House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 19 May 2003 (pt 39)

19 May 2003 : Column 651W—continued

Departmental Pay

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department pursuant to her answer of 8 April 2003, Official Report, column 125–26W, on departmental pay, if she will place copies of her forthcoming action plans in the Library. [112318]

Ms Rosie Winterton: It is anticipated that action plans relating to equality audits of pay and related systems in the Lord Chancellor's Department, and the other departments, and non-departmental public bodies for which the Lord Chancellor is responsible, will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses in due course, following discussion with the Cabinet Office.

Departmental Staff

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment she has made of regional variations in staff turnover in the Department. [112755]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Staff turnover is reviewed on an on-going basis. For the year ending 31 March 2003 the turnover rate of the total workforce was 8.63 per cent. compared to 10.60 per cent. for the previous year. This reduction was reflected across all regions (apart from Wales where the rate increased slightly from 8 per cent. to 8.8 per cent.) due to a number of transfers to other Government Departments. The north west has the lowest turnover rate at 6 per cent. London has the highest rate, at 11 per cent.

Resignations remain the highest single factor for leaving and this is consistent across all regions followed by transfers to other Government departments and retirements. There is no single factor behind the reasons for resigning. In line with the recent announcement by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, my Department will be updating its workforce development plans to assist the review being conducted by Sir Michael Lyons on relocation.

National Land Information System

Mr. Hawkins: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) what (a) representations and (b) external advice she has received on the operations of the National Land Information System; what assessment she has made of its compliance with competition regulations; and what plans she has to review the governance arrangement of NLIS; [114366]

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(3) when she last met board members of the National Land Information System; and if she will publish minutes of the meeting; [114368]

(4) what representations she has received from local authorities concerning the operation of the National Land Information System; [114369]

(5) when the Department last reviewed the National Land Information System business plan; and what assessment she has made of the viability of its future operations. [114370]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The National Land Information Service (NLIS) is ultimately intended to be a one stop electronic shop for information about land and property in England and Wales. It was developed and piloted in the 1990s by a group of public sector bodies led by the Land Registry. The work was then taken forward by the Local Government Information House Limited (LGIH), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Improvement and Development Agency.

NLIS is now financially independent and receives no state aid. It comprises LGIH; a hub operated by Macdonald Dettwiler Associates (MDA); and three competing service channels, operated by NLIS Searchflow, Transaction Online and TM NLIS Search respectively. There is no NLIS board. Central Government were not a party to the contract and licence negotiations between LGIH and the hub and channel service providers and are not a party to NLIS now.

Following criticism of the governance arrangements for NLIS in the Quinquennial Review of the Land Registry in June 2001, a Central Government Stakeholder Group (CGSG), chaired by the Land Registry, was set up to provide such assistance as central Government could to help NLIS become an established feature of the conveyancing process and to provide a means of communication between the NLIS partners and those stakeholders. We are reviewing the role of the CGSG. But the operation or governance of NLIS, the business plans of the NLIS service providers and their future viability are not matters for government. Any questions of possible infringement of competition law should be pursued with the Office of Fair Trading in the normal way. The Government continue to encourage local authorities to transfer their land and property information to electronic local land and property gazetteers so as to improve access to information.

Since September 2001, when the commercial NLIS service was launched, neither I nor my ministerial colleagues at the Lord Chancellor's Department have received any external advice on the operation of NLIS or any representations from local authorities about its operation. In the same period, we have received a small number of letters from Members of Parliament and others commenting on a range of matters relating to the operation of NLIS.

Potters Bar Rail Crash

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will make a statement about the availability of legal aid to the families bereaved in the Potters Bar rail crash. [112990]

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Ms Rosie Winterton: Public funding for the civil courts is available to applicants provided that the case is within the scope of the Community Legal Service scheme and that they satisfy the Legal Services Commission's means and merits tests for funding.

Families bereaved by the Potters Bar rail crash have the same access to public funding as others wishing to bring, defend, or be party to, civil proceedings. Individual claims would be expected to be pursued privately if the claimant's means exceed the financial eligibility criteria for public funding. However, the Commission also has discretion to waive the upper financial eligibility limit in order to fund a case where funding relates to the generic issues in a multi-party action, where there is likely to be a significant wider public interest in doing so.

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QC Status

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what his policy is on the awarding of QC status to non-practising barristers. [113550]

Ms Rosie Winterton: My noble and learned Friend, the Lord Chancellor, regards Queen's Counsel as a working rank within the profession. Only lawyers who have, and are entitled to exercise, full rights of audience in the High Court or Crown Court, and who regularly appear as advocates in appropriate courts and tribunals, are eligible to apply for appointment. He also recommends to Her Majesty the Queen the appointment of a small number of lawyers who are not in private practice, but who have made a significant contribution to the law, as Queen's Counsel 'honoris causa', a purely honorary appointment.