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Health and Safety Legislation

Mr. John Taylor: To ask the President of the Council what plans he has to introduce health and safety legislation this Session; and if he will make a statement. [36596]

Dr. Whitehead: I have been asked to reply.

We have no plans to introduce health and safety legislation this Session.

CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

Priests (Compensation)

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, how many priests claimed compensation under the scheme for those priests who disagreed with the ordination of women in each year since the scheme's inception. [37765]

Mr. Bell: The Ordination of Women (Financial Provisions) Measure 1993 took effect on 22 February 1994. By the end of 2001, 412 clergy had resigned and were receiving or had received payments under the Measure. A yearly breakdown is as follows:

Year of resignation	Number of claimants
1994	232
1995	67
1996	39
1997	20
1998	19
1999	13
2000	15
2001	7
Total	412

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, how many applications for compensation there were in

27 Feb 2002 : Column 1281W

the (a) last year and (b) current year from priests claiming compensation under the Ordination of Women Measure. [37764]

Mr. Bell: In 2001 seven clergy applied for and are receiving payment under the Ordination of Women (Financial Provisions) Measure 1993. So far in 2002 one minister has applied for and is receiving such payment.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners, what the cost of the compensation Measure has been for those leaving the priesthood over the ordination of women in each year since the compensation Measure came into effect. [37766]

Mr. Bell: By 31 December 2001, the cumulative cost of payments made to clergy who had resigned and were receiving or had received payments under the Ordination of Women (Financial Provisions) Measure 1993 was £15.8 million. The annual totals are:

£ million

Year of resignation	Total cost
1994	2.6
1995	3.3
1996	2.9
1997	1.0
1998	1.8
1999	1.8
2000	1.2
2001	1.2
Total	15.8

These figures include monthly payments, grants for resettlement and, where needed, retraining, pension contributions and some assistance with rental for retirement housing.

Expenditure to 31 December 2001 and budgeted provision for future expenditure in relation to the 412 claimants under the Measure is £24.2 million in total.

LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Royal Peculiars

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) if he will place in the Library a copy of the written submissions made to him in response to the Review on the Royal Peculiars; [37767]

(2) how many (a) individuals and (b) organisations have submitted comments on the Review on the Royal Peculiars. [37727]

Mr. Wills: 38 individuals and nine organisations have submitted comments in response to the Department's consultation on the recommendations of the Review of Royal Peculiars.

A copy of these responses will be placed in the Library when they are published.

Applications for Probate

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make it his policy to review the fee structure established by the Court

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Service for applications for probate to ensure that the fee is more closely related to the value of the net estate; and if he will make a statement. [37655]

Mr. Wills: Following a review in 1999, the fees for non-contentious probate were revised so that they more closely reflected the cost of providing the service. At present there are no plans to conduct a further review of the fees structure.

Legal Aid

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what steps she (a) has taken and (b) intends to take to encourage trainee solicitors to undertake legal aid practice. [36439]

Ms Rosie Winterton: A number of initiatives have been introduced in order to assist with the continuing recruitment and retention of publicly funded lawyers. In April 2000, of the £46.7 million of additional money which was allocated to the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to assist with Legal Help contracts in 2000–01:

£23 million, which was subsequently increased to £29 million, was awarded for asylum work to finance an incentive package to include training, recruitment and financial help to encourage existing contractors to expand and new organisations to enter into contracts.


£1 million was provided to fund training in immigration, mental health and community care. This was provided in order to develop training courses and help firms to expand and retrain staff in priority categories of law.

This is an area we keep under review, because our reforms to legal aid give the LSC opportunities to improve the supplier base. But I have no immediate proposals to announce.

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what recent assessment she has made of trends in recruitment and retention of legal aid lawyers. [36438]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Legal Services Commission (LSC) reviews trends in recruitment and the retention of publicly funded lawyers on a continuing basis to ensure that there are sufficient numbers of competent lawyers to do all categories of publicly supported legal work throughout England and Wales. The LSC reports regularly to the LCD and the evidence is that there is currently a sufficient number of lawyers to undertake publicly funded work. As at 15 February 2002, there were 4,935 solicitor offices with contracts to undertake publicly funded civil and family work. In addition to this, the LSC has also awarded contracts to 382 not-for-profit sector organisations. As at 31 January 2001, the total number of solicitor offices with General Criminal Contracts stood at 2,921. There are also four public defender offices with the fifth to open in April 2002 and the sixth shortly after.

Publicity Expenditure

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment she has made of the total real terms expenditure of her Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies on publicity in each of the years (a) 1997–98, (b) 1998–99, (c) 1999–2000, (d) 2000–01 and (e) 2001–02 (i) to date and (ii) as estimated for the whole of the present year;

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and if she will break these figures down to indicate expenditure on (A) advertising and (B) press and public relations. [36162]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Total real terms costs for advertising are as listed. During this period the LCD ran an advertising campaign to support the recruiting of lay magistrates, which accounts for spending in 1998–99 and mounted a major public information campaign throughout England and Wales on behalf of the Community Legal Service and the help and advice website "Just Ask!" which accounts for almost all of the advertising spend in 2000–01.

Publicity achieved by press and public relations work is not recorded separately and costs cannot be differentiated from running costs.

	Advertising spend £
(a) 1997–98
LCDHQ	0
PRO	4,465
PGO	0
Land Registry	13,580
Court Service	0
NICS	0
Total	18,045
(b) 1998–99
LCDHQ	450,000
PRO	7,640
PGO	0
Land Registry	9,625
Court Service	5,345
NICS	0
Total	473,110
(c) 1999–2000
LCDHQ	0
PRO	2,710
PGO	0
Land Registry	13,960
Court Service	18,960
NICS	0
Total	35,630
(d) 2000–01
LCDHQ	4,283,780
PRO	8,950
PGO	0
Land Registry	2,505
Court Service	13,000
NICS	4,800
Total	4,313,035

	Advertising spend £
	(i) to date	(ii) as estimated for the whole of the present year (Until 31 March 2002)
(e) 2001–02
LCDHQ	0	0
PRO	8,640	8,640
PGO	0	0
Land Registry	2,650	3,200
Court Service	4,270	4,600
NICS	0	0
CAFCASS	6,515	7,420
Total	22,075	23,860

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Accountancy Services

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the total cost to the Lord Chancellor's Department was for accountancy services in each of the last four years. [34173]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department entered into a nine-year PFI contract with CSL Group Ltd. in January 1998. This contract covers a wide range of services including providing accounting systems, making payments, receipting and accounts production. The cost of accountancy services provided to the Department by CSL under the contract, and from other external firms of accountants or their management consultancy arms where the assignment was connected with financial matters, in each of the last four years was as follows:

	£ million
1998–99	3.8
1999–2000	4.5
2000–01	6.0
2001–02	5.2(1)

⁽¹⁾ To January 2002.

Note:

Figures include significant development work on resource accounting and budgeting.

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