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Parliamentary Questions

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will answer Questions

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ref 117115 and 117116 from the hon. Member for Mid Dorset and North Poole tabled for answer on 5 June. [123982]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 7 July 2003]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 2 July 2003, Official Report, column 329W.

Police

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many vacancies for police officers there are within the Metropolitan police force; and if he will make a statement. [123485]

Ms Blears: The Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis informs me that at the end of May 2003 there were 28,602 police officers in the Metropolitan police service (MPS) against a budgeted workforce target for the policing year ending 31 March 2004 of 29,856 officers. There are therefore some 1,254 vacancies (although this changes on a weekly basis).

The recruitment target for the MPS in the current year is 3,440. This takes account of projected leavers from the service and continuation of the recruitment of additional officers as part of the safer City campaign. The MPS continues to attract applications and has in place the processes to ensure it meets its recruitment plans.

Prison Education

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much has been spent on education in prison in each of the last five years. [124035]

Paul Goggins [holding answer 7 July 2003]: Budgets for education in prisons have been ring-fenced from 2001 and managed by the Offenders' Learning and Skills Unit (OLSU) based in the Department for Education and Skills. Against OLSU's main programme budget, which funds teaching and induction hours, libraries and the cost of education materials, spend was £56.7 million in 2001–02 and £65.7 in 2002–03. These figures includes £5 million each year to the youth Justice Board.

Radical Islamic Groups

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department pursuant to his answer of 24 June 2003, Official Report, column 748W, if he will make an assessment of possible connections between radical Islamic groups prejudicial to UK interests and (a) the International Islamic Relief Organisation, (b) al-Haramain and (c) the World Assembly of Islamic Youth. [123326]

Mr. Blunkett: There are well established arrangements in place to assess threats to national security but, in accordance with established parliamentary practice, it would not be appropriate to comment on particulars.

Work Permits

Matthew Green: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many intra-company transfer work permits were granted in each month in (a) 2002 and (b) 2003 to date. [123466]

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Beverley Hughes: Figures showing the numbers of work permit applications approved under the intra-company transfers arrangement, by month since 2002 are as follows:

	Work permit applications
2002
January	2,201
February	2,071
March	2,227
April	2,274
May	2,325
June	2,104
July	2,420
August	2,144
September	2,080
October	2,263
November	2,017
December	1,974
2003
January	2,213
February	2,049
March	2,447
April	2,054
May	2,309
June	2,359
Total	39,531

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Postal/Pilot Schemes

Mr. Cash: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) if he will make a statement on the use of all-postal ballot schemes in elections taking place in 2004; [124070]

(2) what plans the Government has to introduce legislation allowing the use of election pilot schemes in the proposed combined elections in June 2004; and if he will make a statement. [124071]

Mr. Leslie: Under s.10 of the Representation of the People Act 2000, local authorities in England and Wales can apply to run electoral pilot schemes to trial innovative voting methods at local elections.

For the greater convenience of the electorate, we propose to provide, subject to parliamentary approval of the Local Government Bill, for the date of next year's local elections in England to be moved to the same day as that of the European parliamentary elections.

The Government are keen to maintain the momentum built up so far in the electoral pilots programme and are, therefore, giving positive consideration to the possibility of making legislative provision to enable pilots to take place at next year's elections.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Warm Front Scheme

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what financial allocations to the Warm Front scheme are planned for

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2003–04; whether the Warm Front scheme has regional spending pots; how these have changed; and whether she has set out change in (a) priorities and (b) eligibilities for 2003–04. [122779]

Mr. Bradshaw: We have allocated funding of £156 million for work on fuel poverty in 2003–04 of which £152 million is for Warm Front. The funding is not split into regional pots, though the Scheme Managers are encouraged to target measures in proportion to the level of fuel poverty in an area.

The overall aim of the scheme remains the delivery of energy efficiency improvements to eligible households. A revision to the eligibility criteria for the scheme was made earlier this year to reflect changes in the Benefit System and further changes are being considered to reflect the introduction of Pension Credit in October.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Council Tax

Andrew George: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the average level of (a) council tax and (b) band D council tax is in the south-west of England. [124676]

Phil Hope: The average level of council tax per dwelling in the south-west of England for 2003–04 is £938.

The average level of band D council tax in the south-west of England for 2003–04 is £1,113.

Government Office (North-West)

Helen Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the cost was of the production and distribution of the 2002–03 Government Office for the North West Annual Review. [123987]

Yvette Cooper: The cost of production of the 2002–03 Government Office for the North West Annual Review, excluding staff time was £5,640. Compilation and distribution was done in-house so it is not possible to provide a figure for these costs.

Helen Jones: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many times the Government Office for the North West has lodged objections to planning applications in Warrington since 1997; which applications were objected to; and what the grounds of the objection were in each case. [123989]

Keith Hill: Government Offices do not comment on individual planning applications. Since 1997 six planning applications in Warrington have been called in for determination by my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister.

Regional Assemblies

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many responses from each region his Department received to the soundings exercise on the level of interest in each English region in holding a referendum about an elected regional assembly by (a) 3 March, (b) 16 May and (c) 12 June. [124177]

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Mr. Raynsford: The information for those precise dates is not available, because the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not have a record of the date that each response was received. I refer the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) to the answer given to the hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) on 18 March 2003, Official Report, column 743W, which said that the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister had received over 4,500 responses by that date. On 26 March 2003 approximately 5,000 responses had been received, and on 3 April 2003 5,400 responses had been received. These figures were the results of ad hoc counts at these dates.

The final total was 8,468 responses received by 13 June 2003.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

India (Poverty)

6. Liz Blackman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what action he is taking to reduce poverty in India. [124277]

Hilary Benn: DFID provided £185 million to India in 2001–02. In the New Delhi Declaration of January 2002 the Prime Minister looked forward to expenditure of over £300 million.

Our programme helps government deliver pro-poor policies and services. We are working closely with four focus states committed to poverty reduction, including on their programmes of fiscal and public sector reform, increasing access to basic health, education, and urban services for the poor and empowerment of the marginalized. We also support the efforts of the Union Government and civil society in these areas nationwide.

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