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CABINET OFFICE

Better Regulation Task Force

Mr. Oliver Heald To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will list the enacted regulations that have been repealed on the recommendation of the Better Regulation Task Force since it was established. [161956]

Mr. Alexander: The Better Regulation Task Force advises the Government on action to ensure that regulation and its enforcement meet the principles of good regulation. The Task Force recommends both ways of improving existing regulation and tools for helping us regulate better in future.

The Government has accepted the vast majority of the Task Force's recommendations, a number of which are included in our Regulatory Reform Action Plan, published in December 2003 and available from the Libraries of both Houses.

Consultants

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how much his Department spent on external consultants in each financial year since 1997–98; and if he will make a statement. [160051]

Mr. Alexander: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Mr. Leslie) to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 26 March 2002, Official Report, column 815–816W and to the answer given to the Noble Baroness Wilcox in another place by my hon. Friend, The Lord Macdonald of Tradeston, on 27 November 2002, Official Report, column WA42.

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The Cabinet Office and the Central Office of Information has spent £13,460,000 during 2002–03 on external consultants.

Expenditure on external consultants during that period included advice on internal IT systems, the development of e-Government initiatives, facilities management and on Strategy Unit studies.

Contingency Planning

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will make a statement on the implications for contingency planning of the level of civil defence grants in the next financial year. [162301]

Mr. Alexander: The Civil Defence Grant is a contribution towards the cost of local authorities' civil protection work. The aggregate of civil defence grants to be made for the financial year 2004–05 is £19,038,000, which will be distributed according to a formula agreed with the Local Government Association.

The grant will make funds available for the preparation of emergency plans, liaison with the emergency services in preparing for major incidents and other civil protection work.

The Civil Defence Grant is just one small part of what the Government spends on resilience. There are a large number of other statutory bodies involved in local civil protection work including the Police Service, the Fire Service, the Ambulance Service and the Environment Agency. They are funded accordingly for this work.

Non-departmental Public Bodies

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office pursuant to his answer of 8 March, Official Report, columns 1262–3W, on non-departmental public bodies, if he will make a statement on the change in his Department's expenditure on such bodies since 1996–97. [162022]

Mr. Alexander: The Cabinet Office was responsible for eight Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) in 1996–97 and 10 NDPBs in 2002–03.

Expenditure for these public bodies in 1996–97 and 2002–03 is set out in the following table.

£ million

NDPB	(23)1996–97	2002–03
British Government Panel on Sustainable Development	0.050	—
Citizen's Charter Panel of Advisers	0.083	—
Deregulation Task Force	0.065	—
Advisory Committee on Advertising	—	0.004
Advisory Committee on Business Appointments	0.051	0.061
Civil Service Appeal Board	0.308	0.393
Committee on Standards in Public Life	0.485	0.638
Honours Scrutiny Committee	0	0
Security Commission	0.005	0.007
Better Regulation Task Force(24)	—	0.517
Security Vetting Appeal Panel	—	0.024
Senior Salaries Review Body(25)	—	0.292
House of Lords Appointments Commission	—	0.152
Total	1.047	2.088

⁽²³⁾ Expenditure

⁽²⁴⁾ The expenditure figure for The Better Regulation Task Force in 2002/03 is not directly comparable with the 1996–97 expenditure figure for its predecessor, the Deregulation Task Force. The Better Regulation Task Force figure includes staff costs for the Task Force secretariat. Staff costs for the Deregulation Task Force in 1996–97 were not calculated.

⁽²⁵⁾ Although sponsored by the Cabinet Office, costs are met by the DTI.

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Parliamentary Questions

Norman Baker: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what criteria are applied, and by whom, when a decision is taken that duplicate Parliamentary Questions tabled to different departments should be responded to by means of one composite reply; what mechanism exists for identifying such questions; and if he will make a statement. [162308]

Mr. Alexander: Departments prepare answers to Parliamentary Questions in accordance with the Guidance to Officials on Drafting Answers to Parliamentary Questions, re-issued by the Cabinet Office in September 2002. Departments liaise with each other from time to time where Parliamentary Questions cut across departmental boundaries. It is for individual Ministers to decide on the contents of answers to Parliamentary Questions.

Recycling

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what targets he has set in his Department for the re-cycling of waste (a) paper, (b) cardboard, (c) glass, (d) metal and (e) plastic in each of the last three years; and what results have been achieved. [160004]

Mr. Alexander: The Cabinet Office works towards meeting waste targets set for individual Government Departments by the Ministerial Sub-Committee (ENV(G)).

Figures for Cabinet Office recycling in each of the last three years are published in the Greening Government 3rd Annual Report and the Sustainable Development in Government 1st and 2nd Annual Reports.

Online copies of all three reports can be found at: http://www.sustainable-development.gov.uk/sdig/reports/index.htm.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Judges' Instructions

Mr. Grieve: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs on what basis the Home Secretary instructs judges to hold meetings with the public on their work. [159348]

Mr. Leslie: My right hon. friend the Home Secretary has not instructed the judiciary to hold meetings with the public. He and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State, hold the view that everyone involved in the criminal justice system should engage closely with local communities, including judges and other members of the judiciary. Judges and magistrates already participate in court open days, court user groups and

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work with schools. Through the Magistrates in the Community initiative, magistrates meet the community organisations across the country to discuss developments in the criminal justice system; and, with probation officers, have held similar meetings to explain and discuss community sentences. They will also be involved in the Courts Boards established under the new Unified Courts Administration to build better links between courts and the communities they serve.

Supreme Court

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the

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Lord Chancellor has received a request to appear before the relevant committee in the Scottish Parliament to discuss the proposals for a UK supreme court. [162631]

Mr. Leslie: My right hon. and noble learned Friend the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and Lord Chancellor received an informal request on 3 March 2004 to appear before the Scottish Parliament's Justice 2 Committee, which is inquiring into the Constitutional Reform Bill. He declined in accordance with Devolution Guidance Note 12, Attendance of UK Ministers and Officials at Committees of the Devolved Legislatures.

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WORK AND PENSIONS

Company Pension Schemes

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many company pension schemes declared insolvent have been notified to his Department in the last three years. [162835]

Malcolm Wicks: This information is not available. The currently available source of information on pension schemes is the Pension Schemes Registry, which is administered by the Occupational Pensions Regulatory Authority (Opra). Their database does not allow us to identify the solvency position of the sponsoring company of a pension scheme.

We are exploring with industry representatives the basis on which we can establish firm estimates of the number of defined benefit schemes which wind up because of insolvency.

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