Written Answers of 19 November 1999

TREASURY

  Employers' National Insurance Contributions
  Mrs. Lawrence
  To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide details of what employers need to do to prepare for the extension of employers' National Insurance contributions to all taxable benefits in kind from April 2000, as announced in the Budget of March 1999. [99264]

  Dawn Primarolo
  The extension of Class 1A NICs has been structured around the existing tax reporting system to minimise any extra work for employers. Employers will, for Class 1A purposes, use the valuation figures for benefits that they already put on each employee's P11D form for tax purposes. The Pl1D will be clearly marked to make it obvious which figures to use to calculate the Class 1A liability.

  The first reports on, and payments of, the extended Class 1A contributions will be due in July 2001. Full guidance on how the new arrangements will work in practice will be made available to employers shortly.

  In addition, to reflect developments in modern working practices and reduce reporting requirements on employers, the Government will be exempting a number of benefits from both tax and NICs. The benefits to be exempted are:
  small amounts of private use by an employee of items provided by the employer for the employee's work;
  qualifying beneficial loans; and
  general welfare counselling provided by an employer.

  The Inland Revenue are also making it clear that an extra-statutory concession, which exempts the benefit of subsidised meals provided to employees in certain circumstances, applies to light refreshments as well.

DEFENCE

  Discipline (Human Rights)
  Mr. Woolas
  To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement about the implications of the Human Rights Act 1998 for the armed forces' system of discipline. [99261]

  Mr. Spellar
  The Human Rights Act 1998 fulfils our commitment to incorporate into national law those parts of the European Convention on Human Rights that concern individual rights and civil liberties. The Armed Forces Act 1996 introduced reforms to the court martial system that took account of the United Kingdom's Convention obligations. The procedures for trying offences by court martial are therefore compliant with the Convention. At the same time, changes were made to 14W
  the Services' summary discipline procedures, to provide the majority of defendants with access to a compliant court by offering them the option of being tried by court martial.

  Service discipline procedures are kept under regular review and we have been considering the scope for further improvements. As a result, we intend to introduce a requirement for a judicial officer to decide within prescribed time limits whether a suspect or accused needs to be detained prior to charge or trial respectively. This would apply to a summary hearing before the commanding officer and to trial by court martial. We also propose to introduce a right of appeal from summary hearings to a new summary appeal court. To ensure clarity in the distinction between this new right of appeal and the existing right to elect to be tried by court martial, we propose to alter the procedures for exercising the court martial option. Where at present a defendant is able to exercise this option at the end of a summary hearing, but before sentence, this right would in future be exercisable before the hearing.

  The legislative proposals required to enact these changes are contained in the Armed Forces Discipline Bill, which was being introduced in another place yesterday.

  We are confident that these improvements, like the earlier reforms, will be consistent with the need for the Armed Forces to be able to maintain discipline both in peacetime and during operations, while ensuring that the rights of the individual are fully respected.

  Common Pay Scale
  Mr. Crausby
  To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to introduce a common pay scale for the armed forces. [99262]

  Mr. Spellar
  The Department has developed a new pay structure to provide a more modern and flexible approach to remuneration for the Armed Forces. We had planned to introduce the new structure in April 2000, but this has proved to be a more complex activity than originally anticipated. It has therefore been decided that implementation should be delayed by 12 months until April 2001 to meet the paramount requirement to ensure that our Service men and women are paid correctly and on time.

  The Armed Forces Pay Review Body will make pay recommendations in the normal way for the financial year beginning April 2000, based on the present pay system.

PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL

  Millennium Compliance
  Jane Griffiths
  To ask the President of the Council when she will publish the latest results of the market research tracking public perception of the millennium bug. [99202]

  Mrs. Beckett
  I have placed copies of the Executive Summary of the September tracking research in the Libraries of the House.
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  The latest results are broadly consistent with those for previous months, showing that anxiety among the public on this issue remains low.

  The results of the October tracking research will be published in the next few weeks and I will place copies of the Executive Summary in the Libraries of the House as soon as they are available.

ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS

  Sellafield
  Mr. McCabe
  To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when he expects to make an announcement about applications to vary some of the radioactive discharge limits at Sellafield. [99263]

  Mr. Prescott
  The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and I have announced our decisions today. Copies of the decision document have been placed in the Library.

  This Government are committed to securing progressive cuts in radioactive discharges and discharge limits. Last year we entered into new international obligations (under OSPAR) to reduce radioactive discharges. These involve agreeing a 20-year strategy for cutting discharges that will ensure additional concentrations of radioactivity in the marine environment above historic levels are close to zero. We intend to meet these obligations fully, and are already working with the regulatory authorities and the nuclear industry to prepare the UK's strategy.

  Taking full account of this strategy, we have now decided that the Environment Agency should be able to proceed with its proposals which involve significant cuts in a number of discharge limits, or offsetting decreases in those few cases where some increase in discharges limits is proposed. Where discharge limits are being increased it is to enable the historic legacy of stored spent solvent to be treated through the introduction of the Solvent Treatment Plant.
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  We do intend however to take further action to reduce discharges. The Environment Agency is embarking on a full-scale review of all radioactive discharges from the Sellafield site. I expect the outcome of the review to enable significant further progress to be made in the achievement of the OSPAR commitments. The review, to the point at which the Environment Agency begins consultations on any proposed changes to the Sellafield authorisations, will be undertaken as soon as possible—and in the case of technetium-99 discharges within six months. The Agency has said that its future strategy is for a substantial reduction in the technetium-99 discharges to sea with the aim of reducing discharges to less than 10TBq/year by the introduction of new technology.

AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD

  Agriculture Council
  Mr. Hood
  To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the Agriculture Council held in Brussels on 15 and 16 November; and if he will make a statement. [98506]

  Mr. Nick Brown
  The Council unanimously adopted a strategy on environmental integration and sustainable development in the Common Agricultural Policy, in response to an initiative begun in the United Kingdom Presidency in 1998. It also unanimously adopted (Germany abstaining) measures to promote and provide information on Community agricultural products in third countries.

  The Council heard Commissioner Fischler introduce proposed regulations covering a Community compulsory beef labelling regime, reform of the flax and hemp regime and revisions to the bananas regime to bring it into line with WTO rules. Commissioner Byrne updated the Council on progress on dealing with the recent dioxin crisis, including his plans to improve the controls of feed.

  Under other business I outlined the United Kingdom's strategy for dealing with tuberculosis in cattle and urged other member states to support the United Kingdom's position when this is discussed within the Bern Convention Standing Committee later this month.