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Disabled Civil Servants

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what plans he has to change the target for recruitment of people with disabilities to the Civil Service; and if he will make a statement. [161959]

Mr. Alexander: The Government remain committed to increasing the proportion of people with disabilities in the Civil Service. As of April 2003, disabled staff accounted for 3.6 per cent. of the Civil service, up from 2.8 per cent. in 1995. A service-wide target has been set at 3.0per cent. disabled people in the senior Civil Service by 2004–05. There are no present plans to change this target.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what recent steps he has taken to increase the number of people with disabilities in the Civil Service. [162010]

Mr. Alexander: The Government remain committed to increasing the number of people with disabilities in the Civil Service. The Cabinet Office promotes outreach initiatives, including: a Summer Placement Scheme to encourage disabled applicants to join the graduate Fast Stream; and participation in WORKSTEP, a Government initiative to help disabled people to progress to mainstream employment where appropriate.

Lord Birt

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office whether Lord Birt has an office in Government premises. [161908]

Mr. Alexander: Lord Birt is the Prime Minister's unpaid strategy adviser and is based at No. 10.

Permanent Secretary of Government Communications

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office when he expects the Permanent Secretary of Government Communications to become operationally functional. [161952]

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Mr. Alexander: We are in the final stages of the selection process for the Permanent Secretary Government Communications. We expect to announce an appointment shortly. The successful candidate will take up post as soon as they can, taking forward work and leading people already contributing to improvements in Government communications.

Red Tape

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to his answer of 9 March 2004, Official Report, column 1399W, on the Regulatory Impact Unit, on what statistical basis the statement that the UK has almost the lowest administration cost and fewer regulations for entrepreneurs than any other EU country was made; and if he will make a statement. [161962]

Mr. Alexander: The statistical basis for this assessment was published in an OECD working paper, published on 13 January 2003, entitled "Regulation, Productivity and Growth: OECD Evidence". Recent assessments by the World Bank and KPMG have drawn similar conclusions.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Freedom of Information Act (Annual Report)

Llew Smith: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many copies of the annual report on the bringing into force of provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 published in November 2003 were printed; how the report was publicised; and how many imprints have been recorded to date showing visits to the URL for the report on his Department's website. [161177]

Mr. Lammy: 1,000 copies of this report were printed. Publication was announced to both Houses by means of Written Ministerial Statements Official Report column 40WS on 27 November 2003 and my Department issued a press release on 28 November 2003. Up to the end of February 2004, the URL for the report was visited 1,076 times and the relevant document was downloaded 4,846 times.

Freedom of Information Act (Costs)

Llew Smith: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what has been the cost to date to (a) Government Departments and (b) non-Departmental public bodies subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 of the steps taken to implement that Act; and what estimate he has made of the costs that will be incurred by the time the Act comes fully into force. [161189]

Mr. Lammy: The information requested in points (a) and (b) of the hon. Member's question is not held centrally. However, we estimate that the cost to date of implementing FOI within my Department has been £180,207.

No recent estimate has been made of the collective costs that will be incurred by all departments and non-Departmental public bodies by the time the Act comes

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into force. For my own Department, projected costs of implementation for the period March 2004 to January 2005 are a further £107,667.

Although no additional money is being made available centrally for implementing FOI, the cost of implementation should be considered in the light of the organisational and public benefits that it will bring through improved record keeping and relationships with the public, better decision making and greater public confidence in those decisions.

Guantanamo Detainees

Llew Smith: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the British former detainees held at the prison camp in Guantanamo in Cuba would be eligible to claim financial aid to support a case to sue the United States authorities for compensation for unlawful detention. [161759]

Mr. Lammy: The legal aid scheme for England and Wales can only cover proceedings in this jurisdiction. Legal aid is not available for proceeding in the United States courts.

For any proceedings properly brought in England and Wales, legal aid may be available subject to a standard financial means and legal merits test. The Legal Services Commission considers all cases objectively against these criteria before deciding whether or not to fund a case.

Northern Ireland Court Service

Mr. Mallon: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs, what authority there is for the exclusion of Irish nationals are from reserved posts in the Northern Ireland Court Service. [160427]

Mr. Leslie: Posts in the Northern Ireland Court Service are reserved in accordance with the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Rape

Ms Keeble: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) if he will make a statement on the action he is taking to improve the administration of rape cases in Northamptonshire; [161635]

(2) what steps he is taking to prevent delays in court hearings of rape cases. [161636]

Mr. Leslie: The listing of cases in the courts is a judicial function, although the administration of the task is delegated to an official who operates within parameters set by and in accordance with the policy established by the judiciary. Top priority is always given to the early allocation of a fixed date for the trial of rape cases in the Crown Court. Court staff make every effort to try to ensure that the trial goes ahead on the date and at the time specified, so that the parties and their witnesses are not brought to court unnecessarily. The Effective Trial Management Programme is also working to improve case preparation and progression, to achieve successful outcomes.

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The situation in this respect applies to Northamptonshire cases as it does to cases proceeding in all other venues of the Crown Court.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Council Tax

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his Answer of 2 March 2004, Official Report, column 820W, on council tax, what total additional revenue support grant has been allocated to Durham as a result of the council tax base reduction because of the number of student exemptions. [159464]

Mr. Raynsford: It is not possible to give a meaningful value for the total additional revenue support grant that has been allocated to Durham as a result of the council tax base reduction because of the number of student exemptions.

That is because, to do so, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister would first need to calculate a taxbase that included the properties currently excluded because of student exemptions for all authorities. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not have any information about whether these properties would have otherwise been subject to different discounts or exemptions (e.g. single-person discount).

This new taxbase would then need to be used to recalculate Revenue Support Grant (RSG). This is likely to result in a different distribution of grant before floors and ceilings to authorities. The existing levels of floors and ceilings may then be inappropriate with this new distribution; it would certainly change the scaling factors on grant increases above the floor published in the Local Government Finance Report (England) 2004–05.

The number of properties covered by student exemptions is no longer collected by band of property. The latest year for which this information was available was 2002–03. In 2002–03 Durham City had one class K exemptions (an empty dwelling owned by a student who last lived in the dwelling as their main home), 129 class M exemptions (for halls of residence) and 728 class N exemptions (for dwellings occupied only by students, the foreign spouses of students, or school and college leavers). This is the equivalent of about 828 Band D properties. The Standard Tax Element for shire districts for 2002–03 was £97.2073276605. Therefore under the assumptions specified in the Local Government Finance Report (England) 2002–03, Durham City would have been able to raise a further £80,444.46 had these properties not had student exemptions. An equivalent amount of RSG before floors and ceilings was therefore provided to Durham City with respect to the properties with student exemptions.

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