Written Statement of 13 March 2003

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

  Teachers' Pension Scheme
  The Minister for School Standards (Mr. David Miliband)
  The Government Actuary has reported on the results of his valuation of the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) as at 31 March 2001. His report recommends that the employer contribution rate for the TPS should increase from the current rate of 8.35 per cent. to 13.5 per cent. from 1 April 2003. The contribution paid by teachers will remain at 6 per cent. of their salary.

  The majority of the increase (equating to 4.75 per cent.) arises because for the first time the cost of pensions increase (the annual cost of inflation increases) will be covered by the employer contribution, whereas previously it was funded directly by the Exchequer. Employers in the maintained sectors have been provided with additional funds to help them to meet the cost of this increase. The remaining 0.4 per cent. of the increase is as a result of demographic changes since the last valuation, most notably improvements in life expectancy. This anticipated pressure was taken into account in the 2002 Spending Review settlement for education.

  A copy of the Government Actuary's report has been placed in the House of Commons' Library

DEFENCE

  Service Accommodation
  The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Mr. Adam Ingram)
  The Government gave a commitment under SDR to improve Single Living Accommodation for Service personnel. I am therefore pleased to announce that, following competition, FALCON, a consortium led by Interserve fm and Compass, has been selected as the Preferred Bidder for the ARMADA Private Finance Initiative (PFI) Project. Subject to the successful completion of negotiations, it is planned to award the contract in late July of this year.

  The ARMADA Project encompasses the provision of services in the Fleet Accommodation Centre at HM Naval Base Devonport over a 25-year period. This includes property maintenance, infrastructure maintenance, catering, cleaning and responsibility for environmental aspects and ground maintenance as well as the design, build, finance and operation of the Fleet Accommodation Centre Single Living Accommodation.

  En-suite accommodation is planned for 55 Senior Officers, 195 Junior Officers, 600 Warrant Officers and Senior Ratings and 700 Junior Ratings, with 100 beds (non-en suite) retained for transient personnel.

  Iraq (Further Contingency Preparations)
  The Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon)
  In a statement on 20 January 2003,Official Report, columns 34–35, I informed the House of the Government's decision to deploy a land force package led by Headquarters 1 (UK) Armoured Division to provide military capabilities for potential military action against Iraq. This deployment has made good progress.

  I told the House that operational planning continued to evolve. In order to provide Headquarters 1 (UK) Armoured Division with further flexibility to respond to a range of possible tasks and circumstances, we now plan to deploy two additional units. Members of the 1st Battalion The Duke of Wellington's Regiment will deploy to provide additional infantry capability. 202 Field Hospital (Volunteer) will deploy to provide additional medical capability. We had originally envisaged that 202 Field Hospital (Volunteer) would replace 33 Field Hospital, which is already deployed. We now plan that 33 Field Hospital will remain in theatre, along with 34 Field Hospital and 202 Field Hospital (Volunteer), for the time being.

  These changes involve some 850 personnel; the total size of the deployment remains about 45,000 personnel.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

  Partners for Water and Sanitation
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Mr. Elliot Morley)
  I am pleased to welcome the publication of the first annual report from the UK tri-sector partnership Partners for Water and Sanitation.

  This partnership between Government, civil society and the private sector aims to make a contribution towards achieving the targets for water and sanitation agreed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in South Africa last Autumn.

  The annual report gives details of the progress made in each of the three African partner countries—South Africa, Nigeria and Uganda—with information about the exploratory and scoping study visits undertaken by the partnership. The report also sets out plans for future activity.

  It is encouraging to note the progress made by this partnership in developing strong relationships with partner countries and the Government wish it every success in the contribution it is making towards achievement of the water and sanitation targets agreed at the World Summit in Johannesburg last year.

  Copies of the report will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

WORK AND PENSIONS

  Households Below Average Income 2001–02
  The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Andrew Smith)
  Today I have published Households Below Average Income (HBAI) for 1994–95—2001–02. This is a report published under National Statistics arrangements with results that cover Great Britain. Copies have been placed in the Library.

  The report shows that all incomes have been rising rapidly, but it is lower incomes that have been rising faster. Income growth has been at roughly double the long-term trend, but unlike comparable earlier periods like the late 1980s when the poor were left behind, the gains have been felt across the whole income distribution: rising prosperity for the many and not just the few. Whereas median real disposable income for the population as a whole had risen by 19 per cent. since 1996–97, median incomes for the poorest two-fifths were up by 25 per cent.

  The reduction of child and pensioner poverty is a priority for this Government. There have been very significant falls in the numbers within both groups below "absolute" low-income thresholds.

  In 1996–97 there were 4.3 million children in households with incomes below 60 per cent of the median (after housing costs income); by 2001–02 the number of children whose households fell below this same real income line was down by 1.8 million, a decline in this poverty count of 42 per cent. For pensioners below the same threshold, the decline is from 2.7 million in 1996–97 to 1.1 million in 2001–02, a decline of 1.6 million or 59 per cent.

  We are not just increasing the incomes of poorer pensioners and children, we are doing so at a fast enough rate to help them to narrow the gap with the rest of the population. Before the late 1990s, there was a generation-long trend for relative income poverty amongst children to rise. The number of children below 60 per cent of contemporary disposable income more than doubled from 1979 to reach 4.3 million in 1996–97. The new figures confirm that this trend is now in reverse, with a fall of 100,000 in the number of children below this threshold this year. By 2001–02 there were half a million fewer children living in households below 60 per cent. of contemporary median (after housing costs) income than in 1996–97. For pensioners, the same relative poverty count fell from 2.7 million in 1996–97 to 2.2 million in 2001–02.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

  Iraq (Humanitarian Contingency Planning)
  The Secretary of State for International Development (Clare Short)
  I welcome the International Development Committee's report on humanitarian contingency planning in Iraq. The House may welcome a summary of the principles my Department has applied in our planning, our current level of preparedness and constraints on it, and our assessment of the international community's planning. I set out my position in a written memorandum to the Committee 22WS
  before I gave evidence on 12 February. We will respond in due course to the report's detailed recommendations, some of which have already been addressed or are already Government policy. I want to set out to the House now how our planning has developed in the last month.

  The Government's objectives on Iraq were set out to the House in a written statement by Jack Straw on 7 January. These include as an immediate priority to continue to support humanitarian efforts to relieve the suffering of the Iraqi people. We have worked to encourage contingency planning for a range of scenarios, including the possible resolution of the crisis without conflict. My responsibilities as Secretary of State for International Development include helping minimise the risk of humanitarian suffering as well as alleviating it when it occurs, and this has guided our planning. We have had extensive discussions across Government about how military strategy can minimise and mitigate the risks of conflict to the Iraqi people.

  In the event of conflict in Iraq, my Department would have two humanitarian roles. One is to help advise the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces on how best to discharge their humanitarian responsibilities under The Hague and Geneva Conventions. The other is to use the funds, expertise and influence available to us to support the direct delivery of impartial humanitarian assistance by the international humanitarian community. I will summarise what we are doing in both capacities.

  In the event of conflict and the occupation of Iraqi territory by the UK military, the occupying forces would have humanitarian responsibilities under The Hague and Geneva Conventions. It is likely that in the first stages of any conflict, UN agencies and NGOs would not be fully operational, particularly if there is a credible threat of the use of chemical or biological weapons. Military forces thus might have primary responsibility for the initial delivery of humanitarian assistance. They are also likely to play a key role over a longer time period in providing a secure environment for other organisations to deliver humanitarian assistance. My Department has been advising the Ministry of Defence and the armed forces on these issues for some time. We have recently agreed the secondment of a full-time Civil-Military Humanitarian Adviser to the Headquarters UK 1 Division in Kuwait, and are also providing advice to the National Component Headquarters in Qatar. We are considering additional support. We are discussing with the armed forces the use of military Quick Impact Projects in the period immediately after any conflict, which DFID would consider funding where there are clear humanitarian needs.

  The principles we apply in delivering humanitarian assistance to Iraq are the same as anywhere else. They are not determined by the nature of the conflict, or subject to military strategy or diplomatic considerations. We will respect international humanitarian law and relevant human rights laws and conventions. We will allocate our assistance impartially based on the best possible assessment of need. We will state clearly the standards we aspire to and how we are accountable for our assistance. We will respect the neutrality and independence of our humanitarian

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  partners. Where moral dilemmas in the delivery of humanitarian assistance arise, often requiring fast and difficult decisions, with lives at stake, we will be explicit in the analysis which guides our choices, and communicate this openly.

  It is the Government's policy to support the work of international humanitarian agencies, particularly those of the United Nations, to take the leading role in responding to humanitarian emergencies. My Department's regular funding to the UN and other humanitarian agencies includes provision for emergency preparedness for a variety of contingencies across the world. On 10 February I announced I was supplementing this funding with an additional £3.5 million contribution to support UN humanitarian contingency planning for Iraq. This money has been allocated to a range of UN agencies including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme, the World Health Organisation, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the United Nations Security Coordinator (UNSECOORD). I decided last week to provide a further £6.5 million to supplement our existing funding for the Iraq planning work of these agencies, and support a small number of NGOs in their contingency preparedness. For UN agencies to maintain a high level of preparedness for a range of scenarios is prudent, but this has continuing recurrent costs. We are keeping this situation under regular review and maintain close contact with UN agencies and other donors about how far UN appeals have been met.

  This £10 million of new funding is in addition to the UK's ongoing humanitarian programme in Iraq. Since 1991 DFID has provided over £100 million of bilateral assistance, and DFID's contributions through the EC have been an additional £15 million. In 2002–03 we expect to spend over –8 million. Much of this supports the work of NGOs operating in northern Iraq. Humanitarian work in the north, where the Oil-For-Food programme is run by the UN and the Kurdish authorities are keen to collaborate with a range of international organisations, is much easier than in the centre/south. Despite sanctions, humanitarian indicators such as maternal mortality and child mortality have improved much faster in the north under the Oil-For-Food programme. But my Department is also funding the work of UNICEF, the International Committee of the Red Cross and CARE in Baghdad-controlled Iraq. These organisations do essential technical work improving water and sanitation systems, repairing health facilities, and building the capacity of the Iraqi people to maintain their own infrastructure.

  My Department is now holding weekly confidential meetings with NGOs to share information on our and their contingency planning, and discuss areas of mutual co-operation such as preserving humanitarian independence. We are making contingency preparedness funding available to those who have carefully thought through the complexities of the humanitarian environment and are likely to be able to play a significant role in the early stages after any conflict.
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  DFID believes that the UN, through the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs should play the leading role in the co-ordination of humanitarian activity, including in the vital function of the pooling and sharing of information about priority needs. The UN is best able to reassure implementing agencies of the independence of humanitarian decision making. My Department is funding OCHA to prepare for this role in Iraq, including through support for the creation of a Humanitarian Information Centre headquartered in Larnaca, to which we will be seconding a specialist. We are also supporting the UN Joint Logistic Centre through further secondments.

  DFID's strategy for responding to the humanitarian needs following any conflict will be determined by events which cannot be predicted. Retaining sufficient flexibility at this stage to deploy our finite financial and human resources where they are most needed is essential. We are deploying operational humanitarian staff to key locations in the region now so we can take rapid and well-informed decisions when required about future deployment.

  We have brought DFID's stockpile of non-food items, vehicles and equipment to immediate readiness, and are procuring additional supplies. We are positioning some of these stocks in Kuwait and elsewhere in the region, where they could be used by a variety of implementing partners. This is in addition to the prepositioning done by UN agencies and others which we are helping to fund.

  DFID is working closely with the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Treasury to assess the possible costs of humanitarian assistance in the event of conflict. The unmet needs could be enormous. The precise cost will depend on the extent of damage and displacement caused by any conflict, and particularly on disruption to the Oil-For-Food programme (OFF). We have put considerable effort into discussing how to minimise that disruption. Contingency planning includes looking at how disruption to the delivery of essential services provided by OFF can be minimised. The Government expect a leading role for the UN in such circumstances. We are working with others on detailed ideas for a possible further UN Security Council Resolution to ensure OFF could continue to operate in a modified form after any conflict.

  As well as close liaison with UN agencies whose contingency planning we are already contributing to, my Department has maintained dialogue with a range of other Governments. The Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs in the US Department of Defense is now leading American planning on humanitarian issues which would arise after any conflict. DFID has a secondee in ORHA; the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence have also seconded staff. My officials are in close contact with their US counterparts on a range of humanitarian issues. The Government are aware of the plans of a large number of other countries and international organisations who would contribute to immediate humanitarian assistance in Iraq in the event of conflict. Most would do so according to humanitarian principles regardless of who the belligerents were and on what basis conflict started. Co-ordination of planning is politically sensitive for

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  many of them at this stage. The UK will encourage wider international co-ordination as quickly as these political sensitivities allow.

  My assessment of the overall level of preparedness of the international community to cope with the humanitarian challenges which may lie ahead in Iraq is that it is limited, and this involves serious risk. UN agencies have made sensible plans with the resources at their disposal. The USA has put a lot of effort into its planning but lacks recent on the ground experience of work in Iraq, and I am concerned by optimistic assumptions about how quickly the UN and NGOs might be able to do post-conflict work. The UK military's humanitarian planning has been proceeding quickly in recent weeks but their Geneva Convention obligations could be huge.

  Many donors have not engaged fully with the detail or the scale of the potential humanitarian challenges. There are currently serious humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, the West Bank/Gaza, southern Africa, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and both the international humanitarian system and DFID resources are highly stretched. We could do more with a little more time. But ultimately no preparation would be enough to cope with the scale of the worst-case scenarios—16 million people currently dependent on Oil-For-Food handouts deprived of their monthly ration for a sustained period, the complete collapse of water and sanitation systems in a largely urban country of 25 million people, and the possible use of chemical and biological weapons on the civilian population. That is why it is so important to minimise those risks.

  My Department is also considering the longer term reconstruction and reform issues. It is clear that a UN mandate will be required to provide legal authority for the reconstruction effort, and to make possible the engagement of the international financial institutions and the wider international community. Efforts are being made to ensure that a suitable mandate is put in place.

TREASURY

  Spring Reports
  The Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Paul Boateng)
  Following the announcement that the Budget will take place on 9 April 2003, HM Treasury plans to publish the 2003–04 Main Estimates, the Supplementary Budget Information publication that accompanies the Main Estimates, and the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2003–04 on Tuesday 6 May 2003.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

  Rent Services Agency
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Mr. Tony McNulty)
  Key Performance Targets have been agreed for the Rent Service Agency for the business planning period 1 April 26WS
  2003 to 31 March 2004. The targets are included in the agency's business plan, which includes management objectives, performance indicators and key tasks.

  Copies of the business plan will be placed in the Library in due course.

  The key targets for The Rent Service are:
  To process 87 per cent. of Housing Benefit Determinations without an inspection within three working days.
  To process 87 per cent. of Housing Benefit Determinations with an inspection within 15 working days.
  To process 87 per cent. of Pre-Tenancy Determinations within four working days.
  To process 87 per cent. of Redeterminations within 15 working days.
  To process 87 per cent. of Fair Rent Determinations within 40 working days.
  To increase the number of cases determined per employee by a minimum of 1 per cent. whilst reducing the costs per case by a minimum of 1 per cent. in real terms, and with improvements in the quality of service provided.
  To achieve a 2 per cent. reduction in the number of Local Reference Rent Housing Benefit cases that are amended by more than 5 per cent. on redetermination.
  To achieve a 1 per cent. reduction in the number of Fair Rent cases that are amended by more than 10 per cent.on appeal to the Rent Assessment Committee.
  To improve customer satisfaction rating from 85 per cent. to 87 per cent. in 2003–04. This percentage relates to people who rate the Agency's service as "good" or better.

  The key performance targets remain more challenging than the statutory requirements for the Rent Service and represent the Government's commitment to continuous improvement of the Service.

  Best Value and Performance Improvement
  The Minister for Local Government and the Regions (Mr. Nick Raynsford)
  The Government have today published a circular on best value and performance improvement, containing guidance for principal local authorities about how to achieve best value and secure continuous improvement in delivering local services. It consolidates and replaces existing guidance.

  The services provided by local authorities directly impact on everyone's quality of life. It is therefore vital that these services are delivered to a high standard, and in ways that are responsive to the needs of their users.

  The circular emphasises the important role that best value can play in helping to drive up the quality of local services. It explains how authorities can make arrangements under best value to secure a well-trained and motivated workforce, to review performance effectively, and to use the annual performance plans to record their priorities for improvement and achievements.
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  It includes a code of practice on workforce matters in local government service contracts. The code will ensure that the provision of local services is not undermined by poor employment practices in respect of new joiners to contracted-out services. Partnerships with the private and voluntary sectors should be selected where these will drive up service performance standards, not in order to drive down staff terms and conditions.

  Authorities should use the guidance to continue to challenge how services are delivered and look for new and innovative ways to deliver quality services.
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  Today, I am also laying an order requiring all best value authorities to consult recognised unions and employees' associations, and staff, when conducting best value reviews. This will ensure that better decisions are made, increase understanding of the reasons for those decisions, and help authorities achieve continuous improvement in service delivery.

  Copies of the circular have been placed in the House Libraries.