Lords Hansard text for 25 Jul 200725 July 2007 (pt 0001)

Written Statements

Wednesday 25 July 2007

Armed Forces: ABRO and DARA

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Drayson): My right honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces (Bob Ainsworth) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:

On the 22 May 2007, (Official Report, Commons col. 67WS), the MoD announced its intention to create a new defence support group by merging together ABRO, retained DARA business units and certain other defence support facilities. I can now confirm that, following the successful conclusion of trade union consultation, the MoD will proceed with implementation of this merger. The new support group will begin formal trading by April 2008, subject to securing the necessary parliamentary approval.

I can also confirm that work continues to progress the sale option for DARA's rotary wing and components businesses. Vector Aerospace has been selected as the preferred bidder, and I hope to be able to make a definitive announcement on the way forward later this year, subject to trade union consultation, completion of due diligence, and the satisfactory conclusion of negotiations that demonstrate the sale provides best value for defence.

Armed Forces: Mental Health

The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Drayson): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Derek Twigg) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement:

I advised the House on 19 June 2007 (Official Report,Commons, col. 1752W), on 30 January 2007 (Official Report, Commons, col. 155W) and on 8 January (Official Report, Commons, col. 91W) that the department has been reviewing its methods of collating figures on service personnel diagnosed with a mental health disorder. I am pleased to be able to inform the House that the review process has now been completed and that the Defence Analytical Services Agency (DASA) will today be publishing its first quarterly report based on an improved method of collecting information on its website, www.dasa.mod.uk. Copies will also be made available in the Library of the House.

The department has moved from a system of recording and reporting mental health statistics relating solely to Operation TELIC (Iraq) to a new system covering all in-service personnel assessed with a mental health disorder at the Ministry of Defence’s out-patient departments of community mental health (DCMH). The report also includes a return for new in-patient

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admissions under the MoD’s contract with the Priory Group. The new reporting system has several advantages over the old:

it is more comprehensive, because it covers all service personnel;it is more robust, because it verifies individual records of mental disorder against other data sets, such as deployment databases; andthere is less potential for subjective bias, because individual staff members in the DCMHs are no longer being asked to make a judgment as to whether a mental disorder is attributable to a specific operation.

The findings to date show that the numbers of service personnel assessed with a mental disorder in the first quarter of 2007 are low—around 5.8 per 1,000 strength, or 0.58 per cent of the total Armed Forces population. The numbers of service personnel assessed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during the same period are around 0.3 per 1,000 strength, or 0.03 per cent of the total Armed Forces population. The actual numbers of individuals affected is 41 from Iraq and 13 from Afghanistan.

Any casualty of combat is clearly a matter of regret and we are committed to helping those whose mental health suffers. The publication of the first results of our new method of collecting and analysing data demonstrates our continuing commitment to understanding the true relationship between service on deployed operations and mental ill health and to making the results available to inform Parliament and the public.

In recent years, the department has developed pre- and post-deployment briefing and training to all personnel, but in particular to medical staff and the chain of command, to increase awareness of mental illness and to mitigate the development of PTSD and other stress-related disorders occurring among service personnel. It has configured our mental health services to provide community-based mental health care in line with national best practice, establishing 15 military departments of community mental health across the UK (plus satellite centres overseas). It has introduced a reserves mental health programme to assess and, if appropriate, treat recently demobilised reserves. It has expanded the scope of its medical assessment programme (MAP) at St Thomas’s Hospital to provide assessments by an expert in military mental health for any veterans suffering from mental health problems since 1982. It has also been working with UK health departments and clinical experts to establish a new community-based arrangement that will make available to NHS health professionals expertise in the assessment and treatment of veterans’ mental health problems; pilots to trial this arrangement will be launched shortly.

I am confident that the more comprehensive quarterly reports will offer an increased understanding of mental health statistics as the data set grows over the coming years.

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Armed Forces: Operation Banner

On 31 July, Operation Banner will come to an end; the Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy having delivered continuous support to the police and civil authorities in Northern Ireland for 38 years. It will have been the longest continuous deployment of UK Armed Forces in their history.

As we move into a new era with fewer than 5,000 troops resident in Northern Ireland, trained and available for deployment worldwide, the military will retain some limited but specific responsibilities with the capability to deploy in situations of extreme public disorder in support of the Police Service of Northern Ireland under a new operation to be known as Operation Helvetic. The troops deployed in such circumstances would come from wherever they are available at the time. In addition, provision of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) will continue.

Across the UK the Armed Forces can provide support to the civil authorities during emergencies under normal military aid to civil authorities tasking arrangements. Where there is an imminent threat to life, such as a major accident or natural disaster, the authorities can call upon local military commanders for support. After 1 August the vast majority of military support in Northern Ireland will be broadly comparable to the assistance that is currently provided in Great Britain, tailored for the particular circumstances in Northern Ireland. Additionally, while the Armed Forces are not responsible for maintaining national security in the UK, that does not mean that they would not and could not provide specific support in this area to a civil authority when requested to do so. Again, the approach in Northern Ireland will be brought more closely into line with that on the mainland.

As indicated in the Good Friday agreement, military helicopters will continue to be based in Northern Ireland, but with a worldwide deployable role. As a consequence, essential flying training will continue in order to maintain the skills of the aircrew and, with Northern Ireland designated as Low Flying Area 19, the training emphasis will be similar to other areas within the UK. Helicopters will also continue to be used in Northern Ireland in support of the civil authorities. It is important to note that the civil authorities in Northern Ireland do not have access to large numbers of civilian helicopters and we will continue to provide support to them.

1 August marks the beginning of a new era for the UK Armed Forces in Northern Ireland when, as with other parts of the country, the military will become very much part of the community. The impact of the commitment since 1969 has been considerable on both the military themselves and the MoD civilians supporting them. They and the community at large have suffered both death and injury. We should take this opportunity to remember the commitment, bravery

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and sacrifice of all those who have served over so many years in helping to deliver the current, more settled and more optimistic circumstances. Our recognition will culminate in a commemorative service to be held in the spring of 2008 as announced by my honourable friend the Under-Secretary of State for Defence in his Statement of 9 May 2007 (Official Report, Commons, col. 11 WS).

Child Maintenance

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (James Plaskitt) has made the following Statement.

The Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill currently before this House provides for a non-departmental public body, the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission, to administer the statutory scheme of child maintenance in place of the Child Support Agency. Schedule 1 to the Bill states that the commission will be headed by a chair and a chief executive.

The recruitment process for the chair has already begun. This is in anticipation of Royal Assent in spring 2008: by commencing the recruitment process at this stage, we intend that a chair will be in place when the commission comes into being as a legal entity following Royal Assent. This will ensure that the commission has the clear leadership, direction and accountability that it requires in place from day one.

Parliamentary approval for additional resources of £300,000 for this new service will be sought in a supplementary estimate for the Department for Work and Pensions. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £300,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.

Children: Common Assessment Framework

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Lord Adonis): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families (Kevin Brennan) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

I am announcing today the support that the Government will provide to front-line professionals in children’s services by implementing a single national IT system to support the common assessment framework (eCAF).

The common assessment framework (CAF) is a key element of the Every Child Matters programme to transform children’s services by supporting more effective prevention and early intervention. Its goal is to provide a standardised approach for practitioners in the holistic assessment of a child’s needs and the design of an integrated service to meet those needs.

By facilitating a greater number of early interventions, eCAF will shift the focus from dealing with the consequences of difficulties in children’s lives

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to preventing them from happening in the first place. By facilitating better collaboration between practitioners and encouraging needs-led intervention, eCAF will directly improve the experience of service provision for children and families.

Any given case with a child can involve multiple agencies working across borders, both geographic and organisational. It is, therefore, essential that any supporting mechanism for CAF provides practitioners from different sectors with easy access to key information concerning the assessment to allow them to plan, monitor and review a co-ordinated approach to the delivery of the most appropriate services. eCAF is the response to this need.

eCAF will allow a practitioner to create electronically, store and share a CAF securely. Completion of CAFs by different agencies and the subsequent exchanges of data between relevant agencies promote multi-agency working and early interventions. The complexities of cross-border work are removed, as eCAF provides a consistent approach for all practitioners working in different agencies and locations, thus facilitating the effective and efficient delivery of a co-ordinated service.

eCAF will hold information about only some (not all) children, with consent and for a limited period of time. It will offer a systematic means of capturing:

details of the child/young person being assessed (ie name, gender, date of birth, contact details, ethnicity and immigration details);details that might be useful for the practitioners working with the child (ie child’s first language, parent’s first language, disability and whether an interpreter or any other special requirements are needed);people present at the assessment;details of parent/carer (ie name, relationship, contact details);family structure, described by the practitioner using free text;details of person undertaking assessment (ie name, organisation and contact details);name and contact number for the lead professional if applicable;details of other services working with the child/young person (ie school, GP);assessment summary, appropriately captured by the practitioner using free text; andconsent-based, planned actions, reviewing progress and a summary of the outcomes, all summarised appropriately by the practitioner using free text.

Children, young people or, where appropriate, their parents or carers will be able to ask to see their records and to challenge any inaccuracies, in accordance with data protection legislation.

Using eCAF, the assessment process will be enhanced through the removal of unnecessary administration and inherent business issues, allowing practitioners to focus on activities that have the greatest impact. Business issues that eCAF will reduce include unnecessary repeat assessments, inappropriate referrals and inappropriate interventions. Efficiency gains from the reduction of these business issues are expected to yield savings

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estimated at £150 million over the first eight years from the inception of the national system. We do not intend to reduce funding for children’s services, but instead we intend to enable savings realised to be reinvested in more and better services for children and more effective use of staff time. We anticipate that this will enhance staff satisfaction with their jobs.

Using proven technology, the system will be built and implemented on a single nationally hosted infrastructure that all practitioners will use. Data will be held in a single physical location enabling practitioners easily to work together, accessing the most up-to-date information. The system will have the ability to share data with other case management systems in order to avoid duplication of input when specialist assessments are created. Locally owned systems can be modified to take advantage of this functionality.

The Government will ensure that the eCAF system is secure and will therefore ensure that it complies with rigorous security standards. Access to it will be granted only to authorised users who have undergone appropriate checks, including those provided by the Criminal Records Bureau. Practitioner use of the eCAF system will be audited to ensure that information is accessed only where it is necessary for practitioners to do so, and so guard against inappropriate access by authorised users.

Our decision to provide a single national eCAF system has been arrived at using input from stakeholders, the lessons learnt from five local eCAF pilot systems and a comprehensive analysis of eight options, covering a range of variants, from devolved responsibility to a more central approach.

The Government are planning to commit one-off implementation costs estimated to be £44.5 million in total across the next six financial years (including VAT)—this includes funding to roll out the system nationally and to ensure that practitioners are trained to use the system properly. Operating costs, thereafter, will be £6.4 million per year (including VAT). Both set-up and running costs will be funded by central government so that the costs to local authorities do not form a pressure on the council tax.

Implementation will be led by a dedicated project team within DCSF. The project team will work closely with stakeholders across local authorities to ensure that developments continue to be relevant and lead to more effective practice.

Comprehensive Spending Review

Lord Davies of Oldham: My right honourable friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr Alistair Darling) has made the following Written Statement.

I propose to present the Pre-Budget Report and the conclusions of the Comprehensive Spending Review in a single Statement to the House in October.

Courts: Fees

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My right honourable friend the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

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I am today announcing the outcome of the recent consultation oncivil court fees. The consultation paper was published on 2 April and the consultation closed on 25 June. Some 77 responses were received from the judiciary, legal professions and other stakeholder bodies.

After careful consideration of these, I have, with some adjustments, decided to proceed with the changes proposed. Three statutory instruments containing the new civil, family and non-contentious probate court fees will be laid before the House tomorrow and will take effect on 1 October.

A further statutory instrument containing the new fees for magistrates’ courts is still being drafted and will be laid during the Recess. However, this should not affect the implementation date. A report analysing the responses to consultation will be published on 1 October.

The current system of exemptions and remissions has been replaced with a new system of concessions that will apply to all the fees orders. The scheme will be based on two distinct tests.

The first test will determine whether the applicant is automatically entitled to a full remission of the court fee. This will apply if the applicant is currently receiving a prescribed means-tested benefit or, failing that, can demonstrate that their gross household income is below a threshold that probably entitles them to such a benefit.

The second, more detailed, test will consider both gross income and fixed outgoings to assess the applicant’s net or disposable income. The applicant may then be required to pay a contribution towards the fee based on a fraction of their disposable income. This system is a simplified version of the means test for legal aid.

In light of the responses received, we have reconsidered the original proposals and have adjusted some of the fees accordingly, putting together a package of solutions that positively and affordably addresses the majority of concerns. Those are as follows.

A majority agreed that the new concession should have a residual discretion to grant remission in exceptional circumstances not covered by the means test. A clause has been added to allow this. Full training will be given to staff to understand what can and cannot be considered exceptional to maximise consistency.Vexatious litigants who would normally be exempt from paying court fees due to financial hardship will be required to pay the full fee of an application for permission to bring a case.Some of the proposals for downstream civil fees have been adjusted to better reflect the cost of the stages concerned; for example, the fee for allocation questionnaires and listing questionnaires has changed. This has created scope to make larger reductions to some of the higher-issue fees than originally proposed, meeting the criticism that these were too low.In the magistrates’ courts, a fee of £400 was proposed for appeals against the decisions of public authorities, mainly licensing decisions. Some respondents objected that this proposal was likely to deter those individuals from appealing to the granting of liquor licences in

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