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Creating sustainable communities: Making it Happen: Thames Gateway and the Growth Areas published in July 2003 announced outline plans for a £164 million package for the three newer growth areas of Ashford, Milton Keynes/South Midlands, and London/Stansted/Cambridge. Commitments were made then to fund individual schemes to a total value of £88 million.
I am announcing today detailed allocations for a further £63 million from the £164 million package. This includes £11.5 million allocated to environmental projects in Ashford, Milton Keynes/South Midlands and London/Stansted/Cambridge to kick start the Government's long-term vision for green spaces. They will improve landscapes, country footpaths and valuable habitats in those areas. More than £50 million has been awarded to 18 other projects to provide key transport and economic infrastructure for three growth areas.
The flagship schemes announced today include the following green developments:
A completely new country park to be created on farmland at Coton, west of Cambridge, improving the quality of the green belt and providing a green buffer between Cambridge and the village of Coton.
A £l.5 million kick start to the new River Nene Regional Park in Northamptonshire.
Three new areas of woodland and a new cycle path through the Forest of Marston Vale, improving poor quality land and providing green buffers between the growing towns of Bedford and Milton Keynes.
Protecting and improving valuable habitats, including chalk downland at Dunstable Downs and fenland at Wicken, north of Cambridge.
New footpaths and bridges to improve access to the Lee Valley Regional Park in north-east London.
Key improvements to infrastructure announced today include:
£9.5 million for the London/Stansted/Cambridge growth area, bringing the total to over £20 million. New projects will provide access to new housing sites on Cambridge's southern fringe, and will fund design and preparation work for the Cambridge to Huntingdon guided bus, recently awarded £65 million by the Department for Transport.
Over £35 million for the Milton Keynes/South Midlands growth area. Flagship schemes include £10.6 million for the construction of a new access road and bridge to enable early delivery of 3,400 new homes in Wellingborough and £5 million for a new road at Bedford, which together with funding from the Department for Transport and
English Partnerships will enable 3,450 to be provided which would not otherwise go ahead.£2.8 million for schemes to support job creation and improve the urban environment in Corby, £1.7 million to improve the town centre in Aylesbury and £3 million to regenerate the historic Bletchley Park complex.
An additional £4.5 million to kick start the regeneration of Ashford town centre, on top of the £9 million announced in July 2003.
A further £19.5 million has been set aside for further schemes in the London/Stansted/Cambridge corridor, details of which we will announce in April 2004.
Full details of the projects announced today will be available in the Libraries of both Houses.
National Service Framework for Renal Services
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Health has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am today publishing National Service Framework for Renal Services, Part One: Dialysis and Transplantation.
The national service framework (NSF) programme is a major part of our agenda to tackle health inequalities and to drive up standards across the National Health Service. Part one of this NSF covers dialysis and transplantation. It sets standards and identifies markers of good practice that will help the NHS and its partners to manage the demand for renal services, increase fairness of access and improve choice and quality in dialysis and kidney transplantation.
This is an important part of our modernisation programme to improve renal dialysis and transplantation services over the next 10 years. The framework sets out five quality standards to provide a flexible, responsive service that provides patients with better access and choice. It identifies 30 markers of good practice drawn from national and international evidence. This NSF builds on the programme of modernisation set out in the NHS Plan and the national service frameworks for diabetes, coronary heart disease, older people, and children. It reflects the principles of empowering patients and frontline staff contained in the NHS Plan and Shifting the Balance of Power, and of extending patient choice as set out in Building on the Best: Choice, Responsiveness and Equity in the NHS (Cm 6079).
This NSF complements Saving Lives, Valuing Donors—A Transplant Framework for England and supports our aim to increase the number of kidneys available for transplantation.
The five NSF standards for renal services set out a vision of a service that is equitable and integrated and that provides people with the support they need to
make individual choices and to manage their own condition.The NSF for renal services sets out five steps for the NHS to take by 2006:
Use national data to support planning and to identify local priorities, including the needs of black and minority ethnic groups;
Continue to expand haemodialysis capacity;
Join the UK renal registry and take part in national audit;
Implement National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance on home haemodialysis;
Implement forthcoming NICE guidance on immunosuppressive therapy for transplantation.
In addition we will establish five modernisation programmes to support the implementation and delivery of the NSF. These programmes are to:
Redesign the renal dialysis and transplantation workforce;
Re-engineer elective dialysis access surgery;
Redesign access to hospital (patient transport);
Redesign care plans to enable partnership and choice;
Redesign the built environment.
We will continue to work with doctors, nurses, allied healthcare professionals, NHS managers and people with renal failure to develop part two of the NSF concentrating on prevention of established renal failure, primary care and care towards the end of life.
Copies of National Service Framework for Renal Services, Part One: Dialysis and Transplantation have been placed in the Library.
Export Licence Applications
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean): Following consultation with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Trade and Industry recently approved further licences to export military list goods to Iraq. The arms embargo against Iraq remains in place under United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003), with the exception of "arms and other related material required by the (Coalition Provisional) Authority to serve the purposes of this and other related resolutions".
Accordingly, Her Majesty's Government consider it appropriate to grant exemptions for the export of:(i) smoke grenades which are to be used by private security firms contracted to provide close protection for employees of the Coalition Provisional Authority(CPA); and
(ii) small arms ammunition which is to be provided to the Coalition Provisional Authority for use by the Ministry of the Interior in Iraq.
These exports are consistent with the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria. Future applications will continue to be assessed on a case by case basis against the UN embargo and consolidated criteria, taking into account the circumstances prevailing at the time.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: Following consultations with this department, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, the Department of Trade and Industry issued a licence for the export to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) of bomb disposal suits and equipment. This equipment will be used by the Royal Nepalese Army, who are part of the Ituri Brigade of the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC).
UN Security Council Resolution (SCR) 1493 (2003), adopted on 28 July 2003, implemented an embargo on the provision of arms and any related materiel to all armed groups operating in the east of the country. Operative Paragraph 21 of the SCR provides an exemption to the embargo for "supplies to MONUC"
British-Irish Council Summit, St Fagans
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin): My right honourable friend the Prime Minister led the UK delegation and was accompanied by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Northern Ireland Office and my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs.
The council noted the recent elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive and looked forward to the restoration of the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland, established under the agreement.
The main issue for discussion was indigenous, minority and lesser-used languages, and the council has agreed a programme to take forward joint working in this area. I have placed a copy of the communique in the Libraries of the House.
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