Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, I am unaware of any such plans, but if it is purely a case of my ignorance rather than my wisdom on the point, I shall write to the noble Earl and let him know that I am wrong. However, I do not know of any such plans.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, I wrote to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Drumadoon, after our discussion in Committee. In all fairness to the noble and learned Lord, who, unfortunately, is not with us this afternoon because of his commitments elsewhere, I should say that he will not have received the correspondence because it was, I believe, placed in his pigeon-hole this morning. However, I make the...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, although I understand the intention of this amendment with regard to the Army and Air Force Acts, I must say to the noble Earl, Lord Attlee, that I am extremely concerned that he believes that it is necessary to table this amendment in the first place. In a sense, the purpose of the amendment is admirable, and I have no doubt that the noble Earl's intentions in tabling it are...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: moved Amendment No. 17: Page 39, line 41, leave out ("twenty-one") and insert ("fourteen").
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, in moving Amendment No. 17, I shall speak also to Amendments Nos. 19, 21 and 22. The purpose of these amendments is to reduce from 21 to 14 days the period in which an accused may lodge, with the summary appeal court, an appeal against the decisions of the commanding officer. I am sure that your Lordships will recall that in Committee I agreed to reconsider the period in which an...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, I am not sure of the applicability of the anecdote the noble Lord, Lord Burnham, sought to draw to our attention in moving the amendment. However, I am made of sterner stuff than that! I do not have anything to add to the debate on the length of period that we should grant an accused person in order to lodge an appeal. It is a question of judgment and I do not believe that 10 days...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: moved Amendment No. 19: Page 40, line 12, leave out ("twenty-one") and insert ("fourteen"). On Question, amendment agreed to. [Amendment No. 20 not moved.] Schedule 3 [Amendments of 1955 Acts and 1957 Act relating to summary appeal courts]:
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: moved Amendments Nos. 21 and 22: Page 57, line 20, leave out ("twenty-one") and insert ("fourteen"). Page 58, line 6, leave out ("twenty-one") and insert ("fourteen").
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, with the leave of the House, I shall move these amendments en bloc. I beg to move.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, during all our debates so far on this Bill I have sought to make it clear that we place great store on ensuring that all our personnel benefit from their convention rights. As your Lordships are well aware, the purpose of this Bill is to address concerns about compatibility with the European Convention on Human Rights. However, we do not believe it is necessary to state that in the...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, no specific bonuses will be paid to service personnel who have served in Kosovo. However, on 20th December 1999 my right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence announced enhancements to the payments available during separation. These are to be introduced shortly and I am happy to tell the House that all those who served in Kosovo on paid, separated service will be...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: No, my Lords, I do not believe that that is quite right. The expected cost of the provision for the previous two years--the payments will be backdated--all the way across the three armed services is something in the region of £6 million. Of course, those payments directly attributable to service in either Bosnia or Kosovo will come out of the central reserve. It is a complicated formula;...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, I agree entirely with what the noble and gallant Lord, Lord Bramall, says. The fact is that what is known as the X- factor is taken into account in service pay. The noble and gallant Lord will know that that amounts to about 12 per cent of the pay of our servicemen and women. The enhancements announced by my right honourable friend were to the allowances made for paid, separated...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: My Lords, the X-factor takes into account the fact that servicemen and women throughout their lives may be disrupted; they make have to work in a number of different bases. It does not take into account the fact that, from time to time, they may be separated from their current home base. It is for that reason that the payment, now enhanced by my right honourable friend the current Secretary...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: There are no anti-personnel mines as defined under the Ottawa Convention stocked by other governments or their armed forces, or on behalf of other governments and their armed forces, in the UK.
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The SDR conducted a rigorous re-examination of our deterrence requirements. The Government have made it clear that we shall maintain the minimum credible nuclear deterrent whilst working towards the global elimination of nuclear weapons. The longer term goals of arms control, non-proliferation and multilateral disarmament were advanced considerably by a range of SDR measures. In addition to...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The COT report, published in November, concluded that neuropsychological abnormalities can occur as a long-term complication following acute organophosphate (OP) poisoning, particularly if the poisoning is severe. Persistent peripheral neuropathy (disorders of the peripheral nerves) may occur, but not generally at a level which would give rise to symptoms. The body of evidence gives little...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The Government's "New Beginning" policy statement set out the way forward for addressing the health concerns of Gulf veterans and included a commitment to establish a fact finding team to look into the implementation of the anti-biological warfare immunisation programme during the Gulf conflict. Their work has now been completed and we are today publishing a paper entitled Implementation of...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The 1997 "A New Beginning" policy statement set out a number of commitments to help address the health concerns of Gulf veterans. One of these commitments was to review specific incidents of suggested biological or chemical warfare exposures. As part of this commitment, my honourable friend the Minister of State for the Armed Forces has today published a paper entitled A Review of the...
Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean: The Ministry of Defence response to the recommendations in the report of the audit of the Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment Programme (GVMAP) has now been completed. A very small number of issues remain outstanding but the response explains why this is so and what action is being taken. The staff of the GVMAP have welcomed this opportunity to review their working practices and take action...