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QCs

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what recent discussions she has had with the Law Society concerning the procedures for appointing QCs. [51319]

Ms Rosie Winterton: My noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor has had no recent discussions with the Law Society about the procedures for appointing Queen's Counsel.

Better Quality Services Initiatives

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department which of the services of his Department have not been reviewed under the Better Quality Services Initiative; and when they will be reviewed. [50309]

Mr. Wills: The Better Quality Services programme was launched in 1998 and adopted by the Cabinet Office in the Modernising Government White Paper of 1999 as

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a means of delivering continuous improvements in the quality and effectiveness of Government activities and services. It requires all Departments to review every activity and service over a five-year period starting in October 1999. The scheme covers all activities in Departments, Agencies and Executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies.

The Lord Chancellor's Department's wide ranging programme of policy, service and organisational reviews forms the basis of its BQS programme and provides comprehensive coverage of functions. The review of activities and services started in 1999. A major part of this programme is the Quinquennial Review of the Court Service. The Review has just been completed and will be published shortly.

There are a number of office service and supply activities that are due to be reviewed within the next couple of years before the current contracts expire. This will complete the Department's current BQS programme.

Recruitment

Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many net additional staff her Department has recruited in each month since June 2001 at (a) executive officer level and (b) administrative level. [52429]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of staff recruited by the Department are as follows:

Recruitment since June 2001

	(a) Executive officer level staff	Higher/senior executive officer level staff	(b) Administrative level staff
	LCD HQ and associated offices
June 2001	1	0	0
July 2001	3	1	0
August 2001	1	0	0
September 2001	10	2	1
October 2001	1	3	11
November 2001	0	2	5
December 2001	0	1	7
January 2002	0	0	5
February 2002	0	6	3
March 2002	1	9	1
The Court Service
June 2001	2	0	43
July 2001	3	0	37
August 2001	9	2	43
September 2001	15	1	69
October 2001	20	1	77
November 2001	3	1	51
December 2001	4	0	29
January 2002	4	0	100
February 2002	3	1	59
March 2002	2	0	43
	The Public Guardianship Office
June 2001	4	0	3
July 2001	1	1	1
August 2001	1	0	0
September 2001	1	0	0
October 2001	0	7	0
November 2001	0	0	0
December 2001	1	1	0
January 2002	0	1	0
February 2002	3	3	1
March 2002	6	2	2

It is not possible to determine how many of these are

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"net additional staff". Many of these recruits will be to replace staff who have left the Department, through resignation, retirement, transfer etc., and only a small proportion will be to fill new vacancies. A more accurate measure would be to compare the numbers of staff from one year to another, as shown in the annually published Civil Service Statistics, but even that would include transfers from other Government Departments as well as new recruits.

Contact Centres

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what systems are in place to monitor the work of contact centres. [39369]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Child contact centres are run by the voluntary sector. Many contact centres are affiliated to other organisations, principally the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC). The Lord Chancellor's Department is working with NACCC and other key organisations in this field, to develop national definitions of contact and more consistent and safer referral processes. The Department provided grant-in-aid funding during 2000–01 and 2001–02 to assist these organisations in developing their respective models of contact. The Government are also currently considering as a matter of priority the recent recommendations on contact centres made by the Children's Act Sub-Committee, of the Lord Chancellors Advisory Board on Family Law, in its report "Making Contact Work" published on 8 February 2002.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what training is given to staff running contact centres. [39370]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Child contact centres are run by the voluntary sector. Many contact centres are affiliated to and trained by other organisations, principally the National Association of Child Contact Centres (NACCC). The Lord Chancellor's Department is working with NACCC, and other key organisations in this field, to develop more consistent and safer referral processes which includes training of staff. The Department provide grant-in-aid funding during 2000–01 and 2001–02 to assist these organisations in developing their respective models of contact which included training packages. The Government are also currently considering as a matter of priority the recent recommendations on contact centres made by the Children's Act Sub-Committee, of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Board on Family Law, in its report "Making Contact Work" published on 8 February 2002.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when she will reply to the questions from the hon. Member for Winchester of 26 February (refs 39369 and 39370). [52346]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I apologise to the hon. Member for not replying to his questions of 26 February. I regret that this was due to an administrative oversight. I have answered both questions today.

Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Dr. Ladyman: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what guidance is given

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to (a) magistrates and (b) the judiciary about court proceedings involving people with autistic spectrum disorders as (i) witnesses and (ii) defendants. [51325]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Judicial training is the responsibility of the Judicial Studies Board (JSB) which is an independent non-departmental public body. It is chaired by Lord Justice Waller.

All judges are supplied on appointment with a copy of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, which contains guidance on different aspects of disability, including autism. The Equal Treatment Bench Book is also available to Magistrates through their Magistrates Courts' Committees.

Smart Card Technology

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make a statement on the use of smart card technology in the Department and in the areas for which it is responsible; and what discussions he has had with private companies about the use of smart card technology within his Department. [50478]

Mr. Wills: The Lord Chancellor's Department has not made extensive use of smart card technology to date. Future plans for the delivery of electronic services are set out in our e-Business Strategy (www.lcd.gov.uk/ebus/stratcont.htm). This is accompanied by a supporting technical strategy for Information and Communications Technology (www.courtservice.gov.uk/info/reps/ictstrategy.pdf) which is fully compliant with central standards laid down by the Office of the e-Envoy. Smart cards are one of a large number of technologies discussed in this document and it is within this framework that any future deployment of smart cards will be delivered.

Performance Targets

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what new initiatives his Department has taken in 2001–02 to assist in achieving its Public Service Agreement targets. [47187]

Mr. Wills: Information about progress on PSA targets will be published in the Department's 2002 Departmental Report.

Entertainment Costs

Mr. Burns: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) if he will list for each of the last five years the total amount of money spent by Ministers in his Department on food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for entertainment purposes; [47207]

(2) how much was spent by departmental special advisers on food, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks for official entertainment purposes in each of the last five years. [46849]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

I have previously provided total entertainment expenditure figures for Ministers and Officials relating to the financial years from 1998–99 to 2000–01 and I refer

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the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Ribble Valley on 6 March 2002, Official Report, column 405W.

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