---

Zimbabwe

Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will introduce legislation to extend similar protection to the value of pensions paid by the Zimbabwean Government to British subjects recruited from Britain for appointments in the Public Service of Southern Rhodesia before November 1965 who now live outside Zimbabwe, as that given under the Overseas Pensions Act 1973 to HMOCS officers. [124260]

Mr. Foulkes: I have been asked to reply.

The Government have no current plans to introduce legislation to expand the pension protection arrangements under the Overseas Pensions Act 1973 to former employees of the Southern Rhodesia public service.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

European Community Humanitarian Office

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if contributions to ECHO are voluntary for members of the European Union; and if she will change her contribution to ECHO based on its past performance. [121098]

Clare Short: No. ECHO is funded, as are other EC external programmes, from the EC budget, to which member state contributions are mandatory. The UK contribution, under a formula agreed in 1992, will be 17.95 per cent. this year.

Zimbabwe

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will provide accounts regarding the distribution of United Kingdom public money to Zimbabwe in the 1980s and 1990s to fund the acquisition of white-owned farms; and if she will set out the number of such farms acquired, the approximate acreage of each farm, the cost of acquiring each farm, to whom ownership of each farm was subsequently transferred, and how much of the original acreage acquired remains in productive operation. [120933]

Clare Short: A grant of £20 million was agreed with the Government of Zimbabwe in 1981. This funded 42 resettlement projects for the benefit of refugees and landless people following the Independence war. British funds were used for land demarcation and fencing, provision of water and sanitation, construction of schools, clinics and other buildings, and also for crop packs and training. The Grant was largely disbursed by 1989; however it was eventually closed in 1996 with £3 million unspent. Over a similar period, the counterpart funds to

12 Jun 2000 : Column: 443W

£27 million in programme aid were used by the Government of Zimbabwe to fund their share of the programme.

An ODA evaluation in 1988 found that the majority of families settled had benefited considerably through the provision of increased opportunities for income generation and the availability of services such as health and education. The programme had also been successful from the national economic perspective, having an economic rate of return of approximately 21 per cent. The Zimbabwean Comptroller and Auditor General carried out a value for money study of the programme in 1993. Despite identifying a number of shortcomings, the study concluded that the exercise was well planned in accordance with clear policies and procedures. It had benefited mainly the landless rural poor, most of whose standard of living had significantly improved.

Mr. Nicholls: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) how much money has been given to the Government of Zimbabwe under the Land Reform and Resettlement Programme, since May 1997; [124335]

(2) how many Zimbabwean families have benefited from land acquired using Her Majesty's Government funds since 1997; [124337]

(3) how many farms the Zimbabwean Government have acquired using funds provided by Her Majesty's Government since May 1997. [124336]

Clare Short: In 1996 a land resettlement grant signed in 1981 was closed with £3 million undisbursed because the Government of Zimbabwe had not produced suitable plans to spend it. We have not disbursed funds for land acquisition and resettlement since. We have made clear that land reform and resettlement should be an important part of a poverty reduction programme in Zimbabwe, and supported the principles to govern a future land reform programme agreed at the Donors Conference in 1998. These include poverty reduction, transparency and the rule of law. The Government of Zimbabwe have not implemented the 1998 principles. We made £5 million available to support land resettlement initiatives led by civil society and the private sector.

PRIME MINISTER

Public Question-time Meetings

Mr. Fallon: To ask the Prime Minister on what dates, and at which venues, he held question-time meetings with members of the public in (a) 1999 and (b) 2000 to date. [122984]

The Prime Minister [holding answer 19 May 2000]: I answer questions from members of the public all the time.

Queen Mother's Birthday

Mr. Burns: To ask the Prime Minister if he will designate the Queen Mother's birthday in August as a public holiday; and if he will make a statement. [124752]

12 Jun 2000 : Column: 444W

The Prime Minister: The Government receive a variety of suggestions for additional bank holidays to celebrate special occasions. However, it was felt that another additional bank holiday, following so soon after the Millennium bank holiday, would be inappropriate. This followed consultation with the Royal Household who were content with the decision.

Post Office

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Prime Minister when he will publish the Performance and Innovation Unit report on the Post Office. [125314]

The Prime Minister: Shortly.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL

Crown Prosecution Service

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Solicitor-General if he will accelerate the programme for modernising the information technology of the Crown Prosecution Service to match the introduction of the new police IT for managing casework. [124913]

The Solicitor-General: I am pleased to report that all CPS offices, including those in Staffordshire, will benefit from a significant investment in IT in 2000-01.

The CPS was awarded £12 million from the Government's Capital Modernisation Fund in July 1999 and this money, together with existing CPS resources, will fund the Connect 42 project. Connect 42 will provide lawyers and caseworkers with access to modern PCs across the 42 CPS Areas for the first time. It will also enable the CPS to have secure electronic mail connections with its partners in the Criminal Justice System, including the police.

A pilot of Connect 42 has been running in Sussex since March 2000. The national roll-out timetable is demanding and is scheduled to start in August 2000 and to be completed in July 2001, in advance of the new police casework system in most Areas. I understand that the detailed timetable for the new police casework system is being developed. The intention is to implement the system in police forces by the end of 2002.

Connect 42 will be followed by step 2 of the Modernisation Programme, the Compass project, which is procuring a Managed Service through a PFI contract. This will use the IT infrastructure of Connect 42, and complement it with a case management system designed to meet the needs of front line CPS staff. It will provide the ability to work with electronic case files and allow information to be exchanged much more easily with other organisations in the criminal justice system through speedier electronic communications between computer systems.

12 Jun 2000 : Column: 445W

The CPS plans to advertise its requirement for the Compass project in the Official Journal of the European Communities in the 3rd quarter of 2000. Following procurement and development in 2001 and 2002, implementation of the system is planned for 2003. The CPS does not think that it is possible to accelerate this demanding timetable.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Solicitor-General what was the funding of the Crown Prosecution Service (a) in real terms and (b) as a proportion of GDP for each year of its existence. [124910]

The Solicitor-General: The funding of the Crown Prosecution Service in real terms and as a proportion of GDP for each year of its existence is listed as follows:

		£000
Year	Total expenditure in real terms	Proportion of GDP (Percentage)
1986-87	124,124	0.019
1987-88	212,691	0.031
1988-89	233,487	0.033
1989-90	255,755	0.035
1990-91	274,902	0.038
1991-92	294,325	0.041
1992-93	321,371	0.045
1993-94	344,510	0.047
1994-95	350,410	0.045
1995-96	345,281	0.044
1996-97	339,536	0.042
1997-98	331,139	0.039
1998-99	328,347	0.038
1999-2000	323,408	0.035

12 Jun 2000 : Column: 446W

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Solicitor-General by what formula the funding of the Crown Prosecution Service nationally is distributed to the area offices. [124911]

The Solicitor-General: Decisions on how much of the CPS's resources should be allocated to individual CPS Areas are for the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief Executive. They are informed by a number of analyses, including activity based costing (ABC), estimated payroll costs of staff not included in ABC analyses, accommodation costs, indicators of the type and nature of Areas, specific local factors, and the involvement of individual Areas in new initiatives.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Solicitor-General what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the budget of the Staffordshire CPS. [124912]

The Solicitor-General: Decisions on how much of the CPS's resources should be allocated to individual CPS Areas are for the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Chief Executive. The allocation of the CPS's budget to the 42 CPS Areas is informed by a detailed analysis of the costs of the prosecution process and caseload. This analysis is used to inform decisions on the budget for CPS Staffordshire and for all other CPS Areas.

---