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LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Capita Managed Services

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list the (a) facilities management consortia, (b) private finance initiative bids, (c) management buy-out consortia, (d) contractorisation schemes and (e) market-testing schemes in his Department in respect of which (i) Capita Managed Services and (ii) Lusis Business Solutions are currently involved in bidding. [19906]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: Neither company is currently bidding under any of (a) to (e).

Magistrates, Doncaster

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will take steps to eliminate age discrimination in respect of those aged over 50 in advertisements to recruit magistrates in Doncaster. [18823]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The intention of the advertisement is not to be discriminatory but the Lord Chancellor's advisory committees seek to maintain a balance on benches in terms of age. Of the 185 magistrates currently on the Doncaster bench, 73 per cent. are aged 50 and above.

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list the number of justices of the peace aged (a) under 30, (b) 30 to 40, (c) 40 to 50, (d) 50 to 60, (e) 60 to 65 and (f) over 65 years of age for Doncaster magistrates court. [18822]

8 Mar 1996 : Column: 378

Mr. Evans: The figures are as follows:

	Number
(a) under 30	0
(b) 30 to 40	6
(c) 40 to 50	43
(d) 50 to 60	86
(e) 60 to 65	27
(f) over 65	23

Juries

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will amend section 8 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 to allow research to be undertaken into the functioning of juries. [18777]

Mr. Jonathan Evans: The royal commission on criminal justice recommended the amendment of section 8 of the Contempt of Court Act 1981 to enable research to be conducted into jurors' reasons for their verdicts. The Government are sympathetic to this recommendation and recognise the significant potential value of some forms of jury research. Consultation is currently taking place and the senior judiciary have been asked for their views.

Mr. Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what is the statistical probability of an eligible individual being called for jury service. [18773]

Mr. Evans: The question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.

Letter from Michael Huebner to Mr. Gordon Prentice, dated 8 March 1996:

The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to your question about jury service.
I regret that the information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

SCOTLAND

Arts Councils

Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the level of co-operation between the Scottish arts council and the Northern Ireland arts council; what projects have been jointly funded in the last year; and what future joint projects are planned. [17109]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: Regular meetings and discussions are held between the chairmen, chief executive and other senior staff, as appropriate, to discuss matters of common interest. In the last year the four UK Arts Councils and the Arts Council in the Republic of Ireland funded a five cities tour of poetry readings in December 1995, and the Scottish arts council and the arts council of Northern Ireland jointly commissioned from Piers Hellawell a musical composition for the Highland festival in June 1996.

8 Mar 1996 : Column: 379

Live Births

Mr. Soley: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many live births were registered in Scotland during 1995. [18861]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The provisional total of live births registered in Scotland in 1995 is £60,053.

Scottish Grand Committee

Mr. Foulkes: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what civil servants attended each meeting of the Scottish Grand Committee in the current parliamentary Session; what have been the total costs associated with their attendance on each occasion; and how many of them were from the Scottish information office; [18568]

(2) what civil servants he proposes should attend future meetings of the Scottish Grant Committee; what estimate he has made of the total cost involved; and how many of the officials and what amount of the costs relate to staff of the Scottish information office. [18569]

Mr. Michael Forsyth: The number of officials attending meetings of the Scottish Grand Committee depends on the subjects for debate. In the current parliamentary Session an average of 15 departmental officials have attended each meeting. That number includes three officials from the Scottish Office information directorate and four ministerial private secretaries. As officials attending meetings do so as part of their normal duties no additional staff costs are incurred. There are of course travelling costs associated with each meetings.

Attendance at future meetings will depend on the business to be handled and travelling costs on the venue but I expect the same pattern will continue.

Pupil Exclusions

Ms Roseanna Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many school children were excluded (a) permanently and (b) temporarily from schools in (i) Perth and Kinross district council area and (ii) Tayside regional council area in 1995. [19169]

Mr. Raymond S. Robertson: Information on the number of school children excluded temporarily from schools is not available. The available information, consistent with that set out in the report on attendance and absence in Scottish schools, 1994-95, published by the adult unit of Her Majesty's inspectors of schools, is as follows.

	Number of pupils permanently excluded from schools in 1994-95	Number of half days of temporary exclusions from schools in 1994-95
Perth and Kinross	0	3,956
Tayside	0	20,702

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Racism in Schools

Ms Roseanna Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many racial incidents were reported in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each educational authority in Scotland in 1995. [19170]

Mr. Robertson: This information is not held centrally by the Scottish Office.

Ms Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland which education authorities in Scotland have specific programmes to deal directly with the incidence of racism in schools. [19171]

Mr. Robertson: The management of schools is the responsibility of education authorities and head teachers. Information on which education authorities in Scotland have specific programmes to deal directly with the incidence of racism in schools is not held by the Scottish Office.

Capita Managed Services

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the (a) facilities management consortia, (b) private finance initiative bids, (c) management buy-out consortia, (d) contractorisation schemes and (e) market-testing schemes in his Department in respect of which (i) Capita Managed Services and (ii) Lusis Business Solutions are currently involved in bidding. [19900]

Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: Neither of these companies is currently involved in biding for any of these schemes or initiatives within the Scottish Office.

Education Directorates

Mr. Gallie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what are (a) the numbers employed in the education directorate of each of the new councils, (b) the numbers of schools for which each is responsible and (c) the ratio for each council of the numbers so employed to the number of schools for which it is responsible. [20383]

Mr. Kynoch: The information at present available is shown in the table. I am asking my officials to update these figures as soon as councils have finalised their staffing structures.

New Scottish Councils: numbers employed in educational directorates and numbers of schools

	Officers(6)	Schools(7)	Ratio
Aberdeen	16	95	1:6
Aberdeenshire	31	196	1:6
Angus	11	65	1:6
Borders	32	82	1:2.5
Clackmannan	8	29	1:3.5
Dumfries and Galloway	19	134	1:7
Dundee	14	65	1:4.5
East Lothian	21	48	1:2.2
East Renfrewshire	11	36	1:3
Edinburgh	63	158	1:2.5
Falkirk	17	67	1:4
Fife	45	192	1:4.2
Midlothian	10	51	1:5
Moray	16	64	1:4
Perth and Kinross	14	92	1:6.5
Renfrewshire	14	88	1:6
South Ayrshire	17	65	1:4
West Lothian	41	92	1:2.2

(6) Officers comprise Director (Tier 1), Deputy/Assisted Director (Tier 2), Education Officer/Operations Manager (Tier 3) and Adviser/Quality Assessor/Development Officer (Tier 4).

(7) Schools comprise secondary schools, primary schools special schools nursery schools.

1. Information from the following eleven councils is awaited: Argyll and Bute, East Ayrshire, East Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Highlands, Inverclyde, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire.

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