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Northern Ireland Bill

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to her answer of 26 October 1998, Official Report, column 34, concerning the human rights and equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Bill, if she will place in the Library copies of her correspondence with the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. [60270]

Mr. Paul Murphy: Copies of correspondence between myself and the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe have been placed in the Library.

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INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Montserrat

Barbara Follett: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development when the final version of the Sustainable Development Plan for Montserrat will be published. [60359]

Mr. Foulkes: Agreement has been reached between the Government of Montserrat and Her Majesty's Government on the final text of the Sustainable Development Plan. This followed a wide-ranging consultation exercise involving Montserratians on island, elsewhere in the Caribbean and in the UK, and regional and international aid agencies. The plan reflects the shared priorities of our two Governments for the social and economic recovery of the island and sets out a plan for the future of the island and the strategies needed to achieve its goals and objectives.

Copies of the final text will be placed in the Libraries of the House today. The formal published version will be made available in early December.

Millennium Compliance

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (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 for which her Department is responsible, separately identifying expenditure to date and future expenditure; and if she will make a statement; [60056]

(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 for 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. [60058]

Mr. Foulkes: 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, Gartson (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. This also covered key organisations within the wider public sector. The information the hon. Member requests will be found in the copies of departments' plans which have been published in the Library 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 International Development (1) 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 for 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; [60057]

(2) 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. [60059]

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Mr. Foulkes: We have recently reviewed the Year 2000 compliance programme. Work is well advanced on mission-critical systems and we have systems in place for testing at various milestone dates. Our key systems will be fully tested and independently audited before the Year 2000.

Our current switchboard is not compliant, but will become so with the next installation of software which will be in place before the end of 1998. Our equipment to send telexes is not compliant, but is in any case to be discarded for more modern forms of communications. We shall provide fuller details in our next quarterly return.

We have obtained assurances from our prime hardware and software suppliers. In several cases we are required to upgrade software to more modern versions. We have developed a programme of work to take this forward. Progress is reported in our quarterly return.

Work will start in early December to develop a separate series of business continuity plans, which will complement the work already done on business critical systems. Progress will be reported in the appropriate quarterly return.

Multilateral Agreement on Investment

Ms Drown: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development which forum the Government will propose as appropriate for future negotiations on a multilateral agreement on investment, in order to ensure (a) that the interests of developing countries are represented and (b) that developing countries are equal participants in the negotiations. [59183]

Mr. Foulkes: The Government, and the EU as a whole, have a long-standing objective of pursuing investment negotiations in the WTO, and have called for investment to be on the agenda of any future multilateral Round of negotiations. This objective was reflected in the White Paper on International Development in November 1997, underlining the developmental value of a stable and transparent framework for international investment.

Any decision to begin negotiations on multilateral investment disciplines in the WTO will require consensus among WTO members. Over three quarters of WTO members are developing countries. We are committed to helping strengthen the capacity of developing countries--many of which have limited resources--to participate effectively in the WTO. Specifically on investment, we have already agreed a contribution of over £0.5 million for a programme run by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to provide advice and training to developing countries on the issues posed by a possible multilateral framework for investment.

SCOTLAND

Local Government

Mr. Gorrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his Department's current estimate of the cost to be borne by Scottish local authorities arising from new central Government initiatives in (a) 1998-99, (b) 1999-2000 and

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(c) the following three years, by initiative, indicating the contribution to be made towards such costs from central Government. [56952]

Mr. McLeish [holding answer 3 November 1998]: In 1998-99 the following amounts were added to the local government finance spending plans inherited from the previous Administration:

Additional resources for schools: £89 million (announced in the July 1997 Budget) plus £19 million (announced in March 1998 Budget).

Recommendations resulting from the Pennington Report: £2.6 million.

The cost of new central Government initiatives over the next three years was considered in the course of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review. In total, following the review the following additional resources (each representing increases compared with 1998-99) have been provided over the next three years:

			£ million
	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02
Education	154	266	373
Social Work	51	94	130
Police	23.7	50.9	71.8
Fire	8.5	16.9	24.3
Other Services including Loans Charges	58.8	163.5	319.2

Decisions for subsequent years have not yet been made.

Youth Clubs

Mr. Gorrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make more money available to youth clubs in areas with high levels of juvenile crime. [57609]

Mrs. Liddell [holding answer 9 November 1998]: The Scottish Office does not provide funding for youth clubs. In the main youth clubs are run by local authorities or voluntary groups which have access to local facilities. The Scottish Office provides a grant to Youth Clubs Scotland, a national voluntary organisation which is involved with the informal education of young people. The grant towards headquarters expenditure is awarded under the Scottish Office community education recurrent grant scheme for voluntary organisations. Youth Clubs Scotland has been awarded a grant of £75,000 in 1998-99, an increase of 7 per cent..

Youth Employment

Mr. Alasdair Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many and what percentage of young people who took up the employment option under the New Deal have secured full-time employment at the end of their placement (a) in total and (b) by local authority area. [58980]

Mr. Dewar [holding answer 11 November 1998]: The latest New Deal figures published by the Government Statistical Service relate to August, and information on those completing their placement is not yet available. We plan in future to publish figures by units of delivery which in Scotland are based on local enterprise company areas.

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