Written Statement of 14 May 2004

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

  CBRN Decontamination Guidance
  The Minister for Local and Regional Government (Mr. Nick Raynsford)
  The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has today published the "Strategic National Guidance for the Decontamination of Buildings and Infrastructure Exposed to Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear (CBRN) Substances or Material". The guidance is available on the ODPM website www.odpm.gov.uk and the UK Resilience website http://www.ukresilience. info/. The guidance may be downloaded from those sites. A copy of the guidance is also available in the Libraries of the House.

  The guidance has been prepared to help everyone who may be involved in planning for and decontaminating buildings and infrastructure in the event of a deliberate or accidental release of CBRN material.

  The guidance is part of a suite of CBRN guidance developed under the CBRN Resilience Programme led by the Home Office. This particularly complements the guidance my hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment and Agri-Environment published on 25 March 2004 on decontamination of the open environment.

  The guidance will be updated periodically. These updates will be available on the ODPM and UK Resilience websites. We welcome feedback on the document. This can be sent to cbrnenquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.

  The strategic guidance is accompanied by publication today of separate guidance on "Precautions to Minimise Effects of a CBRN Event on Buildings and Infrastructure". This is available in hard copy and on the ODPM and UK Resilience websites. A copy of this guidance is also being made available in the Libraries of the House. Comments and queries can be sent to cbrnenquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.

  The guidance on precautions provides generic advice to building and infrastructure owners and managers on pre-planning measures to prevent contamination from CBRN events, to limit the extent of any contamination which does occur, and to facilitate the decontamination process itself.

DEFENCE

  Tornado GR4A ZG710 (Accident Summary)
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence (Mr. Ivor Caplin)
  The Ministry of Defence has today placed in the Library of the House copies of the military aircraft accident summary of the RAF Board of 30WS
  Inquiry into the accident to Tornado GR4A ZG710, which was shot down during Operation TELIC by a US Patriot battery on 22 March 2003.

  The Board of Inquiry found that the immediate cause of the accident was that the Patriot battery, in following its self-defence rules of engagement, misidentified Tornado ZG710 as a hostile anti-radiation missile and engaged it. However, like most aircraft accidents, no single cause was to blame. There were several contributory factors. These included the failure of the Tornado's IFF (identification friend or Foe), the wide classification criteria for anti-radiation missiles programmed into Patriot system and the Patriot rules of engagement, which were not sufficiently robust to prevent a friendly aircraft without a functioning IFF system being classified as an anti-radiation missile.

  The war in Iraq was completed in a highly efficient and effective manner, for which all those involved must take great credit. As part of that campaign, the crew of ZG710 conducted a dangerous and demanding combat mission in an exemplary manner yet did not return safely. ZG710 was the only Royal Air Force aircraft lost during the war. The Board of Inquiry has established the causes of this tragic accident and has highlighted the various factors that contributed to it. The Board's recommendations are now being implemented.

HOME DEPARTMENT

  Communications Data Code of Practice
  The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Caroline Flint)
  The voluntary code of practice for retention of communications data under Part 11 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 came into force on 5 December 2003, pursuant to the retention of communications data (code of practice) order 2003 (SI 2003/No. 3175). Paragraph 33 of the code requires that its effectiveness would be assessed, against criteria identified in the code, three months from the date it received parliamentary approval. The review period, which began on 5 March 2004, will assess the code against the criteria:Has it improved investigative work;
  How many requests for data have been made;
  Is the voluntary scheme working;
  What percentage of the market is covered by communication service providers who have adopted the code of practice;
  Are sectors of the industry, which have not adopted the Code, enjoying an unfair commercial advantage.

  The voluntary scheme is working in the sense that there are a number of communications service providers that have volunteered, or are volunteering, to retain communications data in line with the code. However most of these volunteers need to prepare themselves, in technical terms, to be able to do so. Consequently it is still premature to evaluate whether investigative work has been facilitated by the voluntary retention of communications data in line with the code or to determine what data has been acquired by investigators that was available only because of its voluntary retention in line with the code.

  Although communications service providers are volunteering to retain data in order to support the important task of safeguarding of national security,

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  service providers are sensitive to any commercial impact from being identified as volunteers. The Government shall not be identifying providers that have volunteered or are indicating a likelihood of volunteering. Equally there are no indications that sectors of the industry that have not adopted the code of practice, are enjoying an unfair commercial advantage.

  We do not believe, at this time, that identifying the volunteers' precise share of the communications service market is helpful, since it could enable deductions to be made, accurately or inaccurately, about which providers have volunteered. However the Government are confident that a significant proportion of communications data is being retained in line with the code.

  Once the volunteers are able to indicate that they are retaining data in line with the code, it will be possible to conduct a more thorough evaluation of the effectiveness of the code.

  The Government are keeping the issue of retention of communications data under review in the context of the recommendations of Lord Newton's Committee, who reviewed the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, and the declaration of European Council on 25 March 2004 that proposals for establishing rules on the retention of communications traffic data be examined by the Council with a view to their adoption by June 2005.

  In the meantime the voluntary code of practice remains in place and the Government are continuing to engage with service providers which are considering volunteering.

HEALTH

  NHS (Overseas Visitors)
  The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton)
  We are publishing today a consultation paper on proposals to revise and clarify the rules on eligibility for free National Health Service primary medical services. Copies have been placed in the Library.

  The consultation paper sets out proposals to strengthen the current system so that eligibility for primary medical services would be aligned as closely as possible with that for free hospital care. It sets out proposals for introducing a system of charges for those overseas visitors who would not be eligible for free treatment and seeks views on how such charges should operate.

  Under the proposals overseas visitors would continue to be entitled to receive emergency or immediately necessary treatment free of charge. The paper also invites views on whether any other treatments should continue to be free for the protection of public health.

  The proposed new rules are intended to allow general practice staff and primary care trusts to distinguish more easily between those eligible for free treatment and those not.

  The consultation begins today and runs until 13 August 2004.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

  EU Presidency 2005: European Council Dates
  The Minister for Europe (Mr. Denis MacShane)
  The United Kingdom will hold the Presidency of the European Union from 1 July until 31 December 2005. During that period my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister will chair two meetings of the European Council: on 27–28 October 2005 and 15–16 December 2005. Both meetings will take place in Brussels.

WORK AND PENSIONS

  Pensions
  The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Mr. Andrew Smith)
  The Pensions Bill introduces the pension protection fund that will ensure workers get a worthwhile pension when the sponsoring employer becomes insolvent and their scheme winds up underfunded. But the protection the fund gives is cover for the future, and cannot help those who have already lost out.

  The severe losses that some individuals have already suffered in insolvent pension wind-ups has caused considerable hardship. The Government will therefore make available £400 million of public money to be paid in instalments over 20 years with the possibility of further contributions from industry, to provide assistance in such cases.

  Details of the fund's operation will be worked out in consultation with stakeholders, and we will review the operation of the fund in three years' time.

  The Government are tabling an amendment to the Pensions Bill today. A copy of this is set out below:

  PENSIONS BILL, AS AMENDED
  Financial assistance scheme for members of certain pension schemes
  Mr Secretary Smith
  To move the following Clause:—
  '(1) The Secretary of State must make provision, by regulations, for a scheme for making payments to, or in respect of, qualifying members of qualifying pension schemes ("the financial assistance scheme").
  (2) For the purposes of this section—
  "qualifying member", in relation to a qualifying pension scheme, means a person—

  (a) who, at such time as may be prescribed, is a member of the scheme in respect of whom the scheme's pension liabilities are unlikely to be satisfied in full because the scheme has insufficient assets, or

  (b) who, at such time as may be prescribed, had ceased to be a member of the scheme and in respect of whom the scheme's pension liabilities were not satisfied in full, before he ceased to be such a member, because the scheme had insufficient assets,

  and in respect of whom prescribed conditions are satisfied at such time as may be prescribed;
  "qualifying pension scheme" means an occupational pension scheme including such a scheme which has been fully wound up)—

  (a) which, at such time as may be prescribed, is not—

  (i) a money purchase scheme, or

  (ii) a scheme of a prescribed description,

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  (b) the winding up of which began during such period as may be prescribed, and
  (c) the employer in relation to which satisfies such conditions as may be prescribed at such time as may be prescribed;
  "scheme's pension liabilities", in respect of a member of a qualifying pension scheme, means the liabilities of the scheme to, or in respect of, the member in respect of pensions or other benefits (including increases in pensions),
  and a qualifying pension scheme has, or had, insufficient assets if the assets of the scheme are, or were, insufficient to satisfy in full the liabilities of the scheme calculated in the prescribed manner.
  (3) Regulations under subsection (1) may, in particular, make provision—

  (a) for the financial assistance scheme to be managed by the Secretary of State, a body established by or for the purposes of the regulations or such other person as may be prescribed;

  (b) for the person who manages the financial assistance scheme ("the scheme manager") to hold (whether on trust or otherwise), manage and apply a fund in accordance with the regulations or, where the fund is held on trust, the deed of trust;

  (c) for the property, rights and liabilities of qualifying pension schemes to be transferred to the scheme manager in prescribed circumstances and for the trustees or managers of a qualifying pension scheme in respect of which such a transfer has occurred to be discharged from prescribed liabilities;

  (d) prescribing the circumstances in which payments are to be made by the scheme manager to, or in respect of, qualifying members of qualifying pension schemes and the manner in which the amount of any payment is to be determined, and, where the fund is held by the fund manager on trust, the circumstances and manner may be prescribed by reference to the deed of trust;

  (e) authorising the Secretary of State—

  (i) where he is not the scheme manager, to pay grants to the scheme manager;

  (ii) where he is the scheme manager, to pay amounts into the fund held by him in accordance with the regulations;

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  (iii) to pay grants to other prescribed persons in connection with the financial assistance scheme;

  (f) prescribing the circumstances in which amounts are to be paid into or out of the fund held by the scheme manager;

  (g) conferring functions in relation to the financial assistance scheme on the Pensions Regulator or the Board of the Pension Protection Fund;

  (h) providing for a person to exercise a discretion in dealing with any matter in relation to the financial assistance scheme;

  (i) applying any provision of Part 1 or 2 with such modifications as may be prescribed;

  and such regulations may make different provision for different cases or descriptions of case and include such incidental, supplementary, consequential or transitional provision as appears to the Secretary of State to be expedient.
  (4) Any amount which, by virtue of subsection (3)(e), the Secretary of State pays under regulations under subsection (1) is to be to paid out of money provided by Parliament.
  (5) A time or period prescribed under subsection (2) may fall (or, in the case of a period, wholly or partly fall) at a time before the passing of this Act.
  (6) Nothing in this section prejudices the operation of section 272 (subordinate legislation (general provisions)).'.

  Mr Secretary Smith
  Page 192, line 2 [Clause 265], leave out second 'and'.
  Mr Secretary Smith
  Page 192, line 3 [Clause 265], at end insert ', and
  () section [Financial assistance scheme for members of certain pension schemes] (financial assistance scheme for members of certain pension schemes).'.
  Mr Secretary Smith
  Page 196, line 21 [Clause 273], at end insert—
  '() regulations under section [Financial assistance scheme for members of certain pension schemes] (financial assistance scheme for members of certain pension schemes);'.