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Civil Service Training

Harry Cohen: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what information he collects on the percentage of annual staffing costs spent on training in the civil service. [162086]

Mr. Alexander: The bulk of training in the civil service is carried out at Departmental level and information on costs incurred is not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Lord Birt

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make a statement on the present work programme of Lord Birt. [162371]

Mr. Alexander: The position remains as set out in the answer provided by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) on 11 March 2003, Official Report, column 214W.

Websites

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will instruct the office to maintain centrally expenditure figures for all Government Department websites. [159521]

Mr. Alexander: Individual Government Departments are responsible for the management and content of their websites and as such information regarding expenditure is not held centrally. There are no plans to hold such information centrally at the Cabinet Office.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Sugar

Mr. Wills: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what assessment he has made of the impact on developing countries of each of the options for reform of the Common Agricultural Policy sugar regime set out in the European Commission's working paper Reforming the European Union's sugar policy. [161504]

Hilary Benn: The UK Government support the European Commission's view that the extension of the current regime beyond 2006 (the 'status quo' option) is unsustainable given a range of both internal and external pressures. However, the issues are complex in developmental terms as any change to such a highly distorted regime will bring about losers as well as winners. This complexity is amplified by the divergence

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of interests among those developing countries with and those without preferential access to the European Union sugar market. DFID is working closely with other Government Departments to examine the implications for developing countries of the three options for reform set out by the European Commission.

West African Refugees

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if he will make a statement on the aid given to UNHCR to assist in the care and resettlement of West African refugees, with particular reference to those in Guinea; and what recent sums have been allocated. [161947]

Hilary Benn: DFID has recently committed £1.5 million to programmes of assistance to refugees in Guinea. In response to the UN's Consolidated Appeal for Guinea for 2004, we have provided £500,000 to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for care and assistance of Liberian refugees, and £500,000 to UNICEF for a primary health care project aimed at refugees and other vulnerable populations. In addition, we have contributed £500,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) 2004 Appeal for assistance to vulnerable populations, including refugees, in Guinea.

PRIME MINISTER

Sir David King

Norman Baker: To ask the Prime Minister whether Sir David King currently has to secure approval for media statements he wishes to make. [162372]

The Prime Minister: No.

SOLICITOR-GENERAL

Katharine Gun

19. Mr. Cash: To ask the Solicitor-General if she will make a statement on evidential deficiency in the Katharine Gun case. [162136]

The Solicitor-General: The decision to offer no further evidence against Katharine Gun was made by the Crown Prosecution Service as an independent prosecuting authority. It was made solely on legal grounds and in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.

There was, in the Gun case, a clear prima facie breach of section 1 of the Official Secrets Act 1989. However, senior treasury counsel advised that there was no longer a realistic prospect of convicting Ms Gun. The Director of Public Prosecutions agreed. The evidential deficiency arose from the prosecution's inability, within the current statutory framework, to disprove the defence of necessity in this case.

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Rape

22. Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Solicitor-General what assessment she has made of the effects of the new test of reasonableness introduced into the law of consent on the number of convictions of those guilty of rape. [162140]

The Solicitor-General: The Government introduced the Sexual Offences Act 2003, as one of a number of steps to improve the conviction rate for rape. Under the new Act, the test will be whether a person has a reasonable belief that the victim consented taking into account all the circumstances, including any steps he took to ascertain whether the victim consented. The Government believe that this will have an impact on rape trials because the defendant must be certain that there is consent to the sexual activity at the time in question.

We expect the Act will to come into force in May.

Fraud

24. Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Solicitor-General what further plans she has to assist small businesses in combating fraud. [162142]

The Solicitor-General: The Serious Fraud Office will be addressing the Federation of Small Businesses at their conference in Blackpool on 19 March on the subject of 'Preventing fraud in your business'.

TRANSPORT

Bus Interchange (Chorley)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much Government grant went to the new bus interchange at Chorley; and what percentage of the cost this represented. [161531]

Mr. McNulty: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 4 March 2004, Official Report, column 1131W.

Car Ownership

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proportion of the UK population (a) owned a car 20 years ago and (b) own a car today. [162039]

Mr. Jamieson: Surveys show the proportion of households in GB owning one or more cars rising from 60 per cent. in 1981 to 74 per cent. of all households in 2001, the latest year for which this information is published.

This corresponds to 27 cars per hundred people in 1981 and 42 cars per hundred people in 2001.

Crossrail

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to publish the Montague Report on Crossrail. [162075]

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Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will make a statement on the Crossrail project; [162442]

(2) how much public money will be spent on the Crossrail project; [162448]

(3) what plans there are for the cost of tickets on Crossrail services; [162456]

(4) what the total cost of the Crossrail project is expected to be. [162464]

Mr. McNulty: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport, is currently considering Adrian Montague's detailed advice on Crossrail and will publish his findings in due course.

Cycle Helmets

Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the effect on numbers of cycle journeys should cycle helmets be made compulsory. [159106]

Mr. Jamieson: My Department commissioned research on the effectiveness of cycle helmets, including the relative risk of injury to cyclists with and without helmets, by way of a literature review, and this was published in November 2002 (Road Safety Research Report No. 30), a copy of which was placed in the Library. The conclusion from the review was that helmets have been found to be effective at reducing the incidence and severity of head, brain and upper facial injury, particularly for children. The report also concludes that there is evidence that compulsory helmet wearing may discourage some bicyclists leading to decreased bicycle use.

In addition to the periodic monitoring we carry out of the wearing rates for cycling helmets, we plan to initiate further research to explore the possible relationship between cycling casualties and cycling levels.

Heathrow

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the review of operations at Heathrow to establish the practicality and impact of mixed mode operation will include a review of existing noise preferential departure routes. [161368]

Mr. McNulty: The further work announced in "The Future Development of Air Transport White Paper", which includes consideration of how to make the most of Heathrow's existing two runways, may involve review of some existing noise preferential departure routes, but the extent to which this may be necessary will only become clear as the work proceeds. Noise preferential routes may in future need to be reviewed in any event in the light of the "Single Sky" proposals. Any changes which might have a significant effect on the level or distribution of noise and emissions would require prior consultation.

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