asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answers by the Lord Privy Seal on 6 November (

The date supplied, 27 November, was incorrect due to typographical error. The NSMC meeting was actually held on 23 November 2001 in Carrick-on-Shannon, County Leitrim, The meeting dealt primarily with issues relating to Waterways Ireland. In addition the NSMC agreed in principle that the recommended candidate was acceptable for appointment as chief executive of Foras na Gaeilge. A list of those who attended the meeting is set out below:

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many posts within the Northern Ireland Civil Service are classed as sensitive posts or higher; how many of those post holders possess valid security clearance; whether any Northern Ireland civil servants whose security clearances have expired are still in post; and, if so, why. [HL181]

All administrative staff recruited to the Northern Ireland Civil Service are subject to security vetting before being appointed.The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has today announced that he has commissioned a review of the Northern Ireland arrangements, which will report to him with recommendations and a plan for their implementation. That review will include an assessment of the nature and extent of current security vetting within the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What vetting procedures are applied to civil servants in Northern Ireland; and whether the same procedures are applied to civil servants in England and Wales. [HL383]

Members of the Northern Ireland Civil Service are security vetted under local arrangements, which are broadly analogous to those operating throughout the UK as set out in the then Prime Minister's statement to the House of Commons on 15 December 1994 (WA764–66). Security vetting of civil servants in England and Wales is conducted in accordance with the UK arrangements. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has today announced that he has commissioned a review of the Northern Ireland arrangements, which will report to him with recommendations and a plan for their implementation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why the ministerial foreword to the Food Safety Promotion Board's annual report for 1999–2000 is in English and Irish when there is no provision for bilingualism in the international agreement of 8 March 1999 which established the implementation body; and why the board has been given an Irish language name. [HL519]

There is no prohibition in the legislation establishing the North/South implementation bodies on the use of the Irish language. Decisions of the North/South Ministerial Council are by agreement, and the Food Safety Promotion Board's annual report for 1999–2000, containing the bilingual English and Irish foreword was presented to the North/South Ministerial Council meeting held on 27 February 2002.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish the full composition of the United Kingdom delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of Western European Union. [HL647]

The United Kingdom delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Assembly of Western European Union is as follows:Tony Lloyd Esq MP (Leader)

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the role of development aid in the peace process and resolution of conflict in southern Sudan; and whether such aid through civil society organisations would assist or inhibit that process over the coming months. [HL300]

The war in Sudan has made impossible the provision of support for a development programme in Sudan over the past decade. Large amounts of development assistance has been provided for humanitarian relief, the bulk of which has been spent on air costs. Sudan is a highly indebted poor country and over 500 million dollars of development funding will become available from the international community when there is peace. This is creating an incentive for the warring parties to reach a comprehensive agreement. We reinforce this message to the Government of Sudan and the SPLM at every opportunity and point out that a track record of pro-poor reform will also generate considerable debt relief. Until there is a peace agreement, we will continue to support life-saving humanitarian work and peacebuilding activities, such as personnel to monitor the ceasefire in the Nuba mountains, support for the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development Secretariat who chair the peace talks, and support for anti-slavery work. We will also continue to support peace activities through civil society groups, an important part of the wider peace process, through our embassy peacebuilding fund.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What effect they consider the changes proposed to Turkey's constitution by Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan will have on Turkey's candidacy for European Union membership. [HL348]

The new Turkish Government have announced a large number of reforms, political and economic. Some may require amendment of the constitution, others new legislation, and yet others better regulation and implementation by the authorities. All of these, in so far as they help meet the Copenhagen political criteria, bring closer the day when Turkey will be able to open accession negotiations with the EU. As a strong supporter of Turkey's EU candidature, the British Government welcome them all. But we also admire the Turkish Government's assertion that they want these reforms for their citizens, in any case, regardless of their impact on Turkey's EU candidature.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will discuss with the Government of Turkey, both directly and through multilateral channels, the following issues:

(a) The UK welcomes the Turkish clearance of a reported 10,638 landmines from various border regions by the end of 2001. Turkey has signed several protocols on landmine clearance with neighbours, including Bulgaria and Georgia, and has stated that it has not laid anti-personnel mines on Turkish territory since December 1997.(b) The UK encourages Turkey and other nations to accede to the Ottawa Convention on anti-personnel landmines and the Convention on Conventional Weapons Amended Protocol II that regulates the use of other types of landmines. The UK Government lobbied Turkey in January 1999, as part of a global exercise in support of the Ottawa Convention. Since then, Turkey has supported the UN resolution calling for universal accession to the convention. The Turkish Parliament has taken steps to do so itself; the Turkish parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee approved the principle of accession to the Ottawa Convention on 9 May 2002. We expect Turkey to do so soon.(c) The situation on Kurdish names is evolving. The Appeal Court ruled in 2000 that parents could register their children with Kurdish names. Some parents doing so were challenged but the courts found in favour of the parents. The new government in Turkey have shown, by existing and planned legislation and by their heavy emphasis on human rights, that they intend to abolish such restrictions on individual liberties.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What representations they have made to the Nigerian Government to express their concern that the Deputy Governor of Zamfara State in Nigeria has issued a fatwa against the journalist Ms Daniel, following her report linking the Prophet Mohammed to the Miss World beauty contest in the publication

We deplore the issuing of a fatwa against Isioma Daniel. Such action is a clear violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nigeria acceeded in 1993.With our EU partners, we have made clear our concern privately to the relevant authorities.The Nigerian Government immediately made clear that the fatwa is null and void. Moderate Muslim leaders distanced themselves from it. On 28 November, the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs of Nigeria (SCIA) rejected the fatwa on the grounds that Ms Daniel was not a Muslim and had apologised.The Nigerian federal authorities are fully aware of their obligations under the international human rights instruments to which they are a signatory and the damage this illegal fatwa could do to their international reputation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made in agreeing the relationship between the sovereign base areas in Cyprus and the European Union following Cyprus's accession. [HIL568]

Further to the Answer given by my noble friend Lady Symons of Vernham Dean to Lord Kilclooney of 5 December 2001, there has been very substantial progress on agreeing the relationship between the SBAs and the EU after Cyprus's accession. Our hope is that the final agreement will be in line with the policy set out in my noble friend's Answer: that the SBAs should remain outside the EU but with some technical adjustments to ensure the continued smooth functioning of the relationship between Cyprus and SBAs. To that end, a clearly defined and limited part of the acquis would apply to the SBAs. These arrangements would be compatible with the 1960 Treaty of Establishment and with the undertakings which we made at that time in relation to the SBAs.The final agreement should take the form of a protocol which will be part of the terms of Cyprus's accession. A Bill will be introduced to enable ratification of the enlargement accession treaty.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What rights to work will be extended to citizens of the new European Union members states. [HL569]

The Government have decided to extend to citizens of the new EU member states, from their accession on 1 May 2004, the full rights to work in the UK as enjoyed by existing EU citizens.Under the terms of the Accession Treaty, the new EU citizens will automatically have full free movement rights for all purposes other than work. But it is up to each member state to decide whether to extend working rights from accession. Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Greece have already stated their intention to do this.We have made this decision because it is in the UK's interest. It will attract workers we need in key sectors. It will ensure they can work without restrictions and not be a burden on the public purse. It forms part of our managed migration agenda. It makes sense financially, as we can focus resources on the real immigration problems, rather than trying to stop EU citizens enjoying normal EU rights; and it makes sense for UK citizens. Already thousands work in the future member states under work permit systems. They and others will have full rights to work in the new member states, tree of controls.The decision has been taken after careful analysis of successive independent studies which show that there is unlikely to be a large influx of workers to the UK after accession. Forthcoming research commissioned by the Home Office also suggests that the numbers that will migrate to the UK after accession will not be significant. This confirms the experience of Spanish and Portuguese accession when there were no major influxes. Indeed, the evidence is that emigrant workers return to their countries after they have joined the EU, thanks to the increased stability and prosperity which EU membership brings.We will provide safeguards. These will allow us to reintroduce restrictions in the event of an unexpected threat to a region or sector in our labour markets.This is the right thing to do. The citizens of the new member states should enjoy the same rights as British, French, German and other citizens within the EU.Enlargement will ensure stability on our continent: the EU was founded to anchor peace and stability in Europe; enlargement is spreading that stability across our continent. It will provide a boost to our prosperity, as have all previous enlargements. Enlargement will improve our environment and security as we will be able to work together to tackle such problems as pollution, drug trafficking and international crime within the enlarged Union.The UK has been a champion of enlargement from the start. We look forward to the conclulsion of negotiations with 10 candidate countries this week in Copenhagen, and to welcoming them as equal citizens in the EU in 2004.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the outcome of the 5th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva. [HL570]

There was a successful outcome to the recent 5th Review Conference of the Biological Weapons Convention in Geneva. The agreement that was reached there on a set of practical measures will now be the focus for active consideration by the international community. It was of crucial importance that there should be unanimous agreement on the way ahead in meeting the pervasive threat from biological warfare, particularly in light of the growing menace of international terrorism.The Green Paper on the threat from biological weapons, which was laid before the House in April this year, set out a range of practical measures that could be adopted for dealing with this issue. The Government were particularly glad to see that a number of proposals in that paper have been incorporated into the international programme of work that has been agreed for the next three years.The first round of meetings in 2003 will see discussion of penal legislation to bolster the prohibitions of the convention and also of stricter regulations on the handling of dangerous pathogens. In 2004 states parties will study ways of better responding to and investigating cases of alleged use of biological weapons, and suspicious outbreaks of disease. There will also be an examination of ways to strengthen the world-wide surveillance of disease as it affects humans, animals and plants. Finally, in 2005 there will be discussion, and we hope adoption, of' a code of conduct for scientists working in this area.Her Majesty's Government believe it was vital that agreement on this programme should be reached by consensus among all states parties to the Biological Weapons Convention. It was for this reason that we conducted extensive consultations throughout 2002 to try and establish a basis for compromise. Those efforts clearly bore fruit.The seriousness and immediacy with which all countries view the BW threat is evident from this outcome. The programme of work won unanimous approval from the United States, our EU partners and other Western countries as well as Russia, China and members of the Non-Aligned Movement. This broad support is vital and will help to ensure that the international community brings its full authority to promoting and taking effective action on the potential dangers posed by the proliferation of biological weapons.The United Kingdom has played a leading role in the search for ways of reinforcing the Biological Weapons Conference. So this positive outcome to the review conference is all the more welcome. We will remain fully committed to seeing practical results emerge from this process which will help to address an ever present threat both to international stability and the well being of humankind.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will consider making provision for single-sex accommodation for those women refugees who request it. [HL403]

Accommodation provided by the National Asylum Support Service (NASS) is on a "no choice basis". But each case is considered on its individual merits and NASS takes into account any information presented to it. This can include a request to be housed in single-sex accommodation. NASS has a range of accommodation ranging from full board hostels to self-contained flats and houses. NASS also uses houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). All HMOs provide single-sex accommodation but hostels may provide accommodation for both sexes and we cannot guarantee that all single women accommodated by NASS will be housed in single-sex accommodation.In the trial of accommodation centres, it is intended that single women will be accommodated separately from families and single men and will not be expected to share facilities.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Which are the cluster areas for the dispersal of asylum seekers in the United Kingdom; and how many asylum seekers will be dispersed to each such area; and [HL483]To which places not previously used for the dispersal of asylum seekers they intend to start dispersing such persons; and how many asylum seekers are intended for each new place. [HL484]

The following table lists all designated cluster areas and, where applicable, shows the number of asylum seekers including dependants dispersed to each area. The National Asylum Support Service (NASS) is currently negotiating for additional accommodation suitable for families. In addition, one of the private providers contracted to NASS is seeking to fulfil the terms of its existing contract with NASS to provide accommodation mainly for single adults. I am unable at this stage to give information on where this accommodation will be or how many asylum seekers and dependants will be dispersed to each locality.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the making of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (Commencement No. 1) Order 2002, when they will lay a draft code of practice before Parliament. [HL412]

The code of practice entitled Immigration and Asylum Act 1999: Level of Penalty Ode of Practice was laid in draft before Parliament on 14 November 2002. It was brought into force by the Carriers' Liability (Clandestine Entrants) (Level of Penalty: Code of Practice) Order 2002, Statutory Instrument No. 2816.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How they respond to the report from Business2www (B2W) bench-marking central government websites which alleges that, on average, they contain 1,927 errors per page. [HL436]

The Government have noted the publicity surrounding this unsolicited report. We also note the report claims an average of 1,927 errors per website reviewed. The company has been using this report as a direct marketing tool to sell their website-checking software.The National Audit Office is finalising a report of its findings from the testing of some 75 government websites against internationally recognised guidelines. I understand from its methodology and the number of websites tested that this will give us a focused understanding of the state of play of government online services.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What percentage of service personnel now available for deployment in the event of a resumption of hostilities against Iraq have been vaccinated against anthrax, whether any of them have suffered side effects; and whether the Centre for Applied Microbiology and Research at Porton Down is content that combining the anthrax vaccine with other vaccines and protective measures could not involve harmful long-term side effects. [HL385]

No decisions have yet been made concerning military action against Iraq.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether a preferred partner has been selected to provide support services to the Army Training Estate. [HL646]

The competition announced in May 2000 has resulted in the selection of a preferred partner, Landmarc Support Services. Detailed negotiations will now take place to secure a contract to provide support services to the Army Training Estate with effect from 1 April 2003.This will result in the transfer of approximately 1,400 Ministry of Defence civilian personnel to the private sector. The full protection of the Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) will apply. The departmental trades unions will be fully consulted in the normal way.This contract will maintain existing command and control arrangements together with safety and public relations under MoD while introducing best commercial practice in all areas of non-core business. It will also lead to a more cost-effective professional and relevant means of service delivery.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What their plans are for the continuation of the maximum price scheme for generic medicines. [HL609]

The Government have decided to roll forward unchanged the maximum price scheme for generic medicines used in National Health Service primary care. This follows consultation with stakeholders that concluded on 29 November 2002.The scheme was introduced in August 2000 as a result of price increases in the generics market that started in 1999. It was rolled forward in October 2001. The scheme has restored stability in the generics market and the NHS has saved some £330 million annually as a result. The continuation of it will ensure that this stability continues and that the expenditure savings are maintained.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's 11th annual report and accounts will be laid before Parliament. [HL610]

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority's 11th annual report and accounts 2002 were laid before Parliament today.Copies have been placed in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the reply by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 20 November (

The legal base of a measure, that is to say article or articles which provide the justification for adoption of a measure by the Council, depends on the aim and content of the measure in question. The only articles that can provide the legal base for a measure which has as its aim and content the harmonisation of tax are Articles 93, 94 and 308. All of these articles require unanimity.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their response to the call by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, in its special report, published on 29 November entitled

The Government note with interest the special report published by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution. The Government have announced in this year's Pre-Budget Report that they intend to discuss with stakeholders the most effective economic instruments for ensuring that the air travel industry is encouraged to take account of, and where appropriate to reduce, its contribution to global warming, and local air and noise pollution. The Government will set out their plans in their air transport White Paper next year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will introduce greater tax concessions for the donors of charitable gifts, similar to those available in the United States, to encourage increased funding of universities and the arts by philanthropic means. [HL493]

The tax incentives available to donors of charitable gifts are the same for all charities, including universities, museums and galleries and theatre companies that are registered as charities. There is a range of tax reliefs both for companies and for individuals on donations through the payroll, Gift Aid, and reliefs on gifts of shares. These tax reliefs are in some ways even more generous than those available in the United States. For example, in the UK a donor could completely extinguish his or her tax liability in one year through tax relief on gifts to charity, whereas in the US there is an annual limit. The tax reliefs in the UK are, however, less well known among donors. In order to tackle this the Government work in partnership with the charitable sector, for example through their support of the Giving Campaign in its work to ensure donors are aware of the tax reliefs available to them. The Chancellor keeps all aspects of the tax system under review.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether a statement has been made under the Human Rights Act 1998 in connection with the Consolidated Fund Bill and the Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill. [HL648]

I have made a statement under Section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998 that, in my view, the provisions of the Consolidated Fund Bill and the provisions of the Consolidated Fund (Appropriation) Bill are compatible with the convention rights. A copy of the statement has been placed in the Library of the House.