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Departmental Accounts
Mr. Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what methods of depreciation his Department will apply in the current financial year to fixed assets in the preparation of departmental resource accounting balance sheets. [97046]
Mr. Hain: Depreciations will be provided at rates calculated to write off the valuation of fixed assets by equal instalments over their estimated useful lives. Freehold land is not depreciated. This method is in accordance with HM Treasury's Resource Accounting Manual. The requirements in the Manual regarding methods of depreciation will be underpinned by Financial Reporting Standard 15 "Tangible Fixed Assets", issued by the Accounting Standards Board.
Strategic Export Control
Mr. Miller: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when the Government intend to publish the second Annual Report on strategic export control. [97215]
Mr. Hain: We have issued the second Annual Report today. I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. It has now been entered on the FCO website (www.fco.gov.uk).
Angola
Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in inhibiting the use of diamond sales for funding the war in Angola. [96084]
Mr. Hain: UN Security Council resolution 1173 of 12 June 1998 imposed a ban on the direct or indirect import from Angola of all diamonds not controlled through the Angolan Government's Certificate of Origin of Origin regime. The aim was to cut off diamond revenues to UNITA, and so reduce their ability to fund continued fighting. The UK implements the resolution through the Angola (United Nations Sanctions) Order 1998.
UN Security Council resolution 1237 of 7 May 1999 established a panel of experts to investigate alleged violations of the sanctions against UNITA, in support of the work of the UN Angola Sanctions Committee. Panel members are paying a series of visits to the region, and will report on how sanctions in relation to UNITA diamonds can be implemented and enforced more effectively.
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We welcomed the announcement by De Beers on 5 October that they will no longer purchase any Angolan diamonds, and will urge their clients to adopt a similar policy.
Mr. Worthington:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if the UN Sanctions Committee for Angola has identified (a) the source of illegal arms importation in Angola and (b) those countries and corporations which have broken trade embargoes with Angola; and if he will make a statement. [96085]
Mr. Hain:
The UN Angola Sanctions Committee has been looking at ways to tighten implementation of UN sanctions against UNITA, but has not yet commented publicly on these matters. UN Security Council resolution 1237 of 7 May 1999 established, in support of the work of the Committee, a panel of experts with a mandate to investigate alleged violations of the sanctions against UNITA, including the arms embargo and restrictions on trade. Panel members will be paying a number of visits to the region. Based on their findings, they will issue conclusions and recommendations on how to improve implementation of the sanctions regime. The UK Government fully support the work of the UN Angola Sanctions Committee.
Mr. Worthington:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress is being made by him in seeking ratification by the UK of the International Criminal Court Statute. [96086]
Mr. Hain:
Detailed work to prepare legislation enabling the UK to ratify the International Criminal Court Statute is going forward and will be introduced as soon as the Parliamentary timetable permits. We remain strongly committed to the Court and intend to be among the first sixty states to ratify.
Mr. Baker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in any of the bilateral meetings which took place between representatives of his Department and of the Metropolitan police prior to the visit of President Jiang Zemin, the police were made aware that demonstrations in support of Tibet would cause embarrassment to the Government. [97117]
Mr. Battle:
We discussed demonstrations in the terms set out in my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) on 28 October 1999, Official Report, column 993. At no time did we say that demonstrations in support of Tibet would cause embarrassment to the Government.
Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the time limit for the Quality of Legislation EC Working Group; and what progress it has made. [95304]
Marjorie Mowlam:
I have been asked to reply.
The Group met for the last time on 3 December 1998. After adoption by the three Institutions involved, (European Parliament, Commission and Council), the
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Inter-Institutional Agreement on the quality of drafting of Community legislation was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 17 March 1999. The IIA requires the Institutions to follow guidelines setting out the general principles of good quality drafting and to implement some practical measures.
The UK Government have circulated the Agreement to all Departments and published it in full in the "Guide to Better European Regulation", copies of which have been widely disseminated, including to all MPs.
I understand that good progress is being made in the Institutions on the implementation measures including:
Mr. Simon Hughes:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the network information technology projects which are being undertaken by his Department, including the date each project started, the planned date for completion, the current expected date of completion, the planned cost of the project and the current estimate of total cost; and if he will make a statement. [94770]
Mr. Straw
[holding answer 21 October 1999]: A list of those significant Information Technology (IT) projects currently being undertaken by the Home Office, where the IT value of the project is in excess of £5 million or the project is critical to the business of the Home Office has been placed in the Library.
A wide interpretation has been taken as to what is meant by network information technology projects. I have included those projects which have a significant element of business change or voice technology as well as the more traditional computing projects.
The information presented on costs and timetables reflects differences between the nature and current stage of the projects.
Mr. Field:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many prisoners have been let out on licence each year since the scheme's inception; how many have broken their licence conditions in each year; and what monitoring he is putting in place to gauge the impact of the scheme. [95536]
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Mr. Boateng:
The Home Detention Curfew scheme began operation on 28 January 1999. Between that time and 27 October, 12,280 offenders have been made subject to the scheme. In the same period, 567 curfewees have had their licence revoked by the Secretary of State. Breaches of non-curfew related conditions by curfewees whose original offences were committed prior to 1 January 1999 are dealt with by the courts. Information on these cases is not held centrally.
The Home Detention Curfew scheme is being monitored and evaluated by the Home Office Research, Development and Statistics Directorate, who will be producing a report on the first year of the scheme's operation during the course of the year 2000.
Fiona Mactaggart:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff at the Immigration and Nationality Directorate in (a) January 1998, (b) July 1998, (c) January 1999 and (d) July 1999 were engaged (i) wholly and (ii) partly in making (x) asylum and (y) immigration decisions. [96027]
Mrs. Roche:
Information is not available in the form requested. Prior to the formation of the Integrated Casework Directorate (ICD) in December 1998, asylum decisions were made by staff working in the Asylum Directorate, and immigration casework decisions by the After Entry and Appeals Directorate (AEAD) and some staff in the Immigration Service Enforcement Directorate (ISED). The total number of staff in the Asylum Directorate in January 1998 was 659 and in July 1998 was 530, and in the AEAD for the same months was 623 and 569 respectively. These totals include management and support grades. Over and above these figures, there were a number of caseworkers in the ISED making decision in deportation and illegal entry cases.
An Inter-Institutional Group to implement the Guidelines has been established.
A practical guide is due to be published in March 2000;
in the Commission each Directorate General has appointed a legislative co-ordinator who will ensure that drafting rules and technical rules are complied with when texts are drafted;
in the Commission and Council officials responsible for legal drafting will, after training, form specialist drafting units to train officials who draft legal texts;
improvements have been made to the IT tools available to assist legal drafting in both the Council and the Commission, for example "LegisWrite", which provides models for all types of Community texts, has been recently introduced in the Commission.
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