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Indonesia

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) what visits have been made to West Papua and Aceh by representatives of the UK Embassy in Indonesia; what groups they met; and what contact they had with the Indonesian military; [76333]

(2) what recent meetings have taken place with representatives of (a) Freeport Mine and (b) BP and UK diplomatic representatives in Indonesia; and what the nature of the discussions was. [76332]

Mr. Macshane [holding answer 23 October 2002]: The information requested is held by the British Embassy in Jakarta. I will write to my hon. Friend when the Embassy staff have addressed this issue.

Diplomatic Service

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list by

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career grade (a) the total number and (b) the percentage of women employed in the diplomatic service in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [76536]

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Mr. MacShane [holding answer 22 October 2002]: Listed by career grade the total and the percentage of women employed in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including FCO Services at Hanslope Park, for each of the last five years is:

Grade	1997	%	1998	%	1999	%	2000	%	2001	%
A1	100	43	98	40	116	44.1	155	47.3	178	47.1
A2	827	63	770	60	750	60.7	655	62.9	660	62.4
B3	616	42	622	45	628	44.3	608	48.3	618	49.2
C4	234	9.7	264	24	313	27.4	350	30.4	369	31.3
C5	51	15	55	15	45	13	77	16	83	16.9
D6	114	20	118	21	123	21.3	127	21.1	144	22.9
D7	18	22	22	23	27	28.4	39	31	42	27.3
SMS	26	6	30	7	28	6.2	38	8.5	44	9.8
Total	1986	36	1979	36	2030	36.7	2049	37.7	2138	38.2

Note:

The 2002 figures are not yet available.

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many women have been recruited into the diplomatic service in each of the last five years for which figures are available, broken down by grade. [76535]

Mr. MacShane [holding answer 22 October 2002]: The number of women recruited into the Diplomatic Service in each of the last five years, broken down by grade, is provided below.

No. of Woman			Year
Grade	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Grand Total
A2	32	19	25	42	54	172
B3	15	13	15	22	25	90
C4	11	16	14	16	19	76
C5	2	1	1	2	3	9
D6	2	4	2	7	1	16
D7		1			3	4
Grand Total	62	54	57	89	105	367

NORTHERN IRELAND

Decommissioning

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what recent progress has been made towards decommissioning. [74002]

Jane Kennedy: The IRA has engaged in two acts of decommissioning. It is imperative that all paramilitary organisations now, as the Prime Minister said, move to acts of completion of the transition to exclusively peaceful means, real, total and permanent.

Terrorist Activity

Sir Sydney Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will make a statement about the level of terrorist activity in Northern Ireland. [74003]

Jane Kennedy: In recent weeks loyalist groups have continued their feuding, resulting in three murders and six attempted murders. Dissident republicans are believed to have been responsible for 12 attacks this year including the murder of David Caldwell in Londonderry.

There is widespread public concern over the extent of continuing PIRA involvement in targeting and intelligence gathering activity.

Good Friday Agreement

Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what aspects of the Good Friday Agreement remain to be implemented; and if he will make a statement [74004]

Dr. John Reid: The Government are determined to press forward with all aspects of the Agreement. The key priority now is to restore the devolved institutions. Essential to that is the restoration of trust that all parties remain committed to fulfilling their obligations, and crucially the commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means.

Performance Improvement

Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement about peer review as applied to improving performance in the Northern Ireland Office and its funded bodies. [74005]

John Reid: A Peer Review of the Northern Ireland Office, headed by Sir Stephen Lander, took place in October 2001. The team made helpful recommendations on a range of management, personnel and other issues, and the Department launched a major change planning exercise to take these forward.

Patsy Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what performance incentives are in place at the Northern Ireland Office. [74010]

Jane Kennedy: The Northern Ireland Office's pay system offers the incentive of increases in salary each year depending on performance—the higher the level of performance the higher the reward. The Department also has a recognition scheme for incentivising and rewarding staff with a modest bonus payment for special performance or contribution.

Provisional IRA Army Council

David Burnside: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will make a statement on the membership of the Provisional IRA Army Council. [74006]

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Jane Kennedy: In accordance with part 2 of the Code of Practice of access to Government information, it is not government policy to comment on intelligence matters.

Peace Process

Andrew Selous: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what plans he has to set deadlines for measuring further progress by parties to the peace process [74008]

Dr. John Reid: The progress that matters now is to re-establish confidence in the commitment of all parties to the obligations of the Agreement, and crucially the commitment to exclusively peaceful means. I do not believe that deadlines are necessarily helpful in securing this, but the time for decision has come.

Devolved Institutions

Fiona McTaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will make a statement on the prospects for the devolved institutions over the next 12 months [74009]

Dr. John Reid: We will be applying every effort to the restoration of the devolved institutions, and to moving beyond the recent impasse. The people of Northern Ireland support devolved government, and want to see local Ministers making local decisions.

Criminal Justice Review

Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the implementation of the Criminal Justice Review. [74011]

Desmond Browne: The Justice (Northern Ireland) Bill, carrying the legislative provisions required to give effect to the recommendations of the Review, passed through the House of Commons and the House of Lords with few amendments and widespread support. It received Royal Assent on 24 July and is now the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002.

We consulted widely during the passage of the Bill with most of the political parties in Northern Ireland, a wide range of statutory, voluntary and community sector organisations, and human rights lobby groups. The responses received were extremely useful in shaping the plans for implementing the Review's recommendations, and we are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who contributed.

Fostering public trust in the criminal justice system is one of the core aims of the Review and it is with this aim in mind that we intend to publish a revised Implementation Plan by early 2003. This plan will update the original Implementation Plan published in November 2001 and set out in greater detail again how the Review recommendations are being taken forward.

Belfast Agreement

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, What recent estimate he has made of the economic impact of the Belfast Agreement [74012]

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Dr. John Reid: Northern Ireland has among the fastest economic growth rates in the United Kingdom. Visitors to Belfast are struck by the amount of building activity all around the city, as construction companies try to keep apace with the demand for office and retail space. Since the Belfast Agreement there has been high inward investment, particularly in the IT and hospitality industries.

I believe that economic development is closely related to the overall success of the police process.

Mr. Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will make a statement on progress on the implementation of the Belfast Agreement. [74018]

Dr. John Reid: The Government are determined to press forward with all aspects of the Agreement. The key priority now is to restore the devolved institutions. Essential to that is the restoration of trust that all parties remain committed to fulfilling their obligations, and crucially the commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means.

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