asked Her Majesty's Government:What recent action they have taken to combat retail crime; what estimate they have made of its cost to retailers; and what further action they are considering. [HL2282]

The Government do not routinely collect information about the cost of retail crime but do take crime against the retail sector very seriously and are taking a wide range of actions to combat this. The British Retail Consortium conducts an annual retail crime survey and the most recent, published in June 2003, estimated the total cost of retail crime in the United Kingdom in 2002 at £2.25 billion. This includes the cost of crime prevention.The Government have provided £15 million over the past three years to improve the security of small retail businesses in deprived areas. Around 12,500 individual businesses have benefited from the scheme. As part of this scheme we also commissioned and funded a nation-wide series of security training seminars for small retailers.We have also agreed to provide £899,000 to the British Retail Consortium for the formation of the Action against Business Crime (AABC) group. The AABC group will provide support to existing retail/business crime partnerships and will set up 100 new business crime reduction partnerships in priority locations over the next two years.Local businesses are encouraged to become a member of their Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP). The CDRP aims to work together to do what it can reasonably to prevent and reduce crime within its local authority area. This could also be a way to reduce fear of crime within the local community, especially if local businesses can help the community to find solutions to its local problems.Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) can also be used to protect shopworkers. ASBOs can prohibit persons entering specified areas such as shopping centres; they can also prohibit persons engaging in specified anti-social acts, for example shoplifting, verbally abusing shopworkers, writing graffiti on a shop, and can also prohibit persons approaching specified persons.Drug-related crime is of concern to many retailers and so we are piloting two schemes, in Brighton and Northampton, to help reduce drug-related retail crime by ensuring that persistent shop thieves with drug problems have access to treatment.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they support the view of the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality concerning multiculturalism. [HL2383]

Yes. The Government believe in integration with diversity. This means both breaking down the barriers to and positively promoting integration, including working with communities to face down racism and other forms of extremism. It agrees with the Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) that multiculturalism is no longer a helpful word to the extent that it has come to mean cultural separateness.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Of those people killed or seriously injured by police cars, how many involved pursuit-trained police drivers and how many involved other police drivers for each of the past five years. [HL2432]

Information on the drivers of police vehicles involved in collisions is not collected centrally.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the implications of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 for the United Kingdom's international commitments to reject and condemn torture in all circumstances with particular reference to evidence during the secret part of the Special Immigration Appeal Commission's legal proceedings; and what is being done to avoid the condoning of torture. [HL2060]

The Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 Part 4 powers enable the Home Secretary to certify and detain foreign nationals who are suspected of involvement in international terrorism. These individuals have a right of appeal to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).SIAC has adopted the common law approach to evidence which may have been obtained elsewhere through the use of torture—save for the evidence that is obtained from a party (usually the defendant in a criminal trial), all evidence is admissible, however unlawfully obtained. However, where that evidence may have been obtained by torture, this will bear on the proper weight to be given to the information. The means by which information is obtained therefore goes to its reliability and weight and not to its admissibility.SIAC, in its open determination (29 October 2003), specifically considered Article 15 of the Convention Against Torture (CAT), which relates to statements which are established to have been made as a result of torture and concluded that their determination was compliant with this article.But we must take seriously our obligation to protect national security and the well-being of the citizens of the United Kingdom and we would be deficient in this duty if we did not properly assess all information involved in the war on terror.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many United Kingdom passports are currently valid for persons aged over 100 years; and [HL2429]How many United Kingdom passports are at present in issue; and how many of these are electronically readable. [HL2430]

The United Kingdom Passport Service (UKPS) does not routinely collate information relating to the age of passport holders and there are no systems in place to extract this information from the UKPS database. Figures for the current number of passport holders aged over 100 years are therefore not available.In the last 10 years (1 April 1994 to 31 March 2004), 47.5 million British passports have been issued by UKPS and a further 4.1 million by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). All of the passports issued by UKPS are machine readable, as are 85 per cent of those issued by the FCO (approximately 3.5 million passports). Since January 2004, all FCO issued passports have been machine readable.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the areas of Home Office policy within the scope of work done by Mr Matt Cavanagh, special adviser to the Home Secretary; and whether those areas include the Government's policies or practices as regards equality of opportunity, or legislation and practice regarding race relations, immigration and asylum, or the functions of the proposed Equality and Human Rights Commission. [HL2032]

The Home Secretary draws advice from a range of those with experience, knowledge and interest in the areas listed. This includes his special advisers, including Matt Cavanagh, as well as outside expertise. Cross-cutting equality issues are, of course, informed by advice and support across a number of departments, including the developments of the proposed single equality body.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 17 June 2003 (

I refer the noble Lord to the Answer I gave on 10 July 2003 (Official Report, col. WA 51). In 1972, when decisions needed to be adopted by the Council, they were generally taken by unanimity of consensus. The Treaties of Rome (the original having been amended by the Merger Treaty, a Budget Treaty and the Accession Treaty) did, however, provide for exceptions, and I have placed a list of these in the Library of the House.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 4 July 2003 (

The Maastricht Treaty enabled the European Council to use qualified majority voting in adopting recommendations in the health field on the prevention of diseases: in particular the major health scourges, including drug dependence.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean on 4 July 2003 (

According to the Treaty of Maastricht, in the health field the Community could adopt measures under the co-decision procedure, excluding any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the member states, in order to contribute to achievement of the following objectives:

• ensuring a high level of human health protection by encouraging co-operation between the member states and, if necessary, lending support to their action;
• the prevention of diseases, in particular the major health scourges, including drug dependence, by promoting research into their causes and their transmission, as well as health information and education.

In education, co-decision was applied to measures, excluding any harmonisation of the laws and regulations of the member states, that achieved the following objectives:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether Ofcom was consulted regarding the recent decision by British Telecom to cease to publish a single phone book for Northern Ireland. [HL2078]

The matter raised is the responsibility of the regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom). Accordingly, my officials have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the noble Lord. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What rationale was given to Ofcom by British Telecom to cease to publish a single phone book for Northern. Ireland. [HL2079]

The matter raised is the responsibility of the regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom). Accordingly, my officials have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the noble Lord. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether under the Equal Pay Act 1970 an employer may pay female staff a lower hourly rate of pay than male staff while providing female staff with other benefits, such as accommodation, which make the total package for female staff greater than that for male staff. [HL2322]

A woman can claim equal pay with a male comparator who earns a higher rate of basic pay than she does, even if other elements of her pay package are more favourable than his. Under the Equal Pay Act 1970 a woman can compare any term in her contract with the equivalent term in her comparator's contract. This means that each element of the pay package has to be considered separately and it is not sufficient to compare total pay. Any term which is less favourable (whether in the man's or the woman's contract) would need to be modified to be as favourable unless the employer can show that there is a genuine material factor for the difference which is not the difference of sex.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How materials removed from sites such as Windscale, Winfrith and Harwell are being treated or stored to prevent the release of harmful radioactivity. [HL2367]

The treatment and storage of all radioactive material or waste in the UK is carried out in accordance with regulations designed to ensure nuclear safety and environmental protection. The principal regulators are the Health and Safety Commission's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate, the Environment Agency (in England and Wales) and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will introduce a close season for wild boar. [HL2201]

We have no immediate plans to introduce a close season for wild boar, although we are keeping this position under review.

asked Her Majesty's Government:With what weapons it is legal to kill wild boar. [HL2202]

There are no specific legal restrictions governing the use of weapons to kill wild boar, but the use of bows, crossbows and any explosives other than ammunition for a firearm to kill any wild animal is prohibited (Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 Section 11(1)).

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether wild boar are game or vermin. [HL2203]

Wild boar are not specifically defined as game or vermin under any legislation.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 5 March (

It appears that all public funding for the games in Sydney came from the New South Wales Government. I am, however, unable to provide further breakdowns for Atlanta and Barcelona.We do not yet have the final breakdown of the anticipated figures for an Olympics in London in 2012. The public subsidy package described in the memorandum of understanding between the Government and the Mayor of London published in June 2003 as Command Paper CM 5867, and prepared drawing on analysis undertaken by Arup, is as follows:

National Lottery:	up to £1.5 billion
Council Tax:	up to £0.625 billion
LDA:	up to £0.250 billion
Total:	up to £2.375 billion

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the basic payments and incentive receipts or payments made by the Strategic Rail Authority to each passenger train operator in 2002–03; and why these were not published in the Strategic Rail Authority's annual report for 2002–03. [HL2224]

Appendix 3 to the Strategic Rail Authority's annual report for 2002–03 gives the franchise net payments to train operating companies. The basic payments and incentive receipts or payments are provided in the table below. The incentive payments were published in the June 2003 issue of the SRA's quarterly statistical publication, On Track.