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Civil Servants

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many officials in (a) her Department and (b) executive agencies reporting to her Department are employed in the Vale of York. [170011]

Alun Michael: Defra has one office located in the Vale of the York. It is the Thirsk office of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency, where 28 officials are employed.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Human Rights

Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he plans to sign and ratify the First Optional Protocol to the International Council on Civil and Political Rights on behalf of the United Kingdom. [170185]

Mr. Rammell: The Government are currently reviewing the United Kingdom's position in relation to a number of international human rights instruments. This review includes the First Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which allows the right of individual petition. We will announce the outcomes of the Review to Parliament as soon as is reasonably possible.

Cyprus

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what his policy is towards (a) Cyprus and (b) Turkey in the light of the outcome of the referendums in Cyprus on 24 April. [169809R]

Mr. MacShane: I draw my hon. Friend's attention to the Foreign Secretary's written statement of 28 April 2004, Official Report, columns 44–46WS. The statement contained the Government's response to the outcome of the voting on 24 April and referred to the conclusions on Cyprus from the General Affairs and External Relations Council of 26 April 2004. UK policy is fully reflected in these decisions of the European Union, which I very much welcome.

I very much value our close relationship with the Republic of Cyprus. I look forward to this continuing, enhanced by the new dimension of EU membership after 1 May.

Like our EU partners, the UK is keen to see an end to the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriots. This does not mean a change in the government's policy of not recognising the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus". But the situation in the north of the island has changed—the Turkish Cypriots have expressed a clear desire for a future within the EU, and on the basis of a reunified island. That is our objective too. As we work to achieve it, the EU is committed to addressing the economic disparity between the north and south.

The EU has also welcomed Turkey's constructive approach to the settlement negotiations. The lack of a Cyprus settlement should not impede the opening of accession negotiations on the basis of the Copenhagen criteria. We will continue to work with Turkey to encourage the implementation of the necessary reforms, so that the European Council can take a positive decision in December 2004.

Managed Migration

Mr. Page: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how long embassies will retain the passports of citizens of (a) Romania and
 
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(b) Bulgaria seeking managed migration employment visas as a result of the conduct of the Ken Sutton inquiry. [170021]

Mr. Mullin: Applications by Romanian and Bulgarian citizens for managed migration visas have been suspended pending the completion of Ken Sutton's inquiry. Passports that are retained by our Embassies in connection with managed migration applications will be held until the application can be resolved, or until the applicant requests the return of their passport in person at the embassy. Applications can be held open despite the return of the passport, if the request is made in person.

Sudan

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has held with the National Islamic Front Government of the Sudan over the continuing use of Hudud. [168794]

Mr. Mullin: Amputations and flogging are incompatible with international human rights law. We regularly raise the matter with the Sudanese Government, both bilaterally and as part of the EU-Sudan dialogue. Indeed, I discussed the application of hudud punishments with the Sudanese ambassador on 2 December 2003, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for International Development (Hilary Benn), discussed the human rights situation generally with the President of Sudan in Khartoum on 10 December.

Departmental Wine Cellars

Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many bottles of wine are held by his Department. [162012]

Mr. Rammell: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold central records of the wines held by UK missions overseas. In the UK, the principal holding is the Government Wine Cellar, managed by Government Hospitality on behalf of all Government Departments. The stock of approximately 37,000 bottles is a mixture of fine wines, less expensive beverage wines and spirits. The cellar is generally stocked by purchasing when they are young and relatively inexpensive and then allowing them to mature. This allows the government to use fully mature wines of considerable value for its hospitality requirements, while representing a considerable saving to the taxpayer compared to the cost of buying mature wines in the open market.

HEALTH

"Winning Ways"

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what progress has been made in setting up a rapid review process for new procedures and products claiming to prevent or control healthcare-associated infection as announced in Winning Ways; [167461]
 
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(2) when he expects the first procedures and products to be reviewed under Winning Ways; and how recommendations will be implemented. [167462]

Mr. Hutton: Action is being taken jointly between officials in the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the national health service health technology assessment programme and the Health Protection Agency. We are still exploring the options for this new rapid review process but hope that evaluations will start later this year.

Agency Nurses (Weston Area)

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to his answer of 7 April 2004, refs 163515 to 163518 on public bodies, what he estimates the staff and administration costs have been to his Department of those bodies referred to which are still in existence. [167547]

Ms Rosie Winterton: As the previous reply explained, information on the Department's task forces, ad hoc advisory groups and reviews is given in the annual publication, "Public Bodies". This publication explains that such groups have a short-term focus and when their work comes to an end they are disbanded. These groups are usually created to give expert advice to the Government on a specific issue and are usually expected to remain in operation for less than two years. They are not separate statutory bodies. As such, they have no capacity to employ staff or hold assets in their own right and rely on secretariat and other support from the Department and, sometimes, other interested bodies. They will not normally have any formal separate budget allocated to them, and accountability for expenditure will remain with the body to whom any funding is allocated.

Anaesthesia

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what evaluation he has made of international trials to examine awareness devices that monitor the depth of anaesthesia. [166882]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The New Scientist published on 14 April a research paper from the Alfred hospital in Melbourne, Australia, which reported that the BIS (Bispectral Index) monitor can aid evaluation of the depth of anaesthesia in a patient undergoing surgery. The research recommended that the BIS monitor be used in the small number of operations where there is a high risk of the patient becoming aware during the operation. A different system has been developed at the University of Glasgow. The Auditory Evoked Potential System measures the depth of anaesthesia in a different way to that of the BIS monitor. As further trials are carried out, our understanding of the safety and efficacy of these systems will increase.

Kidney Transplants

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many kidney transplants have been carried out by the NHS in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [168604]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The table shows kidney transplants in the United Kingdom, since April 1997 by financial year.
 
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Transplant type	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04
Cadaveric kidney	1,426	1,309	1,359	1,308	1,264	1,337	1,330
Living donor kidney	197	241	302	341	372	379	450
All kidney only	1,623	1,550	1,661	1,649	1,636	1,716	1,780
Kidney-pancreas	25	21	25	41	41	48	45
Kidney-liver	18	5	8	9	5	13	10
Kidney/heart	3	3	1	1	3	1	1
Kidney-liver- pancreas	—	1	—	—	—	—	—
Total kidney	1,669	1,580	1,695	1,700	1,685	1,778	1,836

In the UK we have invested in a number of initiatives to boost organ donation. Between 1 April 2003 and 31 March 2004 there were 2,854 transplants—the highest number of organ transplants in seven years. The highest number of patients for fourteen years received a kidney-only transplant with living donation now representing one in four of all kidney-only transplants. We saw a 20 per cent. increase in non-heartbeating donation and more than 800,000 people added their names to the NHS organ donor register.

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