asked Her Majesty's Government:

What recent attempts have been made by aircraft of the Russian air force to enter United Kingdom airspace; and what has been their response to such attempts. [HL5338]

Quick reaction alert aircraft were launched to intercept Russian aircraft that were approaching the NATO airspace area for which the UK has authority on four separate days during August and September 2007.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will hold discussions with the European Commission on future plans for continued lower fares in both internal and transnational flights. [HL5417]

Her Majesty's Government have no plans for such discussions. The air services market within the European Union is fully liberalised, and the fares charged are entirely a commercial matter for the individual airlines concerned.

Flights outside the EU are generally governed by bilateral air services agreements between the UK and the third country concerned. The Government's policy is to liberalise these agreements in so far as is possible.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they propose to publish the future programme of the Department for Work and Pensions’s benefit simplification unit. [HL5324]

The benefit simplification unit's plans for the future were set out in the Official Error Task Force and Benefit Simplification Unit Progress Report published on 24 January 2007. Copies are available in the Library.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they have any plans to carry out a review of the future of the Social Fund. [HL5329]

The Government are committed to ensuring that the Social Fund continues to fulfil its aim of helping the poorest and most vulnerable people in society meet one-off needs. Between April 2003 and April 2008 we will have invested an additional £300 million in the discretionary Social Fund, and in April 2006 changes were introduced to make the loans scheme simpler and more accessible. Together these measures have enabled the scheme to provide more help to more people.

Longer-term reform of the Social Fund is being considered in the context of promoting financial inclusion. The Government want to expand people's ability to manage their money and to plan ahead; this includes improving awareness of, and confidence in using, basic financial services such as bank accounts, savings and insurance as well as increasing the availability of affordable credit for those on the lowest incomes. We are exploring ways in which the Social Fund might contribute to this wider strategy and welcome ideas and views from those with an interest in this area.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What consideration they have given to the Disability Rights Commission's recent report entitled Involvement for Real Equality; and whether there is any action they will be taking. [HL5318]

The Disability Discrimination Act 2005 introduced a statutory duty on public authorities to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people.

The disability equality duty (DED), which came into force from December 2006, is made up of two components: general and specific duties. The general duty requires public authorities to actively consider how they can deliver services and carry out functions in a way that promotes greater equality for disabled people. The specific duties require listed public authorities to publish disability equality schemes (DES) that set out how they will carry out their general and specific duties, monitor and report on progress, and have involved disabled people in developing their scheme.

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) was responsible for ensuring that public sector bodies met their duty to promote disability equality throughout their organisations. During 2007, the DRC carried out a range of projects assessing and reporting on how the public sector had responded to the new duty, and the benefits that have been gained from it. This work now continues with the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

The Involvement for Real Equality report found that, while involving disabled people in the development of a DES might present challenges for some authorities, it could result in significant benefits if it was properly resourced and meaningfully conducted. Along with other reports commissioned by the DRC, the Involvement for Real Equality report is being used to provide a baseline for future research into the DED. This includes an in-depth assessment of how the DED is being implemented in a range of public authorities which is shortly to be commissioned by the Office for Disability Issues.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their assessment of the number of qualified personal advisers who will be needed to staff the Pathways to Work project once fully implemented throughout the United Kingdom; how many qualified personal advisers are currently in post; and how many personal advisers are currently in training. [HL5326]

There will be no need to change the number of incapacity benefit personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus when Pathways to Work is fully rolled out in April 2008. Future expansion will be through private and voluntary sector providers who will deliver Pathways in partnership with Jobcentre Plus across some 60 per cent of Great Britain. It is not possible to say how many personal advisers will be employed by providers.

There are currently an estimated 1,215 incapacity benefit personal advisers in Jobcentre Plus. It is not possible to give a figure for the number of personal advisers in training at any one time.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

With regard to the provisions of the Greater London Authority Bill, by what mechanisms the first £30,000 of payments made on ceasing to hold office as Mayor of London or London Assembly Member would be exempt from tax; and, if the necessary mechanisms are not in place by the date of commencement, whether tax paid on any payments made before the mechanisms are put in place will be repaid. [HL5384]

The Government are aware of the proposals to introduce a severance scheme for Members of the Greater London Authority under the Greater London Authority Bill, and are considering the appropriate mechanisms for dealing with the taxation of any payments under the scheme.

asked the Chairman of Committees:

Whether all evidence received by the Joint Committee on the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill has been made available to the public, whether by publication in print and online or through deposit in readily accessible archives. [HL5471]

All submissions of evidence received by the Joint Committee on the Human Tissue and Embryos (Draft) Bill have been made available to the public.

The Joint Committee's report (volume I) was published on 3 August. Volume II of the report, containing oral and written evidence, was published on 8 August as HL Paper 169-II and HC Paper 630-II. It is accessible online at http://pubs1.tso.parliament.uk/pa/jt200607/jtselect/jtembryos/169/169ii.pdf. Evidence received by the Joint Committee but not printed is available for public inspection in the Parliamentary Archives.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they are now accepting applications for political asylum from Iraqis still living in Iraq who have worked for the United Kingdom Government. [HL5346]

Her Majesty's Government are extremely grateful for the service of locally employed staff in Iraq and take their security very seriously.

The Prime Minister commissioned a ministerial review on 8 August 2007 of assistance that might be offered to members of locally engaged staff in Iraq. The outcome of that review was announced by the Prime Minister on Monday 8 October and in a Written Statement by the Foreign Secretary on 9 October in another place.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What assistance they will provide to Nicaragua following the recent damage caused by Hurricane Felix. [HL5354]

DfID has already provided assistance in the aftermath of Hurricane Felix through two routes:

the European Commission is giving €1 million (DfID's share is 17 per cent); and

the United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (UNCERF) has allocated $4,975,500. The United Kingdom is the largest donor to the UNCERF, having contributed 25 per cent of its budget so far.

The DfID office in Nicaragua is monitoring the situation, and may make a further response.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they have assessed the extent to which the decision made in accordance with the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations not to fit handrails or grab handles above the disabled spaces in the new London Underground Tube stock is in the interests of the majority of passengers. [HL5373]

It is important to ensure that wheelchair users are able to travel in reasonable comfort, without other passengers leaning across them. However, we recognise that prohibiting any handrails in this area can cause difficulties for standing passengers, so we have been working with London Underground since the inception of their new trains project to enable handrails to be fitted in limited circumstances. This will provide standing passengers with the support they need, without exposing wheelchair users to unpleasant travelling conditions.

This pragmatic change is supported by the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC), the Government's statutory advisers on the transport needs of disabled people, and we intend to amend the RVAR to reflect it in due course, subject to public consultation. Other new trains including the Hitachi Javelin and the Docklands Light Railway, and London overground's new fleets, are also being built with this feature.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What assumptions underlie the statement in the recent White Paper, Delivering a Sustainable Railway, that from the second half of the next decade cab-based signalling will be implemented on a greater proportion of the network. [HL5372]

In conjunction with the White Paper, the Government published a railway technical strategy. It is designed to provide a long-term technical and operational vision for the railway and explain how this can help contribute to the long-term demands identified in the White Paper. The statements about a cab-based signalling system were built on a long-term vision for command control and signalling that recognised the industry acceptance of the case for introducing the European rail traffic management system (ERTMS) in the short to medium term and as a building block that facilitated the longer-term vision. The ERTMS national implementation plan (developed by the Network Rail-led cross-industry team) sets out the UK's plan and the assumptions that go with it.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Following the recent presidential address to the Institution of Railway Signal Engineers by Wim Coenraad about progress in implementing the more advanced stages of the European rail traffic management system, when level 3 of the system will be introduced. [HL5369]

At present there is no definite date for the implementation of European rail traffic management system (ERTMS) level 3, as such products are not available from the established ERTMS suppliers, but the Department for Transport and Network Rail are actively encouraging the development of advanced versions of ERTMS.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Which signalling engineering suppliers are known to be developing level 3 of the European rail traffic management system at their own expense.[HL5370]

Her Majesty's Government are unaware of any signalling engineering suppliers developing level 3 European rail traffic management systems (ERTMS). Suppliers across the world have produced a number of communications-based train control systems which are broadly equivalent to ERTMS level 3 in functionality, but based on satellite positioning technology. We hope that ERTMS catches up with these developments, which can deliver substantially improved cost effectiveness and flexibility, whether through existing suppliers or those new to the European market.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What is their assessment of whether the theoretical benefits of the European rail traffic management system of shorter headways between trains could be achieved with more efficient train planning, optimised signal spacing and improved driver training.[HL5371]

The business case work by the cross-industry European rail traffic management system (ERTMS) programme team in December 2006 demonstrated that implementing ERTMS may bring direct improvements in capacity and performance while facilitating wider industry benefits arising from bi-directional capability, removal of line-side signals and associated signal sighting constraints. It could also offer an overall reduction in whole-life, whole-industry cost for signalling and train control.

The business case also highlighted that these benefits are not uniform across the whole network and that full realisation of them would depend on addressing route-specific issues such as infrastructure bottlenecks and terminal station capacity.