asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Davies of Oldham on 16 January (WA 134), what is their response to passenger reports that there was a military Chinook helicopter not, as stated in the Answer, in the air, but on the runway when they left their British Airways flight. [HL1822]

We can confirm that there was a Chinook helicopter on the runway at the time that the passengers were disembarking from the British Airways aircraft. This helicopter had been holding three nautical miles south of the airfield while the British Airways aircraft made its approach and landing at Gibraltar. It was cleared to land immediately after the British Airways flight.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What was the percentage increase in the cost of the television licence fee in each of the past 10 years; and what was the percentage increase in the number of licence fee payers in each of the past 10 years. [HL1624]

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord McKenzie of Luton on 17 January (HL604, 605 and 606), what is their estimate of the number of people of working age who currently do not qualify for a national insurance credit or contribution, and who (a) now provide care for an individual or individuals on IB or lower rate disability living allowance for 20 hours or more per week; and (b) will provide such care in 2025.[HL1467]

a) Analysis of the Family Resources Survey shows that, of those people currently caring for at least 20 hours a week, around 120,000 are not building entitlement to the basic state pension and around 240,000 are not accruing entitlement to state second pension. It is possible that some of these will be caring for individuals with lower rate disability living allowance or on incapacity benefit, but due to data limitations it is not possible to say precisely how many.

b) We estimate that of those people caring for at least 20 hours a week in 2025 around 220,000 may not be building entitlement to the basic state pension and around 330,000 may not be accruing entitlement to state second pension. It is possible that some of these will be caring for individuals with lower rate disability living allowance or on incapacity benefit, but due to data limitations it is not possible to estimate how many. Others may be caring for individuals who are awarded the middle or highest rate care component disability living allowance, attendance allowance or constant attendance allowance and therefore could qualify for the basic state pension or state second pension through the (proposed) new carer's credit from 2010.

Notes: Figures are based on the Family Resources Survey of the number of people who currently report themselves to be caring for 20 hours or more a week and who are not otherwise qualifying for basic state pension and/or the state second pension. 2025 estimates also reflect demographic trends and the department's carer's allowance caseload projections.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether, in light of the ongoing review of the European Commission's recommendation on cross-border copyright licensing, published in October 2006, they have any plans to implement the recommendation into European Union law. [HL1673]

There is no requirement for the recommendation to be implemented. However, the Government do not believe it appropriate at this time to press for legislative action. Industry is working to implement the recommendation and needs time for this to take effect before legally binding instruments are considered.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney is making progress in its elaboration of marine-based electric generation prototypes. [HL1847]

The European Marine Energy Centre does not develop marine generation technologies but provides purpose-built testing facilities for marine energy device developers.

Last year the centre was extended to include a new tidal-stream testing facility. To date the centre has hosted the testing of a single wave device.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What sums have been allocated to, and invested by, each of the six enterprise capital funds selected by Government since the 2006 Budget. [HL1693]

As a result of the competitive pathfinder round for enterprise capital funds (ECFs), five funds have been launched (as set out in the table below). One fund withdrew from the process.

As the ECF funds have only recently launched, data on investment activity are not yet due and we are therefore unable to confirm the sums invested by any fund at present.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the evaluation proposed on the impact of the 17 new casinos announced by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on 30 January will be undertaken by the Casino Advisory Panel. [HL1802]

No. The role of the Casino Advisory Panel was to advise the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the areas where the one regional, eight large and eight small casinos permitted by the Gambling Act 2005 should be located, and it has now completed that task.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the evaluation proposed of the new casinos will include an evaluation of existing casinos. [HL1803]

The primary purpose of the evaluation will be to assess the social and economic impact of the new casinos. While the methodology for the evaluation has not yet been finalised, it may include some assessment of existing casinos for comparative purposes.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether the Department for International Development (DfID) office in India has made an assessment of the proportion of Dalits in India who are below the poverty line in comparison with the general population; and what priority the DfID office in India gives, in its pursuit of the millennium development goals, to political advocacy on behalf of Dalits suffering from discrimination. [HL1650]

The DfID office in India regularly assesses progress on poverty reduction and other millennium development goals (MDGs) in India. These assessments are based on official Government of India (GoI) statistics.

The most recent assessment of progress at the national level was undertaken in September 2004. The estimate of Dalits (also known as scheduled castes) below the poverty line is 35 per cent in rural areas, as compared with 21 per cent among other groups, and in urban areas 39 per cent of Dalits are below the poverty line as compared to 21 per cent among other groups. This is based on the most recent large-scale national sample survey of the GoI carried out in 2000. The overall proportion of the population living in poverty was assessed as 35 per cent according to the international (dollar a day) poverty line, or 360 million people.

DfID's programme in India operates in support of the GoI's efforts to combat caste and ethnic discrimination and social exclusion in all its forms, including by strengthening programme design and monitoring to ensure that the benefits of development reach Dalits and other minority populations. DfID does not support particular programmes aimed at minority communities but promotes social inclusion in all its programmes.

In education, DfID supports India's national programme for achieving universal primary education (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan—SSA). One of the objectives of this programme, which was launched in September 2004, is to narrow the gap that exists between the enrolment of scheduled caste and other children.

Special efforts are needed to ensure that Dalits are able to exercise their rights to access mainstream services. In health, for example, where child mortality (under five years) among the Dalits is 83 per 1,000 live births as compared to 22 for the general population, DfID has committed £252 million in support of the GoI's national programme to promote reproductive and child health (RCH2). The programme aims to reduce all disparities in maternal and infant mortality and has specific indicators for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, women and children. There are financial incentives in RCH2 for reaching the hard-to-reach groups. The programme will improve the data available (at the national level) to track progress and make informed decisions to achieve better health outcomes for Dalits and Adivasi (scheduled tribes) women and children.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

How many customer care officers are now on site on a average day in jobcentres in the United Kingdom; how many individual jobcentres have on average (a) one; (b) two; (c) three; or (d) four or more customer care officers on site. [HL1630]

Currently there are a total of 1,542 customer care officers (CCOs) deployed across 595 jobcentres.

Jobcentres with one CCO = 165

Jobcentres with two CCOs = 172

Jobcentres with three CCOs = 116

Jobcentres with four or more CCOs = 142

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What have been the total payments to private security firms for supplying customer care officers to jobcentres for each of the past three years for which figures are available; and how much has been paid to individual security firms in each of those three years. [HL1631]

The department entered into a 20-year PFI contract with Land Securities Trillium (LST) in 1998 known as the PRIME contract, which was expanded in 2003 following the merger of the Department of Social Security and the Employment Service. The department pays an all-inclusive unitary charge to LST for this provision.

This unitary charge includes 13 reference facility management services, one of which is the provision of security. An element of the overall security package is customer care officers. Therefore, DWP does not make direct payments to security firms for this provision.

The original PRIME contract and the subsequent expansion were both subject to independent audits by the National Audit Office (NAO). They concluded that the original contract represented value for money, making specific comment in 1998 that the LST deal compared favourably with continued public sector ownership and that the costs of facility management services (including security) was low.

The customer care officer role was introduced in 2001 to complement the change in service delivery by the then newly formed Jobcentre Plus to front-of-house public waiting areas and goes beyond that of a typical security specification. Therefore, it was not possible externally to benchmark the cost of this service.

However, the NAO concluded in its report dated January 2005 that the expansion also represented value for money, in that although this was a non-competitive expansion, LST's final price provided greater savings than the “should cost model” developed by DWP and its professional advisers to assist in determining value for money from the expansion.

To date, LST has been paid approximately £27 million for the period 2002-05; 2005-06 expenditure on CCOs was £15.2 million. The forecast for spend in 2006-07 is approximately £26.4 million and is likely to increase as a further 20 sites go live.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether participation in the National Lottery and its related games is likely to increase if more than the £1.5 billion already allocated is used to meet the costs of the 2012 Olympic Games. [HL1358]

National Lottery sales trends are influenced by various factors such as the wider economic climate, consumer spending patterns and developments in other areas that compete for the “leisure pound”. The National Lottery operator is striving to grow lottery sales across the board with a view to achieving maximum returns for the good causes, both Olympic and non-Olympic.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What procedures must be followed to achieve a reciprocal agreement between the United Kingdom and (a) another country, or (b) a British Overseas Territory, to allow for the pensions of British expatriates who live in that country or territory to be fully uprated annually; and [HL1671]

In which countries and territories annual uprating of British expatriate pensions takes place (a) with and (b) without a reciprocal agreement; and in which countries and territories annual uprating of British expatriate pensions does not take place. [HL1672]

The United Kingdom's reciprocal social security agreements with other countries are binding intergovernmental treaties. The detail of such agreements, and those with British Overseas Territories, is achieved through negotiation. We have no plans to negotiate any new reciprocal agreement.

The countries and British Overseas Territories with a reciprocal agreement where annual uprating increases are payable are: Barbados; Bermuda; Bosnia-Herzegovina; Croatia; Guernsey; Isle of Man; Israel; Jamaica; Jersey; Mauritius; Montenegro; the Philippines; Serbia; Turkey; the USA; and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Annual uprating increases are payable to United Kingdom pensioners living in any EEA country and Switzerland in accordance with the European Community’s (EC) Social Security Regulations (EC1408/71). The EC regulations effectively supersede the United Kingdom's social security agreements with the following states: Austria; Belgium; Cyprus; Denmark; Finland; France; Germany; Gibraltar; Iceland; Ireland; Italy; Luxembourg; Malta; Netherlands; Norway; Portugal; Slovenia; Spain; Sweden; and Switzerland.

The United Kingdom does not have reciprocal social security agreements with the following EU/EEA states but annual upratings are paid in accordance with the EC regulations: Bulgaria; Czech Republic; Estonia; Greece; Hungary; Latvia; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Poland; Romania; and Slovakia.

Upratings are not payable in any other countries or British Overseas Territories.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What information they have concerning progress towards attainment of the millennium development goals in Peru; and how they are monitoring these since the Department for International Development has dropped all its programmes in the country. [HL1700]

Progress in moving towards the achievement of the millennium development goals (MDGs) in Peru has been unequal. Between 1991 and 2002, extreme poverty in Peru increased from 23 per cent to 23.9 per cent of the population and households experiencing hunger increased from 22.3 per cent to 35.8 per cent. Since 2002, extreme poverty has been decreasing in Peru. Since 1991, maternal and infant mortality indicators have constantly improved.

Progress has been slower in poor rural areas and among indigenous people. Extreme poverty affects 50.3 per cent of the population in rural areas and 9.7 per cent of the population in urban areas.

According to data provided by the United Nations development programme, Peru will meet the MDGs on poverty, health and education only if economic growth is accompanied by redistributive and social policies to tackle inequality.

DfID continues to assist Peru to reach the millennium development goals, primarily through our contributions to the European Commission, World Bank, and Inter-American Development Bank. In addition, DfID’s Latin America regional programme works to enhance the effectiveness of World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. This is done by strengthening the focus of operations and analytical work on poverty, inequality and inclusion. For Peru, this work is led by the DfID Andes office in Bolivia, supported by the DfID liaison officer in Lima.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which quangos’ offices the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has visited since taking office. [HL1481]

Since my right honourable friend took up office as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on 6 May 2005 he has visited the following non-departmental public bodies:

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 22 January (WA 207), when they expect to announce the results of their consideration of which rail freight schemes will be funded under the Transport Innovation Fund. [HL1788]

We are working with Network Rail to take forward the detailed case for TIF funding for a number of rail freight schemes. We will be making final decisions and announcements on the allocation of funding on an individual basis as the schemes develop and in light of my department's detailed investment appraisal and business case scrutiny process.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 26 January (WA 270-01), whether they will inquire of the Irish Road Safety Authority if any follow up action has been taken with Irish drivers who repeatedly abuse drivers' hours regulations in the United Kingdom. [HL1787]

We have assurances from the Irish Road Safety Authority that details of all breaches reported to it are followed up in an appropriate manner.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Further to the Written Answer by Lord Truscott on 30 January (WA 46) concerning the End of Life Vehicles Regulations, whether they or the Environment Agency have issued guidelines as to when a motor vehicle becomes classified as end of life. [HL1834]

The Environment Agency has shared with relevant trade associations its understanding of the End of Life Vehicles Regulations and case law concerning the definition of waste. Individual operators have been given more specific advice according to their circumstances. To assist operators further, the Environment Agency has consulted widely on guidance based on some common scenarios and it is expected that the guidance will be published within the next six weeks.