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Mental Incapacity

Mr. Khabra: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when he expects to publish a response to the Law Commission's report on mental incapacity. [2138]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The Government set up an interdepartmental working group, chaired by the Lord Chancellor's Department, to consider the Law Commission report on mental incapacity. The group was asked to produce an initial report for consideration by Ministers by 1 September 1995, and has met this timetable. Ministers are now considering the report of the working group together with that of the Law Commission. The Government will make an announcement of their initial view on the Law Commission's report once Ministers have had the opportunity to consider the implications of the proposals.

State Papers

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list those countries of the European Union that do not release state papers until a specified period has elapsed; and if he will give the period in each case. [2720]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The definition of "state papers" differs throughout the European Union, as do the periods for which such papers are withheld. The different provisions in the 12 then member states are set out in chapter 4 of the 1994 report of the group of experts on the co-ordination of archives, "Archives in the European Union". Copies of the report are available in the Libraries of both Houses.

Executive Agencies (Overseas Travel)

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list for each of his executive agencies for the last financial year in respect of overseas travel by agency staff (a) the costs of the travel,(b) the countries visited and (c) the posts held by the staff concerned. [2285]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The Court Service became an executive agency on 3 April 1995. Hence, for the financial year in question, the Lord Chancellor was responsible for three executive agencies--the Public Trust Office, Her Majesty Land Registry and the Public Record Office. The

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question concerns a specific matter on which the chief executives of those agencies are best placed to provide the answer and I have accordingly asked them to reply direct.

Letter from John Manthorpe to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 30 November 1995:

I have been asked by the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, to reply to your recent question requesting details in respect of overseas travel within the last financial year. I can provide the following information:


Letter from Julia C. Lomas to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 30 November 1995:



    The Parliamentary Secretary has asked me to reply to you as part of the Lord Chancellor's Department's response to your Parliamentary Question, listed on 22 November 1995, regarding the cost of overseas travel made by agency staff in the last financial year, including the posts held by the staff concerned and the countries visited.
    There was no overseas travel on official business by any member of the Public Trust Office during 1994/95.

Letter from Sarah Tyacke to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 30 November 1995:



    I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question about (a) the costs of travel, (b) the countries visited, and (c) the posts held by the staff concerned, in respect of overseas travel by agency staff for the last financial year.
    The answers are:
    (a) £7708.
    (b) Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, and the United States of America.
    (c) The Keeper of Public Records; the Director of Corporate Services; the Manager of the NewPRO programme and two of his staff; the Head of Preservation Services; a Government Services Inspection and Documentation Officer; the Publications Manager; a Reader Services Department Team Leader and the Head of Map Section.

Investors in People

Mr. Byers: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what steps his Department is taking to achieve investor in people status; when it started the process; when it expects to achieve investor in people status; and if he will make a statement. [2979]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The constituent parts of my Department are approaching the investor in people initiative separately.

The Court Service, established as an agency in April this year, is committed in principle to achieving the investor in people standard within the lifetime of the current corporate plan, that is by April 1998. A scoping study, begun earlier this year, will shortly recommend to

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the chief executive when the process should begin and what the time scale should be for the action plan and assessment phase. The chief executive will make a public announcement once these decisions have been taken.

The Public Trust Office began to work towards investor in people in April this year and has completed the diagnostic stage to determine the readiness of the office for assessment against the standard; surveys and interviews of staff have been carried out and the findings were recently presented to the management board. A decision has been taken to pursue a commitment to achieve accreditation for the PTO by April 1997 and the action plan is being drawn up.

The headquarters of my Department began active consideration of the investor in people initiative in the summer and is currently examining the options for completing the diagnostic stage of the process, with a provisional target date of April next year. Decisions on a target date for committing to IIP and on timing of an action plan will follow thereafter.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Mr. Byers: To ask the Attorney-General what steps his Department is taking to achieve investor in people status; when it started the process; when it expects to achieve investor in people status; and if he will make a statement. [2980]

The Attorney-General: The Law Officers' departments are committed to the principles of the investor in people initiative. The Crown Prosecution Service and the Serious Fraud Office are actively considering the options for the implementation of IIP. The CPS is pursuing with a training and enterprise council the possibility of a pilot exercise in one of its offices. The Treasury Solicitor's department envisages taking a decision to work towards the IIP standard after 1 April 1996, once it has assumed agency status. The Government Property Lawyers has already decided to seek IIP accreditation: much of the groundwork has been carried out and the agency is in contact with a TEC with a view to making progress in the near future. The legal secretariat to the Law Officers is a small office, the staff of which are almost all on loan from other Departments, and thus there are no immediate plans to implement IIP in its case.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Onshore Oil Licensing

Mr. Ainger: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what advice he received from the Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Countryside Council for Wales before inviting applications from oil companies for blocks in watery areas in the latest onshore oil licensing round. [2854]

Mr. Page: Previous practice regarding onshore licensing has been to offer all unlicensed onshore areas, including watery areas, in each licensing round. Watery areas have attracted very few applications, none in the last two rounds, and environmental and other bodies interested in these areas were consulted only after applications had

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been received and on a case-by-case basis. It was felt that to consult over areas that were--on the basis of previous experience--unlikely to be the subject of applications would place an unnecessary burden on the organisations consulted. For this reason, neither the Joint Nature Conservation Committee nor the Countryside Council for Wales was asked to advise on the watery areas before the invitation to apply for licences in the seventh round of onshore licensing was announced.

After the announcement, it became clear that a number of companies were interested in exploring in the watery areas and the views of the JNCC, and CCW were therefore sought. Consultation with these bodies over blocks on offer in the seventh round continues.

Mr. Ainger: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the organisations that have communicated their objection or concern about the latest onshore oil licensing round covering watery areas. [2851]

Mr. Page: The DTI consulted over 90 organisations following the offer of watery areas in the seventh onshore oil and gas licensing round. Those on the following list have either objected or expressed varying degrees of concern. Applications were received for three of the areas, the Solway firth, the Minches and the Ribble estuary, and 12 of the organisations listed have expressed an interest in these.


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