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Antisocial Behaviour Orders
28. Alan Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many antisocial behaviour orders have been made in Wales. [20065]
Mr. Touhig: Four. The Minister of State with responsibility for crime reduction, policing and community safety, my right hon. Friend the Member for Southampton, Itchen (Mr. Denham), recently participated in a Wales-wide seminar to promote ASBOs. I anticipate that this well attended event will result in greater exchange of best practice and lead to an increase in the number of ASBOs being applied for in Wales.
PRIME MINISTER
Totnes
Q11. Mr. Steen: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make an official visit to Totnes. [20077]
The Prime Minister: I have no plans at present to do so.
Senior Civil Service Appointments
Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Prime Minister what new conditions an applicant will be required to agree to before appointment as (a) head of the Civil Service and (b) Cabinet Secretary. [20399]
The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Pendle (Mr. Prentice) on 26 November 2001, Official Report, column 626W.
DEFENCE
Afghanistan
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the number of (a) civilians and (b) members of military organisations killed in Afghanistan in the last two months; [22130]
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many bombing raids in Afghanistan did not hit their intended targets; and how many civilians he estimates have been (a) killed and (b) wounded by these raids. [21880]
Mr. Hoon: The coalition has from the outset of the campaign gone to very great lengths to minimise the risks to civilians from air strikes, which have been conducted against exclusively military targets. Although extensive battle damage assessment is routinely conducted after each strike, we cannot know for sure how many bombing raids may not have hit their intended targets, nor how many civilian casualties may have been caused as a result. While we investigate all such claims carefully, most cannot be verified.
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War Pensions
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armed forces personnel applications for a war pension from the War Pension Agency are outstanding; and if he will make a statement. [22198]
Dr. Moonie: As at 30 November 2001, there were 4,549 applications for a war pension outstanding from ex-services personnel.
Prisoners of War (Far East)
Peter Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence for what reason the definition of British as it applies to civilian former prisoners of the Japanese differs from that applied to armed forces personnel. [22309]
Dr. Moonie [holding answer 11 December 2001]: Under the former Far East prisoners ex-gratia payment scheme, the eligibility criteria for former service personnel are based upon the unit in which an individual was serving. Hence the main eligibility criterion is to have been taken as a prisoner of war while serving with our armed forces. In addition, certain other former military personnel who were taken as prisoners of war while serving in the colonial forces, the old Indian Army, or the Burmese armed forces and who received compensation in the 1950s under UK auspices under Article 16 of the Peace Treaty with Japan are also eligible for the scheme.
Mr. Swayne: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) what estimate he has made of the additional cost of extending his scheme of ex gratia payments to all surviving British passport holders and their spouses who were interned by the Japanese; [20321]
- (2) what estimate he has made of the numbers of surviving civilian internees of the Japanese and their spouses who do not qualify for payments under the rules of his scheme. [20322]
Dr. Moonie: No estimate has been made of the number of surviving civilians who were interned by the Japanese during the Second World War or of the number of them who were British passport holders at that time. We believe that the available data are too poor to be able to make such estimates.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Members' Pensions
Chris Grayling: To ask the President of the Council what provisions for hon. Members' pensions were in place in 1974; and what provisions there were in relation to former members of the armed forces in the House. [21491]
Mr. Robin Cook: Pension provision for hon. Members is made from the Parliamentary Contribution Pension Fund, established by the Ministerial Salaries and Members' Pension Act 1965. The provisions in place for hon. Members' pensions in 1974 were made under the Parliamentary and other Pensions Act 1972. This provided for pensions based on one-sixtieth of the final year's salary for each year of reckonable service on completion of a minimum of four years reckonable service when they retired on or after age 65. The Act also provided for a
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death in service lump sum, typically of one year's pay. Members were required to pay contributions of 5 per cent. of pay.
No special provisions are made for former members of the armed forces in the House.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Fuel Poverty Strategy
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the Draft Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Material Substances Forming Part of the Telecommunications System) Regulation 2001 on the Government's fuel poverty strategy. [22357]
Mr. Alexander: Representations were received from manufacturers of energy saving devices operated by power line technology as part of the Regulatory Impact Assessment consultations in the summer of 2000.
Powerline Technnology Industry
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the impact of the draft Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Material Substances forming part of the Telecommunications System) Regulation 2001 on the viability of the UK powerline technology industry. [22359]
Mr. Alexander: The Department undertook widespread consultations on this matter in the summer of 2000. All representations have been taken into account in developing the Government's policy on this issue.
Micro-CHP Boiler Systems
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she has prepared a regulatory impact assessment on the impact of the draft Wireless Telegraphy (Control of Material Substances forming part of the Telecommunications System) Regulation 2001 on the introduction of micro-CHP boiler systems to the UK market. [22360]
Mr. Alexander: No representations about such boiler systems were received during consultations for the regulatory impact assessment carried out in summer 2000.
Radio Interference
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many complaints her Department has received about radio interference from products compliant with standard EN50065–1. [22274]
Mr. Alexander: There are none recorded.
Unsolicited E-mail
Mr. Allan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research she has undertaken into systems that allow people to opt out from receiving unsolicited commercial e-mail; and what evaluation she has made of their effectiveness. [20831]
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Mr. Alexander: In response to proposed or adopted European legislation, my Department has consulted publicly on the effective regulation of unsolicited commercial e-mail on a number of occasions over the last few years. This consultation has covered existing and potential self-regulatory, co-regulatory and statutory approaches towards schemes for both opting in and opting out, but has not produced a consistent consensus in favour of one solution over another.
Employment Tribunals (Buckingham)
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many employment tribunal cases there were in the Buckingham constituency in each year since 1997; and what was the total level of compensation paid. [22644]
Alan Johnson: It is not possible to tell from the database of the Employment Tribunals Service how many employment tribunal cases there were in the Buckingham constituency in each year since 1997, nor the respective total level of compensation paid.
Fireworks
Mr. Crausby: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the effectiveness of the voluntary code agreement regarding the sale of fireworks. [21475]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friends the Members for Stourbridge (Ms Shipley) and for Jarrow (Mr. Hepburn) on 5 December 2001, Official Report, columns 305–06W.
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