That this House salutes the honourable Member for Linlithgow, who is due to retire at the next election after 43 years' parliamentary service; remembers his service as a trooper in the Royal Scots Greys, teacher at Bo'ness High School, PPS to the Minister of Housing, Labour Opposition spokesman for Science, officer of numerous Labour Party and parliamentary committees, Rector at Edinburgh University, and author of many books and publications, including Dick Crossman: a portrait, and One Man's Falklands; notes that he tenaciously sought out the truth over the Belgrano affair; further notes his consistent opposition to wars in the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq and his stoical support for the United Nations; thanks him for his thoughtful, determined and passionate approach to helping constituents and his friendliness to honourable Members on all sides; and wishes him, his wife Kathleen and his family all the very best for the future.

That this House salutes the honourable Member for Linlithgow, who is due to retire at the next election after 43 years' parliamentary service; remembers his service as a trooper in the Royal Scots Greys, teacher at Bo'ness High School, PPS to the Minister of Housing, Labour Opposition spokesman for Science,...

That this House expresses its sadness at the death of the Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II; offers its condolences to the Catholic people of the United Kingdom and beyond, particularly to the people of Poland; pays tribute to Pope John Paul II's immense and unique contribution to peace and justice in our world and his emphasis on the dignity and worth of every individual from conception to the grave; commends his witness in living a life of faith, dignity and courage when facing the evils of Naziism, communism and materialistic capitalism; recalls his determination to champion the weak and to remind the strong of their moral responsibility to the dispossessed; further recalls his support for the Solidarity movement in Poland and his par t in toppling communism in Eastern Europe; further recalls his reaching out to other faiths, particularly his gathering of all faith leaders in Assisi in 1987 to focus on what unites rather than what divides people of faith, and especially recalls his work towards reconciliation among the children of Abraham, culminating in his pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2000; concurs with the words of Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor that Pope John Paul II turned the papacy into a moral voice not just for Christians, but for all people of goodwill across the world; further recalls with pride that in the Millennium year he proclaimed the former Speaker of this House, Thomas More, the Patron Saint of Politicians; and trusts that he may rest in peace.

That this House expresses its sadness at the death of the Vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II; offers its condolences to the Catholic people of the United Kingdom and beyond, particularly to the people of Poland; pays tribute to Pope John Paul II's immense and unique contribution to peace...

That this House commends the brilliant work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee on pioneering the intellectual basis of the internet and his aim to create a semantic web; notes that this would be able to take information from different databases on the world wide web ranging from catalogues and weather sites to stock price information and to allow this data to be processed by computers which would revolutionise access to information and data for educational and business purposes; applauds the fact that it would also answer many people's calls for a logical search engine that gives solid results working on a mathematical logic to match search criteria inputted to results; appreciates that this means search engines will become more meaningful and effective; further notes that if both these innovations are achieved the Web will be a place where the whim of a human being and the reasoning of a machine will co-exist in an ideal synthesis; and observes that such work is to be admired along with the charitable outlook of Sir Tim Berners-Lee that the internet is to be used as an emancipatory tool.

That this House commends the brilliant work of Sir Tim Berners-Lee on pioneering the intellectual basis of the internet and his aim to create a semantic web; notes that this would be able to take information from different databases on the world wide web ranging from catalogues and weather sites...

That this House congratulates the Chartered Institute of Public Relations on being granted a Royal Charter; notes that the Royal Charter is in recognition of the leading role which the Chartered Institute of Public Relations plays in the communications industry in the United Kingdom; and welcomes the great strides which the Chartered Institute of Public Relations has made in driving up standards amongst its more than 8,000 members and the public relations profession at large.

That this House congratulates the Chartered Institute of Public Relations on being granted a Royal Charter; notes that the Royal Charter is in recognition of the leading role which the Chartered Institute of Public Relations plays in the communications industry in the United Kingdom; and welcomes the great strides which...

That this House notes that the bylaw to introduce a 10 miles per hour speed limit on Lake Windermere comes into force on 29th March 2005; recognises the detrimental effects this will have on tourism, sporting associations and the local economy; and calls on the Government to work with all interested parties to strive to find a managed solution as has proved to be possible on the Norfolk Broads.

That this House notes that the bylaw to introduce a 10 miles per hour speed limit on Lake Windermere comes into force on 29th March 2005; recognises the detrimental effects this will have on tourism, sporting associations and the local economy; and calls on the Government to work with all...

That this House welcomes the continued efforts of primary care trusts to prevent the need for patients suffering from chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) to be admitted to hospital as a result of their condition; notes that up to three million people suffer from this debilitating and life-threatening condition in the UK; further notes that avoiding hospitalisation can improve the quality and length of life for these patients and that there are major benefits to the NHS as a whole, reducing the burden on hospitals, freeing beds for use by other patients and reducing waiting times; congratulates those primary care trusts that are actively improving and providing excellent treatment for COPD patients, but notes significant variation in the quality of care from one trust to another; calls for pulmonary rehabilitation to be made available more consistently in all primary care trusts; and regrets that only 1.7 per cent. of patients currently have access to such pulmonary rehabilitation.

That this House welcomes the continued efforts of primary care trusts to prevent the need for patients suffering from chronic pulmonary disease (COPD) to be admitted to hospital as a result of their condition; notes that up to three million people suffer from this debilitating and life-threatening condition in the...

That this House welcomes Parkinson's Awareness Week 2005 on 11th to 17th April with the theme, Parkinson's Disease Society for every age at every stage; recognises the Society's continuing efforts to improve the quality of life for all people living with Parkinson's disease; notes the launch of the National Service Framework for Long Term Conditions; hopes that effective local implementation by local health organisations and committed health and social care professionals will lead to significant improvements in care and support for people with Parkinson's and their carers; further notes that there is currently no known cure for Parkinson's; supports the efforts of all those engaged in research into all aspects of Parkinson's disease at centres across the UK; and congratulates the Society for investing more than ??30 million in research since it was founded in 1969.

That this House welcomes Parkinson's Awareness Week 2005 on 11th to 17th April with the theme, Parkinson's Disease Society for every age at every stage; recognises the Society's continuing efforts to improve the quality of life for all people living with Parkinson's disease; notes the launch of the National Service...

That this House condemns the announcement of more than 3,780 job losses at the BBC, the privatisation of key services and outsourcing of jobs to the private sector without any prior consultation with staff representatives; believes that cuts to programme-making staff in core public service areas such as Radio 4 and Five Live, Parliamentary coverage, News 24, the Politics Show, newsgathering and world affairs as well as 735 job cuts in the nations and regions will reduce quality and cause standards to fall; is concerned that such falls in quality will result in viewers and listeners being less well served and the value for money of the licence fee being damaged; praises the campaign by the BBC's staff against the job losses; and calls on the Director General to halt job losses and to enter into meaningful consultation with staff representatives to explore other ways to achieve savings and real value for money.

That this House condemns the announcement of more than 3,780 job losses at the BBC, the privatisation of key services and outsourcing of jobs to the private sector without any prior consultation with staff representatives; believes that cuts to programme-making staff in core public service areas such as Radio 4...

That this House urges the Government to deal urgently with the grievances of freeholders and to swing the balance, which is still overwhelmingly weighted to the landlords, back to leaseholders; and suggests that this can be best achieved by abolishing the leasehold system and replacing it by commonhold for flat owners, and regulated sale to others, by scrapping marriage value for leaseholders buying freeholds, abolishing forfeiture and the threat of forfeiture, by setting up a regulator to control rogue landlords and managing agents, and by extending the role of the Housing Ombudsman to allow him to replace leasehold valuation tribunals, to assume responsibility for setting a fair valuation for leaseholders to buy their freehold and to regulate service charges in common flats.

That this House urges the Government to deal urgently with the grievances of freeholders and to swing the balance, which is still overwhelmingly weighted to the landlords, back to leaseholders; and suggests that this can be best achieved by abolishing the leasehold system and replacing it by commonhold for flat...

That this House welcomes the Budget announcement that all those entering hospital from April will continue to receive their full state pension and their full entitlement to incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support for the entire duration of their stay in hospital from April 2006 and those already in hospital will have their benefits increased from April 2006 if they have then been in hospital for 52 weeks or more; notes that this will mean that long-stay patients receiving inpatient care, including large numbers of people suffering from mental ill health, will no longer have to live on only ??15.90 per week state benefit and have to look to the hospital to supplement their allowance from care budgets, to ensure that their basic needs for clothing, toiletries, haircuts and other personal items are met; congratulates the Government on taking action so that long-stay in-patients will be given the means to develop greater independence, social inclusion and integration into the ordinary life of the community; and also congratulates Mind and other organisations representing patients who have long campaigned for this outcome.

That this House welcomes the Budget announcement that all those entering hospital from April will continue to receive their full state pension and their full entitlement to incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support for the entire duration of their stay in hospital from April 2006 and those already...

That this House welcomes UNICEF's new analysis, Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005, which reveals that the UK has achieved a greater reduction in child poverty than the other 23 developed countries examined; and notes UNICEF's commendation of the transparency and credibility of the UK's approach, which independent research indicates is likely to achieve its stated ambitious targets.

That this House welcomes UNICEF's new analysis, Child Poverty in Rich Countries 2005, which reveals that the UK has achieved a greater reduction in child poverty than the other 23 developed countries examined; and notes UNICEF's commendation of the transparency and credibility of the UK's approach, which independent research indicates...

That this House expresses concern that many ex-service men and women who have suffered substantial hearing loss as a result of their service in the Armed Forces are being denied sufficient compensation through the war pensions scheme; notes that a service person has to suffer a hearing loss of 50 decibels before being compensated, a level often only experienced naturally by elderly people; further notes that this is not the case across the European Union and the Commonwealth, where the qualifying level of hearing loss is much lower; further notes that criteria for compensation do not take into account the additive effects on hearing of age-related hearing loss and noise-induced hearing loss, ignoring the fact that noise-induced hearing loss associated with service may bring forward the age at which an individual will suffer age-related hearing loss; therefore believes that the Government's criteria for assessing compensation for deafened veterans is failing to deliver sufficient recognition for those who have made great sacrifices for their country; and therefore joins RNID and ex-service organisations in calling upon the Government to lower the qualifying level of hearing loss in order to ensure that all those who have served in the Armed Forces are compensated appropriately for any disability, and that those currently serving their country are not let down when their service ends.

That this House expresses concern that many ex-service men and women who have suffered substantial hearing loss as a result of their service in the Armed Forces are being denied sufficient compensation through the war pensions scheme; notes that a service person has to suffer a hearing loss of 50...