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Sierra Leone

Hugh Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Sierra Leone. [84359]

Mr. Rammell: Good progress has been made in restoring peace to Sierra Leone. Disarmament was completed and the war declared over in January 2002. Credible and peaceful elections were held in May. Nonetheless, much remains to be done to consolidate the fragile peace. The UN peacekeeping mission, UNAMSIL, remains deployed throughout the country. It has begun to withdraw, in a phased process, which should last 18–20 months.

The UK continues to play a leading role in building a lasting peace. Key post-conflict challenges include helping the Government of Sierra Leone to:

reform the security sector;

train and strengthen the capacity of the armed forces and police;

reintegrate former combatants, returning refugees and the internally displaced;

tackle corruption;

promote justice (including through the establishment of the Sierra Leone Special Court) and reconciliation (through the Truth and Reconciliation Commission);

introduce policies for managing and securing the diamond fields;

strengthen democratic institutions and civil society;

put in place effective public administration and management of public finances, rebuild the country's basic infrastructure and services; and

develop industry and the economy.

The UK is committing over #120 million of development assistance, including substantial budgetary support, to Sierra Leone over the next three years. This is in addition to our ongoing commitment of over 100 UK military personnel to the UK-led International Military and Advisory Training Team (IMATT). We continue to provide substantial support to humanitarian agencies.

The ongoing conflict in Liberia, and President Taylor's regime, which has not yet met the demands of the Security Council and continues to breach UN sanctions, remain a threat to the peace in Sierra Leone. Through the Liberia Contact Group and other mechanisms we are seeking a peaceful solution and real reform in Liberia.

Burundi

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the status of the ceasefire talks between CNDD-FDD and the transitional Government of Burundi. [84645]

Mr. Rammell: A ceasefire agreement was signed on 2 December 2002 in Arusha between the CNDD-FDD and the Transitional National Government of Burundi.

Iraq (Human Rights)

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the evidential basis is

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for his statements on pages 4, 8 and 9 of his document XSaddam Hussein: Crimes and Human Rights Abuse", concerning the treatment of women. [85625]

Mr. Mike O'Brien [holding answer 5 December 2002]: There is no statement about Iraqi women on page 4 of the report. Statements on pages 8 and 9 of the report are from sources including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other NGOs.

Private Finance Initiative

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what PFI/PPP projects each of the security services has been engaged in; and if he will make a statement. [86231]

Mr. Straw: The only PFI project involving the security and intelligence agencies is the provision and servicing of new accommodation for GCHQ.

CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

Clergy

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners if he will ask the Church Commissioners to benchmark the employment rights of UK clergy in comparison to those in other EU countries. [85515]

Mr. Bell: This would be a matter for the Archbishops' Council's Ministry Division. The Council has no plans to do so. Such a benchmarking exercise would be difficult to devise in view of the very wide range of employment rights applicable to clergy in other EU countries. Some clergy have little formal protection while others are employed on the equivalent of civil service terms.

Tenancy Rights

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, representing the Church Commissioners if he will make a statement on the tenancy rights of clergy who live in church properties. [85179]

Mr. Bell: Incumbents have ownership as a corporation sole of their parsonage houses, although their power to dispose of their houses is qualified. Their ownership ends on resignation, retirement or with pastoral reorganisation, or on removal from office for disciplinary offences, pastoral breakdown or if they become too infirm to continue in ministry. The rights and responsibilities of incumbents with respect to their houses are laid down in the Repair of Benefice Buildings Measure 1972.

Team rectors have the same security as incumbents for the term of years for which they are appointed. Unless they resign or reach retirement age, they can only be removed from office during the period of their licences for disciplinary offences, on grounds of serious pastoral breakdown or infirmity.

Other clergy, about 40 per cent., do not have freehold of office. They include priests in charge and assistant curates. They may occupy their accommodation by virtue of licences under which they themselves would

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ordinarily make no rental payment. In these circumstances an occupier would not be entitled to remain in possession after the licence came to an end.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Appointments

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will name those persons she appointed to public bodies in October. [84925]

Ms Hewitt: The names of the individuals appointed to DTI public bodies during the course of October, the bodies to which they were appointed and the effective date of the appointments have been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Broadband Advisers

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the application of Nolan Rules to the appointment of (a) a city councillor and (b) deputy chairman of a regional assembly as a full-time DTI regional broadband advisor. [85244]

Mr. Timms: The 12 men and women appointed as regional broadband advisers or coordinators, who form part of the UK Broadband Task Force, are contract employees or secondees from industry and not civil servants. They were selected on merit through open competition and a range of backgrounds was sought to give the Task Force the necessary mix of skills and experience. In the case of the South West region, the political activities of the successful candidate were set out in full in his application.

Carbon Trust

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what funding has been allocated by the Carbon Trust; and who has received allocations. [83436]

Mr. Morley: I have been asked to reply.

The Carbon Trust was launched in April 2001 to support UK business and the public sector in reducing their Carbon emissions while maintaining competitiveness. The Carbon Trust is a private non-profit company that receives funding of around #50 million per annum from Defra and the Devolved Administrations. About two-thirds of its current funding comes from recycled receipts from the Climate Change Levy. As a private company the management of its programmes and decisions on the allocation of funding, are a matter for the Carbon Trust Board.

Counterfeit Goods

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for trading counterfeit goods, broken down by type, under the Trademarks Act 1994, in each year since 1994. [85308]

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Miss Melanie Johnson: Information about the number of prosecutions under the Trade Mark Act 1994 is not currently collated centrally and would cost a disproportionate amount to collect.

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) prosecutions and (b) convictions there have been for trading counterfeit goods, broken down by type, under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968, in each of the last ten years. [85309]

Miss Melanie Johnson: Annex Dl of the Office of Fair Trading's Annual Report 2001 contains details of local authority prosecutions under the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 for 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2001 (www.oft.gov.uk/News/Annual+report/annexes.htm). These tables are compiled from information supplied voluntarily by the local authority trading standards service and environmental health departments.

Departmental Posts

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many ethnic minority persons are employed at each grade in her Department. [84924]

Ms Hewitt: We monitor ethnicity through a voluntary survey of staff. The latest data show that 659 persons have indicated that they are of ethnic minority origin. The table gives a breakdown of that number according to DTI ranges.

DTI Range	Number of persons
2	44
3	60
4	180
5	67
6	122
7	39
8	69
9	29
10	30
11	14
Senior civil servant	5
Total	659

DTI Ranges	Civil Service Grade Equivalent
2	AA
3 and 4	AO
5 and 6	EO
7 and 8	HEO
9	SEO
10	Grade 7
11	Grade 6
Senior civil servant

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