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Transsexuals

Bob Russell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when she proposes to implement the recommendations of the report of the Interdepartmental Working Group on Transsexual People, April 2000; and if she will make a statement. [52057]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The report has been considered carefully within Government and by other interested groups. The Government are sympathetic to the issues raised in the report and is considering actively how to take the matter forward.

Legal Aid

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much legal aid has been spent on family related issues since 1997. [51504]

25 Apr 2002 : Column 444W

Ms Rosie Winterton: Net expenditure on legal aid in family-related matters since 1997 is as follows:

	£ million
1997–98	389.8
1998–99	423.5
1999–2000	(16)399.8
2000–01	419.4

⁽¹⁶⁾ Figures for 1999–2000 do not include the cost of acts of assistance provided under contracting pilot schemes.

Figures are not yet available for the 2001–02 financial year.

Legal Services Commission

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the cost was of administering the Legal Services Commission in each year since 1997. [51501]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Legal Services Commission was created by the Access to Justice Act 1999 and came into existence on 1 April 2000. The Grant in Aid Costs for the Commission are as follows:

£ million

	Grant in aid costs
2000–01	72.700
2001–02	70.350

The staff cost to the Lord Chancellor's Department of administering the Commission is not immediately available and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Tribunal Justice

Mr. Swayne: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will make a statement on the Government's response to the Leggatt report on tribunal justice. [50384]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government are currently considering their response to the Leggatt review and will make a statement at an appropriate time later in the year.

The Government's response will take into account the public consultation exercise completed in December 2001, which generated over 350 responses.

Data Protection Act

Mr. McCabe: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department whether guidance will be issued to staff on the handling of subject access requests under section 7 of the Data Protection Act 1998. [53047]

Mr. Wills: My right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor has recently issued central guidance on the handling of subject access requests. I have placed a copy of this guidance in the House Library.

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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Complaints

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many complaints were registered against his Department and its predecessor Departments in (a) 1990 to 1996 and (b) 1997 to 2002; how many are current; and what proportion were (i) taken up and (ii) upheld by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in those periods. [51587]

Mr. Leslie: Details of complaints against the Cabinet Office are not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Details of complaints taken up and upheld by the Parliamentary Commissioner are contained in the Parliamentary Ombudsman's annual report. Copies of the annual reports covering the periods specified are available in the Library of the House, and for annual reports from 1997–98 are available on the Parliamentary Ombudsman's website at:

www.ombudsman.org.uk/pca/document/par01/index.htm

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Sunset Clauses

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister which Bills introduced by his Department in the last five years have contained sunset clauses; and what plans he has for the future use of such clauses. [49618]

Mr. Leslie: No Bills introduced by my Department during the period in question have contained sunset clauses. However, as part of their better regulation agenda, the Government are committed to using sunset clauses where appropriate.

Civil Service Secondments

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average percentage is of civil service staff on loan from one UK Government Department to another UK Government Department per UK Government Department. [29511]

Mr. Leslie: The following table shows civil service staff reported as on loan to other Departments, as a percentage of the total staff in that Department, as at 1 April 2001.

Staff on loan to other Government Departments, by Government Department, as at 1 April 2001

Importing Department	Staff on loan	Total staff	Percentage
Cabinet Office	540	1,804	29.9
Crown Prosecution Service	3	5,832	0.1
Culture, Media and Sport	83	633	13.1
Customs and Excise	10	22,439	0.0
Department for Education and Employment	35	39,296	0.1
Department for National Savings	0	123	0.0
Department of Health	80	5,708	1.4
Department of Social Security	40	88,793	0.0
Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions	111	16,728	0.7
Department of Trade and Industry	84	10,300	0.8
Export Credit Guarantee Department	10	384	2.6
Health and Safety Executive/Commission	8	4,058	0.2
Home Office (Main)	52	16,743	0.3
Charity Commission	2	547	0.4
HM Prison Service	2	42,719	0.0
Inland Revenue	54	71,775	0.1
Lord Chancellor's Department	23	11,227	0.2
Ministry of Defence	52	86,722	0.1
Office for National Statistics	14	3,214	0.4
Office of Fair Trading	58	505	11.5
Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland	1	93	1.1
Privy Council Office	17	38	44.7
Registry of Friendly Societies	1	5	20.0
Scottish Executive	22	5,101	0.4
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal	1	1,222	0.1
Security and Intelligence Services	21	4,492	0.5
HM Treasury	148	850	17.4
Total	1,472	441,351	0.3

The table represents a snapshot figure as at 1 April 2001. In the year 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001, there were 1,577 instances of loans inward to all Government Departments, and 1,694 instances of loans outward. Inter-departmental mobility is a key factor in the delivery of the Modernising Government Agenda. It is important because

1. it reinforces the appeal of variety in an individual's career and can aid staff development;

2. experience of other Government Departments/agencies encourages individuals to think across departmental boundaries and work in partnership, exchanging ideas and good practice;

3. it contributes to the creation of a diverse, but unified, civil service.

TREASURY

Flat Rate Scheme

Mrs. Lawrence: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a summary of responses to the consultation on the flat rate scheme. [52970]

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Mr. Boateng: Customs have produced a summary of responses, which will be placed in the House Libraries, with copies also of the individual responses to the consultation.

Equal Treatment

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has established a baseline for policy appraisal against which to measure progress on equal treatment; and what progress has been achieved. [42918]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 14 March 2002]: A basis assessment of gender effects is one aspect of the equality impact assessment that goes into the formulation of tax policy advice. Like other aspects of Budget policy, this is coordinated by HM Treasury.

The Treasury Guidance for the 2002 Spending Review emphasises that Departments must consider key cross- Government agenda, including equality and sustainable development, and how to implement them in their submissions to the review. The guidance explicitly states that Departments' analysis should also highlight any significant distributional effects—e.g. between regions, types of environment, generations or gender—in their proposals.

Moreover, several of the cross-cutting reviews in the 2002 Spending Review have remits, which include promotion of equality, such as reviews of the public sector labour market and tackling health inequalities.

The Treasury has worked closely with organisations such as the Women and Equality Unit and the Women's Budget Group (WBG)—and an independent UK organisation of gender experts—in order to improve its understanding of gender impact and its analytical capacity.

Analysis is included in internal advice put to Ministers during the development of policy. Policy makers are required to look at the impact legislative proposals may have across the range of equality issues—e.g. race, disability, age and gender. Policy makers have access to guidance on equality impact assessments on an intranet site, which includes information on policy appraisal for equal treatment—and also includes the draft gender mainstreaming guidance produced by the Women's Unit.

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