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2 Jul 2003 : Column 339W—continued

Ministerial Meetings

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many meetings he has had with representatives of each of the political parties represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 1 January 2003. [112904]

Mr. Paul Murphy: I have met with all of the political parties represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly since 1 January 2003 with the exception of representatives of the United Unionist Assembly Party.

New Deal

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people took up the New Deal in Northern Ireland in the past two years, broken down by age. [122537]

Jane Kennedy: The New Deal programme, introduced in April 1998, aims to assist people to find jobs and help them stay and progress in employment.

The two main New Deals are the New Deal for 18–24 year olds and New Deal 25 plus.

The number of people who have taken up these New Deals in the last two years are as follows:

	New Deal18–24 year olds	New Deal 25 plus	Total
2001	6,762	8,585	15,347
2002	6,655	9,132	15,787
Total	13,417	17,717	31,134

Orange Halls

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to de-rate Orange Halls in Northern Ireland. [122637]

Mr. Pearson: Existing legislation in Northern Ireland allows a measure of rate relief on any hall where the wider community uses the facilities. Typically uses such as Sunday schools, community based youth clubs, OAP clubs, playgroups and church meetings are considered 'charitable' and apportioned out as exempt. The degree of relief available is in direct proportion to the use of the facility for charitable and broad community purposes. There is no upper limit on the amount of relief available if the relevant criteria are satisfied.

I can confirm that existing reliefs, including that which allows exemption from rates for properties used for public, charitable and certain other functions such as 'public religious worship', are currently under

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consideration within the context of the Review of Rating Policy. No decisions have yet been taken. It is intended to address these issues in a policy paper to be published later this year.

Physiotherapists

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many vacancies there are for physiotherapists in the health service in Northern Ireland. [115953]

Mr. Browne: As at the 30 September 2002 there were Physiotherapy vacancies amounting to a Whole Time Equivalent of 42.63. Physiotherapy vacancies detailed by trust are given in the following table.

Health and Social Services (HSS) Trust	WTE(32)
Sperrin Lakeland HSS Trust	4
Causeway HSS Trust	4
United Hospitals HSS Trust	10
Altnagelvin Group HSS Trust	2.63
Royal Group of Hospitals HSS Trust	2.5
Belfast City Hospital HSS Trust	3.5
Newry and Mourne HSS Trust	1
Craigavon Area Hospital Group HSS Trust	2
Green Park Healthcare HSS Trust	3
South and East Belfast HSS Trust	3
Down Lisburn HSS Trust	7
Homefirst Community HSS Trust	0
Craigavon and Banbridge Communty HSS Trust	0
Foyle Community HSS Trust (including Westcare)	0
Armagh and Dungannon HSS Trust	0
Ulster Community and Hospitals Group HSS Trust	0
North and West Belfast HSS Trust	0
Total	42.63

⁽³²⁾ Whole time equivalent.

Police Recruitment

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) Roman Catholics, (b) Protestants and (c) people of other religions applied to join the police in Northern Ireland in each of the last 10 years. [113370]

Jane Kennedy: The information is set out in the table.

No recruiting was undertaken in 1999 and 2000.

	Roman Catholic	Protestant	Religion not determined	Total
1993	86	518	129	733
1994	651	3,462	403	4,516
1995	978	3,358	365	4,701
1996	697	3,275	407	4,379
1997	414	2,194	213	2,821
1998	1,057	3,857	502	5,416
1999	—	—	—	—
2000	—	—	—	—
2001	4,196	6,791	231	11,218
2002	2,699	4,945	134	7,778

Police Service

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) applicants and (b) successful applicants joined the Police Service of Northern Ireland and RUC in the last five years, broken

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down by (a) religious denomination, (b) gender and (c) whether they were full or part-time members of the police reserve. [120978]

Jane Kennedy: Details of applicants and appointees to the police service for the last five years are as follows:

RUC

1998	Applicants	Appointees
Male	3,442	181
Female	1,974	96
Non-Catholic	4,359	247
Catholic	1,057	30
Full time Reserve	637	91
Part time Reserve	14	1

There was no recruitment to the police during 1999 and 2000.

PSNI

	Applicants	Appointees
Comp 1 2001
Male	4,443	199
Female	3,075	106
Non-Catholic	4,903	152
Catholic	2,615	153
Full time Reserve	Information unavailable	52
Part time Reserve	Information unavailable	1
Comp 2(33) 2001
Male	3,051	133
Female	1,864	62
Non-Catholic	3,025	97
Catholic	1,890	98
Full time Reserve	Information unavailable	30
Part time Reserve	Information unavailable	2
Comp 3(33) 2002
Male	2,913	126
Female	1,761	36
Non-Catholic	3,034	79
Catholic	1,640	83
Full time Reserve	Information unavailable	24
Part time Reserve	Information unavailable	2
Comp 4(33) 2002
Male	2,936	61
Female	1,432	54
Non-Catholic	2,893	49
Catholic	1,475	66
Full time Reserve	Information unavailable	37
Part time Reserve	Information unavailable	3

⁽³³⁾ It should be noted that competitions 2, 3 and 4 are not yet completed.

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what means have been used in recruiting police officers to facilitate the membership of the Police Service of Northern Ireland being representative of the province's population. [120979]

Jane Kennedy: The PSNI works towards a reflection of the whole community by:

Advertising on television, radio, cinema, Nl-wide press, local press, 48 sheet billboards, adshels, shopperlites, websites and magazines; and by sending posters and information to all groups representing visible ethnic minorities;


Outreach, by distributing PSNI recruitment brochures to all secondary and tertiary educational establishments;

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Using properly validated assessment methods that do not have an improper adverse impact on different groups within Northern Ireland;


Appointing recruits on a 50 per cent. Catholic, 50 per cent. non-Catholic basis, in accordance with section 46 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000.

Post-primary Education

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when the Review Board on Post-Primary Education will report. [122382]

Jane Kennedy: The Post-Primary Review Working Group has been asked to report by the end of October 2003.

Public Sector Housing

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his latest estimate is of the number of applicants for public sector housing in each category. [122543]

Mr. Spellar: At the end of May 2003, there were 26,924 people on the waiting list. Of these 13,448 were in housing stress including 4,136 who were accepted as homeless (those whom the Housing Executive has a duty to re-house). Since the adoption of the Common Selection Scheme in November 2000, the names of those seeking accommodation in both Housing Executive and Housing Association properties appear on one list and while applicants may specify a preference they are offered the first suitable vacancy.

School Funding

Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much direct grant assistance was received by each school in the constituency of East Belfast in the last financial year. [122544]

Jane Kennedy: Information on the amount of recurrent funding received by individual schools is set out in the Local Management of Schools (LMS) Outturn Statement which is published annually by each education and library board (in respect of controlled and maintained schools) and by the Department of Education (for voluntary grammar and grant maintained integrated schools).

Information in respect of the 2002–03 financial year is scheduled for publication in the autumn.

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