The Committee examine the human rights implications of all government and private bills. This, the seventh progress report of the session, recommends changes to the Mental Health Bill and records the view that the Rating (Empty Properties) Bill raises no human rights issues. The Mental Health Bill was reported upon at an earlier stage (HLP 40/HC 288 2006-07). This report is a response to the Government reply and points arising in debate in the Commons.

In 2004, the Government announced 110 Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets for 17 Departments covering the period 2005-08. PSA targets express the priority outcomes that Departments are seeking to achieve nationally and internationally, and cover key aspects of the Government's social, economic and environmental policy. Large sums of public money are devoted to the programmes designed to deliver them. This NAO report summarises the results of its examination of the data systems used by twelve government departments to monitor and report progress against their 2005-08 PSA targets, covering a total of 237 data systems. Overall Departments have successfully taken steps to improve the quality of their data systems. There are still improvements that can be made to increase the relevance and reliability of data used in the reporting process. The NAO makes a number of recommendations on specification of data systems, their operation, and the reporting of data. A companion volume (HCP 22-II, session 2006-07, ISBN 9780102951622) is available separately which contains the NAO's detailed findings.

The Highly Skilled Migrants Programme (HSMP) was introduced by the Government in 2002 to encourage people with exceptional skills to come to the UK to work. In 2006, the Government made a number of changes to the Immigration Rules. This report concludes that the changes are clearly not compatible with the right to respect for home and family life.

The control orders regime, established under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005, gives the Home Secretary the power to place restrictions on the liberty of individuals suspected of involvement in terrorism-related activity, depending on the assessed risk posed by the individual concerned, including requirements as to place of abode, and restrictions on movement, association or communication. This publication sets out the Government's reply to the Committee's report (HLP 60/HCP 365, session 2006-07; ISBN 9780104010310) which examined the Government's intention to extend the control order regime for a second time, for a further year to March 2008, under the draft Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 (continuance in force of sections 1 to 9) Order 2007 (Draft 2007 S.I., ISBN 9780110757278).