To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will address public concerns that the images created of those who go through body scanners may be too graphic. [HL2131]

The image produced does not show any distinguishing features such as hair or skin tone and it is not possible to recognise people from their facial features.

In addition extensive safeguards have been developed to ensure passengers’ privacy is respected. Images are viewed remotely from the machine, and are deleted immediately after analysis. Images cannot be recovered at a later date from the machines or printed.

An interim code of practice has been produced for the initial deployment of body scanners. It is available via the Department for Transport website. It will ensure that the implementation and application of body scanners will be proportionate to privacy rights.

The department will be launching a full public consultation shortly on the interim code of practice and will consider all representations carefully before preparing a final code of practice later in the year.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how they will deal with women who do not wish to be scanned by body scanners. [HL2132]

If an individual selected for scanning declines to be scanned, they will not be offered an alternative method of screening, and will not be allowed to travel. Individuals are able to request that their image is viewed by a screener of the same gender if that is their preference.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps have been taken to ensure that airport security equipment is not used to discriminate unfairly against any social or ethnic group. [HL2200]

As stated in the interim code of practice for the initial deployment of body scanners: “Passengers must not be selected on the basis of personal characteristics (ie on a basis that may constitute discrimination such as gender, age, race or ethnic origin)”.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what safeguards they will put in place to ensure that proper care and respect for cultural differences are taken into account when using anti-terrorism body scanners. [HL2201]

The Government have published an interim code of practice for the initial deployment of body scanners. It is available via the Department for Transport website. It will ensure that the implementation and application of body scanners properly respects privacy rights.

The department will be launching a full public consultation shortly on the interim code of practice and will consider all representations carefully before preparing a final code of practice later in the year.

Extensive safeguards have been developed to ensure passengers’ privacy is respected. Only security-vetted and trained security staff employed by the airport will be able to view the images. Images are viewed remotely from the machine, and are deleted immediately after analysis. Images cannot be recovered at a later date from the machines. In addition individuals may request that their image is viewed by a screener of the same gender.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what course of action will be taken if a person declines a full body search on the ground that it challenges their dignity. [HL2204]

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they will take to ensure that passengers who decline a full-body search will not be banned from flying. [HL2205]

In that circumstance, an alternative method of screening will not be offered and the individual will not be allowed to travel.

An interim code of practice has been produced for the initial deployment of body scanners and is available via the Department for Transport website.

The department will be launching a full public consultation shortly on the interim code of practice and will consider all representations carefully before preparing a final code of practice later in the year.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many alcohol licences were revoked in each year in England between 1994 and 2010. [HL2171]

Since the implementation of the Licensing Act 2003, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been collecting alcohol, entertainment and late night refreshment statistics on an annual basis by financial year from licensing authorities in England and Wales.

Under the Licensing Act 2003, premises licences and club premises certificates are not confined to authorising the sale or supply of alcohol; they can also provide regulated entertainment and/or late night refreshment. DCMS does not collate data specifically on alcohol licences.

The following table lists premises licences that were revoked or club premises certificates withdrawn for the financial years 2006 to 2008 following a completed review, in England and Wales.

Prior to the 2003 Act coming into force in 2005, statistics for liquor licensing in England and Wales were published on a triennial basis and contained statistics on liquor licences issued under the Licensing Act 1964.

During this period alcohol licensing statistics were compiled from returns submitted by magistrates’ courts in England and Wales and had a reporting period of 1 July to 30 June. These data were collated by the Home Office up until 2001 and from 2004 the Department for Culture, Media and Sport had responsibility for publishing these data.

The following table lists the number of licences revoked under the 1964 Act between 1995 and 2004.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the total income generated from alcohol licence fees in England in each year since the introduction of the Licensing Act 2003. [HL2172]

The information requested is not held centrally by DCMS and fee income is collected by individual local licensing authorities.

The Licensing Act 2003 amalgamated the alcohol, regulated entertainment and late night refreshment licensing regimes and individual licences may cover one or more of these permissions.

Accordingly, licensing authorities are unlikely to record fee income for alcohol licences only.

The department keeps fee levels for individual licensing processes under review and before proposing or implementing any changes a full survey of actual income from licensing fees as a whole would be necessary.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many alcohol-related attendances there were at accident and emergency departments in each primary care trust in England in each year between 1994 and 2010. [HL2173]

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many attendances there were at accident and emergency departments as a result of alcohol-related assault in each primary care trust in England in each year between 1994 and 2010. [HL2174]

The information requested on alcohol-related attendances in accident and emergency departments is not collected centrally.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what incentives are in place to increase the number of Pashtun speakers serving in HM Armed Forces. [HL2231]

To ask Her Majesty's Government what incentives are in place to increase the number of Dari Persian speakers serving in HM Armed Forces. [HL2235]

Both Pashto and Dari are mandated operational languages, entitling Armed Forces linguists with current language skills, confirmed by means of MoD Languages Examinations Board (MODLEB) examinations, to financial awards under the Defence Operational Languages Award Scheme (DOLAS).

DOLAS was implemented on 1 December 2009 to replace the previous Pilot Operational Languages Award Scheme (POLAS) which ran from 1 October 2005 to 30 November 2009.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what statutory obligations to ensure objectivity and fairness, impartiality or balance, are laid upon (a) the BBC, (b) other broadcasters, and (c) other elements of the media. [HL2210]

All broadcasters, other than the BBC, are required to comply with Ofcom's broadcasting code, which includes requirements as to (among other matters) the fairness, accuracy and impartiality of broadcast content. The BBC is required to comply with all requirements under Ofcom’s code other than those relating to accuracy and impartiality which, in the corporation’s case, are subject to regulation by the BBC Trust. The BBC agreement includes a number of specific obligations relating to the accuracy and impartiality of the corporation’s output.

Newspaper publishers must, of course, abide by the law, but they also sign up to a code of practice overseen by the independent Press Complaints Commission. The editors’ code of practice sets a benchmark for the standards the press is expected to maintain.

As with all lottery distributors, the UK Film Council (UKFC) is required by the National Lottery Act (s26 (1)) to comply with any directions given to them by the Secretary of State concerning the manner in which they distribute money. The statement of financial requirements requires UKFC to operate within the principles of administrative law, which include fairness, openness and transparency.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how much was paid by the Department for Transport and its agencies to (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) KPMG, (c) Deloitte, (d) Ernst & Young, (e) Grant Thornton, (f) BDO Stoy Hayward, (g) Baker Tilly, (h) Smith & Williamson, (i) Tenon Group, (j) PKF, (k) McKinsey and Company, and (l) Accenture, in each of the past five years for which information is available; how they monitor contracts with those firms; and how the department reports (1) during, and (2) at the end of, contracts to Buying Solutions. [HL2091]

The Department for Transport and its executive agencies have spent the following amounts with the firms listed over the past five years:

^* Figures exclude Highways Agency spend of £11,844 in 2004-05 with Cap Gemini Ernst and Young Plc.

There are no records of spend with BDO Stoy Hayward, Baker Tilly, Smith and Williamson, Tenon Group, McKinsey and Accenture.

There are no records held for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency for 2004-05 and 2005-06.

For DVLA, figures exclude expenditure for the implementation of the shared services centre.

Contracts are managed by designated contract managers in accordance to the department’s procedures which includes monitoring and measuring supplier performance in line with the specification, service levels/key performance indicators and the terms and conditions of the contract. The procedures for monitoring a contract would depend on the nature of that contract. However, all contracts would make some provision for regular review meetings with a supplier to raise, discuss or escalate any performance issues.

The department does not report contract spend or performance to Buying Solutions, unless there is a specific problem with a supplier's performance.

To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Bach on 4 February (WA 66), whether there is discrimination between life Peers and excepted hereditary Peers in respect of their ability to return to the House of Lords after ceasing to be members of the European Parliament. [HL2189]

The position of hereditary Peers was given full consideration by the House of Lords during the debate held on the European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008 on 14 October 2008. We do not consider that these regulations are discriminatory in nature. The regulations were an interim measure in response to a particular issue that had arisen prior to the European parliamentary elections in June 2009.

To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Lord Bach on 4 February (WA 66), whether they will table an amendment to repeal the European Parliament (House of Lords Disqualification) Regulations 2008 in the Constitutional Reform and Government Bill currently before Parliament, or table an amendment to that bill extending the scope of the regulations to excepted hereditary Peers so that life Peers and excepted hereditary peers can serve as Members of the European Parliament on the same basis. [HL2190]

The Government have no plans to table such amendments to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill, as the Bill includes provision to allow a person who is a life Peer or an hereditary Peer who is a member of the House of Lords to resign at any time from the House of Lords.

To ask Her Majesty's Government which external bodies they consulted in preparing their impact assessment report in respect of the consultation on automatic generic substitution of branded medicines in the National Health Service. [HL2158]

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will publish the evidence on which they built their view in the impact assessment report regarding automatic generic substitution of branded medicines in the National Health Service that the effects of the policy on (a) safety, (b) liability in the event of adverse events, and (c) job losses, would be negligible. [HL2159]

In developing the proposals and analysis set out in the consultation document The Proposals to Implement “Generic Substitution” in Primary Care, Further to the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS) 2009 and its associated partial impact assessment, published on 5 January 2010, the department was informed by information from stakeholders. During 2009, the department undertook a series of meetings with key national stakeholders, representing general practitioners, community pharmacists, and manufacturers, to discuss the commitment in the PPRS agreement in England. These national stakeholders were the General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association, the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee, the Association of British Pharmaceutical Industry, the British Generic Manufacturers Association and the Ethical Medicines Industry Group. We also received written representations from a number of other stakeholders, such as individual manufacturers and patient groups, for example those representing people with epilepsy.

The department will publish references to the key articles reviewed to support the partial impact assessment on its website. We recognise that further evidence may be available in relation to these issues, which is why we are holding a full public consultation, to which all those with an interest can input. The consultation document and partial impact assessment can be found on the department’s website at www.dh.gov.uk/en/consultations/index.htm.

Copies of the consultation document have already been placed in the Library. Details of the consultation events can be found on the NHS Primary Care Commissioning website at www.pcc.nhs.uk/events.

To ask Her Majesty's Government further to the Written Answer by Baroness Crawley on 10 February (WA 165), what is the total cost of employer pension contributions for non-departmental public bodies. [HL2188]

The information requested is not held centrally. Employer pension contributions for those non-departmental public bodies that participate in the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme are accounted for in the Cabinet Office: Civil Superannuation Resource Accounts.

To ask Her Majesty's Government what progress has been made on the trial of the suspected pirates arrested by HMS “Cumberland” in November 2008. [HL2104]

The eight suspected pirates detained by Royal Navy forces in November 2008 remain on trial in Kenya. The defence case has now been heard by the court, with final submissions still expected from both the prosecution and defence. The UK continues to monitor progress. It would be inappropriate to comment further while the trial continues.

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many stateless people there are in the United Kingdom; and how they are categorised for the purpose of national statistics. [HL2118]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Stephen Penneck, Director General for Office for National Statistics, to Lord Lester of Herne Hill, dated March 2010.

As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning how many stateless people there are in the United Kingdom; and how they are categorised for the purpose of national statistics.

The information requested is not available.