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Select Committee Reports
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if (a) he, (b) civil servants in his Department or (c) special advisers in his Department have (i) had sight of drafts of select committee reports, in whole or in part, or (ii) been informed of conclusions of select committee reports prior to their publication by the select committees. [75879]
Mr. Michael: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given by the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) on 1 March 1999, Official Report, column 531. There have been no instances of members of Select Committees giving me, or my ministerial colleagues, drafts of Select Committee reports, or of parts of reports including their conclusions, before publication. Nor, to the best of my knowledge, has there been any occasion on which members of Select Committees have given such material to civil servants or special advisers in my Department. This excludes embargoed copies of reports issued under House of Commons Standing Orders.
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Interpreters
Mr. Levitt: To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list the occasions on which cases have (a) collapsed and (b) gone to appeal on the basis of inadequate interpreter provision for defendants in each of the last two years. [75341]
Mr. Hoon: I regret that this information is not collected, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Levitt: To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department what professional standards and qualifications are required of interpreters working in English courts. [75342]
Mr. Hoon:
Interpreters working in English courts are not required by law to have a formal qualification or to have reached a specific professional standard. However, all agencies in the criminal justice system are parties to an agreement with the aim that, by the end of 2001, every interpreter working in courts should be selected from the National Register of Public Service Interpreters or the
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Council for the Advancement of Communication with Deaf People (CACDP) National Directory of sign Language Interpreters. An inter-agency working group is monitoring progress of the agreement. Those arranging interpreters are encouraged to find an interpreter from the National Register or Directory in the first instance. Where a person cannot be found from those sources, they will look elsewhere for an interpreter of at least the same standard.
In the civil courts it is the responsibility of the plaintiff or defendant or their legal adviser to provide any foreign language interpreter. The court can refer inquiries from parties to appropriate lists. The Court Service has an agreement with the Royal National Institute for Deaf People to provide a sign language interpreter, who must be registered by the CACDP, whenever such an interpreter is required.
Mr. Levitt:
To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department what measures exist to ensure that accused persons whose first language is not English receive a fair trial in English courts. [75340]
Mr. Hoon:
Where the accused's first language is not English, and he would not otherwise understand the proceedings, the court will arrange a foreign language or sign language interpreter for him at court. The only exception is where the defendant appears in court within up to two working days of being charged, where it is for the police or other prosecuting agency to make the necessary arrangements. The interpreter's fee is paid from public funds.
Dr. Tony Wright:
To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department how many magistrates are aged between 65 and 70 years. [75267]
Mr. Hoon:
3,767 magistrates in England and Wales (excluding the Duchy of Lancaster) are aged between 65 and 70 years.
Dr. Tony Wright:
To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department what is the retirement age for lay members of each of the tribunals for which he has responsibility. [75268]
Mr. Hoon:
Of the tribunals for which the Lord Chancellor has ministerial responsibility, only three include a lay membership. They are lay members of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal; service and medical members of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal; and surveyor members of the Lands Tribunal. Under the terms of the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993, lay members appointed to each of these tribunals on or after 31 March 1995 shall vacate office when they attain the age of 70. However, the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act contains provisions which allows the Lord Chancellor, in exceptional circumstances, to authorise continuance in office up to the age of 75 and transitional provisions which preserve the pre-existing compulsory retirement age of the end of year of service in which they reach 72 for those already serving on 31 March 1995.
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Mr. Beith:
To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department what percentage of the legal aid budget was spent on cases pursued by foreign nationals in courts in England and Wales in (a) 1989 and (b) in each of the last three years. [75222]
Mr. Hoon:
The information requested is not available. The nationality of an applicant is not one of the qualifying factors for legal aid. Therefore, the data collected by the Legal Aid Board and the courts do not identify separately applications made for legal aid by foreign nationals.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Minister of State, Lord Chancellor's Department if (a) he, (b) civil servants in his Department or (c) special advisers in his Department have (i) had sight of drafts of select committee reports, in whole or in part, or (ii) been informed of conclusions of select committee reports prior to their publication by the select committees. [75869]
Mr. Hoon:
I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given by the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) on 1 March 1999, Official Report, column 531. There have been no instances of members of Select Committees giving me, or the Lord Chancellor, drafts of Select Committee reports, or of parts of reports including their conclusions, before publication. Nor to the best of my knowledge have there been any occasions on which members of Select Committees have given such material to any civil servant or the Special Adviser in my Department. This excludes embargoed copies of reports issued under House of Commons Standing Orders.
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if (a) he, (b) civil servants in his Department or (c) special advisers in his Department have (i) had sight of drafts of select committee reports, in whole or in part, or (ii) been informed of conclusions of select committee reports prior to their publication by the select committees. [75881]
Mr. Duncan Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if (a) ministers, (b) parliamentary private secretaries, (c) special advisers and (d) civil servants have discussed the contents of the Committee's reports with any members of the Social Security Committee prior to their publication; [75841]
Mr. Darling:
I refer the right hon. and hon. Members to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Spelthorne (Mr. Wilshire) on 1 March 1999, Official Report, column 531. There have been no instances of members of Select
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Committees giving me, or my Ministerial colleagues, drafts of Select Committee reports, or parts of reports including their conclusions, before publication. Nor to the best of my knowledge have there been any occasions on which members of Select Committees have given such material to civil servants or special advisers in this Department. This excludes embargoed copies of reports issued under House of Commons Standing Orders.
Mr. Oaten:
To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) if he will list the groups of disabled people which will automatically be exempted from the new system of periodically reviewing awards of disability living allowance; [69224]
Mr. Bayley
[pursuant to his reply, 11 February 1999, c. 381-82]: From April 1999 a new system of periodically reviewing entitlement to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) will be introduced. We intend to incorporate the lessons already learned and to evaluate and refine the process as it develops. At the outset, not only DLA recipients whose cases were examined by the Benefit Integrity Project (BIP) will be excluded from the process, but also people in any one of the specific categories listed who were previously excluded from the action of the BIP will be excluded.
Groups to be exempt at the outset:
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lifetime of the BIP will be carried forward into the new process. This will include the changes in evidence gathering introduced on 9 February 1998; which ensured that no decision to reduce or remove entitlement to DLA is based solely on the information provided by the claimant.
(2) if (a) ministers, (b) parliamentary private secretaries, (c) special advisers and (d) civil servants in his Department have received copies of any Social Security Select Committee (i) draft reports and (ii) reports prior to their publication. [75840]
(2) if the proposed system of periodically reviewing awards of disability living allowance announced on 28 January will include the safeguards announced on 9 February 1998 in respect of the Benefit Integrity Project. [69220]
People receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component and either the highest or the middle rate of the DLA care component who are:
Paraplegic;
Tetraplegic;
Quadriplegic;
Both deaf and blind;
Double amputees;
Over the age of 65; or
With an award made prior to April 1992.
People receiving the higher rate of the DLA mobility component and the highest rate of the DLA care component with:
People treated as being terminally ill under criteria set out in Section 66(2)(a) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 will also be excluded, as will anyone with a fixed period award due to end within the next three years. Safeguards developed and introduced during the
Cystic Fibrosis;
Dementia;
Haemodialysis;
Hyperkinetic Syndrome;
Learning difficulty 1
Multiple Allergy Syndrome;
Multiple Sclerosis;
Motor Neurone Disease;
Neurological Disease (including Muscular Dystrophy);
Parkinson's Disease;
Total Parenteral Nutrition or who are Severely Mentally Impaired 2 .
1 This category applies to people whose main disabling condition has been recorded as "mental subnormality"
2 This category applies to people who meet the criteria set out in Section 73(3) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 and Regulation 12(5)&(6) of the Social Security (Disability Living Allowance) Regulations 1991.
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