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HOUSE OF COMMONS
CD-ROM (Official Report)
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chairman of the Information Committee when hon. Members will receive the CD-ROM version of the Official Report for the 1997-98 Parliamentary Session, and what plans he has to reduce the time taken to prepare the CD-ROM. [86397]
Mr. Allan:
The final disc of the CD-ROM of the Official Report for the 1997-98 Parliamentary Session covering the whole of the Session 1997-98 was published on 10 June 1999.
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Hansard in CD-ROM is not produced under the direction of the Authorities of the House and, therefore, the time taken to prepare the CD-ROM is a matter for the commercial judgment of the companies involved.
Mr. Webb:
To ask the Chairman of the Information Committee if his Committee will investigate the feasibility of allowing hon. Members to submit electronically expenses claims and other standard forms to the House authorities. [86398]
Mr. Allan:
The Department of Finance and Administration (the Fees Office and the Finance Office) are actively looking at a number of options, following the results of the Members' survey in January, for making services more accessible to Members, including the submission of claims electronically. There are a number of factors--costs, technical and security issues--to be considered and resolved before it can be established whether such an arrangement could be introduced.
Domestic Violence
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the likely impact on domestic violence statistics of the change of definition which has been issued to police forces. [85918]
Mr. Boateng: The previous definition was being interpreted in a number of different ways. A new definition was necessary in order to bring about more precise, consistent and comparable returns to Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary so as to give more accurate knowledge of the number of incidents of violence between current or former partners that are reported to the police.
Because of the range of interpretations given to the existing definition, it is not easy to gauge the exact result of the change. For some forces, the new definition may not represent a significant change. For others, the new definition will narrow the interpretation which they have been using, with the result that they will probably record slightly fewer domestic violence incidents.
National Minimum Wage
Mr. Rowlands: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people in his Department and its associated bodies and agencies have benefited from the introduction of a national minimum wage. [86098]
Mr. Straw: 105 people have benefited from the introduction of a national minimum wage.
Sir Roger Casement
Mr. John D. Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what is the nature of the files relating to the black diaries allegedly written by Sir Roger Casement which have yet to be released into the public domain; [86153]
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Mr. Straw:
All Home Office records relating to Roger Casement are open to public inspection at the Public Record Office. No representations have been received from the Irish Prime Minister regarding the Casement diaries.
Mr. Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish the number of (1) new instructions and (2) disposals in (a) asylum and (b) immigration appeals undertaken by (i) the Immigration
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Advisory Service and (ii) the Refugee Legal Centre for 1997-98 and the number of appeals in both categories disposed of by the Immigration Appellate Authority in the same period together with the unit cost in both categories. [70755]
Mr. Mike O'Brien
[pursuant to his reply, 22 February 1999, c. 104]: The information requested is shown in the table.
It should be noted that the figures for the Refugee Legal Centre (RLC) and the Immigration Advisory Service (IAS) are based on outcomes (those cases in which the appeal has been disposed of) rather than outputs (those cases in which representation has been provided, but the appeal may or may not have finally been disposed). The number of cases dealt with by the RLC based on outputs is 8,154. The IAS do not have any comparable statistical information on outputs.
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(2) what representations he has received from the Irish Prime Minister regarding the black diaries allegedly written by Sir Roger Casement; and what plans he has to release further documents at his request. [86225]
| New instructions | Appeals disposed of | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Asylum | Immigration | Asylum | Immigration | Unit cost £ | |
| Refugee Legal Centre | 6,123 | -- | 4,454 | -- | 796.38 |
| Immigration Advisory Service | 3,020 | 4,667 | 1,279 | 3,536 | (6)640.89 |
| Immigration Appellate Authority | -- | -- | (7)18,600 | (7)11,200 | -- |
(6) Overall unit cost for asylum and immigration cases
(7) Both rounded to the nearest 00
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AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Slaughtering Industry
Mr. Tyler: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list (a) the organisations currently consulted by his Ministry on the impact of proposed charges on the slaughtering industry and (b) other organisations which have made representations to his Ministry on this issue, or have been consulted on it, since May 1997. [84077]
Mr. Rooker [holding answer 14 May 1999]: The information requested by the hon. Member has been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Agriculture Council
Mr. Maclean:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list those areas (a) he will raise and (b) he expects other member states will raise at the forthcoming Agriculture Council meeting on 30 May to 1 June. [85636]
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Mr. Nick Brown:
The meeting scheduled for 30 May to 1 June in Dresden is an informal meeting of EU Agriculture Ministers. As is usual for such meetings, there is no formal agenda and no official documents will be discussed. The only item scheduled for discussion is a German Presidency Paper on "Sustainable Rural Development: Agricultural Structure Policy for Rural Areas".
Mr. Yeo:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to improve the labelling of animal feedstuffs that may contain genetically modified ingredients. [86131]
Mr. Nick Brown
[holding answer 8 June 1999]: The Government are pressing the Commission to forward to the Council its proposed Regulation covering novel animal feeds. This is necessary to ensure fair and consistent labelling in the EU. We are exploring whether national labelling arrangements are feasible pending the introduction of EC measures.