Written Statement of 10 February 2004

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

  Community Radio
  The Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport(Tessa Jowell)
  I have today published a draft Community Radio Order, associated "Keeling Schedule" and explanatory memorandum for public consultation. Copies of these documents have been deposited in the House Libraries, and are available on the Department's website. The Department welcomes comments and the consultation period will last until 20 April 2004.

  This Order proposes to introduce a new tier of very local, not-for-profit (or not profit distributing) radio. Community radio should be different from, and complementary to, existing independent local radio. Community radio offers potential benefits in terms of social inclusion, local education, training and experience, and wider access for communities to broadcasting opportunities.

  The Communications Act provides for the possible establishment of a fund to support community radio.

  OFCOM will shortly be publishing their own draft guidance on how to apply for community radio licences.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

  Fire and Rescue Authorities
  The Minister for Local Government, Regional Governance and Fire(Mr. Nick Raynsford)
  I have today made available copies of a consultation document on charging for services by Fire and Rescue Authorities in the Libraries of the House.

  Authorities already have a power under the Fire Services Act 1947 to charge for services other than fighting fires. The White Paper "Our Fire and Rescue Service" gave a commitment to continue to provide such a power and to consult on any proposals to extend the charging regime.

  Clause 19 of the Fire and Rescue Services Bill currently before this House provides for the Secretary of State to specify by Order the services for which an authority may levy a charge.

  The consultation document contains details of the services for which authorities in England and Wales currently levy a charge and these form the basis of our proposals. Comments are welcome on any part of our proposals. In particular, we welcome responses on the direction of travel in respect of the provision by authorities of detailed advice or consultancy.

  The consultation period will close on 7 May 2004.
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  Housing and Employment Mobility Service Contract
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister(Yvette Cooper)
  The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is today announcing to the House that we are letting a contract to provide housing and employment mobility services.

  The principal objective for HEMS is to facilitate mobility—especially labour mobility for social housing tenants who want to move to other areas.

  HEMS will have three main service components. One—facilitated mobility services to social landlords and their tenants and applicants to help tenants and applicants to find new homes. This will continue and enhance the provision of the grant funded mobility services currently provided by Housing Mobility and Exchange Services (HOMES) and LAWN (the Association of London Government scheme that helps tenants who want to, move out of London to areas with excess housing). Two—web-based information about available housing, neighbourhoods and job vacancies. Three—web access to information on vacancies in social housing.

TREASURY

  Tax Avoidance
  The Paymaster General(Dawn Primarolo)
  Legislation to prevent tax avoidance through manipulation of partnership losses is to be included in the Finance Bill 2004. The legislation will apply to individuals who do not spend a significant amount of time in the partnership trade. For trading losses which arise in any of the first four years that a partner carries on a trade, relief for set-off against other income will be limited to the partner's financial contribution to the business. It will also ensure that where a partner claims trading losses against other income and then disposes of rights to future income, a charge to income tax arises on the disposal. The changes will have effect from today.

  A copy of today's Inland Revenue News Release giving the relevant background to this measure is being deposited in the Libraries of both Houses and is also accessible on the Inland Revenue website:http:// www.inlandrevenue.gov. uk/.

NORTHERN IRELAND

  Common Agricultural Policy Reform
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland(Mr. Ian Pearson)
  The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland launched a major consultation exercise in September 2003 covering the choice of the main implementation options arising out of the CAP reform agreement reached in Luxembourg on 26 June 2003. The consultation ended on 16 January 2004 and after having considered stakeholder responses and the relative merits of the available choices, I have decided deploy the following options in Northern Ireland.

  Full decoupling of direct producer support will be implemented across the beef sheep and arable sectors.

  Full decoupling of direct producer support will be introduced in the diary sector from 2005.

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  The model of decoupling used will be a static vertical hybrid based partly on eligible land held in 2005 and partly on past patterns of individual producer subsidy claims.

  National envelopes will not be deployed at this point.

  Decisions on the use of the additional Rural Development Regulation options are deferred and will be considered as part of a separate consultation exercise on future modulation policy scheduled to commence in March 2004.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

  Union Modernisation
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry(Mr. Gerry Sutcliffe)
  Today, I tabled an amendment to the Employment Relations Bill concerning the provision of a new funding scheme. The amendment inserts a new section into the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 which would create a power for the Secretary of State to make funds available to independent trade unions and federations of trade unions to modernise their operations.

  I envisage that the size of the fund would be in the region of £5 million—10 million in total, with expenditure spread over several years, probably beginning in 2005–06. The funding scheme would be used to support innovative projects in such areas as:
  training union representatives (for example in the area of business and people management) in order to help promote the development of high performance workplaces;
  reviewing internal union structures and organisation and to support more efficient management systems within unions;
  enabling unions to broaden their dialogue with members by greater use of the internet and other new technologies and to develop innovative and user-friendly voting mechanisms; and making union systems more accessible to young people and other under-represented groups within unions.

  The case for establishing a Fund is compelling. Unions—just like businesses—need targeted support to speed their adaptation to changing labour market trends and to new ways of working. Unions have done much to modernise themselves and several, often supported by the TUC, have made significant progress in that direction. However, as a number of representations from unions have confirmed, without assistance the pace of change will be slow. By encouraging unions to adapt more quickly, we will ensure that they play their full and considerable part in building productive relations at work that will benefit union members, other workers, their employers and the economy more generally.

  The fund will not therefore be used to support the day-to-day work of unions, and it will not impact directly on collective bargaining. It will not be used to support projects which could be funded from other Government programmes.

  Subject to Parliamentary approval of this new provision, the Government will publish for full public consultation the draft rules and procedures of the fund after Royal Assent. It is likely these rules and procedures will draw on the example of the partnership at work fund, involving an independent advisory board who will
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  make recommendations to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on the acceptability of union bids for fund money.

TRANSPORT

  Air Transport White Paper
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport(Mr. Tony McNulty)
  I am announcing the publication of the supporting documents for the"Future of Air Transport" White Paper which was published on 16 December 2003. These reports provide some of the background to decisions taken in the White Paper.

  A list of all 27 supporting documents has been placed on the Department's website with details for obtaining hard copies. All the documents, listed below, are available in the Libraries of the House.

  Air quality assessments supporting the Government's Air Transport White Paper "The Future of Air Transport"

  Passenger Forecasts: Additional Analysis

  Review of London Oxford Airport Proposal

  Review of Redhill Aerodrome Ltd Proposal

  Review of Sheppey Airport Proposal

  Review of Thames Reach Airport Proposal

  Review of Goodwin Sands Airport Proposal

  Development of Airport Capacity in the Thames Estuary

  Aviation and Global Warming report

  Demand Forecasts for a Potential New International Airport in South East Wales

  Air Passenger Growth and Airport Capacity: Advice to the Department for Transport on the Future Nature and Distribution of Demand for Air Travel

  Air Passenger Growth and Airport Capacity: A Technical Discussion Paper

  Letter from CAA to DfT on Northolt and Redhill Airspace Implications

  The Effect of Competition between Regional Airports on— Airline Fares

  DfT, Birmingham Airport, SRA, Birmingham Airport Report on the enhancements needed to increase rail mode share at Birmingham Airport

  Midlands News Site— Note on Issues Raised in Consultation Response

  Edinburgh and Glasgow Airport Runway Options—Floodplain Impact and Mitigation Report

  ERCD Report 0307: Updated Methodology and Supplementary Information Relating to Aircraft Noise Exposure Estimates for UK airports

  ERCD Report 0308: Revised Future Aircraft Noise Exposure Estimates for UK Airports

  Newcastle International Airport (NCL) Rail Access Study

  The Future of Air Transport: Scotland— The Review of Air Traffic Forecasts for Airports Serving the Central Belt of Scotland

  Review of Scottish Airport Costs

  RHASS/Edinburgh Airport: Potential Development Options to 2030

  RHASS/Edinburgh Airport: Potential Long Term Development Options

  Road concepts for Edinburgh & Glasgow Airports

  The Potential for Developing a Regional Hub in Scotland

  Aviation, Core Cities and Regional Economic Development

  Common Agricultural Policy Reform: Northern Ireland
  The Lord President of the Council (Baroness Amos)
  My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Agriculture in Northern Ireland has made the following Statement:

  The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland launched a major consultation exercise in September 2003 covering the choice of the main implementation options arising out of the CAP reform agreement reached in Luxembourg on 26 June 2003. The consultation ended on 16 January 2004 and after having considered stakeholder responses and the relative merits of the available choices, I have decided to deploy the following options in Northern Ireland.

  Full decoupling of direct producer support will be implemented across the beef, sheep and arable sectors.

  Full decoupling of direct producer support will be introduced in the diary sector from 2005.

  The model of decoupling used will be a static vertical hybrid based partly on eligible land held in 2005 and partly on past patterns of individual producer subsidy claims.

  National envelopes will not be deployed at this point.

  Decisions on the use of the additional rural development regulation options are deferred and will be considered as part of a separate consultation exercise on future modulation policy scheduled to commence in March 2004.

  Fire and Rescue Authorities: Charging
  The Minister of State, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Lord Rooker)
  My right honourable friend the Minister for Local Government, Regional Governance and Fire has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

  I have today made available copies of a consultation document on charging for services by fire and rescue authorities in the Libraries of the House.

  Authorities already have a power under the Fire Services Act 1947 to charge for services other than fighting fires. The White Paper Our Fire and Rescue Service gave a commitment to continue to provide such a power and to consult on any proposals to extend the charging regime.
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  Clause 19 of the Fire and Rescue Services Bill currently before this House provides for the Secretary of State to specify by order the services for which an authority may levy a charge.

  The consultation document contains details of the services for which authorities in England and Wales currently levy a charge and these form the basis of our proposals. Comments are welcome on any part of our proposals. In particular, we welcome responses on the direction of travel in respect of the provision by authorities of detailed advice or consultancy.

  The consultation period will close on 7 May 2004.

  Community Radio
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord Mcintosh of Haringey)
  My right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (Tessa Jowell) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

  The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has today published a draft Community Radio Order, associated Keeling Schedule and Explanatory Memorandum for public consultation. Copies of these documents are available in the House Libraries, or from the department's website. The department welcomes comments and the consultation period will last until 20 April 2004.

  This order proposes to introduce a new tier of very local, not-for-profit (or not profit-distributing) radio. Community radio should be different from, and complementary to, existing independent local radio. Community radio offers potential benefits in terms of social inclusion, local educational, training and experience, wider access for communities to broadcasting opportunities.

  The Communications Act provides for the possible establishment of a fund to support community radio. Ofcom will shortly be publishing its own draft guidance on how to apply for community radio licences.

  Union Modernisation
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville)
  My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Gerry Sutcliffe) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

  Today, I tabled an amendment to the Employment Relations Bill concerning the provision of a new funding scheme. The amendment inserts a new section into the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 which would create a power for the Secretary of State to make funds available to independent trade unions and federations of trade unions to modernise their operations.
  WS 47
  I envisage that the size of the fund would be in the region of £5 million to £10 million in total, with expenditure spread over several years, probably beginning in 2005–06. The funding scheme would be used to support innovative projects in such areas as:

  training union representatives (for example in the area of business and people management) in order to help to promote the development of high performance workplaces;

  reviewing internal union structures and organisation and to support more efficient management systems within unions;

  enabling unions to broaden their dialogue with members by greater use of the Internet and other new technologies and to develop innovative and user-friendly voting mechanisms; and

  making union systems more accessible to young people and other underrepresented groups within unions.

  The case for establishing a fund is compelling. Unions, just like businesses, need targeted support to speed their adaptation to changing labour market trends and to new ways of working. Unions have done
  WS 48
  much to modernise themselves and several, often supported by the TUC, have made significant progress in that direction. However, as a number of representations from unions have confirmed, without assistance the pace of change will be slow. By encouraging unions to adapt more quickly, we will ensure that they play their full and considerable part in building productive relations at work. That will benefit union members, other workers, their employers and the economy more generally.

  The fund will not therefore be used to support the day-to-day work of unions, and it will not impact directly on collective bargaining. It will not be used to support projects which could be funded from other government programmes.

  Subject to parliamentary approval of this new provision, the Government will publish for full public consultation the draft rules and procedures of the fund after Royal Assent. It is likely that these rules and procedures will draw on the example of the Partnership at Work Fund, involving an independent advisory board who will make recommendations to my right honourable friend the Secretary of State on the acceptability of union bids for fund money.