Written Statement of 3 December 2002

CABINET OFFICE

  Civil Defence
  The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr. Douglas Alexander)
  The aggregate amount of civil defence grants to be made for the financial year 2003–04 is £19,038,000 of which £100,000 will be retained as discretionary grant for special projects and special events deemed of benefit to the wider emergency planning community in England and Wales.

  The remaining £18,938,000 will be allocated to individual authorities as set out in the table below.

  The grants have been allocated in the same way as last year, but with each authority receiving an equal share of the additional £70,000 available. Every authority thereby receives a slight increase in grant of £386.

  Local Authority

  Grant Allocation 2003–04 (£)

  Anglesey/Ynys Mon

  61,342

  Barking and Dagenham

  75,969

  Barnet

  80,694

  Barnsley

  76,076

  Bath and North East Somerset

  90,011

  Bedfordshire

  136,511

  Bexley

  78,758

  Birmingham

  187,380

  Blackburn with Darwen

  70,658

  Blackpool

  66,662

  Blaenau Gwent

  63,083

  Bolton

  82,674

  Bournemouth

  70,122

  Bracknell Forest

  63,899

  Bradford

  125,756

  Brent

  86,592

  Bridgend

  68,323

  Brighton and Hove

  81,172

  Bristol

  98,486

  Bromley

  84,980

  Buckinghamshire

  200,557

  Bury

  71,195

  Caerphilly

  73,088

  Calderdale

  74,574

  Cambridgeshire

  163,057

  Camden

  84,175

  Cardiff

  87,322

  Carmarthenshire

  73,858

  Ceredigion

  64,143

  Cheshire

  189,969

  Conwy

  64,811

  Cornwall

  189,279

  Corporation of London

  60,145

  Coventry

  77,776

  Croydon

  90,666

  Cumbria

  216,116

  Darlington

  63,899

  Denbighshire

  71,434

  Derby

  76,503

  Derbyshire

  220,459

  Devon

  217,294

  68WS

  Local Authority

  Grant Allocation 2003–04 (£)

  Doncaster

  85,516

  Dorset

  175,886

  Dudley

  82,908

  Durham

  213,601

  Ealing

  90,344

  East Riding of Yorkshire

  72,166

  East Sussex

  208,288

  Enfield

  88,198

  Essex

  315,112

  Flintshire

  77,741

  Gatehshead

  79,140

  Gloucestershire

  189,960

  Greater Manchester FCDA

  64,060

  Greenwich

  86,482

  Gwynedd

  67,698

  Hackney

  88,145

  Halton

  68,137

  Hammersmith and Fulham

  76,719

  Hampshire

  298,996

  Haringey

  85,624

  Harrow

  65,726

  Hartlepool

  64,650

  Havering

  77,685

  Herefordshire

  70,229

  Hertfordshire

  310,886

  Hillingdon

  81,386

  Hounslow

  80,742

  Hull (Kingston upon Hull)

  72,265

  Isle of Wight

  72,230

  Isles of Scilly

  53,708

  Islington

  83,424

  Kensington and Chelsea

  74,788

  Kent

  339,586

  Kingston upon Thames

  67,654

  Kirklees

  95,431

  Knowsley

  74,359

  Lambeth

  87,789

  Lancashire

  315,233

  Leeds

  172,987

  Leicester

  88,896

  Leicestershire

  192,957

  Lewisham

  83,978

  Lincolnshire

  212,793

  Liverpool

  97,648

  London FEPA

  151,825

  Luton

  59,894

  Manchester

  147,667

  Medway

  81,547

  Merseyside FCDA

  73,332

  Merthyr Tydfil

  60,998

  Merton

  72,053

  Middlesbrough

  71,355

  Milton Keynes

  81,404

  Monmouthshire

  62,154

  Neath Port Talbot

  70,259

  Newcastle Upon Tyne

  102,823

  Newham

  88,226

  Newport

  68,616

  Norfolk

  276,813

  North East Lincolnshire

  71,624

  North Lincolnshire

  69,532

  North Somerset

  71,248

  North Tyneside

  74,091

  North Yorkshire

  244,523

  Northamptonshire

  239,260

  Northumberland

  188,122

  Nottingham

  86,321

  Nottinghamshire

  210,927

  Oldham

  79,294

  Oxfordshire

  202,459

  Pembrokeshire

  66,735

  Peterborough

  72,214

  Plymouth

  81,708

  69WS

  Local Authority

  Grant Allocation 2003–04 (£)

  Poole

  66,635

  Portsmouth

  74,467

  Powys

  85,886

  Reading

  67,386

  Redbridge

  82,566

  Redcar and Cleveland

  69,693

  Rhondda Cynon Taff

  82,319

  Richmond upon Thames

  69,424

  Rochdale

  77,310

  Rotherham

  81,654

  Rutland

  56,443

  Salford

  72,386

  Sandwell

  88,413

  Sefton

  84,015

  Sheffield

  96,386

  Shropshire

  153,834

  Slough

  68,566

  Solihull

  73,716

  Somerset

  164,359

  South Gloucestershire

  76,183

  South Tyneside

  71,516

  South Yorkshire FCDA

  84,356

  Southampton

  77,470

  Southend

  71,966

  Southwark

  77,343

  St Helens

  73,333

  Staffordshire

  226,842

  Stockport

  79,992

  Stockton-on-Tees

  73,877

  Stoke-on-Trent

  74,413

  Suffolk

  221,786

  Sunderland

  101,107

  Surrey

  297,388

  Sutton

  73,126

  Swansea

  78,933

  Swindon

  71,355

  Tameside

  77,310

  Telford and Wrekin

  72,385

  Thurrock

  68,666

  Torbay

  67,440

  Torfaen

  64,876

  Tower Hamlets

  93,509

  Trafford

  75,754

  Tyne and Wear FCDA

  34,892

  Vale of Glamorgan

  72,385

  Wakefield

  86,667

  Walsall

  83,639

  Waltham Forest

  83,532

  Wandsworth

  79,155

  Warrington

  72,804

  Warwickshire

  181,722

  West Berkshire

  67,815

  West Midlands FCDA

  60,386

  West Sussex

  225,386

  West Yorkshire FCDA

  61,593

  Westminster

  86,804

  Wigan

  84,497

  Wiltshire

  194,786

  Windsor and Maidenhead

  66,796

  Wirral

  89,861

  Wokingham

  66,525

  Wolverhampton

  82,030

  Worcestershire

  186,835

  Wrexham

  72,926

  York

  72,220

  70WS

DEFENCE

  HMS Nottingham
  The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram)
  When the destroyer HMS NOTTINGHAM grounded in Australian waters on 7 July 2002 she sustained severe damage and flooding in the forward part of the ship. She is now on passage to the UK on a heavy lift ship and is expected to arrive in United Kingdom waters on 7 December. She will then be unloaded and towed into HM Naval Base at Portsmouth where a contract has been placed for her repair with Fleet Support Limited. The repair work— which will cost around £26M, including all materials supplied by the Department— is expected to last up to 18 months. HMS NOTTINGHAM is expected to return to operational service in November 2004.

  HMS NOTTINGHAM is a highly capable Type 42 destroyer designed to provide area air defence either independently or as an integral component of larger joint or coalition maritime task groups. Her key weapons, sensors and Command System were significantly upgraded during an extensive refit in 1999–2000. These improvements will enable the ship to keep pace with the increasing demands of maritime air defence during the next 10 years and will aid interoperability with key allies, in particular the USA. HMS NOTTINGHAM'S contribution will be crucial to bridging the air defence gap during the drawdown in Sea Harrier air defence aircraft beginning in 2005 and the introduction of the Type 45 Destroyer from 2007.

  To ease the short-term programming gap in the fleet created by HMS NOTTINGHAM'S unavailability, HMS GLASGOW, an older and less capable Type 42 is being regenerated from a planned state of lower readiness. An alternative solution which would have given HMS GLASGOW a similar capability upgrade to that received by HMS NOTTINGHAM in 1999 was considered, but the repair of HMS NOTTINGHAM was deemed to provide best value for money.

  Service Pensions (Taxation)
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Dr. Lewis Moonie)
  On 25 April 2002 Official Report, columns 426—27W, I informed the House that the problem of mistaken taxation of some Service invalidity pensions was more extensive than previously understood. I reported that we had set up an internal review, independent of the staffs involved, to establish the extent of the taxation errors and expose any related problems. This review is now complete.

  The review has established that the taxation problem is more extensive than I indicated in April. It is now clear that some RAF pensions are affected, and that the RN pensions affected are not limited to the period 1973–99. In addition, the review has found that further work is needed on Army pensions; this is required both to re-examine more thoroughly certain cases adjudged when first reviewed as correctly taxed, and to examine for the first time some other cases previously not thought to be at risk.
  71WS
  The findings of the review mean that the number of files needing examination has proved considerably larger than I stated previously. I now expect it will not be possible to complete a comprehensive check for all three Services before next summer. I regret that this work cannot be done faster, but it is vital that it be done accurately, by suitably cleared staff who are also familiar with the relevant documents. The pace of the work is also affected by the lack of comprehensive computerised information distinguishing invalidity pensions from others. This has made it necessary to handle many tens of thousands of files which are not at risk in order to identify those that are. This difficulty continues to affect progress.

  We are very much aware of the importance of giving as much priority as possible to examining the cases of our oldest pensioners. Although over 70 per cent, of errors identified so far affect younger pensioners, discharged in or after 1990, we anticipate that errors still to be found will include some affecting the oldest age-group. I much regret that in several of the cases recently re-examined a pensioner, previously misadvised that his pension was correctly taxed, has died before an error was recognised. In such cases the tax refund is to be paid, with due apology, to the pensioner's widow or estate.

  A further problem brought to light by the review is that some of the pensions taxed in error were also affected by an underpayment of Armed Forces Pension Scheme benefits. Over 350 pensioners have so far been identified in this category, most of whom were discharged in the 1990s. The average underpayment in these cases was around £4,500. The cost to date of rectifying tax errors has been some £5M, which happens also to be an average of some £4,500 per pensioner.

  The review includes a full analysis of the causes of errors and the necessary rem—edial action; the latter is already in hand. The procedures used in the conduct of the review have been validated by the National Audit Office. The NAO's letter of validation and the report of the review have been placed in the library of the House.

  Army Attributable Pensions
  Ms Oona King
  To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a further statement on the mistaken taxation of Army attributable pensions. [53048]

  Dr. Moonie
  Since my statement to the House on 23 January 2002,Official Report, columns 891–902, the Armed Forces Personnel Administration Agency has been conducting a review to establish more clearly the exact extent of the problem with the mistaken taxation of service invaliding and attributable pensions. This work is not complete, but has revealed that some Royal Navy invaliding and attributable pensions awarded between 1973 and 1999 have also been mistakenly taxed. We will be reviewing all the case files of those who might have been affected and arranging for refunds to be made as appropriate. This will be done as quickly as possible but is expected to take some months given the need to review several thousand pension files. We will also be providing appropriate national publicity to allow those who think they might have a claim to apply for a tax refund.
  72WS
  Our research has not so far revealed any cases where Royal Air Force pensions were wrongly taxed and there is evidence that the RAF has had in place checks which would have uncovered cases where attributable pensions should have been exempt from tax. However, we will include the RAF in our continuing work to ensure that no error is left unidentified.

  Our further work to date has confirmed that the problem was more extensive than originally understood but has also shown the complexity of the issues involved as, over time, changes have been made to the organisations responsible for administering the pensions and to the rules governing the schemes. We have therefore concluded that we should set up an internal review, completely independent of the staffs involved, to establish the precise extent of the current problems and to expose any other problems that may exist. This independent review will look across all three sevices, be launched as soon as possible and is likely to take a number of months to complete. The review team will be headed up by a senior civil servant and consist of staff drawn from the Defence Internal Audit. In order to provide external confidence, the NAO will be invited to validate the procedures. I will report the findings to the House

TRANSPORT

  Car Sharing/Car Clubs
  The Minister for Transport (Mr. John Spellar)
  I have written to Sir Trevor Chinn, the chairman of the Motorists' Forum, welcoming their report on car sharing and car clubs and enclosing the Government's response. The response outlines further support that the Government will give to work in this field, in particular:continued funding for an advisory service on car clubs and formal car sharing schemes;
  further research to monitor car clubs in circumstances that offer the most potential for success, for example where they may help to achieve higher densities in new residential developments than might otherwise be the case; and
  further research on formal car sharing schemes in institutional settings, such as the workplace, with a view to publishing best practice guidance later next year.

  Copies of my letter and the Government response have been placed in the Libraries of the House.

TREASURY

  Public Service Pensions
  The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Paul Boateng)
  Legislation governing public service pensions requires public service pensions to be increased annually by the same percentage as State earnings related pensions (additional pensions). My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions announced on 19 November 2002,Official Report, column 16WS that benefits such as additional pensions will be increased by 1.7 per cent., in line with the annual increase in the Retail Prices Index up to September 2002. Public service pensions will therefore be increased by 1.7

  73WS
  per cent, from 7 April 2003, except those which have been in payment for less than a year, which will receive a pro-rata increase.

HOME DEPARTMENT

  Drug Strategy
  The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. David Blunkett)
  All controlled drugs are harmful and will remain illegal. Drug misuse is the biggest challenge society faces. It damages the health and life chances of individuals. It undermines family life, turns law-abiding citizens into thieves and erodes communities. It is essential that we educate the young about the dangers of drugs, prevent drug misuse, tackle the dealers to reduce the prevalence of drugs on the streets and reduce the harm drugs cause.

  To address this, the Government has published its Updated Drug Strategy developed to take account of new evidence of what works and focus on delivery.

  In 1998, the first cross-cutting strategy was introduced to tackle drug trafficking, supply and misuse. This update builds on the foundations laid and the lessons learnt. We must concentrate on the most dangerous drugs, the most damaged communities and the individuals whose addiction and chaotic lifestyles are the most harmful, both to themselves and others. Education, prevention, enforcement, treatment and harm minimisation are our most powerful tools.

  Setting out a range of policies and interventions, the Updated Drug Strategy provides:
  a tougher focus on Class A drugs;
  a stronger focus on education, enforcement and treatment to prevent and tackle problematic drug use;
  more resources— direct annual expenditure for tackling drugs will rise from £1,026 million in this financial year to £1,244 million in the next financial year, £1,344 million in the year starting April 2004 to a total annual spend of nearly £1.5 billion in the year starting April 2005— an increase of 44 per cent;
  a major new education campaign to be launched in Spring 2003 to drive home the risks of drug misuse. More support for parents, carers and families so they can easily access advice, help, counselling and mutual support;
  more help for the young people most at risk of developing drug problems through increased outreach and community treatment and an extension of drug testing and referrals to treatment and care via the youth justice system so that by 2006, we are able to support 40,000–50,000 vulnerable young people a year;
  strengthened enforcement- including new cross-regional police teams to tackle middle markets and targeted policing to crack down on crack;
  a major expansion of services to refer people into treatment via the criminal justice system. We will use every opportunity from arrest, to court and sentence to identify drug-misusing offenders and engage them in treatment. Starting from next year in the highest crime areas with the worst drug problems we will roll out a comprehensive end to end approach. This will ensure that every drug addicted offender is identified through drug testing at the point of arrest and charge and given the choice at their bail hearing of entering treatment rather than entering custody. All this is backed up by extra resources for arrest referral, drug treatment and testing orders, treatment in prison and Youth Offending Institutes and for post-release treatment and support for those leaving custody;
  74WS
  an expansion of treatment services to ensure access is available when needed and is tailored to individual need, including residential treatment. Improved treatment for crack and cocaine users and heroin prescribing properly supervised for all those who would clinically benefit from it. By 2008, we will have developed the capacity to treat 200,000 problematic drug users each year. Funding for treatment services, including prisons, will increase by £45 million in the next financial year, £54 million for the year starting from April 2004 and £115 million from April 2005. This will be boosted by treatment funding associated with Drug Treatment and Testing Orders of nearly £10 million in the next financial year, £12 million in the year starting from April 2004 and £16 million from April 2005— bringing the total direct annual spend on treatment up to £589 million by 2005;
  new aftercare and throughcare services to help those leaving prison or treatment remain free from drugs;
  strengthened capacity to deliver first in the areas with the greatest problems and improved services in those areas most affected by crack use; and
  revised targets which are challenging but achievable

  Copies of "Updated Drug Strategy 2002 " have been placed in the Library. It is also available on the web at http://www.drugs.gov.uk

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

  New Radio Ownership Scheme
  The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Tessa Jowell)
  I have today deposited a copy of the draft Order and accompanying Explanatory Memorandum in the Libraries of both Houses. Copies have also been sent to the Radio Authority, the Independent Television Commission (ITC) and the Commercial Radio Companies Association. We welcome comments from anyone with an interest.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

  Fire Service
  The Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. John Prescott)
  Today I have placed copies of a report produced by the COBR-Joint Assessment Cell report, entitled "Industrial Action by the Fire Brigades Union. Contingency arrangements during the 8-day strike, 22–30 November 2002" in the Vote Office and Libraries of the House.

PRIME MINISTER

  Chief Surveillance Commissioner
  The Prime Minister (Mr. Tony Blair)
  I am today laying before Parliament the annual report for 2001–2002 of the Chief Surveillance Commissioner on the discharge of his functions under Part III of the Police Act 1997 and Part II of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000. As required, under section 107(3A) of the Police Act 1997, after consultation with the Chief Surveillance Commissioner I can confirm that no matter has been excluded from the enclosed report.

  I am most grateful to Sir Andrew Leggatt and his colleagues for the work which has gone into preparing it.