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7 Jul 2003 : Column 590W—continued
Belfast Agreement
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on his plans to establish the review of the Belfast Agreement scheduled to take place shortly. [124000]
Mr. Paul Murphy: The Agreement provides for a conference four years after its coming into effect to review and report on its operation. The form and content of such a review will require careful consideration. We hope to make further proposals about the review in due course.
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Ceasefire Monitoring Body
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he intends to introduce legislation establishing the independent Ceasefire Monitoring Body; and if he will make a statement. [123458]
Mr. Paul Murphy: Work is in progress on the proposal for an Independent Monitoring Body. We hope to reach decisions on a legislative timetable shortly.
Civic Forum
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many meetings of the Civic Forum have taken place in each year since its formation. [122353]
Mr. Paul Murphy: The following table sets out the number of meetings held by the Civic Forum until 14 October 2002 on a calendar year basis.
| Meeting | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plenary | 2 | 6 | 4 |
| General Purposes Committee | 1 | 14 | 8 |
| Communications Committee | 0 | 9 | 7 |
| Government (renamed Key Issues) Committee | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Life Long Learning Project | 0 | 13 | 8 |
| Anti-Poverty Project | 0 | 11 | 4 |
| Towards a plural society Project | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| Creating a sustainable NI Project | 0 | 4 | 6 |
| Total | 3 | 67 | 51 |
Education and Library Boards
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much funding was allocated to each education and library board for special needs (a) units and (b) schools for the financial year 2002–03. [123708]
Jane Kennedy: The Department of Education gives education and library boards a block grant each year from which they are expected to pay for the various services they provide. Within their block grant boards establish their own spending priorities.
The funding allocated by the ELBs over the 2002–03 financial year was as follows.
| Education board | SEN unit costs | Special schools costs |
|---|---|---|
| SELB | 5,382 | (8)9,743 |
| SEELB | 2,752 | 13,708 |
| WELB | (9)726 | 8,350 |
| BELB | (10)1,459 | (11)16,928 |
| NEELB | (10),(12)1,7601 | (12)10,003 |
(8) Does not include costs for special school admin/educational psychology/behaviour support or the Kinnego Centre.
(9) Does not include premises related costs.
(10) ncludes AWPU unit costs
(11) Includes costs for specialist outreach services based at the Special schools.
11+ Examinations
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans the Government has to introduce an alternative to the 11+ examinations. [123716]
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Jane Kennedy: I have established a Working Group to provide advice and recommendations on options for future arrangements for post-primary education, including the development of alternative transfer arrangements.
The group has been asked to report by 31 October 2003. Decisions on future transfer procedures will not be taken until the group's advice has been considered.
Equality/Human Rights Commissions
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what costs have been incurred by the (a) Equality Commission for Northern Ireland and (b) Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in each of the last five years. [120971]
Mr. Spellar: The figures available are given in the tables. It is worth noting that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission superseded the Standing Advisory Committee for Human Rights (SACHR) in 1999 so there are only full-year figures from 2000–01.
| Costs incurred | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 923,942 |
| 2001–02 | 1,304,000 |
| 2002–03 | 1,217,250 |
| Costs incurred | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000(12) | 5,024,000 |
| 2000–01 | 6,116,000 |
| 2001–02 | 7,359,000 |
| 2002–03 | 7,512,000 |
(12) Includes six months costs for previous equality bodies
EU Committees
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many officials in the Department serve on EU committees or working parties. [116083]
Mr. Pearson: 21 officials from Northern Ireland Departments serve on EU committees or working parties. The breakdown as regards Northern Ireland Departments is as follows:
- Department of Agriculture and Rural Development— 13 officials
- Department of the Environment—4 officials
- Department for Employment and Learning—4 officials
External Reports
Mr. Maude: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list (a) the title and subject, (b) the total cost to his Department and (c) the commissioned author or organisation of each external report commissioned by his Department in each year since 1997. [103721]
Mr. Paul Murphy: The information requested in relation to the Northern Ireland Office and the Northern Ireland administration has been placed in the Library.
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General Practitioners
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many patients have contacted the GP out-of-hours service based at Bangor in the last 12 months; and how many of these calls involved patients from Kircubbin and other points further south on the Ards Peninsula. [119518]
Angela Smith: The information requested is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Health Care
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much was invested in health care in North Belfast in each year since 1997. [119464]
Angela Smith: Expenditure in relation to health and social services is collated centrally on a trust basis, and is therefore not available in the format requested. Expenditure for trusts that are located within, or cover part of, the North Belfast parliamentary constituency is provided in the table for each year since 1997. It should be noted that the population of North Belfast would also use services in other trusts outside their geographical area, and similarly persons from outside the North Belfast area would have access to services provided by trusts in the area.
| North and west Belfast community trust | Mater hospital trust | Homefirst community trust | United hospitals trust | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 83.0 | 18.5 | 97.6 | 73.1 |
| 1998–99 | 88.7 | 18.9 | 99.0 | 70.9 |
| 1999–2000 | 94.0 | 22.1 | 108.9 | 75.2 |
| 2000–01 | 99.0 | 24.2 | 118.2 | 80.9 |
| 2001–02 | 110.7 | 28.0 | 130.7 | 93.7 |
Home Accidents
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) home accident injuries and (b) home accident deaths there were in Northern Ireland in 2002. [119764]
Angela Smith: (a) There were 10,119 people admitted to hospital in 2002 as a result of an accident in the home 1 . This figure does not include people treated at an accident and emergency department or at an out-patient department.
(b) In 2001 (the latest year for which data is available) 39 people in Northern Ireland died as a result of accidents in the home 2 .
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Sources: 1 Departmental information Return KP22. 2 General Register Office for Northern Ireland.
Joint Declaration
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which of the proposals contained in the Joint Declaration published in May (a) have been implemented and (b) are in the process of being implemented; and if he will list them. [121157]
Mr. Paul Murphy: We are committed to the implementation of those parts of the joint declaration that are not conditional upon acts of completion. Following the meeting of the British-Irish Governmental Conference on 2 July, the two Governments issued a joint communique which set out in an annex a list of commitments to be delivered in the near term. I have placed a copy of this communique in the Library of the House.
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