---

Business of the House

The right hon. Lady raised the question of Zimbabwe. As she will know, the Prime Minister raised the issue of Mugabe respecting the will of his people, and did so at the United Nations. As she may know, Lord Malloch-Brown, a Foreign Office Minister, will give evidence next week to the Foreign Affairs Committee, and no doubt questions about Zimbabwe will be asked on that occasion. There was also a debate on Zimbabwe in Westminster Hall last Tuesday. The Government are keeping up the pressure on Zimbabwe, and on the other African nations which are so important to the future of Zimbabwe, with regard to respect for that election result. I will consider the right hon. Lady’s request as a proposal for a topical debate. On the question of the Kosovo deployment, I think that it is fair enough for Secretaries of State to make written ministerial statements or oral statements when they are in a position to do so. The fact that a Secretary of State answered oral questions the day before he or she delivered an oral or written ministerial statement does not necessarily mean anything other than that it was not possible for the statement to be made beforehand. The right hon. Lady will know that the UK received a request from NATO to deploy a battalion to Kosovo by the end of May, as part of our existing commitment to the NATO-EU pan-Balkans operational reserve force. The UK meets that longstanding commitment in rotation with Italy and Germany, so we are well prepared to meet NATO’s request. However, there will be a defence debate next week, and the House will have an opportunity to raise such matters then. The shadow Leader of the House will know that in this week’s discussions on the Finance Bill, there was much debate on the Floor of the House about the compensation arrangements for those affected by the abolition of the 10p rate. She will also know that there will be an inquiry into those matters by the Treasury Committee. The right hon. Lady asked about car owners, but she will know that the cost of motoring has fallen by 13 per cent. across the board over the past 10 years. She will also know that this Government have built new roads, and roads are now safer. We have sought to address motorists’ concerns, but we also have to take care of the environment. The right hon. Lady mentioned bail hostels and the early release of prisoners. There is an obligation in the contract that Clearsprings has with the Home Office that the company should consult local police and probation services, and the local authority, but I understand that this is not a question of change of use. The situation is similar to what happens when a person is granted bail by a magistrates court or a Crown court and then returns to live with his or her family. We are not talking about big bail hostels to which suspects awaiting trial are committed under certain bail conditions: instead, because the issue is one of housing, the planning consultation—which would normally involve putting up notices and the consultation of neighbours—is not required. Obviously, however, there will be an investigation if the contractual obligation to consult local police and probation services and the local authority is not met. The Secretary of State for Justice is planning to issue a consultation paper on bail and how it operates. That will be followed by a consultation period, and a report will be brought to the House.