The HQ of the Rapid Reaction Corps, a Nato body led by Britain, will withdraw by January.. UNDER-PERFORMING rail service operators will face tougher penalties in an attempt to improve networks, John Prescott pledged yesterday. The Deputy Prime Minister attacked the privatisation of the network as a “national disgrace”, but said there were now “some positive signs of a revival of Britain’s railways”.
Opening the second reading debate on the Railways Bill, which will set up a Strategic Rail Authority, Mr Prescott said passenger and freight traffic was on the increase, and about 1,000 extra services were being run each day.By creating a “new guardian of the public interest [the SRA] this Bill will reinforce these trends”, he said.The legislation is unlikely to clear all its parliamentary stages in the current session and will have to be re-introduced in the Queen’s Speech in November.Mr Prescott said future franchises for the train operating companies should be settled on their commitment to investment, quality of service and value for money to the taxpayer. These withdrawals, along with withdrawals of units of the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy announced last month, will go a long way to help relieve the overstretch in the armed forces. Further withdrawals, including that of the headquarters of the Allied Command Europe Rapid Reaction Corps, will of course follow.”The first troops to withdraw will be from The Parachute Regiment, who will return by the end of August. Troops returning from service overseas, including those coming back from Kosovo, will be guaranteed 20 days’ immediate leave on top of their annual entitlement, while families left at home qualify for better travel concessions.Mr Robertson told MPs: “Between August and October we will be bringing home 1st Parachute Regiment, the 1st Royal Gurkha Rifles and the Irish Guard battle groups, together with their supporting elements.

Soldiers from The Parachute Regiment, Gurkhas and Irish Guards will be withdrawn in a phased operation starting next month. After further departures, the commitment would stand at about 5,000 by the end of the year, with replacements provided by Canada, Finland and Norway.
An MoD spokesman later set out other measures to reduce overstretch, including bringing forward the formation of a fifth engineer squadron, a unit essential for missions such as in Kosovo, from 2002 to next year.Other measures were intended to reduce the number of personnel leaving the Army. Three thousand troops would be withdrawn by mid-October to bring the remaining number of troops in the region to 7,000, Mr Robertson said during question time. BRITISH FORCES in Kosovo will be halved from 10,000 to 5,000 by the end of the year, the Secretary of State for Defence, George Robertson, disclosed yesterday. On the other hand, there is a logic deficit inherent in the proposal that electricity generated by fuels which do cause such emissions,” the MPs said.. The select committee also criticised the failure of the Government to link the levy properly with the carbon content of fuels, and said there was “confusion” at Whitehall about it.”A full carbon tax would clearly conflict with the DTI policy on the use of coal and gas for electricity generation.

It is imperative the levy makes special provisions for energy- intensive industries to minimise any damage to their international competitiveness,” the committee said.Francis Maude, the shadow Chancellor, called the report a “damning indictment of Labour’s energy tax – it is another stealthy tax on business that will cost thousands of jobs while doing nothing to help the environment”.The Liberal Democrats called for the tax to be scrapped and replaced with a full carbon tax. that, without appropriate modifications and exemptions, the levy could prove a blunt instrument which does considerable damage to sectors of the British economy already struggling to maintain their profitability. A pounds 50m fund will be set aside for improving energy efficiency.MPs on the committee, chaired by Martin O’Neill, a senior Labour backbencher, have faced a barrage of protest and warnings from companies that gave evidence about the impact the levy will have on their businesses: Teesside Chemical Initiative estimated it would cost its firms pounds 37.3m a year, causing up to 1,000 job losses; British Sugar said it would cost pounds 6m and put the sugar beet industry into “a downward spiral”; the Food and Drink Federation said it would cost pounds 150m; the British Cement Federation estimated it would cost pounds 40m, putting the viability of coastal plants at risk; and the Energy Intensive Users Group warned it would lose pounds 571m a year, with a loss of 28,000 jobs.”We share the view … The business and commercial sectors will be liable for the levy on their final energy consumption; energy used for domestic and transport use will be exempt.Heavy users of energy will be eligible for reductions if they reach agreement with the Department of Environment on reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.Revenue raised will be recycled to business, with a cut of 0.5 percentage points in the rate of employers’ national insurance contributions.

The committee said yesterday it was “disturbed” by the “unprecedented scale” of the reaction from big business to the climate change levy on industrial emissions.
The Chancellor announced in the Budget in March that he planned to introduce the levy in 2001. Not Madam Speaker’s drably functional “Time’s up”, but Mr Ross’s classic reassurance: “Sleep well and don’t have nightmares. The vast majority of television viewers and radio listeners will never encounter this kind of unpleasantness, particularly since Yesterday in Parliament was shifted to long wave.”. A CLIMATE change tax at the centre of the Government’s green policies looked doomed in its present form last night after a Labour-dominated Commons select committee of MPs called for changes to allay fears that it could cost Britain thousands of jobs and millions of pounds in lost orders. And then Mr Robertson could pull out a sawn-off shotgun and scream: “Back off, chummy, or I’ll show you what double-barrelled really means.”The ending we already know.