Written Statement of 28 January 2003

WORK AND PENSIONS

  Benefit Fraud Inspection (Telford and Wrekin Council)
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Malcolm Wicks)
  On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) inspection report on Telford and Wrekin Council was published today and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.

  The BFI undertook its first inspection of Telford and Wrekin Council's housing benefits administration and counter-fraud activity during October and December 1998. BFI reported that the authority needed to develop a more secure and accurate benefits administration system and improve the overall quality of its benefits service.

  This follow-up inspection considered the progress made by the authority since the first inspection and in particular its implementation of recommendations. BFI commends the progress made by the council in undertaking a major restructuring exercise to bring together the management of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit. This had resulted in clear focus on customer service and processing, replacing IT systems and introducing a system for document image processing.

  Recovery of overpayments was identified in the first inspection as the council's weakest area. This follow-up report finds that improvement in identification, classification and recording of overpayments are still needed.

  In the first inspection, BFI found problems in the way claimants' residency and identity was verified. This follow-up report finds that the council has made significant improvements in verification, and considers that the council is well placed to implement the Verification Framework.

  This report finds that positive steps have been taken to address previous concerns in the areas of IT, post opening and cheque dispatch. In particular, a quality control team has been created to ensure that accuracy checks are made.

  This report also finds that counter-fraud efforts have increased significantly since the first inspection with more proactive investigation work. More staff have been deployed and staff training has improved. In addition, the council has introduced a case management system.

  In 2000–01, Telford and Wrekin Council administered approximately £38.7 million in housing benefits. This is approximately 21 per cent. of its total gross revenue expenditure.
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  The report makes recommendations to help the council address the remaining weaknesses and to further improve the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, as well as counter-fraud activities.

  My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is now considering the report and will be asking the council for its proposals in response to the findings and recommendations of the BFI.

  Benefit Fraud Inspection (Fife Council)
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Malcolm Wicks)
  On behalf of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, the Benefit Fraud Inspectorate (BFI) inspection report on Fife Council was published today and copies of the report have been placed in the Library.

  This report finds that the council has responded to the challenges of re-organisation. However, there is considerable scope for further improvement particularly in verifying claims. BFI found significant weaknesses in verifying identity and residence as well as income and capital.

  Following BFI inspection, the council reported working towards implementing two modules of the Verification Framework by April 2003. To do this effectively, the council needs to draw up a detailed implementation plan, showing key milestone dates and clear roles and responsibilities for those involved.

  The report finds that the council's claim form is broadly effective in gathering the right information and is reasonably straightforward to understand and complete. However, there is room for further improvement.

  The council plans to make more use of prosecution and administrative penalties against fraudsters, and to support this crucial change the council is creating a dedicated prosecution team.

  The report finds that the council needs to improve the recovery of overpayments, including those incurred through fraud, from rent rebate claimants.

  In 2000–01, Fife Council administered approximately £81 million in housing benefits.

  The report makes recommendations to help the council address the remaining weaknesses and to further improve the administration of Housing Benefit and Council Tax Benefit, as well as counter-fraud activities.

  My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is now considering the report and will be asking the council for its proposals in response to the findings and recommendations of the BFI.

CABINET OFFICE

  Delegations/Authorisations made in 2002 under the Civil Service (Management Functions) Act 1992
  The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Mr. Douglas Alexander)
  No such delegations or authorisations were made during 2002.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

  English Fisheries Package
  The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Margaret Beckett)
  At the meeting of the Council of Agriculture and Fisheries Ministers in December a number of important decisions were taken on fisheries measures to help restore depleted stocks. Necessarily they include real new constraints on fishing and the Government recognises that they may impact on some coastal fisheries communities. We have already promised to respond with financial assistance which will address the needs, and promote sustainability, both in the fishing industry and local communities, and I am now able to set this out in more detail.

  We propose to provide grants to help vessel owners who wish to do so, to leave the industry by decommissioning their boats. An SI will be laid before Parliament for approval. The intention is to remove 15–20 per cent. of the English fleet's fishing effort on cod in the North Sea and West of Scotland, in order to bring the fleet capacity better into line with fishing opportunities. Similar schemes are proposed by the Scottish Executive and in Northern Ireland. Decommissioning of this scale in the UK fleet will secure the 15 day per month allowance for fishing in the new interim EU scheme for limiting time at sea. Detailed rules for targeting the scheme and for assessing applications for grant will be developed in discussion with the English catching industry shortly. A tendering process is expected to apply and the cost in England is likely to reach £5 million.

  The EU decided in December that to improve control of fisheries the requirement to install satellite tracking equipment on vessels should be extended to 15–24 metre boats. To help fishermen Defra will provide £400,000 over two years to allow 40 per cent. grant to be paid towards the cost of the terminals and their installation.

  There will also be help for fishing-dependent communities. Regional Development Agencies, which have responsibility for economic development and regeneration in England, are already engaged, in strong local partnerships, targeted on the economic development of coastal communities.

  It is important that fishermen have access to the help that is provided by local Business Links, Learning and Skills Councils and JobCentre Plus. I have therefore asked the RDAs, working with and coordinating the activity of these partnerships, to urgently ensure that arrangements are in place to ensure the effective delivery of assistance and guidance for local fishing communities particularly affected, taking full account of the recent decisions and their impact on those communities.

  RDAs and other agencies have substantial resources to address their economic and social responsibilities. However, where necessary, Defra will provide additional resources for facilitation to ensure that the services which are most needed are identified in those fishing communities which are dependent on the fish stocks of the North Sea and West of Scotland.

  The National Federation of Fishermen's Organisations has emphasised the importance of strengthening the involvement of the fishing industry in
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  the assessment of stocks, in close partnership with our scientists. We warmly welcome their approach, which will help to ensure a fuller appreciation of the state of and prospects for fish stocks. We will provide additional funds for this purpose and will consult them on how this initiative might best be taken forward.

  An additional £lmillion will be provided to finance both the facilitation arrangements described above and industry involvement with the scientists, as well as providing the potential for other priority initiatives in recognition of the English industry's transitional problems.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

  Local Government Elections Review
  The Minister for Local Government and the Regions (Mr. Nick Raynsford)
  We are looking at all sorts of ways to encourage more people to use their vote, including using modern technology such as mobile phones and the internet. I believe the electorate of the 21st Century expect a cycle of local elections that is clear and readily understood, so we have asked the Electoral Commission to look at options for simplifying the current arrangements.

  This follows the commitment in the Local Government White Paper—"Strong Local Leadership, Quality Public Services"—to invite the Electoral Commission to propose options to simplify the current cycle of local elections. I have today asked the Electoral Commission to undertake a review under Section 6(2) of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.

  The Electoral Commission will consult widely during the review and will identify options for change in a report to be submitted to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister by the end of January next year. The options may include proposals for changes in councillors' terms of office and local authorities' electoral arrangements. The Commission's report will include an assessment of the desirability and practicality of the options identified. It will also recommend how the proposed options might be implemented.

  As part of the review the Electoral Commission will consider the relationship between local government elections and other elections such as elections to this House and to the European Parliament. The Commission will also look at cases where elections currently fall in close proximity of time to each other, and the combination (or otherwise) of local government elections with other elections. The views of the Electoral Commission have been sought separately on the proposal to combine the European and local government elections in 2004.

  The Terms of Reference ask that the Electoral Commission have regard to the extent to which an option for change:
  would improve councils' democratic legitimacy and local accountability;
  would enable the electorate and public generally to easily understand when elections are to be held and their purpose;

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  would be likely to improve participation of the local electorate in the electoral process, including participation of specific groups—such as young people and ethnic minorities—where participation in the process is particularly low;
  would be likely to facilitate the effective management of local authorities and particularly performance improvements in the case of local authorities categorised as "poor performers" in the Comprehensive Performance Assessments; and
  might be facilitated by possible new ways of polling, including increased postal voting, electronic counting and multi channel e-voting.

DEFENCE

  Defence Sixth Form College
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Dr. Lewis Moonie)
  Our intention to develop a Defence Sixth Form College was initially announced by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence in answer to a question by my hon. Friend the Member for Reading, West (Mr. Salter) on 27 March 2001,Official Report, columns 547–48W, on the outcome of the Defence Training Review. On 24 January 2002, Official Report, column 994W, my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces gave the House an update on the project, at which time no decisions had been taken on where the College would be built, or how it would be procured.

  I am now able to inform the House that we have concluded that a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) offers best value for money for provision of the facilities and services required by the College. We have selected the Minerva consortium, which comprises Interserve plc, HSBC and TQ Education and Training Ltd, as the Preferred Bidder, and are now engaged in negotiations to conclude a contract.

  This being the site selected by the Preferred Bidder, the Defence Sixth Form College will be built on the site of the disused barracks outside Woodhouse, near Loughborough. It will open in September 2005, at which time the present Army Sixth Form College at Welbeck Abbey will close.

HEALTH

  Fertilisation and Embryology (Donor Information)
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ms Hazel Blears)
  Following a consultation exercise carried out between December 2001 and July 2002, we propose to lay regulations before Parliament, so that people conceived as a result of sperm, egg or embryo donation will be able to obtain more information about their donors in the future. The information will not identify the donors. We hope that donor-conceived people are all part of loving families but we also understand that at some point in their lives they may decide they want to know more about their genetic origins and we think it is right that they should be able to ask for non-identifying information.
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  We propose that the regulations enable the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to provide non-identifying information about donors to donor-conceived people aged 18 or over who request that information and who were born after the HFEA's register came into effect in 1991. In practice the information would be available from 2010 (eighteen years after the register came into operation).

  To enable standardised information to be available in the future, we will seek approval for the regulations to require the HFEA to collect standardised non-identifying information with immediate effect.

  We will also explore the possibility of setting up a pilot scheme for a voluntary contact register for donor-conceived people aged 18 and over.

  The summary of responses to the consultation exercise is on the Department of Health's website at www.gov.uk/consultations.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  Water
  The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)
  The UN has designated 2003 as the International Year of Freshwater, acknowledging that global water issues need to be placed high on the international agenda. They will be discussed at the Global Water Conference in Kyoto in March and we expect that there will also be discussion at the G8 Summit in Evian in June. This statement sets out briefly the Government's view of the key issues and our approach to addressing them.

  The provision, use and management of water are central to both sustainable development and poverty reduction. Nearly two thirds of the world's population will be living in countries of significant water stress by the year 2025. 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. Environmental needs for water are vital. Some 1.3 billion people continue to earn less than US$1/day and 800 million of them regularly go hungry. Hunger and poverty are closely linked. Agricultural water management can and does play a significant role in reducing hunger and poverty in the developing world.

  Meeting the water supply and sanitation targets within the Millennium Development Goals is estimated to require an additional US$9 billion to US$30 billion per year. Meeting funding needs for water resources and integrated water resources management would increases this amount to around $180 billion per year. The largest share of investment will need to be met from public and private resources in each country. Development assistance has a role to play through direct or indirect support of Government and civil society programmes, through helping to build the capacity of national institutions, and, in poorer countries, through providing a lever for other forms of finance, thus helping bridge the funding gap.

  Our overall strategy, set out in the DFID Target Strategy Paper on Water published in 2001, is to seek to focus international policy making in water resources, irrigation, water supply and sanitation on the reduction

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  of poverty. We have concentrated our efforts in improving the management and allocation of water resources and in increasing access to water and sanitation to achieve improved health and sustainable livelihoods for the poor. The UK played a leading role at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in the agreement of a new target on sanitation as one of the Millennium Development Goals. We are equally committed to supporting implementation of this and the existing MDG on access to safe water, and to the commitments made at WSSD for better management of water resources.

  Our emphasis in addressing issues in the water sector has changed over the years. More effective use of development assistance means moving away from funding a proliferation of isolated and uncoordinated donor-led projects to providing support to build sustainable improvements in local capacity in a way that is consistent with poverty reduction strategies drawn up by developing countries themselves. We have moved from bilateral assistance towards providing greater input into global efforts at addressing these issues. In the last three years this process has accelerated.

  In March 2000 at the World Water Forum in The Hague I announced that we planned to double our bilateral contribution to the sector over the next three years. At that time we estimated our expenditure in the sector (based on 1998–99 figures, which were the latest available) at £50 million a year. Our expenditure bilaterally on water and related activities is estimated at £82 million in 1999–00, £91 million in 2000–01 and £87 million in 2001–02. Our new commitments to the water sector totalled £86 million in 2001–02. Some of our spending, for example, direct budget support, is not easily attributable to particular sectors but will
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  nevertheless contribute to sectoral goals. A small proportion of our budget support is likely to help finance activities in the water sector.

  In our work in the water sector we aim to strengthen governance, build institutional capacity, raise awareness and promote sharing of knowledge.

  We are therefore supporting global programmes and processes that reach down to the poorest through international agencies, through new forms of partnerships between the public sector, civil society and the private sector, such as the EU Water Initiative and Partners for Water & Sanitation. We continue to be open to good opportunities to invest in the water sector, consistent with our broader approach of supporting country-owned poverty reduction strategies through which developing countries establish their own priorities. Multilateral institutions which we support, such as the World Bank, the Regional Development Banks, UNICEF and the European Community, also make very significant investments in water-related projects and programmes.

  We are seeking more effective ways of mobilising financing at a global level that are linked to the development of effective water sector strategies and policies. We work with other donors to develop new financing facilities, to address the complex of market and government failures that deter private financing in water infrastructure.

  We are supporting global resource centres for water resource management and for environmental health, which, for the first time, bring together a network of developed and developing country based technical and social institutions. These resource centres seek to develop best practice and to share international expertise so as to ensure that the best knowledge finds its way down to national and local levels.