Previous Section Index Home Page


11 Sept 2003 : Column 417W—continued

Suez Medal

Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the proposal to introduce a medal for service in the Suez Canal Zone has received Royal Assent; and when he expects issue of medals to commence. [128946]

Mr. Caplin: Her Majesty The Queen has agreed in principle to the institution of a new medal for service in the Suez Canal Zone, as announced in the House by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 11 June. Final agreement to the detailed qualifying criteria for the medal is still awaited. It is hoped that the first medals will be issued shortly after receiving the Royal Assent.

Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the qualifying criteria for the Suez Canal Zone medal will be. [128947]

11 Sept 2003 : Column 418W

Mr. Caplin: Proposals for the detailed qualifying criteria for the Naval General Service Medal 1915–62 and General Service Medal 1918–62, for service in the Suez Canal Zone between 1951 and 1954, have been passed to the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals for their consideration. They will be published in a White Paper when The Queen has agreed them.

Mr. Gale: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the application process for a Suez Canal Zone medal will be. [128948]

Mr. Caplin: Veterans of the Canal Zone, or the next-of-kin of those who have died, will need to apply in writing to the appropriate medal office, giving full name, date of birth and Service number. The addresses of the medal offices are as follows:






All applications will be acknowledged on receipt and will be dealt with strictly in the order they are received. The Ministry of Defence will arrange for the individual Service files of those who apply to be recalled from the archives and will assess entitlement from these detailed records.

SCOTLAND

Annual Report

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many copies of the Scotland Office Annual Report 2002–03 have been printed; at what cost; and how it was distributed. [128007]

Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office had 150 copies of the Departmental Report produced at a total cost of £4,036. Copies of the report were provided to the Scottish Affairs Committee, other Government Departments and for use within the Department. The report is also available on the department's website.

The Stationery Office determines the number of copies it requires for retail sale and meets the costs of printing and publication.

Departmental Staff

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many (a) special advisers, (b) press officers, (c) civil servants, (d) advisers to civil servants and (e) permanent staff were working for the Scotland Office in each year since 1996. [126474]

11 Sept 2003 : Column 419W

Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999.

Details of staff numbers which cover permanent staff, including press officers, are given in Table C of the annual publication, "Civil Service Statistics". Copies of this publication are available from the Libraries of both Houses.

The Department employed three special advisers in 1999–2000 and 2000–01, one of whom was unpaid; and two special advisers in 2001–02 and 2002–03.

The Department does not employ any staff as advisers to civil servants.

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff in his Department have been transferred to new responsibilities within the Department for Constitutional Affairs. [127847]

Mrs. McGuire: The staff of the Scotland Office transferred to the Department for Constitutional Affairs on 12 June. They have retained their existing responsibilities.

Friends of Scotland

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many staff in his Department were allocated to the Friends of Scotland project, expressed as full-time equivalents in the last year for which figures are available. [127846]

Mrs. McGuire: In 2002–03, five staff were allocated to the Friends of Scotland project.

IT Contracts

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many outsourced IT contracts have been signed by his Department in each year since 1997; how much each of these contracts is worth; with whom they are signed; how many have been renegotiated; how many are still in place; and if he will make a statement. [126194]

Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. The Department's IT systems and support are provided through the Scottish Executive. The Scotland Office has no outsourced IT contracts.

Private Sector Secondees

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what his Department's policy is on employing secondees from the private sector; how many secondees from the (a) private and (b) public sectors his Department employed in each year since 1997; from which companies and organisations they were seconded; at what level they were employed; and if he will make a statement. [127062]

Mrs. McGuire: The Scotland Office was established on 1 July 1999. Since then the department has employed two individuals from the private sector (Bank of Scotland) at Grade 7 and SEO levels in 2002 and two individuals from the public sector (House of Lords) at Grade 7 and SCS level, one in 2001 and one in 2002.

11 Sept 2003 : Column 420W

HOME DEPARTMENT

Asylum Seekers

Mr. Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many children of asylum seekers were being held in custody at each removal centre on 1 July 2003; and if he intends to end the practice. [124066]

Beverley Hughes: The latest published information on the number of children of asylum seekers held in removal centres is for 2 April 2003.

At this date an exercise was carried out to access the number of children under the age of 18 who were detained in Dungavel, Harmondsworth, Oakington and Tinsley House Immigration Service Removal Centres. These centres are the only ones that deal with family cases. The results of the exercise are contained in the following table.

Immigration serviceremoval centreChildren under 18 years of age in detention at 2 April 2003
Dungavel21
Harmondsworth18
Oakington14
Tinsley3
Total56

Children under 18 years are detained only in two limited circumstances: first, as part of a family group whose detention is considered appropriate; second, when unaccompanied, while alternative care arrangements are made and normally just overnight.

While the detention of families with children is very regrettable, it nevertheless remains necessary in appropriate cases in order to maintain an effective immigration control and to tackle abuses of the asylum system.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Iraq

Mr. Page: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development if he will place the Department's pre-conflict plans for the reconstruction of Iraq and their estimated costs in the Library. [128943]

Hilary Benn: Details of the Department for International Development's pre-conflict planning for Iraq are contained in the Memoranda submitted to the International Development Committee by the Department in February and June this year.

Malaria

John Barrett: To ask the Minister of State, Department for International Development what plans there are to expand the use of the RTSS/AS02A malaria vaccine following its trial in Mozambique. [127935]

Hilary Benn: The RTSS/AS02A vaccine (a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Biologicals' product) is a new product for malaria which has yet to undergo the full approval process.

11 Sept 2003 : Column 421W

An international partnership involving GSK, Mozambique's Ministry of Health (MOH), and Centro de Investigacio em Saude de Manhica (CISM), the Hospital Clinic of the University of Barcelona, and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH)'s Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) has now conducted phase 2 paediatric clinical trials.

The UK Government welcome the apparent success of the vaccine to date, but will wait to see the final outcome of the trials before planning any expansion of its use.

WALES

Public Appointments

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what public appointments have been made by holders of his office since June 1999 (a) individually and (b) jointly with other Ministers. [103813]

Mr. Hain: Information about ministerial appointments to public bodies is included in the Cabinet Office's annual report "Public Bodies", copies of which are placed in the Library of the House and which is published on the Cabinet Office website.


All decisions about public appointments are made with regard to the Commissioner for Public Appointments' Code of Practice.


Next Section Index Home Page