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Housing

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much has been spent on (a) maintenance

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and repairs and (b) new build by (i) the Housing Executive and (ii) housing associations in North Belfast in each year since 1997. [119465]

Mr. Spellar: The Housing Executive's maintenance, repair and new build expenditure for North Belfast is not held by parliamentary constituency but equates approximately to Housing Executive Districts 4 and 6. The information is as follows:

Districts 4 and 6£ 000

	Maintenance	Repair	New build
1997–98	2,729	9,406	2,982
1998–99	2,438	12,901	2,569
1999–2000	4,041	9,522	2,195
2000–01	3,786	8,459	503
2001–02	1,971	10,824	245
2002–03	3,235	9,702	152

Occupational Therapy

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many patients within the (a) Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust and (b) Causeway Trust catchment areas are awaiting occupational therapy assessment. [121316]

Angela Smith: At 31 March 2003, the latest date for which figures are available, there were (a) 362 patients within the Ulster Community and Hospitals Trust catchment area and (b) 670 patients within the Causeway Trust catchment area waiting for occupational therapy assessment.

Official Spelling

Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make it his policy that official (a) correspondence, (b) reports and (c) documentation from his office uses the English spelling of words where this differs from the US version. [118870]

Mr. Paul Murphy: It is already our general practice to do so, underpinned by efforts to ensure that the quality of all our written work is high and is in plain written English.

Waste Reduction

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the impact of the Retail Charter on the volume of plastic bags used in supermarkets in Northern Ireland. [120138]

Angela Smith: The Retail Partnership Charter, which involves most of the major retailers in Northern Ireland, was launched in October 2002 as part of Phase 2 of the 'Wake up to Waste' campaign. The purpose of the Charter is to reduce waste produced by retailers and consumers. Its commitments included: promoting the 'reduce, re-use, recycle' message to staff and customers; reducing the use of plastic bags; providing recycling collection points; and implementing best practice throughout all business operations.

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The Department is currently evaluating Phase 2 of the campaign, which concluded on 31 March 2003. The report, which will be available next month, will provide information on the impact of the initiative on consumer behaviour, including the use of plastic bags. I will arrange for the hon. Member to receive the findings of the report.

Police

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many members of (a) the police force of the Irish Republic and (b) other foreign police services have been (i) recruited and (ii) seconded to the PSNI since the name of the police was changed. [117736]

Jane Kennedy: No officers from the Garda Siochana or foreign police services have been recruited or seconded to PSNI.

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many members of (a) ethnic minorities, (b) women, (c) Roman Catholics and (d) others have been recruited into the PSNI since the name of the police was changed. [117737]

Jane Kennedy: Numbers of ethnic minorities, women, Roman Catholics and others recruited to the PSNI to date are as follows:

Group	Number
Ethnic minorities	1
Female	258
Roman Catholic	400
Others	377

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) Roman Catholics and (b) others have been rejected for admission to the suitably qualified pool for recruitment to the PSNI. [117738]

Jane Kennedy: Excluding those who were not eligible due to age, citizenship, non completion of forms or who withdrew or did not attend the initial interview to date, a total of 4,066 Roman Catholics and 7,258 others have been rejected for admission to the suitable pool for recruitment.

Police HQ, Armagh

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when a report under the Reporting of Incidents, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations was submitted to the Health and Safety Executive concerning asbestos contamination at the regional police headquarters in Armagh; and what action has been taken by the HSE as a result. [120310]

Mr. Pearson: The limited scale of this asbestos contamination incident meant that it was not reportable under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997. However, the Police Federation passed details to the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland (HSENI) on 10 August 1998. HSENI's subsequent investigation confirmed a limited release of asbestos fibres in an unoccupied basement room used to store police files. Although HSENI was satisfied with the

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remedial action taken to deal with the contamination it did follow up with the police authority to ensure that suitable procedures for identifying the presence of asbestos containing materials were put in place and applied across the police authority estate.

Sickness Absence

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the rate of sickness absence was (excluding maternity leave) of female teachers in publicly funded schools in Northern Ireland in the academic year September 2001 to August 2002; and how many teachers in publicly funded schools in Northern Ireland were dismissed for absenteeism in the academic year September 2001 to August 2002. [117927]

Jane Kennedy: Information in relation to teachers employed in voluntary grammar schools is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

In February 2002, there were 12,624 female teachers employed in grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland other than in voluntary grammar schools. Of these, 8,183 were absent for reasons of sickness for a total of 122,090 days. This is equivalent to 9.7 days per female teacher employed.

Chief Executives of the five education and library boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools have advised that no teachers in grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland (excluding voluntary grammar schools) were dismissed for absenteeism in the 2001–02 academic year.

Housing Support Services

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the implementation and operation of the Supporting People initiative; how many complaints have been received about the initiative; how many people are employed in administering the scheme; and whether it has achieved its objectives in terms of targeting the individuals who should benefit from it. [120152]

Mr. Spellar: The Supporting People initiative has been operating successfully since its introduction on 1 April 2003, providing assistance for approximately 12,000 service users in 850 supported housing schemes; the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, which is responsible for the administration of the scheme, has received just one formal complaint about the operation of the initiative; there are 25 people working on the administration of the scheme in the Housing Executive; and the scheme has achieved its objectives in terms of ensuring that those who were eligible for free housing support services under the old arrangements continue to receive these services.

Teachers

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many teachers in publicly funded schools in Northern Ireland were found, on the initiative of their employer, not to satisfy the health requirements for teaching in each of the education and

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library boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools in the academic year September 2001 to August 2002. [117928]

Jane Kennedy: In the academic year September 2001 to August 2002 a total of 57 teachers were found not to satisfy the health requirements for teaching on the initiative of the five education and library boards and the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools. These were distributed as follows:

Teachers not satisfying health requirements September 2001 to August 2002

Education and Library Boards	Number
Belfast	4
Western	5
North-eastern	26
South-eastern	13
Southern	3
CCMS	6

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of applications for infirmity pension from the Northern Ireland Teachers Pension Scheme were successful in the academic year September 2001 to August 2002. [117929]

Jane Kennedy: In the academic year September 2001 to August 2002, the Northern Ireland Teachers' Superannuation Scheme received 174 applications for ill health pensions and 95.4 per cent. of these were successful.

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many primary schools in each education and library boards have lost teacher posts in each year since 1997. [118016]

Jane Kennedy: The requested information is available only for the period 1999–2000 to 2001–02. The number of primary schools where the count of full-time equivalent teachers fell is shown in the following table. For completeness the number of schools where the count of full-time equivalent teachers rose is also given.

Primary schools

Education and	Number of schools losingposts		Number of schools gainingposts
Library BoardArea	1999–2000 to 2000–01	2000–01to 2001–02	1999–2000 to 2000–01	2000–01to 2001–02
Belfast	42	46	35	29
Western	56	58	51	66
North-eastern	86	65	71	105
South-eastern	60	54	86	87
Southern	100	100	83	70

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