---

Oil and Gas Licensing

Mr. Neil Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he expects to make the remaining licence awards in the 9th Landward Round of oil and gas licensing. [144850]

Mrs. Liddell: The outstanding issues mentioned in my answer to the House on 27 July 2000, Official Report, column 725W, have now been satisfactorily resolved. Further licence offers have been made to the following companies:

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 497W

PEDL Number/operator	Co-applicants	Blocks
95 Midmar Energy Onshore Ltd.	PermaGas Ltd.	SE60
	Altwood Petroleum Ltd.
96 Midmar Energy Onshore Ltd.		TQ42, TQ43, TQ44
97 Midmar Energy Onshore Ltd.		NC80, NC90, NC91
98 Black Rock Resources (UK) Ltd.	Magellan Petroleum (NT) Pty Ltd.
	Northern Petroleum plc
	Italmin Exploration S.R.L
99 Black Rock Resources (UK) Ltd.	Magellan Petroleum (NT) Pty Ltd.	SU50, SU60
	Northern Petroleum plc
	Italmin Exploration S.R.L
100 Coastal Oil and Gas Ltd.		SS78, SS88, SS98
101 Mustang Oil and Gas Ltd.	Celtic Petroleum Ltd.	SJ49
	Pinto Petroleum Ltd.

These licence offers conclude the consideration of applications in the 9th Round.

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 499W

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

British Citizens Overseas

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many British citizens were reported (a) missing, (b) murdered, (c) kidnapped or taken hostage and (d) imprisoned abroad in each year since 1996; and if he will list the countries concerned. [142490]

Mr. Hain: The information is in the tables.

Number of Britons reported missing abroad

Year	Number
1996	744
1997	676
1998	672
1999	198
2000	202

Countries concerned:
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Angola
Antigua
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Azerbijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bali
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belgium
Belize
Bolivia
Bosnia
Botswana
Brazil
Brunei
Bulgaria
Burma
Cambodia
Cameroon
Canada
Cayman
Chile
China
CIS
Colombia
Congo
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominician Republic

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 500W

Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Fiji
Finland
France
Gambia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Gutemala
Guinea
Honduras
Hong Kong
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Ivory Coast
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kenya
Korea
Kosovo
Kuwait
Laos
Lebanon
Lesotho
Libya
Macedonia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Malta
Mauritius
Mexico
Mongolia
Morocco
Mozambique
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Panama

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 501W

Papua New Guinea
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Saint Lucia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
St. Kitts
Sudan
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Sweden
Switzerland
Syria
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Trinidad and Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
Uganda
Ukraine
USA
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Yugoslavia
Zaire
Zambia
Zimbabwe.

Number of Britons reported killed abroad

Year	Number
1996	56
1997	48
1998	43
1999	48
2000	44

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 502W

Countries concerned:
Brazil
Canada
Colombia
Indonesia
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
New Zealand
Panama
Russia
Somalia
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Uganda
Ukraine
Yemen
Angola
Australia
Belgium
Belize
Cambodia
China
CIS
India
Italy
Kenya
Nepal
Philippines
Poland
South Africa
Spain
USA
Vietnam
Botswana
Congo
Cyprus
Denmark
Egypt
France
Gibraltar
Greece
Guyana
Honduras
Jamaica
Mozambique
Namibia
Netherlands
Papua New Guinea
Sweden
Antigua
Australia
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Comoros
Czech Republic
Guatemala
Israel

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 503W

Kuwait
Mexico
Pakistan
Portugal
Rwanda
Saudi Arabia
Togo.

Number of Britons reported kidnapped abroad

Year	Number
1996	14
1997	10
1998	27
1999	35
2000	22

Countries concerned:
Angola
Cambodia
CIS
Indonesia
Somalia
Yemen
Spain
Ecuador
Guinea
Turkey
Gibraltar
Nigeria
Bosnia
Czech Republic
Uganda
Cyprus
Pakistan
Georgia
China
Colombia
Egypt
Liberia
Peru
USA
Sierra Leone
Bangladesh
DRC
Australia
Fiji.

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the procedure for intervention by Her Majesty's Government in cases where a British national is (a) reported missing and (b) suspected to have died overseas. [142491]

Mr. Hain: We do all that we properly can to trace British nationals who have been reported missing or are suspected to have died overseas. It would not be possible for British consular staff to physically conduct searches so we approach relatives, local authorities, the police and any other agency which might help in the search.

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 504W

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in how many cases since 1996 the Government have intervened in cases where British citizens were reported (a) missing and (b) killed in countries overseas; which countries were concerned; and what were the results of the interventions. [142501]

Mr. Hain: We seek to be as helpful as possible within legal and resource constraints in every case where a British citizen is reported missing or killed overseas. 2,492 British citizens have been reported missing and 239 killed overseas since 1996. Information on the countries concerned is contained in my answer to my hon. Friend's earlier question. The information requested on our interventions and results of our interventions in these cases could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Surjit Kaur Athwal

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what actions he has taken in response to the disappearance of Surjit Kaur Athwal, a British citizen, in India in December 1998. [142500]

Mr. Hain: We have expressed our concerns about Mrs. Athwal to the Indian authorities on numerous occasions and at a high level. Mrs. Athwal's family met the Acting Head of Consular Division in August and will meet Baroness Scotland, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, early in the New Year. Through out efforts the Indian police granted permission for the Metropolitan police to become involved in the investigation, and we arranged for officers to travel to India this year to assist their Indian counterparts in any way possible. The family have a legal representative in India but a court case did not produce the result they were seeking, for lack of evidence. We shall continue to press the authorities to keep up their efforts to try to find Mrs. Athwal.

Departmental Advertising

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list for (a) 1996-97, (b) 1997-98, (c) 1998-99, (d) 1999-2000 and (e) 2000-01, (i) his Department's total spending on advertising campaigns, (ii) the cost of each individual advertising campaign and (iii) the criteria that were established to gauge the effectiveness of each campaign; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of each campaign based on these criteria. [142722]

Mr. Hain: In 1997-98 we spent £1 million on a publicity campaign to reduce the number of ticketless fans travelling to France for the World Cup Finals and to explain what consular services were available. Independent monitoring of the campaign showed that it had been effective in increasing awareness among fans of the dangers of travelling without tickets. Before our campaign, 13 per cent. of our target audience said they were likely or very likely to travel to France for the World Cup in the hope of getting into a game with a ticket bought on the black market. After the campaign, those saying they would still travel dropped to 6 per cent. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office did not undertake any advertising campaigns in 1996-97, 1998-99 and 1999-2000, and to date has not done so in 2000-01.

9 Jan 2001 : Column: 505W

---