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Engagements

Volume 408: debated on Wednesday 9 July 2003

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Q14. [124300]

The Prime Minister will be aware of the importance of broadband technology throughout south Wales and that Maesteg and Pencoed in my constituency are the latest places to be enabled as exchanges. Will he join me in welcoming the initiative by Bridgend county borough council, the Bridgend Information Society project and BT in ensuring that we have access to broadband sooner or later? If he has time, will he join me in my internet surgery tomorrow?

I do not think that I will be able to join my hon. Friend in that, but his point about the rolling out of broadband is important. We are making huge progress in Britain in this extremely important area for the future, and in particular, as a result of the special measures and types of partnership that he has just been talking about, we are also extending the broadband roll-out in rural areas too. That is extremely important for the future health and prosperity of this country.

Q15. [124301]

Following the Prime Minister's earlier answer on the essential work of the Criminal Records Bureau, is he really satisfied that, when the service is so poor, its cost is to be raised by 150 per cent. this afternoon? Will he also tell the House what he has to say to care home owners who were asked to defer their checks so that schools could take priority and are now faced with a huge increase as a result? Are they expected to trust the Government?

I do not know about the latter point that the hon. Gentleman makes and I am perfectly happy to look into it, but in respect of the first point I would just say that the CRB is now issuing an average of 40,000 disclosures a week, and from having had a backlog of 50,000 cases, fewer than 5,000 are now outstanding. Yes, there is a great deal still to do, but I hope again, as I said to the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) earlier, that he recognises that the CRB is an important innovation that we do need, otherwise people would attack us for not making proper checks on those working in sensitive areas.