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Baroness Amos: My Lords, I ask all Peers please to notify us if they would like to receive a reply by e-mail, regardless of the method that they use to put their Question down. I also need to ask Peers who use personal e-mail addresses rather than parliamentary ones to give us the relevant permission, because of data protection legislation. I hope that that is much clearer. I will review the matter when we return in October over the three months until Christmas, but I hope that putting the two systems together will make it much simpler in the long term.
Lord McNally: My Lords, I am extremely glad that we have the whole Summer Recess to study the reply of the noble Baroness the Leader of the House. Does she agree that this is part of a wider problem that gets pretty close to disrespect? On Tuesday, we had the noble Lord, Lord Sainsbury, ducking and diving and refusing to answer a Question that was answered in the Commons this morning, but to which we will not get an answer until later today.
God knows what decisions will be shovelled out by Written Answer this afternoon, once Parliament is safely out of the way. Two departments in particular—the Home Office and the Northern Ireland Office—have an appalling record in responding to Questions for Written Answer. Does that not indicate that a
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Government who are supposed to be committed to freedom of information and open government are, in fact, showing all the old Whitehall wiles to stop Parliament obtaining the information that it should have?
Baroness Amos: My Lords, I must say that I do not agree with that; I shall explain why. I should say that we tried to be too complicated regarding the receipt of Written Answers by electronic means. We tried to establish a stand-alone system that would allow electronic signatures from Ministers and so on. That system will no longer apply and we shall continue in the way that I have just outlined. We tried to be much too complicated. The resources required were too great and many Peers did not indicate that they wanted to receive their answers in that way.
Regarding the wider matter raised by the noble Lord, Lord McNally, there is undoubtedly a problem with Questions for Written Answer. He mentioned the Home Office and the Northern Ireland Office. I have taken that matter up with my Cabinet colleagues. I review that on a weekly basis with my ministerial colleagues in the Lords. In addition, I recently wrote to the Cabinet Secretary who has replied, informing me that he has raised this matter with his Permanent Secretary colleagues. I hope that we will see an improvement. Some Questions cut across departments and some of the information required for the reply may have been complicated but that in no way detracts from the fact that Members of this House should receive a reply within the timescale that has been set down.
Lord Clark of Windermere: My Lords, I have a great deal of sympathy with the noble Lord, because I remember eight years ago, along with my colleague, the noble Lord, Lord McIntosh, trying to wrestle with the same problem. I am delighted to have heard the noble Baroness's answer and can I congratulate her—
Lord Clark of Windermere: My Lords, it is a question. Will she keep up the pressure, because I feel that there is some bureaucratic resistance towards dealing with electronic matters in government?
Earl Ferrers: My Lords, in view of the fact that electronic communications are supposed to be quicker, cheaper and simpler, and in view of the noble Baroness's answer, would it not be much simpler if we returned to the normal "steam engine" method of using manuscript and spoken Questions and Answers, instead of electronic ones?
Baroness Amos: My Lords, we are seeking to respond to the needs and requests of Members of this House.
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London: Terrorist Attacks
11.23 am
Viscount Falkland asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, in view of the recent terrorist explosion on a London bus, they will consider the case for having a trained employee on each bus in addition to the driver so as to increase security.
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, the attacks of 7 July have underlined the need to protect crowded places and soft targets. Since the Madrid commuter attacks in March 2004, the Government have increased security on the rail and underground networks and are now looking at what further practical measures can be taken to address other vulnerable transport targets.
Viscount Falkland: My Lords, I thank the Minister for that helpful Answer. Does he agree that one impact of these tragic events has been further to aggravate the unwillingness, particularly of parents, to move from cars to buses? That will mean that the normal congestion of the school run will worsen. Would it not be a good idea to examine day-to-day security apart from those tragic events, which we hope will not re-occur, and, where appropriate, provide buses that have a member of staff in addition to the driver, particularly for children on the school run?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for that constructive suggestion. We are looking at all proposals to increase security and he has highlighted one relating to children. We are looking at that very seriously. More generally, he will recognise that the problem with buses is that we have over 46,000 buses in daily use in Britain and a number of them work a 16 to 18 hour-day. Consequently, security for each individual bus is an enormous challenge.
Baroness Masham of Ilton: My Lords, does the Minister agree with me that it is good news that the use of sniffer dogs for searching for explosives in London is being increased? Would it be a good idea to use them for spot checks on buses?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, we shall certainly do what we can in that respect. The noble Baroness is quite right that we have increased security at Tube stations and main railway stations by the employment of sniffer dogs. We may be able to do that for major bus stations. She will recognise the particular challenge of bus safety, given the number of stops that they make and the number of buses in daily use.
Baroness Oppenheim-Barnes: My Lords, does the Minister believe that London bus drivers are being made safer or less safe as a result of the Mayor of London's stated support for suicide bombers?
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Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, I do not believe the Mayor of London has expressed support for suicide bombers. He certainly was extremely clear in his declaration against the horrors of this attack on Londoners. We all congratulated him on his forthright and sympathetic response to the victims on that occasion. London Transport, of course, will play its full part in seeking to learn the lessons from these attacks. It is already adopting additional security measures, some of which I have been able to outline this morning. Therefore, I do not believe that anyone should underestimate the commitment of everyone concerned with the security of the travelling public in seeking to improve that situation.
Baroness Gardner of Parkes: My Lords, does the Minister believe that one of the very important factors is the alertness of passengers themselves in looking around and seeing what is happening with other passengers?
Lord Davies of Oldham: My Lords, that is certainly so, particularly with buses. Inevitably, a certain amount of big luggage tends to be separated from the passenger because it cannot be put in the aisle of the bus as no one else would be able to get past. It is important that we should all be alert. I also draw to the attention of the House that 80 per cent of the buses in London now have CCTV, which helps as regards security, and we shall consider extending that.
Regulation of Financial Services (Land Transactions) Bill
11.27 am
Brought from the Commons; read a first time, and ordered to be printed.
Business of the House: Motion 13 July
Baroness Amos: My Lords, I beg to move, the Motion standing in my name on the Order Paper.
Moved, That the order of 13 July referring the Unstarred Question in the name of the Viscount Astor to a Grand Committee be discharged.—(Baroness Amos.)
On Question, Motion agreed to.
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