---

3 Nov 2003 : Column 391W—continued

Privy Council Judicial Committee

Lady Hermon: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs, what countries use the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as their final court of appeal; how many cases have been heard by the Judicial Committee from each of these countries in each of the past five years; and if he will make a statement. [134824]

3 Nov 2003 : Column 392W

Mr. Leslie: The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the final court of appeal for the independent Commonwealth countries listed in the first column of the table, as well as for the United Kingdom overseas territories and Crown dependencies. The table shows the number of appeals from the countries concerned disposed of by the Judicial Committee in each of the five years up to 2002. Some of these appeals were disposed of without a hearing.

Number of appeals

Country	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	Total
Antigua and Barbuda	2	—	1	2	—	5
The Bahamas	4	2(1)	3	3(1)	5	17(2)
Barbados	—	2(1)	—	2	—	4(1)
Belize	4(1)	2(1)	1(1)	3(1)	1	11(4)
Brunei(1)	2	—	—	—	—	2
Dominica	—	—	2(1)	—	1	3(1)
Grenada	2	—	1	4(1)	2	9(1)
Jamaica	9	7(1)	10	4	8(1)	38(2)
Kiribati(2)	—	—	—	—	—	—
Mauritius	3	3	4(1)	2(1)	3(1)	15(3)
New Zealand(3)	6(1)	10(4)	8(2)	16(3)	14(1)	54(11)
St. Christopher and Nevis	—	1	—	1	2	4
St. Lucia	—	1	3(2)	—	2	6(2)
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	2	—	4(1)	1	1(1)	8(2)
Trinidad and Tobago	8	15(1)	8(1)	8(1)	14(3)	53(6)
Tuvalu	—	—	—	—	—	—

⁽¹⁾ An appeal lies from the Court of Appeal of Brunei to the Sultan and Yang di-Pertuan, in civil cases only. By agreement between Her Majesty and the Sultan these appeals are heard by the Judicial Committee who report their opinion to him instead of to Her Majesty.

⁽²⁾ The appeal lies only in constitutional cases affecting a Banaban.

⁽³⁾ New Zealand has recently legislated to abolish the appeal for all cases heard by the Court of Appeal of New Zealand after the end of 2003.

Note:

Figures in brackets (included in the total annual figure given) are for appeals disposed of without a hearing. These were mostly dismissed for non-prosecution or withdrawn.

Rape Cases

Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what action he has taken to remove circuit judges from the list of those permitted to try rape cases in the last two years. [134939]

Mr. Leslie : Section 75 of the Supreme Court Act 1981 states that the Lord Chief Justice, with the concurrence of the Lord Chancellor, can, by means of a practice direction, determine the cases or classes of cases suitable for allocation to High Court Judges, Circuit Judges and Recorders. From time to time successive Lord Chief Justices have issued such practice directions. In October 2001, the current Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, issued a practice direction entitled 'Directions by the Lord Chief Justice for the Classification of the business of the Crown Court and Allocation to Crown Court Centres'. This Practice Direction again determined that all High Court Judges and those Circuit Judges and Recorders, approved for that purpose by the Senior Presiding Judge, with the concurrence of the Lord Chief Justice, can hear rape cases.

Judges trying rape cases are, of course, under constant public scrutiny. Where problems about judicial conduct become apparent to the Court of Appeal, the papers are referred to the relevant Presiding Judge, or to the Senior Presiding Judge personally. Any complaints, as well as any information suggesting possible inappropriate judicial behaviour, are immediately investigated, and reports in the media of judicial behaviour which, if correct, would give rise to concern, are checked for correctness and completeness by the Presiding Judges. It is, of course, open to the Lord Chief Justice, acting on his own initiative, or on the recommendation of the Senior Presiding Judge, to remove any individual authorisation. The Lord Chief Justice has not had occasion to do this in the last two years.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Banking Services

Linda Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent discussions she has had with clearing banks about the need to ensure their services are accessible to people who wish to conduct their business on a face-to-face basis and the role which post offices and sub-post offices can play in achieving this. [135016]

Mr. Timms: None. This is a commercial matter for the banks. Banking and other financial services are central to the Post Office's strategy for the future of the network. With almost 17,000 offices, Post Office Ltd has one of the largest retail networks of any organisation in Europe and the Government's investment of £480 million on computerising the post office network means that the Post Office can achieve a new role as a convenient place for people to do their banking

Universal banking services which successfully went live on 1 April, and these services together with Post Office Ltd's plans for an expansion of network banking

3 Nov 2003 : Column 393W

(commercial arrangements between the Post Office and individual banks providing access to standard bank accounts at post office counters) should lead to a substantial increase in the number of people using post offices for banking transactions.

CDs

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department is taking to protect the interests of consumers from copy protected music CDs. [133410]

Ms Hewitt: Rights owners must be able to use technology to protect their works against unauthorised copying and be free to issue their products, such as music CDs, in copy-protected format. However, these

3 Nov 2003 : Column 394W

products should be identifiable as such, and we welcome music industry guidelines which recommend clear labelling as regards compatibility with various types of consumer equipment on which the CDs could be expected to be playable.

Electricity

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list, for each of the last five years, applications for construction of new electricity generation capacity for which her approval has been (a) sought and (b) given, broken down by (i) type, (ii) size and (iii) proposed or actual in-service date. [132433]

Mr. Timms: The following is the information requested:

Application	Applied	Approved	Size(MW)	Type	Status
Raventhorpe	8 May 1998	15 November 2000	450	CCGT	Not built
Isle of Grain	18 May 1998	15 November 2000	1,200	CCGT	Not built
Langage	9 June 1998	15 November 2000	1,010	CCGT	Not yet started
Stoke-on-Trent	28 September 1998	14 May 1999	58	CHP GT	Not available
Cantley	3 February 1999	9 December 1999	70	CHP GT	Not available
Beglan Bay	23 April 1999	16 July 1999	525	CCGT	2003
Belvedere	29 September 1999	—	70	Wates	Public inquiry
South Killingholme	23 November 2000	22 March 2001	700	CHP CCGT	2003
Halewood	29 August 2000	4 April 2001	70	CHP GT	Not available
Trafford Park	15 September 2000	10 May 2001	65	CHP GT	Not available
Avonmouth	19 October 2000	14 September 2001	180	CHP GT	Not built
Cefn Croes	24 July 2000	23 May 2002	60	Onshore	Not yet started
Heathrow Airport	2 January 2001	—	65	CHP GT	To be decided
Carrington	5 February 2001	18 July 2002	65	CHP GT	Not available
Scroby Sands	5 March 2001	17 April 2002	78	Offshore	Under construction
Sheffield	25 April 2001	—	65	CHP GT	To be decided
Marchwood	8 November 2001	28 November 2002	860	CCGT	Not yet started
Hatfield Colliery	9 April 2001	5 August 2003	430	Coal IGCC	Not yet started
North Hoyle	18 February 2002	31 July 2002	90	Offshore	Under construction
Rhyl Fiats	25 March 2002	12 December 2002	150	Offshore	Not yet started
Barrow	31 May 2002	10 March 2003	108	Offshore	Not yet started

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what contingency plans her Department has to prevent power failures in the United Kingdom. [134126]

Mr. Timms: I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to her on Tuesday 14 October 2003, Official Report, column 118W.

Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to ensure continuity of electricity supply; and if she will assess the likely effect on companies and individuals of widespread power cuts. [134236]

Mr. Timms: I would refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for the Vale of York on Tuesday 14 October 2003, Official Report, column 118W.

---