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Earl Attlee asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the Lord Chancellor or the Department for Constitutional Affairs have been consulted at any stage on the commissioning or specification of works being carried out at Somerset House on the offices of the Inland Revenue; if so what was the purpose of this consultation; and whether the Department for Constitutional Affairs has made any requests as to specification, nature or timing of this work.[HL839]
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Neither I nor my department have been consulted with regard to works commissioned by the Inland Revenue at Somerset House.
Earl Attlee asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What discussions or contacts the Lord Chancellor or officials of the Department for Constitutional Affairs have had with representatives of English Heritage to discuss the possible adaptation of any part of Somerset House, or any other site, for use as a potential Supreme Court; and when those contacts were first made.[HL842]
Lord Falconer of Thoroton: Representatives of English Heritage have been consulted on one of the options currently under consideration for the Supreme Court.
Contact was first made during November 2003.
European Union Select Committee
Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked the Chairman of Committees:
- When the European Union Select Committee last conducted inquiries into fraud and mismanagement in the European Union; and when it intends to update the findings of those enquiries.[HL926]
The Chairman of Committees (Lord Brabazon of Tara): The information requested is better obtained directly from the chairman of the relevant committee. I have therefore passed this question to the chairman of the European Union Select Committee, Lord Grenfell, who will reply to the noble Lord.
Defence Stores Management Solution
Earl Attlee asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What was the total amount of public funds (a) expended on, and (b) written off with regard to, the Defence Stores Management Solution; and what they hoped to achieve.[HL788]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach): The total amount expended on the Defence Stores Management Solution (DSMS) was £148 million and the total amount written off was £118 million. The original objectives of the DSMS were to build a single system to replace the existing Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force Systems, and to provide a deployed inventory management capability. Estimated net savings of £650 million were anticipated over a 10-year period from its implementation.
The MoD believes it has learnt valuable lessons from the work undertaken on DSMS, which will help to inform our decisions on any future solution to the requirement.
Earl Attlee asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What was the value of hardware procured for the Defence Stores Management Solution; what it consists of; where it is held; and what is its future.[HL789]
Lord Bach: £10.811 million of hardware was procured in support of the Defence Stores Management Solution.
The hardware comprised the following: IBM mainframe computers, storage servers, firewalls, MIS servers, training and development servers, backup systems and network equipment and infrastructure to support staff and the model office environment.
The hardware is currently held in the following locations: Glasgow, Bicester, Boscombe Down, Warminster and Bath.
Of the £10.811 million of equipment, £8.776 million has been redeployed to support other business units within the Ministry of Defence.
Management of Materiel in Transit
Earl Attlee asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What are the status, purpose and budget of the Ministry of Defence's DLO requirement for unit materiel management information system project.[HL790]
Lord Bach: I assume the noble Lord is referring to the Management of Materiel in Transit Project (MMiT).
MMiT has been established to identify and implement a means of giving better visibility of consignments in the defence supply chain. This will enable the supply chain to be managed with increased effectiveness and efficiency and improve the quality of information on forecast arrival dates provided to headquarters and units awaiting the delivery of stores. MMiT will not replace the existing consignment tracking systems but will exploit the data they already contain, converting them into more useful management information and making them more widely and easily available within the supply chain.
MMiT has been allocated £5.866 million to complete the assessment phase of the project. It is estimated that the provision of a suitable system is likely to cost in the region of a further £10 million but this figure will be refined once the optimum solution has been identified and any contracts have been negotiated.
A400M
Earl Attlee asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What is the status of the engine development programme for the A400M transport aircraft; and what government funds, if any, are being invested in it.[HL791]
Lord Bach: The prime contractor for the A400M transport aircraft, Airbus Military, selected Europrop International (EPI) on 6 May 2003 to supply the engine to power the A400M. The engine development programme is proceeding to plan.
With regard to investment of government funds, I refer the noble Earl to the answer given by my right honourable friend the Minister of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Ms Smith) on 24 June (Official Report, cols. 678–679W) in another place to the honourable member for Twickenham (Dr Cable).
Armed Forces: Ministerial Responsibility for Supply of Equipment
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Which Minister has responsibility, as a matter of constitutional convention, for the supply and any failure to supply sufficient equipment to members of Her Majesty's Armed Forces to protect them against the risk of death or bodily injury in the event of war or armed conflict; and what such responsibility entails.[HL918]
Lord Bach: Section 1 of the Ministerial Code makes clear that Ministers are accountable to Parliament for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments. Individual Ministers' responsibilities are set out in the Cabinet Office publication List of Ministerial Responsibilities which is available in the Library of the House.
Universities: Fees
Earl Russell asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the variable fees which they are planning for universities are to be variable only between institutions, or also between different subjects in the same institution.[HL801]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland): The Higher Education Bill, published on 8 January, enables higher education institutions to set their own fees, up to a maximum of £3,000 a year, with effect from 2006; individual institutions would be able, if they wished, to charge different fees for different courses. Institutions that wished to charge above the present standard fee (£1,125 in 2003–04) would only be able to do so if they had in place an access plan approved by the Director of Fair Access. The access plan will include details of the action the institution will take to safeguard access, including offering financial support (including bursaries) and running outreach activities.
Higher Education: Entry Figures
Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What percentage of people in each standard statistical region and nation of the United Kingdom had entered higher education by the age of 30, in the most recent year for which figures are available.[HL813]
Baroness Ashton of Upholland: Regional higher education entry figures are not available. The latest figure for initial entry to higher education (for 2001–02) is 43.5 per cent. This is the initial entry rate (IER). Comparable entry rates for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also not available.
Initial participation in higher education is measured by the HE initial participation rate (HEIPR). The latest HEIPR is 43.9 per cent for 2001–02. Again, comparable initial participation figures for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not available.
A recent National Statistics quality review of the IER recommended 1 we replace the IER with the HEIPR as the way in which we measure progress toward the 50 per cent target. The reason for the change from IER to HEIPR is to correct for certain weaknesses in the IER. We expect to publish the latest HEIPR figures in spring 2004 (as soon as information becomes available).
Higher education participation in Great Britain by those aged under 21 years is measured by the age participation index (API). The API for 2001–02 is 35 per cent. The most recent figures for the four constituent countries are given in the table.
1 Review of the Initial Entry Rate into Higher Education, DfES, 2003 [A copy has been placed in the House of Commons Library]
| Percentages | |
| England | 32 |
| Scotland | 45 |
| Wales | 28 |
| N Ireland | 45 |
| GB | 33 |
(1) These figures may differ from the individual countries' own APIs, which are calculated upon a slightly different basis.
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