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Alcohol Abuse

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he plans to publish a national strategy for dealing with alcohol abuse; and if he will make a statement. [124699]

Yvette Cooper: We plan to publish a consultation paper later this year, which will allow a period for comment, prior to the publication of the strategy.

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MMR Vaccines

Mr. Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Taunton (Jackie Ballard) of 3 April 2000, Official Report, column 349W, on MMR vaccines, if he will provide the (a) current and (b) projected total costs of meningitis C vaccine purchased by the NHS as part of the current vaccination programme. [123166]

Yvette Cooper [holding answer 5 June 2000]: The cost of vaccine purchase is commercially confidential. However, at the end of the programme we hope to be able to give an aggregate cost for the whole programme including vaccine purchase, distribution, implementation, information and publicity.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL

Butler Report

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Solicitor-General if the report by His Honour Gerald Butler QC concerning the handling of the case of R v. Doran and others has been delivered; what information concerning it will be published; and what action the Government plans to take in response. [124941]

The Solicitor-General: The report by His Honour Gerald Butler QC was delivered on 14 April. On 22 July 1999, Official Report, columns 607-09, the Attorney-General indicated the Government's intention to make a summary of the report and its recommendations available to both Houses. In the event, it is possible to make the report available in full, and the Attorney-General has therefore today lodged a copy of the report in the Libraries of both Houses, together with a copy of the Government's response. In addition, the summary included in the report and the inquiry's recommendations, together with the Government's response to them, are being made publicly available on the HM Customs and Excise internet site (http://www.hmce/gov.uk), and copies of the full report will be available on request to HM Customs and Excise at a cost of £8.

All the recommendations made to the Attorney-General in the report which are capable of acceptance immediately have been accepted. Further work is required by other recommendations and such work is being set in hand.

With the agreement of the Chairman of Customs and Excise Commissioners, His Honour John Gower QC, assisted by Sir Anthony Hymenoid KCB QC, has agreed to carry out an immediate review of the role of Customs as a prosecuting authority. The terms of reference are:

Having regard to the Butler Report and the Hosker Report, the tripartite system operated within Customs and Excise in relation to the investigation and prosecution of offences, and to all other relevant considerations, to examine


(1) whether or not some or all of the prosecutions at present conducted by the Solicitor's Office of HM Customs and Excise should continue to be conducted by that Office;

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(2) to the extent that it is concluded that the Solicitor's Office should not continue to conduct some or all of those prosecutions, whether such prosecutions should be conducted by an existing prosecution authority, or by some other body.

and to make recommendations.

The Attorney-General anticipates receiving this report by the end of October this year.

Crown Prosecution Service

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Solicitor-General what targets he has set the Crown Prosecution Service in respect of the number and duration of adjournments in magistrates courts proceedings. [125038]

The Solicitor-General: No specific targets have been set by the Crown Prosecution Service in respect of adjournments. The service is working with other criminal justice partners to reduce the number of avoidable adjournments, which impact on a number of the Government's over-arching objectives for the criminal justice system; particularly those for dealing with cases with appropriate speed and meeting the needs of victims and witnesses. Adjournments may be caused by a combination of factors not necessarily within the control of any one agency, and it would not be appropriate to target the prosecution alone.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Solicitor-General how many Crown Prosecution Service inspectors there are; how many (a) are women, (b) are from ethnic minorities, (c) have disabilities and (d) were formerly Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors, and in what grades; and if he will make a statement. [125078]

The Solicitor-General: There are three categories of inspector within the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate--casework inspectors, business management inspectors and legal inspectors at levels B2, D and E respectively. The breakdown by reference to gender and ethnic origin is set out in the table.

	Male	Female	Ethnic minority
Casework Inspectors	0	5	2
Business Management	1	(8)1	0
Legal Inspectors	8	6	2

(8) This person has been appointed and takes up the post on 12 June 2000.

The Chief Inspector and three Group Directors (SCS level) are all male. None comes from an ethnic minority. No inspector has declared himself/herself disabled.

The Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate at present constitutes a unit within the CPS, but will become an independent statutory body subject to enactment and implementation of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate Bill now before Parliament. All staff are at present therefore employed by the CPS. It is intended that the Inspectorate should in future be staffed by a combination of inspectors who have served in the CPS and others who have not and will therefore bring an external perspective to its work.

Most inspectors are now recruited by open competition. Ten out of 14 legal inspectors served in the CPS immediately before joining the CPS; one served in

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HM Customs and Excise (although she had in the past been employed by the CPS); one served as a trade union national officer for four years (while remaining employed by the CPS); and two joined from private practice. Both business management inspectors were recruited by one competition from outside the civil service. The casework inspectors all joined the Inspectorate from the CPS itself.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Solicitor-General how many Crown Prosecution Service inspectors have undergone race awareness training; what the training consisted of; and if he will make a statement. [125079]

The Solicitor-General: With the exception of three inspectors who joined in April and May 2000, all inspectors have had racial awareness training. The common features of the training may be summarised as follows:

1. All the staff with line management responsibility have been required to attend a formal course run by the CPS on Human Awareness and Racial Equality.

2. All staff have been required to participate in discussion groups based on a showing of the CPS Equality and Diversity video.

3. An Inspectorate training event (involving all staff) in May 1999 incorporated separate presentations and discussion sessions led by a senior lawyer within CPS Policy Directorate and by the Director for Criminal Justice and Race at NACRO. A similar training event in May 2000 included a presentation by a senior lawyer within CPS Policy Directorate and by the Director for Criminal Justice and Race at NACRO. Newly appointed inspectors will undergo race awareness training as part of a personal development plan which all staff must have. The Inspectorate keeps under review the need for training to ensure that no discriminatory practices occur within the Inspectorate itself; in addition, inspectors must be properly equipped to examine diversity issues in all aspects of the inspection process.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Solicitor-General, pursuant to his answer of 14 February 2000, Official Report, column 369W, on the Crown Prosecution Service, if the Crown Prosecution Service has completed its consideration of how the recommendations of the Employment Tribunal in its decision in the case of Bamieh v. CPS (Case No. 2202655(98)), concerning temporary acting-up posts should be met; and if he will make a statement. [125104]

The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service has implemented the Employment Tribunal's recommendation concerning temporary acting-up posts as Prosecution Team Leader. With effect from 29 February 2000, such opportunities have been advertised in the weekly guide to CPS business which is circulated to all CPS staff. The CPS will be monitoring each acting-up appointment and at the end of the twelve-month period covered by the recommendation will be considering whether this practice should be adopted permanently into the Department's deputising and temporary promotion procedures.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Solicitor-General if all Chief Crown Prosecutors have received race awareness training; if the Equality Committee of the Crown Prosecution Service has completed its review of training; and if he will make a statement. [125107]

The Solicitor-General: All Chief Crown Prosecutors have seen an internal video to raise awareness of equality issues in the Crown Prosecution Service. In addition, the Chief Crown Prosecutors discussed the issues raised at their recent (April) conference. All of the 42 CCPs and

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ACCPs have attended a formal training event for racial equality and human awareness. The Equality Committee has agreed an action plan to review and amend the content of 60 internal courses and a number of new courses by the end of December 2000.

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