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Pensioners to get fuel payment advice The government is to write to more than two million people next month to tell them they may be able to claim a backdated payment of the pensioners' �150 winter fuel allowance. Last December, the European Court of Justice ruled the Government had discriminated against men by paying them the allowance at 65, while women became eligible on retiring at 60. Ministers promised to compensate those who should have been getting the allowance from 60 and now Social Security Secretary Alistair Darling has set out plans for the payments. Winter Fuel payments are expected to cost the government �1.38bn in 2000-01 and �1.21bn in 2001-02, suggesting the cost of paying back claims will be �170m. "We want to ensure that people entitled to payments for past winters will receive those payments as soon as practically possible," he said. "The plan is to make them from the end of June onwards and payments for this coming winter before Christmas 2000." Anyone wanting advice can contact the Winter Fuel Payment helpline on 08459 15 15 15 or download a claim form from the DSS Internet website at www.dss.gov.uk. Donor organs bill clears first hurdle A Bill to increase the number of donor organs available for transplant has cleared its first hurdle - despite a Tory MP's attempts to scupper it. Nick Palmer's Organ Transplants (Presumed Consent) Bill received a formal First Reading after Tory Julian Lewis's bid to oppose it was defeated by 113 votes to 23. The measure would introduce an "opt out" system where dead people's organs would be removed unless they or their relatives opposed the idea. The Bill would establish a national register of people who have not given their consent to organ donation. Dr Palmer told MPs that around 200 people died every year for the lack of organs suitable for transplantation. Portillo apologises to Commons Shadow Chancellor Michael Portillo has apologised to MPs in the House of Commons for failing to declare his connections with a global petrol exploration company during a debate on petrol prices. In a personal statement to the Commons Mr Portillo apologised to MPs, describing the failure to declare the interest as an "oversight". "On Monday March 27 at the conclusion of the Budget debate I made some remarks regarding the taxation of petrol without reminding the House that I have a registered interest as an adviser to an oil producing company," he said. "It was an oversight for which I apologise to the House." In the Register of Members' Interests Mr Portillo is listed as an "adviser on international affairs to the Kerr McGee Corporation; oil and chemicals. Call for 'minister for victims' The mother of one of the Moors murder victims has joined marchers calling for longer sentencing and a minister for victims during a demonstration to mark the start of Victims' Rights Week. Winifred Johnson, whose son Keith Bennett was killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley in 1964, was among those handing in a petition to 10 Downing Street during a march organised by the charity Victims' Voice. More than 80 relatives of people who have been murdered or killed in road or other accidents, joined in the march from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament. June Richardson, whose son Martin Brown was killed aged four-and-a-half by 11-year-old Mary Bell on Tyneside in 1968, was also at the demonstration along with relatives of people killed in the Marchioness Thames river boat tragedy, the Hillsborough football stadium disaster and the Dunblane classroom massacre. Home Office Minister Paul Boateng met the marchers at a lobby meeting in Westminster Hall afterwards, saying: "We must make sure that the justice system is more victim friendly. The Home Secretary takes very seriously his responsibility to oversee the decisions of trial judges." Minister calls for whaling ban A permanent, world wide, ban on whaling has been called for by Environment Minister Michael Meacher. "We do not believe there is justification for any whaling, other than some subsistence whaling by indigenous people," he said. "We would like all other forms of whaling ended through a permanent, world wide, ban." His comments came as the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) opened in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
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