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National Insurance Commissioners

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many appeals by claimants to the National Insurance Commissioners were (a) granted leave, (b) successful and (c) remitted for rehearing to an appeal tribunal, for each region of the country, in each of the last three years. [111390]

Jane Kennedy: We do not categorise appeals by region and therefore are unable to provide the information in the form requested. However details of the number of applications in which leave was granted, in each of the last three years and, of the number of appeals determined in each of these years, the numbers which many were in the claimant's favour are set out in the tables.

Applications

	Leave
	Granted	Refused	Closed	Total
1997	1,865	2,850	37	4,752
1998	1,364	1,130	35	2,529
1999	2,010	1,935	31	3,976

Appeals

	Appeals decided	Decision in claimant's favour
1997	3,926	2,939
1998	4,317	3,210
1999	4,140	3,237

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) in relation to cases classed as lookalike, delayed behind a lead case before or beyond the NI commissioners what was (a) the average, (b) the median and (c) the longest delay (i) before disposal and (ii) so far while waiting for disposal in each of the last three years; [111395]

(2) in relation to appeals heard by the National Insurance Commissioners, how many times the DSS was represented by (a) solicitors, (b) junior counsel or advocate, (c) a QC and (d) DSS in-house staff in each of the last three years; [111393]

(3) what was the (a) average, (b) median and (c) longest delay between grant of leave to a claimant to appeal to the National Insurance Commissioners and the receipt of the (i) representations in writing of the DSS and (ii) representations in writing of the claimant in each of the last three years; [111392]

(4) how many successful appeals to the National Insurance Commissioners were remitted for rehearing to appeal tribunals in each of the last three years. [111397]

Jane Kennedy: This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department in relation to appeals heard by the National Insurance Commissioners (a) what was

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the total number of appeals heard and (b) how many claimants were represented (i) by solicitors, (ii) by junior counsel or advocate, (iii) by a QC, (iv) by an advice worker and (v) by his or her self in each of the last three years. [111394]

Jane Kennedy: Data regarding representation at appeal hearings are not kept, although it is unusual for claimants to be represented by solicitors, junior counsel or advocate or a QC. Claimants are on occasions represented by advice workers but in the main represent themselves.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many lead cases on appeal for the National Insurance Commissioners there were to higher courts; what was the name of each lead case; how many lookalike cases were held up in relation to each such case; and in relation to each such case in which court the case (a) was disposed of and (b) is awaiting disposal. [111396]

Jane Kennedy: The information is as follows:

(1) Lead case--Bate (Income support severe disability premium)

13 January 1993--Decided by the Commissioner adversely to the claimant on the question of backdating.

30 November 1994--Appeal by claimant to Court of Appeal allowed on a fresh point.

16 May 1996--Appeal by Secretary of State/Adjudication Officer to House of Lords allowed.

There were approximately 5,000 lookalike cases. (2) Lead case--Fairey (Day attention condition of DLA)

14 October 1994--Decided by Commissioner in favour of claimant.

15 June 1995--Appeal by Secretary of State/Adjudication Officer to Court of Appeal dismissed by a majority.

21 May 1997--Further appeal by Secretary of State/Adjudication Officer to House of Lords dismissed.

There were approximately 320 lookalike cases. (3) Lead case--Plummer and Hammond (Retirement allowance (industrial injuries benefit replacing reduced earnings allowance))

28 May 1997--Decided by Commissioner adverse to Claimant.

8 December 1998--Appeal by claimant to Court of Appeal dismissed.

Approximately 150 lookalike cases were then decided by the Commissioner.

Of the original 350 cases the remainder still await a judgment of the European Court of Justice in five representative cases (Hepple, Stec and others).

8 May 1998--Reference by Commissioner to ECJ. (4) Lead case--Stafford and Banks (Benefit for casual workers during school holidays)

24 February 1999--Decided by Commissioner in claimant's favour.

October 1999--Secretary of State/Adjudication Officer to Court of Appeal allowed.

The claimant's petition for leave to appeal to House of Lords is outstanding.

There are approximately 100 cases waiting decision.

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AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD

BSE

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will publish the most recent figures for confirmed BSE cases broken down by year of birth. [111528]

Ms Quin: The position as at 16 February 2000 was as follows:

Year of birth	Total number of confirmed cases
1974	1
1976	2
1977	10
1978	6
1979	41
1980	101
1981	261
1982	1,393
1983	4,461
1984	8,067
1985	11,064
1986	19,728
1987	36,861
1988	22,175
1989	12,631
1990	5,620
1991	4,519
1992	3,010
1993	2,062
1994	849
1995	118
1996	1
Unknown	43,322
Total	176,303

Mr. Beith: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to publish the evidence given in the Phillips inquiry into BSE. [110501]

Ms Quin: The BSE Inquiry is responsible for decisions about the publication of the evidence it receives and its approach has been to make available the evidence on which it relies. It has published witness statements and transcripts of all oral hearings on the internet at http://www.bse.org.uk, and many other documents are publicly available at its offices.

Mr. Beith: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what (a) evidence and (b) observations relating to the use of organophosphates on cattle he has submitted to the Phillips inquiry. [110502]

Ms Quin: My Department has provided numerous documents on the use of organophosphorus based warblecides to the BSE Inquiry, including papers on the warble fly eradication programme and on the licensing of warblecides.

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what live tests have resulted from the research which he sponsored as a result of the open competition for research on BSE diagnosis in cattle in 1994. [110527]

Ms Quin: No research on BSE diagnosis was funded following the open competition for research in 1994. This competition did not call for work in this area. There was,

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however, a competition in 1996 which resulted in three projects on diagnostic tests for BSE. One of these, which was designed to investigate the differences in metabolic markers in the live animal, is still in progress. None of this work has yet produced a test which can be used in the live animal. Useful post mortem tests have resulted from the completed projects. These are now being evaluated and developed further to improve their sensitivity.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action he has taken to protect (a) British consumers and (b) the British cattle herd since he was informed of the contents of the report to Directorate D of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of a veterinary mission to France with regard to certain protective measures against BSE and scrapie with particular reference to implementation of Commission Decisions 94/381/EC, 98/272/EC, 98/703EC and 97/18/EC. [109788]

Mr. Nick Brown [holding answer 11 February 2000]: Domestic legislation already in place to safeguard consumers prohibits the import of bovine specified risk material and the sale of any meat derived from cattle over 30 months old. Compliance with the prohibition on meat and bone meal in feed is monitored through regular sampling.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on what dates he has (a) spoken by telephone to and (b) met (i) the French Minister of Agriculture, (ii) the European Commissioner with responsibility for agriculture and (iii) the European Commissioner with responsibility for health and consumer protection to discuss the contents of the report to Directorate D of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of a veterinary mission to France with regard to certain protective measures against BSE and scrapie, with particular reference to implementation of Commission Decisions 94/381/EC, 98/272/EC, 98/703EC and 97/18/EC. [109787]

Mr. Nick Brown [holding answer 11 February 2000]: These issues are for the Commission and individual member states, not for bilateral discussion between member states.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he was first informed of the contents of the report to Directorate D of the Health and Consumer Protection Directorate-General of a veterinary mission to France with regard to certain protective measures against BSE and scrapie, with particular reference to implementation of Commission Decisions 94/381/EC, 98/272/EC 98/703EC and 97/18/EC. [109789]

Mr. Nick Brown: I was informed of the report on 6 February.

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list, for each of the last two years for which records are available, the ages at the time of diagnosis of all the cattle in the United Kingdom diagnosed as suffering from BSE. [109328]

Ms Quin: The table shows the number of confirmed cases of BSE reported in the UK in the calendar years 1998 and 1999 ¹ , by age of the animals.

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Age in years	1998	1999 (38)
1-2	0	0
2-3	1	1
3-4	131	42
4-5	772	415
5-6	986	713
6-7	626	510
7-8	232	220
8-9	140	94
9-10	115	42
10-11	83	52
11-12	49	32
12-13	11	11
13-14	4	11
14-15	1	0
15 or more	1	0
Age unknown	44	27
Totals	3,196	2,170

(38) Preliminary figures for 1999 as at 9 February 2000

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