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Consolidated Fund Bill
Lord Davies of Oldham: I have made a statement under Section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998 that, in my view, the provisions of the Consolidated Fund Bill are compatible with the convention rights. A copy of the statement has been deposited in the Library of the House.
Defence Export Services Organisation
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Jones of Birmingham): The Prime Minister's Statement of 25 July 2007 (Official Report, Commons, col. 83WS) announced a machinery of government change moving responsibility for defence trade promotion from the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) to UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). Today I am announcing the arrangements under which this transfer will take place.
This Statement is made in close consultation with my colleagues the Secretary of State for Defence and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
We fully recognise how important continued export success is to the health of this strategic sector of the economy. Defence equipment manufacture is highly important to the United Kingdom. The combination of expertise within both DESO and UKTI offers a major opportunity to enhance the way HM Government offer support to this successful industry. The ability to offer a complete package for prospective customer Governments, who often seek specialist assistance, will help the industry to develop a compelling market proposition that positions the UK uniquely in the world.
The new organisation will build on the sector's recent work which has produced a code setting out common standards of good business practice. We will work together to promote strong standards of business conduct and corporate governance in the sector.
The new organisation will be the UKTI Defence and Security Group. This is a working name. The
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The UKTI Defence and Security Group will have continued links to the MoD in support of defence objectives. This will involve the active engagement of defence Ministers and the loan from the MoD to UKTI (via the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR)) of Armed Forces and relevant civilian personnel to the group. Certain other civilian personnel will transfer from the MoD to UKTI (via BERR), and staff employed locally at overseas missions will transfer from MoD employment to UKTI (via the Foreign and Commonwealth Office).
The current export-licensing function within the Defence Export Services Organisation will be retained within the MoD and so be separate from export support activities. And within BERR the separation between BERR export licence functions and trade promotion in UKTI will continue.
In line with the Prime Minister's Statement, no changes are envisaged to existing and planned agreements between the MoD and other Governments.
An implementation plan is in place. As a machinery of government change, the guiding principle is that business planning assumptions, and staffing and resources, will be taken on at their current levels from DESO by UKTI. This transfer to UKTI will take place on 1 April 2008.
Department for Transport: Autumn Performance Report
Lord Bassam of Brighton: My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Transport (Ruth Kelly) has made the following Ministerial Statement.
I have today published my department’s autumn performance report for 2007 (Cm 7266). Copies have been laid before Parliament and placed in the House Libraries.
The autumn performance report provides Parliament with a progress report on performance against the department's public service agreement (PSA) targets using data available up to November 2007.
EU: Economic and Financial Affairs Council
Lord Davies of Oldham: My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Kitty Ussher) has made the following Written Statement.
On 23 November 2007, I represented the UK at the budget Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN).
Finance Ministers agreed to adopt preliminary draft amending budget no. 7 to the 2007 EC budget,
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Finance Ministers agreed to adopt amending letter no. 2 to the preliminary draft budget for 2008, which reflected the latest information on agricultural market prices and other developments.
During a conciliation meeting between council and the European Parliament agreement was reached on the 2008 EC budget and on the multi-annual financing for the Galileo project and the European Institute of Technology. The agreement establishes total payment levels of €120.3 billion (0.96 per cent of EU GNI). The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on its own second reading on 13 December, after which the 2008 EC budget will be formally adopted.
Four joint statements relating to the budget were also agreed at budget ECOFIN. These concerned: the financing of Galileo and the European Institute of Technology; joint undertakings; and the procedure to implement the budget agreement reached by the council and European Parliament. The Government are supportive of these statements, which affirm the principle of fair and open competition and call for sound financial management and budget discipline in the areas they concern.
EU: Energy Council
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Jones of Birmingham): My honourable friend the Minister of State for Energy (Malcolm Wicks) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I represented the UK at the Energy Council in Brussels on 3 December.
The council was dominated by exchanges on progress on the internal market. There was a positive outcome from a UK perspective, with growing support for ownership unbundling. The rest of the meeting was taken up by a policy debate on the strategic energy technology (SET) plan and information from the presidency and Commission on international relations.
On the SET plan, Ministers debated the recently adopted Commission communication and an associated presidency “vision statement”. The presidency said it was important the EU took a lead internationally to meet climate goals—the cost of inaction was greater than action. Investment in the development of energy technologies would be critical but there was no single solution—a wide range of technologies was needed. The Commission outlined the content of its communication. To meet our long-term climate objectives the EU had to be ambitious both on its own and in promoting greater international co-operation.
While welcoming the communication, member states demonstrated a wide range of views on the appropriate prescription, particularly when it came to identifying the most important technologies; energy efficiency was the most mentioned sector. There was general agreement on the need for more effective investment in R&D and the importance of the private sector. For
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Presenting the third internal market package, the Commission noted that while liberalisation had brought benefits, competitive markets were not yet complete. To meet the spring European Council mandate, real change was necessary to ensure non-discriminatory access, open and transparent markets, incentives to invest, and to improve the powers and independence of regulators. On the key issue of unbundling, the Commission noted that unbundled markets had experienced lower price rises (6 per cent as against 29 per cent) and higher investment. Though the Commission was open to considering alternatives, these had to involve structural separation that ensured the independence of the transmission system operator. The Commission called for swift progress in council.
All member states welcomed the presidency progress report as fair and balanced. The presidency noted the broad consensus on regulators' powers, objectives and independence as well as the need for greater co-operation, though not yet on the proposed agency model itself, and called on those member states wanting a third option on unbundling to present it soon.
For the UK, I supported the Commission's analysis that full ownership unbundling was the best way to deliver the necessary network investment and benefits of a competitive market to EU consumers and business as UK experience demonstrated. I emphasised the importance of rapid progress, noting that any third option would have to meet the spring European Council mandate on effective separation of networks from supply/generation activities to ensure independent decisions on investment. I also recognised the special circumstances faced by small or isolated markets.
A large majority of member states supported the UK position in whole or in part. Several others supported the agency while others emphasised the importance of the third country clause.
Two member states in particular, supported by four others, rejected functional separation of networks and supply as a solution to the problem, seeing networks as a natural monopoly. They believed it caused problems for safety, investment, quality and prices, as well as weakening EU operators' positions against third-country companies. They would suggest an ambitious alternative solution next year.
The Commission concluded by emphasising that the purpose was to promote the interests of EU consumers, not the energy industry.
On international relations, the presidency reported on a variety of initiatives, focusing on Brazil and Africa in particular. Energy was now an important component of most EU external relations; for example, with China, India and the EuroMed. The Commission agreed and noted the good progress made across the board. On Russia, it would investigate the impact of the third package on Russian companies and it would soon propose modalities for the accession of Moldova,
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Two member states raised their interest in pipeline developments. The Commission's co-ordinator for the Nabucco pipeline reported on this project.
General Commissioners: Amalgamation of Divisions
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Bridget Prentice) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I have made an order under Section 2(6) of the Taxes Management Act 1970 amalgamating a number of divisions in Leicestershire, Devon, Dorset, North Yorkshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire and London as follows:
With effect from 1 January 2008:
the Hinckley Division, the Loughborough Division and the Rutland Division are merged into one division called the North Leicestershire and Rutland Division;the Plym Division and the Stanborough and Coleridge Division are merged into one division called the Plymouth and Stanborough Division;the Coventry Division and the Nuneaton Division are merged into one division and called the Coventry and Nuneaton Division;the Willesden Division and the North-West London Division are merged into one division called the North-West London Division;the North Dorset, West Dorset and Weymouth Division is renamed the West Dorset Division;the New Forest West Division is abolished; and the New Forest East and Wessex Division is renamed the Wessex Division.And with effect from 8 February 2008:
the Harrogate Division and the Ripon Division are merged into one division called the Harrogate and Ripon Division.All the amalgamations were made at the request of the general commissioners in all the divisions with the aim of improving the organisational efficiency of the divisions concerned. Copies of the Amalgamation of Divisions of General Commissioners have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses, the Vote Office and the Printed Paper Office.
Governance of Britain
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath): My honourable friend the Minister of State (Michael Wills) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
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In the Governance of Britain Green Paper released in July this year the Government reiterated their commitment to review by the end of this year the experience of the new voting systems introduced in the United Kingdom since 1997. The Government have completed this review and will make it ready for publication in January 2008 when Parliament reconvenes.
Government: Simplification Plans
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office & Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (Lord Jones of Birmingham): My honourable friend the Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs (Pat McFadden) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Government are today publishing simplification plans for 19 departments and government agencies. The Health and Safety Executive published its plan on 3 December, taking the total number of plans published to 20.
The plans set out more than 700 initiatives which, when delivered, will result in reduced administrative burdens and policy costs for the UK economy as a whole.
They show how the Government are delivering the commitment they made 12 months ago to reduce administrative burdens on business and the third sector by 25 per cent net by 2010, saving the economy £3.5 billion a year; they set out 288 simplification measures that departments have delivered to date, saving business and the third sector more than £800 million net per year; and they show that work has begun on reducing the bureaucracy faced by front-line public sector workers.
These plans continue the Government's commitment to transparent reporting of their simplification programme. Departments will continue to update plans annually in order to ensure ongoing year-on-year reductions in the burdens they impose.
A report Delivering Simplification Plans: A Summary has been deposited in both Houses and summarises this cross-government effort.
Kosovo
The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (David Miliband) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 7 December, representatives of the Contact Group submitted to the UN Secretary-General the report by the EU/Russia/US troika on its work aimed at achieving a negotiated settlement for Kosovo's future status.
The troika correctly set itself the objective of “leaving no stone unturned” in the search for an outcome mutually acceptable to both Belgrade and Pristina. During the four months of its mandate, the troika undertook an intense schedule of meetings with the parties. Over 10 rounds of negotiations—including six
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The troika has therefore reported that the parties have been unable to reach an agreement on Kosovo's status.
I pay tribute to the troika's work. It has worked tirelessly and imaginatively. Although it did not secure an agreement between the parties, its work generated sustained and intensive high-level dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina. The troika has also been able to extract important commitments from the parties, including pledges to refrain from actions that might jeopardise the security situation in Kosovo or elsewhere and not to use violence, threats or intimidation. These are important commitments to which we shall expect both sides to adhere strictly in the period ahead.
The troika's efforts followed those of UN special envoy Ahtisaari who laboured heroically for 14 months to reach agreement between the parties before concluding that this was out of reach. He therefore drew up his own proposal for how to move forward based around the concept of supervised independence. That recommendation was supported by the EU, US and UN Secretary-General. It was rejected by Serbia and Russia.
It is hard to argue now that there is any value in further negotiations or that serious options have yet to be fully explored. The failure to reach agreement is not because of lack of time, energy or imagination on the part of the international community. It is because the positions of the parties are irreconcilable. Kosovo insists on independence. Serbia insists on a settlement that locks the door on any prospect of independence. The UK shares the firm view of the EU representative on the troika, ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, that the parties would not be capable of reaching agreement on this issue if negotiations were to be continued, whether in the troika format, or in some other form.
The Kosovo status process has now reached a decisive moment, presenting the international community with difficult but important decisions.
One point on which almost all in the international community are agreed is that the status quo is unsustainable. This was stated in clear terms by the UN Secretary-General when he addressed the Contact Group ministerial meeting in September in New York. The Contact Group, including Russia, subsequently expressed its agreement in a joint ministerial statement.
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