asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are ensuring that imported foods comply fully with the health and hygiene standards required of British food producers; and, if not, why not. [HL1647]

We are advised by the Food Standards Agency, which is responsible for issues of food safety.Food imported from countries outside of the European Union is subject to import controls at United Kingdom ports. All foods of animal origin from third countries are subject to harmonised EU import controls, including documentary and identity checks, and to prescribed levels of physical checks. Imported foods of non-animal origin from countries outside the EU are subject to inspection under UK legislation. Food may be detained at ports whilst checks are undertaken and food found not to comply with hygiene requirements may be destroyed, used for purposes other than food, or re-exported.In addition to controls at import, all imported food, including food imported from other EU member states, may be inspected at the point of destination in the UK and is subject to the same checks at retail level as food produced in the UK.In light of current concerns about illegal imports of food of animal origin, the Food Standards Agency has written to port health authorities and local authorities to ensure continued vigilance and checks on imported products both at the point of import and at the retail level.Finally, the Government are considering as a matter of urgency whether controls on imports of meat and meat products can be made more effective.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many of the 400 hospitals which were visited by the Patient Environment Action Teams in the autumn of last year to assess the quality of patient environment were categorised as excellent, acceptable or poor respectively; and whether they will publish in the

The report The NHS Plan—Clean Hospitals has now been published and copies have been placed in the Library. Over 700 hospital sites are included.The results of these visits are shown in the following table.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made in implementing the recommendations of the Social Services Inspectorate's report

The Government recommended the findings of the Social Services Inspectorate report A Hidden Disability to social services departments and other agencies involved in the care of people with traumatic brain injury, and supported a follow-up event to reinforce the messages from the report. In addition, the Government has asked the National Institute for Clinical Excellence to develop a guideline for the management of people with severe head injury.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How waste food is disposed of by Ministry of Defence catering services; and whether any bases have contracts to supply makers of pig swill; [HL1319]Whether any food waste from any of the Ministry of Defence's bases has been sold to or given to Mr Waugh, who has a pig farm at Heddon-on-the-Wall. [HL1320]

The Ministry of Defence policy for procuring food and dealing with the waste food from catering services fully conforms with current national and EU regulations and is subject to inspection by local authority environmental health officers. Current regulations permit three methods of waste food disposal:With local authority agreement, food waste may be macerated through kitchen garbage disposal units and drained away through the mains drainage system.Contracts may be let with licensed environmental waste removal contractors, who subsequently dispose of the food waste by incineration or landfill.Agreements may be made for the disposal of wet food waste to pig swill contractors.

asked her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any plans to decrease the amount of foreign meat purchases for the consumption of Service personnel from 52 per cent in 2000–2001; and [HL1538]What criteria are used to establish that value for money is achieved by purchasing meat from abroad for Service personnel, rather than from British farmers. [HL1539]

The task of buying food for the Armed Forces is carried out by the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) food supply contractor, 3663. Both the Ministry of Defence and 3663 have been working extensively with the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Meat and Livestock Commission, and farmers' representatives to explore ways to increase the proportion of British meat that MoD can buy competitively. This has been a successful initiative and we are hopeful that more British meat will be procured as a result. Value for money is achieved for all meat purchases by scrutinising the prime cost of meat that 3663 supply via monthly price checks and independent benchmarking as well as being fully open to audit by Special Procurement Services, a support group of the Defence Procurement Agency.

asked her Majesty's Government:What are their present plans for the preparation of a separate new tri-Service Armed Forces Discipline Bill; what provisional timetable they envisage for this process; and what steps they plan to take to keep Parliament and others informed of and consulted in the course of the preparatory process. [HL1582]

The Government intend to introduce tri-Service legislation in the 2005–06 session. The opportunity will be taken to review the relevant policies and procedures and to create a legislative framework that is to be capable of meeting the Armed Forces' needs for the foreseeable future.In its report on the Armed Forces Bill, the Select Committee in another place recommended that the tri-Service Bill should be brought before Parliament within three years. We will examine the scope for accelerating the project, and I confirm that we will keep Parliament in touch with our thinking on that and of progress with the project generally.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What alterations they envisage it will be necessary to make to Home Office Circular 17/99

If the changes to MDP jurisdiction proposed in the Armed Forces Bill are enacted, the three Policing Protocols between the Ministry of Defence Police and the Home Department Police Forces will need to be reviewed in order to ensure that responsibility is clearly defined in all circumstances, where, after the changes, both have jurisdiction.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Who has responsibility for ensuring that at the dissolution of Parliament former Members of Parliament take down their personal websites describing themselves as MPs. [HL1016]

Such matters are not a government responsibility.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether an announcement about the continuing implementation of the recommendations contained within

The Prime Minister has decided that ministerial and official responsibility for continuing the implementation of these recommendations will move to HM Treasury and the Office of Government Commerce. This will provide greater synergy with the work that Office for Government Commerce already does with departments on IT-enabled projects.It should be clear that both ministerial and official responsibility for the performance of individual projects remains with each department.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the funding allocation for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission for 2000–01; whether they expect the commission to exceed this amount; if so, by how much; and from where the extra funding will come. [HL1376]

The budget for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission for 2000–01 was set at £750,000. In addition, Parliament approved a carryover of £178,000 from the previous year. The commission has not exceeded its cash allocations in-year. However, the commission's accounts, which have to be produced on an accruals basis, will indicate a small operating deficit. This will be notified to Parliament in due course in the normal way.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission pays, as a percentage of its total budget, for the salaries, national insurance and pensions of its chief executive and chief commissioner. [HL1379]

The Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission spends 15.6 per cent of its annual budget on the salaries, pension and national insurance contributions for the chief executive and chief commissioner.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, and if so when, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission will respond to a letter of 4 September 2000 from the Ulster Scots Language Society requesting a meeting about the Commission's recognition of the Ulster Scots language. [HL1465]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What work the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has done on the rights of victims of paramilitary violence. [HL1468]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What groups or individuals from the following sections of Northern Irish society: (a) evangelical Protestant, (b) ethnic minorities, and (c) victims of violence from paramilitaries the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has consulted about potential breaches of human rights and about further human rights legislation. [HL1549]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What consultations and publicity campaigns the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission will undertake in seeking views on a proposed Bill of Human Rights for Northern Ireland. [HL1551]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What issues in the education sector in Northern Ireland the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is currently addressing. [HL1552]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What decision-making process the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission follows in deciding which cases it will support. [HL1574]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What percentage of presentations and written requests made to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission go unacknowledged and unanswered after three months. [HL1467]

This is a matter for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission. The chief commissioner has been asked to write to the noble Lord. A copy of his letter will be placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What conclusions were reached at the recent European Telecommunications Council meeting in Luxembourg with respect to (a) the powers of the European Commission over national telecoms regulators; (b) 3G (third generation); and(c) future allocation of spectrum licences in Europe. [HL1777]

The Transport and Telecommunications Council concluded that the Commission should be able to delay a measure proposed by a national regulatory authority for a period of one month during which it could make public a detailed opinion stating why it considered the measure to be incompatible with Community law and, in particular, the objectives referred to in Article 7 of the proposal for a Directive on a common regulatory framework for electronic communications networks and services. Since undertakings will be able to appeal against such measures under Article 4 of the Directive and the Commission's powers to take infringement proceedings under the Treaty will be unaffected, the Government believe that this should act as a powerful incentive to national regulatory authorities to act appropriately and strikes the right balance between flexibility for appropriate regulatory intervention and consistency of application across the Community for undertakings.The Council also welcomed the conclusion of the Stockholm Summit that the Commission work together with the Council towards a supportive policy framework for third-generation mobile communications within the Union, including agreement on a regulatory framework for radio spectrum policy as well as broadband networks, and that the Commission be invited to examine the effect of third-generation licensing on European competitiveness and the advancement of the ICT field.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they expect the proposed European Union directive on the information and consultation of employees to be tabled for agreement in the Council of Ministers at or before the Gothenburg European Union summit in June; and how they propose to vote on it. [HL1783]

The agenda of meetings of the Council of Ministers before the Gothenburg summit and the agenda of the summit itself are matters for the Swedish Presidency. The Government have made clear that they see no need for the proposed Directive on informing and consulting employees at national level.

asked Her Majesty's Government.What was the outcome of the Tourism Summit held on 6 March. [HL1606].

At the second annual Tourism Summit on 6 March, Ministers from across Government met to consider progress in implementing the Government's tourism strategy and priorities for Government policies affecting tourism. Ministers agreed to build on the work started at the first Summit in March 2000 and to continue to take tourism interests and the impact on tourism into account when developing policies. Other key outcomes included:

• announcing plans from new guidance on signs to tourist attractions and facilities;
• publishing the results of research on planning for leisure and tourism;
• funding new projects to improve competitiveness and minimise waste in the hospitality industry;
• ensuring that seaside resorts gain the maximum benefit from government policies and funding, including Lottery funding;
• identifying the difficulties that the foot and mouth outbreak is causing for tourism and the need for policies on controlling the outbreak to take account of the wider economic impacts; and
• agreeing to continue to work for better regulation in tourism.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they support the Competition Commission's recent proposal to levy a windfall tax on past, present and future profits of banks, with the proceeds being used to help small firms to start up, grow and survive; and [HL1663]Whether they support the Competition Commission's proposals to institute price controls to prevent banks overcharging their small business customers. [HL1664]

The Competition Commission is currently conducting a monopoly inquiry into the supply of banking services by clearing banks to small and medium sized enterprises. It is not appropriate for Ministers to comment on matters which are under investigation by the commission.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the approximate current and forecast annual loss which may be sustained by the British tourist industry as a result of foot and mouth disease if (a) the present culling programme is maintained; and (b) widespread vaccination is introduced. [HL1782]

Our best estimate on the basis of the information so far obtained is that losses of revenue by the English tourism industry will be around £140 million per week averaged over the eight month tourist season. The eventual total economic impact of foot and mouth will obviously be dependent on the final extent and spread of the disease, its duration, and the effectiveness of the measures we are taking to encourage tourism to Britain in general and to the countryside in particular. I am not, therefore, able to answer precisely in the form of the question. However, the Government's priority, which is shared by the tourism industry, is to eradicate the disease as quickly and effectively as possible.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any plans to extend to Northern Ireland the exemption from Air Passenger Duty to the Highlands and Islands region of Scotland. [HL1710]

There are no such plans. The exemption from Air Passenger Duty given for flights from airports in the Scottish Highlands and Islands was introduced in recognition of the importance of air transport given the low density of population in the region. Population density in Northern Ireland is greater.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What arrangements they propose to ensure that from 1 January 2002 British Residents are able to exchange notes of those EU countries which have joined the single currency into euro notes at the correct rate of exchange; and whether they will ensure that British residents are not disadvantaged by British banks charging commission on such changing. [HL1767]

The terms on which banks and other financial institutions may be prepared to exchange notes is a commercial matter for them.Information on the exchange of notes in those countries which have joined the single currency has been brought together in a factsheet which is available through the Treasury Euro Preparations website at:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the criteria for funding under the New Deal programme for disabled people will help to support successful rehabilitation services provided by Rehab UK in its work for people with acquired brain injury. [HL1776]

The New Deal for Disabled People will offer people on incapacity benefits the opportunity to prepare for and find paid work and move off benefits through a network of Job Brokers from the private, public and voluntary sectors. Job Brokers will be funded through a contract with the Employment Service (ES) on the basis of the numbers of people they help who enter and sustain paid work. Job Brokers will agree with ES how they will address the needs of this varied client group, including those with acquired brain injuries. Rehab UK, in common with other specialist providers, were eligible to bid to be suppliers of provision under the New Deal for Disabled People.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many young people, under the New Deal, have taken up one of the options of entering full-time education and training, the voluntary sector and the environment taskforce; and how many have become self employed. [HL1611]

Latest figures show that from January 1998 to the end of January 2001, 91,700 young people had started the full-time education and training option of New Deal; 44,000 young people started the voluntary sector option and 41,700 started the environment taskforce option. As the Employment Service does not routinely record the type of employment of New Deal leavers, it is not possible to say what proportion has become self-employed. However, over the same period as above, 42,100 people started subsidised employment, of which 3,180 started test trading through the subsidised self-employment route.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the flags of countries other than the United Kingdom should enjoy the same symbolic meaning and protection under the law in the United Kingdom as they do in the countries which they represent [HL1143]

Any protection accorded to a flag of a foreign state by the law of that state does not apply in the United Kingdom.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress they have made in producing draft regulations to ensure that registered political parties, elected representatives and candidates receive copies of updates of the electoral register. [HL1840]

We have decided to bring forward self-contained regulations for this purpose and a draft was laid yesterday.

asked Her Majesty's Government:To what extent the Scottish Intelligence Database will be subject to the terms of both the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, bearing in mind the proposal to link it to the National Crime Squad headquarters in London. [HL1623]

The Scottish Intelligence Database, when it becomes operational, will comply with the terms of the Data Protection Act 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000 There are no plans to link the Scottish Intelligence Database with the National Crime Squad headquarters in London.

asked the Chairman of Committees:What medical facilities within the Palace of Westminster which are available to the Members and staff of the House of Commons are not available to Peers or the staff of the House of Lords; why this difference exists; and what steps are being taken to provide comparable facilities to the two Houses. [HL1668]

The House has recently agreed that Members should be offered a free health screening service every three years, analogous to the service offered to Members of the House of Commons. It is expected that the screening service will be introduced next year. A medical screen of staff over 55 is offered to House of Commons staff and will shortly be extended to staff of the House of Lords on the same terms. In all other respects the medical facilities offered to Members and staff of the two Houses are identical.

asked Her Majesty's Government:With reference to paragraph 32 of the Presidency Conclusions of the Stockholm European Council, to what aspects of pensions policy the principle of subsidiarity will apply; and by whom that principle will be applied. [HL1727]

As yet the EU Commission has not issued proposals for how the open method of co-ordination in the field of pensions will be taken forward. However, with regard to pension systems, the organisation and financing in particular remain the responsibility of each member state.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, in pursuing the slaughter policy in order to combat the foot and mouth outbreak, they are prepared

The Government are determined to do all they can to try to ensure that the culling policies needed to deal with foot and mouth do not endanger the survival of Herdwick and other breeds of fell sheep in the Lake District National Park. The Chief Scientific Advisor's foot and mouth disease science group does not recommend a vaccination programme for sheep or rare breeds. The Ministry published proposals for protection of hefted sheep on 19 April. Copies of these are on the Ministry's website.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will allow vaccination of endangered wildlife park animals that are in a captive-breeding programme and are susceptible to foot and mouth disease; and [HL1503]Whether they will allow vaccination of endangered zoo animals that are in a captive-breeding programme and are susceptible to foot and mouth. [HL1502]

The Standing Veterinary Committee of the European Commission recently authorised member states to vaccinate susceptible animals in zoos or similar premises containing endangered species, but only in very restricted circumstances, and only after bio-security measures—including closure of premises if necessary—have been taken. The Government are currently considering whether to pursue this option.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many government veterinary establishments have (a) closed and (b) opened since 1968. [HL1703]

Since 1968 (a) 15 government veterinary establishments^* have closed and (b) five have opened.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the annual value for each of the last five years of exports of breeding stock from the United Kingdom. [HL1797]

The information requested is given in the table shown: