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Beta Interferon
Mr. Edwards: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about the availability of beta interferon on prescription for people with the progressive type of multiple sclerosis. [82881]
Mr. Denham: The Department will shortly be consulting with interested parties on a draft health service circular on the prescribing of beta-interferon for people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Civil Society Unit
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on the remit of the civil society unit in her Department. [83079]
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Mr. Foulkes:
The civil society unit, which was formerly called the NGO Unit, will continue to administer the Joint Funding Scheme, and will administer its successor, the new Civil Society Challenge Fund, and new Partnership Programme Agreements. The Civil Society Challenge Fund will have a focused approach to strengthening civil society in developing countries and will be open to a wide range of UK civil society groups. Partnership Programme Agreements will set out shared objectives with organisations engaged in a range of the Department for International Development's strategic concerns and will provide strategic funding links with the Department. More generally, the Unit will seek to widen our relationships with civil society organisations in the UK who share our objectives of the elimination of world poverty.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what were the levels of expenditure on the international AIDS vaccine initiative in (i) 1997-98 and (ii) 1998-99. [83081]
Mr. Foulkes:
Britain provided £200,000 to support the work of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) in 1998-99. We made no contribution in 1997-98.
We are currently developing a longer term and more substantial programme of support with the IAVI, which will begin in 1999-2000.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of that aid given in connection with the Balkans conflict is currently being given directly to support Albanian families housing Kosovan refugees. [83082]
Mr. Foulkes:
The Red Cross movement has the lead role in distributing food and other relief supplies to host families and refugees outside the camps. Details of the proportion of aid going to support host families are not available.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what support her Department is giving to the development of a website to help Kosovar refugees. [83091]
Mr. Foulkes:
The International Committee of the Red Cross are playing a major role in tracing and reunification. They are already making use of the Internet as one tool in these efforts. The Department for International Development has given £2.5 million to the International Committee of the Red Cross, part of which is being used for family tracing.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list those purposes for which her Department and its executive agencies
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require a birth certificate to be furnished by (i) employees, (ii) contractors, (iii) those applying for employment or contracts and (iv) other persons. [83083]
Mr. Foulkes:
The Department for International Development may ask to see a birth certificate as a proof of identity when recruiting staff directly. On retirement from service, and prior to payment of pension, a member of staff may be requested to produce a copy of their birth certificate as a double check on age.
We require proof of date of birth before determining eligibility for a colonial pension. However, in almost every case the claimant's birth certificate had been seen many years earlier by the relevant employer and/or pension authority. The requirement to produce a birth certificate in support of such a claim is therefore very rare.
While we do not require birth certificates from contractors or consultants, we ask to see birth certificates for the children of staff working overseas to assess eligibility for various allowances including education allowances and holiday visit passages.
The DFID has no executive agencies.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if the seed and tools packages provided by the United Kingdom have arrived in southern Sudan in time for spring planting. [83086]
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans she has for primary education to form part of the humanitarian aid for southern Sudan. [83087]
Mr. Foulkes:
We are prepared to consider realistic and viable proposals to provide basic education services in southern Sudan. But sustainable services will be possible only when peace is secured.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what data she has collated on current food supplies in southern Sudan. [83089]
Mr. Foulkes:
The situation is much better than last year. People are in better condition and prospects for the 1999 cereal crop look good. However, southern Sudan is a food deficit area. The UN World Food Programme estimates that in 1999 there will be a 10 per cent. deficit between local food availability and total anticipated needs. This is estimated at 90,000 tonnes of food which includes 20,000 tonnes to support the most vulnerable.
Dr. Tonge:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what plans she has to ensure a supply of fishing tackle to the people of southern Sudan before the floods begin at the end of the year. [83090]
Mr. Foulkes:
Fish is an important element of the diets of vulnerable people in southern Sudan. We are willing to consider supporting, at the appropriate time of the year, well constructed and viable proposals for the provision of fishing tackle.
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Mr. Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received about the proposed level of registration charges for immigration advisers. [82536]
Mr. Mike O'Brien:
We have received no representations about the proposed level of registration charges for immigration advisers. We have received a number of inquiries about the basis on which charges were estimated for illustrative purposes in the Regulatory Impact Assessment for Part V of the Immigration and Asylum Bill.
Dr. David Clark:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the average cost of each case in which information was supplied under the Open Government: Code of Practice on Access to Government Information in the last parliamentary session. [83273]
Mr. Straw:
Information is not collated either centrally, or in Departments, on the average cost of supplying information under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
In most cases, requests under the Code are for information which it is necessary for the public to have as part of the fair and accountable performance of the functions of Government. Such requests are dealt with in the same way as general correspondence and separate accounting is not systematically undertaken.
In order to provide a range of estimates for the cost of meeting requests for information under the proposed Freedom of Information Bill, a low cost estimated of £62 (the average cost of replying to a Parliamentary Question) and a high cost estimate of £350 (reflecting additional work needed to collate an extensive range of information) was used. These are typical costs of responding to Code requests, but are not average costs.
Where information is provided in order to meet a specific individual request, which is not in the course of a Department's normal day-to-day business, a charge may be made to help defray the costs. Where charges are made, Departments are required to strike a balance between the interests of the applicant and those of the taxpayer. Individual Departments decide how best to apply this principle to their particular circumstances, and charges will not necessarily reflect the actual cost to the Department of supplying the information.
The charging schemes for each Department are set out at Appendix 5 of the 1997 Report on the Code of Practice, a copy of which is available in the Library. In that year charges were levied in 242 cases out of 3,772 requests logged as Code requests (6.4 per cent.).
I hope to be able to publish the 1998 Code Report in the next few weeks.
Mr. Cotter:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 14 April 1999, Official Report, column 257, which Minister in his
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Department will oversee the work of the Inter- departmental Working Group on the status of transsexual people. [83045]
Mr. Straw:
The right hon. Lord Williams of Mostyn.
Mr. Cotter:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the police forces which have implemented guidelines for officers dealing with transsexual and trans-gendered people; and what recommendation his Department makes to police forces regarding treatment of transsexual and trans-gendered people. [83021]
Mr. Boateng:
The Home Office makes no specific recommendations to the police service about the treatment of transsexual and trans-gendered people. However, advice on dealing with transvestites and transsexual people was issued to all forces in the Spring of 1998 by the Association of Chief Police Officers Race and Community Relations sub-committee. I am placing a copy in the Library. Information is not held centrally on details of forces which have implemented these guidelines.
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