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10 Jul 2003 : Column 955W—continued
Speech Writers
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much the Scotland Office has spent on external speech writers for the Secretary of State in the last 12 months. [115846]
Mrs. McGuire: No expenditure on external speech writers was incurred during the last 12 months.
Staff Costs
Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff the Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which the
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Department is responsible had in each year since 1997; and what the cost of those staff was in each of those years. [122261]
Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999.
Data on staffing levels in the Civil Service are collected from Departments and Agencies twice yearly, in April and October. Headline figures are published under National Statistics guidelines via a press notice. Those for October 2002 were published on 27 February 2003.
A copy of the press notice, accompanying media brief and supporting tables is available on the world wide web at: www.civil-service.gov.uk/statistics Copies of these documents are also placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
More detailed information on the Civil Service is published annually in "Civil Service Statistics", copies of which are laid in the Libraries of both Houses. The last edition, based on April 2001 data, was published in June 2002. The next edition, based on April 2002 data, is due to be published at the end of July 2003.
The Cabinet Office publishes information on non-departmental public bodies in its annual publication, "Public Bodies". The information includes details of the number of staff employed by each NDPB at 31 March each year. "Public Bodies 2002" was published in January 2003. Copies of "Public Bodies" published each year since 1997 are available in the Libraries of both Houses.
Details of staff costs are published in the annual Scotland Office Resource Accounts.
CABINET OFFICE
Command Paper Cm 5511
Mr. Stringer: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will update Box 26 of Cm 5511 to include 2002. [124824]
Mr. Alexander: Information on location of permanent civil servants in the English regions will be included in the 'Civil Service Statistics 2002' publication, which also gives other figures on staffing in the civil service. This will be available shortly, published in the usual way.
EU Committees
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many officials in the Department serve on EU committees or working parties. [116085]
Mr. Alexander: There is no fixed number of Cabinet Office officials attending EU Committees, Working Parties and Working Groups, as their membership is flexible. Policy officials attend as appropriate to ensure that the UK is always represented in those groups covering UK interests.
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SOLICITOR-GENERAL
Council of Ministers
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Solicitor-General on how many occasions since May 1997 the Department's vote in the Council of Ministers against a legislative proposal (a) was sufficient and (b) was not sufficient to achieve with other member states a blocking minority. [117221]
The Solicitor-General: The Law Officers do not attend meetings of the Council of Ministers and therefore have not voted on behalf of the United Kingdom since May 1997 because the Law Officers do not have the policy lead on any matters debated there.
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Solicitor-General on how many occasions since May 1997 the Department (1) abstained in the Council of Ministers on a legislative proposal which was passed by qualified majority voting;
- (2) has been outvoted by qualified majority voting in the Council of Ministers; and if she will list the legislation by year; [117249]
(3) indicated dissent from a proposal in the Council of Ministers but did not register a vote or abstention. [117269]
The Solicitor-General: The Law Officers do not attend meetings of the Council of Ministers as the Law Officers do not have the policy lead on any matters debated there. Therefore, the Law Officers have not been involved in any vote in the Council of Ministers since May 1997.
Departmental Costs
Mr. Flight: To ask the Solicitor-General what the cost was to her Department for (a) ministerial cars and
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drivers, (b) taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997. [123089]
The Solicitor-General [holding answer 4 July 2003]:
The cost to the Crown Prosecution Service of train travel and airline tickets in each year since 1997 was as follows:
| Train travel | Airline tickets | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 483 | 29 |
| 1998–99 | 583 | 25 |
| 1999–2000 | 770 | 39 |
| 2000–01 | 742 | 77 |
| 2001–02 | 1,153 | 151 |
| 2002–03 | 1,517 | 166 |
The Crown Prosecution Service does not separately record expenditure on taxis which could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The costs of taxis are, however, included with other miscellaneous travel expenditure and the aggregate cost of such expenditure is given as follows:
| £000 | |
|---|---|
| 1997–98 | 68 |
| 1998–99 | 70 |
| 1999–2000 | 72 |
| 2000–01 | 90 |
| 2001–02 | 148 |
| 2002–03 | 189 |
The Serious Fraud Office has not incurred any expenditure providing transport for Ministers and has not used Ministerial cars, helicopters or chartered planes.
Expenditure on the other items is detailed below for each financial year since 1997:
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | (9)2002 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (b) Taxis | 19,903 | 9,466 | 10,945 | 15,537 | 20,920 | 17,655 |
| (c) Trains | 50,961 | 46,681 | 62,089 | 74,168 | 100,051 | 99,402 |
| (e) Airline tickets | 68,692 | 37,062 | 83,625 | 152,990 | 139,904 | 86,713 |
(9) provisional
HM Crown Prosecution Service Directorate
HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate does not keep separate accounts in these areas and costs are included in the figures provided by the Crown Prosecution Service and the Treasury Solicitor's Department—Crown Prosecution Service as a part of their overall accounts for 1997 to 2001 and Treasury Solicitor's Department from 2002 onwards.
Treasury Solicitor's Department
The accounting system operated by the Treasury Solicitor's Department does not hold the information at the detailed level requested.
The Department allocates its travel costs between costs incurred in the United Kingdom and abroad, and separately records the cost of Ministerial cars. So far as the Department's records show, the Department has not made use of helicopters or chartered planes since 1997.
The Department's transport costs for each year since 1997 were:
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The budget for my own department, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, is administered by the Treasury Solicitor's Department and the figures given by the Treasury-Solicitor's Department include costs incurred by the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers.
Guantanamo Bay (UK Detainees)
Mr. Cash: To ask the Solicitor-General what role the Attorney-General has in ensuring that the UK nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay receive a fair trial; and if he will exercise extradition rights in relation to the UK nationals held at Guantanamo Bay. [124822]
The Solicitor-General: The Attorney-General has been involved in discussions within Government about the position of UK nationals detained in Guantanamo Bay. He has also raised the matter with those responsible in the United States Administration, to express the Government's profound concern that if the UK detainees are to be tried they should have a fair trial with all proper safeguards, and to make plain the Government's opposition to the imposition of the death penalty.
Requests for the extradition of persons from other jurisdictions are made under the Crown prerogative, where a person stands accused or convicted of an extradition crime, and it would be in the public interest to do so. It is not the practice or policy of the Government to comment on whether an extradition request may be made in any individual case.
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