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11 Jul 2003 : Column 1058W—continued

Official Report

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his oral statement of 11 June 2003, Official Report, column 678, if he will make a statement on whether his purported quotation of the right hon.

11 Jul 2003 : Column 1059W

Member for Wells was not accurate and should be withdrawn, with the necessary correction of the Official Report. [122733]

The Prime Minister: I am happy to accept the right hon. Gentleman's assurance that he does not believe that the very nature of the European Union is incompatible with democracy and accountability.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Immigration Appeals Tribunal

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many (a) full-time and (b) part-time adjudicators and how many members of the Immigration Appeals Tribunal are not British Citizens; and what their nationalities are. [125336]

Mr. Lammy: Immigration adjudicators; there are currently 170 salaried adjudicators and 429 fee-paid adjudicators. The total of salaried adjudicators includes the Chief Adjudicator, the Deputy Chief Adjudicator, nine Regional Adjudicators and seven Deputy Regional Adjudicators. Of the 170 salaried adjudicators, two are not British Citizens; they are from Zimbabwe. Of the 429 fee-paid adjudicators, four are not British Citizens; one is from Eire, one from Canada, one from Zimbabwe and one from Malaysia.

Immigration Appeal Tribunal members; there are currently 81 members working for the Immigration Appeals Tribunals, which includes the President, the Deputy President, full-time Vice Presidents, fee-paid lay members and fee-paid legal members. Of these, 15 were appointed at a time when nationality was not recorded. The remaining 66 are British nationals.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

5 St. Phillip's Place, Birmingham

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans his Department has to take a lease of 5 St. Phillip's Place, Birmingham; and for what purpose his Department proposes to use the building. [124181]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is considering re-locating the Government Office for the West Midlands. As part of that process, a number of options are being evaluated. As yet no decision has been taken.

Affordable Housing

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what his intentions are with regard to amendment of the specified maximum amount under section 9(3) of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. [118958]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister intends to consult on the statutory regime for local government employees' political activities, and in the light of that we will wish to consider the appropriate statutory framework for the remuneration of political assistants.

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Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 3 June from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Pam Whittle. [124329]

Yvette Cooper: My right hon. Friend the Member for Streatham (Keith Hill) replied to my right hon. Friend's letter on 7 July.

EU Committees

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many officials in the Department serve on EU committees or working parties. [116082]

Phil Hope: 11 officials from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister serve on European Union (EU) Committees and working parties, as well as ad hoc working groups and sub-groups. Officials attend five EU Committees (the National EIA and SEA Experts Committee, the Committee for the Development and Conversion of the Regions, the Raw Materials Supply Group, Standing Committee on Construction and the Working Group on the draft Directive on waste for the extractive industries). Membership of these Committees is not fixed, and depending on the subject matter under consideration, the most appropriate policy officials attend. Officials also attend a number of related ad hoc working groups and sub-groups.

Euro Roadshow

Mr. Flight: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the events he plans to attend as part of the Government's euro roadshow. [121393]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Wentworth (John Healey) to the right hon. Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) on 20 June 2003, Official Report, column 459W.

Fire Service

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the cost of changing signs on each fire station from fire service to fire and rescue service. [124758]

Mr. Raynsford: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has made no estimate of the cost of changing signs from fire service to fire and rescue service. The fire and rescue service is a local authority service provided by individual fire authorities through their local brigade. Half of the authorities in England and Wales already refer to their brigade as a fire and rescue service, including Devon.

Housing (Black Minority Ethnic Communities)

Ms Oona King: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what plans he has to commission research into the housing needs of the Somali community in response to the conclusion in paragraph 3.4 of Housing and BME communities: A review of the evidence base on the availability of housing related data about particular small or new migrant groups; [124706]

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(2) what plans he has to commission research in response to the conclusion in paragraph 3.4 of Housing and BME communities: A review of the evidence base on the availability of systematic, empirical material on the housing and neighbourhood experiences of black minority ethnic children. [124707]

Keith Hill: To date, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has no specific plans in place to commission further work on the housing needs of Somali Communities or to collect further data on the housing and neighbourhood experiences of black and minority ethnic children.

The report makes a number of recommendations about how the evidence base can be strengthened in relation to the available data on housing, "race" and ethnicity. The report was published in May 2003 and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister now needs to consider the priorities and practicalities of taking forward the various recommendations.

Hull City Council

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the meetings that he has had with Hull city council since May 2002. [121810]

Yvette Cooper: My right. hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister has had no meetings with Hull city council since May 2002. He has had meetings with individual councillors.

Mental Health

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many of his staff retired on medical grounds due to mental health problems in the last year. [111964]

Yvette Cooper: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Paisley, South (Mr. Alexander) on the 24 June 2003, Official Report, column 662W.

Sickness Absence

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many staff in the Department have been on long-term sick leave in each of the last two years. [115856]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was established following machinery of Government changes on 29 May 2002. The most recent "Analysis of Sickness Absence in the Civil Service" (2001) was published in December 2002. This publication includes figures for sick absences in agencies that became part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister on 29 May 2002. The analysis for 2002 is due to be published soon.

Since 29 May 2002 the figures available show that 158 staff had sick absences lasting 21 days or more. This does not include the Rent Service and Government Offices where this information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

The office is committed to managing sick absence effectively and to meeting Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) target reductions in sick absence by the end of 2003.

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Staff Deployments

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the geographical locations are of the place of work of civil servants within his Department; and how many civil servants worked at each location in (a) May 2002 and (b) May 2003. [121813]

Yvette Cooper: Tabled are the number and location of staff in the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister for the major offices, the Executive Agencies and the Government Offices.

Headcount

ODPM(C)
Office locations	31 May 2002	31 May 2003
Bristol	21	18
Hastings	33	35
Hemel Hempstead	98	106
London	1,800	1,956
Manchester	12	14
Uttoxeter	28	28
Watford	12	12
Other smaller offices outside London	30	30
Total	2,034	2,199
QEII Conference Centre
London.	49	50
Planning Inspectorate
Bristol	732	779
Fire Service College
Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire	193	221
The Rent Service
London 31 locations outside London	279	231
Government Offices	557	529
GOE-Cambridge	189	234
GONE-Newcastle	275	304
GONW-Manchester and Liverpool	338	337
GOSE-Guildford	275	283
GOSW-Bristol and Plymouth	289	307
GOWM-Birmingham	277	311
GOEM-Nottingham	239	277
GOYH-Leeds	264	286
GOL-London	258	282
RCU-London	61	67
Total	2,471	2,688

The number of staff in the centre of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in London at May 2002 and May 2003 are not directly comparable as there has been on-going re-organisation arising from the machinery of Government changes.

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