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FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Government Codes and Cypher School

Mr. John D. Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the following documents relating to the Government Codes and Cypher School's work in the Second World War will be released to the Public Record Office: the history or histories of (a) Hut 8 or German naval machine systems by C. H. O. S. Alexander, (b) the organisation and evolution of British naval sigint, by F. L. Birch, (c) the organisation and uses of naval special sigint, (d) the handling of naval special intelligence, (e) German naval signals intelligence, by Miss M. E. Storey, (f) Hut 6 and (g) 15K cryptography (Abwehr machine cyphers); and if he will make a statement. [75133]

Mr. Robin Cook: GCHQ maintains a document review unit which handles the release to the Public Record Office of potentially sensitive material, including the work of the

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Government Codes and Cypher School. GCHQ has been able to identify all the documents referred to except: "The organisation and uses of naval special sigint", "15K cryptography (Abwehr machine cyphers)" and "The German Navy's use of Special Intelligence by McMahon". The other documents referred to by the right hon. Member have been considered for release in the past but contained information the disclosure of which at the time would have been damaging to national security, and have, for that reason, not been released.

A version of the "History of hut 8 by A. A. Mahon" has been released in the United States.

Documents are reviewed in the light of the degree of public interest in their release, and of advice from the PRO. I have asked that the documents in question be reviewed before the end of the year. I will write to the right hon. Member when the review is complete.

Foreign Media Articles

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he gave prior approval to the article by the hon. Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) published in Le Monde on 3 March. [75478]

Mr. Robin Cook [holding answer 8 March 1999]: The views expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Rotherham (Mr. MacShane) in the article are his own.

Sierra Leone

Mr. Howard: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when (a) telegram 277 regarding Sierra Leone, (b) his Department's daily bulletins regarding the scope of the arms embargo in Sierra Leone and (c) the text of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference communique were first brought to his attention. [75808]

Mr. Robin Cook [holding answer 9 March 1999]: Telegram 277 contains guidance for media inquiries on UN Resolution 1132. This and FCO Daily Bulletins are not operational papers and would not have been drawn to my attention at the time they issued. I would not have seen these papers until some time after the arrival of the letter from S. J. Berwin and Co. dated 24 April 1998. In October 1997, I attended the CHOGM which produced the Communique in question.

Government Communications Headquarters

Mr. Maples: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answers of 15 February 1999, Official Report, column 579, on Government communications headquarters, when he expects the final cost of the compensation packages to be established. [76301]

Mr. Robin Cook [holding answer 15 March 1999]: I refer to my earlier answers to the hon. Member on 1 February 1999, Official Report, column 493 [66489] and 15 February 1999, Official Report, column 579 [69380].

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Gibraltar

Mr. Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy in respect of extending the franchise to the people of Gibraltar for elections to the European Parliament, of the determination of the European Court of Human Rights of 18 February; and if he will make a statement. [77188]

Ms Quin [holding answer 17 March 1999]: I refer my hon. Friend to the replies I gave to the hon. Member for Romsey (Mr. Colvin) on 17 March 1999, Official Report, column 681 [76637] and 18 March 1999, Official Report, columns 760-61 [76638].

EU Budget Contribution

Dr. Marek: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will (a) list the funding from the EU affected by the UK's abatement and (b) state the amount of required matched funding and the adjustments which had been made as a result of the abatement, for the last year for which figures are available. [78335]

Ms Quin: The UK abatement is one year in arrears and is, broadly, two thirds of the difference between what the UK contributes to the EU budget and what is received. It is deducted from the resources side of the budget, so reduces contributions rather than receipts. There is no requirement for matched funding linked to the abatement.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Electronic Red Boxes

Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will name the Ministers in her Department who are regular users of electronic Red Boxes. [76182]

Marjorie Mowlam: None at present. I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 16 March 1999, Official Report, columns 651-52.

Prisoners (Accelerated Release)

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will update her answer of 3 November 1998, Official Report, column 488, on prisoners to indicate how many prisoners applied to the Prison Sentence Review Commission for an accelerated release date by 31 December 1998; in how many cases the Commission made a determination; and for unsuccessful applications, what reasons were given. [78158]

Mr. Ingram [holding answer 22 March 1999]: Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Sentence Review Commissioners. I have asked them to arrange for a reply to be given.

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CABINET OFFICE

People's Panel

Dr. David Clark: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office on how many occasions members of the People's Panel have been used as a source of membership of focus groups; and if he will provide details of each occasion. [78339]

Mr. Kilfoyle: Members of the People's Panel have been used as a source of membership for focus groups on two occasions earlier this year. Details are as follows:

The Women's Unit commissioned 24 focus groups as part of a wider programme of consultation with women--Listening to Women. The focus groups explored a broad range of priorities women felt important to their lives, and probed in-depth their opinion on specific topics, such as women's incomes. The Women's Unit has particular interest in teenage girls and this research included 6 focus groups with this age-group in order to inform the Unit's policy area with the views of girls themselves.

The Department for Education and Employment commissioned six focus groups to investigate parents' attitudes towards value added information in school performance tables. The research will be used to inform the development of value added measures for publication in the performance tables.

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SOCIAL SECURITY

National Insurance

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the amount paid in National Insurance, excluding contributions to SERPS, as a percentage of national income for each income decile of the working population for (a) 1997-98 (b) 2002-03 and (c) 2007-08 and (d) each 10 years to 2047-48; what impact he estimates the changes will have on the re-distributive nature of national insurance contributions; and if he will make a statement. [74176]

Mr. Timms: Information is not available in the form requested because Class 1 National Insurance contributions are not separable into elements for SERPS or for the other benefits paid out of the National Insurance Fund. The information that is available is in the table and relates to gross Class 1 contributions as a percentage of all employed earnings by earnings decile. This takes account of the changes to the structure of Class 1 contributions announced in the Chancellor's 1998 and 1999 Budgets.

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Gross class 1 contributions as a percentage of all employed earnings, by earnings decile

Income decile		1997-98	2002-03	2007-08	2017-18	2027-28	2037-38	2047-48
1st	Employee	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Employer	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
	Total	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
2nd	Employee	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.1
	Employer	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.1
	Total	0.1	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2
3rd	Employee	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3
	Employer	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3
	Total	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.6
4th	Employee	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5
	Employer	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6
	Total	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.9	1.0	1.0
5th	Employee	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6
	Employer	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8
	Total	1.3	1.1	1.1	1.2	1.3	1.3	1.4
6th	Employee	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.7
	Employer	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9
	Total	1.7	1.5	1.5	1.6	1.6	1.7	1.6
7th	Employee	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.9	0.8	0.7
	Employer	1.1	1.0	1.0	1.1	1.1	1.1	1.2
	Total	2.1	1.9	1.9	2.0	2.0	1.9	1.9
8th	Employee	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.7
	Employer	1.4	1.3	1.3	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.4
	Total	2.5	2.4	2.4	2.4	2.3	2.2	2.1
9th	Employee	1.4	1.3	1.2	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.7
	Employer	1.6	1.6	1.7	1.7	1.8	1.8	1.8
	Total	3.0	2.9	2.9	2.8	2.7	2.6	2.5
10th	Employee	1.5	1.4	1.3	1.1	0.9	0.8	0.7
	Employer	2.7	2.9	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.1	3.1
	Total	4.2	4.3	4.3	4.1	4.0	3.9	3.8
Total	Employee	7.1	6.4	6.3	6.1	5.8	5.4	5.0
	Employer	9.2	8.9	9.1	9.4	9.7	10.0	10.2
	Total	16.3	15.3	15.4	15.5	15.5	15.4	15.2

Notes:

1. Class 1 Contributions, including the National Health Service Allowance, gross of contracted out rebates and permitted employers' recoveries on account of their Statutory Sick Pay and Statutory Maternity pay payments to employees, and expressed in terms of accruals rather than receipts.

2. The 1st earnings decile covers the one tenth of the employed population with the lowest earnings. The other deciles are defined similarly.

Source:

Government Actuary's Department (GAD).

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