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24 Sept 2002 : Column 450W—continued

Overseas Visits

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the overseas trips on departmental business that have been undertaken in each of the last five years by officials in her Department; and what the (a) cost, (b) purpose and (c) result was in each case. [68731]

Ms Hewitt: All overseas travel by officials in the Department is undertaken in accordance with principles set in Chapter 8 of the Civil Service Management Code and the detailed rules and guidance set out in the Department's Guide to officials. The detailed information requested about individual trips is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Female Staff

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage of the staff of her Department are women; and what the percentage was in June 1997. [66904]

Ms Hewitt: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by the Minister of State, Cabinet Office, on 5 July 2002, Official Report, column 622W.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Job Location

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many jobs under the remit of his Department in (a) the core department, (b) non- departmental public bodies, (c) executive agencies and (d) independent statutory bodies, organisations and bodies financially sponsored by his Department and other such organisations, are located in (i) Scotland, (ii) England, excluding Greater London, (iii) Greater London, (iv) Wales, (v) Northern Ireland and (vi) overseas broken down by (A) whole-time equivalent jobs and (B) the percentage per individual department, body or organisation.

Mr. McCartney [pursuant to the Written Answer on 24 July 2002, Official Report, vol. 389, col. 1589–90W]: The information is in the table.

Number of jobs that come under the remit of the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

	Scotland			(excluding Greater London)
	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)
Core department	943	889.50	0.59	18,722	17,356.90	11.69
Non-departmental public bodies	936	913.5	0.58	6,293	6,136.85	3.93
Executive agencies	13,947	12,987.22	8.71	88,705	80,627.05	55.41
Independent statutory bodies	0	0	0	239.2	228.58	0.15

24 Sept 2002 : Column 451W

	Greater London			Wales
	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)
Core department	2,778	2,644.97	1.74	461	425.6	0.29
Non-departmental public bodies	4,409	4,253.24	2.75	1,308	1,286.82	0.82
Executive agencies	14,520	13,570.08	9.07	6,801	6,292.28	4.25
Independent statutory bodies	29	29	0.02	0	0	0

Column (A) is the number of posts

Column (B) is the Whole Time Equivalent posts taking into account staff who work part time

Column (C) is the per cent. of posts in (A) against the total number of posts in the Department.

[Changes made to original answer are in bold]

	Scotland			(excluding Greater London)
	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)
Core department	943	889.50	0.64
0.59	18,722	17,356.90	12.74
11.69
Non-departmental public bodies	0
936	0
913.5
0.58	56
6,293	56.00
6,136.85
3.93
Executive agencies	13,808
13,947	12,853.22
12,987.22	9.40
8.71	88,028
88,705	79,997.05
80,627.05	59.91
55.41
Independent statutory bodies	139
0	134.00
0	0.1
0	677.0
239.2	630.00
228.58	0.46
0.15

	Greater London			Wales
	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)	Posts (A)	WTE (B)	Per cent. (C)
Core department	2,778	2,644.97	1.89
1.74	461	425.6	0.32
0.29
Non-departmental public bodies	0
4,409	0
4,253.24
2.75	0
1,308	0
1,286.82
0.82
Executive agencies	14,376
14,520	13,437.28
13,570.08	9.78
9.07	6,674
6,801	6,174.58
6,292.28	4.55
4.25
Independent statutory bodies	144
29	132.8
29	0.11
0.02	127
0	117.70
0	0.1
0

Column (A) is the number of posts

Column (B) is the Whole Time Equivalent posts taking into account staff who work part time

Column (C) is the per cent. of posts in (A) against the total number of posts in the Department.

DEFENCE

Iraq

Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence in respect of the attack by allied aircraft on 19 July in the Qadissiya province of Iraq, how many salvos were fired during the mission, what hostile acts the target area had been responsible for in provoking the attack and how many of the people injured and killed were deemed to be military personnel. [73684]

Mr. Ingram: On the night of 18 July, when the incident in question occurred, coalition aircraft responded to multiple attacks on them by Iraqi air defence weapons, including anti-aircraft artillery and missiles, by releasing precision guided munitions.

Coalition aircraft conduct patrols of the Iraqi no fly zones in support of UN SCR 688 which demanded that Saddam Hussein end the brutal repression of his own people. The pilots conducting these wholly legitimate patrols are regularly shot at by Iraqi air defences. They are authorised to respond in self-defence to efforts to shoot them down. This is the only basis on which weapons have been released over Iraq since Operation Desert Fox in December 1998.

24 Sept 2002 : Column 452W

The coalition targets Iraqi air defence facilities that pose a threat to its forces patrolling the no fly zones. Exceptional lengths are taken to ensure civilian casualties are kept to the absolute minimum possible, including the employment of very carefully controlled targeting procedures and precision guided munitions. It is in Saddam's interests to distort the truth in his attempts to convince the world that the coalition is responsible for causing widespread suffering to the Iraqi civilian populace. Saddam would readily persecute these people, as he has done in the past, if we did not patrol the no fly zones. We are not prepared to abandon these people.

LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT

Area-based Initiatives

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will list for each area-based initiative for which his Department is responsible the amount originally budgeted for in (a) 2000–01 and (b) 2001–02, stating in each year what funds budgeted for were not spent and if they were carried forward. [71463]

24 Sept 2002 : Column 453W

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Lord Chancellor's Department is responsible for one designated Area Based Initiative; the roll out of Community Legal Services Partnerships (CLSPs). CLSPs are voluntary groupings made up of providers and funders of advice and help services and are not funded by the Lord Chancellor's Department. However, CLSPs are supported by regional staff of the Legal Services Commission. The total cost of these staff has been £3.5 million for each of the two years, 2000–01 and 2001–02. As this support varies according to need between CLSPs it is not possible to answer the question precisely for each local area.

Immigration Appellate Tribunal

Keith Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to open additional IATs. [73048]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Currently there are no plans to open new Immigration Appeal Tribunal (IAT) premises. At present all IAT hearings are conducted from Field House in London. However, there are extensive plans to open new Adjudicator hearing centres as part of the Immigration Appellate Authorities' (IAA) expansion programme. The IAA has been tasked with increasing its capacity from the current 4,500 asylum appeals per month to 6,000 cases per month from November 2002.

Centres are planned for Newport, Stoke-on-Trent, North Shields, Bradford and Manchester, opening between November 2002 and June 2003. In addition to the new locations, the hearing capacities of existing centres in Birmingham and Hatton Cross are being increased. The precise timescales for the expansion programme remain subject to lease and planning considerations.

The capacity of the IAT will also need to increase, but this will not require accommodation outside its London base.

Keith Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when he proposes to open the new IAT in Leicester. [73047]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Currently there are no plans to open new Immigration Appeal Tribunal (IAT) premises. At present all IAT hearings are conducted from Field House in London.

24 Sept 2002 : Column 454W

However, as part of the Immigration Appellate Authorities' (IAA) programme of expansion, a new administrative support centre is to open in Arnhem House in Leicester during November 2002. The IAA has been tasked with increasing its capacity from the current 4,500 asylum appeals per month to 6,000 cases per month from November 2002.

The centre will operate in tandem with the existing Loughborough centre, providing back office functions in support of the expanded network of IAA hearing centres.

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