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Sierra Leone

Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the progress of repatriation of Sierra Leone refugees from Liberia. [159217]

Mr. Mullin: On 2 March the UN High Commission for Refugees restarted its repatriation programme for Sierra Leone refugees in Liberia. The first repatriations are proceeding smoothly. The programme is scheduled to last 17 weeks and aims to repatriate 14,000 of the 38,000 remaining refugees, 13,000 of whom are in refugee camps.

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Sudan

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the situation in Darfur in Sudan. [158977]

Mr. Mullin: The situation in Darfur remains very serious. We are particularly concerned by reported attacks on civilians and are appealing to all parties to ensure protection of the civilian population. Although access to some areas is improving, the ability of humanitarian agencies to assist vulnerable populations remains limited. The Department for International Development has contributed over £6 million in response to the crisis in Darfur and is seconding three humanitarian affairs officers to the UN to work in Darfur for three months.

We are urging all parties to re-establish a ceasefire, permit humanitarian access to those in need, and resume talks. To this end we have lobbied at the highest levels

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in Khartoum, and are in almost daily contact with the Government of Sudan and the Darfur groups. The EU issued a statement expressing its serious concern on 25 February.

UK Mission (Bugging)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the bugging of the UK Mission in the Justus Lipsius Council of Ministers building in 2003. [158527]

Mr. MacShane: Since 14 April 2003, Official Report, column 530W, when I replied to the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow), the Belgian authorities, on the approval of the Council of Ministers, have taken over the Council Secretariat's investigation into the discovery of a number of devices in the Justus Lipsius Council of Ministers building last year. We are co-operating closely with the authorities. The bugging operation remains a matter of serious concern.

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DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

ACAS

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether each agency in the Department has disciplinary procedures which comply with (a) the ACAS handbook on discipline and grievances at work and (b) the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. [159413]

Yvette Cooper: Yes. In common with practice throughout the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, each agency has disciplinary procedures that comply with the ACAS Handbook and the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedure.

Arms-Length Management Organisations

John Mann: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the legal liability is of the shareholders of arms-length management organisations if their ALMO goes bankrupt. [159460]

Keith Hill: The normal principles of company and company insolvency law apply to Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs). ALMOs are normally set up by local authorities as companies limited by guarantee. The local authority would not normally have any legal liability if an ALMO became insolvent, but each case will turn on its own facts. The authority would, however, remain statutorily responsible for providing and managing the housing stock.

Departmental Minutes

Mr. Lilley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether it is the Department's policy to make notes of (a) meetings and (b) telephone conversations involving Ministers; and under what circumstances no notes would be taken. [149528]

Yvette Cooper: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister follows the central "Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers" which makes clear that good record management procedures are necessary not least to ensure accountability and provide an audit trail. Among the records covered by the guidance are Ministers' meetings and telephone conversations.

Employment Tribunals

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much money has been spent on (a) settling and (b) contesting claims in the Department registered at employment tribunals for (i) race discrimination, (ii) sex discrimination, (iii) disability discrimination, (iv) unfair dismissal and (v) equal pay since 1 January 2003. [159412]

Yvette Cooper: During the period in question, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has settled one Employment Tribunal case on terms that involved the payment of financial compensation. All other cases brought against the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister were either withdrawn by the applicants, or settled on terms that did not involve payment.

The exception was one case in category (i)—race relations—in which damages of £6,324.16 were paid.

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The amounts expended in contesting applications made to Employment Tribunals are as set out as follows. The figures represent the costs of instructing Treasury Solicitor and of disbursements on fees to Counsel and other expenses. They include the case referred to above, as well as cases where The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has settled without payment of compensation, cases that have been successfully defended, cases that have been withdrawn and on-going expenses of cases that are still being contested.

Since 1 January 2003 the amount of money spent on contesting claims at employment tribunals in the categories listed are as follows:






Homelessness

Ms Oona King: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister (1) what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of Best Value Performance Indicator 183 as an indicator of the quality of service offered by local authority homeless services in areas of high demand; and whether BVPI 183 reflects (a) a local authority's current and historic performance and (b) the length of time homeless families with children in areas of high demand are required to spend in bed and breakfast or hostel accommodation; [158551]

Yvette Cooper: While no assessment has been made which focuses specifically on Best Value Performance Indicator (BVPI) 183's effectiveness in areas of high demand, the BVPI does form part of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's monitoring of all local authorities' provision of homelessness services. The BVPI provides useful information on the average length of time families with children spend in temporary accommodation with shared facilities. BVPI 183 was introduced in 2002–03. From 2004–05, it is proposed that this BVPI will be complemented by two other homelessness indicators, which will record the number of individuals sleeping rough (BVX8) and the number of homeless families with children placed in temporary accommodation (BVX9).

Consultation on the introduction of the two additional Homelessness Best Value Performance Indicators closed on 6 February. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister received 75 responses. A list of the respondents is as follows.

An Order was laid before Parliament on 4 March which will enable the two additional Homelessness Best Value Performance Indicators to come into force from

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1 April. I will arrange for copies of the responses to the consultation paper to be made available in the Libraries of the House in due course.

Respondents to the consultation on BVX8 and BVX9:























































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