Dr Jenny Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on (a) the most recent talks between the EU and Chinese regarding Tibet and (b) the situation of Chadrel Rinpoche, Gedun Choekyi, Ngawang Sangdrol, Ngawang Choephel and the anniversary monks.
Dr Jenny Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if her Department has tested and analysed the quality of (a) the holding lakes either side of Faggs Road and Princes Lake, Bedfont, (b) the River Crane and (c) drinking water supplied to London residents in the last 12 months.
Dr Jenny Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what studies have been made in the last five years of the effect of the proposed Terminal 5 at Heathrow on flooding in the area.
Dr Jenny Tonge: What steps will the Minister take to ensure that the increasing number of women prisoners can keep in touch with their children during their sentence?
Dr Jenny Tonge: Have recent events affected the Government's thinking on the siting of airports, especially those near London—
Dr Jenny Tonge: The Foreign Secretary made many comparisons between the action against Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden and the action in Kosovo, which I supported at the time it was being carried out. It strikes me, however, that there are two glaring differences: first, in Kosovo we knew the enemy—we knew who was in charge and where he was—and, secondly, there were not 7.5 million people on the point of...
Dr Jenny Tonge: I agree entirely. I was going on to say that bin Laden is still at large and that the fragile coalition, which has been painstakingly crafted by the Prime Minister, is showing signs of strain. That is precisely what bin Laden wanted. The Taliban may eventually crumble and have to be replaced by another—we hope, better—Government. I have always worried and wondered—this is genuine and I...
Dr Jenny Tonge: I am speaking as my party's spokesman on international development, and about all the factors that are affecting the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Dr Jenny Tonge: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. The aid agencies tell us that the only effective way to address the unfolding humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, with its hilly terrain, is to bring in necessary food and non-food items by road, and to administer that using people familiar with local needs, conditions and customs. That must be done now, before winter comes. The right hon....
Dr Jenny Tonge: I am interested in what the right hon. Gentleman says and entirely agree with him. Does he therefore support the request by Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, for a pause in the bombing to allow substantial aid to go into Afghanistan before the winter?
Dr Jenny Tonge: rose—
Dr Jenny Tonge: The right hon. Gentleman is generous in giving way again and in his calls for the Government to increase aid to Afghanistan, but if we are not to stop the bombing, even temporarily, how does he suggest we get that aid into the country?
Dr Jenny Tonge: What plans he has to reduce the number of patients who fail to keep out-patient appointments.
Dr Jenny Tonge: I thank the Minister for that response. I trust that the trusts that will have to implement the system will receive the finance due to them so that they can do so, and that the Government will be reporting on progress in achieving the targets that they have set themselves. Does the Minister think that, given continuing long waits to see, for example, a consultant or a radiologist in the first...
Dr Jenny Tonge: I am pretty disappointed by what the Minister has said. It sounds as though he is saying that it is all too difficult and would not really work. The implication is that we cannot introduce a law that might not be efficient, even though the United States of America—
Dr Jenny Tonge: We are living in times when we need all sorts of measures to tackle these problems, and it seems to me that we are not trying hard enough.
Dr Jenny Tonge: No. I am thinking about the comic sketch—does anyone know it?—in which they say, ``Now is the time in war to make a futile gesture''. This is not a futile gesture; it is something that I feel very strongly about. If United Kingdom citizens are trafficking arms or drugs anywhere in the world, they should be covered by this law and we should do something about them. I am not prepared to...
Dr Jenny Tonge: I simply ask the Minister why this can be operated in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the Chemical Weapons Act 1996, the Sex Offenders Act 1997 and in landmine legislation but not in the Export Control Bill. Answer comes there none.
Dr Jenny Tonge: Yes. Question put, That the amendment be made:— The Committee divided: Ayes 1, Noes 10.
Dr Jenny Tonge: I am a little mystified about an earlier remark by the Minister that extradition would be required to get at a British national who was living abroad and acting as an arms broker. I thought that we believed in extradition and wanted people who were guilty of crimes to be extradited to this country, if necessary. Surely there is a basis for that in international law.