asked Her Majesty's Government:What steps they are taking to assist the delivery of life-saving food and supplies in the western Upper Nile in Sudan. [HL5948]

The UK is currently supporting primary healthcare services (£158,000) and Kala Azar treatment (£180,000) through Medicins Sans Frontières in western Upper Nile. We are continuing to monitor the situation closely and remain ready to respond to further urgent requests. We are also working to improve humanitarian access generally in Sudan and hope that recent positive developments in the peace process will lead to progress.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What leads them to believe that China's population growth rate needs to be stabilised; and what assistance they are giving the Chinese Ministry of Health and other bodies in China in order to achieve this. [HL5968]

We do not provide assistance to the Chinese authorities to stabilise population growth. All UK assistance throughout the world for reproductive health programmes is provided in support of the principles of free and informed choice, as set out at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994. We support the work of the United Nations Population Fund and the International Planned Parenthood Federation to promote these principles in China.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they use population density as an indicator to determine which countries require assistance in stabilising population growth rates. [HL5969]

We do not provide assistance to stabilise population growth.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What plans there are to review the working of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000. [HL5910]

As part of its statutory functions, the Electoral Commission is required to keep under review, and report to the Government on, certain matters, including the provisions of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA). The commission began a review in August 2002 of the following parts of the PPERA:

• Part II—Registration of political parties
• Part III—Accounting requirements for registered parties
• Part IV—Control of donations to registered parties and their members
• Part V—Control of campaign expenditure
• Part VI—Controls relating to third party national election campaigns
• Part VIII—Election campaigns and proceedings.

The commission also plans to conduct a review of the eligibility criteria and distribution formula of the policy development grant (Part I of the PPERA). The commission will report to the Lord Chancellor on both reviews in spring 2003.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will now name 3 October as Nuclear Veterans Day to honour those who participated in nuclear tests. [HL5871]

The Government have no plans to do so. The existing initiatives and programmes were agreed following a period of full and open consultation with our partners from the veterans community and aim to acknowledge and celebrate the special contribution made by Britain's Armed Forces veterans.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the number of destroyers and frigates required has apparently changed since the Strategic Defence Review was published. [HL5883]

The 1998 Strategic Defence Review stated the capabilities required for the UK Armed Forces to conduct their defence tasks and reached Conclusions on the number of destroyers and frigates required for those purposes at that time. Changes to the Type 23 frigates' operating patterns, and a more efficient maintenance regime, enable the Royal Navy to provide the required capability with fewer ships than was necessary in 1998.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What actions have been proposed by different parts of the Ministry of Defence to meet effectively the requirements of the new duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. [HL5991]

The Ministry of Defence's Race Equality Scheme sets out its plans for complying with the general and specific duties under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 to promote race relations in the Armed Forces, the MoD Police and the MoD Civil Service. Copies of the scheme are being placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish the guidelines on the use of baton rounds by the Armed Forces in Northern Ireland. [HL6089]

Rules of engagement are classified and are not therefore usually published for reasons of operational security. However, we have decided in this case, as an exceptional measure aimed at building confidence in Northern Ireland, that an extract from the relevant document should be published in the Library of the House. The extract is drawn from a more general guidance card and includes all the relevant guidance on the rules of engagement for the use of baton rounds by the Armed Forces in Northern Ireland.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether membership of the Indian National Liberation Army disqualifies former Far East prisoners of war from eligibility under the ex gratia payment scheme announced on 7 November 2000. [HL6133]

During the Second World War, the Japanese recruited a considerable number of servicemen from Far Eastern countries whom they had taken prisoner of war to serve alongside them in the Indian National Liberation Army.The ex gratia payment scheme was established to recognise the circumstances of the captivity of those taken prisoner by the Japanese. Anyone who would otherwise be eligible under the ex gratia payment scheme but who joined the Indian National Liberation Army had removed themselves from that captivity which the ex gratia payment scheme recognises. Their inclusion in the scheme would not be compatible with its purpose and therefore those prisoners of war who joined the Indian National Liberation Army are not entitled to any payment under the scheme.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What revenue has been received from the proceeds of crime; and whether there are any plans to invest this money into crime reduction projects. [HL6013]

The receipts remitted to the Secretary of State from confiscation orders made under the Drug Trafficking Acts 1986 and 1994 and the Criminal Justice Act 1988 unamended and as amended by the Proceeds of Crime Act 1995; from drug cash seizures under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994; and from asset sharing receipts, for each year from 1996, were: £10,858,000 for 1996–97; £14,932,000 for 1997–98; £19,310,000 for 1998–99; £29,523,000 for 1999–2000; and £23,520,000 for 2000–01. The figure for the year 2001–02 is not yet available.Between April 1999 and March 2002 a total of £12 million was recycled through the Confiscated Assets Fund (CAF) and allocated to anti-drug programmes. The amounts allocated each year were £3 million in 1999–2000, £5 million in 2000–01 and £4 million in 2001–02.The Recovered Assets Fund replaced the Confiscated Assets Fund in 2001. In 2002–03, £3 million was allocated to the first round of successful bids to the fund. I will shortly be announcing the allocation of a much greater sum to a second round of successful bids. The funds will be allocated to a wide range of crime reduction projects, including anti-drug programmes. The future use and operation of the fund is currently under review.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they intend to make any changes to passport fees. [HL6180]

The Privy Council has made an Order in Council, the Consular Fees (No.2) Order 2002, which gives authority for a revision in passport fees. The revision will take effect on 21 November 2002. The fee for a standard 32-page passport will increase from £30 to £33, while the fee for a 48-page passport will remain at £40. The fee for amending an existing passport will increase from £18 to £22.50. The cost of a passport for a child will increase from £16 to £19. The additional charges for those making use of the guaranteed fast track and premium services available from the United Kingdom Passport Service (UKPS) counters remain unchanged at £30 and £45 respectively. The fee for a collective passport, for organised trips for schools and youth groups, will decrease from £42 to £39. The order also increases fees for passport applications made overseas to British consular posts. There will be an increase from £49 to £54.40 for a standard 32-page passport, an increase from £60 to £65.20 for a 48-page passport, an increase from £29 to £34.70 for a child passport and an increase from £30 to £33.90 for an emergency passport.Passport fees are set at the level needed to cover the costs of passport issuing, including, in this case, the recovery of certain deficits accrued before 1999 and the costs of providing overseas consular protection services which are not covered by other fees. The changes set out in the order follow a careful review of costs to ensure that the fee for each type of passport service closely reflects the production costs and past deficits accrued by that service and bears its share of the cost of consular protection services. In relation to the cost of travel abroad, the new fees still represent very good value for money.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether it is compatible for police constabularies or police authorities in England and Wales which are required to promote good race relations in accordance with the new duty imposed under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 also to provide protection to extremist organisations holding extremist rallies. [HL6008]

Public authorities listed in Schedule 1A to the Race Relations Act 1976, as amended by the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000, are subject to the duty to promote race equality. These include police authorities. The duty requires public authorities, in carrying out their functions, to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity and good race relations between persons of different racial groups.People are free to assemble and to express views with which the Government may profoundly disagree so long as they do not breach the law. Decisions about how to police public assemblies are the responsibility of individual chief police officers. But we would expect these policing functions to be carried out in compliance with the duty.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What advice the Home Secretary receives, and from whom, on policies and practices to be pursued to achieve racial equality and good race relations in England and Wales. [HL6009]

The Home Secretary receives advice from a wide range of bodies including the Lawrence Steering Group, the Community Cohension Panel, the Race Equality Advisory Panel, the Race Equality Adviser to the Permanent Secretary, the Commission for Racial Equality and from the Race Equality Unit at the Home Office.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What forms of general taxation, local or national, are levied on the newspaper industry; and how much revenue results. [HL5886]

The newspaper industry as a whole pays a wide range of taxes; in particular corporation tax, local business rates, stamp duty, employer national insurance and capital gains tax. The sale of newspapers is zero rated for VAT purposes. Figures published on the Inland Revenue website show receipts of corporation tax for 1999–2000 in the transport and communications sector at £1,285 million; figures for other industries are also given.A breakdown of revenue from the newspaper industry could be obtained only at disproportionate cost; there is also the issue of how to classify a company with more than one principal activity, with many large media groups encompassing a wide range of activities.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the revenue yield from stamp duty charged on transactions on the alternative investment market in the last two years for which records are available. [HL5909]

This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost, as the computer system recording receipt of stamp duty on shares cannot routinely produce reports by listing status.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 3 July

These questions were addressed in an article in the spring 2001 issue (No 103) of Population Trends¹, which is available in the Library and from the National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Product.asp?vink=6303.In this article future trends in population size, age structure and support ratios (the ratio of people of working age to those of pensionable age) were considered under a variety of different assumptions about future fertility and net international migration. (Net migration is the difference between the number of immigrants and the number of emigrants.) Assumed mortality improvements were taken from the then current principal national population projection produced by the Government Actuary's department.In the current national population projections, the population of the United Kingdom is projected to continue to increase until around the year 2040 and then to start to decline. In theory, a number of different combinations of future fertility and net migration levels could prevent the total population, and the working age population, from declining in size. For example, the article concluded that with the then current fertility assumptions from the principal, national population projection, annual net inward migration of 145,000 persons a year would produce approximate stability in both total population size and in the size of the working age population in the second half of this century.The effect of different levels of net migration on support ratios is a more complex issue and is discussed fully in the article in

asked Her Majesty's Government:In respect of each English region eligible for objective 1 funding, Cornwall, including the Isles of Scilly, Merseyside and South Yorkshire, (a) for which transport projects application for funding under the European Communities objective 1 programme has been made for the period 2000 to 2006; (b) those for which funds have been awarded; and (c) how much funding from the Government and the European Community has been allocated to each of the latter projects. [HL5906]

The table below sets out the transport projects approved under the 2000–06 objective 1 structural funds programmes in England.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the outcome of the Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs Council held on 8 October in Luxembourg. [HL6134]

This was the first meeting of the new Council formation as reconfigured at Seville. Its relatively light agenda was weighted towards employment and social policy issues. There were no consumer affairs dossiers on the agenda, and only one health item was tabled. My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, accompanied by my right honourable friend the Minister of State for Employment Relations and the Regions, represented the UK.The key discussion centred on the review of the European employment strategy (EES). The Council endorsed the opinion of the Employment Committee and Economic Policy Committee on the future of the EES, which makes more explicit the linkages between the EES and achieving the targets set at Lisbon in 2000. The Employment Committee will now draft an opinion on streamlining the Employment Guidelines and Broad Economic Policy Guidelines. Discussions will continue at the December ESPHCA and it is expected that the new strategy will be signed off at the spring Council in 2003.The Presidency presented two progress reports without discussion: on agency work, which is likely to appear on the agenda for December's ESPHCA; and on a revised proposal for a directive protecting workers from the risks of exposure to electromagnetic fields and waves, which was remitted for further technical work. The chairman of the Social Protection Committee reported that the committee would agree new objectives on social inclusion at the end of October 2002. These would be approved at the European Council in Copenhagen in December. The chairman also drew attention to two reports for the 2003 spring Council: on long-term care for the elderly and the recently submitted national strategy reports on pensions.The Council held a brief debate on gender and marginalisation in the context of national action plans on inclusion (NAPs incl). The Presidency called for more work to be done on appropriate indicators. All member states agreed to give greater prominence to gender in the 2003 round of NAPS incl.In relation to health issues, the Council discussed the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products elements of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Council agreed on how to proceed in light of the forthcoming negotiating round (the fifth) of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body in Geneva (14–25 October 2002).Under any other business, the Presidency outlined how the Council would follow up the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development with a letter to the President of the General and External Affairs Council. There would be Council conclusions in December. The Commission presented its plans for a communication on the rights of disabled people and for a conference on trafficking in humans.Over lunch, Ministers had a political discussion on the proposal for the replacement of the Standing Committee on Employment with a tripartite social summit on growth and employment.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What plans they have for increasing the bandwidth (for high-speed Internet access) to the United Kingdom education sector; and what proposals they have for rolling out adequate broadband support to the teaching professions. [HL5958]

The devolved administrations have responsibility for their respective countries' education departments; therefore this Answer refers to England only. The DfES has set up 10 regional broadband consortia (RBCs) to help LEAs deliver broadband access to schools. The RBCs are initially providing co-ordinated and cost-effective connectivity between schools and access to the Internet for schools, including those in rural areas, at a minimum bandwidth of 2 megabits per second (2Mbps). At present 23 per cent of schools have a managed educational broadband service, including 85 per cent of secondary and 14 per cent of primary schools.The Joint Academic Network (JANet) is an established network providing facilities for the higher education (HE) and further education (FE) sectors, with all colleges now having guaranteed minimum 2Mbps connectivity and most HE institutions have at least 155Mpbs connection. SuperJANet offers a high capacity (10Gbps) national backbone.Support provided to teachers includes: General and specific advice on broadband and other ICT in education issues through our lead agency Becta; technical advice and funding for possible technical support through Standards Fund 601A grant for infrastructures and services.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the proposal from the Department for Education and Skills to use income support data to represent deprivation to determine need for education support grant takes account of the acknowledged regional variation and its impact on the reliability of the data. [HL5974]

An income-based measure provides a good proxy for childhood deprivation. At the local education authority level the best such proxy available is provided by receipt of income support. The measure is based on a 100 per cent count of claimants at a point in time and our investigations have shown that it is robust and that claimants can be accurately assigned to local education authorities.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What advice they will give to the Learning and Skills Council in view of the shortages in certain categories of skilled labour, particularly in the construction industry, which will be affected by the additional funding under the Comprehensive Spending Review. [HL5975]

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is working closely with the new Sector Skills Development Agency and the sector skills councils as key strategic partners in identifying sector skills priorities and agreeing with them specific arrangements for meeting the priorities identified. We will set out the funding available for 2003–04 and the following two years in December in the annual grant letter to the LSC. This will include resources from the Spending Review 2002.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What representations they have had supporting the extension to BBC radio of the statutory independent production quota which currently exists for all the United Kingdom public service television channels; what reply they have made; and whether there is any action they will be taking. [HL5903]

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has received representations suggesting that BBC radio commits itself to an independent production quota similar to the one which currently exists for all the UK public service television channels—BBC1, BBC2, ITV, C4 and C5. The department's officials are considering this issue with the BBC and others.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether in all cases when a member of staff of the Northern Ireland Office is dismissed for criminal actions, such as photocopying confidential letters, the case is referred to the Department of Public Prosecutions or the Police. [HL5846]

If a Northern Ireland Office member of staff is dismissed for criminal actions the circumstances and evidence surrounding such a dismissal may be referred to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.The seriousness of the criminal activity, the cogency of the evidence and whether the known activity represented all that had gone on are factors in deciding whether or not to refer the matter to the police.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they consider that the time is ripe to enable the public to make complaints of maladministration directly to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration without having to complain via a Member of Parliament. [HL5892]

I have nothing further to add to my answer to the noble Lord's previous question on this matter.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the annual expenditure by Railtrack, and what will be the annual expenditure by Network Rail, on the West Coast route modernisation for (a) maintenance and renewal, and (b) enhancements from the start of the project until forecast completion in 2006. [HL5922]

The Strategic Rail Authority has still to finalise the details of its strategy for taking forward the West Coast route modernisation project, in the light of the consultation process which it launched on 9 October.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether their administrative procedures are sufficiently flexible to cope with the pace of change in the drive for e-government. [HL6014]

The Government recognise the need for flexibility and responsiveness, and this lies at the heart of the delivery and reform programme, of which e-government is a central element. Substantial progress has already been made in the introduction of e-government with change being successfully introduced on a large scale.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are satisfied that there are adequate regulations in place to prevent noise pollution from privately owned helicopters which land and take off from private premises close to residential areas; if so, where these regulations are published; and, if not, what action they propose to take. [HL6054]

The Town and Country Planning Act 1990 excludes from the statutory definition of development the use of buildings or land within the curtilage of a house for purposes which are incidental to the occupants' enjoyment of the house. Therefore, a planning application would not be required to keep a helicopter and to take off and land the helicopter within the curtilage of a dwellinghouse provided that the use is incidental to the domestic needs or enjoyment of the occupants of the house. If the use of the helicopter is more than incidental and amounts to, for example, a commercial operation, then a planning application for change of use of the land may be needed. However, that is a matter which the local planning authority has to decide on the facts of each case.Civil helicopter pilots must abide by the rules of the Air Regulations and other applicable civil aviation legislation.