asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made in putting in place within both bilateral and multilateral overseas aid programmes performance indicators by which progress towards poverty elimination targets can be measured. [HL2118]

In the White Paper on International Development the Government have committed themselves to the international development targets (IDTs), based on UN conventions and resolutions, and to measuring progress against these targets. Measuring progress towards the targets, including that of poverty elimination, will require an international effort involving other bilateral and multilateral donors, and our development co-operation partners. The UK is actively involved in the work going on in the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, with other development agencies, and with partner countries, to formulate appropriate indicators. Progress will be assessed as often as practical; movement in some indicators may only be discernible over periods of two to three years. Performance against DFID's own objectives, which closely reflect the IDTs, will be monitored and summarised in the annual departmental report. In addition, the department is working on the design of a new output and performance analysis (OPA) statement, which will be produced annually. The OPA will explicitly link DFID's performance against its objectives with progress towards the targets. It will include indicators of the performance of multilateral development institutions.Direct causal links between development assistance and the targets may be difficult to trace. No one donor can or should claim sole credit for development outcomes on this scale. But we expect to be able to demonstrate that we continue to have a strongly performing programme, closely focused on our objectives and reflecting our overall aim of poverty elimination. Each project in our portfolio is designed using the logical framework approach, which provides the basis for rigorous monitoring and impact assessment. A clearly defined purpose is identified for each project, along with indicators of achievement and means of verifying these indicators.Our existing system for assessing the performance and impact of our programme includes project completion reports (PCRs), which are required for projects above £500,000, and ex-post evaluations, which look in detail at the sustainable impact of selected projects. In addition, analysis of performance of ongoing projects is becoming increasingly rigorous. Progress on projects above £500,000 is now assessed annually using performance ratings. DFID is developing a computerised performance reporting system for management (PRISM), which will bring together this and other information to facilitate the analysis of departmental impact.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How the privatisation of the Commonwealth Development Corporation is proceeding; whether the corporation has put forward proposals for offshore status; and how they are ensuring that the corporation remains fully part of their poverty eradication priority in international development programmes. [HL2122]

We intend to put legislative proposals to Parliament as early as possible to make CDC into a public/private partnership in order to increase the flow of investment to the least developed countries. Meanwhile, detailed work on the design of the partnership is continuing; tax treatment of CDC relative to similar organisations is one of the issues under consideration. In line with CDC's existing practice, the partnership will be required to make investments consistent with an investment policy which has a particular focus on the poorer developing countries.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What changes they have decided to make to the policy on international access to regional airports in the United Kingdom following the consultation exercise on this issue earlier in the year. [HL2231]

The Government wish to encourage international access to regional airports by pursuing a policy of liberalisation. We have decided that open access to all UK airports, except Heathrow and Gatwick, should be offered to all of our bilateral air services partners, provided that UK airlines are also allowed to operate on the same routes. Officials will be writing to all of our bilateral partners where such access is not already available with details of this change of policy.This change in policy will allow both UK airlines and the airlines of the country concerned to operate to and from that country on such routes without restrictions on capacity or frequency, and without the need for international aviation negotiations to establish such services. This will enable UK and foreign airlines to plan the development of services with confidence that future growth will not be limited by bilateral restrictions.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress they have made on the finance, management and policy review of the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards. [HL2232]

The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) has completed the first stage of the review, and we have decided to continue to sponsor the Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards. In the light of new evidence emerging on the effects of air pollution, and of growing interest in pollutants not yet covered by the panel, we believe that the need for expert advice on these issues remains. The expert panel is best placed to provide that advice. The panel has served the DETR extremely well over the last five years, and we are grateful for its very significant contribution to the development of air quality policy over the last five years.The DETR will now review how the panel should operate in future, looking at all aspects of its management, including its membership .and working procedures and at its work programme for the next five years.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many hectares of land in Northern Ireland have been in (a) organic production and (b) conversion to organic production, in each year since 1988. [HL2063]

Statistics are only available since 1995. These are as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:What has been the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland's expenditure on organic farming, including research and development, pilot projects, training, education and administration, in each year since 1988; and what proportion of this expenditure was on projects other than those established by the department. [HL2064]

The Department's expenditure was as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:What has been the total amount paid by the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland to producers for organic production or conversion to organic production in each year since 1988. [HL2065]

No payments prior to 1997–98. In that year £2,078.40 was paid for organic conversion under the Organic Aid Scheme.

asked Her Majesty's Government:On what date they first gave a public undertaking to introduce audio-taping for the interviews of people held in connection with scheduled offences. [HL2067]

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland indicated the intention to introduce audio-recording of police interviews of terrorist suspects at the Labour Party's Annual Conference on 30 September 1997. Provision for this was made in the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Bill, published on 30 October 1997. The Bill received Royal Assent on 8 April 1998.

asked Her Majesty's Government:On what date they expect to introduce audio-taping for the interviews of people held in connection with scheduled offences, together with an appropriate code for its operation. [HL2068]

Preparation of a draft code of practice governing the audio-recording of police interviews with terrorist suspects in Northern Ireland is currently under way; the draft code will be presented for the approval of both Houses of Parliament as soon as possible. Audio-recording will commence as soon as possible thereafter.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Williams of Mostyn on 20 May (

Correspondence between the Home Office and other bodies is not as a matter of course placed in the Library, and in this case we have no plans to do so.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How often active service personnel have their hearing tested during their period of active service, and for how long after they leave active service. [HL2029]

All three Services operate Hearing Conservation Programmes directed primarily at avoidance of excessive noise exposure and at hearing protection where avoidance is not possible. Hearing tests are conducted at entry into the Armed Forces and on release, and during service at specified intervals or when clinically indicated. The NHS is responsible for the medical care of Service personnel after they leave the Armed Forces.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware that United States Forces personnel who saw active service in the Gulf were given hearing tests; and [HL2031]What percentage of United Kingdom service personnel who saw active service in the Gulf were given hearing tests on their return. [HL2032]

Both UK and US Service personnel undergo regular medical examinations, which include hearing tests. Some UK and US personnel would, therefore, have been due to undergo such routine tests shortly after returning from the Gulf. In addition, both UK and US Service personnel who were discharged from the Armed Forces, or demobilised back into the Reserve Forces, shortly after returning from Gulf service should have received medical examinations, including hearing tests, as part of standard discharge/demobilisation procedures. We are, though, aware that a small number of UK reserve personnel did not receive hearing tests on demobilisation because of a lack of audiometry equipment in theatre.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What primary research has been done for active service personnel on the long-term impact of noise on their hearing, for example tinnitus and accelerated hearing loss. [HL2034]

No primary research has been conducted by the Ministry of Defence in recent years. The results of such research as is undertaken elsewhere are monitored in the open literature and through international collaboration, in particular through the appropriate NATO research study group. Applied research has been, and is, regularly conducted into the sources of noise, into their suppression and into hearing protection.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the outcome of the Agriculture Council held in Brussels on 25 to 26 May. [HL2058]

My right honourable friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food chaired a meeting of the European Union Agriculture Council in Brussels on 25 and 26 May. I represented the United Kingdom, and my noble friend Lord Sewel, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Scottish Office, was also present.The principal business of the Council was to take stock of progress in negotiations on the Commission's proposals for CAP reform made in the framework of Agenda 2000. Those negotiations were launched at a special meeting of the Council which my right honourable friend the Minister chaired on 31 March 1998, and have continued at an intensive pace at expert level since then. In the Council, EU Ministers recognised the excellent start which had been made to this work, and discussed draft conclusions which he circulated as Presidency summarising the work to date, identifying the principal issues central to the ongoing negotiation, and committing the Council to continuing its intensive work on the Agenda 2000 proposals from now on.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will provide details of the costs which health boards in Scotland incur in making incontinence products available direct to patients. [HL2124]

The costs incurred by health boards in respect of incontinence products prescribed to patients by GPs and Nurse Prescribers in the financial year 1997–98 are shown in the table below.The costs and fees shown include the cost of the products dispensed, dispensing fees paid to community pharmacists and dispensing doctors, and on-costs paid to appliance suppliers.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are opposed to any reduction in care for incontinent patients; and whether they would support improvements in services to incontinent patients. [HL2123]

The Government recognise the major impact that incontinence can have on people's lives.The National Health Service Executive is conducting a review of continence policy to ensure that the most appropriate and effective continence services are being planned and delivered. This review will include the views of key patient representative groups, voluntary and professional organisations. The aim is to issue further guidance on continence services based on the conclusions of the review once it has been completed.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why they require health trusts to provide in their accounts for depreciation of their fixed assets and to pay the Government interest on that part of them notionally financed by "public dividend capital"; and whether:

National Health Service trusts are required to provide in their accounts for depreciation and to pay debt remuneration in order to recognise the cost to them of the capital they employ.They are funded for these costs through their contracts with NHS purchasers.The accounts for 1996–97 show that Oxfordshire Community Health Trust actually had a surplus of £332,000. The figure for the public dividend capital was £359,000. Other interest payments on government borrowing amounted to £1,073,000, but this was not public dividend capital.It should be noted that the public dividend capital is not money which is returned to Her Majesty's Treasury. The money is kept within the NHS and every trust is treated similarly. In those circumstances the effect on services is negligible.The decision to consult on the closure of community hospitals in the west of Oxfordshire is not linked to these figures.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether their assertion in paragraph 3.33 of the Green Paper

We understand that it is a fundamental axiom of toxicology that dose determines effect. At high doses, calcium fluoride dissolves poorly and is poorly absorbed from the gut, in comparison with many other fluoride compounds including certain complex inorganic sodium fluorides. At high dose, therefore, its acute toxicity is relatively low. This is irrelevant to the question of the effects of long-term consumption of 1 part per million in drinking water. As would be expected from considerations of physical chemistry, there is no detectable difference in absorption of the fluoride ions whether they occur entirely naturally or whether the naturally occurring concentration has been supplemented by hexafluorosilicic acid or its sodium salt. Some of the human and animal studies which demonstrate this are discussed in Fluorides and Human Health (World Health Organisation, Geneva, 1970), on pages 81–83 and page 86. Furthermore, the numerous studies of the effects of fluoride in drinking water on fluoride levels in bone, blood and urine, and on the health of bone and teeth, provide no evidence that there is any difference between naturally occurring fluoride and fluoride supplementation, at relevant concentrations in drinking water. Evidence from studies by Arnold, Likins, Russell and Scott (1962) and Brown and Poplove (1965) indicates a reduction in dental decay following artificial fluoridation of water supplies to a similar level of dental decay where water contained fluoride at a comparable level from naturally occurring sources.In addition, naturally occurring fluoride in drinking water is not necessarily accompanied by high levels of calcium; it may, for instance, be accompanied by high levels of sodium and potassium (e.g. Leone NC et al, 1954, Public Health Reports, Vol. 69, pp 925–936, Table 1).Extracts of the documents mentioned will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list the key business targets for the Medicines Control Agency for 1998–99. [HL2207]

We have today placed copies of the 1998–99 high level business targets of the Medicines Control Agency in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Lord Clinton-Davis on 22 April (

Pursuant to my Answers on 7 April and 7 May, I wrote to the noble Lord on 19 May and placed a copy of my letter in the Library of the House. In that letter I gave the following reply:"The Export Control Organisation's computer databases have been interrogated and the following results were obtained. Between 1 January 1993 and 6 March 1998, 884 Standard Individual Export Licences were issued to export to endusers or consignees in Turkey goods subject to export control by being listed in Part III of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods (Control) Order (the so-called "Military List"). Between 1 January 1994 and 6 March 1998, 93 Open Individual Export Licences were issued for such exports. The entry in the relevant legislation under which the export of goods is controlled is known as their rating. Individual licences may cover a range of goods with various ratings. Where this is so, the licence is included in the Table in the total for all of the relevant ratings.