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Omagh Bombing

Mr. William Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will list the injuries suffered by the surviving victims of the Omagh bomb. [55477]

Mr. Ingram: (a) The following is a list of the injuries suffered by the surviving victims, admitted to hospital, in the immediate aftermath of the Omagh bomb:

Abdominal Organ Injuries: 4

Amputees: 5

Blast Lung: 1

Burns: 8

Eye Injuries: 2

Fractures: 24

Fracture and Eye Injury: 3

Head Injury: 1

Soft Tissue Injury: 10

Wounds/Shrapnel: 77.

Many of the victims had multiple injuries. Injuries treated for those victims who were not admitted to hospital included wounds, shrapnel injuries, soft tissue injuries and ear injuries.

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(b) Three of the surviving victims remain in hospital at the present time. Injuries suffered by the three patients are as follows:

Burns [over 60% of body] and multiple injuries

Amputation of lower leg and severe burns

Amputation of lower leg and multiple shrapnel injuries.

Regional and Minority Languages

Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will list (a) Ulster Scots and (b) Irish as two minority languages to benefit from the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; and if she will make a statement. [59289]

Mr. McFall: The Government intend that the Charter will apply to the Irish language in Northern Ireland from the coming into operation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In regard to Ulster-Scots, arrangements are in hand to commission independent academic research which will help to determine whether Ulster-Scots should be treated as a language for purposes of the Charter. The Charter does not distinguish between regional languages and minority languages.

Child Care

Mrs. Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what child care provision is made available by her Department for the use of staff; what is the cost to parents of this child care; how many parents used the facilities in the financial years (a) 1996-97 and (b) 1997-98; and what proportion of total staff used these facilities in the financial years (i) 1996-97 and (ii) 1997-98. [59730]

Mr. Paul Murphy [holding answer 16 November 1998]: In Northern Ireland, current policy is that Departments can contribute to staff child care costs where this is justified on value for money grounds.

The Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland Departments do not provide child care facilities. However, child care provision in the form of subsidy based schemes is only one of a range of family friendly measures that are available to staff. Others include flexible working hours, part-time and job sharing arrangements, paid and unpaid special leave and career breaks and reimbursement of expenses when the normal working routine is broken by the job demands. Information packs from the Northern Ireland Childminding Association are also given to staff applying for maternity or paternity leave.

In addition, some Departments provide a range of assistance schemes as follows.

In April 1998, NIO (Belfast) introduced a child care voucher scheme for staff which provided a contribution of £60 per month towards pre-school child care costs. Initially places on the scheme have been limited to 23 (2.8 per cent. of total staff) but it is planned to extend it to all staff with pre-school children within the next four years. NIO (London) introduced a similar scheme in July 1997 at the rate of £100 per month per child under the age of 5. Prior to July 1997, the NIO (London) subsidised 5 places in a nursery close to the office. The total proportion of staff that used these facilities in 1996-97 was 3 (2.9 per cent.) and in 1997-98 was 5 (4.4 per cent.).

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In the Department of Health and Social Services, the Child Support Agency provides financial assistance to staff in the form of a subsidy towards the cost of placing a child in a registered nursery of the parents choice. The parents pay the first £30 of the cost, the Agency pays up to the next £30 (grossed up by 45.7 per cent. to cover Tax and NI Contributions) and the parent pays the balance. There are 40 subsidies available. In 1996-97, 30 (2 per cent. of staff) were taken up and 40 (3 per cent.) in 1997-98.

The Department of the Environment provides a pre-school nursery subsidy scheme for up to 44 staff at any one time selected by a random draw. A reserve list is held to fill drop-outs from the 44. The subsidy is 35 per cent. of the weekly nursery fees up to a maximum of £30 gross per week. Forty-eight staff (0.6 per cent.) received subsidies in 1996-97 and 54 (0.7 per cent.) in 1997-98.

The Department of Education, in May 1997, introduced an emergency child care subsidy scheme to provide the actual cost of emergency child care for a maximum of 2 days on any one occasion (limited to 4 occasions in a year) with the care provider being a registered childminder, playgroup or nursery. There has been no uptake of the subsidy. The scheme was introduced on a trial basis and the Department is presently reviewing the aspect of sufficient time off for staff to make alternative arrangements which has been identified as the main difficulty with the scheme.

The Department of Finance and Personnel, through the Equal Opportunities Unit, financially assists 8 holiday playschemes. Subsidies of 50 per cent. accommodation costs and 40 per cent. staff costs are provided to each playscheme. Total financial assistance in 1997 was £20,250.

Millennium Compliance

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will make a statement on the contingency plans drawn up by (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) other public bodies in relation to problems arising from millennium compliance including the embedded chip problem after 31 December 1999. [60145]

Mr. Paul Murphy: Following recommendations made by the PAC, the President of the Council wrote to Cabinet colleagues and Ministers in October asking all Departments to complete risk assessments and have initial year 2000 business continuity plans in place by the end of January 1999. This has been conveyed to all Northern Ireland Departments and they have been informed that future quarterly surveys by the Cabinet Office will require reports on progress against targets in this area. Millennium contingency planning has to cover the eventuality of system failures due to embedded chip malfunction.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what is her latest estimate of the total cost of tackling the millennium computer problem including the embedded chip problem in (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) other public bodies

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for which her Department is responsible, separately identifying expenditure to date and future expenditure; and if she will make a statement; [60142]

(2) what assessment she has made of the extent to which the computer systems in (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) other public bodies to which her Department is responsible will be modified and tested in relation to the millennium computer problem by January 1999; and if she will make a statement. [60144]

Mr. Paul Murphy: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the President of the Council to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Garston (Maria Eagle) on 21 October 1998, Official Report, column 1109, in which she announced the results of the latest quarterly review of Government departments' and agencies' progress in tackling the bug. In Northern Ireland, the Departments and their agencies are directly responsible for much of the services provided by local government and the privatised utilities in Great Britain--e.g., Health and Personal Social Service, Housing Benefits, Water and Sewage. Electricity is the only privatised service in Northern Ireland.

The information that the hon. Member requests will be found in the copies of departments' plans which have been published in the Libraries of the House. The results of the next quarterly review will be announced shortly to the House and the updates to quarterly plans will be placed in the Libraries of the House and on the Internet.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will list the problems which have arisen in (a) her Department, (b) its agencies and (c) other public bodies for which her Department is responsible from millennium compliance; if she will make a statement on progress to date in tackling such problems; and what are the priority areas for remedial work. [60143]

Mr. Paul Murphy: The problems are the same for all organisations striving for millennium compliance and the Northern Ireland departments are working closely with their Great Britain counterparts, sharing information and advice, to address these. Specifically, some departments in Northern Ireland have lost skilled computer staff to the private sector and this has impacted on some compliance programmes. However, steps are being taken by the individual departments and centrally by the Northern Ireland public service to address the situation.

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