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British Food Fortnight
Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domer asked Her Majesty's Government:
What support they will give to British Food Fortnight, in particular to work with schools to help teachers develop awareness and interest among pupils in the quality and variety of their diet; and [HL1991]
What use they made of the 2,500 resource packs developed by British Food Fortnight in 2004 to help with the curriculum development of food, nutrition and food production. [HL1992]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Lord Filkin): The department welcomes the work of British Food Fortnight and wishes the organisation every success in building upon the achievements that our seedcorn funding over the past two years has helped to secure.
The 20,000 resource packs produced for the 2004 event jointly by the department and British Food Fortnight have been widely requested by schools and distributed to them and other organisations.
Teacher Training
Lord Pearson of Rannoch asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Answers by the Lord Triesman on 10 March (Official Report, col. 840–842), what proportion of active teachers entered teaching via a bachelor of education degree. [HL2015]
Lord Filkin: Some 37 per cent of teachers in service in the maintained schools sector in England in March 2003, who qualified after 1986, entered teaching via a bachelor of education degree. Information is not available for teachers who qualified in earlier years.
McKinsey and Co.
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether any Minister or official from (a) the Prime Minister's Office, or (b) the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has met any employee, paid or unpaid, from McKinsey and Company Incorporated in the past two years; and on each occasion what were the nature of and reason for the meeting. [HL1577]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey): Ministers and officials hold meetings with a wide range of external representatives in their official capacity. Details of all such meetings are not maintained centrally and to search for the detailed information would involve disproportionate cost. However, so far as can be ascertained at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, officials have met persons acting in their capacity as employees of McKinsey and Company on four occasions in the past two years. No meetings have taken place between such persons and DCMS Ministers in that period. To disclose what has been discussed at such meetings would not be in the public interest, as it would harm the frankness and candour of discussion. All meetings are conducted in accordance with the Civil Service Code and the Ministerial Code.
Licensing Act 2003
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
On what occasions the Metropolitan Police have objected to the grant or renewal of a licence under the Licensing Act 2004 in 2004 and in 2005 to date; and with what results. [HL2027]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The legislation referred to is the Licensing Act 2003 which was not implemented in 2004 and did not allow applications for the grant of licences to be made in that year. In addition, there are no renewal procedures under the 2003 Act. It was not until 7 February 2005 that licensing authorities were given the authority to accept applications to convert existing licences and also applications for new premises licences and club premises certificates. It is therefore too early to provide information on the number of licences to which the police have raised objections or the effect of these objections.
Civil Partnerships: Pension Rights
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, further to their consultation on the Civil Partnership (Amendment of provisions relating to contracted-out occupational and appropriate personal pension schemes) Order 2005, they intend to introduce an order amending provisions relating to contracted-in pension schemes, so that all survivor benefits for civil partners are based on members' rights accrued from 6 April 1988. [HL2036]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham): The only statutory requirements to provide for survivors' benefits apply to contracted-out pension schemes and that is why the draft order applies only to those schemes. Any other benefits over and above contracted-out pension benefits (including those in contracted-in schemes) will depend on what is permitted under scheme rules. It will be for individual
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schemes to decide what benefits will be payable to surviving civil partners.
Occupational pension schemes, whether they are contracted out or not, are subject to the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003. Under the regulations, an employer may lawfully provide different benefits as between people who are married and those who are not married. The Government are currently seeking views on amendments to the regulations. Those amendments will provide that, for service after civil partnership is introduced, it will become unlawful to provide different benefits to civil partners and married persons on the grounds of their sexual orientation.
Equality Bill
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will introduce amendments to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976 (a) to extend the definition of "discriminatory practice" to include indirect as well as direct discrimination; and (b) to empower the Equality Commission to bring proceedings in respect of discriminatory practices in the same way as proceedings may now be brought in respect of discriminatory advertisements, instructions to discriminate and pressure to discriminate. [HL1922]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): There are currently no plans to amend the definition of "discriminatory practice" in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 or the Race Relations Act 1976. We anticipate that the recently announced Discrimination Law Review on 25 February 2005 (Official Report, col. 69 WS) will look at these Acts in the round.
The Equality Bill introduced into the House of Commons on 1 March does not make provision for the CEHR to bring proceedings in respect of discriminatory practice in the same way that proceedings can now be brought in respect of unlawful advertising, pressure and instructions to discriminate. The current arrangements for the latter permit the existing commissions to bring a case in its own name to a tribunal/court, whereas challenges to discriminatory practices are made by the commissions carrying out a formal investigation and issuing a non-discrimination notice.
As currently drafted, the Equality Bill allows the CEHR to challenge discriminatory practices in the same way as the existing commissions. However, we are actively considering whether the CEHR's powers in relation to discriminatory practices should be amended.
Banking Services: Security
Lord Steinberg asked Her Majesty's Government:
What safeguards they will put in place to prevent industrial and private hacking of individuals' bank accounts. [HL1974]
Lord Sainsbury of Turville: Security of banking services is a matter for the individual banks concerned and falls within the overall regime for the conduct of banking operations which is the responsibility of the Treasury. This department promotes the security of business processes and transactions generally and is thus in regular contact with individual banks and the Association for Payment and Clearing Services (APACS).
The financial sector, including Internet banking, is one of the business sectors targeted as part of the UK's critical information infrastructure policy which is responsibility of the Home Office. I understand that there are regular contacts between the banking sector and the National Infrastructure Co-ordination Centre to develop and implement policy in this area.
We are aware of the increase in phishing attacks designed to get account information from customers. We continue to work with the banks to minimise the impact on their industry by raising customer awareness.
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