---

Data Protection Act

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if his Department plans to amend the Data Protection Act 1998; and if he will make a statement. [45216]

Mr. Wills: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave to a similar Question from him on 19 March.

Child Abuse Cases

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) how many cases of child abuse by parents or guardians allowed unsupervised access by the Family Law Court there have been in each of the last five years; what guidelines are in place for judges to deal with such cases; and if he will make a statement; [45434]

(2) what plans there are to review the guidelines given to the Family Law Court in dealing with access cases for children deemed to be at risk of abuse; and if he will make a statement. [45435]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information about the number of children abused by parents or guardians during court ordered contact is not available. The Ministerial Group on Domestic Violence is considering how to improve the inter-face between the family and criminal jurisdictions to track and record such instances. However, many instances of abuse may go unreported. The XGuidelines on Good Practice in Parental Contact in cases where there has been Domestic Violence", produced by the Children Act Sub-Committee of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Board on Family Law, apply throughout the Family Justice System. The Guidelines, endorsed by the Government in March 2001, are being monitored and are also subject to research on the outcome of court orders for families.

An analysis of the first survey of the use and effectiveness of the Children Act Sub-Committee XGuidelines for Good Practice on Parental Contact in cases where there has been Domestic Violence" was, in answer to a question from the hon. Member for Enfield

26 Mar 2002 : Column 839W

North, placed in the Libraries of both Houses on 13 March 2002. A further survey on the operation of the Guidelines will be carried out this May.

Child Killings

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many children have been killed after the Family Law Court granted unsupervised access to the parent or guardian in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [46437]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Information about the number of child deaths during contact visits, where an application for contact or residence is outstanding, or where a residence or contact order is in force, is not available. The Ministerial Group on Domestic Violence is considering how to improve the inter-face between the family and criminal jurisdictions to track and record such instances. I have given an undertaking to the Women's Aid Federation of England to investigate cases in which they allege a child has been harmed during court ordered contact.

26 Mar 2002 : Column 840W

CAFCASS

Simon Hughes: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many senior responsible owners there have been in charge of the CAFCASS Support Infrastructure Project since the preparation of the Project Initiation Document; who had this responsibility between July 2001 and January 2002; and if he will make a statement. [46010]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Support Infrastructure Project had three Senior Responsible Officers until the project was put on hold in July 2001.

CAFCASS is currently reviewing its IT strategy to assess its immediate and longer term needs.

Land Registry

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what key performance targets have been set for Her Majesty's Land Registry executive agency for 2002–03. [46793]

Mr. Wills: The following table sets out the key performance targets set by the Lord Chancellor for Her Majesty's Land Registry for 2002–03.

Key Performance Indicators and Targets 2002–03

Indicator	Target 2002–03
Speed
Percentage of office copies and official search applications to be processed within two working days	98
Percentage of registrations to be processed within 20 working days	75
Accuracy
Percentage of registrations processed free of any error	98.5
Overall Satisfaction
Percentage of customers who, overall, are very satisfied/satisfied with the full range of services provided by the Land Registry	Better than 94
Financial
Percentage return on average capital employed	6
Efficiency1
Cost per unit in cash terms2 (real terms3)	#29.53 (#23.10)
Strategic
Percentage electronic delivery capability of the Land Registry's key services	60
Percentage take up of electronic services	50
Critical Action Points
Draft Rules under the Land Registration Act 2002 ready for consultation	By July 2002
Carry out a major public consultation on the possible system for e-conveyancing and prepare a final report for ministers	By February 2003

1 This is a milestone towards the HM Treasury-agreed cost per unit target for 2004–05 of #28.78 in cash terms (#21.43 in real terms).

2 Based on GDP deflator issued by HM Treasury on 20 December 2001 (base year 1992–93).

3 The real term unit cost in the base year of 1992–93 was #30.65.

Further details of HM Land Registry's targets are published in its Business Plan.

Public Record Office

Mrs. Humble: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what key performance targets have been set for the Public Record Office executive agency for 2002–03. [47157]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The following list sets out the key performance targets that have been set for the Public Record Office for 2002–03.
Public Record Office
Key Performance Indicators 2002–031
Efficiency
KPI 1—Unit Costs of Key Activities
KPI 1A—Selecting and preserving the public records per metre: To ensure that the unit cost does not rise above #107.00.
KPI 1B—Giving Access Onsite: To ensure that the unit cost per information transaction with customers onsite does not exceed #8.80.
KPI 1C—Giving Access Online: To ensure that the unit cost per information transaction with customers online does not exceed #0.15.
KPI 2—Backlog of records in departments reported as being over 30 years old and awaiting review: To reduce the backlog, assessed in January 2002 as 1987 metres, by 115 metres.

26 Mar 2002 : Column 841W

Quality of service
KPI 3—The achievement of Charter Standards as follows:
A (i) to make newly opened records and their catalogues available to users in accordance with specified time targets. (ii) To answer 98.5 per cent. of written correspondence within 10 working days. (iii) To deliver records to users for consultation in the reading rooms in accordance with specified time targets. (iv) To supply 98.5 per cent. of copy orders in accordance with the specified targets and standards. (v) To answer 80 per cent. of telephone calls within 20 seconds. (vi) To keep 98.5 per cent. of appointments which visitors have made with us within 10 minutes.
B To carry out four onsite satisfaction surveys and to achieve assessments of Xgood" or Xexcellent" from 90 per cent. of those expressing a view; to carry out two online satisfaction surveys and to achieve assessments of Xgood" or Xexcellent" from 80 per cent. of those expressing a view.
Income generation
KPI 4—To increase revenue generated by commercial activity to #850,000.
Modernising Government
KPI 5—Electronic Records Management:
To support other government departments in achieving the government target for electronic records management by 2004 by:
(i) monitoring progress in departments against milestones and reporting to the Lord Chancellor, the e-Government sub-group and departments every six months and to others as appropriate to the level of action required;
(ii) targeting under-achieving departments and developing action plans to accelerate progress;
(iii) delivering a programme of workshops to support the action plans.
KPI 6—Electronic Service Delivery:
To develop digital access to popular records so that 20,000 digital record images are delivered to customers.
KPI 7—To raise an awareness of the PRO's holdings among under-represented groups in our user profile by means of a rigorous social inclusion programme, the chief components of which are:
(i) To make available 90,000 images online as part of the XMoving Here" project.
(ii) To conduct an evaluation exercise with users (remote, at Kew and at the FRC) of the usability of PROCAT, DORIS and PRO Online.
(iii) To organise an event as part of Black History month and to produce one other targeted event.
(iv) To organise an educational focus event as part of the London String of Pearls Golden Jubilee programme.
1 More information on these and other key targets is published in the Corporate and Business Plans.

---