Written Statements

Tuesday, 24 February 2004

Security And Intelligence Agencies: Departmental Expenditure Limits

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Security and Intelligence Agencies' DEL will be increased by £27,620,000 from £1,497,446,000 to £1,525,066,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £4,295,000 from £566,324,000 to £570,619,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	13,819,000	1,119,106.000	11,750,000	1,130,856,000
Capital	14,402,000	530,411,000	5,000,000	535,411,000
Depreciation¹	601,000	141,201.000	-	141,201,000
Total	27,620,000	1,508,316,000	16,750,000	1,525,066,000

¹Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:

1. the take-up of end-of-year flexibility of £9,198,000.

2. a transfer of £7,016,000 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to reflect funding for conflict prevention.

3. a transfer of £85,000 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to fund planned programme activity.

4. a transfer of £ 1,050,000 from the Home Office.

5. a transfer of £120,000 from the Ministry of Defence for the payment of electricity.

6. a switch of £2,000,000 to capital.

7. a decrease of £735,000 resource due to an increase of £735,000 in the forecast profit on sale of an asset. This is a non-cash item.

8. a decrease of £915,000 in other non-cash items due to new forecasts.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:

1. the take-up of end-of-year flexibility of £11,531,000.

2. a switch of £2,000,000 from resource.

3. a transfer of £861,000 to the Cabinet Office.

4. an increase of £ 1,732,000 due to the virement of £735,000 from resource (non-cash) to capital (cash) from the profit of a sale of an asset and £997,000 to correct the figures given in the winter supplementary.

Northern Ireland Office: Departmental Expenditure Limits

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement.Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) DEL will be increased by £28,325,000 from £1,180,916,000 to £1,209,241,000. The administration cost limit has been increased by £34,000 from £163,375,000 to £163,409,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

		Of which:
	Change	New DEL	Voted	Non-voted
Resource	28,325	1,136,389	400,441	735,948
Capital	0	72,852	30,113	42,739
Depreciation¹	10,956	22,209	27,467	49,676
Total	17,369	408,345	751,220	1,159,565

¹Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from a change in the budgeting treatment for pension schemes (£25,000,000) and from the net effect of transfers to and from other government departments (£3,325,000). The increase in administration costs (£34,000) is also as a net effect of transfers to and from other government departments.

General Consumer Council For Northern Ireland: Annual Report And Accounts 2002–03

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Enterprise, Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland has made the following Ministerial Statement.The General Consumer Council for Northern Ireland 2002–03 annual report and accounts were deposited in the Library of the House today.

Planning Policy Statement 1: Draft For Consultation

My right honourable friend the Minister for Housing and Planning has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.I am today publishing for consultation a draft of Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1)—

Creating Sustainable Communities—the core statement of the Government's key planning policies. I am also publishing a paper on the Government's approach to community involvement in planning.

PPS1 is the key overarching document which sets out the Government's high level principles for planning.

Clause 39 (Clause 38, the sustainable development clause, as was) of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Bill requires regional and local plans to be drawn up with a view to contributing to the achievement of sustainable development. The clause requires that in doing so, planning authorities must have regard to guidance issued by the Secretary of State. PPS1 will be a key document underpinning this requirement.

PPS1 is based on three themes:

Planning for sustainable communities and sustainable development;
The new approach to planning we are promoting as part of planning culture change (the spatial planning approach); and
Community involvement in planning.

Sustainable development

Our legislation will make contributing to the achievement of sustainable development the key purpose of the planning system. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister should expect planning policies to pursue proactively the four aims of sustainable development—economic development; social inclusion; environmental protection; and prudent use of natural resources—in an integrated way, in line with the Government's overall strategy for sustainable development.

Spatial Planning

The new regional and local plans provided for in the Bill are based on the philosophy of spatial planning. Spatial planning goes beyond traditional land use planning to bring together and integrate policies for the development and use of land with other policies and programmes which influence the nature of places and how they function.

PPS1 sets out the spatial planning approach that will be adopted in the new planning system. These planning tools will reflect real geographies and real community issues, and are thus a flexible approach to planning and sustainable development.

Community involvement

Effective community involvement is a vital element in delivering sustainable communities. Our aim should be to develop effective community involvement processes which enable a better understanding of the sometimes difficult choices which have to be made in considering development and more ownership of the accompanying decisions.

We need of course to strike a balance between promoting effective community involvement without allowing the system to be bogged down by endless consultation exercises. I want the reformed system to emphasise community involvement as a way of helping to resolve problems early in the process and secure ownership, so that when plans and proposals are put forward, there are fewer objections.

The paper makes clear that community involvement should be based on a real understanding of the community's needs, should be fit for purpose, and should be front loaded—i.e. involvement early in the process.

PPS1 can only set out the key policy principles for community involvement in planning. To put these in context, the community involvement paper sets out our general philosophy on community involvement in planning, and puts this in the broader context of policy.

Copies of the two documents will be available in the Libraries of the House. They will also be available on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website at (www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/ groups/odpm_planning/documents/sectionhomepage/ odpm_planning_page.hcsp)

Code Of Conduct For Local Government Members

My right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government, Regional Governance and Fire has made the following Writ ten Ministerial Statement.The Government have today published a consultation paper setting out their proposals for draft regulations under Section 66 of the Local Government Act 2000. These proposals will make provision for local government monitoring officers in England. in cases where ethical standards officers of the Standards Board for England deem it appropriate, to investigate allegations that local authority members have breached their code of conduct. The Government are consulting on this issue over the next three months, and at the same time the Standards Board for England is consulting on draft guidance for monitoring officers on how they can best undertake their duties under the proposed regulations.We need to ensure the highest possible ethical standards in local government, but we need a system which is efficient and workable. This approach is a sensible, effective and proportionate way of handling allegations of misconduct at a local level.Copies of the consultation paper are being sent to local authorities and will be available in the Libraries of the House, as well as being made available on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's website at www.odpm.gov.uk.

Housing Bill: Park Homes

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.On Friday the Government tabled amendments to the Housing Bill which is currently being considered by the House in Committee. These amendments meet a number of the recommendations of the Park Homes Working Party and aim to deal with some of the key concerns about the existing legislation.They amend the Mobile Homes Act 1983 to require a written statement of terms to be given to a prospective occupier 28 days before the agreement to station a park home on a site is entered into. At present written statements may be given up to three months after the agreement has commenced.In the event of the owner failing to produce the written statement in advance, any express terms contained in the agreement will not be enforceable at the suit of the owner. This is to encourage the site owner to produce the written statement in advance, and is not likely to hold up the process of a sale.The amendments create a power by which the Secretary of State (in Wales the National Assembly for Wales) can add additional terms to be implied into the agreement, and repeal and vary those in the Mobile Homes Act 1983. This power might be used, for example, to give an occupier the right to quiet enjoyment of their home, whereas currently an occupier would have to go to court to have this term implied into their agreement.Because existing agreements are of infinite duration, we need to be able to amend the statutory implied terms for existing agreements, where these are clearly inadequate. Provision has therefore been made for the first exercise of the power to have retrospective effect, i.e. to allow amendment of the implied terms operating as part of existing agreements. Future exercises of the power will be non-retrospective. Any order made under the power is subject to affirmative resolution by both Houses of Parliament, and the clause contains a consultation requirement for the Secretary of State to consult interested parties as to the proposed amendments. Representatives of both site owners and occupiers will therefore be consulted about the terms of any order to be made.Site owners will in future have a time limit of 28 days for giving or withholding approval of a prospective purchaser. By the end of this time limit a decision must have been given in writing. If not, the occupier can apply to the court for an order giving approval to that purchaser, which if given would involve the site owner in costs.The age of a home is removed as a relevant criterion for ending an agreement. Currently a site owner may terminate an agreement on grounds of "age and condition" of the unit. The amendment will remove the reference to age from the 1983 Act, as the age of a unit is irrelevant. The amendment will enable courts to consider the condition of the unit and to allow time for appropriate repairs (if reasonably practicable).The amendments increase the protection of occupiers of park homes against harassment and illegal eviction by amending the Caravan Sites Act 1968 to mirror the wording in the Protection from Eviction Act 1977, which governs the protection given to occupiers of conventional housing against eviction and harassment. The wording for the existing offence for a site owner doing "acts calculated to interfere with the peace or comfort" of the occupier which cause him to abandon his home has been relaxed to "acts likely to interfere" with such peace or comfort, which is obviously an easier test to satisfy. A new offence has been introduced which does not require specific intent by a site owner or his agent to cause an occupier to abandon his home. This will increase the protection available to occupiers and the chances of successful prosecutions.The remaining recommendations of the working party need further work to ensure that when fully implemented they will work effectively in practice. To that end, we have recently commissioned consultants to develop proposals on the implementation of the recommendations in relation to site licensing.

Mental Incapacity

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs

(Lord Filkin)

The Government have today published their response to the Joint Committee on the Draft Mental Incapacity Bill report which was published on 17 November 2003 (HL189–1 and HC 1083–1). Copies of the response have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses (Command Paper 6121).The Government would like to thank the committee for publishing such a comprehensive report in a short period of time, and obtaining such a wide range of evidence on the Bill. We are pleased that the committee agrees this new statutory framework is needed and that it endorses the principles and general direction of the draft Bill.The committee suggested that the Bill. being about how to maximise mental capacity, should be renamed the Mental Capacity Bill and we agree with this recommendation.The Bill will reform the law in order to improve and clarify the decision-making process for those aged 16 and over who are unable to make decisions for themselves. It will also offer, to people who have capacity, the choice to decide how they are cared for in the future by introducing new ways to plan ahead for a time when they might lose capacity.Over 2 million adults in England and Wales are currently affected by a lack of capacity. Many more care for someone who may need help with decision-making. With increasing ageing most of us will face the risk of losing mental capacity at some point in our lives. The Bill therefore has the potential to help a high proportion of the population.The Department for Constitutional Affairs is working closely with the Department of Health on a revised Bill. We plan to introduce the revised Bill later in this parliamentary Session. We will also have a draft outline of the codes of practice for Parliament to see at Committee stage.

Ofgem: Departmental Expenditure Limits

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry

(Lord Sainsbury of Turville)

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Hewitt) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets DEL will be decreased by £799,000 from £1,531,000 to £732,000 and the administration costs limits will remain unchanged at £1,398,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	1,000	682,000	—	682,000
Capital	—	50,000	—	50,000
	800,000
Depreciation¹	—	—	—	—
		1,300,000		1,300,000
Total	—	—	—	568,000
	799,000	568,000

¹ Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from additional programme costs of £1,201,000 in respect of higher than expected costs of energywatch. There is no change in the administration cost due to a compensating increase in appropriations in aid of £1,200.000.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from higher than expected receipts from the sale of capital assets.

Department Of Trade And Industry: Departmental Expenditure Limits

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Ms Hewitt) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department of Trade and Industry's DEL will be increased by £280,472,000 from £5,297,355,000 to £5,577,827,000 and the administration costs limits will be increased by £2,998,000 from £431,695,000 to £434,693,000.Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is as set out in the following table:

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource (£000)	224,012	1,072,089	3,870,623	4,942,712
Capital (£000)	56,460	310,301	324,814	635,115
Depreciation¹	0	—	—	—
(£000)		20,841	93,159	114,000
Total (£000)	280,472	1,361,549	4,102,278	5,463,827

¹ Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:

RƒR1

(i) a transfer of £11,200,000 from the Ministry of Defence in support of dual-use aero engine technology programmes;

(ii) a transfer of £67,000 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of the subscription to UNCLOS;

(iii) a transfer of £385,000 from the Home Office in respect of the Prison Services Pay Review Body;

(iv) a transfer from the Ministry of Defence of £43,000 in respect of the Armed Forces Pay Review Body and £16,000 in respect of the Senior Salaries Review Body;

(v) a transfer of £58,000 from the Northern Ireland Office in respect of the Prison Services Pay Review Body;

(vi) a transfer of £15,000 from the Cabinet Office in respect of the Senior Salaries Pay Review Body;

(vii) a transfer of £79,000 from the Department for Education and Skills in respect of the School Teachers Pay Review Body;

(viii) a transfer of £49,000 from the Department for Transport in respect of the FP6 Sustainable Surface Transport programme;

(ix) a transfer of £195,000 to the Department for Transport for the Low CVP Permanent Secretariat;

(x) reclassification of £24,000,000 in respect of Ofcom establishment costs from resource to capital expenditure;

(xi) a virement of £9,786,000 from voted cost of capital to non-voted cost of capital in respect of Companies House and the Patent Office;

(xii) transfer of £1,000,000 to the Department of Health in respect of Genetic Knowledge Parks;

(xiii) utilisation of £12,200,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement in respect of nuclear support for the former Soviet Union;

(xiv) utilisation of £3,862,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement in respect of the Rover Task Force;

(xv) utilisation of £19,541,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement in respect of innovation and space;

(xvi) utilisation of £12,000,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement in respect of the modernisation of the Post Office network;

(xvii) utilisation of £50,000 from the Capital Modernisation Fund in respect of the Evidence Based Policy Fund study of the UK's e-business performance;

(xviii) an increase of £1,498,000 in the non-voted expenditure of Postwatch and an equivalent increase in voted receipts;

(xix) a classification change of £17,683,000 from capital to current expenditure in respect of the National Measurement System PFI deal;

(xx) an increase of £63,893,000 in the non-voted expenditure of the regional development agencies and an equivalent increase in voted receipts;

(xxi) utilisation of £4,500,000 of the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement in respect of non-voted expenditure of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority;

(xxii) utilisation of £15,260,000 of the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the Competition Commission.

RƒR2

(i) utilisation of £2,930,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council;

(ii) utilisation of £461,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the Medical Research Council;

(iii) utilisation of £1,541,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;

(iv) utilisation of £9,456,000 for resource and £239,000 for capital grants from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the Natural Environment Research Council;

(v) utilisation of £22,569,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council;

(vi) a transfer of £200,000 from the Department for Education and Skills in respect of Women's Resource Centres;

(vii) utilisation of £24,012,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

Office of Deputy Prime Minister Estimate

(i) utilisation of £67,427,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for European Regional Development Fund expenditure borne of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's estimate;

(ii) utilisation of £22,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department for Work and Pension's end-year flexibility entitlement under the PES pool arrangement for European Development Fund expenditure borne on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's estimate.

Also within the change to resource DEL, the changes to administration costs limit are:

RƒR1

(i) a transfer of £32,000 from the Home Office in respect of the Prison Services Pay Review body;

(ii) a transfer of £17,000 from the Department for Constitutional Affairs in respect of the Senior Salaries Pay Review Body;

(iii) a transfer of £105,000 from the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs in respect of the Farm Business Advice Service;

(iv) a transfer of £300,000 from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of UK Trade and Investment E-business;

(v) implementation of an agreed classification change of £824,000 from capital to administration in respect of UK Trade and Investment E-business;

(vi) utilisation of £290,000 of Invest to Save funding in respect of claims handling in the Redundancy Payments Service;

(vii) implementation of an agreed virement from programme to administration of £1,500,000 in respect of the Liabilities Management Authority.

RƒR2

(i) a transfer of£70,000 to the Department of Health in respect of the Human Genetics Commission.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:

RƒR1

(i) utilisation of £14,100,000 of capital from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for non-voted expenditure of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority;

(ii) an increase of £21,995,000 in the non-voted capital expenditure of the Regional Development Agencies and an equivalent increase in voted receipts;

(iii) reclassification of £24,000,000 in respect of Ofcom establishment costs from resource to capital expenditure;

(iv) utilisation of £20,000,000 from the unused balance of the department's end-year flexibility entitlement for research establishment capital in respect of the National Measurement System and the Teddington PFI deal;

(v) implementation of a classification change of £824,000 from capital to current expenditure in respect of e-business;

(vi) a transfer of £816,000 to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in respect of e-business;

(vii) implementation of an agreed virement of £17,683,000 from capital to resource in respect of the National Measurement System private finance initiative deal, and a classification change of £17,683,000 to reflect the on-balance sheet impact of the National Physical Laboratory virement.

Department Of Health And Food Standards Agency: Departmental Expenditure Limits

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health has made the following Written Ministerial Statement today.Subject to the necessary supplementary estimate, the Department of Health's element of the departmental expenditure limit (DEL) will be increased by £262,454,000 from £65,583,213,000 to £65,845,667,000 and the administration cost limit will decrease by £4,042,000 from £297,448,000 to £293,406,000. The overall DEL including the Food Standards Agency will increase by the same amount, £262,454,000, from £65,722,240,000 to £65,984,694,000. The impact on resource and capital are set out in the following table.

		New DEL
	Change	Voted	Non-Voted	Total
	£ million	£ million	£ million	£ million
Department of Health
Resource DEL	95.348	63,334.252	-310.127	63,024.125
Capital DEL	167.106	653.611	2,167.931	2,821.542
Total Department of Health DEL	262.454	63,987.863	1,857.804	65,845.667
Depreciation¹	0.078	-352.57	-44.369	-396.939
Total Department of Health spending (after adjustment)	262.532	63,635.293	1,813.435	65,448.728
Food Standards Agency
Resources	0	136.368	0	136.368
Capital	0	2.659	0	2.659
Total Food Standards Agency DEL	0	139.027	0	139.027
Depreciation¹	0	-2.004	0	-2.004
Total Food Standards Agency spending (after adjustment)	0	137.023	0	137.023

¹Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since the capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the DEL arises from the take-up of end-year flexibility £260,978,000 (£1,572,000 administration costs) for capital, revenue and administration budgets as set out in Table 6 of the Public Expenditure 2002–03 Provisional Outturn White Paper Cm 5884 published in July 2003. A net transfer from the Home Office of £ 1,980,000 (£50,000 administration costs) mainly for training costs at special hospitals, drugs misuse pilot projects and voluntary sector care projects helping to increase volunteers in intermediate care; from the Department of Trade and Industry £1,070,000 (£70,000 administration costs) for contributions towards the human genetics commission and to support development of genetics knowledge parks to increase understanding into a range of genetic-based issues including research; from the Department for Work and Pensions £10,343,000 for the NHS low-income scheme and a contribution to the care direct budget; to the Scotland Executive £88,000 for their share of the reimbursement from manufacturers 3M associated with the ending of a hip replacement programme; a net transfer to the Department for Education and Skills £12,544,000 (£-1,733,000 administration costs) mainly for capital projects, machinery of government changes and NHS diploma students offset by contributions towards teenage pregnancy, children's trusts and communications budgets; a net transfer from the DHSS Northern Ireland £735,000 for out-of-area treatments offset by a contribution to CJD care fund; to the National Assembly for Wales £20,000 (administration costs) for prison healthcare.

The administration cost limit has reduced by £4,042,000 from £297,448,000 to £293,406,000. In addition to the changes detailed above there is a decrease of £3,981,000 for transfers to programme budgets mainly for capitalisation of software developments.

Cabinet Office: Departmental Expenditure Limits

Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Cabinet Office DEL will be increased by £2,043,000 from £311,289,000 to £313,332,000 and the gross administration costs limits will be increased by £2,644,000 from £223,733,000 to £226,377,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:

		New DEL
£'000	Change	Voted	Non-voted	Total
Resource	1,182	277,297	0	277,297
Capital	861	86,189	0	86,139
Depreciation¹	0	-50,154	0	-50,154
Total	2,043	313,332	0	313,332

¹ Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from additions from the DEL reserve of £3,500,000 for human resources restructuring, draw down of £140,000 end-year flexibility on Invest to Save funding provided to the Centre for Management and Policy Studies and net transfers to other government departments of £2,458,000.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from transfers from other departments of £861,000.

Nimrod Mra4

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Geoffrey Hoon) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.We announced. in February last year that agreement had been reached with Bae Systems on the way ahead for the Nimrod MRA4 programme and undertook to report significant developments to the House. We are pleased to announce that, following detailed negotiations, a contract amendment, formally embodying the agreement, was signed on 23 February 2004.Signature of the contract amendment demonstrates the positive relationship between the MoD and the company and the joint commitment to deliver this important military capability within the terms of our agreement. This contract amendment, however, although important, is not an end in itself. The work over the past year in putting the agreement into effect has set the programme on a much sounder footing for the future. Risks and challenges remain. however, and we are working hard with the company to assure the long-term stability of the programme.

Written Statements

Volume 658: debated on Tuesday 24 February 2004