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Chief Stipendiary Magistrates

Mr. Malins: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make a statement on the future of the office of chief stipendiary magistrate. [5043]

Mr. Hoon: The Lord Chancellor hopes shortly to designate one of the metropolitan stipendiary magistrates to be chief metropolitan stipendiary magistrate in succession to Mr. Peter Badge.

Mr. Malins: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if it is his policy to appoint future chief stipendiary magistrates from among existing stipendiary magistrates. [5029]

Mr. Hoon: Section 16(3) of the Justices of the Peace Act 1997 requires the Lord Chancellor to designate one of the metropolitan stipendiary magistrates to be the chief metropolitan stipendiary magistrate.

Judicial Appointments

Mr. Gunnell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to review the system for appointing judges. [3118]

Mr. Hoon: The Government proposes to consult later this year on the merits of a Judicial Appointments Commission and whether it should be established.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Integrated Schools

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will ensure that when an integrated school is established in an area, funds are not reduced for other local schools. [3342]

Mr. Worthington: A key principle of the local management of schools arrangements is that a large part of a school's budget is determined largely by the enrolment. If the take-up of places in new grant-maintained schools affect the enrolments in other schools, it could also have implications for the budgets of those schools which will, of course, then have lower running costs.

23 Jun 1997 : Column: 405

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will provide additional funding in the next financial year to encourage the establishment of integrated schools. [3343]

Mr. Worthington: In the coming months I intend to review, in consultation with relevant interests, the present approach to the establishment of integrated schools to determine how best to encourage the development of this sector. It is too early to say how much, if any, additional funding will be made available next year.

Bed Blocking

Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many hospital patients (a) in Northern Ireland and (b) in the Ulster, North Down and Ards Trust, assessed as ready for institutional care in the community, are currently bed blocking; and if she will make a statement on the factors underlying the bed blocking. [3830]

Mr. Worthington: This information is not collected on a routine basis. However, recent surveys carried out be the four health and social services boards indicated that there were some 127 hospital patients who had been assessed as needing either residential or nursing home care and who had been waiting more than two weeks while arrangements were being made for that care. Of these patients 29 were in the Ulster North Down and Ards Trust. A survey of discharge delays carried out by the Eastern Health and Social Services Board found that there were a number of reasons for such delays. While pressure on community care budgets was a contributory cause in more than half the cases,

"patient or relative disagreement with the assessment outcome", and
"patient choice of accommodation not being available" were causes in nearly 20 per cent. of cases. The remaining were due to other reasons such as "housing preparation", "changes in medical condition" and "unavailability of specialist equipment."

Hunt Kennels

Mrs. Ballard: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will list those hunt kennels which the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland Veterinary Service assessed to be unsatisfactory under the BSE enforcement programme, since 1 January. [3825]

Mr. Murphy: The following list details the hunt kennels which the Department of Agriculture for Northern Ireland Veterinary Service assessed to be unsatisfactory under the BSE enforcement programme, since 1 January:

Killultagh Hunt Kennels
Newry Harriers
East Antrim Hounds.

Disability Living Allowance

Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many disability living allowance reviews and appeals took place last year; what percentage were successful; what is the average cost of each such procedure; and if she will make a statement on the impact on the work of her Department of the total number of decisions which were overturned. [3828]

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Mr. Worthington: Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its Chief Executive, Mr. Alec Wylie, and I have asked him to arrange for a response to be given. Letter from Alec Wylie to Mr. Robert McCartney, dated 17 June 1997:

I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about Disability Living Allowance reviews and appeals.
The information you requested on the number of reviews and appeals is set out in the attached tables.
I regret that information on the cost of review and appeal procedures is not maintained separately and to provide this would require a major clerical exercise generating disproportionate costs.
As many customers provide additional evidence throughout the adjudication process, it is inevitable that some of the original decisions will be overturned at the review and appeal stages. Experience also shows that most customers routinely ask for a review or appeal where the higher rates of Disability Living Allowance have not been awarded. In most cases, arrears of benefit arising from overturned decisions are calculated and paid by computer which means that the impact of this work on the Social Security Agency is minimal.
I hope this explains the position for you but I would be happy to provide any further information you require.

Table No. 1: Review decisions implemented during 1996

Year	Number of review decisions	Success rate
1996 (January to December)	22,253	33.7 per cent. (7,497)

Table No. 2: Tribunal decisions implemented during 1996

Year	Decisions of appeal tribunal implemented	Success rate
1996 (January to December)	3,358	36.6 per cent. (1,230)

Housing Benefit

Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will permit housing benefit to be made available in the form of loans for deposits and first month's advance rental on private sector accommodation. [3831]

Mr. Worthington: No. There is no provision within the housing benefit legislation for the award of loans and there are no plans to change this policy.

The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is supporting a rent guarantee scheme, which avoids the requirement for an advance or deposit, operated by the Simon Community (NI), a voluntary organisation working with the homeless. The scheme is currently operating as a pilot exercise in the Belfast area and, if successful, is likely to be extended in its scope.

Child Support Agency

Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will ensure that the Child Support Agency distinguishes in correspondence to parents between basic payment amounts and arrears amounts; and if she will make a statement. [3827]

23 Jun 1997 : Column: 407

Mr. Worthington: Responsibility for this subject has been delegated to the Northern Ireland Child Support Agency under its Chief Executive, Mr. Patrick Devlin, and I have asked him to arrange for a response to be given. Letter from P. Devlin to Mr. Robert McCartney, dated 19 June 1997:

I am replying to your Parliamentary Question about distinguishing between basic payment amounts and arrears amounts in correspondence to parents.

When a child maintenance assessment is calculated notifications are issued to both the absent parent and parent with care informing them of the amount and the effective date of the weekly liability. At this stage accounts are set up and further notifications setting out the method, frequency, amount and date of the first regular payment are sent to both parents. They are also advised of the amount of maintenance due for the initial payment period. The absent parent is advised that if he has paid any maintenance during this time for any of the children named the amount of the initial payment may be reduced to take account of monies already paid.
If an absent parent fails to make payment on the due date he is advised that child maintenance payments are in arrears. The notification sets out the due date, amount due, amount paid/adjusted and arrears. He is also asked to pay the arrears in full or if he is unable to do so to contact the Agency immediately to discuss an agreement to pay them. The notification also advises that if an agreement to pay the arrears is reached then payments of regular maintenance must be maintained.
I hope you find this information useful.

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