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PRIME MINISTER

Geneva Convention

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Prime Minister, what are the responsibilities of (a) the Home Office, (b) the Foreign

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and Commonwealth Office, (c) the Lord Chancellor's Department and (d) the Ministry of Defence for matters relating to the Geneva Convention. [83030]

The Prime Minister: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has overall responsibility for International Law including International Humanitarian Law, of which the Geneva Conventions of 1949 form a major component. It maintains close relations with the Red Cross movement including the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Ministry of Defence has responsibility for the application of International Humanitarian Law by the UK's armed forces. The Home Office is responsible for legislation implementing the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols (1977), that is the Geneva Conventions Act (1957) as amended by the Geneva Conventions Amendment Act (1995). The Lord Chancellor's Department has no direct responsibility for the Geneva Convention.

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT

Early Years Education

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to the oral answer to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) of 18 March 1999, Official Report, column 1257, on early years education, if he will provide a breakdown of the £8 billion of expenditure on pre-school education over the next three years. [83031]

Ms Hodge: I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 23 March 1999, Official Report, columns 200-01.

New Deal (Young People)

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what factors led to people on the pilot of the New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds remaining on the four month Gateway for over a year. [82573]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Earlier analysis of the small group of young people who are shown as being on the Gateway a year after they started New Deal indicates that the majority have had significant breaks from New Deal. Reasons for breaks include sickness and short-term employment; if a young person leaves the Gateway and subsequently returns within 13 weeks, they will re-enter the Gateway at the point which they left.

Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) how many employers have agreed to take on one or more subsidised employee from the New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds in each month since January 1998; [82570]

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(2) how many employers have agreed to take on their first subsidised employee from the New Deal for 18 to 24-year-olds in each month since January 1998. [82571]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Information about the number of employees taken on by any one employer is not collected centrally and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.

However, when agreeing to take on at least one New Deal employee the employer will give their commitment by signing a New Deal Employer Agreement. They are included in the following table showing the number of New Deal Agreements signed each month since January 1998.

	Number of employer agreements signed
Month	In month	Cumulative
January 1998	858	--
February 1998	1,010	1,868
March 1998	2,426	4,294
April 1998	5,034	9,328
May 1998	5,347	14,675
June 1998	4,237	18,912
July 1998	3,267	22,179
August 1998	3,467	25,646
September 1998	3,419	29,065
October 1998	3,850	32,915
November 1998	2,476	35,391
December 1998(8)	4,447	39,838
January 1999	2,159	41,997
February 1999	2,350	44,347
March 1999	2,610	46,957

(8) The in-month figure for December 1998 included retrospectively amended data

Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list for the most recent period for which figures are available the proportions of (i) black and ethnic minority and (ii) white participants in the New Deal for Young People programme at (a) national, (b) London and South East Region and (c) Hammersmith and Fulham/Kensington and Chelsea levels, who have (1) joined the Gateway, (2) remained in the Gateway for four months or more, (3) moved into sustained employment and (4) left the New Deal with no known destination. [82745]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The information set out in table 1 shows the number of young people who have joined New Deal since January 1998, the proportion of them moving into sustained employment and the proportion who have left New Deal with an unknown destination for each of the areas requested, up to the end of February 1999.

Table 2 shows the proportion of young people who remained on the Gateway for more than four months. This information is drawn from the latest available cohort who joined New Deal in October 1998.

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Table 1

	Starts to New Deal		Moved to sustained employment		Leaving with unknown destination
Area	Ethnic minority	White	Ethnic minority (%)	White (%)	Ethnic minority (%)	White (%)
National	34,419	195,820	19	26	22	17
London and South East Region	18,437	36,349	19	26	22	21
Hammersmith and Fulham/ Kensington and Chelsea	551	509	18	23	23	24

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Table 2

		Percentage
	Spent over four months on the Gateway
Area	Ethnic minority	White
National	37	35
London and South East Region	39	35
Hammersmith and Fulham/Kensington and Chelsea	36	43

Mr. Coleman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what action he is taking to (a) identify and (b) track the clients leaving the New Deal for Young People; and if he will make a statement. [82736]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The destinations of young people leaving New Deal are identified and reported in the New Deal Statistical First Release published monthly.

Clients who leave New Deal with an unknown destination are followed through regular monthly surveys to ascertain their destination. In addition, as part of the ongoing evaluation of New Deal, surveys of samples of leavers will be carried out to collect more detailed information about their activities and experiences.

Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what assessment the Government have made of the relative merits of using (a) off-flows from the claimant count in the target category and (b) an absolute fall in the unemployment count in the target category, to measure the Government's progress in meeting its targets for the new deal for young people; and if he will make a statement. [81749]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Both these measures will be used as part of the comprehensive evaluation of the effect of New Deal on the labour market. However, our full assessment also includes the use of a range of performance measures such as movement from welfare into employment and whether that employment is sustained, its success amongst people with disabilities and people from ethnic minority backgrounds, the level of satisfaction of both participants and employers and improvement in skill levels.

Wirral Metropolitan College

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will publish the terms of the retirement package for the recently retired principal of Wirral Metropolitan College. [82309]

Mr. Mudie: The retirement package for the former Principal of Wirral Metropolitan College provides her with the pension benefits she would have received if she worked until the age of 60. This means that her eligible service was enhanced by just over five years.

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Departmental Legal Business

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on his Department's policy when (a) conducting legal proceedings and (b) seeking legal advice as to the circumstances in which Queen's Counsel should be instructed; and for each of the last three years (i) on how many occasions his Department instructed Queen's Counsel and (ii) what was the total cost of instructing Queen's Counsel. [81757]

Mr. Mudie: The Department for Education and Employment, through the Treasury Solicitor's Department, predominately uses junior counsel when it is necessary to instruct counsel to provide legal advice or to conduct legal proceedings.

In civil cases, the two First Treasury Counsel are both junior counsel and they will advise and represent the government without a Queen's Counsel in many of its important cases. In addition, the Attorney-General maintains four panels of junior Counsel whom the Department for Education and Employment, as other departments, is expected to use for the majority of its civil litigation. The approval of the Attorney-General or the Solicitor-General is required before a Queen's Counsel can be instructed to appear for any government department in civil litigation.

In determining the level of counsel to use, the Department will consider the individual circumstances of each case. It will take into account, inter alia, the importance and sensitivity of the case, the complexity of the law, the weight and complexity of the evidence, and the degree of experience and expertise required before deciding whether to instruct Queen's Counsel or junior counsel.

The Department for Education and Employment instructed three Queen's Counsel in 1996-97, seven in 1997-98 and two in 1998-99. The total cost of instructing Queen's Counsel for each of the last three years was £9,212.00 in 1996-97, £14,617.00 in 1997-98 and £2,878.75 in 1998-99.

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