15 May 1997 : Column: 1
Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 15 May 1997
HOME DEPARTMENT
Prison Service (Parliamentary Questions)
Mr. Patrick Hall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on his proposals to reply to parliamentary questions about Her Majesty's Prison Service. [118]
Mr. Straw: Our Manifesto commits us to take proper Ministerial responsibility for the Prison Service. As an early step, I propose that in future all Questions about the Prison Service for England and Wales should be answered by a Home Office Minister, and not by the Director General or other senior Prison Service officials.
This change will put right what many in Parliament have long regarded as a bad practice. I regard it as essential that Ministers should answer personally to Parliament for what is done in our prisons and not leave it to their civil servants.
This is no reflection on the Director General, Mr. Richard Tilt, who has my full support. It has no implications for the Prison Service's status as an executive agency of the Home Office or for other agencies, including the Scottish and Northern Ireland Prison Services which are the responsibility of my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
15 May 1997 : Column: 2
Mr. Dennis Turner:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the departmental minute that the Overseas Development Administration laid before the House on 3 April 1997. [134]
Clare Short:
The Departmental Minute reported that the Department had entered into a contingent liability arising from a tax indemnity given to the commercial banks which are financing the Jiangyin Suspension Bridge Project in China. The estimated maximum liability is US$9,740,290 (approximately £6,087,680).
The Minute was placed in the Libraries of both Houses and copies were sent, under cover of explanatory letters, to the Chairman of the Public Accounts and Foreign Affairs Committees.
Argentina (Arms Sales)
Mr. Dennis Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what exceptions Her Majesty's Government have permitted to the embargo on the sale of arms to Argentina for the supply of equipment to Argentine UN peacekeeping forces. [567]
Mr. Tony Lloyd: The Government have agreed exceptionally to allow the limited supply of nine anti-riot vehicles for use by the Argentine contingent of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. The Argentine Army have given assurances that the vehicles will not be used for other purposes. This is an exception to, but not a change of, policy on the supply of military-related equipment to Argentina.