| Previous Section | Home Page |
Mr. Moss: District councils in Northern Ireland have the power to remove or dispose of abandoned vehicles and to initiate proceedings under the Pollution Control and Local Government (Northern Ireland) Order 1978. This legislation is broadly similar to that obtaining in Great Britain. Planning legislation would not be an appropriate code to deal with abandoned vehicles.
Nursery Education
Rev. Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what consideration was given to extending he under-fives initiative to Northern Ireland; and if he will make a
statement. [37315]
Mr. Ancram: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Clydebank and Milngavie (Mr. Worthington) on 11 July, Official Report , columns 519 20 .
Civil Service Transfers
Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make it his policy by mutual agreement specifically to permit transfers of staff between the Northern Ireland civil service and the home civil service on marriage. [37392]
Sir John Wheeler: The Northern Ireland civil service and the home civil service are separate civil services and there are no formal rights of transfer between them. It is the policy of both services, however, to seek to facilitate inter-service transfers on compassionate grounds, whenever possible, and the criteria for compassionate transfers include those who need to move to be with their spouse.
Joyriding
Dr. Hendron: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many people have been charged with offences relating to (a) joyriding and (b) other traffic offences since 1 September 1994; [37040]
Column 178
(2) how many people have been charged with offences relating to (a) joyriding and (b) other traffic offences in the nine months before 1 September 1994. [37041]Sir John Wheeler: Figures for the number of persons charged are not available. The number of persons proceeded against at magistrates courts was as follows:
|1 Dec 1993- |1 Sept 1994-
|31 August 1994|31 May 1995
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number proceeded against for
unauthorised taking of a
motor vehicle<1> |420 |408
Number proceeded against for
other motoring offences<2> |16,815 |17,375
Notes:
<1> "Joyriding" is taken to be the offence of `unauthorised taking of a
motor vehicle'.
<2> `Other traffic offences' is taken to mean summary motoring offences
and to exclude indictable offences such as "reckless driving causing
death/grievous bodily injury".
Police Staff
Ms Mowlam: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) how many people are employed in the Police Authority of Northern Ireland departments in respect of (a) information technology, (b) buildings and (c) transport; and what is the cost of running these departments annually; [37059]
(2) how many people are employed in the Royal Ulster Constabulary departments in respect of (a) information technology, (b) buildings and (c) transport; and what is the cost of running these departments annually. [37058]
Sir John Wheeler: The information is as follows:
|Staff costs
Police authority |Number of staff |(estimate 1995-96)
|£
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Information
Technology<1> |68 |1,931,500
Buildings |28 |650,850
Transport |197 |3,620,650
RUC
Information
Technology<1> |68 |1,931,500
Buildings |11 |443,040
Transport |102 |3,154,840
<1> Information as to annual running costs of these departments, other than
staff pay and related costs, is not available. The information technology
department operates on a joint basis.
Farming and Forestry (Accidents)
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many recorded accidents in the farming and forestry industry have occurred in each of the last three years; and how many have been fatal. [37135]
Mr. Ancram: During the calender years 1992, 1993 and 1994 there were 64, 64 and 70 accidents respectively reported to Department of Agriculture's health and safety inspectorate.
There were six fatalities in 1992, 10 in 1993 and 14 in 1994.
Column 179
Interest Rates
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make it his policy to ensure that interest rates for local authority lending are issued in advance. [37199]
Sir John wheeler: Interest Rates are fixed on a weekly basis by the Treasury and are promulgated by the Department of Finance and Personnel and the Public Works Loans Board at the same time. They take effect from their time of issue. It is not possible to give advance notice of interest rate changes since these are subject to market volatility.
Fair Employment
Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in which perceived religious category the fair employment monitoring process of the Northern Ireland civil service places those applicants or employees who have attended integrated secondary schools. [37391]
Sir John Wheeler: The Northern Ireland civil service relies on the primary school attended for the longest period of time, "The First Schools Method", as its principal method of making a determination of the perceived religious category of an applicant or employee. Where use of the "Schools List" fails to produce a determination of Protestant or Roman Catholic the service then relies on information specified under the "Residuary Method" in the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989 to make a determination, insofar as this is possible. Under the "Schools List" maintained by the Fair Employment Commission for the purposes of the regulations, integrated schools, whether primary or secondary, are among the schools which are unclassified for religious monitoring purposes.
Small Loans
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the Department of Finance and Personnel expects to introduce a rule similar to the PWLB circular 105 allowing a refinancing of small loans. [37198]
Sir John Wheeler: The Department of Finance and Personnel, having consulted with the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland, the approving authority for loans to local government in Northern Ireland, intends to apply the terms of PWLB circular 105 as they relate to refinancing of small loans, from 1 November.
Prevention of Terrorism Legislation
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many times the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1991 have been invoked in Northern Ireland. [37214]
Sir John Wheeler: Statistics on the operation in Northern Ireland in 1995 of the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1991 and the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act 1989 are available in the Library, but I am sending the hon. Member the information he seeks.
Column 180
House Building
Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will assess the special circumstances pertaining in the current year that have affected the cost of house building and construction in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the measures he intends now to take to deal with the cost and budgetary consequences within this financial year. [37389]
Mr. Moss: Tender prices for public sector housing contracts have shown a sharp increase in the past year and the reasons for this are being examined. The budgetary consequences will be considered in the context of in year monitoring of the amount allocated to the Northern Ireland public expenditure block.
Royal Ulster Constabulary
Ms Mowlam: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many individuals applied to join the Royal Ulster Constabulary in its most recent round of recruitment; and of these how many were (a) women and (b) Catholics. [37060]
Sir John Wheeler: The most recent recruitment competition was advertised in March/April of this year.
The total number of applicants was 2,058 of whom 811, or 40 per cent. of applicants, were female and 467, or 23 per cent. of applicants, were perceived to be from the Roman Catholic community.
Race Relations Legislation
Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what considerations underlay the decision to bring race relations law into operation in Northern Ireland by means of an Order in Council; what consideration was given to amending the existing Great Britain legislation to include Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [37212]
Mr. Ancram: The consultative document published in December 1992 considered a number of ways in which race relations legislation could be enacted in Northern Ireland. Having considered the responses, it was decided that the commitment to the early introduction of race legislation would be best achieved by way of a separate race relations Order in Council.
The extension of the Race Relations Act 1976 was not included as an option for legislation on the grounds that it would not be appropriate in the context of the particular circumstances and scale of race relations issues in Northern Ireland.
Country Parks
Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will introduce an environmental sensitivity forum to advise on the future arrangements for, and operation of, Crawfordsburn and Redburn country parks. [37156]
Mr. Moss: The Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside advises my Department on the
Column 181
management of country parks. I am not clear as to what the hon. Member has in mind regarding an environmental sensitivity forum and perhaps he would write to me with further details.Life Sentence Prisoners
Rev. Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the current life sentence prisoners who have served more than 14 years in prison, indicating whether they are loyalist or republican prisoners. [37208]
Sir John Wheeler: Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Prisons Agency under its chief executive, Mr. Alan Shannon. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from A. D. Shannon to Rev. Ian Paisley, dated 16 October 1995:
Sir John Wheeler has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Question in which you have asked for a list of life sentence prisoners who have served more than 14 years in prison, including whether they are loyalists or republican prisoners.
Column 182
The paramilitary affiliation of prisoners is recorded for prison management purposes, not for classification. In addition, it is not the policy of the Prison Service to disclose particulars pertaining to individual prisoners.There are currently 25 life sentence prisoners who have served more than 14 years in custody. They are broken down by perceived affiliation as follows:
Loyalist: 15
Republican: 7
Others: 3
Of these 11 (7 loyalist and 4 republican) are already in possession of provisional release dates. They are currently involved at various stages of the Pre-release Scheme.
Boundary Commission Reports
Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what action he proposes to take in respect of the fourth periodical and second supplementary reports of the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland. [37475]
Sir Patrick Mayhew: I have today laid before Parliament the fourth periodical and second supplementary reports of the Boundary Commission for Northern Ireland together with a draft Order in Council for giving effect, without modifications, to the recommendations contained in the reports.
Column 181
|
| Home Page |