| Previous Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |
Baroness Byford: My Lords, I thank the Minister for so carefully going through the queries that we have raised. It would seem churlish of me to challenge him, particularly with regard to the article in the Daily Telegraph. But the issue was taken up, because it was copied from the Ministry website of Mr Bradshaw. Clearly, something is amiss, but it is too late in the night and I do not wish to follow that line. However, I should be grateful if, at some stage, the Minister might check that, because either it was on Mr Bradshaw's website or it was not. That is a question of fact.
The second issue that the Minister covered was the illegal landing of fish. I share the deep concern expressed by him and other noble Lords about that. How much illegal landing of that sort of fish is done through very small boats of 10 metres and under? I do not expect him to answer me tonight, but I presume that the department makes some estimates of from whence this illegal fish is being landed, whether from the bigger fishing fleets, foreign fishing fleets or small fishing fleets. If the Minister could come back to me with clarification, I would be grateful.
I am very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Miller of Chilthorne Domer, for her kind words and for being willing to be here to raise this important issue. Those who fish from smaller inshore boats have been through difficult times, as I am sure the Minister is aware. It would seem to us unfortunate if extra responsibilities and regulations were placed upon them that would make them even less competitive and less profitable in the future.
The time is late. I beg leave to withdraw the Motion.
House adjourned at fourteen minutes before eleven o'clock.
Written Statements
Wednesday 20 July 2005
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS95
Afghanistan
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): I wish to inform the House that my right honourable friend the Prime Minister and His Excellency Hamid Karzai, President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, signed a Joint Declaration of an Enduring Relationship between the UK and Afghanistan on 19 July, a copy of which I have placed in the Library of the House.
Better Regulation Bill
Lord Bassam of Brighton: A copy of the consultation document on proposals for a Better Regulation Bill is today being placed in the House Library and on the website of the Cabinet Office Better Regulation Executive at www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/better–regulation–bill/index.asp.
The consultation exercise will run from 20 July to 12 October.
The proposals will make it simpler to remove or amend outdated, unnecessary or over complicated legislation, and make it easier to streamline regulatory structures in the private sector.
The Bill will also help deliver the Better Regulation Task Force "Less is More" recommendations for administrative burdens reductions and rolling simplification programmes across Whitehall. It will also enable the delivery of some of the Hampton report recommendations for reform of the regulators.
BFPO: Key Targets 2005–06
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Drayson): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Adam Ingram) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The key targets have been set for the chief executive of BFPO for the financial year 2005–06. The targets are as follows.
Key Target 1: To provide a 100 per cent secure defence courier service (DCS) for the carriage of protectively marked material (PMM). This target is broken down into the following sub targets:
Key Target 2: To provide a secure defence courier service for the carriage of protectively marked material (PMM) operating within timescales for scheduled and
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS96
special items at not less than 98.7 per cent of that agreed with customers.
Key Target 3: To provide a resilient and dependable service for the controlled and specialised handling of defence official mails by operating at least 96 per cent of deliveries within scheduled timings, agreed with customers.
Key Target 4: To meet 96 per cent of the requirements negotiated and agreed with customers for the transit times for delivery and collection at defence mail centres (DMCs). This target is broken down into the following sub targets:
PI1: 96 per cent of mail delivered to DMC by defence mail service (DMS)/Parcelforce (PF)/ Royal Mail (RM) to be sorted and ready for delivery within one hour and 10 minutes of receipt.
PI2: 96 per cent of mail delivered to DMCs by DMS/PF/RM to be delivered to local customers the same day.
PI3: 98 per cent of mail delivered/collected into DMCs from local customers before 15:00 to be sorted within one hour and ten minutes of receipt.
Key Target 5: To meet 95 per cent of the agreed customer requirement for the movement of private and official mails from BFPO London to authorised overseas destinations within agreed timescales. This target is broken down into the following sub targets:
PI1: 95.5 per cent or more of deliveries of private and official mail to static locations world-wide (less British Forces Germany) within agreed timescales.
PI2: 98 per cent or more of deliveries of private and official mail to British Forces Germany within agreed timescales.
PI3: 93.5 per cent or more of deliveries of private and official mail to operational and exercise locations within agreed timescales.
PI4: 95.5 per cent or more of deliveries of private and official mail to HM Ships within agreed timescales.
Key Target 6: Total year-on-year Direct Resource Departmental Expenditure Limited cost growth to be no more than defence inflation less 1 per cent. This is an efficiency measure for continuous improvement while maintaining an effective level of service to our customers in accordance with the service level agreements.
Child Support Agency: Progress Report
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (David Blunkett) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
This quarterly report is to update the House on progress of the Child Support Agency. It covers the period from March to June 2005 and contains improved management information. The last report
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS97
formed part of the Government's response to the Work and Pensions Select Committee's Second Report of the Session 2004–05 and covered performance up to February 2005.
The agency is currently administering cases under new and old schemes, across two computer systems. At the end of June 2005, the agency's caseload stood at around 1.4 million cases. Of these, 950,000 cases were being administered under the old child support scheme (270,000 of which were on the new computer system having migrated from the old computer system because they were linked in some way to a new application) and 480,000 were being administered under the new scheme. Around 12,000 new scheme cases are being administered clerically as they are unprogressable on the new computer system.
Since the inception of the new scheme in March 2003 the agency has received 680,000 potential new scheme applications, of which 420,000 have been cleared. The remaining 260,000 are at various stages of the work in progress, representing a marginal reduction since March as a result of efforts by the agency to focus on its backlogs. In addition, there are 78,000 old scheme cases awaiting an assessment, a reduction from 130,000 in June 2004.
In June 2005, as a result of the agency's intervention, 390,000 parents with care (equating to 520,000 children) were in receipt of maintenance via the collection service, or had a maintenance direct arrangement in place. Despite the problems with the administration of the new scheme the proportion of parents with a new scheme calculation who receive maintenance is higher (54 per cent) than if they had been assessed under the old scheme (46 per cent).
During the period March 2005 to June 2005 overall agency case compliance remained stable at 70 per cent. This is also the case for old scheme compliance at 72 per cent. New scheme compliance, at 66 per cent in June 2005, has risen from 61 per cent in June 2004.
As a result of initiatives rolled out since autumn 2004, we are seeing real improvement in case compliance for
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS98
those cases for which maintenance was calculated from September 2004 onwards. The overall new scheme compliance rate was 66 per cent in June 2005, and, for those new cases calculated in February 2005 (the latest month for which compliance has begun to stabilise for new cases), compliance had reached 78 per cent.
Trends in cash compliance performance are broadly flat over the period, with overall agency performance at 69 per cent in June 2005. Old and new scheme performance was 72 per cent and 62 per cent respectively with new scheme performance having improved from 50 per cent in June 2004.
During the quarter ending June 2005 the agency collected maintenance arrears equivalent to 35 per cent of the total amount of unpaid regular maintenance which accrued over the same period. Performance across the quarter has remained unchanged for the old scheme at 40 per cent, with new scheme performance demonstrating further improvement from 22 per cent to 27 per cent (having already risen from 15 per cent in June 2004).
Accuracy performance is measured cumulatively month-on-month throughout the year. Figures based on the first results of 2005–06 show performance to June of 82 per cent for new scheme and 75 per cent for old scheme.
While we have seen continuing progress some significant problems remain with the new computer and telephony systems and these continue to slow progress on business recovery. The agency is working closely with EDS to resolve these problems and further IT releases were successfully implemented in December 2004 and May 2005.
We have always said that no decision will be taken on when to convert old scheme cases until we are confident the new scheme is working well. A new chief executive was appointed in April this year and he has initiated a strategic review of the agency's objectives and operational arrangements. He will report to Ministers in the coming months and we will report to the House in due course.
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS97
Notes:
1 A case is defined as cleared if a maintenance calculation has been carried out and a payment arrangement between the parent with care and the non resident parent is in place; the case has been closed because the PWC is claiming good cause or is subject to a reduced benefit decision; or the application is identified as being a change of circumstances on an existing case.
Further changes in the definition of a clearance may be made as further progress is made with the improvement in management information.
2 Previously, a case was defined as cleared when it had been closed or a maintenance liability had been calculated. Improvements in management information now enable the agency to extend the definition as described above, and thereby provide a more accurate picture of the agency's intake and volumes of new applications work in progress. Further changes in the definition of a clearance may be made as further progress is made with the improvement in management information.
3 Figures exclude cases which have been progressed and cleared clerically. This is because it is not possible to determine how many clerically progressed cases are still included in the agency's work in progress, or were originally included in the intake figures.
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS99
Details of clerically progressed cases are included below:
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS99
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS99
| Scheme to June 2005 | |
| Applications Cleared | 6,000 |
| Maintenance Calculations | 5,000 |
| Closures | 1,000 |
4 While we can give accurate scheme to date information, it is not currently possible to break this down into a monthly time series prior to January 2005 as work to produce this information is still in progress.
Notes:
1 Compliance is measured over a quarterly period as opposed to monthly, as it is a less volatile measure of performance in that it smoothes out the impact of events such as bank holidays, late payments and processing details. These figures may be subject to change as more reliable information becomes available.
2 There are no figures for new scheme for June 2004 or for new and old scheme in April 2005 because no accuracy checks were performed during that month. Accuracy across old scheme cases on both systems has been recorded only since May 2005. Prior to May 2005, accuracy was measured only against those old scheme cases on the old computer system.
20 Jul 2005 : Column WS99
| Next Section | Back to Table of Contents | Lords Hansard Home Page |