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11 Oct 2004 : Column 11W—continued

Departmental Vehicles

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Solicitor-General how many road vehicles are operated by the Department and its agencies; how many personal injury accidents involving road vehicles operated by the Department have occurred within each of the last five years; and what the Department's policy is for managing work-related road safety. [185921]


 
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The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has an operational fleet of 18 vehicles. There is no record of any personal injury accidents involving the Department's vehicles within the last five years. The Department's policy and procedures for managing work-related road safety is contained within its Departmental Transport Guide.

HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) does not operate any road vehicles. HMCPSI does use rental vehicles for its core work of visiting CPS sites for the purpose of inspections and some staff use their own vehicles. However, there have been no accidents over the last five years involving any personal injury. HMCPSI are committed to road safety and expect all drivers to show due care and attention to other users of the highway. The latest instruction has been to ensure all staff are aware of recent changes to the legislation on use of mobile phones while in a motor vehicle and to remind them of their statuary duty/obligation to comply with the law. HMCPSI include road safety as apart of the routine Health and Safety assessments to minimise risks.

The Treasury Solicitor's Department does not operate any road vehicles.

My own Department, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers has no vehicles. In respect of the ministerial cars used by the Attorney-General and myself, I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister for the Cabinet Office and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Alexander) on 22 July 2004, Official Report, column 490W.

Information and Communication Specialists

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Solicitor-General how many information and communication technology specialists are in full-time employment in the Department. [189589]

The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service employs 33 full-time information and communication technology specialists within its Business and Information Systems Directorate.

The SFO employs 24 information and technology specialists in total. These comprise:

The management team and computer forensic specialists are full time civil servants. The outsourced IT service is contracted to IBM Global Services. In addition a range of IT support; system development and project management staff totalling 10 man years are employed on an ad hoc or consultancy basis. The outsourced service also provides IT support for my own office, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, under an umbrella arrangement with the Serious Fraud Office. LSLO employs no information and communication technology specialists of its own.

The Treasury Solicitor's Department operates an in-house information service. There are currently 24 full-time information and communication technology specialists (ICT) in the Department. This comprises of 13 full-time permanent ICT specialists and 11 full-time contractor ICT specialists.
 
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HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate currently has no information and communication technology specialists in full-time employment.

Ministerial Air Travel

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Solicitor-General what the total cost of air travel between Northern Ireland and Great Britain was for (a) Ministers and (b) officials of the Law Officers' Department in the latest year for which figures are available. [182126]

The Solicitor-General: The cost of flights by members of HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate to Northern Ireland during the financial year 2003–04 (the last full year for which figures are available) was £1,640.41. The expenditure was incurred through assistance to the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland in accordance with the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002 and through participation in the evaluation of pilot arrangements for establishment of the Public Prosecution Service of Northern Ireland.

The total cost to the Serious Fraud Office for the financial year 2003–04 was £10,336.31.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not hold centrally, details about flight destinations and the costs of individual flights. The information sought for flights between Northern Ireland and Great Britain made by CPS officials in the CPS 42 areas could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).

The Treasury Solicitor's Department does not hold centrally information in the form required and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).

My own Department, the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers, does not hold centrally information in the form required and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

Adoption

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much has been spent on facilitation of inter-country adoption in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [188974]

Margaret Hodge: The UK Government do not actively promote intercountry or domestic adoption. Section 1 of the Adoption Act 1976 places a duty on all local authorities to provide an adoption service, including a service for intercountry adoption. The Intercountry Adoption Casework Team, a small team of staff based in the Department for Education and Skills provides a telephone and web-based information service to prospective adopters. It also manages the transfer of intercountry adoption applications overseas, ensuring that the documentation is complete and complies with UK legislative requirements. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provides a legalisation service to
 
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intercountry adopters. Information on the total expenditure by central Government on the processing of intercountry adoption applications is not held centrally.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what steps he is taking to facilitate intercountry adoption from Bolivia to the UK. [188975]

Margaret Hodge: The UK Government do not actively promote intercountry adoption. The Government do provide a telephone and web-based information service to prospective adopters. It also manages the transfer of intercountry adoption applications overseas, ensuring that the documentation is complete and complies with UK legislative requirements. The Department for Education and Skills also acts as the Central Authority for England under The Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption. The Central Authority for Wales is the National Assembly for Wales, for Scotland the Scottish Executive and for Northern Ireland the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety. The role of the Central Authority is to ensure that the requirements laid down by the convention are fully met. The UK ratified the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in respect of Intercountry Adoption in 2003. Bolivia has also ratified the Hague Convention. The convention sets out clearly the principles which govern intercountry adoption policy, practice and procedure between contracting states. Principally these are to establish safeguards to ensure that intercountry adoptions take place in the best interests of the child and with respect for his or her fundamental rights as recognised in international law, to establish a system of co-operation amongst Contracting States to ensure that those safeguards are respected and thereby prevent the abduction, the sale of or traffic in children and to secure the recognition in Contracting States of adoptions made in accordance with the convention. Prior to the UK's ratification of the Hague Convention Bolivia has refused to accept applications for intercountry adoption. The Department for Education and Skills has subsequently received correspondence from the Bolivian authorities setting out their additional requirements in relation to intercountry adoption. However, we believe that the convention adequately addresses arrangements for adoption between contracting states.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children have been adopted from overseas to the UK in the last five years, broken down by country of origin. [189032]

Margaret Hodge: There is no centrally held information on the number of children adopted from overseas to the UK in the last five years broken down by country of origin. However, the tables that give statistics for the number of applications received in the UK by country for the last five years, have been placed in the House Libraries.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what assessment he has made of times for processing applications for inter-country adoption in the UK in comparison with other signatories to the Hague Convention. [189215]

Margaret Hodge: The Department for Education and Skills has not undertaken any assessment of processing times for England in comparison to other Hague
 
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signatories. Operational procedures and domestic legal frameworks governing the processing of intercountry adoption applications will vary considerably for each of the contracting States and it would therefore be difficult to draw any meaningful comparisons. There has been a substantial reduction in the average processing times for intercountry adoption applications in England over the last year.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children aged (a) under one, (b) one to two, (c) three to four, (d) five to 10 and (e) 11 to 16 have been placed for adoption in the last 12 months. [189412]

Margaret Hodge: The attached table shows the number of children placed for adoption at 31 March 2003 who have been in that placement for 12 months or less, by age.
Children placed for adoption for 12 months or less at 31 March 2003

Age at 31 March 2003Number
Total2,300
Under 1200
1 to 2810
3 to 4460
5 to 10750
11 to 1640
Over 160



Notes:
1. Figures exclude those children looked after under a series of short-term placements.
2. Figures over 100 have been rounded to the nearest 100. All other figures have been rounded to the nearest 10.
Source:
CLA100 and SSDA903 returns.


Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many adoption placements broke down in each of the last three years. [189413]

Margaret Hodge: I refer the hon. Member to my response on 6 May 2004, Official Report, column 1740W.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were successfully placed for adoption by each local authority in 2002–03. [189448]

Margaret Hodge: The following table shows the number of children adopted in 2002–03 by local authority.
Local authorityNumber of looked after
children adopted 2002–03
England3,500
North East260
Shire Counties
Durham30
Northumberland20
Unitary Authorities
Darlington5
Hartlepool1,010
Middlesbrough25
Redcar and Cleveland15
Stockton on Tees
Metropolitan Districts
Gateshead15
Newcastle Upon Tyne40
North Tyneside30
South Tyneside15
Sunderland35
North West550
Shire Counties
Cheshire25
Cumbria30
Lancashire60
Unitary Authorities
Blackburn and Darwen10
Blackpool45
Halton5
Warrington(2)
Metropolitan Districts
Bolton20
Bury20
Knowsley15
Liverpool65
Manchester80
Oldham20
Rochdale10
Salford25
Sefton15
St. Helens15
Stockport10
Tameside20
Trafford10
Wigan15
Wirral20
Yorkshire and The Humber440
Shire Counties
North Yorkshire30
Unitary Authorities
East Riding Yorkshire15
Kingston Upon Hull30
N E Lincolnshire20
North Lincolnshire10
York10
Metropolitan Districts
Barnsley20
Bradford50
Calderdale10
Doncaster35
Kirklees30
Leeds75
Rotherham30
Sheffield50
Wakefield25
East Midlands330
Shire Counties
Derbyshire50
Leicestershire15
Lincolnshire65
Northamptonshire40
Nottinghamshire45
Unitary Authorities
Derby35
Leicester45
Nottingham40
Rutland0
West Midlands410
Shire Counties
Shropshire10
Staffordshire50
Warwickshire20
Worcestershire20
Unitary Authorities
Herefordshire10
Stoke-On-Trent30
Telford and Wrekin10
Metropolitan Districts
Birmingham140
Coventry35
Dudley20
Sandwell20
Solihull10
Walsall25
Wolverhampton15
East of England305
Shire Counties
Bedfordshire25
Cambridgeshire15
Essex90
Hertfordshire45
Norfolk40
Suffolk35
Unitary Authorities
Luton15
Peterborough25
Southend10
Thurrock10
London485
Inner London255
Camden20
City of London0
Greenwich40
Hackney15
Hammersmith and Fulham15
Islington30
Kensington and Chelsea10
Lambeth15
Lewisham20
Southwark35
Tower Hamlets15
Wandsworth15
Westminster15
Outer London230
Barking and Dagenham(2)
Barnet20
Bexley10
Brent10
Bromley20
Croydon20
Baling25
Enfield5
Haringey10
Harrow5
Havering10
Hillingdon15
Hounslow25
Kingston Upon Thames(2)
Merton5
Newham20
Redbridge10
Richmond Upon Thames10
Sutton0
Waltham Forest(2)
South East500
Shire Counties
Buckinghamshire20
East Sussex50
Hampshire40
Kent115
Oxfordshire30
Surrey50
West Sussex40
Unitary Authorities
Bracknell Forest(2)
Brighton and Hove20
Isle of Wight10
Medway Towns25
Milton Keynes10
Portsmouth10
Reading15
Slough15
Southampton30
West Berkshire10
Windsor and Maidenhead10
Wokingham(2)
South West265
Shire Counties
Cornwall35
Devon35
Dorset15
Gloucestershire30
Isles of Scilly0
Somerset20
Wiltshire20
Unitary Authorities
Bath and N E Somerset(2)
Bournemouth15
Bristol45
North Somerset(2)
Plymouth20
Poole(2)
South Gloucestershire10
Swindon10
Torbay(2)


(2) Figures between 1 and 5 have been suppressed and replaced by a hyphen (—).
Notes:
1. Figures over 1,000 have been rounded to the nearest 100.
2. All other figures have been rounded to the nearest 5.
Source:
Children looked after by local authorities, year ending 31 March 2003



 
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