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Strategic Investment Board

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland who has been appointed to the Strategic Investment Board; and what the terms of their appointments are. [119040]

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Mr. Paul Murphy: Five Directors have been appointed to the Strategic Investment Board. They are Mr. Tony Watson, Mr. James Stewart, Mr. Greg Sparks, Mr. Nigel Hamilton and Mr. Andy Carty. Mr. Watson has, additionally, been appointed as Chairman.

The Directors have been appointed for a three-year period while the Chairman has been appointed for one year.

Website Access

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the actions he (a) has taken and (b) is taking to ensure that the websites of his Department, its Agencies and non-departmental public bodies are accessible to partially sighted and blind people; and if he will make a statement. [118842]

Mr. Pearson: The Northern Ireland Office and Northern Ireland Departments, together with their Agencies and NDPBs, have:

(a) been following best practice as set down by the Office of the eEnvoy in the Cabinet Office, which requires adherence to international standards. These standards have ensured that pages on departmental websites can be read by 'screen reader' software, 'screen magnification' software or other assistive technologies which are commonly used by blind and partially sighted people; and

(b) during the current year, the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) will condense available guidance into a practical guide for designers that will ensure even greater consistency of approach. This work will include consultation with recognised disability interest groups such as RNIB. The planned introduction of web content management software by Departments will facilitate the conversion of site content for specialist devices.

Unsolved Murders

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many persons lost their lives in conflict-related incidents in each year since 1973 and were the subject of a murder investigation conducted by the police; how many murders in each year were eventually the subject of a successful prosecution; and how many unsolved murders remain from each year. [118960]

Jane Kennedy: The information cannot be provided in the format requested. Table A provides the number of murders for each year since 1973 and the number of these murders where persons have subsequently been charged. Table B provides the number of convictions for murders in each year since 1993. We are unable to provide data prior to 1993 as to do so would require a substantial manual exercise and would incur a disproportionate cost.

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Table A: Security situation statistics for Northern Ireland, 1973–9 June 2003

	Number of persons murdered	Murders for which persons have been charged
1973	200	65
1974	187	76
1975	221	101
1976	266	107
1977	100	47
1978	70	30
1979	108	38
1980	65	25
1981	83	35
1982	85	39
1983	67	29
1984	49	10
1985	48	20
1986	55	7
1987	82	20
1988	84	30
1989	57	20
1990	68	19
1991	88	27
1992	79	23
1993	82	35
1994	61	18
1995	9	2
1996	14	5
1997	20	9
1998	54	11
1999	7	2
2000	18	3
2001	16	4
2002	12	1
2003(1)	7	1
Total	2,362	859

⁽¹⁾ To 9 June

Note:

Statistics for 2002 and 2003 are provisional and may be subject to minor adjustment.

Table B: Victims of murders linked to the security situation: Number of instances where murder or other convictions have been secured by year of incident 1993–2002⁽²⁾

	Number of victims where person(s) have been convicted of murder	Person(s) have been convicted of lesser offence(3)
1993	24	2
1994	7	6
1995	1	0
1996(4)	0	2
1997	4	0
1998	6	1
1999	0	1
2000	1	3
2001(5)	0	1
2002	0	0
Total	43	16

⁽²⁾ Figures relate to cases where police have initially charged at least one suspect with murder. All cases have been heard in Belfast crown court in a Diplock trial.

⁽³⁾ For example, manslaughter, conspiracy to murder, aiding and abetting murder etc.

⁽⁴⁾ Suspect(s) have been committed for trial with respect to a further two victims—case pending.

⁽⁵⁾ Suspect(s) have been committed for trial with respect to a further victim—case pending

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DEFENCE

Armed Forces Pension Scheme

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what differences there are between the death-in-service gratuities payable under the armed forces pension scheme and those payable in similar circumstances to members of the Brigade of Gurkhas; and if he will make a statement. [119685]

Mr. Caplin: The death-in-service gratuity paid under the armed forces pension scheme varies according to whether or not the death is considered attributable to, or aggravated by, service. If the death is considered non-attributable, a tax-free basic death-in-service lump sum is payable, this is approximately equivalent to the individual's representative annual rate of pay. If the death is considered attributable to service, in addition to the basic death-in-service lump sum, a tax-free attributable gratuity is also payable; this increases the overall rate of death-in-service benefit to between one and 1½ times the individual's representative annual rate of pay.

The pension and gratuity arrangements for Gurkha soldiers, which are different to those of the armed forces pension scheme, stem from the 1947 Tri-partite Agreement and are linked to Indian Army rates. An examination of these arrangements in 1999 resulted in substantially increased pension payments for all British Gurkha pensioners and enhanced gratuity provision in the event of death in service.

Similar to the wider Army, the death-in-service gratuity payable to a Gurkha varies according to whether or not the death is considered attributable to, or aggravated by, service. If death-in-service is attributable then the Death-in-Service Gratuity payable to a Gurkha is the same as that paid to the equivalent rank in the wider British Army. If a death in service is not attributable, the normal provisions of the Gurkha pension and gratuities scheme apply, and the death element of the Death Cum-Retirement Gratuity is payable.

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to announce the outcome of the reviews of the war pensions and armed forces pensions scheme. [120003]

Mr. Caplin: I expect to announce the outcome of the reviews of the armed forces pension and compensation arrangements before the summer recess.

Iraq

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what military assets, including personnel, in Iraq are being applied to provide medical treatment for Iraqi civilians; and for how long they will remain in place. [110760]

Mr. Caplin: United Kingdom forces are required to provide, within their means and capabilities, medical treatment to Iraqi civilians. This ranges from emergency treatment conducted by any UK soldier, all of whom are trained in first aid, to more advanced emergency treatment at one of the four Regimental Aid Posts, to life saving surgery at the UK Field Hospital at Shaibah,

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southern Iraq. In addition, 1 Close Support Medical Regiment, consisting of approximately 250 personnel, is deployed across southern Iraq to provide an emergency first aid and ambulance capability.

UK forces will provide medical treatment for as long as they remain in Iraq, although it is envisaged that reliance upon UK forces' medical capabilities will be reduced as Iraq's civilian medical infrastructure continues to improve.

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what tonnage of unexploded ordnance used in the recent invasion of Iraq has been cleared up by UK-funded operations. [118024]

Mr. Ingram: More than 87,000 items of unexploded ordnance and explosive ordnance and 79,000 rounds of small arms ammunition, mostly of Iraqi origin, were destroyed between the cessation of hostilities and 8 June 2003. We do not record the tonnage destroyed.

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the capacity of British medical assets in Iraq to deal with the needs of the Iraqi people. [119323]

Mr. Caplin: The vast majority of injured Iraqis have been treated at Iraqi hospitals, and in the United Kingdom's area of operations we have made every effort to restore power, water and medical supplies to those facilities. All of the major hospitals in Baghdad and Basra are now functioning.

However, where certain specialist skills have been required, Iraqis have been treated in UK medical facilities. In the very small number of cases where the necessary medical capabilities are not available in theatre, those Iraqis have been airlifted to UK hospitals for treatment. We will continue to provide medical treatment where possible for as long as UK forces remain in Iraq, although the requirement to do so will reduce over time as Iraq's civilian medical infrastructure continues to improve.

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