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Baroness Hanham: My Lords, is not further regionalisation by stealth coming about as a result of the Miliband review of structures? What discussions have taken place with local authority members—not officers—on the restructuring of local government, which is now being undertaken under the Miliband flag?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, as I understand it, discussions about local government structure have been going on for some time, and they will no doubt continue. The Miliband review, in so far as unitary local government is concerned, seems to have provoked a lot of interest among local authorities. I am sure that noble Lords are following that debate with great interest. However, these matters are best discussed by central and local government on a regular basis.
Lord Clark of Windermere: My Lords, I, too, was surprised that the regional assemblies were not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, because it was the will of both Houses that the Act should apply as widely as possible. Will the Minister consider writing to the regional assemblies asking whether they will make themselves open to freedom of information applications?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, that is a very good suggestion, which I shall take back to my colleagues in the ODPM.
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Lord Willoughby de Broke: My Lords, I apologise for jumping the gun earlier. Will the Minister confirm that the English regional assemblies mirror exactly the EU's plans for a Europe of the regions? I think that they do, but I would like it confirmed. Further, do any EU observers sit in any of the English regional assemblies?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I do not think that the regional assemblies would see themselves in the way that the noble Lord described. However, the noble Lord made an interesting point about membership. I understand that the East Midlands' six MEPs take an interest in the East Midlands Regional Assembly, but they are not full members of it. That cross-fertilisation is probably of value in the east Midlands. I do not know whether it is copied elsewhere.
Lord Elton: My Lords, I am not sure that the Minister's answer to the question of my noble friend Lady Hanham came out quite as he meant. Her question was about consultation specifically with members, not officials. The Minister did not use that word. Will he enlighten us?
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My Lords, I obviously meant what I said.
Lord Bassam of Brighton: Well, my Lords, one tries to mean what one says. I understand that discussions take place continuously between central and local government. Moreover, meetings of the Central and Local Government Information Partnership take place fairly regularly. I have no doubt that those discussions will continue in that form as in many others.
Iraq: Federal Structure
11.29 am
The Earl of Dundee asked Her Majesty's Government:
What is their response to the proposal for a federal structure in Iraq to assist with stability and the pursuit of parliamentary democracy.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Triesman): My Lords, the new Iraqi constitution commits Iraq to a federal structure which recognises the regional nature of Iraq. The detailed implementation of the constitution's provisions will be for the Iraqi people to agree. We will continue to help in the creation of a united, federal and pluralist Iraq in which all citizens can benefit from security, prosperity and fundamental freedoms.
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The Earl of Dundee: My Lords, I thank the Minister for his reply. Does he accept that within a federal system different groups in Iraq would work together much better than they do now? Does he also agree that co-operation between those groups would be further assisted by United Nations or international supervision of their oil revenues, as used to be done through the pre-1958 Iraq Development Board?
Lord Triesman: My Lords, it would be beneficial if the different groups co-operated to a greater extent. All minority groups will have to play a key part in deciding the details of the federal make-up of Iraq through the Council of Representatives and do so with a sense of great responsibility. We have spoken to groups in Iraq which, broadly speaking, accept that that is true. The United Nations' role in Iraq is clearly set out in UNSCR 1546 and UNSCR 1637, including assisting in the co-ordination of donor inputs into Iraq's development. The UN and other international institutions, such as the World Bank and the IMF, continue to play a crucial role in ensuring that there is a level playing field for all Iraqis through the relationship with the Government.
Those two UN Security Council resolutions provide the foundations of a relationship and offer assistance to all Iraqis to effect Iraq's economic rehabilitation. Therefore the machinery is in place to achieve the level playing field that was historically achieved by a different route.
Baroness Trumpington: My Lords, is the Minister aware that this week I received a travel brochure, including plans for a seven- or 10-day visit to Iran, among other countries? Are the Government in favour of parties of British nationals visiting Iran at the moment, particularly women in European dress?
Lord Triesman: My Lords, I have not this morning read the Foreign Office's website on travel in Iran, although I looked at it a couple of days ago. There are plainly visits that occasion no trouble to those who make them. There are visits that are now more problematic. The only good advice that I can give your Lordships' House is to see what the position is today and in the immediate future on that website, because I appreciate that there can be significant difficulties of the kind that the noble Baroness raised.
Baroness Uddin: My Lords, does my noble friend accept that the aspiration of the alliances of achieving a federal structure in Iraq is far from the reality for the people of Iraq, given the agreed or otherwise state of civil war in Iraq? Does he agree that the UK's stand must be that we never again abandon Iraq in the way that we did earlier in the century, making possible the rise of someone like Saddam Hussein?
Lord Triesman: My Lords, there is no intention on the part of Her Majesty's Government to abandon Iraq until the job to which we are committed is seen
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through. There is no doubt that the security situation is volatile, and a crucial step in providing greater security is the formation, as soon as possible, of a lasting government in which people can have confidence and which will draw together the different federal groups. I see civil war as in no sense inevitable. The trends of elections, the votes and the determination of the vast majority of Iraqi people to have a decent, civilised society will, in the final analysis, impede any prospect of civil war becoming the general state of affairs.
Lord Wallace of Saltaire: My Lords, in view of reports from Baghdad and Washington in the past two days that the White House has told the current Iraqi Government that it wants them to change the Prime Minister, will the Minister reassure us that the British Government retain some influence over political and constitutional developments in Iraq and tell us through what channels those influences are exerted?
Lord Triesman: My Lords, I, too, as ever, have been entertained by the various accounts in the newspapers. I understand that the United States has made some remarks of that kind; we take the view that it is for the Iraqi people, as a sovereign people, through the institutions that they have voted into power, to come to a determination of these matters on their own and in their own interests.
Lord Richard: My Lords, I observe that there is two minutes to go to the end of the Question. Will the Government urge the newly emerging Government in Iraq to scrutinise carefully their extradition arrangements with the United States of America, so that they might in future be able to avoid the sort of problems that Mr Ali Manzarpour is suffering from at the moment?
Lord Triesman: My Lords, I am sure that we would want to see all the arrangements handled properly and under proper international law, so that international arrest warrants are issued only when they should be issued and operated on only when they should be operated on. I shall ensure that that is in the increasingly long list of things on which we seek some agreement.
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