asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress they are making alongside other G8 countries towards the target of providing 0.2 per cent of gross national income assistance to the least developed countries. [HL3264]

The UN aid target for least developed countries is 0.15 per cent of gross national income. The latest year for which data are available is 2002—details are given in the following table:Net official development assistance (ODA) from G8 countries to least developed countries

asked Her Majesty's Government:What would be the total annual financial cost if the Civil Partnership Bill were amended so as to backdate to 1988 (the date applicable to surviving widowers) survivor pension benefits for civil partners in public service schemes; and what is the basis of each element in that calculation; and [HL2924]Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 19 May (WA 90), what is their estimate of the financial cost of providing survivor pensions in public service pension schemes if the propensity of opposite sex couples to marry continues at current levels for the next five years; and [HL3012]

The Government Actuary's Department estimates the impact of civil partnership on public service pension schemes using as far as possible the actuarial assumptions on demographic and financial factors it considers appropriate for these schemes.Their estimates assume that those current employees who will in due course register a partnership will have the same age profile, service lengths, mortality and future career patterns as the other members.GAD estimates that the cost of providing accruing survivors benefits to opposite sex spouses is £1.8 billion per annum if the propensity of opposite sex couples to marry continues at current levels for the next five years. The special assumptions relating to civil partnerships are set out in the regulatory impact assessment.The RIA does not include costing for backdating entitlement for civil partners: the policy of successive governments has been that improvements to pension benefits should not be made retrospectively at employer cost.GAD estimates that if backdating to 1988 were granted for calculating pensions for surviving civil partners of members of public service schemes the cost would be a capital addition of £125 million to the liabilities of those schemes on the high take-up assumptions in the RIA, which assumes that same-gender couples form civil partnerships at one-tenth of the rate that opposite gender couples form marriages.If the propensity to form civil partnerships were the same as the propensity to form marriages amongst opposite gender couples, which was the high take-up assumption in the June 2003 consultation document, the cost would be a capital addition of £1.25 billion.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How United Kingdom executive directors of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund account or report to Parliament for project or programme funding and grant aid. [HL3260]

In practice, decisions by executive directors in both the World Bank and IMF are rarely taken through recourse to formal voting, with the emphasis being placed instead on reaching an informal consensus; and this approach is particularly common for project and programme loans. Nevertheless, in line with the UK Government's wider commitment to transparency in international financial institutions the Government are taking action to make the positions taken by the UK at these meetings more public. HM Treasury already provides broad details of the positions taken in IMF board discussions in its annual report to Parliament on the IMF. However, such information is not currently available for the World Bank, and the Secretary of State for International Development has therefore asked officials to provide a short annual statement to Parliament on UK positions in the World Bank Board, starting with those taken in the bank's financial year 2004 (ending on 30 June 2004).

asked Her Majesty's Government:How far World Bank and International Monetary Fund loans and grants are subject to formal consultation with national parliaments and civil society. [HL3261]

The UK has stressed that support to low-income countries must be linked to poverty reduction and we have strongly supported the development of the poverty reduction strategy (PRS) process. Poverty reduction strategies have become central to the international development agenda, setting out a clear, country-led strategy upon which donor support can be built. They set key policy priorities for low-income countries in the medium term, and make linkages to budgets and spending. This ensures that government revenue, aid, and debt relief from the heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC) initiative are directed towards poverty reduction. The PRS approach has involved substantial changes in World Bank and IMF operations, with their programmes being framed by, and providing support to, these nationally led development plans.The basic principle of the PRS approach is national ownership, as a government will only implement policies that they believe in. The PRS therefore has to be written in country, by its government, with the full involvement of civil society, the private sector and the international community. Taken together, this should ensure that these strategies have the widest possible support in country. This participatory nature of a PRS is one of the requirements for it to be approved by the boards of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund as a basis for their lending. Some governments have included participation of national parliaments as well as civil society in their PRS process. In cases such as Tanzania where the PRS has ensured a significant role for Parliament, the part it has played is considered an important investment in the country's democratic process. There can however be a tension between the sovereign right of a government to set the policy agenda in line with the constitutional procedures in place in that country, and external parties insisting on participatory policy processes.While we have no doubt that the PRS approach is a major step forward in the relationship between the international financial institutions and low-income countries, we recognise that the process is still at a relatively early stage of implementation and may require further improvements in its design and application. We therefore look forward to the results due later this year of the reviews of the PRS process by the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office and the World Bank's Operations Evaluations Department. The UK will play a full part in discussions on these issues and will continue to monitor the practice of the IMF and World Bank to ensure their guidelines are effective and also adhered to in practice. The UK Government are committed to maximising country ownership of PRSs and ensuring that World Bank and IMF programmes are fully aligned behind them.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the incidence of live births of babies weighing less than 2,500 grams in the United Kingdom in 2002 and 2003, and whether they have comparable information for other member states of the European Union and Norway. [HL3272]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What the annual incidence of low birth weight babies since 1950 in the United Kingdom. [HL3273]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will provide details of the contractual arrangements in place, including the value of any contracts, between the Youth Sport Trust and the Department for Education and Skills and its associated agencies for each financial year since 1999–2000; and [HL3325]Further to the Written Answer by the Baroness Ashton of Upholland on 23 March (

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) has contracted with the Youth Sport Trust (YST) under the Secretary of State's financial memorandum and management statement. The DfES is currently funding the Youth Sport Trust to:

provide support to aspiring sports colleges and those already within the programme—this work is carried out in accordance with the programme's delivery plan;

provide development support for academies;

provide development support within the School Sports Partnerships programme;

co-ordinate and contribute to the gifted and talented work strand within the national PE, school sport and club links strategy. The work is being carried out in accordance with the programme's delivery plan;

provide development support to schools and LEAs on the department's sporting playgrounds programme.

From April 2004, all these areas of work were brought under one financial memorandum, except for the sporting playgrounds programme which is administered through a grant.The Departments for Education and Skills and for Culture, Media and Sport have also appointed the Youth Sport Trust to co-ordinate the United Kingdom's participation in the 2004 European Year of Education through Sport (EYES). This work is being overseen by a grant letter and the arrangements for the year are stipulated by the European Commission.In addition, the Youth Sport Trust is part of the Consortium (the British Association of Advisers and Lecturers in Physical Education, the Physical Education Association of the UK, Sports Coach UK and the Youth Sport Trust) which successfully tendered, via an open competition, to manage the delivery of the national PE and School Sport Professional Development programme. The total value of this contract is £18 million.Funding provided to the Youth Sport Trust from the DfES since the 1999–2000 financial year has been as follows:

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Bassam of Brighton on 5 May (

Figures are not held centrally for expenditure on focus groups. Government departments are responsible for recording their own expenditure on focus groups, therefore, expenditure for every government department in this area could be collected only at disproportionate cost.Cabinet Office expenditure on focus groups is not separately identifiable on the department's accounting system and could be identified only at disproportionate cost.

	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	Total
London exc LUL	1.6	1.4	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5	1.5	10.5
LUL	1	1.1	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.3	1.3	8.2
£ billion (public expenditure only)							TOTAL	18.7
These figures refer to public expenditure only. They exclude spending on mainline railways or private sector investment in transport.

Most of these resources will be allocated to the Mayor through the TfL transport block grant. It is up to the Mayor to use this grant to support his transport

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 27 May (

The figure of £17 billion refers to the planned public expenditure on London transport set out in the Transport 10-year plan update Delivering Better Transport: Progress Report, published in December 2002.The breakdown of the spending plan is:priorities in London. The remaining £2.8 billion will be allocated to London boroughs through revenue support grant.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they will respond to the report by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution,

The RCEP's report The Environmental Effects of Civil Aircraft in Flight was its response to the Government's 2002 consultation on the future development of air transport in the UK. The Secretary of State for Transport met the chairman of the RCEP, Sir Tom Blundell, in March 2003 to discuss the report. The report was one of over 500,000 responses to the consultation, which informed decisions on The Future of Air Transport White Paper published in December 2003.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish the numbers of vehicles detected by cameras for speeding offences in 2002, which were not taxed, or had no current MOT certificate, or were not covered by insurance; and [HL3331]Whether they will ensure that Safety Camera Partnerships automatically check the Driver and Vehicle Liensing Agency and the Motor Insurance Database to confirm whether a vehicle, detected by speed cameras for speeding offences, is properly taxed and covered by insurance and where necessary use this information to pursue the driver; and [HL3332]Whether the information which traffic or local authorities provide when seeking vehicle keeper data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency for on-street parking or other highway infringements is used to (a) check whether the vehicle was taxed at the time; (b) check whether the vehicle was insured at the time; or (c) take action when vehicle excise duty and insurance offences appear to have been committed. [HL3333]

Cameras operated by Safety Camera Partnerships are used solely for the detection of excess speed at accident hotspots. They are not used to detect other driver or vehicle related offences. Consequently there is no information on the number of vehicles untaxed, with no current MOT or insurance detected by these cameras.We have no plans to ask Safety Camera Partnerships to check with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), or the Motor Insurance Database to confirm that vehicles detected by their cameras are properly taxed and insured. The Government introduced continuous registration on 1 January 2004, which allows the DVLA to detect and enforce vehicle excise duty (VED) offences direct from the computerised vehicle record. It is no longer necessary to observe or record a vehicle on the road in order to take action. We are looking at the possibility of enforcing the law on motor insurance in a similar way, and will make an announcement in due course.Local authorities normally seek information from DVLA on registered vehicle keepers in order to enforce parking offences. In return, traffic wardens and local authority parking attendants inform DVLA of suspected cases of VED evasion observed in the normal course of their duties. Moreover, 304,927 such offences were reported to DVLA in 2003–04. These reports are used to supplement the enforcement of continuous registration and allow the DVLA to pursue offenders for unpaid back duty.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish new documented appraisals taking into account overall forecast increase in air traffic by autumn 2004. [HL3375]

The Government have no such plans. The appraisals conducted for the air transport White Paper were based on current air traffic forecasts. The Government will keep their traffic forecasts under review and update them as necessary.