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Crown Agents
Mrs. Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will name each person seconded to the Crown Agents in each year since 1979 indicating the company involved. [10669]
Dr. Liam Fox: For particular projects, Crown Agents make use of staff seconded from Government Departments such as HM Customs and Excise and, less often, from firms in the private sector. However, I am advised by the Crown Agents that information is not available in a form to answer the hon. Lady's general question. If there is a specific question about particular projects or firms, the Crown Agents will do their best to answer it.
Mrs. Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which performance targets the managing director of the Crown Agents met in 1995; what performance related bonus he received; and what factors underlay the payment or non-payment of performance-related pay. [10668]
Dr. Fox: In 1995, the managing director of the Crown Agents was eligible for a performance-related salary bonus based on criteria related to levels of profitability, cost control and the ratio of costs to fee income for the year. In the event, no bonus was payable for 1995; the main factor underlying this was a lower than budgeted profit.
Mrs. Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who represents the Crown Agents in (a) Iran, (b) the Gulf States and (c) Oman; what criteria were used in their selection; and what services they offer. [10670]
Dr. Fox: The Crown Agents' local agents in the countries named are listed in its report and accounts for 1995, copies of which are in the Library. The Crown Agents have since also appointed Transgulf Shipping as an agent in the United Arab Emirates. The representative services provided include inspection, shipping, freight forwarding, cargo handling and courier services in relation to Crown Agents' services in the region. The firms concerned were selected by Crown Agents on the basis of their capabilities in the relevant services.
Street Children
Mr. Donald Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will give a progress report on actions taken since the oral answer of
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the then Minister, the right hon. Member for Banbury (Mr. Baldry), 27 February 1995, Official Report, column 689, on financial support over a five-year period to the consortium of non-governmental organisations working on behalf of street children in developing countries. [10500]
Mr. Alison: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in implementing the plans announced on 27 February 1995, to provide Government funding over a period of five years for the non-governmental organisations' consortium on street children. [10701]
Dr. Liam Fox: The statement to which the hon. Member for Swansea, East (Mr. Anderson) refers was an unfortunate error. The director of the Consortium for Street Children UK has already been informed of this. We cannot make multi-year commitments, nor can we provide the consortium with core support. However, we remain happy to consider specific project proposals. Since February 1995 we have provided a total of £46,700.
TRANSPORT
Bus Subsidies
Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimate he has made of the total subsidy provided by passenger transport authorities to private bus operators in (a) England and (b) West Yorkshire in the last year for which figures are available. [10258]
Mr. Watts: The provisional estimate for 1995-96 of subsidy of local bus services by passenger transport authorities in England, excluding the cost of concessionary fares schemes, is £105 million. The statistics collected do not distinguish between support given to services run by private operators and those run by the relatively small number of operators which remain in the public sector. The figures for 1995-96 for West Yorkshire is approximately £22 million.
SCOTLAND
Skye Bridge Toll
Mr. Charles Kennedy: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what assessment he has made of the advantages of using Portree sheriff court for the purposes of hearing Skye bridge toll non-payment cases; and if he will make a statement. [10840]
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton: The prosecution of offences is a matter for my noble and learned friend the Lord Advocate. Persons charged with the non-payment of tolls on the Skye bridge commit an offence within the jurisdiction of Dingwall sheriff court. These offences are therefore prosecuted in that court. Section 4 of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 provides that where an offence is alleged to have been committed in one district in a sheriffdom, it is competent to try that offence in a sheriff court in any other district in that sheriffdom.
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The Lord Advocate informs me that there are no plans to try non-payment offences in Portree sheriff court or any other sheriff court in the sheriffdom of Grampian, Highland and Islands other than Dingwall sheriff court. The procurator fiscal at Dingwall and regional procurator fiscal at Aberdeen are keeping the matter under review, and, if it were considered that the efficient administration of justice would be better served by prosecuting some of these cases in any other court or courts in the sheriffdom in addition to Dingwall sheriff court then the regional procurator fiscal would discuss this possibility with the procurators fiscal in the other districts and with the sheriff principal.
Mr. Kennedy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will estimate the additional cost per week of extending sitting days at Dingwall sheriff court from three to five for the purposes of accommodating the extra demands of Skye bridge toll non-payment cases; and if he will make a statement; [10842]
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton:
The marginal cost of providing additional sitting days at Dingwall sheriff court is expenditure on temporary shrieval assistance, amounting to some £600 for two additional sitting days. At present, there has been no appreciable impact on progress of other business at the court. The position will be kept under review by the regional procurator fiscal and regional sheriff clerk in consultation with the sheriff principal.
Mr. Stewart:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about the forthcoming prior options review of the Scottish Office Pensions Agency[11026]
Mr. Michael Forsyth:
In accordance with the Government's policy on periodic reviews of executive agencies my Department will commence this month a thorough review of the Scottish Office Pensions Agency. The remit for this review will be as follows:
To carry out prior options review of the Scottish Office Pensions Agency in accordance with Cabinet Office--OPS--guidance and the agreed timetable, by
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Mr. Stewart:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the organisation of training for the judiciary. [11027]
Mr. Michael Forsyth:
I have decided to establish a judicial studies committee to promote training for the judiciary both in the supreme court and in the sheriff court. The right hon. Lord Ross, who has recently retired as Lord Justice Clerk, has agreed to chair this committee which will comprise members from:
The committee will be able to build on the foundation of induction and other training already provided by the Sheriffs' Association. But the speed and scale of change in many areas of the law in recent years, the increasing impact of information technology, and the greater emphasis across the professions on continuing development for their members all point to the need for more sustained and co-ordinated effort in the training field. In the past, there has been little or no formal training for supreme court judges, and the new committee will also consider their needs, which in some respect will be the same as those of the shrieval bench.
I believe that, by focusing effort in this way, the knowledge base and practical skills of the Scottish judiciary will, over time, be significantly enhanced, in ways which will both benefit court users and enhance public confidence in the justice system.
(2) what estimate he has made of the impact upon progress on other court cases of the Skye bridge toll non-payment hearings at Dingwall sheriff court; and if he will make a statement. [10843]
(a) re-examining the status options considered before the agency was created, in the light of experience and of any changes in internal or external circumstances;
(b) testing rigorously whether the agency function is required at all, and the scope for privatising, contracting out (which could include market testing), transferring functions to another body, continuation of agency status or returning the functions to the Scottish Office;
(c) consulting widely amongst the key players in the agency (management and staff), the Scottish Office, HM Treasury and the Cabinet Office, as well as customers and other interested bodies and other suppliers of similar services;
(d) assessing each option in terms of practicability and value for money; and
(e) making recommendations accordingly to the Secretary of State for Scotland.
In order to help ensure that all options are considered fully, comments from interested parties will be welcome. Comments should be sent by 17 February 1997 to the following address. The results of the review will be published in the early summer.
J. S. B. Martin
The Scottish Office Education and Industry Department
Room 3B-02
Victoria Quay
Edinburgh
EH6 6QQ.
The committee will be supported by a director of judicial studies who will be a serving sheriff undertaking this work on a part-time basis. The remit of the director will be to initiate and promote appropriate developments under the supervision of the judicial studies committee.
The supreme courts
sheriffs principal
Sheriffs' Association
Temporary Sheriffs' Association
Scottish courts administration together with a lay person or persons with experience in training techniques.
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