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Pakistan

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has made regarding the re-establishment of democratic Government in Pakistan; and if he will make a statement. [127836]

Mr. Hain: Although we cannot endorse the recent ruling by Pakistan's Supreme Court that last October's coup was legitimate, we have noted the Court's ruling that national elections should be held within three years. We are encouraged that General Musharraf has apparently accepted this. We have continued to urge Pakistan's military to announce a clear and credible timetable for the transition to full democracy, most recently when

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the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office met his Pakistani counterpart on 22 June.

Sierra Leone

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the proposed budget is for the UNAMSIL deployment in Sierra Leone for the year 2000. [127659]

Mr. Hain: The UNAMSIL budget for July 1999 to June 2000 is US$266,610,000, and for July 2000 to June 2001 US$504,399,051.

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many child soldiers have been demobilised by pro-Government forces in Sierra Leone since 8 May. [127658]

Mr. Hain: The screening and demobilisation of child soldiers from pro-Government forces in Sierra Leone is continuing. The screening programme is to identify those children who have actually been involved in fighting. Of the 135 children who have recently entered the screening programme, 32 were identified as child soldiers.

We welcome the Government of Sierra Leone's policy that there must be no place for children in the Sierra Leone armed forces, and that all child soldiers must be disarmed and demobilised. We will continue to press for the early release of all child soldiers in Sierra Leone.

Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent representations he has (i) made to and (ii) received from the Presidents of (a) Nigeria, (b) Liberia and (c) Sierra Leone, regarding the ECOWAS bid to broker a ceasefire between Sierra Leone Government forces and RUF rebels. [127652]

Mr. Hain: We remain in regular touch with ECOWAS states over the situation in Sierra Leone. We support the efforts of ECOWAS to help restore stability throughout Sierra Leone and bring about an end to violence.

President Kabbah has made clear that, before any ceasefire, the Revolutionary United Front must meet a number of conditions, including the immediate and unconditional release of all UN peacekeepers and other detainees.

Zimbabwe

Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the attendance of observers for the forthcoming elections in Zimbabwe. [127718]

Mr. Hain: Around 400 international observers from such organisations as the Commonwealth, the European Union, the Organisation for African Unity and the Southern African Development Community, as well as national groups are present in Zimbabwe.

We are dismayed that the Government of Zimbabwe has not allowed the United Nations Development Programme to co-ordinate the activities of the various observer missions, but we understand that there is a good degree of informal co-ordination between the observer teams.

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Iran

Mr. Luff: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, during his forthcoming visit to Iran, he will raise with the Government the extent of religious freedom in Iran and the treatment of the Baha'i community. [127985]

Mr. Hain: We and our EU partners have regularly raised our concerns over Iranian treatment of the Baha'is and shall continue to do so. Persecution on religious grounds is totally unacceptable.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs will discuss a number of issues, including human rights, during his visit to Iran on 4-5 July.

ENVIRONMENT, TRANSPORT AND THE REGIONS

Incineration

Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if authorities building incinerators can meet their recycling targets through the re-use of the ash. [126468]

Mr. Mullin [holding answer 20 June 2000]: The introduction of new statutory performance standards was announced in the Waste Strategy 2000. Subject to consultation, we intend that the re-use of ash from waste incineration will not count towards achieving these targets.

Information Kiosks

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what steps his Department is taking to amend planning regulations to remove obstacles to local authorities providing street information kiosks for their local communities. [127303]

Ms Beverley Hughes: We have no current plans to make changes to the planning regulations in respect of local planning authorities providing information kiosks.

Compulsory Purchase Orders

Mr. Rooney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions in what circumstances and by what means a compulsory purchase order in respect of a private dwelling can be rescinded. [126914]

Mr. Raynsford [holding answer 21 June 2000]: Compulsory purchase of property must normally be authorised by compulsory purchase order.

A compulsory purchase order made by a non- ministerial acquiring authority, such as a local authority, must be submitted for decision to the relevant "confirming authority". This is normally the Secretary of State or Minister responsible to Parliament for the legislation and policies which apply in the particular circumstances. An order is made and confirmed under procedures set out in, and regulations prescribed for the purposes of, the Acquisition of Land Act 1981. There are also rules for public local inquiries held for the purposes of that Act.

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An acquiring authority may have resolved to make a compulsory purchase order but, before submitting it formally, they may decide that they do not wish to proceed. In these circumstances, no formal compulsory purchase procedures will have been initiated and the confirming authority will have no function to discharge. Once the acquiring authority have formally submitted the order, they have no formal power to withdraw or rescind it but, in practice, it is possible to overcome this potential difficulty. If an authority have submitted a compulsory purchase formally and then decide that they do not wish to proceed with it, for example because they will no longer need to rely on compulsory powers, the normal practice in my Department is to give a short formal decision declining to confirm the order. This serves both to formally discharge the Secretary of State's statutory function and to remove the imminent "threat" of compulsory purchase of property.

If an order is confirmed, the acquiring authority must make the order operative by serving and publishing notice of the confirmation before they may exercise the compulsory powers authorised by the confirmed order. Once the order is operative, unless there is a successful challenge in the High Court, the acquiring authority have three years in which to exercise the compulsory powers by serving a notice to treat, which period may be extended by agreement, or by completing an alternative procedure vesting title to the property in themselves. Hence, one way of rescinding an order at this stage would be to allow the period to lapse, so that the authority would no longer be authorised to exercise compulsory powers. This may happen where, for example, an order was confirmed subject to an undertaking given by the acquiring authority that they would not implement the order if the owner carried out certain repairs by a certain date. Compensation is payable where a notice to treat lapses.

An acquiring authority may withdraw a notice to treat within six weeks of receiving a detailed notice of an owner's claim for compensation given in response to a notice to treat. If a dispute over compensation is referred to the Lands Tribunal, the acquiring authority may still withdraw their notice to treat within six weeks of the Tribunal's final determination. This may happen where, for example, the amount awarded by the Tribunal is higher than the authority are prepared to pay. In either case, the claimant must be reimbursed certain losses and expenses.

Land Remediation

Dr. Fox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many mobile plant licences have been issued to practitioners within the land remediation industry; how many licensed the (a) in situ and (b) ex situ remediation of land; and what technologies were involved in each case. [127580]

Mr. Mullin: To date, the Environment Agency has issued 21 mobile plant licences of which six are for in-situ remediation, 14 for ex-situ remediation and one for a combination of both. For practical purposes, the Agency has classified the technologies involved as ex-situ bioremediation (soil treatment beds) (5.5 licences); in-situ bioremediation (1 licence); soil vapour extraction (3.5 licences); soil washing (6 licences); solvent extraction (1 licence); solidification and stabilisation (3 licences); and transformation by chemical treatment (1 licence).

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