a position paper in the spring. Does she envisage that that will lead to a full new HIV strategy, or will it just remain a position paper? Anne Milton: No, it will be a sexual health strategy. The Government and the NHS need to play their part, and we need to support individuals to make responsible lifestyle choices. We continue to provide the very best HIV treatment services, but others have a role to play and they are often better placed than the Government to make a difference. The hon. Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington mentioned the role of churches in that regard and they can have a significant impact. Voluntary community groups, industry, responsible media, churches and faith groups all have a part to play. That collaboration is so important in tackling stigma and discrimination, which is still a very real issue for many people affected by HIV. That is particularly important within those communities who find sexual health issues more challenging than other communities. Stigma means that people refuse tests, do not take precautions and do not go for treatment. I was delighted to see that the Prime Minister highlighted the issue of stigma in his world AIDS day podcast. Tackling HIV is everyone’s business and we can all make a difference to reduce stigma, reduce new infections and enable people living with HIV to lead full and productive lives.

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The hon. Member for Inverclyde raised issues about global funds. I am sure that he will also raise those issues with my colleagues in the Department for International Development. However, as my ministerial brief also covers EU health, it may be of note for him to realise that such issues are recognised by many people within Europe and across the world, and we continue to work both nationally—within our own member states—and internationally, because collectively we can do a great deal to help each other. The hon. Gentleman also said that generally a onesize-fits-all approach does not work and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hove said, anonymous testing and treatment is often crucial. We will announce our commissioning intentions soon. However, the hon. Gentleman’s point is well made. I think that it was the hon. Member for Dumfries and Galloway (Mr Brown) who mentioned the issue of commissioning services in rural areas, which poses particular challenges and very real problems. It is absolutely crucial that we get that commissioning right. We will announce our intentions soon and I hope that they will address some of the points that he raised. We need to talk about sex. We need to talk about people’s sexual health. We need to talk about people’s responsibilities in looking after their sexual health, and we all have something to offer and we all have something that we can do personally, particularly those of us who are Members of Parliament. As MPs, we have unprecedented access to media, particularly in our local areas. We need to do everything that we can to express the fact that this is everybody’s business and that people need to take responsibility for their sexual health. Their sexual health not only affects them; it affects the others around them and their families too. Only then will we be able to see a future for people living with HIV/AIDS that we all want to see.

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Metal Theft 4.20 pm Mr Tom Watson (West Bromwich East) (Lab): It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Leigh. You remain the fastest voter I have ever seen, so if there is another Division I will attempt to keep up with you. I am here to talk about “the second biggest threat to our infrastructure after terrorism”.

Those are the words that Paul Crowther, of the British Transport Police, used to describe the growing problem of metal theft in the UK. It is my contention that, if al-Qaeda or militant student demonstrators perpetrated some of the attacks to critical UK infrastructure on the scale and frequency that we are currently seeing, the Home Office would be taking this matter far more seriously than it currently appears to be taking it. 4.21 pm Sitting suspended for a Division in the House. 4.28 pm On resuming— Mr Watson: Whether it is copper from the side of a railway line, broadband cable, a drain gully or lead flashing from a school roof, not a day goes by when metal theft does not feature in the daily crime roster for police in the UK’s towns and cities. I seek to make the case to the Minister that metal theft is a national problem needing urgent attention. It is eroding our critical infrastructure and therefore the economic capacity of the nation. After outlining the issues, I will make the case for the need to collect more accurate data on metal theft incidents, for amending the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 and for protecting uniformed British Transport police. I will also make the case for new regulations to deal with the rise of unscrupulous dealers in precious metals. The Minister has gained a reputation for being hardworking and fair-minded. I hope to convince him to focus in the coming months on the increasing problem of metal theft. Many businesses and police officers to whom I have spoken are frustrated with the progress made in the past, including—dare I say—under my own Government. Six months into the coalition Government, I hope that he has found his feet and will be able to move up a gear in that policy area. The Home Office line appears to be that the police have the necessary tools and powers to tackle metal theft: I will make the case that they do not. The problem is great for two important reasons: soaring commodity prices and the ineffectiveness of the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964. In the past two years, for example, the price of refined copper has more than doubled on international markets. Part of the problem faced by the Minister is that his Department has found it difficult to understand the scale of the problem because it has not collected the appropriate data. Using the Freedom of Information Act, I have undertaken a comprehensive assessment into the effects of metal theft in local authorities up and down the country in 2007, 2008 and 2009. It is not an exact picture, but it provides a more comprehensive view of the scale of misery caused by metal theft throughout the country. The results are shocking, but since a number

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of authorities have not responded to my FOI request, I fear that my newly compiled figures are just the tip of the iceberg. We found 1,873 reported instances of schools being targeted by metal thieves, predominantly for the lead from their roofs. We know that 185 leisure centres and 156 community centres have been targeted, as have— shockingly—71 cemeteries and crematoriums. Thirty-three local authorities told me that metal theft has cost them more than £100,000 in insurance claims and repair costs. My borough of Sandwell has suffered the highest losses of any authority—more than £720,000. It is closely followed by Leicester, which lost £530,000, and Greenwich, which lost more than £470,000. Last October alone, Sandwell council lost £20,000. Such thefts have cost Sandwell, and councils in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Walsall, nearly £1.6 million over the past three years. The scale is huge and it is getting bigger. It is not taking place just in the country’s metalbashing heartlands: the London boroughs of Greenwich, Sutton, Bexley, Bromley, Barking, Dagenham, Enfield, Havering and Redbridge estimate that between them, they have lost £1.9 million as a result of metal theft. Anything can go. Three stainless steel slides were stolen from Birmingham, and the city also lost £30,000 worth of goal posts. Durham council raised 97 repair orders for its schools, and admitted that that may not even begin to dig into the problem. Sheffield lost a swimming pool roof that cost £200,000, and Thurrock council lost the eternal flame from the East Tilbury war memorial. The cost of replacement was so great that a fibreglass replica had to be made. More worryingly, I have uncovered an increasing problem of thieves targeting our key infrastructure networks. The most recent police estimate of the cost of such thefts to communication, energy, transport and water industries is £770 million per annum. This year alone has seen more than 5,000 reported thefts from the railway, gas and electricity networks. Such thefts have resulted not only in the loss of services to vulnerable customers, but have included attacks on 999 services and communication services that are provided to the various police forces and military establishments. In the past six months, BT has seen more than 900 attacks on its network, which has affected more than 100,000 customers. It has lost more than £5 million in the past year, and on current trends, it looks as if it will lose £6 million in the current financial year. In one attack in Scotland last week, 32 tonnes of copper cable were stolen in a single night. Energy company E.ON faces similar problems. Last year, substation theft cost the company £1.3 million, and by the end of May it had already seen 175 reported incidents. The figures speak for themselves. It is not just the monetary cost that is worrying, but the danger in which the thieves are putting both themselves and the engineers who work for companies such as BT and E.ON, through their illegal activities. Today, Gwent police superintendent Harry Gamlin, head of the taskforce that deals with metal theft in Wales, said that the problem is now so bad that it threatens to “fracture social cohesion.” He added: “There is a common perception of metal thieves being loveable rogues, old-man-Steptoe-type characters...People need to wake up to the fact that they are in fact highly organised and skilled gangs of criminals who more than likely have links to other forms of serious and organised crime.”

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The taskforce in Wales is a welcome step, but tougher laws are needed. It is not just the seasonal “wrong type of snow” and leaves on the track that are holding up our train network: commuters now have to contend with the regular misery of year-round signalling thefts. Network Rail tells me that commuters and operators have lost 19,417 hours in delays since 2006-07. Overall, it estimates that it has spent £35 million since then on metal theft-related crime. That includes £25 million of schedule 8 costs. That is £25 million that could have been spent on improving the railway network that has been diverted to essential maintenance because of metal theft alone. I travel to Westminster from Sandwell and Dudley station every week. Between September 2009 and this October there have been five serious incidents of cable theft in the Tipton area alone and I have been late for meetings and nearly missed votes. These incidents in Tipton caused £485,000 worth of damage to the rail network causing hundreds of hours of delays for commuters. I find these figures staggering. Across the whole of the west midlands in the last 18 months there have been 52 cable thefts on the railway causing 1,500 trains to be cancelled. I am told by Network Rail that the route between London and Scotland up the east coast is by the far the worst affected, especially in Yorkshire and the north-east. That route has recorded days on which up to 40 thefts have taken place. Commuters and British business are the people who are really losing out as metal theft soars. I have unearthed other examples that are shocking in their scale and audacity. There are the thieves who cut a heavy copper cable used to link an MRI scanner to the main electricity supply in Northamptonshire. Thieves stole cable twice in a week meaning 70 patients had to have their diagnostic appointments rearranged. Lives could have been lost. I have been told of the sick thieves who stole two brass plaques listing the names of the Blackley men who fell during the first world war in Manchester. The community had to unite to make sure that the 215 war heroes could be honoured on Remembrance Sunday. Just as sickening was Linda Smith’s story. Linda contacted me to tell me about the theft of metal containers for holding flowers from graves from Abney park in Stoke Newington. The Minister may not be aware that the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, the leading church insurers, report that they have received more than 7,000 claims for metal theft since the start of 2007 at an estimated total cost of £23 million. Councillor David Sheard of Kirklees council has been in touch. He told me about the £18,000 worth of litter bins that the council had stolen in a single week. The case of Tom Berge who escaped a jail sentence for stealing lead worth £100,000 from some of the most historic properties in Sutton in Croydon has also been brought to my attention. He used Google Earth to identify listed buildings, churches and schools that he could target. In Sandwell, two people have already lost their lives trying to steal cabling from a disused factory after an explosion. Five-year-old Keanu Jones of Dudley road in Tipton could so nearly have been the third life lost last week. He fell down an exposed drain when out with his mum. The cover had been stolen. It left him shaken and covered in bruises. Keanu’s case is important. It highlights

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the fact that thieves do not just target high-value, precious and commodity metals. The resale value of what can be stolen can often be minimal. To quote Tony Glover, spokesman of the Energy Networks Association: “It is pathetic, quite frankly. As a crime it is sometimes as little as £5, £10 or £20… But its impact is enormous—it’s almost like an act of vandalism. Some of our equipment is oil-insulated and a £5 brass valve—that’s all they stole— resulted in 30,000 litres of oil coming out of some equipment.”

Just to illustrate the point, this week I was visited by my constituent Ravi Kumar who told me that thieves had stolen his old, rusty metal table from his front garden. Ravi had put the table out for collection by Sandwell council. Thieves looking to make a quick cash return made off with the table before the council van arrived. There is a black market price list for this stuff—£10 for Ravi’s table, £20 for a stolen manhole cover, £80 for a catalytic converter. These items are being stolen because they are easy prey to thieves to sell on to rogue scrap metal dealers. More worryingly, West Midlands police and the Black Country chamber of commerce continue to alert me to the rise in the number of burglary dwelling offences across the country in which the offenders are stealing the victim’s gold or silver jewellery. There is currently no legislation covering the buying and selling of gold and silver by independent retailers, which are becoming increasingly common in most towns and cities. Despite some franchises still following good practice, in which no transaction can take place without a series of identity checks, some of the rogues are beginning to make an impact on communities. I would like to see two minor changes to the law to tackle the problems that I have outlined. One change would deal with commodity metals such as copper, lead and brass, and the second change would deal with precious metals such as gold and silver. The Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964 needs to be made fit for the modern age. It is outdated, it is not well understood, and, in its current form, it simply fails in its purpose. Many hon. Members may not be aware of the legislation to which I refer. As it stands, the Act requires dealers to keep a simple book detailing all scrap metal received at the place of purchase. The book must also show that all scrap metal is either processed at or dispatched from that place. That is inadequate. In the Sandwell area, and across the country, I repeatedly hear stories of some unscrupulous scrap metal dealers opening as early as 5 am. Cash in hand is given to the seller, and it is not unusual for them to turn up with a wheelie bin full of manhole covers. The unscrupulous scrap metal dealer, who does not check too closely where the metal has come from or who the seller is, then sells it on to legitimate dealers, who have no idea that they are buying stolen metal. In some cases, the metal is exported to the far east due to global demand. Some dealers will let sellers get away with giving their name as Joe Bloggs or Mr Smith. Scrap metal is big business, and the record keeping among rogue dealers can be very poor or even non-existent. One police force has told me that records kept by metal merchants do not always provide them with a good enough audit trail to track back such thieves, and I know police forces across the country feel the same. Although I appreciate that recent dialogue between the British Metals Recycling Association and ACPO has resulted in the development of a code of practice,

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[Mr Watson] which includes measures that go beyond those prescribed by the 1964 Act—including requesting proof of identity, limits on cash payments and guidance on best practice for deploying CCTV—I have real doubts that those go far enough. Unscrupulous metal dealers have already made it clear that they are unwilling to abide by good practice, and a voluntary code is extremely unlikely to change the mindsets of those people in the industry. My preferred option would be to make scrap metal dealers operate under a cashless system. If thieves cannot make a quick profit, the incentive to steal in the first place would be dramatically reduced. I draw the Minister’s attention to the state of Oregon, which did that in 2009. All the signs from Oregon suggest that the beefed-up regulations have caused a drop in the number of people looking to sell stolen materials. Many police forces are also seeking powers to close down suspected rogue dealers on the spot, and they want metal users to consider embossing their metal to make it less attractive to steal. I hope that the Minister will seek ways to make that happen. It strikes me that there is a need for precious metals, such as gold and silver, to be brought within the scope of the 1964 Act. We cannot allow the situation to continue in which there is no legislation covering the buying and selling of such metals. The Black Country chamber of commerce tells me that it would like precious metal dealers to register their business with the local authority every three years; it would like to see registered dealers required to keep a written record at each precious metal store of all items received, processed and dispatched from that store; and it would like deeper proof of identity from those who sell precious metals. I support the Black Country chamber of commerce in its call, and I hope that the Minister will take its suggestions seriously. Based on new figures that I have made public today, I believe that the Government should arrange for data on metal theft to be better collected and to be presented in a clearer format. The failures of local authorities and police forces to accurately chronicle every incident make contributions to public policy and finding solutions on this subject more difficult for Ministers and stakeholders. It is time for the courts to get tough. The Home Office should ask the Ministry of Justice to issue specific guidance on metal theft to magistrates, as the Ministry of Justice did with home repossessions. Analysts tell me that they expect a 62% rise in copper prices over the next few years. Coupled with the Government’s announced cuts to policing budgets and the fact that the future budget of the British Transport police is in doubt, that could see a further rise in metal thefts. If the UK adopted a cashless approach to scrap metal sales, I am certain that thieves would be deterred. There would simply be no quick cash incentive for them to steal commodity metals and there would be a proper audit trail. I hope that the Minister will look seriously at the proposals of the Black Country chamber of commerce on precious metals. Metal thieves erode UK resilience. They undermine communities and threaten businesses. They have to be stopped. The Second Church Estates Commissioner (Tony Baldry) rose—

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Mr Edward Leigh (in the Chair): Order. This is a short Adjournment debate. Does the Second Church Estates Commissioner, the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry), have the permission of the Minister and the hon. Gentleman to speak? Mr Watson: Yes. 4.45 pm Tony Baldry: I sought the permission of everyone, Mr Leigh, including Mr Speaker. The hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) has done the House an enormous service and what he has had to say is truly shocking. I am grateful to him and to the Minister for allowing me to intervene briefly in this debate. I do so in my capacity as the Second Church Estates Commissioner. Lead theft is one of the most serious threats at present to the Church of England’s 1,600 churches, many of them grade I listed buildings. Indeed, 45% of all grade I listed buildings are churches, and other faiths have similar concerns. Night after night, lead is being stolen from church roofs, and thieves now use Google Earth to identify targets, including church roofs. Since 2007, the main insurer of ecclesiastical churches has received 8,000 claims for lead theft, at a cost of about £23 million. That represents only the insurance claims; the total cost, including damage to churches, is much greater. In many instances, churches that have replaced their roofs at considerable expense have been repeatedly targeted—14 times, in the case of one church. Of course, if they have had the lead stripped from their roofs, it is often difficult, if not impossible, to get re-insured. As the House can imagine, the effect on the morale of parishioners and communities is devastating. In spite of that, there have been very few prosecutions. Congregations feel that the police regard metal theft as a victimless crime and that they are reluctant to investigate or take action, even when there is an established pattern of theft taking place on consecutive nights. I understand that the Home Office does not even record the theft of lead as a separate offence. Although some of the thefts may be opportunistic, there is growing evidence that organised gangs are involved, and the graph of the incidence of theft mirrors, with remarkable consistency, the price of lead on the world metal markets. The higher the price of lead, the more churches are stripped of it. A number of things need to be done. Scrap metal yards need to be more regularly spot-checked by local authorities and the police. Local authorities have a responsibility to inspect the registers of scrap metal yards. The hon. Gentleman’s suggestion of a cashless transaction is interesting, and I hope that the Minister will take it seriously. This is a crime that has to be taken seriously. I am sure that Home Office Ministers take it seriously and that they will ensure that it is consistently taken seriously by police forces and local authorities throughout the country. The Church of England’s Church Buildings Council, chaired by Anne Sloman, has set up a working group to address the problem urgently. It is taking evidence from police, scrap metal merchants, the legal profession and other interested parties. When it reports early next year,

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I hope that the Government will consider its conclusions carefully and endorse what it has to say as a way forward. 4.48 pm The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (James Brokenshire): May I thank you, Mr Leigh, for ensuring that this debate started promptly despite all of this afternoon’s Divisions? May I also congratulate the hon. Member for West Bromwich East (Mr Watson) on securing this Adjournment debate about the important subject of preventing and tackling metal theft, and on the measured and detailed way in which he has rightly highlighted the issues? I am sure that the House will appreciate the information that the hon. Gentleman has advanced. I assure him that I regard the issue as serious. I take a personal interest in it because of my own experiences as a constituency MP. I know the impact that metal thefts can have. May I also thank the Second Church Estates Commissioner, my hon. Friend the Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry), for his speech on churches and the challenges facing the Church community? I hope that I will be able to comment on that in the time remaining. Metal theft is an issue about which I am concerned, and I give the assurance that the Government take it seriously. The need to reduce this crime is important, and I thank hon. Members for raising the issue. Let me be clear: we recognise the serious consequences of metal theft. It is not a victimless crime. We have seen the significant disruption that metal theft causes to critical national infrastructure throughout the United Kingdom. That includes power and transport networks, with the stealing of live copper cable, which has resulted in death and serious injury for people involved. In addition, as hon. Members highlighted, a number of historic buildings, including churches, are being targeted for their lead roofs and damaged. Many other examples were given, but the time available means that I must try to deal with the relevant points that have been highlighted this afternoon. I recognise that the constituency of the hon. Member for West Bromwich East has a specific issue. I was recently in Sandwell, talking to the community safety partnership and the police. They underlined to me the importance that they place on dealing with and responding to metal theft. I congratulate them on the work that they are doing in dealing with the problem. The police, other law enforcement agencies and industry are making efforts to tackle metal theft, providing a strong foundation on which to build a future partnership approach. There are excellent examples of effective multi-agency partnerships that have come together in affected areas to tackle their local metal theft problem. I am keen to ensure that the practical impact of that work, which shows how much difference can be made by motivated and committed partnerships that take the problem seriously, is shared more widely. We need to build on it. Many scrap metal dealers are doing excellent work in supporting law enforcement activity and reporting suspicious behaviour. We need to support their efforts, while bearing down on those who operate outside the law. At national level, the Association of Chief Police Officers metal theft working group, chaired by Deputy Chief Constable Paul Crowther, provides leadership to

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police forces and a forum in which industry and the police can share information and good practice, which is extremely valuable work. I welcome the recent distribution of the ACPO tactical guidance to police forces. That provides, in clear detail, examples of effective practice in tackling metal theft. The nature of metal theft means that joint working is just as important at national level as at local level. That is why the recent work by the telecommunications and utilities industries, in working on joint enforcement operations with local police forces, is so important. I particularly welcome the efforts of industry in designing out this crime. For example, BT has been working to improve the protection of metal assets through improved security at storage sites. There are other examples of industry partners reviewing and tightening up their planned disposal of waste metal through the use of approved contractors and scrap metal dealers. On the Scrap Metal Dealers Act 1964, I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for bringing to the House’s attention the issue regarding the effectiveness of the existing legislation. The Act contains a number of requirements relating to the regulation of the scrap metal dealer industry—namely, the requirement for each dealer to register with their local authority; the fact that all seller details are to be recorded; and the fact that metal cannot be accepted for sale from the under-16s. We have seen excellent examples in Avon and Somerset and elsewhere of how the existing legislation can be used. I note and welcome the British Metals Recycling Association code of practice, which it has recently issued to its members and to which the hon. Gentleman referred. However, although we welcome such attempts at self-regulation, we are also seeking to join up the existing regulatory framework better by contributing to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs review of waste policies—due to report in the summer of next year—to see what changes, if any, need to be made to legislation in this area. Environmental and waste regulations cover the operation of the scrap metal dealer industry, as well as the transportation and storage of waste materials. Those regulations are mostly enforced by the Environment Agency. Therefore it is vital that the police and the Environment Agency continue to work together to ensure that all the existing legislation is used effectively. The hon. Gentleman will no doubt appreciate that the lead on funding for the British Transport police is the Department for Transport, rather than the Home Office. I know that Westminster Hall debates are not the arena in which to make party political points about the economic situation, but I note what the hon. Gentleman said and I am sure that colleagues at the Department for Transport will note it when they refer to the report of the debate. As the Minister responsible for crime prevention, I am determined to develop a joint plan of working with law enforcement agencies, Departments and industry to tackle metal theft at every stage, from theft to disposal. Because joint working is so important, I want the plan to be jointly owned by the Home Office and the Association of Chief Police Officers multi-agency metal theft working group. We also need to consider the intelligence arena. We are looking at how regional intelligence units can

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[James Brokenshire] share intelligence effectively on the more serious organised thefts of metal. That is an important subject that needs further examination. On the cashless model, I share the concern that criminals are able to turn up at scrap-metal yards and walk away with unlimited sums of cash in exchange for metal. We will examine that in developing our work plan in this arena, including establishing a cashless model. As part of a review of the industry standards, it requires further examination. I believe that the Church Buildings Council is producing a report on metal theft, and I would welcome sight of the report once it is complete. I hope that we will be able to incorporate its recommendations, when appropriate, in our forthcoming work plan. I apologise that my comments have been so brief, but I reiterate the importance that I place on this matter. We are committed to preventing and tackling metal theft. I am certain that we have a real opportunity to tackle this crime by working together in partnership with law enforcement agencies and the industry. By working together and having a joint working plan, I am sure that we will be able to tackle all aspects of metal theft and provide the catalyst for a concerted effect by all agencies to reduce this crime.

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Health Care (North Yorkshire and York) 4.56 pm Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con): It is a pleasure, Mr Leigh, to serve under your chairmanship. Naturally, I am grateful to those hon. Members attending this debate and to the Minister. More than 800,000 people are fortunate enough to live in our beautiful part of the country, the North Yorkshire and York region. It is part of God’s own county, as some would say. Quality of local health care is of the utmost importance to many, if not all. Local health care provision is often viewed alongside other criteria such as employment and crime. It is a measure of the local community’s economic well-being and happiness—a word that seems to be floating around in many debates at the moment. It is in our moral and economic interests to ensure the widest availability of health services, the shortest waiting lists and the most impressive health outcomes, and they should be implemented in each and every region. Ensuring such health care standards for all is truly one of the most essential roles of Government. Indeed, I am sure that all those Members here today will agree that health-related concerns crop up frequently in our constituency mail. That is certainly so in my constituency of York Outer. When it comes to health, I often have nothing but sympathy with the majority of my constituents who are affected. Many of them feel betrayed by the system, weighed down by the bureaucracy, frustrated by the delays and ultimately let down by those supposedly in charge. In my experience, it is easy to comprehend such frustration. After all, our national health service is a national treasure. We champion it, and rightly so. However, when patients report negative experiences and local health funding concerns, our national treasure is in danger of being tarnished, to the detriment of health care users and service deliverers. That, in my view, should not be allowed to happen. The health service has some of the most caring, compassionate and hard-working nurses and doctors in the world. That is certainly true in North Yorkshire and York. Our health care personnel carry out tremendous work, often in tough circumstances, and they do so out of a sense of public duty, kindness and compassion. I cannot commend these individuals highly enough. However, I am concerned about health care provision in North Yorkshire and York because of the representations that I have received from NHS employees and local patients. The region faces some real health care difficulties. In truth, extremely serious concerns are growing about the capability and performance of the region’s primary care trust and related bodies. Local residents have good reason to believe that a huge range of treatments will be withdrawn, if they have not been withdrawn already. For example, I have received letters regarding the future of IVF treatments, counselling services, broken voluntary sector contracts and the withdrawal of pain relief injections. It also appears that about £2 million will be cut from GPs’ budgets for prescribing medications, and that some physio services are at risk. Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) (Con): I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. He might be about to discuss this, but my experience from my

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constituency is that North Yorkshire and York PCT’s way of dealing with voluntary organisations in the past few months has been a disgrace, breaching the voluntary compact between those organisations and the PCT. It has caused problems for those important parts of the big society that have been operating in North Yorkshire for so long. Julian Sturdy: Absolutely. I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. The time limit given by the PCT to those voluntary organisations is despicable, and it has caused fear and concern in the sector. Not only that, if the organisations lose funding for six months, which might be seen as only a short period, the problem is that they might not start up again. That is my concern, and I will go on to discuss it in more detail. Local residents have good reasons to believe that a huge range of treatments will be withdrawn, as I said. If the truth be told, the status quo is not only unacceptable but frightening, particularly for the most vulnerable members of our communities. Even describing the current situation as a postcode lottery is too generous. I fear that our patch is in danger of becoming an area of health deprivation. Several different factors require deep consideration as we piece together this somewhat depressing picture. First, we must accept that the region has to some extent been underfunded in the past. Before 2008, the North Yorkshire and York PCT did not exist. Instead, four separate PCTs covered the area. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this debate, I have amalgamated funding data to show the PCT’s current funding allocation and the annual figures stretching back to 2003-04. For 2010-11, our region’s PCT received just over £1.1 billion, an allocation that places it in the lowly position of 140th out of 152 PCTs. From a starting point of 127th in 2003-04, it has dropped down the funding table each year. The current funding level is the lowest allocation per head of all Yorkshire and Humber PCTs. PCT funding is currently allocated according to a complex funding formula, often referred to as the weighted capitation formula. In essence, the formula determines the target share of resources to which PCTs should theoretically be entitled, based on a broad range of criteria including population, the local cost of health care provision and the level of need and health inequality in the area. Unfortunately, most PCTs never receive an allocation equal to their deemed target share according to the formula. Rather, they move towards it over time, some faster than others. Personally, I am slightly critical of the current formula. It often results in greater funding disparities between different regions, which provoke a profound sense of unfairness. Less deprived areas often seem to get a certain tag as well. For example, according to the formula, North Yorkshire and York does not have adequate need for additional resources, particularly compared to the needs of more urban areas such as Hull. I am not convinced that approaching regional health funding consideration with that mentality—judging whether areas are deprived enough—is a sufficiently robust methodology in current circumstances. We must look more deeply at the funding stream. I agree that the funding shortfall has increased the strain on our local PCT and its ability to deliver the best possible health outcomes and equity access for local

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residents. I would appreciate the Minister’s comments on whether the coalition Government will review the funding formula at some future date. However, I also suggest that excusing our health care failings in our region on past funding alone would be somewhat naïve. Over the past few years, North Yorkshire and York PCT has accumulated an overspend of some £17.9 million. Thus, despite the coalition’s welcome commitment to protect the wider health budget, services are being cut in our region to pay for the fiscal irresponsibility of the PCT. Moreover, the PCT seems to be intent on resolving this deficit immediately because the previous Government imposed a statutory obligation on all primary care trusts to break even by the beginning of 2011. Such a target-focused piece of bureaucracy has now resulted in the PCT cutting too many services too quickly, possibly leading to a diminished health care package for our local residents. I have already listed some of the services that are under threat of withdrawal. My hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith) has named the services in the voluntary sector as well. I shall expand on a few examples. First, there is the withdrawal of the pain relief injections. As Members from neighbouring constituencies know—my hon. Friend the Member for Selby and Ainsty (Nigel Adams) has campaigned with me on this—the PCT’s decision to restrict the provision of back pain relief injections has provoked a huge reaction from both patients and health care professionals alike. Nigel Adams (Selby and Ainsty) (Con): I, too, congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. I am not sure whether I should declare an interest, having received several back pain relief injections in the past. The injections are a big issue in the north Yorkshire area, as evidenced by the huge postbags that my hon. Friend and I receive, and we have spoken to the Secretary of State on the matter. Can my hon. Friend recall a discussion with the Secretary of State in which he said that one of his officials would look into the York PCT’s interpretation of the NICE guidelines on back pain relief injections? Has he received any notification of those discussions or heard from the Secretary of State’s office? Julian Sturdy: My hon. Friend makes a valid point. We did indeed meet, and I have not yet received a response from the Secretary of State. I hope that the Minister will hear our message here and chase up that response, because it is important that we get an answer to our question. My hon. Friend mentioned the back pain relief injections, and the issue is causing real concern among our constituents. Members of the public came to my last surgery to discuss the matter. The PCT, as my hon. Friend said, based its decision to cut back pain injections on its interpretation of the NICE guidelines. Unfortunately, almost every other PCT interprets the same guidelines in a different way. As such, countless local people are being forced to suffer enormous and unnecessary levels of pain. Alongside other hon. Members from the region, I have lobbied the Secretary of State. Campaign groups such as York and District Pain Management Support Group have been leading the way on this as well. I have

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[Julian Sturdy] also received representations from concerned health professionals. Only last week, Dr Peter Toomey, a consultant anaesthetist at York hospital wrote to me, stating: “I consider that the PCT have made serious errors of judgement in coming to their decision to restrict access to spinal injections for the relief of pain. The PCT will not reimburse York Hospital for any injection into any part of the spine for any diagnosis unless it has been approved by the PCT’s Funding Request Panel.”

We know—my hon. Friend the Member for Selby and Ainsty will back me up on this—that many people are being refused by that request panel. Dr Toomey and a number of his colleagues have fought hard to challenge the PCT’s policy, but—alas—their medical expertise seems to have fallen upon deaf ears. Patients and medical professionals are united in the view that this pain relief service should not have been withdrawn. It has been taken away for the wrong reasons and should be reinstated without delay. The withdrawal of such vital services is causing me great concern, as is the withdrawal of funding for numerous voluntary services. My hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon touched on that matter earlier. The York Council for Voluntary Service has been informed of a 37% in-year cut, which has been issued by the PCT with just one month’s notice. Angela Harrison, the chief executive of the YCVS, summed up the whole situation quite aptly when she said: “These cuts have already had a disastrous effect on front-line voluntary groups who serve some of the most vulnerable members of society. At the same time, the infrastructure groups who support them have had their funds withdrawn at very short notice, reducing their capacity at a time when it is most needed.”

One specific voluntary case vividly highlights the poor management of the way the PCT has handled this situation. On 19 October, Yorkshire MESMAC received a letter from the PCT, informing the organisation that its contracted health care funding was to be withdrawn within one month. Such blunt and definitive notice is absolutely outrageous. Not only has an agreement been broken, but no consultation took place with the organisation, which—knowing the PCT’s overspend— would have been happy to sit down and reach a more amicable agreement. As Tom Doyle, the director of Yorkshire MESMAC, said: “I want to express my deep frustration at how the process has been handled, which was, in my opinion, unlawful, disrespectful and showing an arrogant disregard for the PCT’s own agreements and processes.”

It is now feared that Yorkshire MESMAC will be forced to close. On a wider note, the voluntary services budgets are expected to lead to a saving of some £150,000 for the PCT this year. Given that that is a small drop in the £17 million overspend, I would urge the PCT to look internally for structural and efficiency savings, rather than merely reducing the funding of voluntary groups, whose work often plays such as vital role in our health service. If our voluntary health services are forced to close, I predict that far greater numbers of patients will actually require more hospitalised, long-term and expensive treatments through the NHS, thus undermining the PCT’s initial savings. Due to the overspend and service reductions, there now exists a lack of trust in the PCT and a complete absence of confidence over its future intentions, and I

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fear that local people are simply paying too high a price for that. In the long term, I am more optimistic about health care provision in north Yorkshire and York, largely due to the contents of the health White Paper. The localised drive to ensure that PCTs are, at some point, abolished altogether and replaced by GP-led commissioning bodies, which are influenced by local patients, is a measure that I wholeheartedly welcome. At long last, local patients will have a say in their local services, holding the decision makers to account and freeing up our nurses, doctors and health providers from the red-tape that so often binds them and takes them away from the front line. I hope that the Minister can reassure me that the transition from PCTs to GP-led commissioning will be carried out swiftly to ensure that the interim transitional period will not see a lack of leadership or direction for local health care services— especially in our area. I believe that the PCT will continue to operate until 2013, and I plead with the Minister to review to the situation in north Yorkshire and York in the mean time. Our constituents simply cannot afford to wait three years for the situation to be remedied. Most specifically, I would welcome any comments from the Minister on the previous Government’s imposition of a statutory obligation on PCTs to break even by the end of this year. Could that deadline be extended to soften the blow of the cuts over a greater time period? The people of north Yorkshire and York depend upon their health care services, and many are extremely worried at present. I hope that hon. Members from the region—I was going to say “regardless of political allegiances”, but as we only have coalition Members here I will not say that. To give the hon. Member for York Central (Hugh Bayley) credit, he did say that he would try and be at the debate today. We must protect the essential health care services and funding that our region deserves. I ask and urge hon. Members to fight and to campaign for that. We must ensure that, before GP-led commissioning starts, the PCT delivers the best service that it can within its budget. It must focus on service delivery and the outlying services to our communities, rather than cutting. I hope that the Minister will give serious consideration to the issues that I have raised. I am grateful for his time. I know that it has been a hectic day thanks to the Divisions, but I am grateful to him for giving us the time, and I hope that he will give the matter serious consideration. 5.15 pm Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) on securing this important debate, and I add my support to his recognition of the excellent work that the health care professionals do in our area. He has highlighted that our health grant in North Yorkshire is low, which impacts on the services that we receive. When facing the challenge of low funding, the PCT has to look hard at its priorities, particularly with regard to mental health services. I am always concerned about mental health provision, because I think that for far too long in our country it has been a bit of a Cinderella service. In my constituency, the community

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mental service has closed the Hawthorn day unit, which was extremely popular with its service users and well respected across the community. It is claimed that the closure is temporary, but the reasons for its closure run on and on, and it seems endless. While the excuses mount up, some of the most vulnerable people in my constituency—many of whom I have met—have seen their contact time with counsellors, or their time in respite care, decrease from three or four days a week to half an hour a fortnight. I am worried about the impact of the change on some of the most vulnerable members of the community. In some cases, those constituents have severe mental health problems and can periodically be a danger to themselves. I hope that our PCT will consider that and, even at this late stage, find a way to reopen the Hawthorn day unit at the earliest opportunity. 5.16 pm The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer (Julian Sturdy) on securing this debate, and I note the cross-party support that he has gained, with the arrival of the hon. Member for York Central (Hugh Bayley). I note the presence of my hon. Friends the Members for Skipton and Ripon (Julian Smith), for Selby and Ainsty (Nigel Adams) and for Scarborough and Whitby (Robert Goodwill), and I know that they are all interested in and concerned about the issues that my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer has raised. He has made a powerful case for why we need the radical reforms across the NHS to which the Government are committed. Before I turn to the points that my hon. Friend has raised, I join him in praising the work of NHS staff across Yorkshire. They do an excellent job, often in the most trying circumstances, and he is right that the NHS is a national treasure. Our White Paper reforms are, first and foremost, about freeing those hard-working professionals from the bureaucracy that stands in the way of good patient care. We will be cutting management costs by a third, moving decisions closer to patients through new GP consortia and giving local councils more responsibility for the health of their communities. All those will help to create a more flexible, efficient, interconnected and accountable health service. We are now entering a transition to the new system, which brings its own challenges for all parts of the NHS. The descriptions that my hon. Friend has given of circumstances in his constituency demonstrate the challenge that is exacerbated by the fragile state of the local NHS finances. The Government have inherited that fragility and they will have to address it. I understand from the strategic health authority that the North Yorkshire and York PCT is likely to end the year with a significant deficit unless it takes drastic action of the sort that my hon. Friend has described, and to which others have referred in this debate. That process clearly involves some tough decisions, which will have a distressing impact on his constituents, and I will return to those in a moment. I want to answer his concerns about funding allocations for the NHS in this part of the country.

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At present, as my hon. Friend has described, the NHS uses a funding formula based on objectives set by the previous Government and developed by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. I know that one of the big frustrations for North Yorkshire is whether its rural nature is taken fully into account in the funding formula, and my hon. Friend has alluded to that. As a Government, we have asked for that formula to be examined. The Secretary of State has asked ACRA to review how NHS resources are distributed, and has explicitly requested that consideration be given to the issues that face rural communities. Looking ahead, from 2013-14 we will have moved to the new system of the independent NHS commissioning board allocating resources to general practice consortiums. How it does that will be up to the commissioning board itself, but we are clear that it must do it fairly and consistently across the country. For places such as his constituency, my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer is right—real pace and purpose are vital to getting the NHS on to a more stable financial footing. I can assure him that we are keen to make fast progress on GP commissioning consortiums taking on responsibilities. In that regard, shadow allocations for GP consortiums will be published late next year for 2012-13, giving the new organisations the time and space to test financial plans before the full system goes live in 2013-14. My hon. Friend asked whether GP consortiums would have to take on PCT debt. I have heard that anxiety expressed around the country. The NHS operating framework, which we will publish in a few weeks, will set out the rules on legacy debt to ensure that no debts carry forward into the new system. That is challenging, and we are keen to work through it effectively. I shall now come back to the present and say a few words about the current financial position in North Yorkshire and York. The strategic health authority tells me that the local PCT has had a problematic financial history stretching back many years, which may be an understatement. [Interruption.] I can see colleagues nodding. Over the past 12 months, its situation has deteriorated due to a number of factors, including a significant overspend on community services and the fact that its QIPP programme has not delivered the expected savings. As a result, the trust is having to take radical steps to put its finances in order, including temporary reductions to some non-urgent health services. I very much regret that. I regret that the fragility of the organisation has placed my hon. Friend the Member for York Outer’s constituents in a position where they face these service changes. I hope he will understand that it is not for me to give a running commentary on every aspect of what the PCT is doing. On the issues that he highlights— particularly about the QIPP programme implementation, which I have looked at carefully—there are lessons for how we ensure that we get a proper grip on financial management in local NHS organisations. It is striking, for instance, that the neighbouring PCTs with similar populations to North Yorkshire’s and York’s are not facing the same financial challenge, nor are they having to resort to the desperate actions that the trust is taking. My hon. Friend is right to say

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[Paul Burstow] that the trust should not seek excuses in how the funding formula works. None the less, we need to look at the formula. Equally, it is important to bear in mind that the QIPP programme in North Yorkshire and York has not delivered. I understand that it set some ambitious and challenging plans; the problem was that the implementation has not been as robust as the plans. I understand that one issue appears to be a failure to bring on board the full range of stakeholders to deliver on the improvement plans. That is a significant failing, because where the PCT is doing that, the signs are extremely positive. For instance, local GPs are working with the trust on prescribing practices—together they are looking to cut costs by more than £1 million, while protecting quality and service. I highlight that because it shows the power of GPs in managing efficiencies, and is a sign of how our reforms will help in the future. Perhaps most troubling of all is the fact that the PCT has slammed the brakes on funding for the voluntary sector in a way that may have serious consequences for the future. The PCT may, technically, be within its rights to give the minimum of notice to providers, but pulling the plug on small organisations with just a month’s notice—or in some cases, less—is alien to the spirit of collaboration and partnership that we want the NHS to cultivate. As my hon. Friend the Member for Skipton and Ripon said, it seems to be against the notion of the compact. There is an important general point here. As we move through transition there will be difficult choices, and the NHS needs to be clear about what it needs to protect and how best to maintain vital voluntary community services. Therefore, in response to this debate, I have asked the NHS chief executive, Sir David Nicholson, to consider how to ensure that local NHS organisations act responsibly towards voluntary sector organisations during any period of retrenchment. My hon. Friend is right: we need candour and early discussion. Discussions about where there are cost pressures are in the system, because, given the opportunity, the voluntary sector can contribute to managing them. Reference has been made to the issues of pain relief injections and of treating chronic back pain. The hon. Member for Selby and Ainsty (Nigel Adams) asked a question about the discussions that he has had with the Secretary of State, as did the hon. Gentleman who secured this debate. I am not cited in regard to those discussions, but I will undertake to ensure that we look very carefully at the issue and come back to both hon. Members who raised it, to satisfy them and ourselves that NICE guidance is being followed properly.

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However, I believe that the PCT understands that its decision has affected a significant number of patients with chronic back pain, and that it has written to a number of those patients, commissioned a series of initiative clinics where patients are fully assessed and given new treatment options to manage their pain. Nigel Adams: Just on that point, it is worth remarking that the reason given by the PCT for the withdrawal of the procedure is not a financial one, which is very difficult for colleagues to comprehend. Apparently, it is based on medical advice via the NICE guidelines, but the PCT seems to be the only one in the country that has adopted that stance. Does the Minister agree that that sort of logic is a perfect reason why our reforms must come through in terms of GP commissioning, so that decisions can be made by health professionals rather than bureaucrats? Paul Burstow: There is no doubt in my mind that getting clinicians far more engaged in commissioning will be a key driver to a significant improvement in quality and outcomes in the system in future. I certainly undertake to ensure that we have a proper look at this issue of the guidance, and I will come back to both the hon. Gentleman and his hon. Friend, the hon. Member for York Outer, on that point. I certainly share the belief that those reforms are needed to ensure that the NHS in north Yorkshire, and Yorkshire in general, moves in the positive direction that we all want to see it move in. Our proposals will bring the right leadership and purpose to sustain and improve the services that the constituents of the hon. Member for York Outer, and those of the other hon. Members who have come to support him in this debate, expect the NHS to deliver. Decisions that are made much closer to the patient will ensure that health care is shaped in the best interests of the community and the general population. By introducing greater transparency and democratic accountability, we will ensure that the local NHS is far more answerable to the people whom it serves and that there will be much more scrutiny and community involvement in the decisions that it takes. That is something that I am sure all hon. Members want to see. It is how we can move our NHS forward, maintaining it as a national treasure but one that really delivers the best possible outcomes—outcomes that are among the best in the world. That is what we really want to see. Question put and agreed to. 5.27 pm Sitting adjourned.

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Written Ministerial Statements Wednesday 1 December 2010

TREASURY Fair Pay in the Public Sector The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr George Osborne): Will Hutton has today published the interim report of his review of Fair Pay in the Public Sector. The Government welcome the publication of this report and will give careful consideration to the findings so far. The Government look forward to the outcome of the final report in March and will respond in more detail once they are in receipt of this. The report is available in the Vote Office and in the Printed Paper Office and it has been deposited in the Libraries of both Houses. Periodic updates of the review’s work will be made available through the website located at: http://www.hmtreasury.gov.uk/indreview_willhutton_fairpay_tor.htm.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS Telecoms Council The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Edward Vaizey): I am pleased to confirm the agenda items for which BIS has responsibility at the forthcoming Telecommunications Council in Brussels on 3 December 2010. I intend to represent the UK at this Council. There are four substantive agenda items: 1. Proposal for a decision of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing the first Radio Spectrum Policy Programme (RSPP): A Progress Report and Exchange of Views. This item is an exchange of views on the presidency report and questions for the discussion in relation to the Commission’s proposed RSPP (EM 13872/10). This is a proposal for draft legislation which codifies policy and legislative actions necessary for the efficient management of spectrum in the EU up to 2015. The RSPP is seen by the Commission as a necessary key contributor towards broadband targets, especially for those geographically rural and remote areas that would rely on wireless technology to receive broadband services. This view is generally shared by the Council and the European Parliament. It follows on from the agreements reached on spectrum during the communications framework review. Progress had been made in debating the draft legislation in the Council but the European Parliament is yet to start deliberations.

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The questions tabled for discussion range from how spectrum management contributes to economic growth through issues related to a proposed inventory of spectrum in the EU to the deadlines related to the release of certain spectrum. As efficient spectrum management is a key component of the Coalition’s broadband strategy, the main points of my intervention, taking into account the questions posed, will be: to broadly welcome the proposals from the Commission which we do indeed think are important in terms of economic growth within the EU and for the development of mobile broadband services; to welcome the breadth of the proposal but to caution any legislation mandating the use of spectrum for particular social or community purposes; to welcome the approach by Commission of ensuring that spectrum for mobile broadband is made available as early as possible but caution on the imposition of rigid timelines that may not be realistic or match national circumstances; and to wish the Hungarian presidency well in their deliberations on this important dossier with a hope that we might see an agreement before the summer of next year.

2. Proposal for a Regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 460/2004 establishing the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) as regards its duration—A Progress Report Proposal for a Regulation concerning the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA)—A Progress Report These two items are progress reports from the Commission on the current status of the above two recently issued documents. (EM 14322/10) The first progress report covers the proposal to amend the existing regulation, which established ENISA, in order to extend its duration for 18 months. (The purpose of the extension is to allow the continued operation of ENISA under its current remit whilst the new regulation is negotiated). The second progress report covers the new regulation that renews and updates the mandate of ENISA. As these items are progress reports and it is anticipated that no debate will take place, I am not planning an active intervention. However, should there be a debate; my intervention will reaffirm Her Majesty’s Government’s (HMG) current policies that are detailed in the relevant EM noted above. 3. Cross-fertilisation between the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives “A Digital Agenda for Europe” and “Innovation Union”—Adoption of Council Conclusions This item covers the adoption of the above Council conclusions. These conclusions are member states’ views on the synergies between two of the EU Commission flagship agendas, namely the Innovation Union (EM14035/ 10) and the European Digital Agenda (EM 9981/10). Thus, the conclusions contain elements of both flagship agendas, including stressing the need for accelerating the roll out of high-speed broadband which will help drive innovation, as well as recognising the importance of increasing EU spend on ICT research and development. In the main, HMG welcomes these conclusions, and I intend to make the following comments: welcome the adoption of these conclusions and pleased to see joined up thinking in linking together these two critical flagship agendas;

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pleased to see that these conclusions recognise the importance of digital technologies as one of the key economic drivers for Europe’s future prosperity; welcome the emphasis on the re-use of public sector data as a potential driver of private-sector led innovation; and welcome the “active and healthy ageing” EIP pilot that will be jointly developed by DG-INFSO and DG-SANCO (the latter being the part of the Commission that deals with health issues).

4. European Broadband: investing in digitally driven growth— Adoption of Council conclusions The last substantive item on the agenda is the adoption of the Council conclusions that specifically cover the European broadband strategy (EM 13874/10). This strategy is another component of the Commission’s “Broadband Package”. The importance of broadband roll-out is noted under item 1 above and I plan to make the following interventions during the planned discussion on these conclusions: HMG welcomes the adoption of these conclusions and hope that they will be taken note of by member states and the Commission to aid them in the rollout of super-fast broadband; The UK recognises the value of these conclusions and will shortly publish a UK-wide broadband strategy, detailing HMG’s plan to ensure every UK citizen is able to access broadband; and The EU broadband objectives are challenging, but by working together, and alongside the private sector, we can achieve them.

I will inform the House of the outcome of the discussion on this, and the preceding item in my post-Council statement. This concludes the formal substantive business items for Council. However, there are three items that are covered by “Any Other Business”. They are: A. A report on the state of development of roaming services within the European Union—Presentation by the Commission. This item will be coupled with a discussion over lunch preceding the Council. These items will be centred around the Commission’s recent Interim Report on the State of the Roaming Market (EM11711/10) During the lunch, Ministers have been asked to consider and discuss three questions. In summary they cover issues relating to stimulating competition, the impact of technological change and the introduction of a price cap on the retail price of data while roaming. During my lunch time discussion and any debate following the presentation from the Commission, I intend to make the following points: we look forward to proposals from the Commission on how they intend to deal with the roaming issue when the current regulation expires in June 2012; we fully support the call by the Commissioner for a functioning single market in mobile roaming services; especially with respect to data (which is of increasing importance for EU citizens); and we would welcome high-level but detailed discussions between all interested parties on this issue to try—possibly using the same format as the recent meeting on net neutrality—and find a way forward that benefits consumers but also does not undermine competition, investment or innovation in the mobile sector.

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B. Internet Governance Forum (IGF)—Briefing by the Commission and the Presidency. I do not plan an intervention on this item but if the opportunity arises, I will reaffirm HMG’s policy lines that: supports the multi-stakeholder approach on internet governance; welcomes the agreements reached at the recent ITU plenipotentiary; and anticipates a positive outcome to a vote in the UN General Assembly later in December to extend the mandate of the IGF for another five years.

C. The next presidency’ programme and events—Briefing by the Hungarian delegation This item is a presentation from the Hungarian delegation on their plans once they assume the presidency of the EU (1 January 2011 to 30 June 2011). I do not plan an intervention for this item but you may wish to note that my officials are in the final stages of planning a bilateral meeting with Hungarian officials so that we are able to capitalise upon any opportunities that may be presented by Hungary assuming the presidency.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT London Reforms and the Localism Bill The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (Mr Eric Pickles): I am today announcing a new settlement for London which includes a package of measures to be included in the forthcoming localism Bill. These far reaching proposals include measures which will significantly devolve power to the Greater London Authority, London boroughs and beyond and they will streamline the plethora of agencies in London’s public sector landscape. They are based on proposals put forward by the Mayor and London boroughs themselves. We have listened to key players in the capital and responded to their ideas. The measures include: The devolution of executive powers over housing investment from the Homes and Communities Agency to the GLA so that there is more decentralised control over housing investment decisions in the capital. The abolition of the London Development Agency, with its city-wide roles on regeneration and management of European funding to be transferred to the GLA so that the mayor is directly accountable. New powers for the Mayor of London to create Mayoral Development Corporations to focus regeneration where it is needed most, such as to help secure East London’s Olympic legacy, in partnership with London boroughs. London boroughs will be given greater control over key local planning decisions that affect their local communities. The mayor will only consider the largest planning applications in future. A more streamlined approach to mayoral strategies and increased powers of scrutiny for the London Assembly over these strategies, including the power to reject final strategies by a two thirds majority. A new requirement for the GLA Group to publish details of all expenditure over £500 and openness rules will be extended to Transport for London.

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These reforms will drive decision making back into the hands of the mayor and locally elected London leaders, streamlining the way London is run and paving the way for further devolution to London boroughs. CABINET OFFICE Diamond Jubilee Civic Honours Competitions The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Mr Mark Harper): I am pleased to announce that the Government are today launching UK-wide competitions for a grant of city status and a grant of Lord Mayoralty (or Lord Provostship) to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Local authorities throughout the United Kingdom who believe that their district, borough, town or city deserves consideration for either of these rare honours are invited to apply by the closing date of 27 May 2011. Entry guidelines have been posted on the Diamond Jubilee section of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s website, www.culture.gov.uk. Copies have also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office. The document provides guidance on the contents of applications, as was the case for the competitions held for Her Majesty’s Golden Jubilee, as well as full details on the submission of entries. In addition, for the first time in such competitions, the entry guidelines specify a standard format for entries. Local authorities are urged to use the standard format, which is intended to limit the costs of entering the competition and to introduce a fair basis for comparison between entries. The honours will, however, continue to be rare marks of distinction conferred, on ministerial advice, under the royal prerogative, rather than rights to be earned by the meeting of specific criteria. All valid entries will receive individual consideration on their merits and the Government look forward to announcing the results of the competitions in the early months of 2012. ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

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a renewed focus on accuracy to the administration of the scheme so that legacy issues are addressed once and for all and the agency is then able to deliver a better quality of service to farmers in the medium term. Equally, we need to ensure taxpayers, interests are safeguarded by ensuring our actions represent good value for money and further discussions will take place with the National Audit Office to that end. As we progress through the payment window, I will keep the House informed on the agency’s progress towards its targets and any related decisions by the RPA oversight board. At an individual level, the RPA are writing to farmers where it appears unlikely that payment will be made during the course of December. HEALTH Stem Cell Transplant Services The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anne Milton): As part of the Government’s desire to see improved services for NHS patients, the Department asked the NHS Blood and Transplant Authority to lead a review of stem cell transplant services. The authority duly established the UK Stem Cell Strategic Forum, an advisory group of national and international experts, service providers, clinicians, patients and charities which has now reported on its findings. The report, “The Future of Unrelated Donor Stem Cell Transplantation in the UK”, contains 20 recommendations on how we can better deliver this type of stem cell technology for the benefit of NHS patients. The Department welcomes the report. We will now begin work, in collaboration with the NHS, NHS Blood and Transplant and the Anthony Nolan Trust to develop improved partnership working and consider how the findings and recommendations in the report can be best translated into real service improvements. A copy of the report has been placed in the Library and copies are available to hon. Members in the Vote Office. HOME DEPARTMENT

Single Payment Scheme Local Licensing Act The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr James Paice): The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will today begin payments under the 2010 single payment scheme (SPS). Over the next few days payments totalling over £1 billion are expected to be made to some 80,000 claimants. This represents over 75% of eligible claimants. Further progress towards the agency’s 2010 SPS payment targets—to pay 85% of eligible SPS claimants by the end of December 2010 and to pay 95% of the value of SPS payments by the end of March 2011—is being closely monitored by the RPA oversight board which I chair. Against the background of the additional workload created by the update last year to Rural Land Register and reduced staff numbers, it is clear that meeting those targets represents a significant challenge. Farmers may be assured that outstanding payments will be made as individual claims are verified. But that will not mean cutting corners: I am determined to bring

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (James Brokenshire): Today, alongside the publication of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, we are publishing the Government’s response to the Rebalancing the Licensing Act consultation which was conducted earlier this year and includes the full analysis of consultation responses. Our response sets out which proposals we will be taking forward from the consultation document, and how; explains why we have decided not to proceed with some proposals; and outlines new proposals that we have introduced in response to suggestions received during the consultation. The Government believe that local communities should have a greater role in determining local licensing. The package of measures that we are introducing through the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill and the additional changes we will make through secondary legislation and guidance will rebalance the Licensing

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Act in favour of local communities, ensuring that local residents’ views and concerns are heard and considered and they get the type of night-time economy they want. The measures being introduced will also provide the police and licensing authorities with the tools they need to more effectively address alcohol-related crime and disorder in the night-time economy. Tackling alcohol-related crime and disorder is not something that can just be done centrally. These measures will enable issues to be addressed at a local level, with local communities taking greater responsibility for tackling problems in their own areas. The full Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill is today being published on the Parliament website: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/. The Government response to the Rebalancing the Licensing Act consultation will be available on the Home Office website: http:// www.homeoffice.gov.uk/drugs/alcohol/rebalancingconsultation and copies will be placed in the House Library.

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phasing out the National Policing Improvement Agency and creating a powerful new National Crime Agency to lead the fight against organised crime and strengthen our border security. This will be supported by a clearer framework for local PCCs and their forces, set out in a new strategic policing requirement (in response to some of the feedback we received during the consultation).

We have listened closely to what people have had to say and our final proposals take this in to account. For example, the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill that we are also publishing today provides more detail on the powers and duties that PCCs and police and crime panels will have and how PCCs will work with their force and other local providers. The full Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill is published on the Parliament website. The Government response to the “Policing in the 21st Century” consultation will be available on the Home Office website and will be placed in the House Libraries. Justice and Home Affairs Pre-Council Statement

Policing in the 21st Century The Minister for Policing and Criminal Justice (Nick Herbert): Today, alongside the publication of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, we are publishing the Government’s response to the “Policing in the 21st Century” consultation, which set out the most radical reforms to policing in at least 50 years, putting the public at the heart of policing. Directly-elected Police and Crime Commissioners are central to our proposals to replace bureaucratic accountability with democratic accountability. The Government are confident that Police and Crime Commissioners will make forces truly accountable to the communities they serve, ensuring that resources are properly targeted to where they are needed and giving the public a greater say in measures to reduce crime and improve community safety. We are also clear that the long held principle of operational independence, where those operating in the office of the constable are able to make independent decisions on how to use their legitimate coercive powers on behalf of the state will continue to remain the cornerstone of the British policing model. We received approximately 900 responses to the consultation and we are grateful to all those who responded. The response document we are publishing today summarises the views that we received and sets out next steps in implementing our reforms, which include: replacing existing police authorities with directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), who will hold forces to account and strengthen the bond between the police and the public; new police and crime panels to provide important scrutiny of PCC functions, with membership including both top-tier and district councils—giving district councils formal involvement in the governance of policing for the first time; a framework of checks and balances to scrutinise PCCs and a more independent Inspectorate of Constabulary; strengthening professional discretion, cutting bureaucracy and freeing up police officers’ time; greater collaboration between police forces to increase public protection and save money; and

The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mrs Theresa May): The Justice and Home Affairs Council is due to be held on 2 and 3 December in Brussels. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Justice and I intend to attend on behalf of the United Kingdom. As the provisional agenda stands, the following items will be discussed: The Council, beginning in Mixed Committee with Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland (non-EU Schengen States), will receive an update from the presidency on the state of play of the Schengen Information System II (SIS II) project. Next there will be a discussion of the Commission report on the implementation of the Council conclusions on 29 measures for reinforcing the protection of the external borders and combating illegal immigration. The UK has not yet received a copy of the report; however, we expect that the Commission will use this item to inform member states of progress regarding these measures. The measures include: Frontex working arrangements; exchange of relevant information between FRONTEX, other EU agencies and member states; development of the European Surveillance System— EUROSUR; exchange of information on illegal immigration, trafficking in human beings and falsification of documents; and solidarity and the integrated management of external borders by member states. After Mixed Committee the Council will receive an update from the presidency on the progress being made on asylum and legal and illegal migration and seek to ensure that the following four presidencies (Hungary, Poland, Cyprus and Denmark) remain on course to meet the Commission’s 2012 deadline for delivery of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). The UK Government believe that the challenges that Europe faces on asylum and illegal immigration are better addressed by practical co-operation than by further legislation. We do not consider the adoption of a common EU asylum policy to be right for Britain. But we do believe there are many issues in the area of asylum and migration on which all EU member states have much to gain by working together. We will be active in promoting effective cooperation, and will consider participation in

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legislative proposals on their merits in consultation with our European partners and relevant EU institutions. The Council will then receive updates from the Commission on the Mediterranean Office for Youth, the Greek national action plan on asylum and migration and a legal migration conference held on 26 November. The Mediterranean Office for Youth supports circular migration for educational purposes. The UK is not a participant in the Mediterranean Office for Youth, which is restricted to members of the Union for the Mediterranean. The UK considers the Greek national action plan on asylum and migration (the “Greek Action Plan”) to be key in increasing the ability of Greece to act as an efficient partner in countering illegal migration. Alongside other EU member states we have offered practical assistance to Greece, however we would like to see the establishment of an effective Commission-led process to ensure co-ordination and prioritisation; avoid duplication of member states’actions; ensure the availability of clear, accessible funding streams to support the action plan; and the setting of clear timescales for action and milestones for progress. The presidency will also present their conclusions following the conference on legal migration. Over lunch Interior Ministers will be asked to agree a regulation to create an agency for large-scale IT systems in the JHA field. This would be accompanied by a Council decision ensuring full UK participation in the agency, which was a Government priority as the agency will manage a number of existing systems in which we participate (Eurodac and the second generation of the Schengen Information System). While the Government are content with the text as drafted some member states have maintained reserves which will need to be resolved before the Council, in particular concerning the location of the agency. Also during lunch Ministers will discuss alternatives to detaining children for immigration purposes. The UK Government are committed to ending the detention of children in the UK and a review is currently underway to consider how this can be done in a way which protects the welfare of children and ensures that families leave when they have no right to be in the UK. This will be an opportunity to share experience and ideas with other member states who are also dealing with this difficult issue. After lunch, the Commission will present their draft action plan on combating heavy arms trafficking. Should this plan be endorsed during this Council, the EU will have an integrated approach to combating arms trafficking, and more particularly heavy fire arms. Next the presidency will present for agreement Council conclusions on itinerant gangs which seek to define the problem of itinerant crime groups and agree an administrative approach to tackle the problem, including increased cross-border co-operation. The Council will also be asked to agree draft Council conclusions on preventing and combating identity related crimes and on identity management. The Council will be asked to agree negotiating mandates which will authorise the start of negotiations between the EU and the United States, Canada, and Australia for the transfer and use of passenger name records (PNR) to prevent and combat terrorism and other forms of serious cross-border crime. Clear PNR agreements between the EU and Australia, Canada and the US will play a vital role in removing legal uncertainty for air

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carriers flying to those third countries. It will also help ensure that, where appropriate, PNR data can be shared quickly and securely with all necessary data protection safeguards in place. The Government are content with the proposed negotiating mandates but has yet to take a decision on whether or not to opt in. The Government strongly believe that early publication of an EU PNR Directive covering intra-EU as well as external flights is vital to the safety and security of EU citizens. Next the EU CT co-ordinator will present a discussion paper to Council on an EU CT strategy which covers transport security, terrorist travel, cyber threats, the external dimension of CT and fighting discrimination and social marginalisation of Muslims. The UK welcomes the paper as a useful starting point for further policy discussions. The EU CT co-ordinator will also provide an update on progress against the EU action plan on combating terrorism to date. The presidency will seek agreement on a paper on a system for sharing information on terrorist threat levels in the member states. The UK supports improvements to the information sharing mechanisms on terrorist threat levels at the EU level while maintaining that changes to threat levels remain a member state competence. The Council will also be asked to reach agreement on a paper recommending proposals to strengthen aviation security following the incident at East Midlands airport. This paper will go jointly to the Transport and JHA Councils on 02 December for agreement. The UK welcomes this report and will press for early, effective and co-ordinated action. Commissioner Malmström will present her EU Internal Security Communication, which looks to translate the Council’s EU internal security strategy into action points and will seek initial views from member states. The text was published on 23 November. The Government are therefore considering the detail of what is proposed and will set out their initial views at the Council. On the justice day, the Council will be asked to agree the text of the EU directive on human trafficking. In June, the Government made a decision not to opt in to the directive, but to review its position after adoption, at which point the UK could apply to opt in retrospectively. The directive is in its final stages of negotiation; there is a qualified majority in the Council and should the European Parliament also agree the text in December adoption will follow. The presidency will then seek a general approach on the draft directive on combating sexual exploitation and abuse of children and child pornography. This draft directive aims to update existing EU legislation in the area of combating child sexual exploitation and pornography in line with technological developments such as the use of webcams to bully children into sexual posing (a pornographic performance). The Government are seeking scrutiny clearance to enable the UK to support the presidency in reaching a general approach. There will be a state of play report on the European Investigation Order (EIO), which is a draft directive aimed at streamlining the system of mutual legal assistance between participating EU member states. The presidency will report progress on negotiations but is not expected to seek agreement on any issues at this time. The Government will take the opportunity to press for further detailed work on the grounds for refusing assistance.

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The presidency will also seek a general approach on the right to information in criminal proceedings. This is the second measure in the roadmap to strengthen procedural rights in criminal proceedings. It aims to set common minimum standards and improve the rights of suspects and accused persons by ensuring that they receive information about their rights. The presidency has taken on board the Government’s concerns in relation to article 7 of the draft directive. The Government are seeking scrutiny clearance to enable it to agree to the general approach. The presidency will then seek agreement among participating member states on the regulation implementing enhanced cooperation in the field of law applicable to divorce—Rome III. The European Parliament will adopt its opinion by the end of the year. The UK is not participating in this measure. The presidency held a seminar on 14 October to discuss issues around resolving child abduction disputes by mediation. At the end of the seminar the presidency produced conclusions aimed at encouraging EU law makers and member states to consider promoting mediation in such cases. The presidency is seeking agreement to these conclusions at the Council. There will be a discussion on the Commission’s communication on “A comprehensive approach on personal data protection in the European Union”. The Communication is intended to serve as a basis for further discussions between the Commission, other European institutions and interested parties with a view to developing a new data protection legislative framework. It is anticipated that the Commission will publish a legislative proposal in mid-2011.

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The presidency will seek agreement to the adoption of a negotiating mandate for an EU-US Agreement on data protection. The agreement would clarify data protection safeguards for the transatlantic exchange of personal data for law enforcement purposes. Ministers will then be provided an information point on the outcomes of and proposed follow up to the EU-Russia Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) (freedom, security and justice) (18-19 November), and the Western Balkans Ministerial Forum (23-24 November). The PPC agreed steps forward on visa liberalisation (the top priority for Russia). They agreed to work on a list of common steps towards negotiations on an EU-Russia visa waiver agreement. This does not directly affect the UK as we are not part of the Schengen visa arrangements. The UK did not attend the Western Balkans Ministerial Forum. Ministers will be updated at the JHA Council. Ministers will then be presented with a report on the activities of the e-justice working party during the Belgian presidency. The main focus of this work so far has been the development of a European e-justice portal which is a website (launched at the July Informal JUA. Council) that acts as a point of access to a range of information on justice matters across the EU. Over lunch, there will be a discussion about the forthcoming directive, access to a lawyer. This is the third measure on the roadmap to strengthening criminal procedural rights, which is likely to be published in June 2011. The Commission is still in the early stages of drafting the proposal. It is considering provisions on the right to waiver legal advice, consequences of violations, the competence and quality of lawyers and provisions for European arrest warrant proceedings.

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Written Answers to Questions Wednesday 1 December 2010

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Departmental Sponsorship

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where the Department for International Development (DFID) has supported national HIV prevention programmes. DFID is reviewing all its bilateral and multilateral aid programmes to ensure UK aid is effective, represents value for money for the UK taxpayer and accelerate progress towards the millennium development goals. As set out in DFID’s business plan 2011-15, we will specify our objectives on restricting the spread of diseases like TB, HIV, and malaria by May 2011. EU Law

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what expenditure his Department incurred on sponsorship in each year since 1997 for which figures [27524] are available.

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many EU directives are pending transposition into domestic legislation by his Department; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such transposition. [27507]

Mr O’Brien: The Department for International Development (DFID) is not able to provide details of expenditure which may have been incurred on sponsorship without incurring a disproportionate cost.

Mr O’Brien: There are currently no EU directives waiting to be transposed into domestic legislation by the Department.

Developing Countries: Education

Football: South Africa

Mr Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether the needs of disabled people informed the ministerial review of his Department’s Education Strategy 2010-15; and what steps his Department plans to take to ensure such needs inform any further [27555] such review.

Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department spent on entertainment activities related to the 2010 [27360] FIFA World Cup.

Mr O’Brien: The Department for International Development (DFID) published its Learning for All Education Strategy in March 2010. The strategy recognised that disability is a major factor in excluding children from school and the importance of reaching those currently marginalised if the education millennium development goals and Education for All goals are to be achieved. DFID recently published a guidance note on supporting access to education for children with disabilities, “Education for Children with Disabilities—Improving Access and Quality”, which is available on the DFID website. This note has been used by country teams during the bilateral aid review, which will inform our ongoing policy, including that on education for children with disabilities. Developing Countries: HIV Infection Mr Andrew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s programmes in reducing the global incidence of HIV/AIDS; what plans he has for the future of such programmes; and if he will make a statement. [27747] Mr O’Brien: Figures from the UNAIDS Report on The Global Aids Epidemic 2010 demonstrate steady progress in the reduction of HIV incidence. In 33 countries, of which 22 are in Sub-Saharan Africa, HIV incidence has fallen by more than 25% between 2001 and 2009. In the countries most severely effected by the epidemic in Sub-Saharan Africa—Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe—incidence have either stabilised or are showing signs of decline. These are all countries

Mr Duncan: The Department for International Development (DFID) spent no money on entertainment relating to the activities of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Trade Unions: Finance Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much his Department has given to trade unions in the UK and overseas through (a) the Civil Society Challenge Fund, (b) the UK Trades Union Congress Strategic Grant Agreement, (c) the Strategic Framework Partnership Agreement, (d) the partnership programme agreements, (e) the Development Awareness Fund and (f) other programmes in each of the last three years; which trade unions received such funds; and for what reason the award was made in each case. [27381]

Mr Andrew Mitchell: I will arrange for the requested information to be placed in the Library of the House. The Department for International Development (DFID) is reviewing all of its aid programmes including aid channelled through trade unions, to ensure that it makes a real difference to the world’s poorest people.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS Agricultural Wages Order Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how many grants of widow’s or widower’s bereavement allowances were made under the Agricultural Wages Order in each of the last five [27417] financial years;

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(2) what the average sum payable as a grant of widow’s or widower’s bereavement allowance under the Agricultural Wages Order was in each of the last five [27418] financial years. Mr Paice: The Agricultural Wages Order provides agricultural workers with an entitlement to paid bereavement leave on the death of a close relative, including a spouse or civil partner. However, it does not include provision for the payment of a lump sum grant in addition to this. The Government do not keep records of the amount of bereavement leave taken by agricultural workers. Therefore, it is not possible to provide details of the average amount of bereavement leave pay received in each of the past five years. Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) how many grants of dog allowances were made under the Agricultural Wages [27419] Order in each of the last five financial years; (2) what the average sum payable as a grant of dog allowances under the Agricultural Wages Order was in [27421] each of the last five financial years. Mr Paice: The dog allowance is a weekly amount added to the minimum rate for a worker whose employer requires them to keep a dog or dogs. The allowance is paid in respect of each dog. The Government does not have information on the number of allowances paid to workers required to keep a dog or dogs for the better performance of their work. Nor is it possible to state what the average sum payable to such workers was in each of the last five financial years. The level of the weekly dog allowance payable to a worker required to keep a dog or dogs in each of the last five years was as follows: £ 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 Note: All allowances are effective from 1 October of the relevant year.

7.21 7.01 6.86 6.58 6.30

Biofuels Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much wood was imported for burning as biomass fuel in (a) 2007, [27552] (b) 2008 and (c) 2009. Gregory Barker: I have been asked to reply. Information collated by HM Revenue and Customs as part of its statistics on overseas trade do not indicate the final use for imported wood. The 2010 edition of the Digest of UK Energy Statistics contains estimates of the total quantities of wood and waste wood that were used for energy purposes during 2007, 2008 and 2009. Copies of this publication are available in the House Library. The publication shows the following information:

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Thousand tonnes of oil equivalent 2007 2008 2009 Wood for energy purposes Waste wood for energy purposes

332

359

375

101

162

165

Additionally, the publication contains the following estimates of straw, short rotation coppice, and other plant based biomass imported for energy purposes: Thousand tonnes of oil equivalent 2007 2008 2009 Total imports of straw, short rotation coppice and other plant-based biomass for energy purposes

378

416

415

British Waterways Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent discussions she has had on the future of British [25906] Waterways. Richard Benyon: On 14 October, the Government announced that British Waterways will move from being a public corporation to a charitable body within civil society from April 2012. Government’s intention is to issue a full public consultation on the scope and model of the new waterways charity early in 2011. Key stakeholders will continue to be kept closely involved through ongoing discussions, workshops and meetings with myself and DEFRA officials. Carbon Emissions: Businesses Naomi Long: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether she plans to introduce mandatory reporting of carbon emissions [27113] by UK-listed companies. Zac Goldsmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her policy is on the introduction of mandatory carbon reporting for businesses under section 85 of the Climate Change Act [26349] 2008. Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will assess the merits of introducing mandatory reporting of carbon dioxide emissions by listed UK companies; and [27200] if she will make a statement. Mr Paice: I refer the hon. Member and my hon. Friends to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr Wright) on 27 October 2010, Official Report, column 319W. Common Agricultural Policy Amber Rudd: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what recent assessment she has made of the effect on UK food security of the operation of the Common Agricultural [20736] Policy.

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Mr Paice: The best guarantors of UK food security, as detailed in DEFRA’s UK food security assessment, are an open trading system with other countries, and farmers at home and overseas being able to respond to market price signals. We believe that there needs to be reform of the Common Agricultural Policy to facilitate this. Departmental Policy Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what departmental policy reviews her Department has undertaken since 6

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May 2010; on what date each such review (a) was announced and (b) is expected to publish its findings; what estimate she has made of the cost of each such review; who has been appointed to lead each such review; to what remuneration each review leader is entitled; how many (i) full-time equivalent civil servants and (ii) seconded staff are working on each such review; from which organisations such staff have been seconded; and how much on average such seconded staff will be [21883] paid for their work on the review. Richard Benyon: The information requested is set out in the following table. Review of national park governance arrangements

Animal Welfare Act

Animal welfare inspections

Task force on farm regulation

15 June 2010

June 2010 (reconfirmed earlier decision taken by previous Administration)

1 May 2010

9 June 2010

A full public consultation was launched on 9 November 2010

Spring/summer 2011

May 2011

Command Paper to publish in December 2010. EFRA Parliamentary Select Committee to consider its findings.

1 May 2011

April 2011

A Ministerial announcement on the consultation outcome, proposals for changes to the governance arrangements and ways of improving accountability will be made by the end of March 2011.

Estimated cost

£55,000 not including staff costs

Undertaken by civil servants in the course of normal duties

Undertaken by civil servants in the course of normal duties

Undertaken by civil servants in the course of normal duties

£35,000 (not including staff costs)

Undertaken by civil servants in the course of normal duties

Appointed reviewer and remuneration

David Gray. £50,000 plus expenses.

n/a

n/a

n/a

Richard Macdonald. Daily rate £300 and entitled to reasonable expenses. Estimated input 80 days.

n/a

Number of civil servants working on the review

2.2 full-time employees

4 full-time employees

5 full-time employees

4.6 full-time employees

6 full-time employees

2 civil servants but with significant input from the national park authorities.

Number of secondees working on the review

None

1 part time (2 days per week)

None

None

None

None

Ofwat review

Waste review

Announcement date

26 August 2010

Publication date

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Animal Welfare Act

Animal welfare inspections

Task force on farm regulation

Review of national park governance arrangements

Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP)

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

On loan from WRAP

n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

Ofwat review

Waste review

Secondees home organisation

n/a

Secondees pay rates

n/a

Farming Futures: Finance Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much funding Farming Futures received from her Department in each of the last four years; and how much funding she plans to allocate to Farming Futures in each of the next four [27031] years. Mr Paice: Farming Futures was set up in 2007 to build greater awareness and provide advice to farmers on the impacts of climate change and actions they can take to deal with this, to increase efficiency, profitability and competiveness. DEFRA has provided Farming Futures with core funding of over £850,000 covering a four year period: £ 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

171,000 250,000 150,000 285,000

DEFRA funding for Farming Futures was a substantial, time-limited contribution to allow them to establish themselves in playing a central role in supporting the industry’s action on climate change, whilst they sought alternative long-term funding. After four years, DEFRA’s financial support will come to an end in March 2011. Genetically Modified Organisms Mr Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the opinion of the Council of Ministers on the proposal to amend the GMO Deliberate Release Directive 2001/18 by introducing a new article 26b has been received by her Department; and if she will make a statement. [26331]

Mr Paice [holding answer 25 November 2010]: All member states have received the opinion of the Council Legal Service on the proposal to amend Directive 2001/18. Opinions on this matter are also expected to be made available soon from both the European Parliament and the Commission legal services. Following this, further discussions will be held at EU level on the legal implications of the Commission’s proposal. Mr Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what her policy is on the commercial growing of genetically-modified [26878] crops; and if she will make a statement.

Mr Paice [holding answer 29 November 2010]: The details of the Government’s policy on GM crops are currently under consideration, but all policies will be based on robust scientific evidence. National Parks Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what visits on what dates for what purposes (a) she and (b) other Ministers in her Department have made to (i) national parks and (ii) national nature reserves since 11 May [26156] 2010. Richard Benyon [holding answer 24 November 2010]: I have expressed a keen interest in visiting all of the English national parks to see at first hand the valuable work being undertaken. So far I have been to Northumberland national park on 15 June and the Peak District national park on 27 July. During my visit to Northumberland national park I also went to Greenlee Lough national nature reserve to see how national park and national nature reserve designations can work together. Other national nature reserves I visited are Holme Fen and Woodwalton Fen on 10 November as part of the Great Fen project which is designed to link up the land between the two nature reserves. I was also able to see Leigh Woods national nature reserve from the Avon Gorge site of special scientific interest which I visited on 19 July. The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my hon. Friend the Member for South East Cambridgeshire (Mr Paice) visited Dartmoor national park on 11 November to discuss uplands issues. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs the noble Lord, Lord Henley visited the Lake District national park on 25 August regarding future changes needed to adapt to climate change. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Meriden (Mrs Spelman) has met with key representatives from the English national parks authority association and spoken with a number of people who have an interest in national parks and national nature reserves. We are currently putting together a programme of visits for 2011, which includes visits to our national parks.

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Salmon: Rivers Mr Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) whether her Department has made an estimate of the number of salmon returning to the river (a) Test, (b) Itchen and (c) Hampshire Avon in each of the past five years; and [26235] if she will make a statement; (2) what assessment her Department has made of the future capacity of the river (a) Test, (b) Itchen and (c) Hampshire Avon to support viable stocks of migratory salmonoids; and if she will make a statement. [26236] Richard Benyon: The Environment Agency (EA) operates fish counters on the Rivers Test, Itchen and Hampshire Avon and uses these to derive annual estimates of the number of salmon returning to each of these rivers. The following table shows the estimated number of salmon returning in each of the past five years, although such estimates have only been possible on the Hampshire Avon since 2006.

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 (provisional)

Test

Itchen

Hampshire Avon

1,117 1,058 664 1,487 903

411 419 301 500 276

n/a 1,319 1,135 810 743

The EA estimates the Conservation Limits (CLs) for salmon stocks in each of the 64 principal salmon rivers in England and Wales; including the Test, Itchen and Hampshire Avon. CLs are described as ‘the minimum desirable spawning stock levels, below which stocks should not be allowed to fall’. The salmon stocks in the Rivers Test, Itchen and Hampshire Avon were all below their CLs in 2009, and are classified as being ‘At Risk’ or ‘Probably at Risk’. They are also expected to remain in one of these categories until at least 2014. There are no similar indicators of the status of other salmonid species. Stocks may still be sustainable at levels below their CL, but they are at greater risk. The EA and the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science are investigating the significance of impacts on salmon and will seek ways to manage the effects. An understanding of these key factors will be important in estimating the future potential of these southern chalk streams for all salmonid species.

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effective and better targeted. I also refer the hon. Gentleman to the Welsh Assembly Government which administers woodland grant schemes in Wales for information on its plans.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what progress his Department has made on inclusion of a proportion of electricity generated from energy from waste in the Carbon Reduction Commitment. [27286] Gregory Barker: All electricity supply arrangements to a CRC participant which meet the CRC’s supply criteria must be reported under the scheme, irrespective of how, where and by whom the electricity is generated. This ensures the scheme’s focus is on energy efficiency measures. CRC participants which operate an energy from waste plant will also need to report their input fuel to the generational process, where that waste supply meets the CRC supply definitions. Departmental Contracts Nicola Blackwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps his Department plans to take to encourage and support small and medium-sized enterprises and third sector organisations to compete for departmental contracts in line with value-for-money policy, UK regulations and EU [28114] procurement directives. Gregory Barker: The Department of Energy and Climate Change is following all the requirements of the Transparency Agenda and openly advertising all procurements above £10,000. In circumstances where an applicant is unsuccessful with their bid the Department provides full feedback to all companies as requested. Energy: Prices Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what steps he is taking to assist energy-intensive industries with rising energy [27120] prices.

Woodland Grants Scheme Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has for the future of the Woodland Grants Scheme following the outcome of the comprehensive spending [21955] review; and if she will make a statement. Mr Paice: Expenditure on the Rural Development programme for England will be maintained over the spending review period. We will work with the Forestry Commission to ensure the England Woodland Grant Scheme, which provides for the stewardship of existing woodlands and the creation of new woodlands, is more

Charles Hendry: In order to help UK energy intensive industries, DECC is working closely with BIS, industry representatives, academics and other experts on an Energy Intensive Industry Strategy. The Strategy is assessing the impact of climate change and energy policies on the cost of energy for these industries, greenhouse gas abatement opportunities within key energy intensive sectors and is considering policy options where further cost-effective abatement opportunities are not available in the short term. The Government also provide businesses with enhanced tax relief for investments in equipment that meets published energy-saving criteria via enhanced capital allowances.

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Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change whether he plans to seek additional data-sharing powers to enable people with a terminal illness automatically to receive assistance from the mandatory social price support scheme. [27741]

Gregory Barker: Energy suppliers will be required from April 2011 to provide greater help with the financial costs of energy bills to more of the most vulnerable fuel poor households—with total support of £250 million in 2011-12 rising to £310 million in 2014-15. We anticipate that data matching methods, similar to those which were used successfully in the Energy Rebate Scheme, will be used to target the available assistance towards more of the most vulnerable households. We intend to consult on the detailed policy design, including eligibility and targeting methods, shortly and would welcome views and input on these issues during that process. Natural Gas Graham Stringer: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what recent estimate he has made of the level of reserves of shale gas in the [27752] UK. Charles Hendry: The British Geological Survey estimates that there could be worthwhile shale gas resources in the UK. However it is not possible to make an estimate of reserves without drilling and production testing, and it is not yet clear that the success elsewhere can be replicated in the UK.

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TUC event central London—3 February 2009: Sarah Veale; Dinah Cox; Councillors: Anwara Ali and Lurline Champagnie.

Glasgow—13 February 2009: Former Councillor Neelam Bakshi; Angela O’Hagan; Councillor Paulette Hamilton; Loretta Mordi; Ann Henderson.

Gloucester—19 February 2009: Former Councillor Carol Francis; Councillors: Barry Dare, Lorna Campbell and Lady Mavis Dunrossil; Parmjit Dhanda MP.

Newcastle—20 March 2009: Former Councillor Thea Khamis; Councillors: David Faulkner and Lurline Champagnie; Baroness Sandip Verma; Ranjana Bell.

Leicester—17 April 2009: Councillors: Manjula Sood, Ross Willmott, Sarah Russell and Ramilla Shah; Sheila Lock CEO; Liz Reid-Jones; Anita Patel.

Camden—24 April 2009: Councillors: Maya de Souza, Keith Moffitt and Geethika Jayatilaka; Dame Jane Roberts; Simon Woolley.

South London—21 May 2009: Councillors: Lorna Campbell; Nicholas Stanton, Eliza Mann, Mimi Harker and Dora Dixon Fyle; Dawn Butler MP; Harriet Harman QC, MP and Minister for Women and Equalities.

Liverpool—29 May 2009: Former Councillor Mia Jones; Councillors: Warren Bradley and Anna Rothery; Amina Ismail; Maria Eagle MP and Deputy Minister for Women and Equalities.

Chilterns, Maidenhead and Berkshire—26 June 2009: Councillors: Mimi Harker, Humaira Khan, John Warder, Meral Ece, Denise Headley.

Luton—17 July 2009: WOMEN AND EQUALITIES Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women Councillors Taskforce: Expenditure Priti Patel: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities pursuant to the answer of 22 November 2010, Official Report, columns 81-2W, on ethnic minorities, who the speakers were at each of the 16 events. [27469] Lynne Featherstone: A total of 16 Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors’ Taskforce events were held across Britain. The speakers at each of the events were as follows: Tower Hamlet—23 July 2008: Councillors: Dr Anwara AN, Shirley Marshall and Lurline Champagnie; Barbara Follett MP and Deputy Minister for Women; former Councillor Neelam Bakshi.

Birmingham—17 October 2008: Councillors: Salma Yaqoob, Karen Hamilton and Paulette Hamilton; Francine Fernandes; Carol Coombes CEO.

Harrow—21 November 2008: Councillors: Lurline Champagnie, Mimi Harker, Nana Asante and David Ashton.

Swansea—12 December 2008: Former Councillor Yvonne Jardine; Nia Griffith MP; Salma Abbasi; Mari Rees.

Islington—9 January 2009: Councillors: James Kempton, Jyoti Vaja, Anjana Patel, Ruth Polling, Berenice Vanier; Mouna Hamitouche.

Councillors: Sherma Batson, Joan Bailey, Jacqui Burnett and Anjana Patel; Dr Nazia Khanum; Kate Belinis CEO.

Bradford—22 July 2009: Adeeba Malik; Councillors: Dale Smith, Naveeda Ikram and Alison Lowe; Marcia Churley. Note: This information is in the public domain through the BAME Women Councillors’ Taskforce report. The full report is available at the following link: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/pdf/ Task%20Force%20Report%20Oct%202009.pdf

Priti Patel: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities pursuant to the answer of 22 November 2010, Official Report, columns 81-82W, on ethnic minorities, how the (a) attendees and (b) delegates at each event were (i) invited and (ii) selected for invitation. [27471] Lynne Featherstone: A total of 16 events were held across Britain reaching nearly 1,100 women. These events were promoted using a wide range of organisations. This included working closely with existing local equalities group networks and political parties. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) sent e-mails including the event details and also telephoned organisations who helped to promote the events on behalf of the GEO. These organisations included local women’s organisations, equalities organisations, local authorities, local political parties, strategic partners, local Libraries and business networks.

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Attendees signed up to attend the events online. The selection of attendees was based on a first come first served basis where the numbers were dependent on the size of the venue. Priti Patel: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities pursuant to the answer of 22 November 2010, Official Report, columns 81-82W, on ethnic minorities, what steps she plans to take to evaluate the (a) outcome [27473] and (b) value for money of each event. Lynne Featherstone: Action has been taken to evaluate the work of the Black, Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) Women Councillors’ taskforce and an evaluation report will be published in the new year, with an executive summary. The report will assess the short- and longer-term impacts of the taskforce as a whole, and by each of the three strands of work covering the support and development element of the programme, which are the outreach events, the shadowing and mentoring scheme and the community leadership course. The specific research objectives are: 1. To identify and examine the outcomes and effectiveness of the BAME taskforce 2. To identify the strengths and limitations of the BAME taskforce programme of work 3. To assess the value of the taskforce programme of work, including how to make this agenda sustainable in the longer term 4. To follow-up and track participants’ progress in getting involved in political and public life.

HOME DEPARTMENT Aviation: Security Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department who informed (a) her and (b) the Prime Minister of the discovery of a bomb on board a UPS courier aircraft at East Midlands airport; and what the reasons were for the time taken to inform each [22219] Minister of that discovery. Mr Maude: I have been asked to reply. The Secretary of State for Transport, the right hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) informed about an incident at East Midlands airport at 8.10 am on 29 October. In his capacity as Secretary of State for Transport he is routinely informed of incidents having the potential to disrupt air transport, even when no specific threat materialises. The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) and the Minister of State for Security and Counter-terrorism (Baroness Neville-Jones) were all informed at lunchtime on 29 October. Crime Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the change in overall crime levels has been between 1997 and the latest date for which figures are available in terms of the methodology used in collecting information for (a) police recorded crime [24606] and (b) the British Crime Survey.

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Mrs May [holding answer 16 November 2010]: Both the police recorded crime statistics and the British Crime Survey provide an incomplete picture of crime. Statistics from the two sources are published annually in the Home Office statistical bulletin, Crime in England and Wales, a copy of which is available in the House of Commons Library. Homosexuality: Criminal Records Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will bring forward legislative proposals to change requirements for the disclosure of historic convictions for homosexual intercourse for the [27241] purpose of preventing discrimination. Lynne Featherstone: As set out in the Home Office Business Plan, the Freedom Bill, to be introduced by February 2011, will include provisions so that those who were prosecuted for consensual gay sex at a time when this was illegal may apply to have their conviction record deleted from police records and will no longer be required to disclose their conviction in any circumstances. Immigration Mr Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedures are available to her to restrict the level of immigration from other EU [26882] member states. Damian Green [holding answer 29 November 2010]: The right to free movement is not unlimited; European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) nationals must be exercising a Treaty right as a worker, a self-employed or self-sufficient person or a student if they wish to reside in the UK beyond three months. The EU Accession Treaties for countries that have joined the EU since 2004 include a temporary derogation that allows individual member states to restrict accession workers’ access to the labour market for up to five years, or up to seven years if justified on labour market grounds. This Government are committed to applying transitional controls on access to the UK labour market as a matter of course in the future to all new EU member states. Under transitional arrangements currently in place, workers from the Central and Eastern European countries that acceded to the EU in 2004 must register their employment in the UK within one month. This scheme must end by 30 April 2011. Workers from Romania and Bulgaria, which acceded to the EU on 1 January 2007, must seek authorisation to work from the UK Border Agency and meet the required criteria. These restrictions will remain in force until 31 December 2011 and may be extended for a further two years. Migration Mr Blunkett: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to the oral statement of 23 November 2010, Official Report, columns 169-71, on controlling migration, what the minimum amount is

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which any applicant must be able to deposit in a UK-based financial institution prior to becoming [27758] eligible for an entrepreneur visa. Damian Green: The minimum amount an applicant to the tier 1 (entrepreneur) route must have available to deposit in a UK-based financial institution is currently £200,000. We will announce details of the revised criteria for entrepreneurs in due course. Vetting Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what recent representations she has received from accredited guardianship organisations on her Department’s review of the vetting and barring [27681] regime; (2) what account she took of accredited guardianship organisations in her Department’s review of the [27684] Independent Safeguarding Authority. Lynne Featherstone [holding answer 30 November 2010]: The review and remodelling of the Vetting and Barring Scheme is still under way. Representations from various organisations including those involved with the private and independent schools sector have been received, and will be taken into account as the review progresses.

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Norman Baker: The environmental impacts of biofuel production are included in the lifecycle assessment of biofuels awarded renewable transport fuel certificates (RTFCs). Biofuel producers who wish to claim RTFCs for the fuel they produce must register with the Renewable Fuels Agency (RFA). In the 2009-10 reporting period 33 non-obligated biofuels producers were awarded RTFCs. The RFA quarterly reports list all biofuel producers awarded RTFCs during the reporting period, but do not distinguish between small and large suppliers. The volume of fuel supplied is commercially sensitive data. The RFA requires fuel suppliers claiming RTFCs to submit monthly reports on the lifecycle greenhouse gas (GHG) saving and the sustainability of the biofuels they supply. Summaries of the data supplied are published in the RFA’s quarterly reports. In the 2009-10 reporting period all biofuels-only suppliers reported meeting a qualifying environmental standard in 90% or more of the biofuel supplied and all reported on the fuel characteristics (feedstock, country of origin, sustainability and previous land use) for more than 95% of the fuel supplied, although in many cases environmental data were reported using RFA default values. The RFA quarterly reports are available at: www.renewablefuelsagency.gov.uk

WALES

East Midlands Airport: Security

Grants Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what grants have been awarded by her Department in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11 to date; what grants she plans to award in each of the next two years; what the monetary value is of each such grant fund; and to which organisations such grants have been made. [27861]

Mr David Jones: I refer the hon. Gentleman to my answer of 30 November 2010, Official Report, column 737W. UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what assessment she has made of the compliance of her Department with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation’s criteria for sourcing sustainable timber. [27851]

Mr David Jones: The Wales Office obtains its support services through the Ministry of Justice and comes under that Ministry’s sustainable development framework, where there is a requirement for all timber to be from sustainable sources.

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport at what time on 29 October 2010 he was informed of the [22480] security incident at East Midlands airport. Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply. The Secretary of State for Transport, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) was informed about an incident at East Midlands airport at 8.10am on Friday 29 October. In his capacity as Secretary of State for Transport he is routinely informed of incidents having the potential to disrupt air transport, even when no specific threat materialises. The Prime Minister, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May) and the Minister of State for Security and Counter-terrorism (Baroness Neville-Jones) were all informed at lunchtime on Friday 29 October. Lake Windermere: Speed Limits Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the speed limit is for motorised transportation across Lake Windermere in (a) miles per hour, (b) nautical miles per hour and (c) kilometres per hour. [26475]

TRANSPORT Biofuels Mr Bain: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effects on the environment of (a) small-scale biodiesel production and (b) competition within the biodiesel market. [26932]

Mike Penning: Speed limits for motorised transportation across Lake Windermere are a matter for the Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA). The LDNPA’s website states “There is a 10 nautical miles per hour speed limit on Lake Windermere, dropping to 6 miles per hour in some areas.”

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Official Cars: Liquefied Natural Gas Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he has made an estimate of the potential cost savings likely to be made from converting a Government Car Service vehicle to be fuelled by [27204] liquefied petroleum gas autogas. Mike Penning: The cost-effectiveness of a conversion to liquid petroleum gas (LPG) can only be realised with vehicles that cover high mileage using primarily LPG and without incurring the associated reliability issues that the conversion creates. The mileage profile and replacement cycle of a Government Car Service vehicle would not permit full recovery of the conversion costs.

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made, so that the benefits of low carbon proposals are fully recognised. This includes reviewing and revising its guidance on appraising transport projects, as well as its processes for assessing schemes and supporting ministerial decisions. We will announce the scope and timetable of this review shortly.

DEFENCE Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the remit of the Defence Reform Units review includes forces and operations in Afghanistan. [26292]

Parking: Fines Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many local authorities (a) responsible for London boroughs and (b) outside London have contacted his Department to seek an increase in charges for parking [27114] penalties. Norman Baker [holding answer 29 November 2010]: Penalty charges in London are the responsibility of the London Mayor. The British Parking Association has raised this matter with Ministers of behalf of their local authority members. In addition six local authorities have written to the Department for Transport. Stourbridge to Walsall Freight Rail Line Margot James: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what progress has been made on reinstating the Stourbridge to Walsall freight rail line; and if he [27799] will make a statement. Mrs Villiers: There is no current project to reinstate the Stourbridge to Walsall line. However, Network Rail has published the West Midlands and Chilterns Route Utilisation Strategy Draft for Consultation in November 2010. It has established that there may be a case for re-opening the Stourbridge to Walsall line to accommodate future freight growth.

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Dr Fox: The remit of the Defence Reform Unit’s review does not include our current forces or operations in Afghanistan. Armed Forces: Aircraft Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate his Department has made of the likely effect of implementing his decision to procure the non-STOVL variant of the joint strike fighter on [27614] the number of jobs. Peter Luff [holding answer 30 November 2010]: The decision to purchase the carrier variant (CV) of the joint strike fighter (JSF) was made on the basis of its advantages offered in terms of interoperability with allies, range, and pay load and through life costs over the short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant. The industrial implications of the key strategic defence and security review choices were given careful consideration, but we have not made a specific assessment of the impact on the jobs in the UK of the decision to proceed with the CV of the JSF. Many UK companies continue to be heavily involved in the overall JSF programme. Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence which engines have been chosen to be fitted on the joint strike fighter; and if he will make a statement.

Transport: Expenditure

[27615]

George Eustice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what changes his Department has made to its formula for assessing benefit-to-cost ratios in respect of transport schemes since May 2010. [27328]

Peter Luff: Pending the US decision as to whether to continue funding for the completion of development of the alternative General Electric/Rolls Royce F136 engine, it is too early to determine which engines will be fitted to the joint strike fighter.

Norman Baker: The Department for Transport has not changed its definitive appraisal guidance since May 2010. The guidance, along with planned changes released “in draft” in January 2010 (which included a new benefitcost ratio formula), are available at:

Armoured Fighting Vehicles

http://www.dft.gov.uk/webtag/index.php

Spending review decisions were informed by a valuefor-money measure which was consistent with two of the proposed changes to the guidance: introducing the latest monetary values of carbon and adopting the new benefit-cost ratio formula. The Department for Transport’s business plan for 2011-15 states it will reform the way transport projects are assessed, and funding prioritisation decisions are

Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to the strategic defence and security review, page 24, what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of introducing protected support vehicles to replace unprotected versions that [26794] are no longer suitable. Peter Luff: There are a number of future planned programmes for both protected and unprotected support vehicles. The protection level of any given vehicle is very much driven by the capability the vehicle is designed to meet and the threat level it is expected to face. To

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maintain flexibility many of the vehicles are designed and procured with the ability to be fitted with additional protection in order to match specific threats. The Wolfhound, Coyote and Husky tactical support vehicles have been procured specifically for Afghanistan and over 500 will enter service at an approved cost of over £500 million. The new Foxhound light protected patrol vehicle will replace Snatch Vixen on operations and an initial tranche of 200 vehicles has been approved at a cost of around £180 million excluding VAT. The cost of the Operational Utility Vehicle System will be determined after the main investment decision point. Defence Exports Group Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Defence Exports Group was established; what its terms of reference are; who its members are; how many times it will meet per year; and when it will [22652] next meet. Mr Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to establish the Defence Export Group; and whether a decision has been made [25615] on its composition. Dr Fox: The Defence Exports Support Group (DESG) was established on 22 October. The core DESG membership is the Secretary of State for Defence; the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology; the Minister for International Security Strategy; and Head, Defence and Security Organisation, UK Trade and Investment. Ministers and/or senior officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will also attend as appropriate. The DESG will be a forum through which Ministers will plan and focus their support to UK Defence exports. The intention is to hold the first DESG meeting before Christmas at which its terms of reference and frequency of meetings will be discussed. Nimrod Aircraft Mrs Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will estimate the cost to the public purse of making alternative arrangements for (a) protection of the carrier fleet and (b) provision of strategic deterrent against submarines compared to the cost of retaining the Nimrod MRA4; and if he will make a statement; [26944]

(2) what assessment he has made of the consequences for (a) intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance support, (b) maritime protection and (c) search and rescue capability in respect of (i) protection of merchant shipping and (ii) protection of coastal waters following the decision to cease the use of Nimrod MRA4 aircraft; what estimate he has made of changes to the cost to the public purse in the provision of such services as a result; and if he [27016] will make a statement; (3) what assessment he has made of the cost to his Department of C130 and C130K aircraft as a replacement for the Nimrod MRA4 for (a) intelligence surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance, (b)

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maritime protection and (c) search and rescue; and if he will make a statement. [27026] Peter Luff: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 October 2010, Official Report, columns 450-51W, to the right hon. Member for Coventry North East (Mr Ainsworth) and the hon. Members for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Mr McCann), and North Durham (Mr Jones). The UK’s requirement for Anti-Submarine Warfare and Intelligence surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capability was assessed during the Strategic Defence and Security Review and will be kept under regular review. I can confirm that we have judged the implications of the decision not to bring the Nimrod MRA4 into service to be acceptable. We are in the process of developing a longer-term plan to mitigate the impact of cancellation on our continuing military tasks and capabilities. This will include an assessment of costs. Rescue Services Michael Dugher: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the concept of operations underpinning the search and rescue (helicopter) requirement included the assumption that a search and rescue helicopter fleet would operate in conjunction with Nimrod maritime [26669] patrol aircraft. Dr Fox: The Search and Rescue Helicopter project includes the requirement that the helicopters would be able to interface with any other assets that might also be involved in dealing with an incident. Strategic Defence and Security Review Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) to whom his Department’s document entitled SDSR: Lessons Identified, 3 November 2010, [26297] was submitted; (2) who commissioned his Department’s document entitled SDSR: Lessons Identified, 3 November 2010; [26301]

(3) if he will publish his Department’s document [26312] entitled SDSR: Lessons Identified. Dr Fox [holding answer 25 November 2010]: The document was proposed and a draft prepared by the strategic defence and security review (SDSR) core co-ordination team in charge of day-to-day management of the Review, to draw together working-level views from individuals involved in the SDSR process in the Ministry of Defence. The draft was a working document distributed to members of the SDSR programme board for comment: The Government have no intention to publish it. Trident Submarines Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department spent on long lead items for Vanguard submarines prior to the final decision to proceed with construction of the submarines. [26415]

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Dr Fox: Details of the cost of long lead items for the Vanguard class are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Dr Huppert: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the proportion of the cost of replacing Trident likely to be incurred prior to a decision of the House at Main Gate Stage on [26416] submarine replacement in 2016. Dr Fox: The likely expenditure will be dependent on the Initial Gate decision which we expect to finalise shortly. I do, however, propose to update Parliament on progress, including costs, after the Initial Gate decision through the publication of a report.

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VAT 14. Fiona O’Donnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on the likely effect on families in Scotland of the proposed increase in value added tax. [26721] David Mundell: The VAT rise is part of the Government’s credible plan to tackle the largest deficit in peacetime history. Difficult decisions are necessary but, as a consequence, we will get ourselves back on a sustainable economic footing. Departmental Sponsorship Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what expenditure his Department incurred on sponsorship in each year since 1997 for which figures are available.

USA: Nuclear Weapons Tessa Munt: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence with reference to his plans to co-operate on nuclear warhead testing with France, whether the UK will continue to (a) participate in or (b) receive the results of US sub-critical nuclear tests undertaken at [27415] the Nevada nuclear test site. Dr Fox: The recently signed treaty with France on proposed nuclear co-operation does not address “nuclear warhead testing” but delivers hydrodynamic experiments that provide a key element of assurance for the safety and reliability of the UK’s nuclear stockpile. I am satisfied that the treaty is complimentary to our nuclear co-operation with the US under the 1958 Mutual Defence Agreement and the nuclear exchanges made possible through that agreement. Warships: Decommissioning Mr Scott: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether HMS Ark Royal will be offered for sale to foreign navies following her decommissioning. [27188] Peter Luff: HMS Ark Royal is due to formally leave service with the Royal Navy in early 2011. It is too early to determine the future plans for HMS Ark Royal. Any decision will be in line with the Ministry of Defence’s policy for handling surplus assets.

SCOTLAND Elections 13. Jim McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he last met the Electoral Commission to discuss the management of elections in Scotland. [26720]

[27521]

David Mundell: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. The only expenditure it has incurred since then by sponsoring others outside Government to promote a cause or provide a service was £3,296 in 2002-03. Devolution Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what recent discussions he has had with the [26717] Advocate-General on devolution issues. David Mundell: The Secretary of State and I discuss devolution issues with the Advocate-General on a regular basis, and we have all worked together on preparations for the new Scotland Bill which will deliver the Government’s commitment to strengthening the devolution settlement for Scotland.

JUSTICE Arrest Warrants Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what timetable he has set for the implementation of his proposals to amend the law on universal jurisdiction. [27240]

Mr Blunt: The Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which was introduced into this House yesterday, contains a provision requiring the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions to be given before an arrest warrant can be issued in a private prosecution for an offence of universal jurisdiction alleged to have been committed outside the United Kingdom. This requirement would ensure that, whilst private individuals could still apply for an arrest warrant, a warrant could be issued only where there was a prospect of successful prosecution. Departmental Grants

David Mundell: My right hon. Friend and the AdvocateGeneral for Scotland met the Electoral Commission on 13 October. I will be meeting the new Convener of the Electoral Management Board later this month to discuss preparations for next year’s elections and referendum on the UK parliamentary voting system.

Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what grants have been awarded by his Department in 2010-11 to date; what grants he plans to award in each of the next two years; what the monetary value is of each such grant; and to which organisations such grants [27214] are made.

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Mr Kenneth Clarke: Between April and October 2010 the MoJ awarded grants worth £70 million to external organisations. The organisations who were awarded grants are listed in the following table. For 2011-12, the MoJ is still exploring funding options for external organisations and charities. The MoJ 2012-13 funding is subject to the 2010 spending review and is not yet finalised. NOMS has estimates in place for 2011-12 and 2012-13 but these are subject to change based on funding levels from MoJ. The MoJ also provides grants-in-aid to its NDPBs. For the year 2010-11, the gross provisions1 for these are: NDPB

Grant-in-Aid (£000)

Legal Services Commission 2,175,331 Information Commissioner’s 7,990 Office Judicial Appointments 6,860 Commission Parole Board 10,948 Youth Justice Board 448,131 Criminal Injuries Compensation 238,823 Authority Criminal Cases Review 6,496 Commission 1 As per the 2010-11 winter supplementary estimates Note: These figures are subject to change following end of year audit.

The MoJ is currently working out specific funding requirements for NDPBs in 2011-12 and 2012-13. Organisation or Umbrella term Writers in Prison Network Ltd Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group Koestler Trust NACRO SOVA Prisoners Abroad CVS Pre-release Volunteer Scheme National Assoc, of Prison Visitors RCJ (Miscarriages of Justice) Mubarek Trust Prison Video Trust Action for Prisoners’ Families Samaritans United Synagogue Visitation Committee Sikh Chaplaincy Service UK Angulimala ADFAM Magistrates’ Association Operation Black Vote John Smith Memorial Trust UK Subscription for the Hague Conference GRECO ID contribution Great Britain China Centre China Law Council Plenet for running costs between Apr-Jun Money Advice Trust The Helplines Association

Grant awarded by MoJ or executive agency (£000) 47 16 35 1,149 248 146 79 6 90 23 29 187 55 12 17 17 84 37 70 320 161 30 190 328 50 750 25

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Organisation or Umbrella term Family Drug and Alcohol Court pilot Reunite National Mediation Helpline Family Mediation Helpline Coroners’ Support Service Development Trust Association Women In Prison Women’s Community Projects (umbrella) CLINKS Local Criminal Justice Boards Victim Support Total

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Grant awarded by MoJ or executive agency (£000) 35 128 90 40 48 50 80 6,200 548 7,375 51,566 70,271

Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what the monetary value of grants awarded by his Department was in 2009-10; and how much he expects to award in grants in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12. [27215]

Mr Kenneth Clarke: In 2009-10 the Ministry of Justice awarded grants to external organisations to the value of £81.4 million. For the full financial year of 2010-11, the MoJ anticipates a total expenditure of £71.8 million to be made in grants to external bodies. The grants to external organisations for 2011-12 have yet to be decided. Note: All future figures are estimates only and are subject to change.

EU Law Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many EU directives are pending transposition into domestic legislation by his Department; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such transposition. [27506]

Mr Djanogly: The Ministry of Justice is responsible for two directives that are currently pending transposition into domestic legislation: Directive 2008/52/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on Certain Aspects of Mediation in Civil and Commercial Matters. The introduction of this directive will not impose additional regulatory burdens on businesses. The procedures it will introduce will be optional to those wishing to conduct EU cross-border mediations, and are expected to lead to greater legal certainty for those involved. The main costs envisaged to implement the directive are in relation to the necessary facilitative amendments to court rules and minimal costs in training court staff and the judiciary. Directive 2010/64/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Right to Interpretation and Translation in Criminal Proceedings. We are currently considering the most cost-effective ways of transposing and implementing this directive, with the result that estimated costs cannot currently be provided.

Prisons: Visits Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many registered prison visitors there were in each of the last five years; and whether he plans to take steps to increase the number of such visitors. [27667]

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Mr Blunt: Statistical information on the number of official prison visitors (OPVs) is not collated centrally. OPVs are independent volunteers appointed by prison governors to visit prisoners and offer friendship. They are neither paid civil servants nor religiously affiliated volunteers. The appointment of OPVs is a matter for the governing governor of each establishment.

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Parliamentary Archives: Manpower Mr Amess: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission how many staff at each grade are employed in the Parliamentary Archives; and if he will make a statement. [28132] John Thurso: The Parliamentary Archives, a shared service of both Houses, employs 23.5 staff at the following House of Lords’ grades: Number

Meat: Ritual Slaughter Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, what checks are made with suppliers to ensure that halal and kosher meat are not supplied as ordinary meat intended for general consumption in canteens and restaurants of the House [27688] of Commons. John Thurso: Incumbent suppliers and suppliers bidding for the award of the contract for the future supply of fresh meats and poultry to the House of Commons catering service have confirmed that kosher meat does not enter the mainstream supply chain to catering establishments and, on that basis, they are confident that kosher meat has not been, nor will be, supplied to the House as ordinary meat. As stated in the reply given on 16 November 2010, Official Report, column 761W, by the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Sir Peter Stuart Bell) to the hon. Member for East Yorkshire (Mr Knight), incumbent suppliers have admitted that it is highly likely that halal-slaughtered poultry has in the past been supplied to the House of Commons instead of ordinary meat. Henceforth, all suppliers have agreed, as a condition of contract, that halal-slaughtered meats and poultry will not be supplied unless expressly ordered or agreed to by the House of Commons catering service. This requirement has been added to the contract currently being tendered. Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether meat used in canteens and restaurants in the House of Commons in the last 12 months had been slaughtered by kosher methods. [27689]

John Thurso: No kosher meat has been served in the House of Commons cafeterias and restaurants in the last 12 months.

Senior band 1 A2 B1 B2 C2 C3

1 3 6 5.5 2 6

Smartphone Applications Priti Patel: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, what estimate the Parliamentary Information and Communications Technology Office has made of the cost of developing a mobile smartphone application for Parliament; what the cost will be holding focus group meetings on 30 November 2010 and 1 December 2010; and when the smartphone application [27382] is due to be available. John Thurso: The development of a new mobile application, designed primarily for those visiting Parliament, is being led from within the Department of Information Services. The procurement for the smartphone mobile application is currently running, and to publish the budget might influence the responses from potential suppliers. Only one focus group is now being run, on 30 November. The focus group planned for 1 December is not going ahead. The participants are coming in on a voluntary basis and are not being paid. The cost of holding the focus groups will depend on the number of participants, and will be restricted to the provision of refreshments and any claims for reasonable travel costs. Refreshments are expected to cost £17.50, and a maximum of £20 per person is being set for travel claims. At present, seven people have registered an interest. It is expected that the smartphone application will be available from April 2011.

PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMISSION Departmental Written Questions

Keith Vaz: To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, representing the House of Commons Commission, whether kosher meat has been used in non-kosher dishes in the restaurants or canteens in the House of Commons in the last 12 months. [27696] John Thurso: No kosher meat has been used in nonkosher dishes in the House of Commons restaurants or cafeterias in the last 12 months.

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Commission how many and what proportion of questions tabled to the Public Accounts Commission for answer on a named day were answered substantively before or on the day named for answer (a) in Session 2009-10 and (b) since May 2010; how many such questions tabled between May 2010 and 12 November 2010 had not received a substantive

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answer by 18 November 2010; and what estimate he has made of the average cost to the Commission of answering a question for written answer on a named day on the day named for answer in the latest period [25991] for which figures are available. Mr Tyrie: In Session 2009-10, there was one question tabled to the Public Accounts Commission for answer on a named day. This received a substantive answer four days after the day named, which was the next sitting day. Since May 2010 there have been no named day questions. The Public Accounts Commission has not made an estimate of the average cost of answering a named day question on the day named for answer but it is noted that HM Treasury has established the cost of a written PQ as £154.00. See paragraph 7.27 at the following link: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/parliamentary-clerk-guide/ chapter7.aspx

Sir Paul Beresford: To ask the Chairman of the Public Accounts Commission how many and what proportion of questions tabled to the Public Accounts Commission for ordinary written answer (a) in Session 2009-10 and (b) since May 2010 were answered within (i) seven days and (ii) 14 days of tabling; how many such questions tabled between May 2010 and 12 November 2010 remained unanswered by 18 November 2010; and what estimate he has made of the average cost the Commission of answering a question for ordinary written answer within seven days of tabling in the latest period [25992] for which figures are available. Mr Tyrie: In Session 2009-10, there were two questions tabled to the Public Accounts Commission for ordinary written answer, of which both were answered within seven days. Between May 2010 and 12 November 2010 there were no questions tabled for ordinary written answer. The Public Accounts Commission has not made an estimate of the average cost of answering an ordinary written question within seven days of tabling, but it is noted that HM Treasury has established the cost of a written PQ as £154.00. See paragraph 7.27 at the following link: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/parliamentary-clerk-guide/ chapter7.aspx

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE Akmyrat Rejepow Neil Parish: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations his Department has made to the government of Turkmenistan on the (a) fate and (b) whereabouts of [27314] Akmyrat Rejepow. Mr Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made no representations to the Turkmen Government on the fate and whereabouts of Akmyrat Rejepow, nor are we aware of a request for us to do so. We understand that Mr Rejepow (a former general in the Turkmen security apparatus) was sentenced to 20 years’imprisonment in May 2007, having been convicted on charges of

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corruption. We understand he is being held in secure detention in Ashgabat or in a prison colony not far from Ashgabat. Mr Rejepow’s son, Nurmurad—arrested at the same time—was pardoned in 2007. We continue to have a regular and constructive dialogue with the Turkmen Government on human rights issues, both bilaterally and through international fora such as the European Union. Monitoring and raising individual cases forms an important component of this dialogue. British Council: Finance Mr Frank Roy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much funding was provided by his Department to the British Council in each year since 2005. [23459] Mr Jeremy Browne: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Mid Sussex (Nicholas Soames) on 27 July 2010, Official Report, column 970W. Cayman Islands: Loans Emma Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what conditions were placed on the loan of £217 million to the Cayman [27742] Islands authorised in 2009. Mr Jeremy Browne: The Government gave permission for the Cayman Islands Government to borrow Cayman Island $275 million in October 2009, subject to the Cayman Islands Government (CIG): including further savings/efficiency measures in 2009-10 budget plans; undertaking an urgent independent impact assessment of the community enhancement fee, alternative forms of payroll tax, property tax and any other tax that would genuinely broaden the revenue base; introducing substantial new tax(es) or fee(s) as identified in the impact assessment study as soon as possible and certainly no later than financial year 2010; and taking swift action to further cut expenditure and/or raise additional revenue if a greater than expected deficit was recorded.

Emma Reynolds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what conditions he placed on the loans to the Cayman Islands authorised [27743] in June 2010. Mr Jeremy Browne: The Government gave permission for the Cayman Islands Government to borrow Cayman Island $155 million in June 2010, subject to: The measures in the Cayman Islands Government’s (CIG) three year plan being fully implemented, which included measures to make significant savings/efficiencies, and raise revenue by increasing fuel duty over the three years; CIG using the proceeds of divestment activity to establish a dedicated “sinking fund” within the next year to rebuild reserves and offset debt attached to the recent bond issue; CIG restructuring existing loans to put in place arrangements to pay down debt over the longer term; and CIG ensuring that the Cayman Islands have a full, up-to-date set of audited accounts by the end of the next financial year; and No further requests for borrowing being made over the next financial year.

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Diplomatic Service: Domestic Staff David Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what regulations govern the (a) working conditions and (b) remuneration of domestic staff employed by foreign diplomats accredited [28045] to the UK. Mr Bellingham: Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961 states that, without prejudice to their privileges and immunities, it is the duty of all diplomats ‘to respect the laws and regulations of the receiving State’.

This includes employment laws. Diplomatic missions and international organisations in the UK are periodically reminded of their responsibilities with regard to the employment of domestic workers; in August 2010, Protocol Directorate of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued a note to all missions highlighting their obligations. Government Departments work together and with nongovernmental organisations to monitor the employment rights of domestic workers in foreign diplomatic households in the UK. European Union Mr Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what powers have been ceded to the EU and in what areas of policy jurisdiction has been ceded since 10 May 2010 and in each case specifying whether such cession was by (a) EU legislative instrument, (b) judicial decision, (c) operation of a passerelle provision, (d) the ending of an opt-out, (e) an agreement to opt-in, (f) treaty amendment and (g) [26626] other means. Mr Lidington: All of the legislative measures that have been adopted since 10 May 2010 have been based on the existing powers and competences conferred on the EU under the existing EU treaties, which have been approved by Parliament. None of the passerelles under the existing EU treaties have been exercised since 10 May 2010. There have been no treaty amendments. We are not aware of any judicial decisions which have resulted in a transfer of competence or power from the UK to the EU. The whole of Title V is an area of shared competence. This position is not altered by the exercise of a UK opt-in. Football: South Africa Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much his Department spent on attendance at the 2010 FIFA [26149] World cup. Mr Jeremy Browne: No Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Ministers or officials visited South Africa to attend the 2010 World cup, and no money was spent by the FCO on purchasing match tickets. Government Hospitality: Wines Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many bottles of (a) red wine, (b) white wine, (c) champagne and (d) fortified wine there are in the Government wine cellar. [26387]

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Mr Bellingham: The Government Hospitality wine cellar has held between 38,000 and 39,000 bottles of wine for the last five years. The most recent independent stock-take in October 2010 showed that the Government Hospitality wine cellar contained: (a) 25,721 bottles of red wine (b) 7,624 bottles of white wine (c) 1,661 bottles of champagne (d) 2,937 bottles of fortified wine.

This excludes non-vintage reception wines. Cellar stock levels are regularly reassessed and the cellar’s performance and value for money are reviewed throughout the year. Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs at which events held between 11 May and 11 November 2010 wine from the [26388] Government wine cellar was served. Mr Bellingham: Events held between 11 May 2010 and 11 November 2010 at which wine from the Government Hospitality wine cellar was served are as follows. The following were on a repayment basis: 13 May 2010: Dinner for British-American business hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister for Trade, Investment and Small Business. 8 June 2010: Diplomatic reception hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 9 June 2010: Dinner for Israeli judges hosted by my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. 5 July 2010: Reception for the Young Offenders Programme led by the National Grid hosted by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice. 28 July 2010: Reception for energy security hosted by my hon. Friends the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Minister of State at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. 13 September 2010: Lunch for Dr Henry Kissinger hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 21 September 2010: Reception for Eid hosted by my right hon. Friends the Home Secretary, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my hon. Friend the Parliamentary UnderSecretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and other Government Ministers. 9 November 2010: Dinner for the Secretary of Defence for the Republic of South Africa hosted by my right hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Security Strategy.

The following were funded by Government Hospitality Fund: 3 June 2010: Lunch for the Prime Minister of Canada hosted by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. 3 June 2010: Dinner for the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 3 June 2010: Dinner for the Judicial Conference hosted by my right hon. Friends the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. 8 June 2010: Lunch for the Secretary of Defence of the United States of America hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence. 16 June 2010: Lunch for the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the United Arab Emirates hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

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18 June 2010: Lunches for the President of the Republic of France and his Ministers hosted by my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. 23 June 2010: Dinner for Reconnaissance Visit from the Holy See hosted by my noble Friend the right hon. Lord Patten of Barnes CH PC (Chancellor of the University of Oxford). 28 June 2010: Lunch for the Minister of Defence of the Federal Republic of Germany hosted by my right hon. Friend Secretary of State for Defence. 28 June 2010: Dinner for the Five Country Conference hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister for Immigration. 5 July 2010: Lunch for the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 7 July 2010: Dinner for the international energy forums hosted by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Energy and Climate Change. 8 July 2010: Lunch for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey hosted by my hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 20 July 2010: Reception for Indian Government/industry officials who attended the Farnborough International Air Show hosted by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Security Strategy. 28 July 2010: Lunch for the State Secretary of Labour and Social Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Employment. 5 August 2010: Dinner for the President of Pakistan hosted by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. 6 September 2010: Dinner for the capital markets climate initiative hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change. 8 September 2010: Dinner for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Commonwealth Affairs. 17 September 2010: Dinner for Pope Benedict XVI’s delegation hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 27 September 2010: Lunch for the Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways of the Republic of India hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport. 27 September 2010: Lunch for the Reconnaissance Party for the state visit of the Emir of Qatar. 21 October 2010: Lunch for the UK/Mexico high level talks hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. 21 October 2010: Lunch for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. 25 October 2010: Lunch for the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi hosted by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. 25 October 2010: Lunch for the Finance Minister for the Swiss Confederation hosted by my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. 26/27 October 2010: Lunch and state banquet for the state visit of the Emir of Qatar hosted by Her Majesty the Queen. 27 October 2010: Dinner for the Secretary for Policy, Strategy and International Affairs of the Federative Republic of Brazil hosted by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Security Strategy. 30/31 October 2010: Lunch and dinner for the Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany hosted by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. 2 November 2010: Lunch for the UK-France summit hosted by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister. 8 November 2010: Dinner for the International Energy Forum hosted by my hon. Friend the Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change.

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11 November 2010 Lunch for the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Austria hosted by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

Iraq: Christianity Mr MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for the Wrekin of 15 November 2010, Official Report, column 631W, on Iraq: Christianity, what the outcomes were of his meeting with the Iraqi Foreign Minister; and if he will take further steps to seek to secure protection for institutions in Iraq. [27860] Alistair Burt: Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari confirmed to my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary on 10 November that the protection of minorities was the responsibility of the Iraqi Government. This responsibility has been recognised more widely by the Iraqi Prime Minister and the newly elected Speaker of the Council of Representatives Usamah Al-Nujaifi. The Speaker has requested that Christian MP Yonadam Kanna form a parliamentary committee to prepare recommendations for protecting Christians and follow up investigations into the recent attacks. The Iraqi Council of Representatives has also called for increased recruitment of Christians into the Iraq security forces. During my visit to Iraq from 22-25 November I raised the need to improve the protection of Christians and other minorities with all his interlocutors. The British Government will continue to press the Iraqi Government to ensure that Iraqi constitutional commitments to guarantee the rights and freedoms of citizens is respected and protected. We will also continue to urge the Iraqi Government to protect all communities, especially vulnerable minority groups and to deal appropriately with those who are found responsible for any acts of violence and intimidation because of political, ethnic or religious affiliation. Israel: OECD Mr Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the UK representation is on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (a) Committee of Statistics and (b) study team quantifying the effects on Israeli macro-economic statistics of the inclusion of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the [25635] West Bank. Mr Jeremy Browne: The UK Statistics Authority represents the UK on the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development Committee on Statistics. The authority will also represent the UK on the study team quantifying the effects on Israeli macro-economic statistics of the inclusion of the Golan Heights, East Jerusalem and Israeli settlements in the West Bank. This work is expected to begin in early 2011. Palestinians: International Assistance Mr Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) how much funding his Department provided to non-governmental organisations within the Palestinian Authorities of the West Bank and Gaza in each financial year since 2003; and for what [21986] purposes such funds were allocated;

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(2) how much funding his Department has provided to non-governmental organisations located in the Palestinian authorities of the West Bank and Gaza in each financial year since 2003; and for what purposes [25737] such payments were made. Alistair Burt: Between 2003-04 and 2009-10 financial years, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has provided £2,420,960 to non-governmental organisations within the West Bank and Gaza. The breakdown is as follows: £ 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 1 No allocation

1

— 122,000 104,482 542,328 484,113 604,824 563,213

The list of organisations and project funding for 2010-11 is an indicative list, as funding cannot be confirmed at this point of the financial year. The FCO utilises a number of funding programmes with the purpose of (a) strengthening the bilateral relationship (b) helping to manage or mitigate conflicts and (c) developing the capacity of non-state actors in the West Bank and Gaza to provide oversight of the Executive and its actions including monitoring of human rights, access to justice and social welfare. Piracy Mr Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with his NATO counterparts on the development [27107] of policy to counter international piracy. Mr Lidington: There have been no recent meetings at North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) at ministerial level specifically to discuss counter piracy. But, in the communiqué of its recent Lisbon summit, NATO renewed its commitment to counter piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean through its Operation Ocean Shield. NATO works closely alongside the EU’s Operation Atalanta and the Combined Maritime Forces so as to respond effectively and coherently to the threat of piracy, including on allocation of assets to the large area of operations. NATO is also a key partner in the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, working comprehensively to address operational, legal and regional capacity concerns to ensure that piracy is tackled on a sustainable basis, including at its roots. The UK continues to support the operation, which has recently has had its mandate extended until 2012. The Royal Navy currently has a frigate and auxiliary vessel allocated to Operation Ocean Shield. BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS Agriculture: Training Dr Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how much funding from the public purse will be available for (a) apprenticeship schemes and (b) vocational courses in the agricultural

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sector (i) nationally and (ii) in Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency in 2011-12. [26866] (2) how many places will be available for (a) apprenticeship schemes and (b) vocational courses in the agricultural sector (i) nationally and (ii) in the Central Suffolk and North Ipswich constituency in [26867] 2011-12. Mr Hayes: “Investing Skills for Sustainable Growth” was published on 16 November. In the 2011-12 financial year, we plan to invest £3.9 billion in FE skills for post 19 learners. This includes £3.7 billion for over three million adult training places funded through the Skills Funding Agency. In the 2011-12 financial year, £605 million is earmarked for adult apprenticeships. Spend on adult apprenticeships will increase by up to £250 million, relative to the previous Government, by the end of the spending review period, supporting an additional 75,000 people to start an apprenticeship by 2014-15. In support of the coalition Government’s principle of greater freedom, “Skills for Sustainable Growth and Investing in Skills for Sustainable Growth” set out the abolition of central targets and increased freedom and flexibility for further education colleges and training organisations to respond effectively to the needs of employers, learners and their communities. It will be for individual colleges and training organisations, working directly with their local partners, to determine the offer that best meets the needs of their communities. From the 2011/12 academic year, there will be a single adult skills budget, with earmarked delivery for apprenticeships. As part of its allocations process later this year, the Skills Funding Agency will set out a minimum expectation of apprenticeships delivery. Further Education colleges and training organisations will be able to use their single adult skills budget allocation to expand apprenticeships. However, any diversion of funding away from apprenticeships is to be agreed with the Agency. Information on learner participation and achievement in further education is published in a quarterly statistical first release (SFR). The latest SFR was published on 16 November and can be viewed at: http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/ statisticalfirstrelease/sfr_current

Credit: Regulation Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether his Department has made an estimate of the numbers of UK residents who have been refused access to credit through banks and building [26472] societies in the last 10 years. Mr Prisk [holding answer 30 November 2010]: The Government do not collect data on the number of UK residents refused credit by banks and building societies. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills commissions a quarterly survey (carried out by YouGov), which monitors the latest consumer credit and debt trends. The following table has been produced from this survey, showing the proportion of the population who have applied for credit (broken down by credit type) in the last six months and the outcome of this application.

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Proportion of the population who have applied for unsecured credit and the outcome of this application (where the outcome is known) in the last six months Proportion of the population who applied for credit/ Application Credit loans was rejected Percentage of product (percentage) (percentage) total population Credit card 8 24 1.9 Unsecured 3 33 0.7 loan Overdraft 2 29 0.8 facility Store card 1 19 0.3 Mail order 1 14 0.2 Car finance 1 9 0.1 loan Notes: 1. Based on 2009-10 YouGov data, sample size 13,172. 2. The statistics in the table need to be interpreted with caution. Due to data limitations, we are unable to say how many individuals were refused credit completely in the last six months. For instance, a borrower may have refused a credit card, but was able to secure an overdraft facility. In addition, the values in the table cannot be summed, to produce statistics on the proportion of the population refused credit. This is because some borrowers may have been rejected for more than one credit product. Certain credit products have been excluded such as payday loans and home credit, which are unlikely to be offered by banks and building societies.

Departmental Food Julian Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether his Department has guidelines on ensuring that food used for his Department’s [25438] official functions is of domestic origin. Mr Davey: The Department’s contracted catering and conference supplier Baxterstorey are accredited to the Red Tractor Farm Assurance Scheme and are fully compliant, demonstrating robust support for enhanced animal welfare, environmental responsibility, quality produce and supporting British producers. The Department adheres wherever possible to the five key objectives of the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI). These objectives run in parallel to those of Baxterstorey, which form part of the policies that result in the approach to sustainable and ethical procurement. For example all eggs used on the departmental estate are British, Lion Brand standard and free range and 99% of all pork and bacon products are British and supplied by Red Tractor accredited suppliers. Higher Education: Admissions Elizabeth Truss: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what the participation rate was of people aged 18 years in each income quintile entering higher education for the first time in the latest period for which figures are available. [27759] Mr Willetts: The Department does not publish information in the form requested. Latest figures show that 15% of pupils aged 15 in 2003/04 who claimed free school meals (FSM) at English maintained schools progressed to HE by the age of 19 in 2007/08. The equivalent figure for young people who did not claim free school meals is 33%.

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FSM eligibility is means tested and the majority of FSM young people are from households in receipt of some form of income support. Some 14% of young people claim free school meals. These figures have been estimated using matched data from the National Pupil Database, the Higher Education Statistics Agency Student Record and the Learning and Skills Council Individualised Learner Record. Figures for 2008/09 will be available next year. The Department uses a number of measures to monitor progress on participation of disadvantaged students, such as those from low participation neighbourhoods, and low socio-economic groups. However, figures in this answer have been provided as receipt of FSM is directly related to family income. Higher Education: Finance Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 11 November 2010, Official Report, column 480W, on higher education: finance, what the outcomes were of his discussions with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. [27309] Mr Willetts: The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Vince Cable) and I have discussed the proposed changes to higher education funding and student finance at Cabinet. Our statements to the House of Commons on this subject reflect the Government position, as agreed at these meetings. Local Enterprise Partnerships Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans he has to fund the development of Local Enterprise Partnerships; by what mechanisms such partnerships will he be able to bid for funds from his Department to fulfil their [27714] duties; and if he will make a statement. Mr Prisk: No central Government spending has been allocated specifically to fund the activities of local enterprise partnerships. As set out in the White Paper on Local Growth local enterprise partnerships will be expected to fund their own day-to-day running costs and will also want to consider how they can obtain the best value for public money by leveraging in private sector investment. The mechanisms for how local enterprise partnerships may bid for centrally available funds, such as the regional growth fund, will be specific to the fund itself. Details regarding how to access the regional growth fund can be found on the Department’s website at the following address: http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/regional-economicdevelopment/regional-growth-fund

Manufacturing Industries: Trade Competitiveness Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans he has to support competitiveness in the manufacturing sector. [27090]

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Mr Prisk: The Government are supporting manufacturing by creating a stable business environment that will give businesses the confidence they need to plan and invest. We are doing this by creating a more supportive tax environment, freeing up credit through the banking system, reducing regulation, maximising the flexibility of the labour market and focusing on training and apprenticeships. The Government announced in the spending review that they will invest up to £200 million to support manufacturing and business development focusing on high growth business and innovation particularly among small and medium sized businesses. The Government have launched their comprehensive growth review and this will ensure that all Departments are actively removing barriers faced by industry. As part of the phased reporting process, we will conduct a detailed look into barriers to growth within advanced manufacturing. Also on 6 December we will be launching a new approach to manufacturing that will highlight key ambitions, identify growth opportunities and set out a new framework of actions for both Government and industry.

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raise awareness of opportunities in Bahrain, including a middle east road show in February and a financial services road show in September. UKTI also staged a ‘Britain in the Region’ event in Dubai in November aimed at encouraging British companies with regional headquarters in Dubai into other markets in the middle east, including Bahrain.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL EU Law Priti Patel: To ask the Attorney-General how many EU directives are pending transposition into domestic legislation by the Law Officers’ Departments; and what estimate he has made of the cost of each such transposition. [27482]

The Attorney-General: The information is as follows: 1. None 2. None.

Regional Growth Fund Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 11 November 2010, Official Report, column 485W, on the Regional Growth Fund, what types of proposals will meet the criteria to be considered as strategic [27335] investment programmes. Mr Prisk: There will be a separate bidding form and guidance for programme proposals, which will be made available in early 2011. Programme proposals are therefore not included within the first bidding round.

PRIME MINISTER Pupils: Bullying Mrs Glindon: To ask the Prime Minister if he will establish a Cabinet Sub-Committee on the prevention [27708] of and responses to bullying in schools. The Prime Minister: The Schools White Paper made clear our expectation that all schools should take a zero tolerance approach to bullying. Bullying in schools is discussed by the relevant Cabinet Committees.

UK Trade and Investment: Bahrain Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps UKTI is taking to increase trade and investment with the Kingdom of [27807] Bahrain. Mr Prisk: UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) supports business with Bahrain through trade and investment teams based in the British embassy in Manama and in the UK. UKTI provides a broad range of support for British companies—from conferences and trade missions to support for trade fairs and exhibitions—and also oversees annual trade and economic talks with Bahrain aimed at prioritising opportunities and improving the environment for bilateral trade and investment. The most recent talks resulted in the signature of a bilateral Double Taxation Agreement in March 2010. Recent examples of support for business with Bahrain include visits by the Lord Mayor of the City of London in February; and by the UK’s Special Representative for International Trade and Investment, HRH The Duke of York, in May. UKTI organised scoping visits to Bahrain in the spring of 2010 focused on the creative industries and sports infrastructure sectors; and also organised a UK pavilion of 18 companies at the World Islamic Banking Conference in Manama in November. Regular events are organised by UKTI in the UK to

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT Arts: Cumbria County Council Tony Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of the effect of local authority funding reductions on arts organisations based in the [27729] Cumbria county council area. Mr Vaizey: It is central Government’s role to empower local communities and local authorities to make the decisions that they feel are most appropriate for their area. The Department will continue to fund the arts through Arts Council England, who provide support to a number of regularly funded organisations across the country. Arts: Sunderland City Council Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent assessment he has made of the likely effects of local authority funding reductions on arts organisations in the Sunderland [27805] city council area.

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Mr Vaizey: It is central Government’s role to empower local communities and local authorities to make the decisions that they feel are most appropriate for their area. The Department will continue to fund the arts through Arts Council England, who provide support to a number of regularly funded organisations across the country.

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signed in full. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport also has similar co-production agreements with Australia, Canada, France, Jamaica, New Zealand, South Africa, India and Morocco—the Moroccan treaty was signed last year but has yet to be fully ratified by the Moroccan authorities. Copyright: Recordings

Broadband Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what estimate he has made of the cost to the economy of the introduction of high-speed broadband services across the UK by 2015; [27683] and if he will make a statement. Mr Vaizey [holding answer 30 November 2010]: Overall, we believe there will be a net benefit to the economy from introduction of superfast broadband. The Government have made no recent estimate of the costs of deploying superfast broadband. The Broadband Stakeholder Group recently published a complementary report on the costs of fixed wireless and satellite broadband. The Government have committed £530 million to facilitate the delivery of universal broadband and stimulate private sector investment to deliver the best superfast broadband network in Europe by 2015 Co-production Agreement between the UK and Israel Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what estimate he has made of the revenue likely to be raised as a result of the co-production agreement between the UK and Israel in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013 and [27239] (e) 2014. Mr Vaizey: We have estimated an average annual benefit of between £0.5 million and £2.5 million. The monetised benefits reflect spending on films which would not have occurred without the treaty being in place. The range reflects a lower case scenario where one film is made every two years with £1 million UK spend, and the upper case involves five films with £1 million spend made every two years. In addition, research indicates that film locations can get up to a 30% boost in bookings from fans visiting locations from their favourite film (e.g. the Harry Potter films have helped boost tourism in the Northumberland area by 16%). As well as clear tourism potential, there are cultural benefits to the UK of greater film diversity. Given that the film industry largely comprises Single Purpose Vehicles it is difficult to predict in advance how many businesses will make use of the treaty. We do not believe it will be significantly higher than projections, particularly in the first few years. Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport whether he has assessed the merits of extending to other countries the provisions of the co-production agreement agreed with [27248] Israel. Mr Vaizey: The recently signed film co-production agreements with Israel, and with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, were the ninth and tenth agreements respectively to be

Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport if he will assess the likely effect on the British music industry of the expiry of 50 years copyright on recordings in the next 10 years. [27347] Mr Davey: I have been asked to reply. I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 18 November 2010, Official Report, columns 889-890W. There are no plans to undertake the work described. Departmental Sponsorship Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what expenditure (a) his Department and (b) its non-departmental public bodies incurred on sponsorship in each year since 1997 [27520] for which figures are available. John Penrose: The Department does not provide corporate sponsorship or branding for events but it does encourage sponsorship of its sectors from the world of business. Data on expenditure incurred by non-departmental public bodies is not held centrally. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of each non-departmental public body to respond to the hon. Member for Witham directly. A copy of the responses will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Newsquest Media Group Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what recent meetings (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department have had with directors of the Newsquest Media Group on [27336] local media provision. Mr Vaizey: As part of Nicholas Shott’s review of local TV he undertook a visit to Scotland where he met with a range of interested parties including Newsquest. He was accompanied by a member of his steering group and an official from the Department.

TREASURY Air Passenger Duty Richard Fuller: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will change the basis for calculating air passenger duty banding from London to capital city of destination [26546] to London to destination; (2) if he will change the air passenger duty banding for destinations in the Caribbean to be the same as that for destinations on the east coast of the United States. [26545]

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Justine Greening: The June Budget stated that the Government will explore changes to the aviation tax system, including switching from a per-passenger to a per-plane duty. Major changes will be subject to consultation. Banks: Finance Frank Dobson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the monetary value is of (a) loans and (b) guarantees given to UK banks by his Department since 2007. [26984]

Mr Hoban: A full breakdown of financial support provided to UK banks is published by the Treasury on a financial year basis. Details of the support provided for the years 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 are set out in the Treasury’s Resource Accounts for 2007-08 (HC 539), 2008-09 (HC 611) and 2009-10 (HC261), respectively. Banks: Loans Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 18 November 2010, Official Report, column 894W, on banks: loans, if he will undertake an assessment of trends in the criteria for setting personal guarantees for loans over the last [27308] 10 years. Mr Hoban: In response to the Government’s Green Paper on business finance, the British Bankers; Association (BBA) published the outcomes of their Business Finance Taskforce, which was written in conjunction with the six major UK banks. As part of these commitments, the banks have agreed to fund and establish an independent business survey. This survey will provide more information of the experience of small businesses in applying for finance. Copyright: Music Mike Weatherley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the additional revenue to the Exchequer attributable to an extension to 75 years [27346] of musicians’ copyright in the last 10 years.

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However, a recent Court of Appeal case has considered how the wording of these Employers’ Liability insurance policies affects civil compensation for mesothelioma sufferers and we had hoped that the judgment would have provided a general principle on how these policies should deal with their mesothelioma claims. The court decided that the policies should be interpreted based on the actual policy wording, which means that some sufferers may not be able to claim compensation if the insurance policy was worded in such a way that prevents a claim from being made. We expect this judgment to be appealed to the Supreme Court. In February 2010 the previous Government published their consultation document, Accessing Compensation— Supporting people who need to trace employers’ liability insurance, which set out proposals for people who need to find their Employers’ Liability insurance policies in order to claim compensation. The consultation closed on 5 May 2010. There were two proposals; firstly an Employers’ Liability Tracing Office, that would manage a database of EL policies. Secondly, an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau which would be a compensation fund of last resort for those individuals who are unable to trace EL insurance records, ensuring they are able to receive compensation for injuries or diseases sustained during the course of their employment. We are in active discussions with all stakeholders on how this situation can be addressed and we will publish our response to the consultation in due course. Income Tax John Mann: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the amount of revenue which accrued from income tax from employees in each business sector in each of the last three years. [27548] Mr Gauke: A sectoral breakdown of income tax revenues for the latest three years is not available. Estimated shares of pay as you earn tax liabilities deducted from pay (excluding pensions) by industry to 2007-08 are published in table 2.10 on the HMRC website: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/income_tax/table2-10.xls

Mr Gauke: I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answer I gave him on 22 November 2010, Official Report, column 84W.

Total PAYE tax (excluding pensions) is estimated at £107.2 billion, £115.7 billion and £123.3 billion in respect of liabilities for 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08 respectively.

Employers’ Liability: Asbestos

Members: Correspondence

Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will bring forward proposals for a requirement for employers to insure themselves against potential harm [24112] caused to employees by asbestosis.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Chief Secretary to the Treasury plans to respond to the letters of 17 September 2010 and 1 November 2010 from the hon. Member for Cardiff West. [27753]

Chris Grayling: I have been asked to reply. The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires employers carrying on business in Great Britain to insure their liability to their employees for bodily injury or disease sustained in the course of their employment. This Act ensures that those with asbestos-related diseases can claim compensation against their Employers’ Liability insurance, where the employer has been negligent in exposing them to asbestos while at work.

Mr Hoban: I have replied to the hon. Member. Mortgages Harriett Baldwin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he has assessed the effect of the mortgage market proposals made by the Financial Services Authority on small businesses with a turnover under £1 million; [27483]

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(2) what assessment he has made of the likely effect on house prices of the mortgage market proposals made by the Financial Services Authority; and if he [27484] will make a statement. Mr Hoban: The Government are committed to a healthy housing and mortgage market. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is conducting a wholesale review of mortgage regulation in the UK, the ‘Mortgage Market Review’. The Government believe that it is right for the FSA to ensure that the UK mortgage market has responsible lending practices. We will continue to work with the FSA, mortgage lenders and intermediaries, and consumer groups to ensure a mortgage market that is sustainable for all participants. The FSA published ‘Mortgage Market Review: Responsible Lending’ in July which sets out the detail of some of the proposed changes. This paper forms one part of an ongoing consultation process. The FSA has stated that they will fully assess the potential impact on the market before implementing any rule changes. Further, the FSA will consult in 2011 on transitional measures to help mitigate any adverse effects on existing borrowers. Mr Syms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether he has assessed the effect of the mortgage market proposals made by the Financial Services Authority on small businesses with a turnover under [27533] £1 million; (2) whether he has assessed the effect of the Financial Services Authority’s mortgage market review proposals on the (a) availability of mortgages and (b) operation of the housing market; and if he will make a statement; [27534]

(3) whether he has discussed with the Council of Mortgage Lenders the proposals on responsible lending made by the Financial Services Authority and their [27535] likely effect on the housing market; (4) if he will take steps to ensure that the implementation of the Financial Services Authority’s mortgage market review proposals does not have a negative effect on [27536] home-buyers and the housing market; (5) what estimate he has made of the number of borrowers who may not be able to take out remortgages following the introduction of the Financial Services Authority’s proposals for the mortgage market; and if he will bring forward measures to assist such borrowers; [27539]

(6) what estimate he has made of the number of mortgages granted since 2005 which would not have been issued under the Financial Services Authority’s [27540] proposals for the mortgage market; (7) if he will take steps to ensure that (a) self-employed and (b) other homebuyers with variable incomes will be able to obtain mortgages under the Financial Services Authority’s proposals for the mortgage market; [27544] (8) what assessment he has made of the likely effects of implementation of the Financial Services Authority’s proposals on availability of mortgage finance on home[27537] ownership in the UK.

Written Answers

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Mr Hoban: The Government are committed to a healthy housing and mortgage market. The Financial Services Authority (FSA) is conducting a wholesale review of mortgage regulation in the UK, the ‘Mortgage Market Review’. The Government believe that it is right for the FSA to ensure that the UK mortgage market has responsible lending practices. We will continue to work with the FSA, mortgage lenders and intermediaries, and consumer groups to ensure a mortgage market that is sustainable for all participants. The FSA published ‘Mortgage Market Review: Responsible Lending in July’, which sets out the details of some of the proposed changes. This paper forms one part of an ongoing consultation process. The FSA has stated that they will fully assess the potential impact on the market before implementing any rule changes. Further, the FSA will consult in 2011 on transitional measures to help mitigate any adverse effects on existing borrowers. Treasury Ministers and officials have discussions with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such discussions. Private Finance Initiative: Newton Abbot Anne Marie Morris: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what schemes under the Private Finance Initiative there are in Newton Abbot constituency. [26022]

Danny Alexander: A list of signed and in procurement PFI projects can be found on HM Treasury’s website at: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ppp_pfi_stats.htm

For each PFI project, this list details the project name, the capital value, the constituency, the procuring authority and whether it is on or off balance sheet; as used by the ONS in calculating public sector net debt. This indicates that there are currently no PFI projects in the Newton Abbot constituency. Revenue and Customs: Marketing Priti Patel: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 23 November 2010, Official Report, column 274W, on incentives, from which of its budgets HM Revenue and Customs funds expenditure on promotional material; and how much has been spent from each such budget in each of the last three [27477] years. Mr Gauke: In HMRC, promotional items may be printed paper, office supplies or non paper items. These items will have been purchased via a range of budgets including commodities such as print, paper/stationery. From these budgets promotional materials are not identifiable from other items and cannot be disaggregated except at disproportionate cost. No central record is held of the spend on promotional materials and is not available except at disproportionate cost.

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Tax Yields Mr Byrne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue his Department raised through (a) personal, (b) direct business, (c) consumption, (d) property and (e) environmental taxes from the (i) business services, (ii) education, health and social work, (iii) financial intermediation, (iv) manufacturing, (v) other wholesale and retail trade, (vi) transport services, (vii) construction, (viii) real estate and renting, (ix) public administration, (x) oil and gas extraction, (xi) insurance and pension funding, (xii) hotels and restaurants, (xiii) recreational and social activities, (xiv) postal and telecommunications, (xv) other services, (xvi) energy, gas and water supply, (xvii) agriculture, forestry and fishing and (xviii) mining and quarrying except oil and gas sector in each financial year since [22559] 1997-98.

Sector

Construction Wholesale and Retail Trade

Mr Gauke: The full breakdown of tax receipts outlined in the question is not available. HMRC produce a breakdown by broad industrial sector for corporation tax, PAYE income tax and class 1 national insurance contributions (NICs) and value added tax (VAT). Historical figures for corporation tax receipts paid by several broadly-defined business sectors are regularly updated and published in table 11.1 on the HMRC National Statistics website. Receipts information is available from 1997-98 to 2009-10. The sectors are defined by HMRC’s Summary Trade Classifications. The latest update is available here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/corporate_tax/table11_1.pdf

PAYE income tax and class 1 NICs received by HMRC in respect of employee and employer liabilities are split by sector as follows:

2000-01

2001-02

2002-03

2003-04

£ billion 2004-05

664

630

598

617

676

730

Mining and Quarrying Electricity, Gas and Water Supply

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1999-2000

Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry Manufacturing

Written Answers

701

762

675

673

654

669

24,185

24,752

23,925

23,731

25,133

25,696

1,225

1,229

1,118

1,089

1,098

1,135

6,981

7,597

8,200

8,974

10,164

10,751

14,944

15,824

15,978

17,025

18,733

19,729

Hotels and Restaurants

2,314

2,457

2,558

2,806

3,200

3,450

Transport, Storage and Communication

8,779

9,801

10,139

10,104

10,912

11,939

Financial Intermediation

11,866

15,525

15,115

15,536

17,001

18,739

Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities

22,830

26,582

28,050

27,948

29,567

32,221

Public Administration and Defence

6,086

5,899

5,994

6,293

7,525

10,544

Education

11,441

12,442

13,206

14,105

16,274

17,498

Health and Social Work

8,648

9,035

9,659

10,845

12,959

14,598

Other Community, Social and Personal Service Activities

4,060

4,527

4,747

5,026

5,691

6,169

Occupational Pensions

5,989

6,300

6,561

6,671

6,752

7,166

Other

645

1,384

2,385

1,920

1,547

1,676

Total

131,358

144,748

148,905

153,363

167,887

182,709

Sector Accounting Adjustment Sector Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry Mining and Quarrying Manufacturing Wholesale and Retail Trade Construction Wholesale and Retail Trade Hotels and Restaurants Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities Public Administration and Defence Real Estate, Renting and Business Public Administration and Defence

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

£ billion 2009-10

765 757 25,898 1,135 11,575 20,554 3,640 12,676 20,673 35,182 11,324 18,456 16,167

782 829 26,570 1,253 12,428 21,512 3,891 12,826 24,085 38,996 11,658 19,422 17,454

839 864 27,355 1,429 14,236 22,895 4,046 13,125 26,160 44,009 11,965 20,133 17,735

865 961 26,056 1,519 13,779 22,574 3,857 13,062 23,691 45,581 11,821 20,487 18,385

858 982 23,464 1,514 11,896 21,339 3,732 12,289 23,184 43,286 12,476 20,747 19,530

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Written Answers

Sector Other Community, Social and Personal Service Activities Occupational Pensions Other Total

1 DECEMBER 2010

Written Answers

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2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

£ billion 2009-10

6,585

7,025

7,344

7,531

7,257

7,609 1,627 194,623

8,402 352 207,484

9,195 -43 221,286

9,449 70 219,690

10,058 -263 212,350

Data are available back to 1999-2000 only. The sectors are defined by the Office for National Statistics’ Standard Industrial Classification 2003. The occupational pensions figures include all income tax on occupational pensions regardless of the sector in which the person was previously employed. Declared VAT is published by trade group in the VAT factsheet, table 2-3: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=factvat

Given that sectors for corporation tax, VAT and PAYE income tax and class 1 NICs are defined differently these sets of figures are not directly comparable. Taxation: Music Mike Weatherley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax revenue was raised in respect of the UK-based music industry in (a) 2005, (b) 2006, (c) [27232] 2007, (d) 2008 and (e) 2009. Mr Gauke: The information required to answer the question is not available. Mike Weatherley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has made a recent assessment of the merits of tax incentives to encourage the development of UK [27234] musical talent. Mr Gauke: The Government seek to provide a competitive environment and tax system for businesses and individuals across the economy. The Government believe that simplicity and stability are features of good tax policy, and that in general a tax system with fewer reliefs and allowances will provide the best incentive for economic growth.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT Affordable Housing: Construction Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the effects of the proposed changes to rules under which new social housing can be constructed on the potential for small housing associations who do not construct new housing to amalgamate with other (a) large and (b) small housing associations; and if he will make a statement. [27097] Grant Shapps: We continue to encourage housing associations to explore models for management or ownership rationalisation if this will deliver better valuefor-money and improved services for tenants. The Government do not have a fixed view about what size a Housing Association should be. There are excellent large and small Housing Associations in existence. Decentralisation and Localism Bill Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when he plans to [27245] publish the Localism Bill. Greg Clark: The Localism Bill contains a wide range of measures to shift power from central Government into the hands of individuals, communities and councils. The Bill frees local government from central and regional control and strengthens local democracy. In addition, it gives greater power over planning, housing and other services and allows councils and councillors to be better held to account. The Bill will be published imminently. Housing: Construction

VAT: Churches Henry Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek agreement from the Council of Ministers to zero-rate value added tax on repairs to historic [27098] church buildings. Mr Gauke: EU legislation agreed by successive Governments does not provide any scope for the introduction of new zero rates or the extension of existing zero rates. There is therefore no realistic prospect of securing agreement to the introduction of a new zero rate for repairs to historic church buildings. However, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport operates a scheme which makes grants equivalent to the VAT incurred in making repairs to listed buildings primarily used for worship. The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme will continue until 2014-15 with a fixed annual budget of £12 million.

Dr Whitehead: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of new houses which would need to be built in Southampton unitary authority area in each of the next five years in order for the authority to establish a net income gain under the terms of the [27192] New Homes bonus scheme. Grant Shapps: The New Homes Bonus will start in April 2011 and will match fund the additional council tax raised for new homes and properties brought back into use for the following six years, with an additional amount for affordable homes. The Department has set aside almost £l billion over the comprehensive spending review period for the scheme, including nearly £200 million in 2011-12 in year one. Funding beyond these levels will come from formula grant.

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The New Homes Bonus consultation is available at;

Average per dwelling (£) 2007-08

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingsupply/ newhomesbonus

This is accompanied by a calculator which will enable you to estimate grant from the New Homes Bonus for Southampton. This can be found at: http://www.communities.gov.uk/documents/housing/xls/ 1767709.xls

We will announce our proposals for the local government finance settlement for 2011-12, in the usual manner, in due course. Housing: Costs

Andrew Stunell: The following table provides estimates of the average annual routine and planned maintenance costs per unit for social landlords, based on data provided to the Tenant Services Authority. Cost figures are derived from published financial statements, include only landlords managing more than 1,000 social homes and use end of year stock numbers to produce average costs. This information is not available on a regional basis.

Supervision and management:

General

Special

Repairs

General

Special

Repairs

North West

878

512

918

677

403

979

Yorkshire and the Humber

756

188

795

769

200

811

East Midlands

601

238

850

637

243

889

West Midlands

689

298

1,067

651

267

953

East

Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what information his Department holds on the average (a) cost of management charges, (b) cost of maintenance and (c) return on capital expenditure in respect of the housing [26690] stock in each sector in each region.

2008-09

Supervision and management:

701

387

924

681

393

893

1,536

606

1,185

1,591

606

1,259

South East

859

414

1,032

719

363

933

South West

654

277

814

750

294

821

National Average

858

367

902

902

380

974

London

Notes: General management includes expenditure on supervision and management of housing revenue account (HRA) property, eg policy and management, managing tenancies, rent collection and accounting. Special services include services (mainly shared) to HRA tenants, eg caretaking, cleaning, communal lighting, lifts, communal heating, laundry services, concierge schemes, ground maintenance and welfare services (excluding essential care and other special services).

There is no suitable measure with which to calculate the return on capital invested for this sector. Mortgages

2005-06

2006-07

2007-08

£’s per unit 2008-09

606

614

630

685

258

264

271

302

731

779

844

893

Routine maintenance costs Planned maintenance costs Management costs

There is no suitable measure with which to calculate the return on capital invested for this sector. This is because most social landlords are non-profit making organisations and the valuation of assets across the sector at both historic cost and current value prevents a valid aggregation of such measures. The following table gives data on local authority expenditure on supervision and management and repairs, for council housing in 2007-08 and 2008-09 by region. This is taken from local authorities’ annual second advance housing revenue account subsidy claim forms submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government. The regional split in the table is derived from the ‘Live tables on housing finance and household expenditure, Table 652’ available on the Department’s website at:

Average per dwelling (£) 2008-09

Supervision and management:

North East

Grant Shapps: The Government are committed to helping those who aspire to own their own home, through ensuring a return to economic and financial stability. The Government are seeking to achieve this through a programme of debt reduction and a commitment to abolish the structural deficit in the life of this Parliament. This will help to keep mortgage interest rates low and improve credit availability. The coalition agreement included a commitment to promote shared ownership. While grant funding under the new investment model for affordable housing announced in the spending review will primarily target the new affordable rented product, there may be some scope for delivery of low cost home ownership as part of the contractual arrangements with providers where this is appropriate for local circumstances. Park Homes: Caravan Sites Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many residential park homes there are on licensed park home sites in [27180] each county.

http://www.communities.gov.uk/housing/housingresearch/ housingstatistics/housingstatisticsby/housingfinance/ livetables/ 2007-08

Mr Syms: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his policy is on financial assistance to first-time homebuyers who commit a large proportion of their income in mortgage payments in [27541] order to get on to the property ladder.

Supervision and management:

General

Special

Repairs

General

Special

Repairs

624

364

753

653

401

790

Grant Shapps: These data are not collected. The Department has made no official estimate on this, but soundings in the sector suggest there are approximately 85,000 park homes on 2,000 sites in England and 5,000 homes on 100 sites in Wales.

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Poverty: Children Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government if he will take steps to ensure that local authorities are allocated the resources to meet their obligations under the Child Poverty Act 2010; and if he will make a statement. [23042]

Sarah Teather: I have been asked to reply. The Government are committed to ending child poverty by 2020 and recognises the critical role of local authorities and other partners in achieving that aim. Part 2 of the Child Poverty Act 2010 introduced new duties for local partners to cooperate and carry out local child poverty needs assessments and develop joint child poverty strategies. In recognition of the potential costs of carrying out that work the Government have made an additional £9.5 million available this year to ensure local authorities have the resources to meet the local duties. Funding will be provided for the remainder of this implementation year (2010-11) to support local authorities in England who are leading the co-operation around the duties. Payments will be distributed to all ‘top-tier’ local authorities via the area based grant and the first payments were made in October. Squatting Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how many incidents of squatting were recorded (a) in Brighton and Hove constituency and (b) nationally in (i) 2007, (ii) 2008, [27236] and (iii) 2009. Grant Shapps: Information on the number of dwellings that are occupied by squatters is not held centrally. Tenancy Deposit Schemes Jeremy Lefroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what proportion of disputes in respect of tenancy deposit protection schemes resulted in a decision in favour of the tenant in [27750] (a) 2007-08, (b) 2008-9 and (c) 2009-10. Grant Shapps: My Department does not hold this information. My hon. Friend may wish to contact the three companies running the tenancy deposit protection schemes directly.

Written Answers

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In relation to Parliament square, I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 25 November 2010, Official Report, column 439. In relation to unauthorised encampments, I refer my hon. Friend to the press notice of the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles) on 29 August 2010, a copy of which is in the Library. It outlines the new Government’s approach of providing incentives and support for authorised Traveller sites, while removing the counter-productive regime of top-down planning and ensuring fair play in the planning system. The forthcoming Localism Bill and changes to secondary legislation will include provisions to end the abuse of retrospective planning permission and will give councils stronger powers to tackle unauthorised development in all its forms. Working Neighbourhoods Fund Mr Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what assessment he has made of the likely effects of the closure of the Working Neighbourhoods Fund on the most deprived communities in the country; and what sources of funding will be available to support such areas in the spending review period. [27456] Robert Neill: The Working Neighbourhoods Fund was a time-limited, three year programme scheduled to run from 2009-11. In line with our equalities duties, an equality impact assessment into the completion of the Working Neighbourhoods Fund has been carried out and will be published in due course. Businesses and local authorities in areas which currently receive the Fund will now be able to bid into the £1.4 billion Regional Growth Fund to kick-start private sector-led growth. The Department for Work and Pensions is also to introduce the Work Programme which will provide an integrated package of support providing personalised help for people who find themselves out of work. The Government are also giving communities and neighbourhoods new rights, flexibilities, powers and tools that they could use to drive forward local regeneration and growth. For example through de-ringfencing of local budgets, and introducing incentives through the New Homes Bonus to direct more money to councils that build houses. The hon. Member should be aware that as outlined in the March 2010 Budget, the last Government was planning in-year cuts to the Working Neighbourhood Fund.

Travellers: Caravan Sites Mr Burley: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he is taking to reduce the number of (a) squatters and (b) unauthorised [27311] encampments. Grant Shapps: In relation to squatting, on 8 November I published an online guide for home owners affected by squatters. This sets out their rights and the action they can take. We are also taking steps to help get empty homes back into productive and lawful use, thus reducing the scope for squatting.

EDUCATION Business: Education Lorely Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans his Department has for the future of enterprise education in primary schools; and if he will make a statement. [18817] Mr Gibb: The Department currently has a contract with the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) to run the Enterprise Network to support the extension

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1 DECEMBER 2010

of enterprise education from a secondary school focus to the primary and FE sectors. The network is made up of Enterprise Learning Partnerships (ELPs), each chaired by a head teacher with representatives on the Board from two secondary schools, two primary schools, a special school, a further education college and an employer. There are currently 54 ELPs covering 99.6% of local authority areas in England. To date, 7,002 primary schools have been involved in the Enterprise Network activities. Lead practitioners for each sector of education, including primary, have been identified in each region to share their ideas for enterprise education with their peers. The contract with SSAT ends in March 2011. Beyond that date, we expect the ELPs to become self-sustaining without Government funding, ensuring a network of local and teacher-led groups to support enterprise education in schools, including primary schools. Departmental Redundancy Ms Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what estimate he has made of the number of redundancies arising from the spending reductions proposed in the comprehensive spending review in respect of (a) his Department, (b) its nondepartmental public bodies and (c) other public bodies which are dependent on his Department for funding.

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Maintained nursery, maintained primary1, state-funded secondary1, 2 and special3 schools: School meal arrangements4, 5. As at January 2010—by each ward within Ealing Southall parliamentary constituency Number of Percentage of pupils known to pupils known to be eligible for be eligible for free school free school Number on meals4, 5 meals Ward name roll4, 5 Norwood Green Southall Broadway Southall Green

1,674

501

29.9

2,448

598

24.4

2,105

690

32.8

Ealing Southall 13,250 3,325 25.1 (all wards) 1 Includes middle schools as deemed. 2 This term generally covers local authority maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies, however there are no city technology colleges or academies in this constituency. 3 Includes maintained and non-maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. 4 Includes sole and dual (main) registrations. 5 Pupils who have full-time attendance and are aged 15 and under, or pupils who have part time attendance and are aged between five and 15. Source: School Census

Kristallnacht: Education

[21515]

Tim Loughton: Determining optimal work force reforms in order to live within the Department’s spending review resource DEL settlement will be an ongoing process. Detailed decisions regarding the number of redundancies that may be required have yet to be finalised. Free School Meals: Ealing

[24891]

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children in each ward in Ealing Southall constituency are eligible for free school meals; and whether he has made a recent estimate of the proportion of those children in each such ward who [23576] are claiming free meals. Mr Gibb: The Department collects information on the number of pupils who meet the free school meals criteria and make a claim. Information is not available on the number of pupils who may be eligible but do not make a claim. The number of pupils known to be eligible and claiming for free school meals is shown in the table. Maintained nursery, maintained primary1, state-funded secondary1, 2 and special3 schools: School meal arrangements4, 5. As at January 2010—by each ward within Ealing Southall parliamentary constituency Number of Percentage of pupils known to pupils known to be eligible for be eligible for Number on free school free school 4, 5 4, 5 Ward name roll meals meals Dormers Wells Elthorne Lady Margaret Northfield

2,224 2,358 943 1,498

721 526 211 78

Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) whether the study of Kristallnacht is included in the curriculum at secondary school level; and if he will [24890] make a statement; (2) what recent representations he has received on the inclusion of Kristallnacht in the curriculum at secondary school level; and if he will make a statement.

32.4 22.3 22.4 5.2

Mr Gibb: The teaching of the Holocaust is a compulsory part of the National Curriculum at secondary school level, but it is up to schools to determine whether the study of Kristallnacht should be included in this. As Kristallnacht was a key moment in the events leading up to the Holocaust, it is expected that most secondary schools would teach this. The Department has provided funds, with the Pears Foundation, for a national programme of courses to help teachers address the concerns and issues they encounter when teaching about the Holocaust. Kristallnacht features prominently in one of the training activities for this programme. The Secretary of State has not recently received any representations on the inclusion of Kristallnacht in the curriculum at secondary school level. The Government are committed to reviewing the National Curriculum to restore it to its original purpose—a core national entitlement organised around subject disciplines. We plan to consult a wide range of academics, teachers and other interested parties to ensure that our core curriculum can compare with those of the highest performing countries in the world. More details about our plans to review the curriculum will be announced later in the year. As part of the consultation process there will be a number of opportunities to contribute.

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Written Answers

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Pre-School Education: Special Educational Needs

Schools: Holocaust Memorial Day

Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what measures are in place to identify pupils in pre-school education with special educational needs.

Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what arrangements his Department has made to mark Holocaust Memorial Day in schools in 2011; and if he [24889] will make a statement.

[22918]

Sarah Teather [holding answer 9 November 2010]: We believe it is vital that children who have special educational needs and disabilities, including the needs of pre-school children, are identified as early as possible if they are to make the most of their education experience. There are currently provisions in place that impose legal requirements to identify, assess and make provision for these pre-school needs, for example through the Special Educational Needs Code of Practice and the Early Years Foundation Stage statutory framework. We want to strengthen the system so that all children are ready to engage in learning when they start formal schooling. The Tickell review is considering how young children’s early learning should best be supported and the forthcoming Green Paper on Special Educational Needs and Disability will consider how we can achieve better educational outcomes and life chances for children and young people with special educational needs from the early years through to transition to adult life and employment. Pupils: Disadvantaged Paul Maynard: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many children who attended (a) maintained primary schools, (b) Catholic maintained primary schools, (c) maintained secondary schools and (d) Catholic maintained secondary schools lived in (i) the 10% most deprived super output areas (SOAs), (ii) the 20% most deprived SOAs, (iii) the 30% most deprived SOAs and (iv) the 10% least deprived SOAs as measured by the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index in the school year 2009-10. [24895]

Mr Gibb: The requested information is shown in the following table: Number of pupils resident in each IDACI decile attending maintained schools and maintained Catholic schools by phase of education—2010 Secondary1, 2 Primary1 IDACI-3 decile of pupil All Catholic All Catholic residence schools schools schools schools 0-10 % most 584,313 75,460 377,687 52,831 deprived 10-20% 498,615 54,953 347,214 40,363 20-30 % 435,191 46,009 329,527 35,685 30-40 % 398,675 39,965 316,620 31,208 40-50 % 379,238 35,948 314,931 27,761 50-60 % 366,354 33,154 312,916 26,264 60-70 % 356,050 28,988 313,310 23,746 70-80 % 357,340 28,745 318,667 24,578 80-90 % 356,608 29,775 319,923 25,228 90-100 % least 348,800 31,941 318,017 27,603 deprived 1 Maintained schools only, includes middle schools as deemed. 2 Secondary includes academies and city technology colleges. 3 Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index 2007. Source: School Census 2010

Mr Gibb: The Department funds the Holocaust Educational Trust’s Lessons from Auschwitz project, which provides for two students (aged 16 to 18) from every school/sixth form college in England to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau. Many of the students who participate in the project will be marking Holocaust Memorial Day in their schools and local communities across the country. Schools: Reading Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent assessment he has made of the effects on attainment levels in reading and mathematics among the lowest achieving six and seven year olds of the Every Child a Reader programme; and if he will make a [23201] statement. Mr Gibb: We regularly evaluate the progress of the programme against a range of management information. Evidence shows that Every Child a Reader has had a positive impact in raising the attainment of pupils in the programme, as well as indications of a positive whole-school effect. All three Every Child programmes are currently undergoing robust independent evaluations, to report in late 2010 or early 2011, which will give a substantive view of the impact of the programmes. Schools: Standards Laura Sandys: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent assessment he has made of educational standards in secondary schools in (a) South [24585] Thanet constituency and (b) England. Mr Gibb: In 2009 (the most recent year for which constituency level data are available) 52.4% of pupils in maintained schools in South Thanet achieved five or more GCSEs at grade A*-C or equivalent including English and maths, compared to 50.9% in England. We remain concerned that almost half of young people are leaving compulsory education without meeting this standard. That is why we are reforming the school system to give schools more freedom and introducing the pupil premium to support children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Laura Sandys: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what recent assessment he has made of educational standards in primary schools in (a) South [24586] Thanet constituency and (b) England. Mr Gibb: In 2009, the most recent year for which constituency level data are available, 62% of pupils in maintained schools in South Thanet achieved Level 4 or above in English and maths combined at Key Stage 2, compared to 72% in England. We want all children, whatever their background, to achieve high standards in reading, writing and mathematics.

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That is why we are introducing a pupil premium which will provide extra funding for those schools with the most challenging intakes. Special Educational Needs: Children in Care Mrs Hodgson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps his Department is taking to reduce the incidence of special educational needs among looked[22917] after children. Sarah Teather [holding answer 9 November 2010]: Just over half (52%) of looked after children have special educational needs (SEN). We are publishing a Green Paper which will set out how we will improve identification of and support for all children with SEN, including looked after children with SEN. All looked after children are required to have a care plan which is drawn up and reviewed by the local authority which looks after them. This overall plan must include a plan describing how the child’s educational needs will be met and whether s/he has a statement. Special Educational Needs: Lancashire Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many teachers in Lancashire have a mandatory qualification in teaching deaf children; and what recent estimate he has made of the number of [22810] children in Lancashire who are deaf. Sarah Teather [holding answer 15 November 2010]: We do not routinely collect data regarding the number of British sign language qualified teachers teaching deaf children in mainstream schools either nationally or by region. Local authorities are responsible for ensuring that teachers of hearing impaired and deaf children possess the appropriate mandatory qualification to undertake the role. It is a matter for local authorities to ensure that they have enough qualified teachers to meet their statutory commitments. Regarding the estimate of the number of children in Lancashire who are deaf, these figures are available from the Statistical First Release ‘Special Educational Needs in England: January 2010’. This shows that there were 426 pupils in Lancashire at School Action Plus or with statements that had hearing impairment as a primary need and were being educated within the maintained sector or at special schools as at January 2010. At the end of the year the Government plan to publish a Green Paper on special educational needs and disabilities, which will explore how we can improve support for all children with special educational needs and disabilities, including those who are deaf or hearing impaired. It is a priority to improve the educational outcomes for all children and we recognise the important role specialists, such as Teachers of the Deaf, play in meeting this goal. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will bring forward legislative proposals to incorporate the provisions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into his Ministerial responsibilities. [21731]

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Sarah Teather [holding answer 4 November 2010]: The Government are committed to the implementation of the United Nations convention on the rights of the child (UNCRC) and takes their obligations to the convention seriously. In March 2010, the previous Administration published an analysis setting out how legislation, policy and practice comply with the UNCRC. That analysis is being reviewed in order to assess how broader changes in legislation and policy align with the UNCRC and will decide if any further action is needed to give further effect to the convention. World War II: Education Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether his Department has taken steps to promote (a) knowledge of and (b) interest in the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in schools; and if he will make a [24888] statement. Mr Gibb: The battle of Britain was a significant event in the second world war; and the second world war is a compulsory subject in the secondary school curriculum. Schools determine whether to include the battle of Britain as part of their studies, and the Government believe that schools should be free to decide how best to mark the 70th anniversary of the battle of Britain. Youth Services: Manpower Toby Perkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many full-time equivalent youth support workers [21377] there are in each local authority area. Tim Loughton: The Department for Education does not collect these data. However, the Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) published an audit of the workforce in December 2009 and this includes some national level estimates of the numbers of youth and community workers. The report is available on CWDC’s website at: http://www.cwdcouncil.org.uk/young-peoples-workforce/ state-of-the-young-peoples-workforce-report

WORK AND PENSIONS Atos Healthcare Mr Charles Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what services Atos is providing under contract to his Department; and whether he plans to renew his Department’s contract with Atos in [26484] 2012. Chris Grayling: The information is as follows. Medical Services Following a competitive tender exercise the medical services agreement between Atos Healthcare and the Department for Work and Pensions was awarded on 15 March 2005 by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The contract went live on 1 September 2005, for a period of seven years, with options to extend for a further three and two years. On 1 November 2010 the Minister of State for Employment awarded a contract

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extension to 31 August 2015 to facilitate the delivery of incapacity benefit reassessment. The new disability living allowance assessment service from 2013, is not included in the extension contractual arrangements but will be awarded through a competitive tendering process. The scope of the medical services agreement is to provide medical advice to Department for Work and Pensions; Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs; Service Personnel and Veterans Agency and Tribunals Service to support decisions in relation to a number of benefits and pensions, including but not limited to: Incapacity benefits Employment and support allowance Industrial injuries disablement benefits Disability living allowance (to be competed in 2013) Attendance allowance Statutory sick pay/statutory maternity pay Child trust fund War pension Vaccine Damage Payment scheme Financial Assistance scheme Compensation Recovery scheme Appeals tribunal service

Occupational Health Following a competitive tender exercise the occupational health framework agreement between Atos Healthcare and the Department for Work and Pensions was awarded on 30 May 2008 by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. The framework agreement went live on 3rd August 2008 and was for a period of three years, with an option to extend for a further two years. The Department for Work and Pensions is currently considering the option to extend. The scope of the occupational health framework ensures the Department has access to professional occupational health guidance, enabling obligations under the Equality Act (especially in respect of disabled workers) to be fulfilled and also to prevent or resolve instances of sickness absence. Such guidance will normally be about the applicability of the Equality Act; the effect of illness on an employee’s functional capability; and measures that can be taken to reduce the effects of illness on functional capability or to rehabilitate an employee from sick leave to work. Services available via the agreement include but are not limited to: Attendance management support Pre-employment health screening Audiology screening Absence related case conferences

Atos also provide IT services to the Department under the Stand Alone Support Services (SASA) Contract. The covers the provision of development, support, enhancement and consultancy services for mostly small scale DWP IT applications. Children: Maintenance Alok Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the average difference between the amounts paid by clients of the Child Support Agency on the (a) pre-2002 and (b) [24372] post-2002 scheme.

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Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to the hon. Member with the information requested and I have seen the response. Letter from Stephen Geraghty: In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the average difference between in amounts paid by clients of the Child Support Agency on the (a) pre-2002 and (b) post-2002 scheme. [24372] The table shows average collections on cases administered under old scheme rules compared to average collections on cases administered under current scheme rules for each quarter. Average collections have been calculated by dividing the total amount of maintenance collected and arranged under each scheme by the number of cases paying maintenance as at the end of each quarter. Total collections and caseload figures include cases administered on the CS2 and CSCS computer systems as well as cases administered off system. However, the value of maintenance direct payments within the collections figure only include off system cases from April 2008. Average collections and arrangements will be directly impacted by the average assessment value. The average assessment of Old Scheme cases is significantly lower than Current Scheme cases due to differences in policy between the schemes. The majority of cases in receipt of benefit on the Old Scheme are nil-assessed, whereas cases in receipt of benefit on the Current Scheme are given a weekly assessment of £5.00. 29% of cases on the Current Scheme have an assessment between £0.01 and £5.00, which significantly reduces the average assessment value. I hope you find this answer helpful. Table 1: Average monthly collections and arrangements by scheme £

Month

Average monthly collections/ arrangements old scheme

Average monthly collections/ arrangements current scheme

Difference

December 179 125 54 2006 March 2007 184 129 55 June 2007 181 128 53 September 186 135 51 2007 December 186 142 44 2007 March 2008 192 142 50 June 2008 194 137 56 September 199 142 57 2008 December 197 142 54 2008 March 2009 200 138 62 June 2009 194 136 57 September 195 137 59 2009 December 196 136 60 2009 March 2010 184 135 48 June 2010 180 133 47 Notes: 1. Figures rounded to the nearest £1. 2. Figures include value of maintenance collected as well as value of maintenance direct arrangements.

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Jessica Lee: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in how many assessed cases currently being dealt with by the Child Support Agency child maintenance liability is abated to take account of shared care arrangements; and what proportion of these cases are abated by (a) one seventh, (b) two sevenths, (c) [26442] three sevenths and (d) one half. Maria Miller: The Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is responsible for the child maintenance system. I have asked the Child Maintenance Commissioner to write to my hon. Friend with the information requested and I have seen the response. Letter from Stephen Geraghty: In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Child Maintenance Commissioner as the Child Support Agency is now the responsibility of the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission. You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, in how many assessed cases currently being dealt with by the Child Support Agency child maintenance liability is abated to take account of shared care arrangements; and what proportion of these cases are abated by (a) one seventh (b) two sevenths (c) three sevenths and (d) one half. [26442] Information is not available on the value that maintenance assessments have been abated by when taking into account shared care arrangements. Information is available on the number of nights each qualifying child on cases administered on the CSCS computer system spends with the parent with care. Information is also available on the number of current scheme cases administered on the CS2 computer system with a shared care arrangement in place. However, no robust information is available for old scheme cases administered on the CS2 computer system or for cases administered off system. A shared care arrangement is defined for current scheme cases as those cases where the qualifying child or children spends at least 52 nights per year with the non-resident parent. As at September 2010 there were 145,500 such cases, which is 22% of the assessed caseload. The table shows the number of cases administered on the CSCS computer system with a shared care arrangement in place. They are shown split by the number of nights spent with the parent with care for the qualifying child that spends the least nights with that parent. I hope you find this answer helpful. Table 1: CSCS cases with a shared care arrangement: September 2010 Nights spent with parent with care per week Number of assessed cases 2 100 3 1,200 4 6,400 5 14,600 Notes: 1. Figures rounded to nearest 100. 2. A case where the child spends one night per week with the parent with care is recorded on the CSCS computer system as 0 nights. Likewise, cases where the child spends six nights per week with the parent with care are recorded on the CSCS computer system as seven nights. These categories can therefore not be separated and are therefore not shown. 3. Management information on cases administered on the CSCS computer system records the number of nights each individual child spends with the parent with care. It is possible that the number of nights is different for children within the same case. Therefore, in the attached response, the child which spends the least number of nights with the parent with care has been used in the table.

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Cold Weather Payments Rehman Chishti: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he made an estimate of the number of people with cancer who received the cold weather payment in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009. [27866]

Steve Webb: The information requested is not available. Cold weather payments are paid automatically to people receiving pension credit and to those receiving certain income related benefits who are disabled, have a disabled child or a child under age five. Departmental Contracts Andrew Bingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of quality management statements in assisting with contract decisions by his Department; and what assessment he has made of the effects on the prospects for small businesses winning of contracts of [19014] such statements. Chris Grayling: DWP, as part of its selection criteria, will assess a bidder’s technical or professional ability, including quality management. As part of the tender evaluation process, procurement staff must include, within the published evaluation criteria, details of any weighting system used and how the tender will be scored with reference to quality management. Bidders are required to describe what quality management measures they operate relevant to the bid specification. Where specific quality standards are required to meet technical contract requirements, bidders are permitted to provide evidence of equivalent or comparable processes or systems. Evaluation criteria will clearly state the scoring attached to quality management and the minimum acceptable standard required to deliver the contract. Provided a bidder can demonstrate their capability to deliver a contract, there are no barriers that impact on the likely success of small businesses winning contracts. Commercial activities in DWP are determined by EU procurement rules. One of the primary objectives of the European Union is the prevention of discrimination and restriction on the movement of goods or services. Any specification, even those not subject to the EU rules, must ensure that they comply with this objective. A member state or contracting authority, such as DWP, cannot adopt measures that are, even potentially, restrictive. Sustainable procurement considerations ensure that opportunities for small businesses to bid for DWP contracts are maximised. Use of electronic procurement, division of requirements into local/regional lots and supplier briefings all help to improve access. Departmental Grants Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what grants have been awarded by his Department in 2010-11 to date; what grants he plans to award in each of the next two years; what the monetary value is of each such grant fund; and to which [27862] organisations such grants have been made;

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(2) what the monetary value was of grants awarded by his Department in 2009-10; and how much he expects to award in grants in (a) 2010-11 and (b) [27865] 2011-12.

Chris Grayling: Grants made by the Department for Work and Pensions in 2009-10 and 2010-2011 are shown in the table.

Description of grant

Paid to

Grants to support expenditure on Financial Inclusion Factory Support Grant

Credit Unions and Community Development Financial Institutions A range of businesses to support the employment of disabled people Employers to create new jobs employers for adaptations to premises and equipment City Strategy Pathfinders and other partnership organisations Local Government Improvement and Development (LGID) Individuals, via the Community Development Foundation The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education via the Department for Communities and Local Government individuals individuals

Future Jobs Fund Access to Work Deprived Areas Fund Ageing Well Grant Active at 60 Get Digital Project

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2009-10

2010-111

£ million 2010-112

18.0

4.6

7.9

0.5



0.2

82.5 1.1

274.9 0.8

420.0 1.7

7.7

5.5

9.7

0.5

0.7

1.7





1.0

1.0

1.9

1.9

Sure Start Maternity Grants (SSMG) 138.8 82.7 142.0 Community Care Grants (CCG) 140.7 83.2 142.0 1 To 31 October 2 Full year forecast Notes: 1. Factory Support Grant was a small scale aspect of Workstep intended to help improve specialist disability employment services by providing funding for supported businesses to, for example, buy new machinery or modernise the services they offer. 2. Current year figures are based on actual spend, as shown in the departmental general ledger, and forecasts which are subject to change. 3. For the purposes of this answer, grants are interpreted to be one-off payments to individuals or other entities to support the objectives of the Department. Payments which are on-going in nature, for example subsidies to local authorities for housing benefit administration, or grants in aid to non-departmental public bodies have not been included. 4. Funding for the Factory Support Grant, the Future Jobs Fund, and the Deprived Areas Fund have either already ended or will end this financial year. 5. The Department is now working through the financial implications of its spending review settlement and details are not available on future funding amounts for particular grants at present.

Departmental Regulation Mr Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what regulations sponsored by his Department have been revoked in the last six months. [24382]

Chris Grayling: The Employment and Support Allowance (Transitional Provisions, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit) (Existing Awards) Regs 2010 (S.I. 2010/ 875) were revoked by the Employment and Support Allowance (Transitional Provisions, Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit) (Existing Awards) (Revocation) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/1906) The following regulations were revoked by the Equality Act 2010 (Disability) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/2128): The Disability Discrimination (Meaning of Disability) Regulations 1996 (S.I. 1996/1455) The Disability Discrimination (Providers of Services) (Adjustment of Premises) Regulations 2001 (S.I. 2001/3253) The Disability Discrimination (Blind and Partially Sighted Persons) Regulations 2003 (S.I. 2003/712) The Disability Discrimination (Employment Field) (Leasehold Premises) Regulations 2004 (S.I. 2004/153) The Disability Discrimination (Educational Institutions) (Alteration of Leasehold Premises) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/1070) The Disability Discrimination (Service Providers and Public Authorities Carrying Out Functions) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/2901)

The Disability Discrimination (Private Clubs etc) Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/3258) The Disability Discrimination (Premises) Regulations 2006 (S.I. 2006/887).

The Vaccine Damage Payment (Specified Disease) Order (S.I. 2009/2516) was revoked by the Vaccine Damage Payments (Specified Disease) (Revocation and Savings) Order 2010 (S.I. 2010/1988). The Transfer of State Pensions and Benefits Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007 (SR (NI) 2007/286) were revoked by the Transfer of State Pensions and Benefits (Amendment) Regulations 2010 (S.I. 2010/1825). Disability Living Allowance: Care Homes Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of children likely to be affected by the implementation of the proposed withdrawal of the mobility component of disability living allowance from claimants living in [24704] residential care. Maria Miller: The spending review announced that the mobility component of disability living allowance would be removed from adults in residential care and children in residential schools. Proposals for disability living allowance reform will be informed by responses to the consultation document which we will publish shortly.

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We will be making clearer as we move towards the Bill exactly how the measure to cease paying mobility component of DLA to people in care homes will affect particular groups. Employment Schemes Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many companies have expressed an interest in applying for contracts under [26262] the Work Programme. Chris Grayling: 102 organisations, SPV or consortia submitted bids in respect of the DWP Framework for the Provision of Employment Related Support Services. A list of organisations that submitted bids can be found on the Supplying DWP website http://www.dwp.gov.uk/supplying-dwp/

Those organisations that were accepted onto the framework were notified on 25 November and a list has also been published on the Supplying DWP website. Only those organisations that have been successful in being admitted to the framework as prime contractors will be invited to tender for Work Programme contracts. Organisations will only be able to bid in lots where they have been successful in the framework competition. Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what (a) assumptions and (b) calculations his Department made when formulating its estimate of the market value of Work Programme contracts contained in the framework agreement for the provision of employment-related support services. [26263]

Chris Grayling: Assumptions and calculations on the estimated value of Work Programme contracts and indeed other contracts which will be let from the framework, were developed from information on the value of existing welfare to work programmes. These took into account the intention to radically simplify the array of existing employment programmes and deliver coherent, integrated support more capable of dealing with complex and overlapping barriers to work. Estimates were broad in order to provide transparency to the market and to ensure that the framework would be able to meet requirements to be the principal vehicle for sourcing all employment related support services for the full life of the Framework, not just for DWP, but also for other eligible contracting authorities. Calculations also took into account the need to deliver greater value for money on future welfare to work contracts. Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he plans to place any restrictions on sub-contracting within the procurement [26264] processes for the Work Programme.

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provision; and what geographical areas there will be for contracts under the Work Programme. [26265] Chris Grayling: The DWP Framework for the Provision of Employment Related Support Services will be divided into 11 geographical lots. The lots are: South East, South West, London, East of England, East Midlands, West Midlands, North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, North East, Scotland, Wales. Contracts let under the framework may be across all lots, cover a specific lot or a smaller geographical area(s) within a lot. Employment Schemes: Scotland Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the likely effect of the proposed universal credit on [25774] work incentives in Scotland. Chris Grayling: Universal credit will make work pay. It will enable workers to retain more of their earnings when they enter work, providing stronger financial incentives to take job opportunities than under the current system. Establishing a single withdrawal rate and eliminating the hours rules currently present in working tax credit has the potential to create a much more flexible labour market, where workers will be able to work the number of hours that most suits their needs and those of their employer. The integration of in and out of work support through universal credit will also greatly reduce the risks people perceive around the continuity of financial support as they move into and leave work. We expect the impacts in Scotland to be broadly the same as for Great Britain as a whole. Housing Benefit Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the contribution by the Minister of State for Work and Pensions of 9 November 2010, Official Report, column 154, on housing benefit, what the evidential basis was for his assessment of the change in private rents since November [26345] 2008. Steve Webb: The source of the private rental data was the Find A Property index. This has been used by the DWP and wider Government since 2008, when CLG stopped producing their own private rental index. The Office for National Statistics does not publish up-to-date private rental data. Further details of the evidential base are available at: http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/wpsc-analytical-supp.pdf

Chris Grayling: There are no plans to place any restrictions on sub-contracting within the procurement processes for the Work Programme. Evaluation of bids will, at least in part, depend on the quality of their supply chain.

Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the likely effects on levels of housing benefit payments of the implementation of his Department’s decision to merge high rental and low rental areas; and if he will [26379] make a statement.

Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the geographical areas are for contracting for each type of back-to-work

Steve Webb: We will be considering the areas in which local housing allowance rates are set in the context of our proposal to uprate local housing allowance rates

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according to the consumer price index from April 2013. We have not as yet made any decisions on the constitution of these areas.

Housing benefit recipients by family type and employment status in Newham, August 2010 Of which: In HB non passported employment

Mr Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the proposed changes to local housing allowance will apply to people who are part way through a tenancy which was signed prior to the [26632] changes coming into effect.

Single with child 3,370 2,690 dependents Couple no child 800 410 dependents Couple with child 4,160 3,940 dependents Total 12,880 8,730 Notes: 1. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. Totals may not sum due to rounding. 2. Housing benefit figures exclude any extended payment cases. An extended payment is a payment that may be received for a further four weeks when they start working full-time, work more hours or earn more money. 3. Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE) is a monthly electronic scan of claimant level data direct from local authority computer systems. It replaces quarterly aggregate clerical returns. The data are available monthly from November 2008 and August 2010 is the latest available. 4. People claiming housing benefit not in receipt of a passported benefit are recorded as being in employment if their local authority has recorded employment income from either the main claimant, or partner of claimant (if applicable), in calculating the housing benefit award. 5. Passported status does not include recipients with unknown passported status. Source: August 2010 Single Housing Benefit Extract (SHBE)

Steve Webb: Changes to local housing allowance rates apply to customers at the anniversary of their claim. The anniversary may coincide with the date they are due to renew a tenancy or it could fall part way through the tenancy. For existing customers who will be affected by changes to local housing allowance rates from April 2011, we are allowing an additional period of up to nine months from the anniversary of their claim during which they will be protected from a reduction in their local housing allowance rate. This will allow them extra time to renegotiate their rental commitment or, if necessary, look for alternative accommodation. Mr Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he plans to issue further guidance to local authorities on the allocation of [26654] discretionary housing benefit. Steve Webb: We are reviewing our discretionary housing payment good practice guidance to local authorities and plan to issue a revised version early next year.

Housing Benefit: North East

Mr Umunna: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he plans to make exceptions to the proposed limits on payments of local housing allowance to claimants under 35 years to a shared room rate in respect of those with (a) learning [26698] difficulties and (b) mental health disorders.

Grahame M. Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment his Department has made of the likely effect on (a) the economy of the North East and (b) housing provision of planned reductions in the level of housing benefit and council [17752] tax benefit payments.

Steve Webb: The shared room rate already has exemptions which will continue to apply for people in vulnerable situations. The exemptions include local authority and housing association tenants and those in certain supported accommodation. Customers who receive the middle or higher rate care component of disability living allowance and where no one gets a carer’s allowance for them are also exempt. We are currently considering the detailed design of this proposal, which is not due to be implemented until April 2012.

Steve Webb: Work is under way to ascertain the impacts of the proposed measures and we will publish an economic impact assessment at the time amendments to legislation are laid in Parliament. Housing Benefit: Worcestershire Mr Robin Walker: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in (a) Worcestershire and (b) Worcester were in receipt of housing benefit of more than £400 per week in the latest period for which [17631] figures are available.

Housing Benefit: Newham Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many working families in Newham [26489] are in receipt of housing benefit. Steve Webb: The following table shows the number of housing benefit recipients in Newham which are non passported and in employment, August 2010. Housing benefit recipients by family type and employment status in Newham, August 2010 Of which: In HB non passported employment Single no child dependents

4,550

1,690

Steve Webb: At July 2010, for housing benefit claims in the private rented sector our records show that there are no households in Worcestershire receiving over £400 per week. Source: Single housing benefit extract for July 2010.

Industrial Accidents: Construction Miss Begg: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans the Government has to implement the recommendations of the Rita Donaghy report entitled One death is too many: enquiry into the underlying [26399] cause of construction fatal accidents

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Chris Grayling: The Government are committed to addressing the heavy toll of deaths in the construction industry which was highlighted in Baroness Donaghy’s report. We will therefore progress those of the Donaghy recommendations accepted by the previous Administration which we consider are supported by the available evidence. For example, consistent with recommendation eight of the Donaghy report, the Government have actively supported the new specification for “pre-qualification” criteria in the construction industry, introduced by the British Standards Institution in October and which has the potential to radically simplify the prequalification process for small firms tendering for construction work. Where, however, we lack firm evidence for particular recommendations—for example, that directors’ health and safety duties need to be further strengthened—we do not propose to take further action at this time. Industrial Health and Safety: Inspections Mr Nicholas Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what recent representations he has received on the work of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE); and how many sites were formally inspected by a HSE inspector after a serious accident in the latest period for which figures are available. [26624] Chris Grayling: The Secretary of State has the principal responsibility to Parliament for the Health and Safety Executive and routinely receives representations on their work. Recent representations are concerned with a range of matters relating to the formulation and development of Government policy. HSE’s inspectors have investigated 2,021 serious accidents that occurred between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010, although some of these investigations are still under way. These serious accidents are categorised as fatalities and major injuries, such as amputations and fractures, that were reported under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 1995 (RIDDOR 95). Jobcentre Plus: Rural Areas

Written Answers

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primarily to provide face-to-face advice and guidance at the outset of the claim and at key stages thereafter; and alternative means of service delivery such as telephony and the Internet. In terms of plans to help those in remote areas access vacancies, everyone receives information, advice and guidance at the new claims interview about how to make best use of appropriate vacancy sources. As part of this, people receive information about the Directgov Internet Job Bank and Jobseeker Direct (the Jobcentre Plus telephony-based vacancy matching service), both of which provide remote, fast and easy access to thousands of jobs. As a further development, we have also launched a new application for the iPhone and Google Android systems, which offers people an innovative way to search for a job through their telephone handset. Looking ahead and in transforming our labour market services still further, we aim to provide a much improved, more efficient automated service to help employers post and fill vacancies and jobseekers access available jobs. As part of this, the intention is to extend the current job search facility to include vacancies from employer websites and other job boards; and to create secure customer profiles, which will be used to automatically notify employers of suitable applicants and individuals of suitable jobs. In terms of helping people access the labour market in areas with poor local transport, Jobcentre Plus advisers will offer information, advice and guidance to claimants and provide access to measures such as the Travel to Interview Scheme to help with the cost of attending interviews. We also administer the Adviser Discretion Fund, which is used to help customers overcome small challenges preventing them from taking-up the offer of employment. In appropriate circumstances, the Fund can help with travel to work costs until receipt of first wages. All awards are at adviser discretion, taking into account individual customer circumstances and all awards must represent good value for taxpayer’s money. Following the coalition Government’s announcement of a new, integrated work programme coupled with a more flexible Jobcentre Plus delivery model, we aim to build upon the discretionary funding currently available to give local managers the ability to tailor services to local and individual need. This could include the provision of more help to overcome travel costs and difficulties in appropriate locations. Over and above the schemes administered directly by Jobcentre Plus, there are a number of agreements in place (nationally and locally) to provide people with discounted travel, for example, in England and Wales, we have an agreement with the Association of Train Operating Companies, which offers a 50% discount on rail travel for longer-term unemployed people. A similar scheme is in place with Scot Rail and while there is no UK wide discount scheme for bus travel, many local operators do offer discounted services to unemployed people.

Jobseeker’s Allowance: Fraud

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assistance his Department plans to give to those living in remote rural areas to (a) access jobcentres to see what vacancies are available and (b) access the labour market in areas with poor [26596] local transport.

Cathy Jamieson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people were prosecuted for offences relating to fraudulent claims for jobseeker’s allowance in Kilmarnock and Loudoun constituency in [22958] each of the last three years.

Chris Grayling: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Darra Singh. I have asked him to provide the hon. Member with the information requested. Letter from Darra Singh:

Chris Grayling: The information requested is not available. Information on the numbers of people prosecuted for benefit fraud in Scotland for the last three years for all DWP administered benefits is available in the following table.

The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about what assistance his Department plans to give to those living in remote rural areas to (a) access jobcentres to see what vacancies are available and (b) access the labour market in areas with poor local transport. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus. Jobcentre Plus is committed to providing all customers, including those in rural areas, with the help they need to find work as quickly as possible. We do this through a combination of the largest network of offices within Government, which is used

Number prosecuted for benefit fraud in Scotland 2007-08 168 2008-09 139 2009-10 489 Notes: Information extracted from the Fraud Referral and Intelligence Management Information System.

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1 DECEMBER 2010

Jobseeker’s Allowance: Hearing Impaired Mary Macleod: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what provisions are in place at Jobcentre Plus centres to assist jobseekers with hearing impairments; and whether interpreters are provided at [24953] each such location.

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Proposals for disability living allowance reform will be informed by responses to the consultation document which we will publish shortly. We will be making clearer as we move towards the Bill exactly how the measure to cease paying mobility component of DLA to people in care homes will affect particular groups. Mortgage Payments

Chris Grayling: The administration of Jobcentre Plus is a matter for the chief executive of Jobcentre Plus, Darra Singh. I have asked him to provide my hon. Friend with the information requested. Letter from Darra Singh: The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question asking what provisions are in place at Jobcentre Plus centres to assist jobseekers with hearing impairments and whether interpreters are provided at each such location. This is something that falls within the responsibilities delegated to me as Chief Executive of Jobcentre Plus. In Jobcentre Plus we recognise the diverse range of customers we serve and we are fully committed to providing equal accessibility and availability of services to all customers. Customers arriving in a Jobcentre are met by a Customer Services Manager who identifies the reason for their visit and who is able to direct them appropriately. When a deaf or hard of hearing customer arrives at an office the Customer Services Manager takes the customer to the Customer Service Support Leader who will communicate with them at a desk set up with a hearing loop facility, if this is appropriate. If the customer is profoundly deaf or cannot use a hearing aid, a member of staff who is British Sign Language (BSL) qualified will act as interpreter. If no qualified member of staff is available, we will arrange for a communicator, for example a BSL interpreter, lip speaker or deaf/blind interpreter as appropriate, to attend the office and book an appointment for the customer to return then. If customers wish, they may bring their own interpreters. If a customer provides their own professional qualified interpreter, they can be reimbursed with reasonable travel costs. Customers often choose to bring friends and relatives to interpret. If the customer attends the Jobcentre to look for work, touch screen Jobpoints are available in our offices to search for and access vacancies. Staff will support the customer in progressing any applications for work, for example, by making contact with the employer. For customers with an appointment requiring an interpreter we currently have three contracted providers that provide BSL interpreters nationally. Jobcentre Plus is committed to providing a first class service and ensuring we fully support our most vulnerable customers. I hope this information is helpful.

Mobility Allowance: Children Stephen Lloyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) whether the removal of mobility allowance for disabled children after 84 days in residential care will also apply to children in residential education [24964] settings; (2) whether residential schools for disabled children will be classified as care homes for the purposes of the proposed changes to the mobility element of disability [24965] living allowance. Maria Miller: The spending review announced that the mobility component of disability living allowance would be removed from adults in residential care and children in residential schools.

Mr Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department plans to provide support to households with disabled residents who can no longer afford their mortgage payments as a result of changes to the rate of support for mortgage interest to fund alternative accommodation. [23663] Steve Webb: We have no plans to increase the amount paid by way of support for mortgage interest, or to change the current standard interest rate for this group. It was necessary for the Government to put support for mortgage interest on a more sustainable footing, and to better reflect mortgage costs, which is why we set the standard interest rate at a level equal to the Bank of England’s published monthly average mortgage rate from 1 October. The rate is currently 3.63%. The previous rate of 6.08% was too generous and resulted in the vast majority of people getting more than their eligible mortgage interest liability, which was unfair to taxpayers. The plans of the previous Government would have meant that the standard interest rate would have reverted to a formula—the Bank of England base rate plus 1.58%—which, at present, would produce a rate of 2.08% from January 2011. There are other funding streams available to households with disabled residents, for example, Disabled Facilities Grants and the Mortgage Rescue Scheme. Disabled Facilities Grants are provided by local authorities to help meet the cost of adapting a property for the needs of a disabled person. The Mortgage Rescue Scheme was introduced in 2009 to help people in priority need, including those who are vulnerable because of old age or a physical/mental impairment. The scheme involves a Housing Association taking on full or part ownership of the property being repossessed. Poverty: Children Richard Fuller: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many children in (a) England, (b) the East of England and (c) Bedford constituency were living in families with no parents in employment [26539] in October each year from 2000 to 2010. Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply. The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply. Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated November 2010: As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your question asking how many children in a) England b) East of England and c) Bedford Constituency were living in families with no parents in employment in October each year from 2000 to 2010. (26539) The figures requested come from the Annual Population Survey (APS) household datasets. These are currently available for 2004 to 2009. The attached table shows estimates for England and East of England for these years.

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It is not possible to provide reliable estimates for Bedford constituency because of small sample sizes. As with any sample survey, estimates from the APS are subject to a margin of uncertainty. This is captured in a confidence interval, defined by lower and upper bounds, such that the interval formed between the bounds would contain the true value of 95% of all possible samples. Table: Children1 living in families with no parent in employment in England and East of England Thousand Upper January to Lower bound2 December Estimate bound2 England

East of England

2004 2005

1,639 1,630

1,591 1,582

1,687 1,678

2006

1,645

1,596

1,693

2007

1,613

1,564

1,662

2008

1,670

1,620

1,721

2009

1,707

1,655

1,759

2004

126

111

141

2005

124

109

140

2006

128

112

144

2007

130

114

147

2008

141

123

158

2009

133

115

150

1

Children refers to children under 16. 2 95% confidence interval which means that from all samples possible there would be 95% certainty that the true estimate would lie within the lower and upper bounds. Source: APS household dataset

Private Finance Initiative Scheme Alun Cairns: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many of his Department’s properties that are managed under a private finance initiative [20810] scheme are empty. Chris Grayling: DWP does not have any empty properties managed under a private finance initiative. Social Rented Housing: Reform Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government on the implications for the social rented housing market [18432] of his Department’s welfare reforms. Steve Webb: A number of discussions have been held between the Department for Work and Pensions and Communities and Local Government at, both ministerial and official level. These discussions will continue as we develop our plans.

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Chris Grayling: A number of civil servants in DWP and other Departments were involved in preparing the White Paper over a three-month period. The main work was done by members of the universal credit policy team in DWP which has a total of 20 staff. Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what (a) assumptions and (b) calculations his Department made when modelling the likely effects of the implementation of the universal credit; and if he will place in the Library a copy of each briefing document on these calculations provided to (i) [26250] Ministers and (ii) external bodies. Chris Grayling: Chapter 7 of the recent White Paper, ‘Universal Credit: Welfare That Works’, and the accompanying impact assessment set out the assumptions and calculations used to model the effects of universal credit. The briefing documents provided to Ministers that covered these calculations are restricted policy development documents. The Department’s Ministers and officials have had numerous discussions over recent months with external bodies on the Government’s proposals for benefit reform. Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much funding he plans to allocate to the implementation of the universal credit [26260] in 2011-12. Chris Grayling: The Treasury has allocated £2 billion investment funding to the Department of Work and Pensions for universal credit over the spending review period. Plans on the allocation of funding are in development. Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what timetable he has put in place for the introduction of the universal credit; and if he [26631] will make a statement. Chris Grayling: Introducing universal credit will be a very substantial exercise with around 19 million individual existing awards of benefits and tax credits becoming part of the new benefit. The provisional timetable is as follows, subject to detailed design work done in partnership with HMRC and local authorities. The current intention is to manage transition to universal credit in three stages: October 2013 to April 2014: all new claims for out of work support will be treated as claims to universal credit. No new jobseekers allowance, employment and support allowance, income support and housing benefit claims will be accepted. Customers transitioning from out of work benefits into work will move onto universal credit if they are eligible. April 2014: no new claims will be made to tax credits. April 2014 to October 2017: we would begin to work through transferring existing case to the new benefit.

Social Security Benefits Social Security Benefits: Adoption Mr Douglas Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the level of civil service staffing resources which were allocated to the preparation of the White Paper on [26249] universal credit.

Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether his Department provides financial support for adoptive parents who are classified as casual [24148] employees.

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1 DECEMBER 2010

Maria Miller: Statutory adoption pay enables adopters to take a period of leave from work when a new child joins the family. It is paid by employers to employees who satisfy qualifying conditions based on length of employment and a minimum level of earnings. Casual employees may receive statutory adoption pay if they can satisfy the qualifying conditions. Income support is available in certain circumstances. Single people who have a child placed with them prior to an adoption have access to income support. Once the adoption has taken place an adoptive parent can continue to receive income support if they fall within another prescribed group, for example if they are a lone parent or a carer. A parent may also be entitled to income support if they are taking leave from their employment under the parental leave provisions.

Written Answers

suspected frauds; how many cases involved each type of benefit; and how many cases involved suspected acts of fraud relating to more than one type of benefit. [24550]

Chris Grayling: Information on the following is held but would incur disproportionate cost to collate: (a) what benefits were involved in the suspected frauds, (b) how many cases involved each type of benefit, and (c) how many cases involved suspected acts of fraud relating to more than one type of benefit..

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 10 November 2010, Official Report, column 350W, on social security benefits: fraud, how many of the defendants have convictions or police cautions for other offences. [24551]

Social Security Benefits: Fraud Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 10 November 2010, Official Report, column 350W, on social security benefits: fraud, what the (a) monetary value was of the suspected fraud in the 550 warrant cases, (b) average monetary value per case was of suspected fraud and (c) monetary value was of the suspected fraud in each of the 10 cases where that value is highest; and what the dates of issue were of the 10 longest standing arrest [24549] warrants. Chris Grayling: Of the 550 warrants held by the Department on 14 October 2010, information was held centrally on 188 cases. This number has now been reduced to 156 following the execution of 32 warrants. Information on the remaining 362 warrants not held centrally can be provided only at disproportionate cost. (a) The total monetary value of fraud in the 156 cases is £1,273,314.26. (b) The average monetary value of fraud in the 156 cases is £8,162.27 (c) The monetary value in each of the 10 cases where that value is highest is shown in the following table. 10 highest value warrant cases £ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Total Source: FRAIMS

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58,550.01 55,494.13 54,864.22 53,319.36 46,406.20 39,906.59 37,465.39 33,735.64 32,121.02 28,253.76 440,116.32

Information on the dates of issue of the 10 longest standing arrest warrants is not available centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 10 November 2010, Official Report, column 350W, on social security benefits: fraud, what benefits were involved in the

Chris Grayling: The information on how many of the defendants have convictions or police cautions for other offences is held but can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 10 November 2010, Official Report, column 350W, on social security benefits: fraud, what were the (a) names of the persons issued with arrest warrants, (b) their last known addresses or whereabouts and (c) the monetary value [24719] of the suspected fraud in each case. Chris Grayling: The Data Protection Act 1998 and Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights provide no legal gateway to release information containing: (a) names of the persons issued with arrest warrants (b) their last known addresses or whereabouts.

Of the 550 warrants held by the Department on 14 October 2010, information is held centrally on 188 cases. Information on the remaining 362 cases is not held centrally, warrants having been issued prior to roll out of an IT case management system in November 2009. The monetary value of the 362 cases is held but can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Of the 188 arrest warrants mentioned above, 32 have been executed since 14 October 2010, reducing the number to156, on which information is held centrally. (c)The monetary value of the 156 cases can be found in the following table. Number 1-13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

Number and monetary value of 156 warrant cases Amount of overpaid benefit (£) 0 77.95 259.28 328.29 409.50 429.66 517.07 587.88 776.81 841.44 854.62 862.30

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Number 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86

Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

Number and monetary value of 156 warrant cases Amount of overpaid benefit (£) 866.00 890.40 936.44 939.12 1,066.65 1,148.21 1,253.76 1,417.60 1,483.54 1,548.10 1,617.01 1,711.84 1,817.75 1,831.06 1,847.75 1,968.29 2,005.51 2,028.74 2,110.33 2,124.84 2,158.64 2,203.43 2,207.51 2,209.20 2,249.04 2,314.50 2,323.34 2,428.39 2,429.41 2,431.22 2,478.56 2,533.40 2,674.32 2,816.69 2,867.64 2,917.10 2,962.23 2,976.41 2,995.07 3,014.35 3,265.20 3,311.41 3,342.81 3,389.50 3,473.29 3,536.55 3,598.53 3,632.38 3,662.47 3,678.02 3,821.10 3,840.90 3,845.21 3,860.88 3,924.65 4,036.68 4,131.49 4,234.76 4,367.23 4,396.97 4,422.05 4,430.69

Number 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148

Written Answers

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Number and monetary value of 156 warrant cases Amount of overpaid benefit (£) 4,765.10 4,815.42 4,927.90 4,928.80 5,461.84 5,463.05 5,512.54 5,599.80 5,711.28 6,011.93 6,116.89 6,120.89 6,487.05 6,487.53 6,859.82 7,017.09 7,150.94 7,201.96 7,356.10 7,674.28 7,815.00 7,829.00 7,972.47 8,034.17 8,267.87 8,336.33 8,406.11 8,489.62 9,038.97 9,081.42 9,575.76 9,768.85 9,931.33 10,349.52 10,421.42 10,540.63 11,261.49 12,110.54 12,175.86 12,387.59 12,620.73 12,819.05 13,015.24 13,893.95 14,007.92 14,140.00 15,339.59 15,353.00 16,105.99 16,332.74 17,146.00 17,225.54 17,820.01 18,368.30 19,481.46 20,816.00 21,049.35 21,239.32 25,286.04 25,722.59 28,253.76 32,121.02

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Number

Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

Number and monetary value of 156 warrant cases Amount of overpaid benefit (£)

149 33,735.64 150 37,465.39 151 39,906.59 152 46,406.20 153 53,319.36 154 54,864.22 155 55,494.13 156 58,550.01 Source: FRAIMS The Department will instigate criminal proceedings irrespective of the amount of overpayment where it is in the public interest to do so. For example, an attempt by a fraudster to falsely obtain a national insurance number to gain access to the benefit system may have criminal proceedings instigated against them whether or not there was an overpayment.

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 10 November 2010, Official Report, column 350W, on social security benefits: fraud, what steps are being taken to recover the suspected fraud identified in the cases; what steps he plans to take to recover from them the legal and other costs of pursuing those cases; what estimate he made of the cost to the public purse of taking legal and other action to pursue those cases; and what steps are being taken to arrest the persons concerned in the 550 [24720] cases.

Written Answers

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Chris Grayling: We expect that by the time it is fully implemented, universal credit will have moved 350,000 children and 500,000 working-age adults out of poverty, due to increased benefit entitlement and improved take-up rates. This is estimated using the Department’s policy simulation model. These poverty impacts do not take any account of any positive impacts of more people moving into work. Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people who will no longer be in poverty in (a) Haslingden and (b) Hyndburn as a result of implementation of his proposed reforms to the welfare [26170] system. Chris Grayling: The information is not available for the geographical areas requested. We estimate that for Great Britain, by the time it is fully implemented, the impact of universal credit will be a net poverty reduction of 350,000 children and 500,000 working-age adults. Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of people likely to have their (a) housing benefit, (b) incapacity benefit and (c) jobseeker’s allowance withdrawn as a result of implementation of the proposals in his Department’s White Paper on welfare reform. [26189]

Chris Grayling: Once a decision has been made that an overpayment is recoverable the steps taken to effect recovery include deductions from ongoing benefits, instalments, a lump sum or through the courts. Overpayments are not written off if the debtor cannot be immediately located. Comprehensive efforts are made to trace debtors and debts may be pursued over a considerable period of time. The Department seeks prosecution costs awards in all cases: it is not limited to those dealt with by warrant. Standard costs are £100.00 in guilty plea and £250.00 in not guilty plea cases heard in the magistrates courts. In the Crown court, applications for prosecution costs start at £350.00 and rise substantially depending on the seriousness, complexity and plea entered. Decisions to award prosecution costs are made by presiding magistrates or judges on a case by case basis. Information is not available of the cost to the public purse of taking legal and other action to pursue the 550 cases. The Department has nominated staff whose duties include checking all outstanding warrants every month against departmental records and informing the warrant holder, who is normally either based at the local police or court, of changes and requesting immediate execution of warrants. The responsibility to arrest rests with the police. Social Security Benefits: Reform Graham Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the evidential basis is for the estimate in his Department’s White Paper on welfare reform that his proposed benefit reforms will take 300,000 people out of poverty; and over what period he [26169] expects this to be achieved.

Chris Grayling: No one will experience a reduction in the benefit they are receiving as a result of the introduction of universal credit. At the point of transition onto the new system, those households whose circumstances remain unchanged and who would otherwise experience a reduction in income will receive cash protection to make up the difference. Universal Credit: Welfare Grahame M. Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions with reference to paragraph 14 of his White Paper entitled Universal Credit: welfare that works, when he plans to set out proposals for a new system of financial sanctions to provide greater incentives for people to meet their responsibilities. [24900]

Chris Grayling: Our current proposals for financial sanctions are set out in chapter three of our White Paper, ‘Universal Credit: welfare that works’. Universal credit will make sure that work pays. In return, claimants can reasonably be expected to look for and prepare for work. We also believe that it is fair to ask some claimants to do more to find work in return for receiving current benefits and ahead of the introduction of universal credit we intend to increase the level of labour market conditionality applied to some claimants; introduce a claimant commitment to ensure claimants fully understand what is expected of them; improve the sanctions regime so that it more effectively encourages claimants to meet their responsibilities; and introduce full-time mandatory work activity.

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1 DECEMBER 2010

These changes will form the basis of the labour market conditionality and sanctions system under universal credit. Those measures that require primary legislation will form part of the Welfare Reform Bill to be introduced in the new year. Vacancies: Peterborough Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what estimate he has made of the number of vacancies for (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment in Peterborough city council area on (i) 1 April 2008, (ii) 1 April 2009, (iii) 1 April 2010 and (iv) 1 September 2010; and if he will make a [21162] statement. Chris Grayling: The information requested is in the following tables. The figures provided relate just to vacancies notified to Jobcentre Plus and, as such, represent a market share of vacancies throughout the whole economy. Comprehensive estimates of all job vacancies and not just those notified to Jobcentre Plus, are available from the ONS Vacancy Survey. However, the ONS survey is currently designed to provide national estimates only. August 2010 is the most recent available data. Number of notified vacancies for the months of April 2008, April 2009, April 2010 and August 2010: Peterborough local authority Date Full-time vacancies Part-time vacancies April 2008 April 2009 April 2010 August 2010

973 608 1,113 1,451

198 228 278 420

Number of live unfilled vacancies for the months of April 2008, April 2009, April 2010 and August 2010: Peterborough local authority Date Full-time vacancies Part-time vacancies April 2008 1,336 April 2009 500 April 2010 813 August 2010 918 Source: Jobcentre Plus Labour Market System.

221 146 252 419

Asbestos: Employers’ Liability Andrea Leadsom: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will bring forward proposals to ensure that those with asbestos-related illnesses are eligible to claim on employers’ insurance if the exposure [24113] to asbestos occurred while at work. Chris Grayling: The Employers’ Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969 requires employers carrying on business in Great Britain to insure their liability to their employees for bodily injury or disease sustained in the course of their employment. This Act ensures that those with asbestos-related diseases can claim compensation against their employers’ liability insurance, where the employer has been negligent in exposing them to asbestos while at work. However, a recent Court of Appeal case has considered how the wording of these employers’ liability insurance policies affects civil compensation for mesothelioma

Written Answers

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sufferers and we had hoped that the judgment would have provided a general principle on how these policies should deal with their mesothelioma claims. The court decided that the policies should be interpreted based on the actual policy wording, which means that some sufferers may not be able to claim compensation if the insurance policy was worded in such a way that prevents a claim from being made. We expect this judgment to be appealed to the Supreme Court. In February 2010 the previous Government published their consultation document, ‘Accessing Compensation— Supporting people who need to trace employers’ liability insurance’, which set out proposals for people who need to find their employers’ liability insurance policies in order to claim compensation. The consultation closed on 5 May 2010. There were two proposals; firstly an Employers’ Liability Tracing Office, that would manage a database of EL policies. Secondly, an Employers’ Liability Insurance Bureau which would be a compensation fund of last resort for those individuals who are unable to trace EL insurance records, ensuring they are able to receive compensation for injuries or diseases sustained during the course of their employment. We are in active discussions with all stakeholders on how this situation can be addressed and we will publish our response to the consultation in due course.

CABINET OFFICE Banks: Finance Mr MacNeil: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether the Office for National Statistics calculation of public sector net debt takes account of the recapitalisation of banks. [27859] Mr Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply to the hon. Member. A copy of their response will be placed in the Library. Big Society Bank Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office by what date he expects the Big Society Bank to (a) be established and (b) commence [27275] distributing funds. Mr Hurd: The Government aim to have some functions of the Big Society Bank in place by April, then building towards a fully operational Bank. It will be ready to make initial investments by early summer, which is when we expect the first dormant accounts money will become available. Charity Commission Mrs Ellman: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the proposed changes to the operation of the Charity Commission; [26453] and if he will make a statement. Mr Hurd: The Charity Commission, like other Government Departments, is facing tough decisions about its future priorities following the spending review. It is undertaking a strategic review to focus on the key

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Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

priorities for its future work, including seeking the views of the public and other stakeholders. In addition, the statutory review of the Charities Act 2006 which is due to take place in 2011 will consider potential changes to the legislative framework for charities and the Charity Commission. The Charity Commission’s strategic review is currently under way and it would be premature to speculate on the outcome, but I am confident that the Charity Commission can be an effective regulator of charities in England and Wales within the resources allocated in its spending review settlement. Community Organisers Alex Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what roles and responsibilities the proposed community organisers will have; and what mechanisms he plans to put in place to monitor and assess their [27300] effectiveness. Mr Hurd: Community organisers will act as a catalyst for more social action, supporting all parts of the community (including under-represented and disadvantaged groups and individuals), to express their needs and issues, as well as identify opportunities and resources. Through supporting communities to take action, they will: (a) Build capacity of the community they serve by helping the community take action on the issues that matter most to them; (b) Help the community challenge vested interests and drive change in public and private sector organisations and in the community; (c) Build self-reliance, individual and collective responsibility; (d) Encourage diverse people to work with others to improve the quality of life locally; (e) Identify local leaders who can carry forward actions; (f) Support and link new and existing neighbourhood groups (thereby supporting the activity of the Community First programme, a targeted grants programme, currently under development).

The Office for Civil Society is currently procuring a national partner to further develop, manage and implement the community organisers programme at arms length from Government. This ensures that community organisers will be accountable to the national partner, while remaining free from political influence. The effectiveness of the community organisers will also be measured by the success they have in enabling the communities to take successful actions for change, on the priorities that the communities have identified. Community organisers will be accountable to the community they are supporting as well as any institutions which support them.

Written Answers

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Emergencies Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the likely effects of the outcomes of the comprehensive spending review on his Department’s civil contingencies programmes. [26629]

Mr Maude: The Government’s plans for changes in the United Kingdom’s civil contingencies programmes, within the resources available through the 2010 spending review, are set out in chapter 4 of the strategic defence and security review published on 19 October. The need for resilience to all kinds of emergency is identified in the National Security Strategy as a priority task. The role of the Cabinet Office is to co-ordinate Government-wide resilience planning and programmes, and will continue therefore to be an important task for the Department. Football: South Africa Graham Evans: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much his Department spent on attendance [26151] at the 2010 FIFA World cup. Mr Hurd: The Cabinet Office did not spend any money on attendance at the 2010 FIFA World cup. Iraq Committee of Inquiry: Public Appointments Mr Llwyd: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) what skills and experience were identified as being required for the role of Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry; how many candidates were identified as having such skills and experience; and on what basis the successful [26897] candidate was selected; (2) what steps were taken in the process of appointment of the Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry (a) to identify potential conflicts of interest and (b) to ensure that any such conflicts did not affect the independence of the [26898] inquiry.

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what recent discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues on responsibility for steps to prevent excess [26283] winter deaths.

Mr Hurd: The Cabinet Secretary decided to nominate the Secretary to the Iraq Inquiry and agreed the appointment with the Chairman of the Inquiry. Both the Cabinet Secretary and the Chairman of the Inquiry agreed that the Secretary to the Inquiry should be a senior individual in the civil service ideally with previous involvement in Iraq issues. The Chairman of the Inquiry has told the Cabinet Secretary that, in agreeing to the appointment, he was aware of the candidate’s role in the Foreign and Defence Policy (formerly the Defence and Overseas Policy) Secretariat in the Cabinet Office from November 2004, and, given the professional standards of the senior civil service, saw no potential conflict of interest with her appointment as Secretary to the Inquiry that would, in his view, affect the independence of the Inquiry.

Mr Maude: Officials from all key Departments are in regular contact on a wide range of winter resilience issues, including steps to reduce the number of excess deaths over the winter period.

Mr Llwyd: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office which of his Department’s human resources procedures were followed in the selection of the (a) secretary and [26899] (b) press secretary to the Iraq Inquiry.

Deaths: Winter

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Mr Hurd: The roles were filled by applying the managed move policy in accordance with the Cabinet Office human resources procedures.

Written Answers

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BIG Fund, to develop arrangements for monitoring the outcomes achieved by successful applicants. The Transition Fund was launched on 30 November and is open for applications until 21 January 2011.

National Citizen Service Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office on what dates Ministers in the Cabinet Office have met Lord Wei to discuss the [27274] National Citizen Service. Mr Hurd: Ministers in the Cabinet Office meet with Lord Wei frequently to discuss many subjects in his capacity as Government adviser on Big Society, including National Citizen Service (NCS). Information relating to internal discussions and advice is not normally disclosed. Alex Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what plans he has for the role of the National Citizen Service in providing public services; and what plans he has to monitor and assess the service’s performance [27299] in that role. Mr Hurd: National Citizen Service (NCS) is a scheme to help young people to serve their communities and to develop personally. It is not envisaged that NCS will be used to provide public services, although as part of their summer NCS experience there may be opportunities for young people to volunteer with, and learn more about, public service providers in their area. An independent evaluation will be conducted to assess the impact of National Citizen Service during the pilot phase. Roberta Blackman-Woods: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what procurement process his Department undertook for the pilots of the National [27450] Citizen Service. Mr Hurd: Cabinet Office conducted a fully open and competitive process to select the providers of 2011 National Citizen Service (NCS) pilots. This involved a public invitation of expressions of interest from any organisation or group of organisations interested in running NCS pilots in 2011, followed by the invitation of full proposals from organisations and consortiums shortlisted at the expression of interest stage. Third Sector: Finance Alex Cunningham: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what steps his Department plans to take to monitor the effectiveness of the transition fund for charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises. [27302]

Mr Hurd: The Transition Fund is a significant fund that will provide much needed and immediate support for charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises to help them take on an even bigger role in this country in the medium to long term. Our key aim is to make this support available quickly, so that organisations can make the necessary changes to make the transition to a tighter funding environment and take advantage of the opportunities presented by the Big Society. The Office for Civil Society has worked with the fund manager,

Lindsay Roy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the potential contribution to the Big Society initiative of proposed changes in his Department’s funding of community groups and charities. [27445] Mr Hurd: Civil Society cannot be immune from the need to reduce the deficit, but the allocation of around £470 million to the Office for Civil Society within the Cabinet Office budget shows our support in very tight circumstances. Charities, communities and social enterprises have a tremendous role to play in building the Big Society, through their ability to galvanise community action, provide better public services and represent and empower communities. We will use our settlement to support them in this work, making it easier to set up and run a charity or social enterprise, and easier for such organisations to access finance and work with the state. While Big Society opens up many opportunities for the sector, we recognise however that the sector is exposed during the transitional period leading up to them, and so the spending review settlement therefore includes a £100 million transition fund for the sector in England. Funding for Charities and community Groups outside England is largely a matter for devolved administrations. Lindsay Roy: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what assessment he has made of the likely effects on (a) community groups and (b) charities of changes to their funding as a result of the outcome of the [27451] Comprehensive Spending Review. Mr Hurd: It is currently too early to evaluate the impact of the comprehensive spending review on (a) community groups and (b) charities. However the Cabinet Office has worked with partners in the sector, across Government and the Third Sector Research Centre to examine the exposure of the sector to public spending reductions and to mitigate potential impacts. The Big Society presents a great opportunity for voluntary and community groups, as we open up public services and devolve power; and the Government are therefore committed to supporting the sector through this transitional period. This includes: a £100 million Transition Fund to help organisations with shortfalls in the short-term; publishing evidence and best practice to support government at all levels to make cuts wisely and in partnership with the sector; and, setting out policy measures to open up new sources of funding and help the sector maximise new opportunities in the strategy document ‘Building a Stronger Civil Society’. Funding for charities and community groups outside England is largely a matter for devolved Administrations. Written Questions: Government Responses Mr Amess: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office (1) if he will make it his policy that guidance on answering round robin questions produced by his

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Department in respect of questions tabled in (a) the House of Lords and (b) House of Commons is circulated to departments within three days of the question being tabled; and if he will make a statement; [26648]

(2) what recent estimate he has made of the number of questions to Government tabled in the House of Lords that remain unanswered after 10 working days as a result of the timing of circulation of guidance on answering round robins; what recent representations he has received from Cabinet colleagues about the issue; [26649] and if he will make a statement. Mr Maude: All Ministers are responsible and accountable for the answers given to parliamentary questions within specified deadlines. In the case of questions that are deemed to be “round robin”, The Guide to Parliamentary Work, published by the Leader of the House of Commons

Total East of England

76,900

40,634

0

4,616

1,969

1

1,434

1,020

2



277

3 or more

East Midlands

states that Departments should not delay preparing an answer until “round robin” advice is provided, and should not miss the target deadlines for this reason.



98

Total

6,383

3,364

0

3,898

1,485

1

1,021

660

2



164

3 or more



57

5,121

2,366

10,691 4,556

6,505 3,662

2



1,103

3 or more



462

16,555

11,732

2,490 630

883 415

2



102

3 or more



28

Total

3,230

1,428

0 1

8,070 2,467

3,078 1,530

Total London

HEALTH Answers received for publication on Monday 29 November 2010.

0 1

Total North East

Abortion Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many women aged (a) 18 to 24 years and (b) 25 to 30 years in each strategic health authority area who had had (i) one, (ii) two, (iii) three, (iv) four, (v) five, (vi) six, (vii) seven, (viii) eight, (ix) nine and (x) 10 or more [26652] previous abortions had an abortion in 2009. Anne Milton: Information on previous abortions by age group and strategic health authority in 2009 is shown in the following table. The data have been provided for age groups 25 to 29 years for consistency with data published in the Department’s statistical bulletin. Information on previous abortions is extracted from the HSA4 abortion notification forms submitted to the chief medical officer (CMO). These data show the total number of abortions notified to CMO and not data for individual women as more than one form may be received for a woman in a calendar year. Abortions by age group, strategic health authority and number of previous abortions, residents of England and Wales, 2009 Age group Strategic Number of health previous authority abortions 18-24 25-29

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Abortions by age group, strategic health authority and number of previous abortions, residents of England and Wales, 2009 Age group Strategic Number of health previous authority abortions 18-24 25-29

www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/government-business/ parliamentary-business.aspx

England and Wales

Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

North West

0 1

2



353

3 or more



108

11,016

5,069

3,190 993

1,392 631

2



176

3 or more



53

Total

4,402

2,252

0 1

3,671 1,212

1,429 865

2



219

Total South Central

South East

0 1

3 or more



81

Total

5,172

2,594

4,209 1,096

1,520 702

0

55,086

23,817

1

17,746

12,392

2



3,262

0 1

3



828

2



144

3 or more



44

5,520

2,410

4



242

5



70

6 or more





South West

Total

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Abortions by age group, strategic health authority and number of previous abortions, residents of England and Wales, 2009 Age group Strategic Number of health previous authority abortions 18-24 25-29 West Midlands

Yorkshire and the Humber

Wales

0

6,028

2,361

1

2,044

1,303

2



354

3 or more



95

Total

8,546

4,113

0

5,295

1

(c) Princess Royal Hospital, Farnborough in each of the last five years. [26266] Mr Simon Burns: This information is not collected in the format requested. The information that is available is shown in the following table. Attendances at accident and emergency departments, 2005-06 to 2009-10 First attendances 2006-07

2007-08

2008-09

2009-10

Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust

82,418

86,132

84,202

84,162



Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust

98,280

98,798

99,534

98,224



2,045

Queen Mary’s Sidcup NHS Trust

71,241

71,802

74,060

80,273









274,634

1,065

2



258

South London Healthcare NHS Trust



1,527

3 or more



95

Total

7,101

3,463

0 1

2,928 766

1,150 539

2



112

3 or more



42

3,854

1,843

‘—’ = Suppressed value less than 10 (between 0 and 9) or where a presented total would reveal a suppressed value when used with previously published tables. This is in line with Office for National Statistics guidance for the release of abortion statistics 2005.

Abortion: Marriage Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of women who had an abortion in 2009 were married at the time of the abortion; what the modal (a) age of the women, (b) length gestation of the pregnancy, (c) number of previous children born to the women and (d) number of previous abortions undergone by the women was; and what the most common legal grounds was under which such abortions [26413] were performed. Anne Milton: The information requested can be found in the following table. Most likely1 conditions for married women2 having abortions in 2009, residents of England and Wales Total abortions to married women 3

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2005-06

Total

England and Wales

Written Answers

26,971

Age

Gestation weeks

Number of previous children

29

7

2

Number of previous abortions Ground 0

C

1

Statistical mode (highest frequency). Includes civil partnership. 3 15% of total abortions. Note: Ground C: that the pregnancy has not exceeded its twenty-fourth week and that the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk: greater than if the pregnancy were terminated, of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman. 2

Org name

Notes: 1. Data is provided by NHS Trust. 2. Data provided are first attendances at the trusts A&E departments. Source: Department of Health form Quarterly Monitoring of Accident and Emergency

Barnet General Hospital: Private Finance Initiative Mike Freer: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the running costs of Barnet General Hospital was paid to the private finance initiative provider in each year from 2005 to 2009; and if he will estimate the proportion to be paid to the private finance initiative provider in (a) 2010 and (b) [26643] 2011. Mr Simon Burns: The information is not available in the format requested. However, data for net operating expenses for Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals National Health Service Trust in respect of its private finance initiative (PFI) scheme are set out in the following table. Data are not held centrally for 2010-11 or 2011-12. Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust: Proportion of total operating expenses relating to PFI Percentage of total revenue expenditure relating to PFI 2005-06 5.5 2006-07 4.8 2007-08 4.0 2008-09 3.6 2009-10 3.3 Notes: 1. The source of the data is the audited summarisation schedules of the trust for 2005-06 to 2009-10. 2. The percentages provided represent the net operating expenses in respect of PFI schemes as a proportion of total operating expenses. 3. 2005-06 to 2008-09 figures compiled under UK generally accepted accounting practice. 4. 2009-10 accounts were compiled under international finance reporting standards.

Basophobia: NHS

Accident and Emergency Departments Mr Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people were treated in the accident and emergency department in (a) Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup (b) Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Woolwich and

Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what treatments for basophobia are available on the NHS; whether he expects new treatments to be available in the next two years; and if he will make a statement; [26493]

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(2) what steps his Department has taken to increase the standard of healthcare for people diagnosed with basophobia since 1990; and if he will make a [26494] statement; (3) whether he has made an estimate of the number of (a) men and (b) women in each age group in each health authority area who were diagnosed with basophobia [26495] in each of the last three years; (4) whether his Department has commissioned research into (a) basophobia and (b) conditions related to basophobia in the last three years; and if he will make a [26496] statement; (5) whether his Department has commissioned research into the (a) causes and (b) prevention of basophobia [26497] since 1990; and if he will make a statement. Paul Burstow: Basophobia, a fear of falling, is one of a large number of specific phobias that generally respond well to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) although it is important that physical health issues that might make someone more likely to fall, such as low blood pressure, are checked out before psychological treatment is started. CBT is now increasingly available on the national health service as a result of the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme which began in 2008 and is about half-way through its nationwide roll-out. The Chancellor announced further funding in the spending review to complete this roll-out by 2014-15. These local psychological therapies services, which are delivered in primary care, are ideal for patients with specific phobias like basophobia because of the ease with which therapists can link with the patient’s general practitioner. With regard to research into the condition, the usual practice of the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics: research proposals in all areas compete for the funding available. British Medical Association: Competition Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received from the (a) British Medical Association, (b) Royal College of Nursing and (c) Royal Colleges on competition in the provision [26533] of health services. Mr Simon Burns: The Department received over 6000 responses to the White Paper consultation and these are being considered carefully. The Government’s response will be published in due course. The British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing and other Royal Colleges responded to Government’s consultation document: “Liberating the NHS: Regulating healthcare providers”. A copy of the consultation document has already been placed in the Library. Details of their responses to consultation can be found at: British Medical Association: www.bma.org.uk/healthcare_policy/nhs_white_paper/ consultationpaperswp.jsp

Royal College of General Practitioners: www.rcgp.org.uk/policy/liberating_the_nhs.aspx

Royal College of Midwives:

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www.rcm.org.uk/college/policy-practice/consultations/pastconsultations/nhs-white-paper-consultations/

Royal College of Psychiatrists: www.rcpsych.ac.uk/policy/policyandparliamentary/projects/ live/whitepaper.aspx

Cancer: Waiting Lists Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the average waiting time to see a cancer specialist in each year of the [26526] comprehensive spending review period; (2) what the average waiting time to see a cancer specialist was in each primary care trust area in England in the latest period for which figures are available. [26527]

Paul Burstow: The Department has made no projections of performance for the all cancer two week wait and does not hold information on average waiting times for these services. In the most recent period for which statistics are available (Quarter 1 2010-11) 95.5% of patients urgently referred with suspected cancer by their general practitioner (GP) were seen within two weeks. Statistics on average waiting times for cancer services are not collected centrally. However, primary care trust (PCT) based performance statistics for the all cancer two week wait were published for the first time in September this year and can be found at the following link: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/ PublicationsStatistics/DH_119478

The most recent statistics available are for the year 2009-10 and show that between 1 April 2009 and 31 March 2010 94.9% of patients urgently referred by their GP with suspected cancer were first seen by a specialist within two weeks. Information on the number of patients urgently referred by their GP with suspected cancer who were first seen by a specialist within two weeks, broken down by PCT in England, has been placed in the Library. Cataracts: Surgery Mike Weatherley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to widen choice for patients undergoing cataract surgery in the NHS; and if [26281] he will make a statement. Mr Simon Burns: We are committed to extending choice for all national health service patients and service users, including those who are referred for elective care such as cataract treatment. We are currently consulting on proposals for giving patients and service users greater choice and control over their care and we will publish our response along with more detailed policy proposals early next year. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department made an estimate of the effect on the number of (a) emergency hospital admissions and (b) inpatient bed days of increasing the rate of early diagnosis for chronic obstructive pulmonary [26125] disease.

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Mr Simon Burns: The consultation on a strategy for services for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, published earlier this year, included publication of an impact assessment which included estimates of the impact of the strategy as a whole on the numbers and costs of emergency hospital admissions. No explicit estimates were made relating to in-patient bed days, or to the specific impact of improving the rate of early diagnosis of the disease. The consultation documents have already been placed in the Library, and can be found on the Department’s website at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/ en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_112977

Nick Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the stage of disease at which chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is most frequently diagnosed; and whether his Department holds information for benchmarking purposes on the diagnosis of that disease in other EU member states. [26128]

Mr Simon Burns: The information the Department holds on the stage at which chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is diagnosed was published as part of the Department’s consultation on a strategy for services for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in England and is included in the consultation impact assessment. The consultation documents have already been placed in the Library and can be found on the Department’s website at: http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/www.dh.gov.uk/ en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/DH_112977

The Department does not hold information for benchmarking purposes on the stage of diagnosis in other European Union member states. Clostridium Difficile Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what penalties may be imposed on NHS hospital trusts which fail to meet his Department’s targets for reducing [26395] the incidence of clostridium difficile. Mr Simon Burns: Poor performance in relation to Clostridium difficile is covered within the NHS Standard Contracts that commissioners are expected to use for NHS funded services as a basis for setting out their expectations in terms of performance by their providers. It falls into the Nationally Specified Events aspect of the contract, which introduces a sliding scale of deductions of up to 2% of the annual contract value if the provider breaches the number of cases of Clostridium difficile infections in a contract year compared with the previous year’s performance. The primary care trust is required to make the year-end deduction under the provisions of the relevant clause within the contract. Clostridium Difficile: Screening Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to increase the proportion of patients screened for the early detection of clostridium [26394] difficile. Mr Simon Burns: For patients who develop diarrhoea, existing guidance, ‘Clostridium difficile infection: How

Written Answers

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to deal with the problem’, published by the Department and the Health Protection Agency, makes clear prompt testing is crucial. A copy has been placed in the Library. Expert advice is that screening of patients without symptoms for Clostridium difficile infection is unnecessary, as current evidence indicates that it is not clinically effective. Day Care: Greater London Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has made an estimate of the likely change in the number of (a) daycare centres and (b) residential homes in (i) West Ham constituency and (ii) Newham in the next 12 months. [26485] Mr Simon Burns: Care homes are operated by local councils or independent—private and charitable/ voluntary—organisations. Day care is not a regulated service; councils are free to take their own decisions on its provision. It is for local councils to ensure, through their planning and commissioning of all social care services, that there is sufficient capacity to meet local need. Therefore no such estimate has been made by the Department. In recognition of the pressures on the social care system in a challenging fiscal climate, the Government have allocated an additional £2 billion by 2014-15 to support the delivery of social care. This means, with an ambitious programme of efficiency, that there is enough funding available both to protect people’s access to services and deliver new approaches to improve quality and outcomes. Dental Services: Yorkshire and Humber Jason McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of NHS dental service centres available in Yorkshire and the Humber; and what steps he is taking to improve provision for emergency treatment. [26547] Mr Simon Burns: It is for primary care trusts to decide how local services, including dental access centres and urgent care, should develop to meet local needs and service priorities. Departmental Grants Anas Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the monetary value of grants awarded by his Department was in 2009-10; and how much he expects to award in grants in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12; [27261]

(2) what grants have been awarded by his Department in 2010-11 to date; what grants he plans to award in each of the next two years; what the monetary value is of each such grant; and to which organisations [27264] such grants are made. Paul Burstow: Information about grants awarded to voluntary organisations is routinely published on the Department’s website at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/ PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_118373

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Specific information about all of the Departments grant awards for 2009-10 and 2010-11 has been placed in the Library. In 2009-10 the total value of grants awarded to voluntary organisations was £104,942,584. In 2010-11 the total value of grants awarded to voluntary organisations was £109,843,051. The monetary value of the Department’s grants to third sector organisations in 2011-12 will not be agreed until primary care trust allocations have been decided. However, the Government are committed to ensuring that appropriate support is available to voluntary organisations to enable them to contribute to improving health and well-being, building strong and resilient communities as part of the Big Society. Departmental Postal Services Brandon Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department has taken to identify those of its services that could be provided through the [24931] Post Office network. Mr Simon Burns: “Securing the Post Office Network in the Digital Age” published on 9 November 2010 set out the Government’s policy for the Post Office and the provision of government services. The Department is currently consulting on an information revolution for health and social care. One of the key challenges will be to ensure that information can reach all sections of society. We want to hear from people as to how that can happen and very much welcome responses and ideas, including any views on how or whether making specific services available through Post Offices can play a role within that broader strategy. A copy of the consultation document, “Liberating the NHS: An Information Revolution” has already been placed in the Library and is available on the Department’s website at www.dh.gov.uk/en/Consultations/Liveconsultations/ DH_120080

Diabetes Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people have been diagnosed with diabetes through the NHS vascular screening programme; and what steps the NHS is taking to inform members of the [26918] public of their entitlement to screening. Paul Burstow: The primary purpose of the programme is risk assessment and risk management rather than diagnosis. However, the modelling undertaken by the Department indicates that, at full roll out, as well as preventing over 4,000 people a year developing diabetes, the programme will detect a significant amount of hitherto undiagnosed disease. Primary care trusts (PCTs) began phased implementation of the programme from April 2009 and it is for them to decide how to inform local eligible populations about it. Most PCTs have been inviting people individually and informing them of their entitlement to an NHS health check by letter of invitation. As they become more experienced in managing demand for the risk assessment element of the check and confident about their capacity to deliver the risk management, PCTs are increasingly running awareness campaigns.

Written Answers

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Disability: Children Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has for his Department’s funding of disabled children’s services (a) after March 2011 and (b) in Sunderland from 2010 to 2015; and if he will make a statement. [26376] Anne Milton: Primary care trust (PCT) revenue allocations are not broken down by policy or service area. Once allocated, it is for PCTs to commission the services they require to meet the health care needs of their local populations, taking account of both local and national priorities. PCTs have been informed of their revenue allocations up to 2010-11. Sunderland Teaching PCT received revenue allocations of £510 million in 2009-10 and £538 million in 2010-11. PCT revenue allocations post 2010-11 will be announced in December 2010. Freedom of Information Mr Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to the answers of 1 July 2008, Official Report, column 862W, and 1 September 2008, Official Report, column 1675W, on departmental freedom of information, if he will place in the Library a copy of the information provided on each topic in respect of which the request was (a) agreed to and answered in full and (b) agreed to and answered in part since November [26412] 2009; and if he will make a statement. Anne Milton: Copies of the information requested by my hon. Friend have been placed in the Library. General Practitioners Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which private health providers (a) he, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department have met to discuss the proposed GP consortia since 6 [26521] May 2010. Mr Simon Burns: There have been several meetings with private health providers specifically to discuss general practitioner (GP) consortiums and issues such as commissioning support for them. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and my noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State held a meeting with a group of companies who provide commissioning support to GP consortiums. The companies represented were UnitedHealth UK, Tribal UK, Humana Europe, Aetna UK and Ingenix. Departmental officials have met with The Practice, Aetna UK, Tribal, Dr Foster Intelligence, PPP-Axa Healthcare, NHS Shared Business Services, UnitedHealth UK, and GE Healthcare. Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the provisions of the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 will apply in respect of the transfer of staff from primary care [26524] trusts to GP consortia.

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Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

Mr Simon Burns: For those staff transferring from primary care trusts to general practitioner (GP) commissioning consortiums, transfers will be covered by either the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) and/or the Cabinet Office Staff Transfers in the Public Sector Statement of Practice which provides terms that are overall no less favourable than if TUPE was applied. Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) which reserve powers will be retained by his Department following the transfer of commissioning from primary [26525] care trusts to GP consortia; (2) what powers his Department will have to take action in respect of a GP consortium becoming financially unsustainable after the implementation of his proposals for practice-based commissioning. [26532] Mr Simon Burns: General practitioner (GP) commissioning consortia will be authorised and held to account by the NHS Commissioning Board. The NHS Commissioning Board will have powers to intervene in the event that a consortium is failing to manage their finances effectively or deliver acceptable outcomes for their patients. The Secretary of State for Health will remain accountable for the health service with powers to set the legislative framework within which the NHS Commissioning Board and GP consortia will operate but will not have powers to intervene in relation to individual consortia. Further details will be set out in the Government’s forthcoming response to the consultation on the White Paper “Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS”. Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the likely average amount of time per week GPs will allocate to running GP consortia as a result of his proposals to transfer commissioning from primary care trusts to GPs. [26531]

Mr Simon Burns: The Department has not made an estimate of the likely average amount of time per week general practitioners (GPs) will allocate to running GP consortia. A fundamental principle of the new commissioning arrangements will be that every GP practice will be a member of a consortium and contribute to its goals. However, our proposed model will mean that not all GPs have to be actively involved in every aspect of commissioning. Their predominant focus will continue to be on providing high quality primary care to their patients. It is likely to be a smaller group of primary care practitioners who will lead the consortium and play an active role in the clinical design of local services. Consortia are likely to carry out a number of commissioning activities themselves. In other cases, consortia may choose to act collectively, adopting a lead commissioner arrangement. They may also choose to buy in support from external organisations, including local authorities and private and voluntary sector bodies, which might include analytical activity to profile and stratify healthcare needs, support for procurement of services, and contract monitoring.

Written Answers

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Haemophilia Mr Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether the NHS took steps to advise haemophiliacs that plasma pool samples from factor VIII and IX products produced by the NHS for their use had been tested for pathogens; and if he will make a statement; [26354]

(2) whether he plans to release further information held by his Department on the potential pathogenic side effects on haemophiliacs of factor VIII and IX products produced by the NHS for their use; and if he [26411] will make a statement. Anne Milton: It was and still is the responsibility of individual clinicians to advise their patients of the risks associated with their treatment. In addition, knowledge of both HIV and hepatitis C emerged gradually, over a period of time in the late 1970s and early 1980s. All of the relevant Government papers that are available from the period before 1985, when heat treatment for such products was introduced, are on the Department’s website at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/FreedomOfInformation/ Freedomofinformationpublicationschemefeedback/ FOIreleases/DH_076693

Given the level of public interest in this matter, the Government are ready to release any more relevant documents should any come to light. Help is at Hand Mrs Moon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of copies of his Department’s leaflet entitled Help is at Hand distributed by (a) primary care trusts, (b) police forces and (c) local authorities in each of the last four years; [26842] and if he will make a statement; (2) what steps he has taken to ensure that his Department’s publication Help is at Hand is received by those whom it is intended to assist; and if he will [26850] make a statement. Paul Burstow: Help is at Hand is a resource pack to support people bereaved by suicide or other sudden or traumatic deaths, which was launched in 2006. We have not collected data in the format requested by the hon. Member. However, data provided by the Department’s publications orderline, PROLOG, were analysed to show the number of copies of each edition of the resource pack supplied to public institutions and private individuals between 12 September 2006 and 31 December 2009. The total number of packs distributed over this time period was 44,765. To ensure effective promotion and dissemination of this bereavement pack we undertook a full and comprehensive evaluation of this resource. This evaluation is now complete and will be published before the end of December. Once we have published this evaluation we will consider how best to ensure it is available to all of those who need it. Support for those bereaved by suicide is a priority for the new suicide prevention strategy currently being developed and due for publication in the new year.

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Hemofil T: Clinical Trials Alun Michael: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 23 November 2010, Official Report, column 251W, on Hemofil T: clinical trials, what consideration his Department has given to obtaining information on the proportion of patients on the Hemofil T trial that were mild, moderate or severe haemophiliacs; and what assessment he has made of the levels of interest in the issue among (a) the public and (b) hon. Members and Members of the House of [27280] Lords. Mr Simon Burns: The Department and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency do not hold records of the Hemofil T trial and have not received previous correspondence regarding this specific trial from either the public or Members of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. Hereditary Diseases Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 8 November 2010, Official Report, column 147W, on hereditary diseases, whether his Department collects information on genetic conditions causing increased morbidity and mortality in children born to first cousin parents. [26003]

Anne Milton: As stated in my previous answer, 8 November 2010, Official Report, column 147W, the Department of Health does not routinely collect this specific type of information centrally. The Department recognises the value of adequate surveillance of congenital anomalies in order to detect any unforeseen increase of genetic defects due to this or any other causes. Surveillance helps develop local services specifically designed to deal with consanguineous relationships. This includes initiatives delivered through regional NHS genetic counselling services that work to raise awareness of the risks associated with cousin marriage. Most couples in consanguineous relationships will have healthy children. Overall the risk of a couple having a child with a severe genetic condition is still relatively small, estimated at 4% for cousin marriages compared to 2% for unrelated parents. Hereford County Hospital: Private Finance Initiative Jesse Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proportion of the total running costs for Hereford county hospital (a) was paid to the private finance initiative provider in each year from 2005-09 and (b) is projected to be so paid in (i) 2011 and (ii) [26280] 2011. Mr Simon Burns: The information is not available in the format requested. However, data for the proportion of total revenue expenditure by Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust in respect of its private finance initiative (PFI) scheme is set out in the following table. Data is not held centrally for 2010-11 or 2011-12.

Written Answers

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Hereford Hospitals NHS Trust—Proportion of total revenue expenditure relating to PFI Percentage of total revenue expenditure relating to PFI 2005-06 13.3 2006-07 13.3 2007-08 13.3 2008-09 12.0 10.8 2009-101 1 2009-10 accounts were compiled under International Finance Reporting Standards under which PFI costs in the audited summarisation schedules of trusts are split between capital repayments and revenue expenditure elements, which does not make a precise like for like comparison with earlier years in this table possible. However, an estimate of the PFI unitary payment for 2009-10 is held centrally by the Department as well as the audited outturn revenue expenditure figure for the Trust for this year and the percentage figure for this year is calculated using these two figures Notes: 1. The source of the data is the audited summarisation schedules of the trust for 2005-06 to 2009-10. 2. The percentages provided represent the net revenue expenditure in respect of PFI schemes as a proportion of total revenue expenditure. 3. 2005-06 to 2008-09 figures compiled under UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Medical Schools Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many medical school places were available in 2009-10. [26544]

Anne Milton: The intake to medical schools in England in autumn 2009, was 6,453 students, as shown in the following table. Medical school intake in England—2009-10 academic year University/college Total intake of students University of Birmingham 428 University of Brighton 147 University of Bristol 268 University of Cambridge 306 University of Durham 98 University of East Anglia 169 University of Hull 160 Imperial College 309 Keele University 135 King’s College London 417 University of Leeds 280 University of Leicester 284 University of Liverpool 397 University of Manchester 406 University of Newcastle 259 University of Nottingham 348 University of Oxford 185 Peninsula School of Medicine 218 and Dentistry Queen Mary, University of 387 London St George’s Hospital Medical 274 School University of Sheffield 255 University of Southampton 252 University College London 285 University of Warwick 186 Total 6,453 Note: These figures are provisional until November/December 2010 when revised figures will be reported to HEFCE. Source: Higher Education Funding Council for England—November 2009

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Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

Medical Schools: Public Expenditure Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of medical school places that will be available in each year of the [26543] Comprehensive Spending Review period. Anne Milton: There are no current plans to change numbers but they will be kept under review based on forecast future demand with the advice of the Centre for Workforce Intelligence. Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus: Screening Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made towards meeting his Department’s 2011 deadline for the screening of [26390] non-elective patients for MRSA. Mr Simon Burns: As outlined in the “NHS Operating Framework 2010/11”, there is a requirement to introduce Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus screening. Good progress is being made by organisations to implement screening for this cohort of patients, with some organisations already having declared full implementation of the policy and all organisations planning to implement emergency screening for relevant emergency admissions within the expected time scale. Strategic health authorities will continue to monitor delivery towards the requirement by 31 December 2010.

Written Answers

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infection prevention and control practices. This guidance is available on the Department of Health’s “Clean, Safe Care” website. The Health and Social Care Act 2008 “Code of Practice for health and adult social care on the Prevention and Control of Infections and related guidance”, which the Care Quality Commission use as a basis for assessing compliance with the registration requirement on cleanliness and infection control has been a driver for improvement in the hospital setting. The scope of the Code has already been extended to adult social care settings and will include primary care in due course so that we can ensure that all settings where patients receive care and treatment operate comparable infection prevention and control practices. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Screening Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information his Department collates for the purpose of monitoring rates of MRSA. [26391] Mr Simon Burns: Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteraemia are subject to mandatory reporting to the Health Protection Agency. The Department uses the outputs from this system to assess and monitor rates of MRSA bacteraemia at both national and local levels.

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Multiple Sclerosis: Health Services

Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to reduce the [26392] incidence of MRSA.

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the membership is of the independent scientific advisory group of the multiple sclerosis risk-sharing [26893] scheme; (2) how many patients have taken part in the multiple sclerosis risk-sharing scheme; and what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of administering [26894] drug treatments under the scheme; (3) which organisation is responsible for monitoring outcomes for patients involved in the multiple sclerosis risk-sharing scheme; and when the results of the [26895] scheme will be published.

Mr Simon Burns: This Government are determined to do all they can to support the health and adult social care providers reduce Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). From the outset, through the Coalition Agreement, this Government made clear that they expected the national health service to adopt a zero tolerance approach to all health care associated infections (HCAIs), including MRSA. In the revision of the 2010-11 Operating Framework published in June, it was made clear that the NHS should continue prioritising the achievement of the MRSA objective. The successful implementation of this objective will deliver both an overall reduction nationally and, importantly, will reduce variation by moving all organisations towards the performance of the best. At the same time, the revision of the Operating Framework confirmed that it expected and required the NHS to implement MRSA screening of all relevant emergency admissions by the end of this year. [n terms of using the availability of data as a driver to supporting further reductions in MRSA, we have introduced weekly data publication of both MRSA blood stream infections and Clostridium difficile infections at hospital site level. We are also committed to ensuring that the NHS continue to have access to evidence based guidance in order that they can reduce the number of all HCAIs, including MRSA, through the implementation of effective

Mr Simon Burns: The scientific advisory group of the multiple sclerosis risk sharing scheme (MS RSS) comprises individuals with expertise in clinical research, epidemiology and trials and health economics. The group is chaired by Richard Lilford, Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Birmingham university and receives specialist advice from neurologists who specialise in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. The MS RSS collects data from a cohort of over 5,000 patients. There are an estimated 12,000 people receiving drug therapy in the United Kingdom through the scheme. Total national health service spend in England on the four drugs covered by the scheme is estimated at £50 million a year. The Department contributes £200,000 per year to running the scheme. Parexel Ltd, a specialist clinical research organisation, is responsible for data collection, management and analysis for the MS RSS. Analysis of four year data from the scheme is due to be completed in 2011.

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Muscular Dystrophy: Yorkshire and Humber Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will meet the Yorkshire and Humber Specialist Commissioning Group to discuss the proposed appointment of a muscular dystrophy care [27029] advisor for Hull. Paul Burstow: The appointment of a muscular dystrophy care adviser in Hull is a matter for the local national health service. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State currently has no plans to meet the Yorkshire and the Humber Specialised Commissioning Group to discuss this matter. NHS Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the likely ability of NHS foundation trusts to meet patient safety targets in [26393] each of the next three financial years. Mr Simon Burns: We are informed by the Chairman of Monitor (the statutory name of which is the Independent Regulator of NHS Foundation Trusts) that the safety of patients at NHS foundation trusts is assessed by a number of bodies, principally the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The CQC registers providers of regulated activities, including NHS foundation trusts and monitors their compliance with the essential safety and quality requirements. Where there is evidence of material safety concerns, CQC and Monitor will jointly consider the appropriate action. NHS: Armed Forces Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many armed forces reservists employed by the NHS have had requests for leave to undergo operational training refused by NHS trusts in the financial year [26534] 2010-11 to date. Mr Simon Burns: This information is not collected centrally. We do not centrally monitor the number of national health service (NHS) staff serving in the reserve forces. There is an option on the electronic staff record (ESR) to record reserve forces training as a reason for absence, however, entry of these data is not mandatory (although it is recommended as ESR best practice). Last year around 100 NHS organisations recorded reserve forces training as a reason for absence but we cannot be sure of a national figure or how many requests for this type of leave have been refused. NHS: Public Finance Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the budget deficit or surplus was for each NHS trust on the latest date for which figures are [26499] available. Mr Simon Burns: The latest figures available on the surplus or deficit positions for each national health service trust are the 2010-11 Quarter 1 forecasts, which were published on the Department’s website on 19 November 2010.

Written Answers

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These figures can be found by region in annexes 1 to 10 of David Flory’s, ‘The Quarter: quarter 1 2010-11’ at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/ PublicationsStatistics/DH_087335

and a copy has been placed in the Library. Nurses: Public Expenditure Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the number of nurses who will leave the NHS in each year of the Comprehensive [26537] Spending Review period; (2) what estimate he has made of the number of nurses to be recruited in each year of the Comprehensive [26540] Spending Review period. Anne Milton: The information requested is not collected by the Department The precise numbers of national health service nurses required over the next five years will not be known until the new organisations that will underpin the new system have been designed in more detail. The Department of Health has consulted on how the new organisations should be designed and is analysing responses. Information on how the new organisations should be designed will be announced in due course. The Government have fulfilled their commitment to give the NHS a real terms increase in funding each year. The demands on the service are rising and to meet these, the NHS must make up to £20 billion of efficiency savings by 2014, by reducing bureaucracy and doing things differently. Savings will be reinvested to support the delivery of quality health care. Social Services: Elderly Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what estimate he has made of the likely percentage reduction in funding for social care for older people in Newcastle upon Tyne as a result of the comprehensive spending review; and if he will make a [26950] statement; (2) what assessment he has made of the likely effect of the outcome of the comprehensive spending review on the quality of social care services provided for older people in Newcastle upon Tyne; and if he will make a [26952] statement. Paul Burstow: The spending review recognised the importance of social care to hundreds of thousands of adults of all ages, backgrounds and identities: supporting their independence and helping them to make full and active contributions to their communities. In recognition of the pressures on the social care system in a challenging local government settlement, the coalition Government have allocated an additional £2 billion by 2014-15 to support the delivery of social care. We have achieved this by: The national health service transferring some funding from the health capital budget to health revenue, to be spent on measures that support social care, which also benefits health. This funding will rise to £1 billion in 2014-15, and will promote improved joint working between the health and social care systems. Further details will be set out in the NHS Operating Framework 2011-12.

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1 DECEMBER 2010

Additional grant funding, rising to £1 billion by 2014-15, will be made available for social care. This funding will be allocated in addition to the Department’s existing social care grants, which will rise in line with inflation. Total grant funding from the Department for social care will reach £2.4 billion by 2014-15. In order to support local flexibility and to reduce administrative burdens, this funding will go to authorities through the revenue support grant.

This means that, with an ambitious programme of efficiency, there is enough funding available both to protect people’s access to care and deliver new approaches to improve quality and outcomes. A key priority for the Government is a radical devolution of power away from central Government, freeing local government from central control and empowering local people to take an active role in services. Decisions on spending at a local level must be considered in the context of local priorities, which are crafted by local authorities in response to the needs and wishes of the people they serve. Spending on social care will therefore be a decision for the relevant local authority, and it is not possible to provide a central estimate. South London Healthcare NHS Trust Mr Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent assessment he has made of the financial performance of South London Healthcare NHS Trust. [26268]

Mr Simon Burns: The Department has identified six trusts as financially challenged, including South London Healthcare NHS Trust. The Department will continue to work with London strategic health authority to ensure that, during 2010-11, South London Healthcare NHS Trust has plans in place to return to financial balance, whilst at the same time maintaining and improving services to patients. Surgery: Waiting Lists Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the average waiting time for elective surgery by the end of the comprehensive [26528] spending review period. Mr Simon Burns: Clinical priority will remain the main determinant of when patients should be treated. Patients should not experience undue delay at any stage of their treatment and would not expect a return to long waiting times for operations. The national health service (NHS) will be accountable locally to the public it serves and provide information to patients which will drive choice and competition in the NHS.

Written Answers

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Number of tuberculosis cases reported in the London borough of Bexley, 2007-09 Number of cases 2007 2008 2009 Source: Health Protection Agency

27 23 17

University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Mark Pawsey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what his estimate is of the proportion of the running costs of University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (a) which was paid to the private finance initiative provider in each year from 2005-06 to 2009-10 and (b) will be paid to that provider in 2010-11 and [26153] 2011-12. Mr Simon Burns: The information is not available in the format requested. However, data for the proportion of total revenue expenditure by University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in respect of its private finance initiative (PFI) scheme, is set out in the following table. Figures for 2005-06 and 2006-07 are not comparable with later years as the PFI hospital did not fully open until part way through 2006-07. Data are not held centrally for 2010-11 or 2011-12. University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust— proportion of total revenue expenditure relating to PFI Percentage of total revenue expenditure relating to PFI 2005-06 4.3 2006-07 12.7 2007-08 14.6 2008-09 14.6 2009-101 14.3 1 2009-10 accounts were compiled under International Finance Reporting Standards under which PFI costs in the audited summarisation schedules of trusts are split between capital repayments and revenue expenditure elements, which does not make a precise like for like comparison with earlier years in this table possible. However, an estimate of the PFI unitary payment for 2009-10 is held centrally by the Department as well as the audited outturn revenue expenditure figure for the trust for this year and the percentage figure for this year is calculated using these two figures. Notes: 1. The source of the data is the audited summarisation schedules of the trust for 2005-06 to 2009-10. 2. The percentages provided represent the net revenue expenditure in respect of PFI schemes as a proportion of total revenue expenditure. 3. 2005-06 to 2008-09 figures compiled under UK Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.

Tuberculosis: Greater London

Young People: Autism

Mr Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of tuberculosis have been diagnosed in the London Borough of Bexley in each of the last three [26267] years.

Jessica Lee: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department issues guidance on referring young people with autism who receive support from child and adolescent mental health services and do not fulfil the criteria for adult mental health teams to appropriate support from other services on reaching [26443] adulthood.

Anne Milton: The information requested is shown in the following table.

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1 DECEMBER 2010

Paul Burstow: The Autism Act 2009 requires that the Government produce statutory guidance for health and social care bodies to support delivery of the autism strategy. The strategy highlights the need to improve transition planning to give people with autism the right start as adults and the guidance will include advice on the transition from child to adult services. I will launch this guidance at a meeting hosted by the National Autistic Society on 17 December 2010. Answers received for publication on Wednesday 1 December 2010. Cancer: Drugs Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department has allocated to each strategic health authority from the NHS funding for cancer [27395] drugs announced on 10 November 2010. Paul Burstow: With regard to the additional funding for national health service cancer drugs in 2010-11, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Ealing, Southall (Mr Sharma) on 26 October 2010, Official Report, column 297W. We are currently consulting on our proposals for the Cancer Drugs Fund to be introduced from April 2011, including on the most appropriate allocation of the £200 million per annum funding.

Mr Evennett: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) hospital and (b) home births took place in the London borough of Bexley in each of the last [26269] five years. Mr Hurd: I have been asked to reply. The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply. Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated November 2010: As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many (a) hospital and (b) home births took place in the London Borough of Bexley in each of the last five years. (26269) The table below shows the numbers of live births occurring to mothers usually resident in the London Borough of Bexley in each year 2005 to 2009. These are presented by place of birth: NHS hospital, at home or other. 2009

2008

2007

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Departmental Sponsorship Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what expenditure (a) his Department and (b) its nondepartmental public bodies incurred on sponsorship in each year since 1997 for which figures are available. [27515]

Paul Burstow: The Department does not account for sponsorship separately within its accounting system. It would take disproportionate time and incur a disproportionate cost to collect the information requested. The Department does not collect sponsorship information from its non-departmental public bodies and this would also take a disproportionate time to commission the request. Football: South Africa Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much his Department spent on entertainment activities related to the 2010 FIFA World cup. [27361] Mr Simon Burns: The Department has not funded entertainment related to the activities of the 2010 FIFA World cup. General Practitioners Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether GP consortia commissioning healthcare services by tender will be able to accept tenders from other NHS organisations; and if he will make a statement.

Child Birth: Greater London

Place of birth

Written Answers

2006

2005

NHS hospital 2,977 2,894 2,882 2,707 2,635 At home 46 74 61 73 43 Other1 6 7 4 8 8 Total live births 3,029 2,975 2,947 2,788 2,686 1 ‘Other’ live births include those taking place in non-NHS establishments such as private maternity units, military hospitals, and private hospitals. They also include births occurring ‘elsewhere’, for example in private residences that are not the mother’s own, or those occurring on the way to the hospital.

[27093]

Paul Burstow: It is essential that general practitioner (GP) consortia have the freedom to make commissioning decisions that they judge will achieve the best outcomes within the financial resources available to them. At the same time, the economic regulator and NHS Commissioning Board will need to develop and maintain a framework that ensures transparency, fairness and patient choice. We propose that, wherever possible, services should be commissioned that enable patients to choose from any willing provider. The NHS Commissioning Board will be responsible for providing a framework to support GP consortia in commissioning services. This will include setting standards for the quality of NHS commissioning and procurement. Health Services Mr Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the proposals in respect of commissioning of health services in the Health White Paper will lead to (a) podiatry and (b) similar services being commissioned [27158] as single services. Paul Burstow: The White Paper ‘Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS’ set out our proposals to devolve power and responsibility for commissioning services to local consortiums of general practitioner (GP) practices.

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GP consortiums will be responsible for commissioning the great majority of national health service services. We will expect consortiums to involve relevant health and social care professionals from all sectors in helping design care pathways or care packages that achieve more integrated delivery of care, higher quality, and more efficient use of NHS resources. This will create an effective dialogue across all health, and where appropriate, social care, professionals. To support GP consortiums in their commissioning decisions, we will also create an independent NHS Commissioning Board. ‘Liberating the NHS: Commissioning for Patients’ invited views on a number of areas of the commissioning agenda. The engagement exercise closed on 11 October and the Department is now analysing all of the contributions received. Health Services: Standards Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of patients spent (a) four hours or less and (b) more than four hours from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge at accident and emergency departments in each (i) month and (ii) [27637] quarter of (A) 2009 and (B) 2010 to date.

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Mr Simon Burns: The information is not available in the format requested. Such information as is available is in the table. Quarterly data on the number and proportion of patients who spend four hours or less from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge at accident and emergency (A&E) departments is available and published quarterly via the Department’s Quarterly Monitoring Accident and Emergency Services (QMAE) dataset. QMAE is the official source for monitoring performance against the four hour A&E waiting time standard. Monthly data on the number and proportion of patients who spend four hours or less from arrival to admission, transfer or discharge at A&E departments are only available monthly for August to October 2010 from situation report (SitRep) management data. These data do not undergo the same validation processes as official QMAE data. For the months prior to August 2010 SitRep data were collected on a weekly basis and monthly figures would be difficult to obtain from the weekly data as different months would contain different numbers of weeks, meaning a month on month comparison would be distorted.

A&E attendances and performance, England, calendar year, 2009 and 2010 by quarter, 2010, August, September, October All A&E/Minor Injuries Unit/Walk in Centre (Type 1, 2, 3) Attendances where patient Percentage of attendances spent: where patient spent: More than Four hours More than Four hours four hours in or less in four hours or less in A&E1,2 Calendar year Quarter Month OrgID Name A&E in A&E A&E1,2 QMAE data 2009 2009 2009 2009 2010 2010 2010

1 2 3 4 1 2 3

— — — — — — —

Eng Eng Eng Eng Eng Eng Eng

England England England England England England England

4,591,401 5,113,295 5,025,722 4,925,381 4,731,558 5,396,369 5,214,746

108,816 74,693 66,023 110,738 102,163 86,501 106,710

97.7 98.6 98.7 97.8 97.9 98.4 98.0

2.3 1.4 1.3 2.2 2.1 1.6 2.0

Monthly SitRep data 2010 — August Eng England 1,723,360 33,180 98.1 1.9 2010 — September Eng England 1,701,826 41,151 97.6 2.4 2010 — October Eng England 1,753,711 47,414 97.4 2.6 1 From Q1 2010-11 (calendar year 2010 Q2), the calculation of quarterly A&E performance on the QMAE has changed. Prior to 2010-11 the calculation has identified the proportion of breaches with respect to all A&E attendances, irrespective of whether the time spent in A&E was known. The new calculation shows the breaches as a proportion of total attendances for which the time spent in A&E is known. Any attendances for which the time spent in A&E is unknown are excluded from the total attendances for the purpose of the calculation. 2 The calculation of monthly A&E performance on the Monthly SitReps identifies the proportion of breaches with respect to all A&E attendances, irrespective of whether the time spent in A&E was known. Notes: Attendances with an unknown total time are not included in the quarterly QMAE data. Source: Department of Health dataset QMAE, Monthly SitReps

Liz Kendall: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many and what proportion of patients (a) received treatment within and (b) waited longer for treatment than 18-weeks after referral in each (i) month and (ii) quarter of (A) 2009 and (B) 2010 to date. [27638]

Mr Simon Burns: The information is shown in the following table:

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1 DECEMBER 2010

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Calendar year

Quarter

Referral to treatment (RTT) national statistics (England) Completed admitted adjusted RTT consultant-led pathways Number of patients Number of patients who started treatment who started treatment Month within 18-weeks after 18-weeks

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 1

January February March —

273,184 261,111 300,703 834,998

20,751 20,364 22,483 63,598

92.9 92.8 93.0 92.9

7.1 7.2 7.0 7.1

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 2

April May June —

267,357 263,030 299,763 830,150

19,295 17,634 20,350 57,279

93.3 93.7 93.6 93.5

6.7 6.3 6.4 6.5

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 3

July August September —

303,148 262,624 297,343 863,115

20,532 17,986 21,401 59,919

93.7 93.6 93.3 93.5

6.3 6.4 6.7 6.5

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 4

October November December —

299,077 294,662 260,308 854,047

22,478 22,918 18,811 64,207

93.0 92.8 93.3 93.0

7.0 7.2 6.7 7.0

2010 2010 2010 2010

— — — 1

January February March —

263,501 275,335 322,462 861,298

20,996 24,172 27,921 73,089

92.6 91.9 92.0 92.2

7.4 8.1 8.0 7.8

2010 2010 2010 2010

— — — 2

April May June —

265,895 270,648 300,549 837,092

22,774 20,662 22,440 65,876

92.1 92.9 93.1 92.7

7.9 7.1 6.9 7.3

2010 2010 2010 2010

— — — 3

July August September —

292,098 268,301 289,261 849,660

21,120 19,553 23,542 64,215

93.3 93.2 92.5 93.0

6.7 6.8 7.5 7.0

Completed non-admitted RTT consultant-led pathways Number of patients Number of patients who started treatment who started treatment within 18-weeks after 18-weeks

% of patients who started treatment within 18-weeks

% of patients who started treatment after 18-weeks

% of patients who started treatment within 18-weeks

% of patients who started treatment after 18-weeks

Calendar year

Quarter

Month

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 1

January February March —

811,077 739,427 873,636 2,424,140

22,252 20,390 23,407 66,049

97.3 97.3 97.4 97.3

2.7 2.7 2.6 2.7

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 2

April May June —

824,755 793,540 936,590 2,554,885

21,682 18,005 21,294 60,981

97.4 97.8 97.8 97.7

2.6 2.2 2.2 2.3

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 3

July August September —

928,721 785,914 913,825 2,628,460

21,549 18,393 22,784 62,726

97.7 97.7 97.6 97.7

2.3 2.3 2.4 2.3

2009 2009 2009 2009

— — — 4

October November December —

893,394 887,612 792,428 2,573,434

21,233 20,488 17,221 58,942

97.7 97.7 97.9 97.8

2.3 2.3 2.1 2.2

911W

Written Answers

912W

Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

Completed non-admitted RTT consultant-led pathways Number of patients Number of patients who started treatment who started treatment within 18-weeks after 18-weeks

% of patients who started treatment within 18-weeks

% of patients who started treatment after 18-weeks

Calendar year

Quarter

Month

2010 2010 2010 2010

— — — 1

January February March —

794,900 827,198 955,792 2,577,890

18,346 18,559 21,050 57,955

97.7 97.8 97.8 97.8

2.3 2.2 2.2 2.2

2010 2010 2010 2010

— — — 2

April May June —

822,550 842,612 942,117 2,607,279

17,662 15,557 17,252 50,471

97.9 98.2 98.2 98.1

2.1 1.8 1.8 1.9

18,036 17,278 20,583 55,897

98.1 98.0 97.8 98.0

1.9 2.0 2.2 2.0

2010 — July 921,418 2010 — August 859,515 2010 — September 927,225 2010 3 — 2,708,158 Note: The quarterly figures are calculated from an aggregation of the monthly data. Source: Department of Health RTT waiting times.

Health Services: Weather Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) whether any NHS trusts have reported issues related to (a) capacity of critical care services and (b) bed availability under his Department’s winter reporting [27349] arrangements since 2 November 2010; (2) whether he has received any reports of problems in patient handover between ambulance and acute services under his Department’s winter reporting [27350] arrangements during November 2010; (3) whether any (a) daily situation reports and (b) NHS trusts have identified services operation problems under his Department’s winter reporting arrangements [27351] since 2 November 2010. Mr Simon Burns: It is for individual local health areas, working with their strategic health authorities (SHAs), to ensure that appropriate services are available for their patients during winter. Where operational issues are identified through daily winter reporting, the Department works closely with SHAs to ensure local winter plans are escalated to mitigate operational risks. There will, on occasion, be peak demands on services in certain places. This can mean temporary measures are necessary, but these are kept to an absolute minimum and patient safety and quality of care are always paramount.

that is in place which incentivises high quality care; National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidance on hip fracture care and the focus on outcomes within the national health service. Insulin Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans his Department has for the future provision of testing strips for insulin users. [27100] Paul Burstow: Prescribing decisions about blood testing strips are for local determination. It is for the local national health service to ensure that they are commissioning for a comprehensive diabetes service that includes patient education as well as access to blood testing strips. In 2002, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence issued clinical guidelines on ‘Management of Type 2 Diabetes—Management of Blood Glucose’. The guidelines include advice on the self-monitoring of blood glucose, and state that self-monitoring can have benefits, but it should be carried out as part of an integrated self-care package and if the purpose is clear and agreed with the patient. People with non-insulin-treated Type 2 diabetes, who believe it to be beneficial, and have clearly defined goals and objectives, should be encouraged to continue to monitor. Local Involvement Networks: Finance

Hip Fractures: Older People Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to reduce the variation in number of older people with hip fractures between [27455] different local authority areas. Paul Burstow: There is a significant programme of work in development to address variation. This Government intended the commissioning toolkit to support organisations’ establishment of effective falls and fracture prevention and management, the best practice tariff

Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what arrangements he plans to put in place to ensure continuity of funding to local authorities for Local Involvement Networks prior to the establishment of local HealthWatch organisations; and if he will make a [28201] statement. Mr Simon Burns: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Bristol East (Kerry McCarthy) on 18 November, Official Report, columns 957-958W.

913W

Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

NHS Commissioning Board Graham Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the NHS Commissioning Board will commission salaried primary dental care services. [27167]

Mr Simon Burns: Yes, that is our intention. The White Paper “Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS” proposed that the NHS Commissioning Board would commission primary care dental services. NHS Foundation Trusts Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he plans to take to ensure that NHS trusts continue to provide equal access for all patients upon becoming foundation trusts; and if he [27094] will make a statement. Mr Simon Burns: Each primary care trust (PCT) needs to ensure equality of access to national health service services through the providers it contracts with, including NHS foundation trusts (NHSFTs). Through contracting with a plurality of health service providers, PCTs should be able to secure improved access for the patients they serve. In the future, general practitioner consortia will commission the services that patients receive, helping them to navigate the system and ensure they get the best care. The general right to access NHS services will remain unchanged as NHS Trusts become authorised to operate as NHSFTs. NHS Litigation Authority Mr Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the NHS Litigation Authority will provide insurance cover for private providers of NHS services after the implementation of the proposals in the NHS [27160] White Paper. Mr Simon Burns: The NHS Litigation Authority does not currently provide insurance cover, but provides a discretionary indemnity to members of the statutory schemes established under section 71 of the National Health Service Act 2006. Membership of the schemes is voluntary. The Department is committed to making sure the same arrangements that provide clinical negligence cover to NHS bodies are also available to other providers that deliver NHS care, including other public sector providers and private providers. Changes will be implemented alongside the White Paper reforms.

Written Answers

914W

hold a contract with those general practitioner practices who have chosen to enter into an arrangement with a PCT to provide this service. Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will fund a national programme of audits of falls and bone health in primary care. [27186] Paul Burstow: We already fund a national clinical audit of falls and bone health, delivered by the Royal College of Physicians. The audit measures the organisation of services and care provided to older people for falls prevention, bone health and fracture management. It provides national benchmarking data, using evidence based quality standards, for a variety of healthcare settings: acute, primary care, care homes and mental health care. Strokes: Health Education Derek Twigg: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) when he plans to release the remaining tranche of [27168] funding for the Act F.A.S.T. campaign; (2) what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of his Department’s Act F.A.S.T. campaign [27169] in raising stroke awareness. Mr Simon Burns: Approval has been received recently from the Cabinet Office Efficiency and Reform Group for a further wave of the Act FAST Stroke awareness campaign to go ahead. The current intention is for the television adverts to run in March 2011, supported by distribution of other materials locally. The evaluation we commissioned from the advertising agency which was awarded the contract for developing the stroke awareness campaign, showed that the campaign successfully achieved a rapid change in behaviour: within a year, an estimated 9,864 more people reached hospital faster, 642 of whom were saved from death or serious disability by receiving thrombolysis. The evidence demonstrated that the campaign achieved a payback of £3.16 for every £1 spent. On this basis the agency submitted an entry to the 2010 Institute of Professional Advertisers Effectiveness Awards and, in November, achieved a Gold Award. Tobacco: Sales Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what timetable he proposes for implementation of any proposals requiring the sale of tobacco products in plain packaging; and if he will make a statement. [27434]

Osteoporosis: Health Services Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of GP practices which have met the minimum thresholds set out in the Osteoporosis Directed Enhanced Service. [27181]

Paul Burstow: The Department does not hold information on the number of practices that participate in the Osteoporosis Directed Enhanced Service. The information is held by primary care trusts (PCTs) who

Anne Milton: The Government’s consideration of policy on the plain packaging of tobacco products is in its early stages. The Government will look at whether the plain packaging of tobacco products could be an effective way to reduce further the numbers of young people taking up smoking and to help those who are trying to quit smoking. The Government want to make it easier for people to make healthy choices, but will clearly need to consider both the benefits and the costs of any new policy.

915W

Written Answers

1 DECEMBER 2010

Ms Abbott: To ask the Secretary of State for Health with reference to his press statement of 22 November 2010, what the evidential basis was for his statement that (a) packaging helps to recruit smokers and (b) that children are being attracted to smoking by glitzy designs on packets; what plans he has to implement legislative provisions prohibiting the display in retail outlets of tobacco product packaging; and if he will [27439] make a statement. Anne Milton: A large number of documents, reports and studies have been published about the effect of packaging in the marketing and promotion of tobacco products, and support the statements made by the Secretary of State. For example, the RAND Europe study “Assessing the Impacts of Revising the Tobacco Products Directive” commissioned by the European Commission Health and Consumer Directorate-General to support their assessment of the impacts of revising the Tobacco Products Directive 2001/37/EC and published in September

Written Answers

916W

2010, includes a section examining the evidence on the plain or generic packaging of tobacco products. The RAND report can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/health/tobacco/docs/ tobacco_ia_rand_en.pdf

Also, the Australian Government have announced their intention to introduce a legislative requirement for the plain packaging of tobacco to commence on 1 January 2012. The evidence supporting their action is summarised in their technical report “Australia: the healthiest country by 2020—Technical report 2 Tobacco Control in Australia”. The Australian technical report can be found at: www.preventativehealth.org.au/internet/preventativehealth/ publishing.nsf/Content/tech-tobacco

The Government are looking at options around the display of tobacco in shops, recognising the need to take action both to reduce tobacco consumption and to reduce burdens on businesses. No decisions have yet been made.

ORAL ANSWERS Wednesday 1 December 2010 Col. No.

PRIME MINISTER .................................................. Engagements..........................................................

810 810

SCOTLAND.............................................................. Asylum Seekers ...................................................... Commonwealth Games.......................................... Economy................................................................ Economy................................................................

801 802 807 804 807

Col. No.

SCOTLAND—continued Economy................................................................ Employment .......................................................... Energy.................................................................... HIV........................................................................ MOD Hospital Unit .............................................. Scotch Whisky ....................................................... VAT .......................................................................

810 809 801 803 809 806 808

WRITTEN MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS Wednesday 1 December 2010 Col. No.

Col. No.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS ............. 73WS Telecoms Council................................................... 73WS

HEALTH................................................................... 78WS Stem Cell Transplant Services ................................ 78WS

CABINET OFFICE................................................... 77WS Diamond Jubilee Civic Honours Competitions...... 77WS

78WS 80WS 78WS 79WS

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT.. 76WS London Reforms and the Localism Bill ................. 76WS

HOME DEPARTMENT........................................... Justice and Home Affairs Pre-Council Statement .. Local Licensing Act ............................................... Policing in the 21st Century ...................................

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS............................................................... 77WS Single Payment Scheme.......................................... 77WS

TREASURY .............................................................. 73WS Fair Pay in the Public Sector .................................. 73WS

WRITTEN ANSWERS Wednesday 1 December 2010 Col. No.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL .......................................... 836W EU Law.................................................................. 836W BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS............. Agriculture: Training ............................................. Credit: Regulation.................................................. Departmental Food................................................ Higher Education: Admissions .............................. Higher Education: Finance .................................... Local Enterprise Partnerships ................................ Manufacturing Industries: Trade Competitiveness. Regional Growth Fund .......................................... UK Trade and Investment: Bahrain .......................

831W 831W 832W 833W 833W 834W 834W 834W 835W 835W

CABINET OFFICE................................................... Banks: Finance ...................................................... Big Society Bank.................................................... Charity Commission .............................................. Community Organisers .......................................... Deaths: Winter....................................................... Emergencies ........................................................... Football: South Africa ........................................... Iraq Committee of Inquiry: Public Appointments . National Citizen Service......................................... Third Sector: Finance ............................................ Written Questions: Government Responses ...........

880W 880W 880W 880W 881W 881W 882W 882W 882W 883W 883W 884W

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT.. Affordable Housing: Construction......................... Decentralisation and Localism Bill ........................ Housing: Construction...........................................

846W 846W 846W 846W

Col. No.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT— continued Housing: Costs....................................................... Mortgages.............................................................. Park Homes: Caravan Sites .................................... Poverty: Children ................................................... Squatting ............................................................... Tenancy Deposit Schemes...................................... Travellers: Caravan Sites ........................................ Working Neighbourhoods Fund ............................

847W 848W 848W 849W 849W 849W 849W 850W

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT .......................... Arts: Cumbria County Council.............................. Arts: Sunderland City Council............................... Broadband ............................................................. Co-production Agreement between the UK and Israel.................................................................. Copyright: Recordings ........................................... Departmental Sponsorship .................................... Newsquest Media Group .......................................

836W 836W 836W 837W

DEFENCE................................................................. Afghanistan: Peacekeeping Operations .................. Armed Forces: Aircraft .......................................... Armoured Fighting Vehicles .................................. Defence Exports Group ......................................... Nimrod Aircraft..................................................... Rescue Services ...................................................... Strategic Defence and Security Review .................. Trident Submarines................................................ USA: Nuclear Weapons .........................................

816W 816W 816W 816W 817W 817W 818W 818W 818W 819W

837W 838W 838W 838W

Col. No.

DEFENCE—continued Warships: Decommissioning .................................. 819W EDUCATION............................................................ Business: Education ............................................... Departmental Redundancy .................................... Free School Meals: Ealing ..................................... Kristallnacht: Education........................................ Pre-School Education: Special Educational Needs. Pupils: Disadvantaged............................................ Schools: Holocaust Memorial Day ........................ Schools: Reading.................................................... Schools: Standards................................................. Special Educational Needs: Children in Care......... Special Educational Needs: Lancashire.................. UN Convention on the Rights of the Child ........... World War II: Education........................................ Youth Services: Manpower ....................................

850W 850W 851W 851W 852W 853W 853W 854W 854W 854W 855W 855W 855W 856W 856W

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE ..................... Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme .............................................. Departmental Contracts ........................................ Energy: Prices ........................................................ Natural Gas ...........................................................

808W 808W 808W 808W 809W

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS............................................................... Agricultural Wages Order ...................................... Biofuels.................................................................. British Waterways .................................................. Carbon Emissions: Businesses ............................... Common Agricultural Policy ................................. Departmental Policy .............................................. Farming Futures: Finance...................................... Genetically Modified Organisms............................ National Parks ....................................................... Salmon: Rivers....................................................... Woodland Grants Scheme......................................

800W 800W 801W 802W 802W 802W 803W 805W 805W 806W 807W 807W

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE..... Akmyrat Rejepow .................................................. British Council: Finance ........................................ Cayman Islands: Loans.......................................... Diplomatic Service: Domestic Staff........................ European Union .................................................... Football: South Africa ........................................... Government Hospitality: Wines............................. Iraq: Christianity ................................................... Israel: OECD ......................................................... Palestinians: International Assistance .................... Piracy.....................................................................

825W 825W 826W 826W 827W 827W 827W 827W 830W 830W 830W 831W

HEALTH................................................................... Abortion ................................................................ Abortion: Marriage................................................ Accident and Emergency Departments .................. Barnet General Hospital: Private Finance Initiative............................................................. Basophobia: NHS.................................................. British Medical Association: Competition ............. Cancer: Drugs........................................................ Cancer: Waiting Lists............................................. Cataracts: Surgery.................................................. Child Birth: Greater London ................................. Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease................ Clostridium Difficile .............................................. Clostridium Difficile: Screening ............................. Day Care: Greater London .................................... Dental Services: Yorkshire and Humber ................ Departmental Grants.............................................

885W 885W 887W 887W 888W 888W 889W 905W 890W 890W 905W 890W 891W 891W 892W 892W 892W

Col. No.

HEALTH—continued Departmental Postal Services................................. Departmental Sponsorship .................................... Diabetes ................................................................. Disability: Children................................................ Football: South Africa ........................................... Freedom of Information ........................................ General Practitioners ............................................. General Practitioners ............................................. Haemophilia .......................................................... Health Services ...................................................... Health Services: Standards..................................... Health Services: Weather........................................ Help is at Hand...................................................... Hemofil T: Clinical Trials....................................... Hereditary Diseases ............................................... Hereford County Hospital: Private Finance Initiative............................................................. Hip Fractures: Older People................................... Insulin.................................................................... Local Involvement Networks: Finance................... Medical Schools..................................................... Medical Schools: Public Expenditure..................... Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus: Screening ........................................................... Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus........... Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: Screening ........................................................... Multiple Sclerosis: Health Services......................... Muscular Dystrophy: Yorkshire and Humber ........ NHS....................................................................... NHS: Armed Forces .............................................. NHS Commissioning Board .................................. NHS Foundation Trusts......................................... NHS Litigation Authority...................................... NHS: Public Finance ............................................. Nurses: Public Expenditure.................................... Osteoporosis: Health Services ................................ Social Services: Elderly .......................................... South London Healthcare NHS Trust ................... Strokes: Health Education ..................................... Surgery: Waiting Lists............................................ Tobacco: Sales........................................................ Tuberculosis: Greater London ............................... University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust ......................................................... Young People: Autism............................................

893W 906W 893W 894W 906W 894W 894W 906W 896W 906W 907W 911W 896W 897W 897W 897W 911W 912W 912W 898W 899W 899W 899W 900W 900W 901W 901W 901W 913W 913W 913W 901W 902W 913W 902W 903W 914W 903W 914W 903W 904W 904W

HOME DEPARTMENT........................................... Aviation: Security................................................... Crime ..................................................................... Homosexuality: Criminal Records ......................... Immigration ........................................................... Migration............................................................... Vetting ...................................................................

811W 811W 811W 812W 812W 812W 813W

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION.............. Meat: Ritual Slaughter........................................... Parliamentary Archives: Manpower....................... Smartphone Applications ......................................

823W 823W 824W 824W

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT.................... Departmental Sponsorship .................................... Developing Countries: Education .......................... Developing Countries: HIV Infection .................... EU Law.................................................................. Football: South Africa ........................................... Trade Unions: Finance...........................................

799W 799W 799W 799W 800W 800W 800W

JUSTICE................................................................... 820W Arrest Warrants ..................................................... 820W

Col. No.

Col. No.

JUSTICE—continued Departmental Grants............................................. 820W EU Law.................................................................. 822W Prisons: Visits......................................................... 822W

WALES...................................................................... 813W Grants.................................................................... 813W UN Food and Agriculture Organisation ................ 813W

PRIME MINISTER .................................................. 836W Pupils: Bullying...................................................... 836W PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMISSION ................... 824W Departmental Written Questions ........................... 824W SCOTLAND.............................................................. Departmental Sponsorship .................................... Devolution ............................................................. Elections ................................................................ VAT .......................................................................

819W 820W 820W 819W 820W

TRANSPORT ........................................................... Biofuels.................................................................. East Midlands Airport: Security ............................ Lake Windermere: Speed Limits ............................ Official Cars: Liquefied Natural Gas ..................... Parking: Fines ........................................................ Stourbridge to Walsall Freight Rail Line................ Transport: Expenditure ..........................................

813W 813W 814W 814W 815W 815W 815W 815W

TREASURY .............................................................. Air Passenger Duty ................................................ Banks: Finance ...................................................... Banks: Loans ......................................................... Copyright: Music ................................................... Employers’ Liability: Asbestos............................... Income Tax ............................................................ Members: Correspondence .................................... Mortgages.............................................................. Private Finance Initiative: Newton Abbot.............. Revenue and Customs: Marketing ......................... Tax Yields .............................................................. Taxation: Music ..................................................... VAT: Churches .......................................................

838W 838W 839W 839W 839W 839W 840W 840W 840W 842W 842W 843W 845W 845W

WOMEN AND EQUALITIES.................................. 809W Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Women Councillors Taskforce: Expenditure ................... 809W WORK AND PENSIONS ......................................... Asbestos: Employers’ Liability ............................... Atos Healthcare ..................................................... Children: Maintenance .......................................... Cold Weather Payments ......................................... Departmental Contracts ........................................ Departmental Grants............................................. Departmental Regulation....................................... Disability Living Allowance: Care Homes ............. Employment Schemes ............................................ Employment Schemes: Scotland ............................ Housing Benefit ..................................................... Housing Benefit: Newham ..................................... Housing Benefit: North East.................................. Housing Benefit: Worcestershire ............................ Industrial Accidents: Construction ........................ Industrial Health and Safety: Inspections .............. Jobcentre Plus: Rural Areas ................................... Jobseeker’s Allowance: Fraud ................................ Jobseeker’s Allowance: Hearing Impaired .............. Mobility Allowance: Children................................ Mortgage Payments ............................................... Poverty: Children ................................................... Private Finance Initiative Scheme .......................... Social Rented Housing: Reform............................. Social Security Benefits.......................................... Social Security Benefits: Adoption......................... Social Security Benefits: Fraud .............................. Social Security Benefits: Reform ............................ Universal Credit: Welfare....................................... Vacancies: Peterborough ........................................

856W 879W 856W 857W 860W 860W 860W 861W 862W 863W 864W 864W 865W 866W 866W 866W 867W 867W 868W 869W 869W 870W 870W 871W 871W 871W 872W 873W 877W 878W 879W

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Volume 519 No. 82

Wednesday 1 December 2010

CONTENTS Wednesday 1 December 2010 Oral Answers to Questions [Col. 801] [see index inside back page] Secretary of State for Scotland Prime Minister Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (Amendment) [Col. 822] Motion for leave to bring in Bill—(Alison McGovern)—agreed to Bill presented, and read the First time Fixed-term Parliaments Bill [Col. 825] Further considered in Committee National Policy Statements [Col. 889] Motion—(Charles Hendry) Motion lapsed Libel Law [Col. 930] Debate on motion for Adjournment Constitutional Law [Col. 939] Motion, on a deferred Division, agreed to Westminster Hall Candour in Health Care [Col. 269WH] PACE (Stop and Search) [Col. 291WH] HIV [Col. 299WH] Metal Theft [Col. 323WH] Health Care (North Yorkshire and York) [Col. 332WH] Debates on motion for Adjournment Written Ministerial Statements [Col. 73WS] Written Answers to Questions [Col. 799W] [see index inside back page]