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Equipment Leasing

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will list the equipment leasing arrangements entered into by her Department in each of the last four years; and what the cost to public funds in each case is. [39025]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Department has entered into a range of equipment leases the majority of which are for photocopiers, hygiene disposal units and laptop computers. The total cost of equipment leases in each of the last three years for which information is readily available was as follows:

	£ million
1999–01	1.3
2000–02	2.1
2001–03	(3)1.9

⁽³⁾ To January 2002.

The increase in cost from 1999–2000 mainly represents the additional provision of laptop computers to the judiciary.

Crown Courts

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to change the number of Crown courts. [47588]

Mr. Wills: Public consultation on a proposal to close the satellite Crown court at Knutsford and move hearings to Chester is due to commence today. There are currently no plans to change the number of Crown courts or their satellite offices in England and Wales.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many cases were tried at Knutsford Crown court in each of the last 20 years. [47587]

Mr. Wills: I list below the number of trials disposed of in each of the last 16 years at Knutsford Crown court. The figures for the previous four years are not available.

Trials disposed of at Knutsford Crown court

	Total trials disposed of
1986	50
1987	68
1988	100
1989	108
1990	92
1991	44
1992	22
1993	50
1994	56
1995	59
1996	54
1997	86
1998	91
1999	82
2000	98
2001	108

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make a statement on the future of the Crown court at Knutsford. [47589]

10 Apr 2002 : Column 42W

Mr. Wills: Public consultation on a proposal to close the satellite Crown court at Knutsford is due to commence today. Results of the consultation will be submitted to the Lord Chancellor who must approve any court closure.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many Crown courts there were in England in each of the last 20 years. [47586]

Mr. Wills: I list below the number of Crown court centres, including their satellite offices, for each of the last 16 years. The figures for the previous four years are not recorded.

Crown court centres and satellite offices

	Number
1986	85
1987	85
1988	87
1989	87
1990	88
1991	88
1992	93
1993	92
1994	90
1995	90
1996	92
1997	92
1998	92
1999	92
2000	92
2001	92

Census 1901

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to her answer of 20 March 2002, Official Report, column 414W, on the 1901 Census, what steps were taken to familiarise employees based in India and Sri Lanka with the handwriting and spelling used by enumerators of the 1901 Census. [47661]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The data input company based in India and Sri Lanka demonstrated that it already had in-house skills at interpreting late nineteenth century handwriting by producing test results of a very high level of accuracy prior to award of contract. In order to augment these skills, 10 Public Record Office staff with expertise in interpreting census enumeration returns spent, between them, 20 weeks at the company's bases in India and Sri Lanka. They gave training sessions on the detailed transcription rules, on the formation of the handwriting to be found in the returns and on the etymology of Welsh place names. They also responded to queries raised by individual operators while they were transcribing the returns.

Public Record Office staff ensured that keying operators had access to appropriate reference sources such as English and Welsh gazetteers and name listings. They also provided supervisors with detailed feedback on errors encountered during the quality assessment of the transcribed data to seek to prevent such errors reoccurring.

10 Apr 2002 : Column 43W

The transcription rule for most of the data found in the 1901 census returns was to transcribe it exactly as it appeared. As a result, there was no requirement to translate 1901 spelling to its modern day equivalent.

Staff Numbers

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many staff have been employed by her Department in each of the last 10 years. [42458]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given to him by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office on 19 March 2002, Official Report, column 295W.

Judiciary

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many acting members of the judiciary also practise as solicitors; and if he will make a statement. [44607]

Mr. Wills: The number of members of the part-time judiciary in the courts and tribunals who are solicitors is 2,019. The Lord Chancellor encourages and welcomes applications for judicial office from solicitors and considers that they perform an important and vital function as part-time judges.

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department in what circumstances he is able to exercise his power to investigate the personal conduct of members of the judiciary. [44424]

Mr. Wills: As Head of the Judiciary the Lord Chancellor is able to consider and investigate complaints about the personal conduct of individual judges and other judicial office holders.

It is not open to the Lord Chancellor to comment on, or to intervene in relation to, complaints received about decisions made by a judge or any steps in the process of reasoning underlying his or her decision, or other matters involving the exercise of judicial functions.

The criteria for investigating complaints about personal conduct of members of the judiciary are set down in procedures drawn up in 1998. The system for investigating complaints has developed over the last four years and the procedures are now being revised to take these developments into account. Details will be made available to the public once the revised procedures have been finalised.

Birth Certificates (Transsexuals)

Miss Begg: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans she has to allow transsexual people to change their birth certificates. [34052]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Issues of concern to transsexual people (such as the replacement of birth certificates) affect the policy responsibilities of a number of Government Departments and were considered by the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People. The Government are sympathetic to the issues raised in the report and is actively considering how to take the matter forward.

10 Apr 2002 : Column 44W

Legal Aid Certificates

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will list for each financial year since April 2000 the savings accruing from the abolition of the issuing of legal aid certificates for cases involving personal injury or disease. [44993]

Ms Rosie Winterton: We estimate the net savings to legal aid in 2000–01 were £32 million. Figures for 2001–02 are not yet available. Expenditure on personal injury cases fell substantially in the years prior to 2000–01, following the introduction of conditional fees.

Investigative Support Certificates

Paul Holmes: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many investigative support certificates have been granted for investigative support funding since May 1999. [45381]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Investigative support funding became available from April 2000 with the implementation of the Legal Services Commission's Funding Code. In the financial year 2000–01, 25 certificates were issued for investigative support funding. In the current financial year, to the end of February 2002, 31 certificates have been issued.

Litigations Support Certificates

Paul Holmes: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many litigations support certificates have been granted for litigations support funding since May 1999. [45382]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Litigation support funding became available from April 2000 with the implementation of the Legal Services Commission's Funding Code. In the financial year 2000–01, two certificates were issued for litigation support funding. In the current financial year, to the end of February 2002, no certificates have been issued.

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