| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
SCOTLAND
Mental Health Services
Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans her Department has to regulate counselling, psychotherapy and clinical psychology services provided in Scotland. [59899]
Mrs. McGuire: There are no such plans at present. The Health Professions Council, established on 1 April 2002, can propose the extension of its remit to health professions which are not currently regulated. Under the Health Act 1999, any orders to implement such a proposal would have to be approved by the UK and Scottish Parliaments.
Scottish Criminal Review Commission
Mr. Mullin: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if she will place in the Library a copy of the annual report of the Scottish Criminal Review Commission. [60388]
Mrs. Liddell: Copies of the first and second annual reports of the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, covering the periods 1 April 1999 to 31 March 2000 and 1 April 2000 to 31 March 2001, will be placed in the Library as soon as possible. I understand that the report for 2001–02 is due to be published shortly.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Petrol Retailers Association
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) when the Minister of State will write to the Director of the Petrol Retailers Association following the meeting held at Stormont on 24 September 2001; [39852]
- (2) what the outcome of the meeting held between the Minister of State and the Petrol Retailers Association on 24 September 2001 was; and if he will make a statement. [39851]
Jane Kennedy: I met with the Petrol Retailers Association in September last year and subsequently looked into the issues raised with me about the illicit oils market in Northern Ireland. I wrote to the Petrol Retailers on 30 April responding to the points raised. My letter included the latest estimate of United Kingdom revenue loss from legitimate cross border shopping and from all types of fraud in the Northern Ireland fuels sector; the steps taken by Customs to address fraud in the Northern Ireland fuels sector, with an illustration of the results being achieved; and the measures included in this year's Budget to further address the problem.
Mr. Quentin Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the outcome was of the meeting between the Petrol Retailers Association and the Minister of State on 24 September 2001; and if he will make a statement. [50023]
10 Jun 2002 : Column 882W
Jane Kennedy: I met with the Petrol Retailers Association in September last year and subsequently looked into the issues raised with me about the illicit oils market in Northern Ireland. I wrote to the Petrol Retailers on 30 April responding to the points raised. My letter included the latest estimate of United Kingdom revenue loss from legitimate cross border shopping and from all types of fraud in the Northern Ireland fuels sector; the steps taken by Customs to address fraud in the Northern Ireland fuels sector, with an illustration of the results being achieved; and the measures included in this year's Budget to further address the problem.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Claims)
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress has been made in settling post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychiatric illness claims; what method he has adopted to process these claims; how many have been completed and at what cost; what target he has drawn up for maximum time to be taken in dealing with individual claims; and how many new claims have been submitted in the past 12 months. [41238]
Jane Kennedy: To date the PSNI has registered 2,512 post-traumatic stress disorder claims from serving or retired officers, 2,012 of the claims have been received within the last 12 months. None has yet been finalised. The majority of the cases are to be taken forward by way of a group action, rather than individually. It is not possible to indicate likely timescales for dealing either with the group action or individual claims as decisions on the cases will be taken after due consideration with legal advisers/counsel.
Accommodation Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the cost was of hotel accommodation for departmental staff working away from home in each of the last four years. [41060]
Jane Kennedy: The Department does not separate hotel costs from other overnight subsistence. The following totals include other allowances payable for staying overnight while working away from home.
| £ | |
|---|---|
| 1998–99 | 392,086 |
| 1999–2000 | 394,997 |
| 2000–01 | 369,316 |
| 2001–02 | (41)276,799 |
(40) Including its agencies, but excluding NDPBs as we do not have access to a breakdown of their expenditure.
(41) To date. Estimate for full year is £301,962.
Special Advisers
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many special advisers were employed by him (a) between 1 May and 31 December 1997 and (b) in each year from 1998 to 2001 inclusive; and what the total amount spent on special advisers by the Department was in each of those years. [41254]
10 Jun 2002 : Column 883W
Jane Kennedy: The number of special advisers employed between May 1997 and 2001 are as follows:
| Number | |
|---|---|
| May 1997 to September 1999 | 2 |
| October 1999 to October 2000 | 0 |
| November 2000 to January 2001 | 1 |
| February 2001 to September 2001 | 1 |
| October 2001 to December 2001 | 2 |
All special advisers have been paid a salary in accordance with the centrally agreed arrangements applying at the time. In addition the Department meets the travel and accommodation costs required on official business.
Television
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the number of subscriptions to (a) digital terrestrial, (b) digital satellite and (c) digital cable television held by his Department for services in any departmental building from which Ministers work, stating for each subscription its (i) cost and (ii) purpose. [48349]
Jane Kennedy: There is one subscription to digital satellite in a departmental building from which Ministers work. The cost of the subscription is £10.00 per month and it is used for operational purposes. There are no subscriptions to digital terrestrial or digital cable.
Project Sponsorship
Mr. Beith: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which of his Department's projects have received sponsorship since 1997, including (a) details of the sponsor, (b) the nature of the project, (c) the date of the project, (d) the total cost of the project and (e) the amount of money involved in the sponsorship deal. [48397]
Jane Kennedy: Details of the Northern Ireland Office projects which have received sponsorship since 1997 are as follows:
- (a) Hughes and Co. Insurance Brokers
- (b) Public Awareness campaign (reprint and distribution of free crime prevention booklet)
- (c) In three phases throughout the year
- (d) £39,063.16
- (e) £8,000.
999 Calls
Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to his answer of 16 April 2002, Official Report, column 839W, on 999 calls, how many 999 calls for each emergency were received at Belfast
10 Jun 2002 : Column 884W
regional control centre on each day of the Christmas week in 2001; what the standard target is for number of rings before a call is answered by each service; how many calls failed to reach this target on each day; and what targets are set by the PSNI in North Belfast to respond to emergency calls. [57156]
Jane Kennedy: The PSNI performance target in relation to 999 calls is to answer 98 per cent. of all 999 calls within 10 seconds.
In North Belfast, as with all areas in Northern Ireland, the PSNI respond to 999 calls as quickly as possible given the resource availability at any given time.
The following table shows the number of 999 calls received at Belfast Regional Control during the period 20–26 December 2001 and the answer rate.
| Date | Number of calls | % answered in 10 seconds or less | Average time to answer each call (seconds) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 December 2001 | 389 | 87.1 | 6 |
| 21 December 2001 | 451 | 81.6 | 7 |
| 22 December 2001 | 532 | 84.0 | 7 |
| 23 December 2001 | 391 | 90.8 | 6 |
| 24 December 2001 | 378 | 88.9 | 6 |
| 25 December 2001 | 338 | 88.8 | 6 |
| 26 December 2001 | 449 | 92.9 | 5 |
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |