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Legal Aid

Mr. John Marshall: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department in how many cases the legal aid costs were over £100,000 in (a) 1993-94, (b) 1994-95 and (c) so far in 1995-96.[14747]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The information requested is shown in the table. For civil legal aid, the figures represent the number of individual legal aid certificates where gross payments, including VAT, have exceeded £100,000, but exclude multi-party actions. The criminal legal aid figures also include VAT and cover cases in the magistrates' courts and the crown court.

Year	Civil	Criminal	Total cases
1993-94	54	172	226
1994-95	56	237	293
1995 to date	65	178	243

HOME DEPARTMENT

Pregnant Prisoners

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the current status of contracting out the care of pregnant women to the NHS by women's prisons; and what such plans exist for HMP Holloway. [15001]

Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. George Howarth, dated 16 February 1996:

The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about the current status of contracting out the care of pregnant women to the NHS by women's prisons and what such plans exist for Holloway prison.
No women's prison has contracted out maternity care. With the exception of women at Holloway prison, women prisoners receive such care from local hospital and community NHS services. At Holloway, antenatal and postnatal care is shared between the Prison health care service and NHS staff. Intrapartum care is provided at local NHS maternity units, usually the Whittington Hospital. Health care staff from Prison Service headquarters and the prison itself are currently reviewing all aspects of the delivery of health care at Holloway. One option under consideration is the contracting out of some specialist services following a competitive tender process. It has not yet been decided, however, whether maternity services should be contracted out.

16 Feb 1996 : Column: 720

Criminal Cases Review Authority

Mr. Mullin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on what date the post of chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Authority was advertised; how many applications were received; how many candidates were shortlisted; on what date the shortlisted candidates were interviewed; and with what result. [14933]

Mr. Kirkhope: The post of chairman of the Criminal Cases Review Commission was advertised on 3, 5 and 8 September 1995. Thirty-seven applications were received in response to the advertisement and these, along with 87 candidates drawn from other sources, were considered. Six shortlisted candidates were interviewed on 12 and 20 December 1995. The decision whom to appoint is for Her Majesty the Queen, advised by the Prime Minister. When that decision has been taken, an announcement will be made.

Industrial Tribunals

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many industrial tribunals have been registered in the last 12 months in respect of staff employed in the Prison Service; how many have been settled prior to a hearing taking place; how much compensation has been paid to individuals in total; how much costs have been incurred by (a) services provided by Treasury Solicitors for industrial tribunals and (b) services provided by counsel advising and attending tribunals; and how many cases are still outstanding. [14954]

Miss Widdecombe: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the temporary Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Richard Tilt to Mr. Doug Hoyle, dated 16 February 1996:

The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Questions about applications to Industrial Tribunals by members of the Prison Service.
Information on appeals to Industrial Tribunals by Prison Service staff is not held centrally by the Prison Service.
The information in the attached table has been provided by the Treasury Solicitor's Department which normally acts for the Prison Service in Industrial Tribunal cases. There may have been other cases in which the Treasury Solicitor's Department was not involved but the number is likely to be very small.

	Amount
Total number of Industrial Tribunal cases received in the last 12 months by the Treasury Solicitor's Department in respect of staff employed within the Prison Service	54
Number of these cases settled without an award being imposed	(1)14
Total compensation paid	£29,723
Total costs (of which £4,053.75 were fees paid for services provided by counsel advising and attending tribunals)	£124,655.78
Number of cases outstanding	30




(1)Includes 1 case settled by a Respondent other than the Prison Service.

16 Feb 1996 : Column: 721

Passport Offices

Mr. Hawksley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make it his policy that there should be an office for the issue of passports in Birmingham. [15425]

Mr. Kirkhope: The UK Passport Agency undertook a review of the location of its offices in 1995 and concluded that the six regional passport offices in the United Kingdom were able to meet current and expected levels of demand and that there was no case for additional offices.

The UK Passport Agency has recently introduced a partnership arrangement under which passport applications can be handed in at high street post offices and branches of ARTAC World Choice travel agents who will check the application form for accuracy and deliver it to the agency for processing. There are more than 40 post office outlets and five ARTAC World Choice travel agents in the Birmingham area.

DEFENCE

Scott Inquiry

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will institute changes in his Department's practice on the non-disclosure of internal papers containing classified or commercially sensitive information involving arms or military equipment sales. [14900]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I refer the hon. Member to the statement made yesterday by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade, Official Report, columns 1139-44.

Mr. Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library copies of all documents submitted by his Department to the Scott inquiry on the quantities and values of the Jordan arms sales package.[15693]

Mr. Arbuthnot: Sir Richard Scott intends to publish in due course copies of all document which he considers are relevant to the text of his report. This will be available to the House.

Mr. Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list in the Official Report the titles of each of the papers his Department provided to the Scott inquiry. [15699]

Mr. Arbuthnot: I have no plans to list the titles of the 29,000 pages of papers which my Department provided to the Scott inquiry. The inquiry will be publishing a substantial number of these documents in the annex to the report.

Military Training (Foreign Nationals)

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make it his practice to give details of types of training and the number involved in the training of foreign nationals involved at military establishments in the United Kingdom and at British military bases abroad. [15696]

16 Feb 1996 : Column: 722

Mr. Soames: We disclose details of those countries which received UK training, whether in the UK or overseas, and also the number of students concerned during any particular period. It is not normally our practice to disclose the precise details of military training given to any particular country as such details are regarded as confidential between Governments. There are no plans to change this policy.

Mr. Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he has anything to add to the answer to the hon. Member for Walsall, North (Mr. Winnick) of 25 January 1991, Official Report, column 357. [15630]

Mr. Arbuthnot: No.

Abbey Wood Building

Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures are being taken to ensure that sub-contractors working on the new Ministry of Defence building at Abbey Wood, Bristol are being paid on time by the main contractors and according to the amount of work executed. [15479]

Mr. Arbuthnot: The contractual relationship between a main contractor and his sub-contractors and suppliers are a matter for the main contractor. However, contracts for Abbey Wood construction works place an obligation on main contractors to include a term in sub-contracts which require payment to be made to suppliers or sub-contractors within a specified period not exceeding 30 days from receipt of a valid invoice as defined by the sub-contract requirement.

The overall progress on the main construction works at Abbey Wood is continuously monitored by the MOD project team and its commercial works project manager to ensure that programmed milestones--linked to payment plans set out in the respective contracts--are being met, with the achievement of agreed progress milestones triggering payment. We understand that sub-contractors and suppliers are being dealt with in accordance with the terms and conditions agreed between the parties concerned. Were this not the position, we would expect a detrimental impact on progress which would then be taken up directly with main contractors.

Mr. Berry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimates he has made of the cost of the work being undertaken in respect of the construction of the new MOD building at Abbey Wood, Bristol; and if he will make a statement on the extent of the overrun against the original estimate. [15480]

Mr. Arbuthnot: The estimated works cost of the Abbey Wood development--inclusive of site acquisition, construction, fitting out, professional works management fees and VAT--is kept under constant review and remains within the approved budget of £248.5 million at 1992 prices--£273.4 million at 1995 prices.

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