asked the Leader of the House:Why it is that duly appointed Opposition Front-Bench spokesman may not claim any allowance on sitting days when their duties take them away from attendance in the House, for example to speak at a conference in north-western England, or to visit a hospital in north-eastern England. [HL4455]

There are two main sources of public funds available to support the costs of work related to the parliamentary duties of Opposition Front-Bench spokesmen.These sources are the Peers' Reimbursement Allowance scheme and the Financial Assistance to the Opposition Parties ("Cranborne money").If their travel is not on party business, Front-Bench spokesmen may recover the costs of travel on parliamentary business within the United Kingdom from the Peers' Reimbursement Allowance scheme, on the same basis as Back-Bench Members. In common with other Members, Front-Bench spokesmen may not claim subsistence costs arising from such journeys under the Peers' Reimbursement Allowance scheme, since such allowances can only be claimed after attendance at a sitting of the House or a committee.Cranborne money is the money provided by the House to fund the Opposition parties in the House of Lords. The House agreed to a substantial uprating of Cranborne money funds in 2002. It is up to each party to choose how to use the Cranborne money funds allocated to them.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they expect to announce the new appointments to the Committee on Standards in Public Life. [HL4566]

The Prime Minister is pleased to announce that four new members have been appointed to the Committee.Sir Alistair Graham and Professor Hazel Genn will take up appointment from 1 October 2003 in succession to Ann Abraham, who stood down from the committee on appointment as the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Health Service Commissioner for England, and Professor Alice Brown, who resigned from the committee on appointment as the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman.

asked the Chairman of Committees:What was the cost and quality control process used in the selection of replacement stone for the work currently under way on the Palace of Westminster. [HL4554]

The replacement stone being used in the current programme of restoration of internal courtyards within the Palace is an oolitic limestone from Clipsham in Rutland. It is supplied at a cost of £17 per cubic foot (excluding VAT). Quality control is carried out by a chartered surveyor from the project management consultants, who is on site whenever necessary (generally some two and a half days a week).

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bach on 8 July (

I will write as soon as possible to the noble Lord and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the comments by Lord Bach in the debate on Gulf War illness on 15 July (HL Deb, col. 836), whether any of the immunisations contained thimerosol. [HL4342]

In the United Kingdom, thimerosol is more commonly known as thiomersal. According to the information leaflets provided with the vaccines to which the noble Lord refers, the anthrax vaccine and the pertussis vaccine manufactured in the UK contained thiomersal. No mention is made of thiomersal in the leaflets that accompanied the pertussis vaccine manufactured in France or the plague vaccine manufactured in the US. The position regarding cholera vaccine is being researched and I will write to the noble Lord when work is complete and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House. I should like to correct part of the statement I made on 15 July (HL Deb, col. 836). Pertussis vaccine was used as an adjuvant, not to protect "against pertussis".

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Bach on 8 September (

We make every effort to minimise the impact of military operations on the Iraqi civilian population. We have no means of ascertaining the number of people killed or injured during the coalition's military action.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many people have been killed and how many people have been injured by unexploded bombs since the end of hostilities in Iraq. [HL4437]

Unexploded ordnance in Iraq includes munitions from the Iran-Iraq war as well as mines laid by Iraqi forces, ordnance fired or dropped by both sides during recent hostilities and stores of ammunition and other ordnance left by Iraqi military and paramilitary forces.We have no means of ascertaining the number of people killed or injured by unexploded ordnance since the end of the conflict.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made in gathering new information to inform the further development of the Government's veterans initiative. [HL4545]

The Ministry of Defence is announcing the publication of a new report entitled Improving the Delivery of Cross Departmental Support and Services for Veterans, which the department commissioned from King's College London last year. The publication of this study demonstrates the commitment of the Government as a whole to the veterans initiative through the participation of a working group which included members from the Department of Health, Home Office, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, Her Majesty's Treasury, Department for Work and Pensions and veterans' organisations. The aim was to produce a map of veterans' needs, with emphasis on the more vulnerable veterans, match this against current provision and identify priority research gaps. This involved a literature survey, detailed interviews with "at risk" personnel, and analysis and further interviews of an existing cohort of personnel for ex-service outcomes.This study is a preliminary scoping study and will inform the direction of policy and research. It therefore represents an important contribution to the veterans initiative. The report conclusions confirm that "For many (indeed most) personnel military life is 'a great leveller'; it is a positive experience (especially for disadvantaged youths who enter service early), allowing them to enjoy a more favourable life trajectory", and that "Over three-quarters of service leavers do well and gain employment after leaving".The report finds that there is little peer-reviewed published UK literature on outcomes of veterans, and that most published research concerns US service arid ex-service personnel, from which it would be inaccurate to draw extrapolations. It also shows that mental health is an important issue—most personnel do not develop problems as a result of their service, but the small percentage that do can face a range of difficulties in civilian life, including access to appropriate treatment.The Government welcome this report and would like to thank Professor Wessely and his team for their work. The report recommends a number of actions, as well as further research on ways to help the most vulnerable groups. We can confirm that we will look in detail at these recommendations and will evaluate them against existing policies and activities.A copy of the full report will be placed in the Library of the House, and also on the websites of the MOD and Veterans Agency, at

asked Her Majesty's Government:What plans they have to modify the night military low flying systems. [HL4551]

The existing night low flying system (NLFS) will remain unchanged in principle, but some adjustments are being made to its structure and management to improve the efficiency of the system and reflect an increasing requirement for helicopters to be able to train at night.The NFLS is divided into two by a line from Swansea in the west to Colchester in the east. The southern area is allocated to rotary-wing aircraft and the northern area to fixed-wing aircraft, with small exceptions to account for locations where rotary-wing aircraft are based in the fixed-wing region and vice-versa. This basis remains unchanged, but the area available to rotary-wing aircraft will be increased and the system made more flexible by the introduction of sectors that may now be allocated to either fixed-wing or rotary-wing aircraft. In addition, we are introducing some management changes to make the procedures that units use to book in to the system more efficient.The Government understand that military low flying training is disturbing, and can reassure the House that there is not expected to be a significant impact for those on the ground as a result of these changes. The existing basis of the NFLS will remain, and for most of the country there will be no change to the structure of the system. Where change is being introduced, the impact is generally expected to be limited to the possibility that those on the ground may witness different aircraft types than may currently be the case, and will be small in scale. We have considered the requirement for a sustainability review and recognise that some parts of the changes may lead to such a requirement, although, as stated, the overall impact is likely to be small. Where necessary we can confirm that more detailed work may be carried out. Detailed environmental impact and sustainability studies are being carried out in respect of AH 64, which is likely to be one of the major users of the revised NLFS.Finally, night flying is essential if our aircrews are going to meet the demands that are placed upon them. These changes will assist with these demands.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether components of British manufacture from the two vehicles suspected of being involved in the production of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq could have had dual use capability. [HL4335]

From our analysis to date there is no evidence that components assessed to be of United Kingdom manufacture are of a specification that would warrant assessment as a dual use item for export licensing. Our investigations into the vehicles continue.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Bach on 8 September (HL4186), which foreign government passed on information about the two vehicles suspected of being involved in the production of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that caused the Government to withhold details under exemption 1

The information was received in confidence from the government of the United States.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether any of the components of British manufacture from the two vehicles suspected of the production of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were bought using Export Credits Guarantee Department credits; and whether such credits were repaid by the Iraqi Government. [HL4336]

The coalition has not yet made a definitive identification of the vehicles and the components in question. As a result, it is not at present possible to determine whether any ECGD cover was involved. However, we currently assess that the vehicles were built in Iraq using Iraqi components and standard industrial components that had been obtained from several different countries, including the United Kingdom. The components of British origin would not have been restricted under the same sanctions regime.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the Home Office, the Department of Social Security, the Inland Revenue or other government agencies have taken any action to ascertain the truth of the allegations made in the Sunday Mirror on 17 August that Jerzey Kacperowicz, Ewa Huczko and Tommy Kwiek are claiming political asylum from a member state of the European Union. [HL4367]

Information relating to the immigration status of an individual has to be treated as confidential and cannot be disclosed to other persons. This reflects the Home Office's legal obligations under common law, human rights and data protection legislation, and the treatment of private personal information under the Code of Practice on Access to Information. However, the Government will not hesitate to prosecute individuals, including asylum seekers, who have obtained benefit fraudulently where there is sufficient evidence to do so.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the total amount of subsidy paid on agricultural exports from the European Union under the common agricultural policy in each of the last five years; whether they will break this down by commodities; and what was the effect of the subsidy in reducing prices (a) in total and (b) for each commodity. [HL4373]

The following table gives the total amount of subsidy paid on the export from the European Union under the common agricultural policy of the listed products in each of the last five years by commodity and in total.

Ecu/Euro millions
	Year
Sector	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002
Arable Crops	429.4	883.1	823.6	259.8	99.3
Sugar	1,265.5	1,592.6	1,438.8	1,008.2	1,151.6
Olive oil	24.9	2.5	0.2	0.2	0.1
Fruit and vegetables	58.3	40.4	46.1	50.8	46.4
Wine	41.2	27.4	21.5	22.5	23.8
Other plant sectors	49.6	30.5	38.4	38.7	41.1
Milk and milk products	1,426.7	1,439.4	1,671.0	1,106.5	1,159.6
Beef/Veal	774.5	594.9	661.3	362.6	386.7
Pigmeat, eggs and poultrymeat	165.2	385.6	348.2	115.7	104.4
Totals	4,235.3	4,996.4	5,049.1	2,965.0	3,013.0

In general export subsidies facilitate the export of products which would not otherwise be competitive on the world market. Export subsidies therefore reduce domestic EU supplies and increase extra-EU market supplies relative to the situation which would prevail in their absence. This implies that the EU price will he higher, and the external price lower, than in the absence of those subsidies.However, the effect of any particular export subsidy on prices will depend on the method of administering the export refund system for that product, conditions on world markets, the geographical destination of the exports and characteristics of the product consignment.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Which watercourses have had restrictions relaxed following successes in the brown rot eradication campaign; and which section of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has been responsible for this. [HL4396]

Potato brown rot is a serious disease of potatoes listed in the Plant Health Directive (2000/29/ EC). A Control Directive (98/57/EC) is also in place, requiring member states to carry out surveys and take specific measures in the event of an outbreak. Potato brown rot is not established in the UK, but the organism which causes the disease has been detected in some watercourses, resulting in irrigation and spraying prohibitions for some potato and tomato growers. The organism persists in water through woody nightshade, another host plant, with roots in contaminated watercourses.Defra (then MAFF) instigated a programme in 1998 to establish whether the removal of woody nightshade from the banks of selected watercourses would result in the elimination of the organism. This work is being co-ordinated by the Plant Health and Seeds Inspectorate with input from a number of government and industry organisations. Decisions about the introduction and removal of restrictions are taken by Plant Health Division, following an annual stakeholder meeting at which the plans and results for the monitoring and woody nightshade programmes are discussed.In 2002, following two years of negative results, including testing at increased sensitivity in the second year, it was established that the organism had been eliminated from two watercourses associated with the River Nene (the Willowbrook and Isle) and part of the Nene itself, as well as the Hogwell Sewer in Kent. As a result, irrigation and spraying restrictions were lifted from these watercourses in March 2003. Defra's monitoring and woody nightshade removal programme is continuing in 2003 and details of plans and progress, as well as information about watercourses currently under restriction, are available on Defra's website at

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any plans to make the BBC more accountable to the public. [HL4349]

The charter review will provide the opportunity for a comprehensive appraisal of the BBC's role in the digital age. The review will be wide-ranging and will encompass an extensive process of public consultation and discussion, including opportunities for parliamentary scrutiny. It follows that the BBC's accountability will be an area for consideration. The Secretary of State will make an announcement about the charter review process over the next few weeks.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Which dates the national governing bodies of the Olympic sports have met Barbara Cassani to hold detailed discussions on the London 2012 Olympic bid. [HL4473]

London 2012 Ltd is liaising directly with the national governing bodies of the 28 Olympic sports in order to put together a sports proposal that will have the backing of both domestic and international federations. These discussions will be ongoing throughout the period of the technical bid preparations.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What plans they have for improving access to NHS dentistry in England. [HL4565]

Subject to the will of Parliament, the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill will give primary care trusts new duties for commissioning local National Health Service dental services. Primary care trusts will have a duty to secure the provision of primary dental services either through contracts with individual practices or by providing services themselves. With these new responsibilities, the £1.2 billion currently held centrally for funding dental services will pass to primary care trusts.Until then, we will continue to work with the NHS and the dental profession to support NHS dentistry and to reform it to meet local needs. We are today announcing additional funding of £65.2 million to support change and help improve access, quality and choice for patients. The funding will be targeted at those primary care trusts where access is a real problem and will be on top of the £1.2 billion which is currently held centrally and which will in time go to primary care trusts.The £65.2 million will be used as follows:£35 million to enable primary care trusts to improve access, choice and quality for patients;£30 million for information technology to integrate dentistry within the national information technology programme;£200,000 to develop dental leadership skills within strategic health authorities and primary care trusts to support them with the dental change agenda.This funding comes on top of the £9 million announced last month for the NHS support team that has been set up to work with those areas where it is hardest to find an NHS dentist and a further £1 million to help primary care trusts, local dental committees and dentists to prepare for the change in the way dental services are commissioned.There are many examples of excellent NHS dental services and we want to reward NHS dentists and make practice in the NHS an attractive option. The programme of reform we are now embarked on will enable the NHS, dentists and patients to influence local services in the future.As well as the changes flowing from the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill, we have also asked Harry Cayton, the director for patient experience and public involvement at the department, to undertake a review of patient charges for NHS dentistry. This review involves patient groups and other stakeholders and will be reporting to Ministers by April 2004.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Of the 160,000 new National Health Service staff recruited since May 1997, how many are:

The information on doctors. nurses and technical staff and managers and clerical employees is presented in the table. Staff employed by local authorities are, by definition, not included in the National Health Service workforce census.Staff groups not included in the table but comprising the total number of staff employed in the NHS are ambulance trainee personnel, maintenance and works staff, all healthcare assistants and support staff, nurse learners, other non-medical staff or those with unknown classification and other general practitioner practice staff.

Total NHS staff and those in the specified areas in England as at 30 September each year.
headcount
	1997	2002	Difference
Total employed NHS staff	1,058,686	1,223,824	165,138
of which:
Professionally qualified clinical staff1	519,714	603,077	83,363
Unqualified nursing staff and unqualified scientific, therapeutic & technical staff	140,252	164,818	24,566
Clerical & administration staff (including managers and senior managers)	182,652	227,303	44,651

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, when assessing the responses from the consultation exercise on the proposals to amend the National Health Service (Charges for Overseas Visitors) Regulations 1989, they will take into consideration the provision of National Health Service treatment to migrants with transmissible disease so as to limit the risk of spreading infection. [HL4343]

The Government will take into consideration a wide range of issues when considering the outcome of the current consultation exercise, including the public health implications of our proposals.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many vaccinated nurses would normally be expected to work with one vaccinated doctor in the event of the need to deal with an outbreak of smallpox. [HL4358]

For every three vaccinated doctors forming part of the smallpox regional response team, there are two vaccinated nurses, who would deal with the direct care of the patient and follow-up of their contacts.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many carers have requested an assessment of their ability to provide care in each of the years following the passing of the Carers (Recognition and Services) Act 1995 in each county and city of the East Midlands; and what was the percentage of each total which was not completed within three months of the request. [HL4392]

The information requested is not held centrally.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

There are no plans to relocate the headquarters of the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health from Birmingham to London.

asked Her Majesty's Government:what progress has been made in eliminating mixed wards in the National Health Service. [HL4416]

The Department of Health has set three objectives to support the elimination of mixed-sex accommodation with a target to achieve these in 95 per cent of trusts by December 2002. The objectives are designed to deliver separate sleeping areas, separate toilet and washing facilities and safe facilities for the mentally ill.The National Health Service has made excellent progress. At the target date: 98 per cent of NHS trusts provided single-sex sleeping accommodation for planned admissions and had robust operational policies in place to protect patients' privacy and dignity; 95 per cent of NHS trusts met the additional criteria set to ensure the safety of patients who are mentally ill (this has now risen to 96 per cent); and 93 per cent of NHS trusts provided properly segregated bathroom and toilet facilities for men and women. This has risen to 95 per cent.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How they monitor the financial results of private patient activity within National Health Service trusts. [HL4441]

National Health Service trust accounts include an entry for income from non-NHS private patients. This includes all income received and receivable for patient care services from private patients.