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WALES
Public Appointments
Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the (a) non-departmental public bodies and (b) task forces to which he has appointed members since the establishment of the National Assembly for Wales. [46144]
Mr. Paul Murphy: Information about the number of ministerial appointments to non-departmental public bodies is included in the Cabinet Office's annual report
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"Public Bodies". Copies are placed in the Library of the House and the report is published on the Cabinet Office website.
Copies of the annual report on task forces and similar bodies have also been placed in the Library of the House and it is being made available on the Cabinet Office website.
I have appointed one member to the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for Wales since the establishment of the National Assembly.
Welshpool Airport
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had about the future capacity of Welshpool airport. [53104]
Mr. Paul Murphy: I have regular discussions with Assembly and UK Government ministerial colleagues on a wide range of transport matters, including regional airports in Wales.
Aviation is a matter reserved to the UK Government. However Assembly officials have had close contact with DTLR colleagues over the Wales Air Services study, the on-going UK Regional Air Services Co-ordination study and the Wales Air Services consultation documents which are to be published shortly. These consultation documents will form the basis of a major public consultation exercise informing preparation of an Air Transport White Paper and will:
- look at a range of policy scenarios;
set out options for development of capacity at regional airports such as Welshpool and associated surface access improvements in light of these scenarios;
report key findings of the economic, environmental, social and airspace appraisal of these options which have been undertaken; and highlight interactions between different regional airports, and the various possible roles each might play.
Correspondence
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many and what proportion of letters received by the Department in each of the last six months, were replied to in (a) under 15, (b) under 20, (c) under 30, (d) under 40 and (e) over 40 working days. [53100]
Mr. Paul Murphy: The information is contained in the following table:
| Month | (1) 15 days | (2) 1 month | (3) 2 months | (4) 3 months | (5) 3+ | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October | 39 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 40 |
| November | 37 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 45 |
| December | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 13 |
| January | 26 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 31 |
| February | 34 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 37 |
| March | 23 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 25 |
Note:
Columns 1 and 2 above are consistent with the requirements of the question but columns 3, 4 and 5 vary from it as the Wales Office collates its correspondence statistics slightly differently.
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Ministerial Accommodation
Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what publicly owned accommodation is made available to him in his official role; how many nights he has been in residence at each of these properties in the last 12 months; and what the total cost is of maintaining each of these properties. [55089]
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER
Ministerial Accommodation
Mr. Evans: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what publicly owned accommodation is made available to him in his official role; how many nights he has been in residence at each of these properties in the last 12 months; and what the total cost was of maintaining each of these properties in the last 12 months. [55091]
The Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of State: I refer the hon. Member to the answer that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister gave to the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker) on 28 February 2002, Official Report, column 1443W, and the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Collins) on 21 January 2002, Official Report, column 599 and 28 January 2002, Official Report, column 91W.
PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL
Ministerial Accommodation
Mr. Evans: To ask the President of the Council what publicly owned accommodation is made available to him in his official role; how many nights he has been in residence at each of these properties in the last 12 months; and what the total cost was of maintaining each of these properties in the last 12 months. [55092]
Mr. Robin Cook: I refer the hon. Member to the answers given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Lewes (Norman Baker), 28 February 2002, Official Report, column 1443W and by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister to the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Collins), 21 January 2002, Official Report, column 599 and on 28 January 2002, Official Report, column 91W.
To date, my Department has met no expenses on No. 1 Carlton Gardens since I became Leader of the House of Commons, although we await a transfer of costs from the Foreign Office.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Illegal Immigrants
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many known illegal immigrants have reached the UK after travelling through the channel tunnel on freight trains in 2002. [50878]
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Angela Eagle: It is not possible to establish precisely how many illegal entrants have reached the United Kingdom after travelling through the channel tunnel on freight trains. Some are detected inland and cannot be attributed to a particular port of entry and some claim to use the channel tunnel but have in fact entered by a different route.
Information on the known number of illegal entrants who have arrived in the United Kingdom in 2002 is not yet available.
Provisional management information for 2001 indicates that a total of 1,552 illegal entrants, who had been concealed on board freight trains, were detected on arrival at Dollands Moor freight yard.
The locally collated figures show this total is broken down over the calendar year as follows: 504 (January–March), 240 (April-June), 183 (July-September) and 625 (October-December).
Complaints
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many complaints were registered against his Department 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 Commissioner for Administration in those periods. [51221]
Angela Eagle [holding answer 19 April 2002]: Complaints are handled initially by the area of the Home Office or by the agency against which the complaint has been made, many of which have their own complaints procedures. Information about the main complaints procedures operating in the Home Office and its agencies is publicised on the internet, including the Home Office main website at www.homeoffice.gov.uk
Information on the outcome of statutory investigations is set out in the Parliamentary Ombudsman's annual reports, copies of which are available in the Library, and for annual reports from 1997–98 to 2001–02, on the Parliamentary Ombudsman's website at www.ombudsman.org.uk/pca/ document/par01/index.htm.
Mrs. L. Odedra
Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the appeal papers in respect of Mrs. L. Odedra, a constituent, were received by the Appeals Registry at the Home Office; and when they were despatched to the Immigration Appeals Office Authority tribunal ref: ECR/419/00 104792. [51522]
Angela Eagle: I understand that my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Bradshaw) will be writing to my hon. Friend about this matter shortly.
Dungavel
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how the Committee of Visiting at Dungavel was arranged; who was appointed to sit upon the Committee; what criteria are used in deciding who can act as a visitor; and what the total cost was for the conversion of Dungavel from a prison to a detention centre. [53217]
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Angela Eagle: Applications to be considered for appointment to the Dungavel House Visiting Committee were invited in an advert placed in the local press on 10 August 2001. Eleven individuals were appointed to the committee on 27 March 2002. Successful candidates were selected on the basis of the experience and abilities they could bring to the committee and to ensure a reasonably balanced membership. It is not the practice to publish the names of visiting committee members and we have no plans to change this policy.
The total cost of converting Dungavel House to an immigration removal centre is expected to be in the region of £3.5 million.
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