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Regional Sports Centres of Excellence
Mr. Harry Greenway: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what plans she has to establish regional sporting centres of excellence; and if she will make a statement. [3216]
Mr. Sproat: Details of the Government's proposals for regional centres of sporting excellence will be early next year.
Film Industry
Mr. Barry Field: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what discussions she has had with representatives of the film industry. [2855]
Mr. Sproat: My right hon. Friend has regular discussions with representatives of the film industry on a wide range of film-related issues. Specifically, this summer she visited the United States of America, where she met leading figures from the American film industry including representatives from MCA, Warner Brothers and the Motion Picture Association of America.
More recently, my right hon. Friend attended the Edinburgh film festival, visited Shepperton studios and the Warner Brothers feature animation studio in central London, visited the set of the feature film "Wilde", at the invitation of the producers, and attended the opening of the London film festival as a guest of the British Film Institute.
Sports Sponsorship
Sir Peter Emery: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what has been the financial level of sponsorship for sport in each of the last five years at 1996 prices; and what assessment she has made of the effect of the national lottery on sponsorship levels. [2922]
Mr. Sproat: The estimated size of the UK sports sponsorship market for the last five completed years, at 1996 prices, is shown in the table. No assessment has been made of the effect of the national lottery on sponsorship levels. Some £58 million of private sector funding has been attracted to support lottery projects.
| 97 prices | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1991 | 238 | 272 |
| 1992 | 239 | 262 |
| 1993 | 250 | 266 |
| 1994 | 265 | 278 |
| 1995 | 285 | 291 |
18 Nov 1996 : Column: 424
Football Trust
Mr. Pope: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will make a statement on the finances of the Football Trust. [2835]
Mr. Sproat: Since 1990 the Government have made £138 million available to the Football Trust to grant aid clubs' ground development projects, through a reduction in pool betting duty that the pools companies pass on to the trust. The trust's income from this source has fallen since the introduction of the national lottery. From last May, the trust has benefitted from a further ½ per cent. reduction in pool betting duty worth up to £3 million per year.
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Legal Aid
33. Mr. Tim Smith: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when he last met the Law Society to discuss legal aid. [2869]
Mr. Streeter: I refer the hon. gentleman to the answer I gave earlier to the hon. Member for Normanton (Mr. O'Brien).
Mr. Harry Greenway: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much legal aid was granted to (a) foreign nationals and (b) the indigenous population in each of the last three years; to how many individuals; and if he will make a statement. [3217]
Mr. Streeter: Information as to an applicant's nationality is not collected and is therefore not available. The Legal Aid Board does maintain a record of applications received from applicants resident outside the United Kingdom, but information on the cost to legal aid of those cases could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what is the total sum which may be made available to solicitors through the legal aid scheme in advance of the appropriate determination of the size of legal costs to be determined in legal aid cases; and if he will assess the advantages of charging interest payments on these sums in the last available year. [4729]
Mr. Streeter: Lawyers may claim on account 75 per cent. of the costs they estimate they have incurred for each of the first three years of a case. In 1995-96, of 372,611 bills paid, there had been overpayments of payments on account on 15,317 bills. The average overpayment was £552. Any overpayment is recovered, or more likely, set off against other payments due from the Legal Aid Board. Systems are in place to detect abuses and the Legal Aid Board actively pursues solicitors who abuse the scheme. The large majority of payments on account are however properly made for work properly done and there are no plans to introduce further costly systems in order to recover interest in the few cases where this would be appropriate.
18 Nov 1996 : Column: 425
Administration of Justice
36. Mr. Sweeney: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to make the administration of justice in civil cases more efficient. [2872]
Mr. Streeter: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to his written question on 31 October, Official Report, column 222.
Public Record Office
37. Mr. Lidington: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many people visited the Public Record Office census rooms in 1995; and if he will make a statement. [2874]
Mr. Streeter: The number of reader visits to the census rooms in 1995 was 76,781.
The census rooms will remain open in the Chancery lane building until March 1997, when they will move to Myddelton place, 88 Roseberry avenue, London EC1. Their holdings will be supplemented with microfilms of other Public Record Office sources popular with family historians, including probate records and non-Anglican registers of births, marriages and deaths.
Myddelton place will also house the indexes of births, marriages and deaths currently made available to the public at St. Catherine's house by the Office for National Statistics. It will thus become a joint major centre for family historians and other researchers, within easy reach of central London repositories for related source materials.
Myddelton place will have improved facilities for users, including a central information point, shop, refreshment facilities, exhibition space, lecture room and better provision for readers with special needs, as well as search rooms.
38. Mr. Robathan:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what new proposals he has to counter witness intimidation. [2875]
Mr. Streeter:
It is already an offence to intimidate witnesses. The Government are conducting a review into ways in which a defendant might be prevented from questioning rape victims and other vulnerable witnesses. There has recently been considerable work on victim and witness care: the Crown court witness service now operates in all Crown court centres, the new victims charter has been issued, and a national model agreement on witness care, including steps to combat intimidation, has been issued so that local agreements can be reached on the most appropriate steps.
39. Mr. Steen:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will take steps to accelerate hearing dates in the High Court in relation to accident claims. [2876]
18 Nov 1996 : Column: 426
Mr. Streeter:
The Department is currently taking forward reform of the civil justice system in the light of Lord Woolf's review and one of its aims is to bring cases to a conclusion more expeditiously. Pending implementation of the reforms, litigants or their representatives continue to be at liberty to apply to the court to accelerate the hearing of an accident claim, where appropriate.
Mr. Simon Hughes:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what discussions he has had with the Bar Council and the Law Society on barristers and solicitors providing value for money. [4296]
Mr. Streeter:
The legal profession is independent and self-regulating. Fee levels are, in privately funded matters, for client and lawyer to determine subject to the lawyer's professional rules and any particular controls provided by the courts, for example, taxation of costs. However, the Government are concerned to get value for money from publicly funded legal services. The legal aid rates paid to barristers and solicitors are considered each year in consultation with the Bar Council and the Law Society. The value for money provided by legal aid payments to barristers and solicitors is therefore considered on an annual basis, and is discussed with the profession with the same regularity.
Mr. McNamara:
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many contracts his Department, agencies and associated bodies have had with EDS for each year since 1985; what was the value of each contract; if he will indicate for each contract (a) if it was completed, (b) what modifications were made at the request of (i) the company and (ii) the Department and (c) if work under contract is being undertaken in-house; and if he will make a statement on the number of job reductions in his Department arising from the contracting out of work by EDS. [3814]
Mr. Streeter:
The chief executives of the Court Service, the Land Registry, the Public Record Office and the Public Trust Office will reply on behalf of their agencies. Prior to the establishment of the Court Service and the Public Trust Office as agencies, there is no record of any contracts with EDS. No contracts have been entered into with EDS subsequently by the remainder of the Department or its associated offices.
Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 18 November 1996:
18 Nov 1996 : Column: 427
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to the above Question about the contracts the Court Service has had with Electronic Data Systems Ltd (EDS).
Since the establishment of the Agency in April 1995, the Court Service has awarded two contracts to EDS. The first began in September 1996 and is for the provision of Information Services to county courts and Crown Court Centres in England and Wales and to the Bankruptcy and Companies Courts. EDS will be paid only for the volume of valid process produced (eg summonses in the county courts, petitions in the Bankruptcy Court) so the final cost is dependent on the Court Service's volume of business. However, the cost of providing the currently contracted IT services is expected to be between £20 million and £25 million (plus VAT) over 7 years. No modifications of the contract have yet been made.
Letter from Julia C. Lomas to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 18 November 1996:
The first module of the contract, to introduce a case management system into the county courts by the end of 1997, will save staff time equivalent to 600 full time posts.
Under a second contract EDS provided one day of consultancy support in October 1996 to the Management Structure Review Team in Court Service Headquarters. This consisted of technical advice (not available in-house) on identifying and weighting factors as part of formal decision-making. The work was not connected with the Information Services contract and was separately negotiated at a daily rate of £751. EDS completed the work, without modification and no job reductions arose from this contract.
Letter from Stuart Hill to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 18 November 1996:
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 8 November 1996, regarding contracts with EDS for each year since 1985.
The Public Trust Office has not awarded any contracts to EDS since 1985.
Letter from Sarah Tyacke to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 18 November 1996:
I have been asked by the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, to reply to your recent question concerning contracts with EDS.
H M Land Registry has granted no contracts to this company.
I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply, for the Public Record Office, to your question about contracts with EDS.
The Public Record Office has had no contracts with EDS.
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