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20 Oct 2004 : Column 770W—continued

Social Economy

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action her Department has taken to promote the social economy. [190841]

Nigel Griffiths: The term social economy is generally accepted as including co-operatives, social enterprises, and the voluntary and community sector. DTI leads within Government on social enterprise (HM Treasury leads on co-operatives and the Home Office leads on the voluntary and community sector). In July 2002, the Government published "Social Enterprise: a strategy for success", a three year strategy to promote and sustain social enterprise activity. "A progress report on Social enterprise: a strategy for success" was published in October 2003. Bulletins setting out more recent progress are available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/socialenterprise/news.

Achievements to date include: introducing legislation on a new legal form, the Community Interest Company, for social enterprises; publishing a public procurement toolkit for social enterprises; supporting the development of specialist training and business support; publication of a report by the Bank of England on the financing of social enterprises, and working with partners to address its recommendations; supporting the establishment of the Social Enterprise Coalition; undertaking research into the size of the sector; and raising awareness of social enterprise, including through sponsoring the national social enterprise awards.

University Spin-out Companies

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many companies were spun out by universities in (a) Buckinghamshire and (b) England in each year since August 2000. [191060]

Nigel Griffiths: UK Government have provided significant support to promote commercialisation of ideas from our excellent research base. This is bearing fruit in start-up companies, licensing agreements and other important interactions between the science base and business. The latest data for spin-out companies are:

Information on funding in Buckinghamshire is not available, as these data are not collected on a county basis.

Yorkshire Forward

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much investment Yorkshire Forward has received; and how many jobs it has created in (a) Yorkshire and the Humber and (b) the City of York. [191168]

Jacqui Smith: I have been advised by Yorkshire Forward that in 2003–04 Yorkshire Forward has:


 
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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Mr. Lepper: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) what training is provided for magistrates in dealing with breaches of antisocial behaviour orders; [192386]

(2) what guidelines are issued to magistrates in relation to dealing with breaches of antisocial behaviour orders. [192388]

Mr. Leslie: Statutory responsibility for the training of magistrates currently rests with the 42 independent Magistrates' Courts' Committees (MCCs). The Judicial Studies Board (JSB) has provided training materials to MCCs on ASBOs, which encourage through case studies, discussion of the issues arising in sentencing on the breach of orders, including those in the Youth court.

In February 2004, the JSB advised MCCs that it expected every magistrate to receive a minimum of two hours face to face training on ASBOs by the end of this financial year. It is anticipated that any such training will cover issues on breaches of orders.

The Home Office issued detailed guidance on ASBOs to magistrates courts in November 2002. Preliminary Home Office guidance on the new Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 was issued to all magistrates courts in January 2004.

The current Magistrates Court Sentencing Guidelines include a guideline in respect of breach of antisocial behaviour orders (ASBO). All magistrates have been provided with these guidelines in the Adult Court Bench Book issued by The Judicial Studies Board (JSB) in 2003. The Criminal Justice Act 2003 has now established the Sentencing Guidelines Council, and it will fall to them to determine in due course, whether new sentencing guidelines should be provided in respect of breaches of ASBOs.

In court lay magistrates sit with their Justices' Clerk or a legal adviser. The Justices' Clerk has a statutory duty to provide advice to the magistrates on questions of law, practice and procedure. This will include advice on applying any case law and relevant Court of Appeal judgments when making decisions on sentence.

Channel Islands

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what discussions the Lord Chancellor has had with the Channel Islands in his official capacity in the last 12 months. [192700]

Mr. Lammy: In the last twelve months the Lord Chancellor has held discussions with representatives of Jersey and Guernsey, jointly, on 3 March.

The Lord Chancellor made an official visit to Jersey on the 9 and 10 May. During his visit he held discussions with Jersey's Crown Officers including His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, the Bailiff and the Attorney General. He also held discussions with the President of the Policy and Resources Committee, the Chief Executive of Policy and Resources and the Director-General of the Jersey Financial Services Commission.
 
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Among the topics discussed were relations between Jersey and the UK, progress in changes to Jersey's system of government, international treaties and agreements, maintaining the high standard of financial services regulation, international communications and other shared economic and policy objectives.

District Judges' Salaries

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the total expenditure was on District Judges' salaries and expenses in each of the last 10 years. [192687]

Mr. Leslie: From the information available to my Department, the total expenditure on District Judges' salaries in the last six years is:
£
1998–9946,626,845.00
1999–200053,747,583.00
2000–0160,841,891.00
2001–0266,009,217.00
2002–0372,311,129.00
2003–0488,286,003.00



Note:
Actual expenditure prior to 1998–99 is not available.


My Department possess only a single figure on judicial expenses which includes all the judiciary and therefore it has not been possible to provide information separately on District Judges' expenses.

European Convention on Human Rights

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many human rights cases have been pursued in UK courts since the European Convention on Human Rights was incorporated into UK law. [192407]

Mr. Lammy: The information requested is not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Isle of Man

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what discussions the Lord Chancellor has had with the Isle of Man in his official capacity in the last 12 months. [192650]

Mr. Lammy: The Lord Chancellor has held discussions with representatives of the Isle of Man on three occasions in the last twelve months. Discussions on 4 December, 10 December and 3 March covered a range of business and policy topics including trade, international treaties and agreements, fiscal regulation and other shared economic and policy objectives. The Lord Chancellor and Chief Minister also spoke at the British Irish Summit in Cardiff on 28 November 2003.

Lay Magistrates

Mr. Llwyd: how many sitting lay magistrates there were in (a) 1997 and (b) 2003. [192199]


 
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Mr. Leslie: The number of sitting lay magistrates in 1997 and 2003 in England and Wales were:
Year end(35)(36)England and Wales
31 December 199730,361
31 March 200328,344


(35) Figures include the Duchy of Lancaster.
(36) Note: record-keeping changed to financial years in 2000–01.


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