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World Cup 2006
12. Mr. Pound: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what progress is being made to secure the staging of the 2006 world cup in England. [372]
Mr. Banks: May I congratulate my hon. Friend on winning Ealing, North and so freeing the House from the grip of the Ealing One? The Government fully support the Football Association's bid for the 2006 world cup. I have already had positive discussions with the FA, and we are assisting it as much as we can.
Mr. Pound: I thank my hon. Friend for that reply. I add my congratulations on his team's success on Saturday and note that it was a comparatively rare success for the Blues. I ask my hon. Friend to redouble his efforts to secure the world cup in 2006. As I think everyone in the House knows, the United Kingdom wins the world cup only when under a Labour Government.
Mr. Banks: I thank my hon. Friend. I was quite happy at Wembley to be singing about keeping the blue flag flying--but, I hasten to add, not politically. It is essential that we get the 2006 world cup. It is in our manifesto. We cannot compel that to happen, but we have given an undertaking that we shall do whatever is necessary to get the world cup for 2006. The country is looking at a sports-orientated Government, starting from No. 10 Downing street and working right the way through to my humble level.
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Immigration Appeals
27. Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proposals he has to clear the backlog of cases before the Immigration Appeal Tribunal. [391]
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (Mr. Geoffrey Hoon): The new Government are committed in their manifesto to ensuring that decisions in these cases are swift and fair. I agree with my hon. Friend that the backlog is unacceptably large. As a result, about 40 more part-time adjudicators will be recruited over the summer. Our plans to abolish the primary purpose rule should have a substantial effect.
Mr. Vaz: I congratulate my hon. Friend on his appointment. I am certain that he will do an excellent job. As he has said, he has inherited an intolerable situation from the previous Government. My hon. Friend must be aware that the delay in obtaining IAT dates causes enormous distress and hardship to the thousands of applicants who are awaiting their hearing dates, especially those who have made pre-entry applications and are waiting abroad. Will my hon. Friend please consider the representations made by various organisations that efforts should be made to ease the backlog? The appointment of
more adjudicators will help, but perhaps my hon. Friend will consider the possibility of a fast-track system for cases that involve children.
Mr. Hoon: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his good wishes. I repeat: the Government are determined to reduce the level of the backlog. We recognise that it is imperative that we deal with it before dealing with new cases that are coming through the system. I have already had a preliminary meeting with Home Office colleagues to discuss the matter. My hon. Friend will know that a new listing system has been piloted successfully at a new hearing centre at Lambeth, and consideration is being given to replicating that success elsewhere in the country.
Mr. Malins: May I suggest that the Minister consider increasing the time limit within which an appeal may be lodged following an adjudicator's decision in an asylum case from the current five days to, say, 14 days? The problem with the five-day limit is that enormous numbers of appeals being lodged are not well thought out. Appeals are being lodged in haste as a protective measure. Those appeals clog up the system, increasing the time within which individual appeals could be heard. Increasing the time limit might help.
Mr. Hoon: I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's suggestions. We shall consider urgently all proposals to deal with the backlog. The hon. Gentleman should know that, of the 33,000 appeals outstanding, 22,000 relate to asylum cases. It is clear that there is an urgent need to deal with this problem.
Mr. Gerrard: My hon. Friend has mentioned possible changes in policy, such as abolishing primary purpose. Such changes will be welcome and will make a great difference to the number of appeals being heard. Will my hon. Friend confirm that when those changes occur his Department will liaise with the Home Office so that appeals, the number of which will be reduced, are dealt with speedily? That would be another method of reducing the backlog.
Mr. Hoon: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his suggestion. As he suggested, it is primarily a matter for the Home Office. My hon. Friend will be aware that about 10 per cent. of the backlog of cases are concerned with primary purpose. We anticipate that abolition of the primary purpose rule will speedily sort out many of the problems.
Legal Aid
28. Mr. Baker: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to change the qualifying criteria for legal aid. [392]
Mr. Hoon: The new Government pledged in their manifesto to undertake a wide-ranging review of the civil justice system and of legal aid.
Mr. Baker: I am grateful for that reply. Is the Minister aware that only 47 per cent. of people now qualify for legal aid, compared with 70 per cent. in 1979? Is that not a severe indictment of the previous Conservative Government? Is the Minister further aware that,
notwithstanding the people on legal aid and the very rich, huge numbers of people are, in effect, barred by financial circumstances from access to law? Is that not an affront in a civilised country? What steps will the hon. Gentleman take to rectify that?
Mr. Hoon: That is why our manifesto refers to the need for a review of not only the civil justice system, but legal aid. The hon. Gentleman should bear in mind the fact, however, that the cost of legal aid has doubled since the beginning of the decade. In 1990-91, net expenditure was £682 million; for 1996-97, it is expected to be £1.5 billion. The increase in 1996-97 alone is expected to be 6.2 per cent., which is more than double the rate of inflation.
Mr. Mitchell: Having accepted my congratulations on his appointment, does my hon. Friend agree that, although it is a good thing to have a Government who will undertake a review of legal aid, instead of making the system leaner and access more restricted, it would be sensible to run the system more economically by having an employed solicitor service operating through a public defender service, so that legal aid and its services could be made available much more cheaply to a far wider proportion of the population?
Mr. Hoon: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his suggestion. He will know from the manifesto on which he was elected that the Government are committed to investigating the possibility of developing a community legal service. One of our initiatives will be to bring together the expertise currently available in the professions and in the voluntary sector. We think that, together, they can make a significant contribution towards ensuring that as many of our citizens as possible have access to high-quality legal advice.
Mr. Streeter: I congratulate the hon. Gentleman on his appointment, and wish him every success with his important responsibilities. Will he explain to the House how, having turned their back on a cash-limited budget, the Labour Government intend to keep control of legal aid spending in the next five years?
Mr. Hoon: I thank the hon. Gentleman for his good wishes. He struggled with these problems in previous months. He knows better than I the difficulties that we face with an expanding legal aid bill. I do not propose to repeat the figures that I gave the House a few minutes ago, save to say that we all face the challenge of ensuring that as many citizens as possible have access to high-quality legal advice while recognising that that can be achieved only within reasonable financial limitations.
Ethnic Minority Magistrates
29. Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to increase the number of magistrates from ethnic minority communities. [394]
Mr. Hoon: In making their recommendations, the Lord Chancellor's advisory committees have regard to the need to ensure that the composition of the bench broadly reflects the area that it serves in terms of age, gender,
place of residence, politics, occupation and ethnic origin. To that end, a survey of the ethnic origin of serving magistrates is being undertaken. The Lord Chancellor will decide, in the light of its results--which will be made available in the autumn--what further initiatives may be necessary, both nationally and locally.
Mr. Corbyn: I thank the Minister for his reply and congratulate him on his appointment. When the survey is finally published, will he consider carefully the possibility of establishing a national policy and guidelines to ensure that magistrates panels contain sufficient numbers of persons from ethnic minorities? If necessary, will he give the Lord Chancellor's Department powers to override the local nomination committees to ensure that those national guidelines are adhered to? I am sure that he would agree with me that it is unacceptable for magistrates benches in some areas to be totally unrepresentative of the communities that they judge.
Mr. Hoon: Once again, I am grateful for the good wishes. The Lord Chancellor's local advisory committees already undertake a range of recruitment initiatives, including advertising in the ethnic minority press, distributing leaflets and posters and contacting ethnic community organisations. In addition, the Lord Chancellor's Department each year funds advertisements in the national ethnic minority press. As my hon. Friend recognises, it is clearly important for the Lord Chancellor's Department to continue to fund initiatives locally to attract candidates from the ethnic minority community. We shall press to ensure that those efforts are redoubled.
Mr. John M. Taylor: In the course of his duties, will the Minister be good enough to put a note in the Library about the progress that has been made so far with the amalgamation of magistrates courts committee areas? Many of us in the west midlands are watching the position with some anxiety.
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