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Suicide (Websites)

Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) if he will proscribe websites which promote suicide; [161078]

(2) what discussions he has had with internet service   providers concerning suicide websites and chatrooms. [161079]

Paul Goggins: We understand the concern that has been expressed about such websites.

Where they are hosted in the UK, those producing them may be committing an offence under section 2(1) of the Suicide Act 1961, which makes it an offence to aid, abet, counsel or procure another to commit suicide, or attempt to do so and be liable to prosecution. However the courts have held that simply providing information about committing suicide does not necessarily constitute such an offence.

More generally, we are in the process of opening up discussion internationally on wider issues of illegal content on the internet. In addition, as part of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, the Department of Health is working to promote the responsible representation of suicidal behaviour in the media. More generally, we are in the process of opening up discussion internationally on wider issues of illegal content on the internet. In addition, as part of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, the Department of Health is working to promote the responsible representation of suicidal behaviour in the media.

Vehicle Data Recorders

Rob Marris: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many road traffic prosecutions used evidence based on black box vehicle data recorders to indicate the speed of the vehicles involved in (a) 2002 and (b) 2003. [164532]

Caroline Flint: The information is not collected centrally.

Women in Jail

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women were in jail on the latest date for which figures are available. [147363]

Paul Goggins: On Friday 16 April 2004 there were 4,625 females in Prison in England and Wales.

Wormwood Scrubs

Ms Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what expenditure has been incurred to date
 
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by the Home Office as a result of (a) injuries, (b) legal costs and (c) damages arising from claims made by prisoners in Wormwood Scrubs during the period November 1992 to October 2001; to how many prisoners damages have been paid; and how many cases remain unresolved. [162632]

Paul Goggins: Payments to prisoners and former prisoners arising from claims made between November 1992 and October 2001 at Wormwood Scrubs total £1,275,810. These payments have been made to 56 prisoners, one remains unresolved. The payments are global settlements for injuries and damages. For the same period, the Home Office has paid £289,533 for its legal costs in relation to these claims

Youth Offending Teams

Mr. Keith Bradley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the statistical base is for the allocation of resources to youth offending teams for (a) drug and (b) alcohol programmes. [162613]

Paul Goggins holding answer 22 March 2004]: The Youth Justice Board provide grant funding to Youth Offending Teams for substance misuse work which includes drugs and alcohol. They use a national formula which takes into account each Youth Offending Team   area's 10 to 17-year-old population, levels of deprivation based on indices supplied by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and geographical size.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Contraception (Africa)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what steps his Department is taking through (a) bilateral programmes, (b) EU development assistance programmes and (c) other programmes to increase the percentage of women of reproductive age in Africa who use contraceptives. [167209]

Hilary Benn: Over one third of maternal deaths could be avoided if effective family planning services to avoid unwanted pregnancies were available and accessible. The Department for International Development therefore attaches particular importance to increasing women's access to reproductive health (RH) services including family planning. DFID champions reproductive health through our bilateral country programmes either through direct support to the health sector or through general budget support. Under DFID's bilateral programmes, contraceptives are normally provided as an integral part of broader programmes to promote sexual and reproductive health and prevent HIV/AIDS. DFID also supports the strengthening of national systems and capacity to plan, use and monitor supplies of medicines and commodities including for reproductive health. Since 1997 DFID has committed over £1.5 billion to health systems globally.

DFID spent over £270 million globally on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS programmes in 2002–03, (about two thirds of this support was targeted at sub-Saharan Africa), and is one of the leading bilateral providers of condoms (for men and women) and other forms of contraception to developing countries. Many
 
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of   DFID's HIV/AIDS programmes include large components for social marketing of condoms. In Nigeria we have committed £52.8 million for a condom social marketing programme that combines procurement and distribution with encouraging behaviour change, communication and capacity building.

The UK's significant contributions to the European Commission Development Budget and the European Development Fund cannot be tracked back specifically for use on Reproductive Healthcare in Africa. Most EC resources are allocated by region or country in response to country government's own priorities, and details of the proportion of UK support for reproductive health are not available centrally. However, the UK has been working hard within the EU to protect the principles agreed at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994. The Cairo Agenda redefined sexual and reproductive health and rights. DFID and our EU partners are pushing to generate more political commitment for reproductive health and reproduction health rights, in for as such as the World Health Assembly and the UN Commission for Population, and Development to protect the gains made in Cairo which are now under pressure. The Netherlands are planning to highlight reproductive health and the need to have contraception readily available in their forthcoming EU Presidency. The UK has been in discussions with the Netherlands about how to maintain the momentum around this subject during the UK's Presidency of the EU in 2005.

DFID is a major donor to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and supports the Fund's work to provide the widest achievable range of safe and effective family planning and contraceptive methods. DFID also provides support to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), which is the world's largest voluntary reproductive health organisation.

EU Development Assistance

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development (1) if he will list the non-governmental organisations involved in the delivery of 2002 EU Development Assistance projects in (a) Benin, (b) Burkina Faso, (c) Cape Verde, (d) Cote d'lvoire, (e) Guinea, (f) Guinea Bissau, (g) Liberia, (h) Mali, (i) Mauritania, (j) Niger, (k) Nigeria, (l) Senegal, (m) Sierra Leone, (n) the Gambia and (o) Togo; [167192]

(2) if he will list the non-governmental organisations involved in the delivery of the 2002 EU development assistance projects to (a) Cameroon, (b) the Central African Republic, (c) Chad and (d) Sao Tomé and Principe. [167215]

Hilary Benn: The participation of NGOs in the implementation of the European Union's (EU) efforts to eradicate poverty is vital. A substantial proportion of EU development expenditure goes to NGO's whether through co-financing arrangements, thematic and geographic budget lines or the European Development Fund.

I have listed the European NGOs, which received a grant from the EU budgetary line for NGO co-financing for operations in the countries you requested to. This does not include information about NGOs who received funding
 
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from other budget lines, such as EDF and Food Security. The EU does not collate this information centrally and it would be available only at disproportionate cost.

European NGOs involved in co-financing operations

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