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Marriage Value Taper

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what her policy is on setting a marriage value taper in respect of the provisions of the Commonhold and Leasehold Bill. [40175]

Ms Keeble: I have been asked to reply.

It is our view that the current valuation basis provides its own taper. The price payable for enfranchisement increases progressively as leases get shorter. We do not accept there is a case for a further arbitrary apportionment of the marriage value which would effectively reduce the price payable by leaseholders.

Pre-trial Publicity

Mrs. Humble: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when he will publish a consultation paper on proposals to amend the law in relation to payments to witnesses and pre-trial publicity. [40869]

Mr. Wills: The Lord Chancellor today issued a consultation paper seeking views on the detail of the legislation the Government intend to introduce to outlaw payments to witnesses. The legislation proposed is that it should be a criminal offence to make, or agree to make, or to receive, a payment to a witness or potential witness in criminal proceedings for his or her story with a view to publication.

Also, following the abandonment of the first trial of R v. Woodgate and others the Government intend to amend s.19 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 to empower the court to order a third party to pay costs incurred as a result of his or her unnecessary or improper act. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

Information Commissioners

Brian Cotter: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if his Department will place a notice on its website warning businesses about fraudulent organisations that claim to have statutory powers to maintain the register of data controllers as part of the Information Commissioner's public information campaign. [39763]

Mr. Wills: Details of the Information Commissioner's public information campaign were given in my reply to the hon. Member for Batley and Spen (Mr. Wood) of 5 February 2002, Official Report, columns 906–07W. The Commissioner's website at www.dataprotection.gov.uk provides further information. In the interests of assisting the Commissioner's campaign, I am happy to provide a link to her website from the Lord Chancellor's Department website at www.lcd.gov.uk. The necessary arrangements are being put in hand.

Volunteers

Bob Russell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many members of her staff in each of the past two years have been granted a day's paid leave to work as a volunteer; and if she will make a statement. [39742]

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Ms Rosie Winterton: All staff in the Lord Chancellor's Department are entitled to one day's paid leave to work as a volunteer.

Also, provided the nature of any service undertaken is compatible with the work of the employee concerned, the Department provides higher allocations of special leave with pay, within specified limits, for a wide range of voluntary public service, such as acting as a school governor, sitting on a health boards, parish council work etc.

Although we do not keep a central register of staff who participate in voluntary work, we are aware that a large number of staff have taken advantage of these arrangements.

Director of Public Prosecutions

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the annual budget of the DPP is in Northern Ireland; and what his estimate of the additional sum required to finance proposals contained in the Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill is. [39663]

Mr. Browne: I have been asked to reply.

In the current financial year (2001–02)—the budget of the DPP in Northern Ireland is £12,023,000 and the additional sum required to finance proposals contained in the Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill is £1,267,000.

Resident Magistrates

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many resident magistrates serve in Northern Ireland; what the average number of sitting days is at which each magistrate presides; what mileage cost allowance is available for travel expenses for resident magistrates; and what was the cost of travel expenses paid over the last convenient 12 month period to resident magistrates. [38294]

Ms Rosie Winterton: There are 19 resident magistrates in Northern Ireland. In 2001, the average number of sitting days for each resident magistrate was 191. Resident magistrates are paid mileage allowances in accordance with the rates that are applicable in the Northern Ireland Court Service. The rates paid are determined by the engine capacity of cars. There are four bands that range from 28p per mile for the smallest engine capacity to 53p per mile for the largest. After 4,000 miles are claimed, the rates reduce to a range from 17p per mile to 36p per mile. Subsistence allowances are also payable in accordance with the rates that are applicable in the Northern Ireland Court Service—£4.25 per day for more than five hours and £9.30 per day for more than 10 hours. Travel expenses (including subsistence) paid to resident magistrates in 2001 totalled £88,918.34.

Legal Aid

Harry Cohen: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many family applications have been made for legal aid for representation at an inquest since 1997; and how many have been granted. [38818]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Public funding is not generally available for representation at inquests. However, under section 6(8)(b) of the Access to Justice Act 1999, the Lord

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Chancellor has the power to authorise the Legal Services Commission to grant funding for representation at inquests in exceptional cases.

Since April 2000, 182 applications for exceptional funding for representation at inquests have been received and 90 granted. The vast majority of those granted were for representation for family members, although there may be a very few cases where non-family members have been granted funding.

Before April 2000, the Lord Chancellor exercised a discretionary power under Part 2 of the Legal Aid Act 1988 to grant funding for representation at a very small number of inquests.

HOUSE OF COMMONS

Correspondence

Mr. Evans: To ask the President of the Council what the average response time was for responding to departmental correspondence; what percentage of letters took longer than one month for a response; and what percentage took longer than three months for a response in each of the last five years. [37451]

Mr. Robin Cook: The service standard deadline ¹ in my department for replying to correspondence from hon. Members is 15 working days.

Information for the period 1999 and 2000 could not be provided in the form requested. However, set against this deadline, the information is as follows: ²

	1999	2000
Number of letters received	151	271
Percentage of replies within target	81	94

The average response time for 2001 was 11 days. Of the total number of correspondence received, 3 per cent. took longer than one month and 0 per cent. longer than three months.

Data for 1997 and 1998 could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

¹ Information on the performance of other Government Departments is currently available on the Cabinet Office website http:// www.servicefirst.gov.uk/2000/introduc/six.htm.

² Written reply from the Minister for the Cabinet Office, 6 April 2001, Official Report, column 325W.

TREASURY

Pesticides

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment he has made of the success of the voluntary approach to the regulation of pesticides against the criteria set by his Department; [38565]

(2) which organisations he is consulting in the course of his review of the self-regulation arrangements for pesticides; [38563]

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(3) if he has received the progress reports from the independent steering group on the voluntary pesticides partnership approach; and if he will publish those reports; [38564]

(4) if it is his policy that his assessment of the success of the voluntary approach to pesticides control should take account of the costs of clearing up pollution currently borne by water companies. [38566]

Mr. Boateng [holding answer 4 March 2002]: The independent steering group overseeing the voluntary package of measures to minimise the environmental impact of pesticides is made up of signatories to the package, an equivalent number of environmental organisations and an independent chairperson. The steering group reports to DEFRA. Publication of its reports is a matter for DEFRA.

Reports from the independent steering group will help the Government's assessment of the success of the package. The assessment of whether the package is delivering environmental benefits over and beyond those that would result from a pesticides tax will consider the uptake of the measures in the package, their coverage, effectiveness and cost. It will therefore take account of the impact of the measures on pollution that has to be cleaned up by water companies.

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