Seventeenth report of Session 2005-06 : Documents considered by the Committee on 1 February 2006, report, together with formal Minutes

17th report of Session 2005-06 : Government of Wales Bill; Childcare Bill; Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill (HL); Violent Crime Reduction Bill - Government response; Proposal for the Regulatory Reform (Registered Designs) Order 2006

Seventeenth report of Session 2009-10 : Documents considered by the Committee on 30 March 2010, report, together with formal Minutes

The current system of prices, production and import quotas for the EU sugar market, which has remained largely unchanged since its inception in 1968, is due to expire in June 2006. It has attracted criticism for its anomalous structure, especially given the reforms to other aspects of the CAP in 2003, and the fact that some elements have been declared illegal by the WTO has added to the pressure for change. Following on from an earlier Committee report on this topic (HCP 550-I, session 2003-04, ISBN 0215018257), this report examines the recent proposals by the European Commission to reform the regime, in the context of the wider Doha round of trade negotiations, focusing on the likely impact on sugar producers and processors in the UK and the wider EU, and the development of the UK Government's position on the proposals. The Committee's conclusions include support for the Commission's reform proposals to secure price reductions in order to bring the European sugar market into balance; and that the UK, in its role as EU President, should support the Commission in minimising any attempts to dilute the reforms.

Legislative Scrutiny : 1) Child Maintenance and Other Payments Bill; 2) other bills, third report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes and Appendices

In 2004-05 HM Revenue and Customs paid £15.8 billion of Tax Credits. The Department recalculates each award annually and has identified that for 2003-04 it overpaid some £2.2 billion to 1.9 million families. It believes that 2004-05 will see a similar level of overpayment. This is partly due to the nature of the scheme where awards are provisionally based on previous income whilst the final award is based on actual income. However the level of overpayment has been higher than was initial estimated and repayments have caused distress to some families. This report looks at measures being taken to reduce overpayments; claimant error and fraud; and the settlement with EDS over problems with the computer system. The Committee attaches great importance to this subject and wish to return to it in the future.

Following on from the NAO report (HCP 595-I, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936250) published in November 2005, the Committee's report examines the recommendations made to improve the MoD's procurement of defence equipment focusing on time, cost and performance data for 30 defence projects in the year ended March 2005. This covers the 20 largest projects where the main investment decision has been taken and the 10 largest projects still in the assessment stage. The Committee's report focuses on three main issues: options for enhancing programme and project management of defence acquisition; the impact of older projects on overall acquisition performance; and value for money from the Defence Industrial Strategy. Findings include: i) the MoD has reduced the forecast costs of its top 19 projects by some £700 million, but these cuts were needed to bring the Defence Equipment Plan under control rather than the result of better project management; ii) some of the latest capability cuts are short-term expediencies which may result in an erosion of core defence capability or in higher costs throughout the life of individual projects; and iii) despite previous assurances that it had restructured many of its older projects to address past failures, the MoD still attributes much of its historic poor performance to so called "toxic legacy" projects which continue to accumulate considerable time and cost overruns, and it is now time that such projects were put on a firm footing with realistic performance, time and cost estimates against which the MoD and industry can be judged.