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Mr. Balwant Singh

Keith Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to the letter sent by the hon. Member for Leicester, East to Miss Fitzmaurice on 2 December 2003, what progress has been made in finding the file of Mr. Balwant Singh. [151575]

Mr. Lammy [pursuant to his answer, 2 February 2004, Official Report, c. 726W]: The previous answer stated that checks with the Immigration Nationality Directorate (IND) had confirmed that IND had not received the appeal papers for Mr. Balwant Singh. Following further checks with IND the appeal papers have been located and are currently being processed by IND before being lodged with the Immigration Appellate Authority for a substantive hearing.

Public Guardianship Office

Mr. David: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans he has to improve the efficiency of the Public Guardianship Office. [154816]

Mr. Leslie: The Public Guardianship Office (PGO) expects to meet almost all of its key service delivery targets this financial year, and plans to set more challenging measures for next year so that, among other things, it answers a higher percentage of correspondence within target and deals with applications more efficiently. During 2004–05, the PGO will focus on quality improvement further to increase customer satisfaction in its services. A review of how complaints are handled has recently been initiated.

Mr. David: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment he has made of the efficiency of the Public Guardianship Office. [154822]

Mr. Leslie: The Public Guardianship Office (PGO) experienced severe service delivery problems during 2002–03 resulting in a large number of complaints (1,338 for the year) and key performance measures being missed. It has addressed these problems, so that this year numbers of complaints are well below those from the previous year (456 to end December 2003) and the PGO is on track to achieve almost all of its key performance measures at the end of March 2004.

Regional Assemblies

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will make a statement on constitutional changes necessary for the transfer of powers to regional assemblies. [154392]

Mr. Raynsford: I have been asked to reply.

Voters in a region will first need to vote "yes" in a referendum under the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Act 2003. An Act of Parliament will then be needed to establish elected regional assemblies, allow elections to take place, set out their constitution and transfer powers to them.

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will do its best to publish before the first referendums a draft Regional Assemblies Bill addressing these issues.

23 Feb 2004 : Column 219W

Sentencing

Norman Baker: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will list the benches in England and Wales which have not yet signed up to the Magistrates National Sentencing Guidelines; and what percentage of benches this figure represents. [154759]

Mr. Leslie: The information requested is not collected or held centrally.

The Judicial Studies Board incorporated the revised Magistrates Court Sentencing Guidelines into the Adult Court Bench Book that was recently issued to all magistrates and their legal advisers via their Magistrates Courts' Committees. The guidelines will therefore be available within every magistrates court in England and Wales.

In court lay magistrates sit with their Justices' Clerk or a legal adviser. The Justices' Clerk has a statutory duty to provide advice to the magistrates on questions of law, practice and procedure. This will include advice on applying any case law and relevant Court of Appeal judgments when making decisions on sentence.

Small Claims Track

Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) in how many small claims track cases the power to remit or waive court fees was exercised in 2002–03; [155376]

(2) how many times the power under article 6 of the county court rules to excuse payment of fees for exceptional financial hardship was used in 2002–03. [155378]

Mr. Leslie: Information concerning the use of the powers mentioned above is not collected centrally. Information concerning the number of applications made for exemption or remission of court fees is collected but not in a manner that would enable it to be broken down as requested. During 2002–03 there were 234,872 such applications made in the county courts of England and Wales.

Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs in what percentage of cases in the small claims track (a) the complainant and (b) the defendant was legally represented in 2002–03. [155380]

Mr. Leslie: During 2002–03 there were 56,988 small claims cases dealt with in the county courts of England and Wales. Based on sample data collected centrally, in just over 41 per cent. of these cases the complainant was legally represented while the comparative figure for the defendant was nearly 32 per cent.

Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs when the fee bands for cases in the small claims track were fixed; and what plans there are to change them. [155382]

Mr. Leslie: The fee bands for claims in the small claims track (claims up to £5,000) were last fixed on 1 April 2003. My Department has no plans to change the fee bands for these claims.

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Tied Agricultural Property

Mr. Flook: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many owners of properties with agricultural ties there are, broken down by land registry office area. [155173]

Mr. Lammy: Her Majesty's Land Registry does not hold information on agricultural ties.

HOME DEPARTMENT

EU Enlargement

23. Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to restrict the admission of residents of the east European states which will be admitted to the EU in May. [155767]

Beverley Hughes: From 1 May nationals of the Accession States have the right to free movement through all member states. The United Kingdom welcomes those who can contribute to our economy but will not allow people here purely to claim benefits. We will take the necessary action to ensure the United Kingdom is not open to abuse and will be announcing further details.

Asylum and Immigration(Treatment of Claimants, etc) Bill

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent discussions he has had with Scottish Ministers about the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc) Bill. [155765]

Beverley Hughes: Officials have been in contact with officials in the Scotland Office and the Scottish Executive as appropriate.

Correspondence

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will ensure that the letter of 4 December 2003 from the hon. Member for Castle Point on the future contracts for housing asylum seekers is answered within five days. [153486]

Beverley Hughes: I wrote to the hon. Member on 9 February 2004.

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to reply to the letter dated 8 December 2003 from the hon. Member for Banff and Buchan regarding his constituent, Mr. C. Ming of Fraserburgh. [149783]

Beverley Hughes: I wrote to the hon. Member on 16 February 2004.

Mr. Clelland: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Tyne Bridge of 8 January 2004. [151906]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 30 January 2004]: My hon. Friend the Member for Slough (Fiona Mactaggart) wrote to my hon. Friend on 29 January 2004.

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Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 15 December 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Shaikh Ijaz Ahmed; [152643]

(2) when he will reply to the letter to him dated 15 December 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Shaikh Ijaz Ahmed. [155843]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on 17 February 2004.

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter to him dated 1 December 2003 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Mrs. S. Ahmed. [153254]

Mr. Blunkett: I wrote to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on 12 February 2004.

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will reply to the letter of the hon. Member for the Isle of Wight to the Immigration and Nationality Directorate, dated 13 December 2003, reference A485596; and what the reason is for the delay in responding to this inquiry. [154750]

Beverley Hughes [holding answer 12 February 2004]: I wrote to the hon. Member on 12 February 2004.

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