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Departmental Twinning

Mr. Mackinlay: To ask the President of the Council how many requests there have been to her Department for placement of officials from Central, East European and CIS states as twins of his officials; how many such officials have been accepted as twins; and from which countries (a) those who were accepted and (b) those who were not accepted came. [93999]

Mrs. Beckett: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given today by the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Vaz).

CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

Pastoral Measure (Whitby)

Mr. Quinn: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, if he will make a statement on the conclusions of Pastoral Measure 1983 Whitby St. John Proposed Pastoral Scheme published on 21 September (Ref. PR43/401), setting out how the views of the Whitby Anglican Community have been taken into account by the Commissioners and detailing the method of appeal to the Commissioners against this decision. [95100]

Mr. Stuart Bell: The draft scheme under the Pastoral Measure 1983 proposing the closure of the church of St. John, Whitby was, as with all such schemes, served on, inter alia, the relevant incumbent, team vicar, pcc, archdeacon and rural dean. It was also published in the Whitby Gazette and Middlesbrough Evening Gazette and displayed on the door of the churches of St. Mary, Whitby; St. John, Whitby; and St. Hilda, Whitby. It was open to anyone to make representations and the statement of 21 September 1999 to which my hon.

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Friend refers sets out who made representations in favour of the scheme and who made representations against. My hon. Friend will have noted that there were views for and against among Whitby churchgoers. An earlier identical draft scheme (which had to be withdrawn when procedural flaws in the diocesan consultations came to light) was the subject of a visit to Whitby by a Sub-Committee of the Commissioners' Pastoral Committee. On that occasion, the Sub-Committee met the incumbent, the Whitby pcc and the St. John's congregation.

All views were most carefully taken into account but ultimately the Commissioners concluded that the case for declaring St. John's redundant had not been made as, in their view, it was required as a chapel of ease in the centre of Whitby.

The Commissioners' Pastoral Committee provided, in effect, a place of appeal against the proposal by the diocese of York to declare this church redundant. The Pastoral Measure 1983 provides no procedure for appeal against a decision by the Commissioners not to proceed with a draft scheme but the diocese is free to promote fresh proposals for pastoral re-organisation in Whitby.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Land Mines

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much money annually has been spent by her Department on humanitarian demining since 1991. [94665]

Clare Short: My Department's bilateral disbursements on humanitarian mine action are:

Financial year	£ million
1991-92	0.360
1992-93	1.769
1993-94	3.152
1994-95	5.969
1995-96	4.844
1996-97	4.369
1997-98	4.656
1998-99	5.824
1999-2000(10)	12.400

(10) Commitments to date including Kosovo

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much money her Department has allocated to assist the victims of mines and on mine awareness in each year since 1991. [94640]

Clare Short: My Department does not set aside resources from its Humanitarian Mine Action budget specifically for land mine survivors. Instead, health care and community-based rehabilitation assistance is provided through DFID's bilateral development co-operation programmes or institutional programme support. The financial records do not disaggregate assistance to land mine survivors from other categories of special needs.

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Community based mine awareness activities are usually integrated into mine survey and clearance projects, and are not recorded as a separate disbursement. In addition, disbursements on discrete mine awareness projects are:

Financial year	£
1992-93	6,451
1995-96	15,230
1996-97	70,000
1999-2000(11)	1,400,000

(11) Committed to date

Ministerial Visit (Balkans)

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will make a statement on her most recent visit to the Balkans. [95643]

Clare Short: I visited Kosovo on 24-25 August to assess need and plan the shift of the Department for International Development's (DFID) assistance from an emergency to a longer-term programme. The overall message that I received was one of cautious optimism. We found there had been steady progress in rehabilitation, although much remained to be done. We emphasised to UNMIK and the EC the importance of moving quickly and enabling the Kosovars to take on a bigger role in the reconstruction effort. We continue to work with the international community and the local population to help achieve this. Our operations are now in transition to a longer-term programme of assistance. My officials will visit the region early next month to take this process forward.

TREASURY

Euro

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library the European Commission's periodic surveys on the progress and impact of the Prince programme on public awareness of the euro. [95303]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I understand that, to date, the European Commission have not carried out any periodic surveys on public awareness of the euro under the Prince Programme.

Winter Mortality

Mr. Boswell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the excess monthly winter mortality over each of the last five years. [94948]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Tim Boswell, dated 25 October 1999:

As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on excess monthly winter mortality.

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Information on excess deaths in winter months is shown below.

Excess winter deaths, England and Wales, 1993-94 to 1997-98

Year	Excess winter deaths
1993-94	25,900
1994-95	27,300
1995-96	40,190
1996-97	47,690
1997-98	22,900

Excess winter deaths are defined as the difference between the number of deaths during the four winter months (December to March) and the average of the number of deaths during the preceding autumn (August to November) and the following summer (April to July).

Cash Management

Mr. Caplin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the timing of the transfer of cash management from the Bank of England to the Debt Management Office. [95866]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on 6 May 1997 that the functions of debt management and cash management would be transferred from the Bank of England to the Treasury. The UK Debt Management Office (DMO) was established on 1 April 1998 and took over debt management from that date. The Government's debt management plans for 1999-2000 which were published in the Debt Management Report in March 1999 anticipated that cash management would be transferred from the Bank to the DMO during 1999-2000. This transfer, when complete, will separate the Bank's monetary policy operations from the DMO's debt and cash management operations. This will avoid any perceptions of conflicts of interest between the two operations, and further deliver the Government's policy of predictability and transparency in debt management.

The transfer of cash management from the Bank to the DMO during 1999-2000 will be effected on a phased basis. The phasing is designed to avoid placing undue requirements on the markets in the period before and immediately after the change to the Year 2000 date.

From 15 November, the DMO will become accountable for the new Debt Management Account, which will take over from the Gilt-Edged Official Operations Account as the Treasury account for debt (and later) cash management operations. During January 2000, the DMO will start to issue Treasury bills from the Debt Management Account. During February, the DMO intends to undertake a limited range of bilateral transactions with counterparties. From the end of March 2000, full responsibility for managing the government's daily cash position will be transferred from the Bank to the DMO.

In order to enable the DMO to start the phased introduction of these cash management operations from 15 November, I have today laid before Parliament revised Treasury Bill regulations SI 1999-2907 and made a Commencement Order SI 1999-2908 (C.76) under paragraph 3 of Schedule 26 of the Finance Act 1998. Taken together, these statutory instruments will enable the Debt Management Office to begin accounting for its debt

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and cash management operations through the new Debt Management Account, which will be subject to NAO audit. The Gilt-edged Official Operations Account is currently used to bring debt management operations to account. The Commencement Order will also provide for the transfer of the debt assets of the Gilt-edged Official Operations Account to the Debt Management Account.

The Executive Agency Framework Document for the DMO has also been revised to take account of the transfer of the cash management function to the DMO. Copies of the revised Framework Document have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.

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