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Public Defender System

Mr. Drew: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans he has to extend the public defender system. [151774]

Mr. Lammy: In order to better assess the performance of the PDS, the LSC, with the agreement of Ministers, increased the number of PDS offices from six to eight in 2003. Ministers will make a decision on the future of the PDS in the light of the research at the end of 2005. There are no current plans to open further offices but the Government and the LSC have always said that the PDS provides a flexible option to deliver criminal defence services, for example, where existing provision is low, or of poor quality.

Trials

Mr. Drew: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what measures he is taking to deal with the problems caused by (a) ineffective and (b) cracked trials. [151777]

Mr. Leslie: My Department, in conjunction with other criminal justice agencies, is actively addressing the problems of ineffective and cracked trials. The CJS PSA2 seeks to bring 1.2 million offenders to justice by 2006 and to reduce the proportion of ineffective trials. My Department aims to cut the ineffective rate in the crown court from 24 per cent. to 17 per cent. and in the magistrates court from 31 per cent. to 23 per cent. To monitor progress, interim targets have been set for April 2004 of 20.4 per cent. in crown court and 26.5 per cent. in the magistrates court. Following changes to a more victim and witness focused listing system with greater emphasis on trials being effective, over-listing in the crown court has reduced and the ineffective rate has reduced to 19.7 per cent. over the last quarter. Progress in the magistrates court has been slower, which reflects the more diverse nature of the business, but is now achieving a rate of 28.8 per cent. New targets to lower the rate further in 2004–05 are currently being agreed.

My Department is working with the Home Office, the CPS and the judiciary to address the problems of cracked trials in a number of ways. The most important of these is the tri-lateral Effective Trial Management Programme, which will introduce a Criminal Case Management Framework, which clearly sets out the procedure to be

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followed in each type of case. This framework will be supported by a new soon to be established Criminal Procedure Rule Committee.

There will also be provision for judges and magistrates to give an early indication of sentence. These measures, coupled with the CPS taking responsibility for charging and the work being done to support witnesses, will reduce the number of cracked trials and those where the prosecution ends the case or offers no evidence. My Department has an effective performance management system in place which will ensure that the proportion of cracked and ineffective trials will reduce and is currently appointing Case Progression Officers to each area to work closely with other agencies to ensure greater certainty that cases listed proceed as planned.

PRIME MINISTER

Egypt

Mr. Amess: To ask the Prime Minister when he plans to make an official visit to Egypt; and what plans he has to invite President Mubarak to the UK on an official visit. [152612]

The Prime Minister: I have no current plans to do so.

European Constitution

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Prime Minister what the current status of Britain's red line issues on the European constitution is; whether the British view on those issues was accepted by the Inter-governmental Conference; and whether the issues have to be re-opened. [150199]

The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answers I gave in my Statement on the European Council to the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard), on 15 December 2003, Official Report, column 1323, and the right hon. Member for Wells (Mr. Heathcoat-Amory), on 15 December 2003, Official Report, column 1327.

Hutton Report

Mr. Amess: To ask the Prime Minister when the Government intends to address the criticism contained in the Hutton Report. [152678]

The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to my statement of 28 January 2004, Official Report, columns 337–43.

Iraq

Llew Smith: To ask the Prime Minister if he will make an exception to the usual rule on the non-disclosure of information on Cabinet Committee proceedings in the case of consideration of policy towards Iraq as discussed in the Defence and Overseas Policy Sub-committee. [151971]

The Prime Minister: No. It is established practice under Exemption 2 of Part II of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information not to disclose information relating to the proceedings of the Cabinet and its committees.

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Mr. Hancock: To ask the Prime Minister what plans he has to offer technical and logistical support to enable the Iraqi Governing Council to organise free and fair elections. [152161]

The Prime Minister: The UN Secretary-General announced on 26 January that, once satisfied about the security arrangements, he would send a technical team to Iraq to look at the feasibility of holding elections before 30 June.

The Government welcomes the news and, once we have seen the team's recommendations, we will consider any requests for assistance.

We have also told the Iraqi Governing Council that we are ready to assist the Transitional Government, where necessary, with the constitution and elections processes envisaged for 2005.

Llew Smith: To ask the Prime Minister what the sources were of information on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction programme brought to his attention in the summer of 2002, referred to in his oral evidence to the Hutton Inquiry. [152313]

The Prime Minister: I received information from a variety of sources, including intelligence reports and assessments.

Llew Smith: To ask the Prime Minister (1) whether he authorised his former Director of Communications to press the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee to revise the nuclear weapons time-line during the revision of the draft dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction in September 2002; [152315]

(2) who authorised his former director of communications to press the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee to alter the nuclear weapons time-line in the draft of the dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction from the statement that nuclear weapons could be produced in at least two years, to the statement that nuclear weapons could be produced in between one and two years, as indicated in Mr. Alastair Campbell's e-mail of 19 September 2002 to the Joint Intelligence Committee chairman, submitted by the Prime Minister's office to the Hutton Inquiry as document CAB/11/0091–0092. [152533]

The Prime Minister: Lord Hutton found in his report that

"Mr Scarlett accepted some of the drafting suggestions made to him by 10 Downing Street but he only accepted those suggestions which were consistent with the intelligence known to the JIC and he rejected those suggestions which were not consistent with such intelligence and the dossier issued by the Government was approved by the JIC". (HC 247 paragraph 228).

Iraq Survey Group

Llew Smith: To ask the Prime Minister pursuant to his oral answer to the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) of 28 January 2004, Official Report, column 305, on the Iraq Survey Group report, when the evidence was published; where it was published; and if he will place the full interim Iraq Survey Group report in the Library. [152674]

The Prime Minister: The leader of the Iraq Survey Group, Dr. David Kay, presented an unclassified summary report to the US authorities on 2 October

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2003, copies of which are available in the Library of the House. This summary report contains numerous references to a clandestine network of laboratories in Iraq.

The full report, which was shared in confidence with other principal coalition partners, contains detailed and operationally sensitive information and is highly classified. It has been the practice of successive Governments not to give information on intelligence and security matters, under exemption 1 of Part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

Lord Birt

Paul Flynn: To ask the Prime Minister on what subjects he has received reports from Lord Birt in each of the last two years; and what subjects will be considered by Lord Birt in the future. [151975]

The Prime Minister: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) on 11 March 2003, Official Report, column 215W.

Normandy Veterans

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Prime Minister whether he plans to attend the Normandy Veterans' 60th Anniversary Service at St. Paul's Cathedral. [149930]

The Prime Minister: The commemorative service to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Normandy Landings is being organised by the Normandy Veterans Association and is due to take place on 20 October 2004. The Government will be providing assistance for this service and are likely to be represented. Precise arrangements have yet to be finalised.

Her Majesty the Queen and I have accepted President Chirac's invitation to lead the United Kingdom's participation in the commemorations in France in June.

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