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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Magistrates Courts (East Anglia)

27. Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs when he next expects to meet representatives of local magistrates from East Anglia to discuss court modernisation programmes. [200061]

Mr. Leslie: While I have no immediate plans to meet magistrates from East Anglia, I am happy to consider any invitations to do so. Officials in my Department are already in dialogue with the shadow courts boards in East Anglia. They will consider the local courts' draft business plan in consultation with magistrates and other interested parties.

House of Lords

28. Hugh Bayley: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will make a statement on reforming the House of Lords. [200062]

Mr. Leslie: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave the hon. Gentleman for Cannock Chase earlier today.

Electoral Reform

29. Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans the Secretary of State has to change the electoral system for elections to the House of Commons. [200063]

 
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Mr. Leslie: The Government remain committed to their manifesto in respect of electoral systems and will make an announcement on the time of a review at an appropriate moment.

Claims Direct

30. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what discussions his Department has had with representatives of Claims Direct in the last five years. [200064]

Mr. Lammy: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 29 November 2004, Official Report, column 29W.

Court Dress

31. Mr. Dismore: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what progress is being made in reforming court dress. [200065]

Mr. Leslie: The Lord Chancellor plans to discuss the way forward on court working dress with the senior judiciary.

Supreme Court

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what progress has been made in locating suitable premises for the proposed Supreme Court. [200066]

Mr. Leslie: The Government have previously announced that Middlesex Guildhall and the new wing, Somerset House are under consideration as locations for the Supreme Court. The Government shall continue to investigate the relative qualitative and financial merits of the building options in consultation with the Law Lords, English Heritage and Westminster city council, and will provide an update before the Constitutional Reform Bill reaches this House.

Antisocial Behaviour Orders

Chris Ruane: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the average length of time taken by courts (a) hearing and (b) granting antisocial behaviour orders was for each court area in the last period for which figures are available. [199556]

Mr. Leslie: No data are available on the average length of time taken by the courts to (a) hear or (b) grant antisocial behaviour orders. Information on the length of hearings is not collected on the basis of particular types of proceedings. In July 2004, the Government identified 12 "anti-social behaviour response courts" which are focused on dealing effectively with antisocial behaviour in particular on dealing with cases efficiently. We are now seeking to identify further magistrates courts where this approach would be useful, and to roll out the lessons learned to all magistrates courts.

Departmental Websites

Paul Holmes: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether his Department's .gov.uk websites comply with the World
 
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Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines adopted by the Government in 2001; and if he will make a statement. [199622]

Mr. Leslie: My Department, as a service provider, is obliged by the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 to make its public facing online services and publications accessible and to provide alternative user-friendly formats on request. This is in line with the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (version l.0). The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) adheres to these guidelines. 90 per cent. of publications uploaded to our site are in HTML format.

Electoral Review

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs when he expects to announce the review of electoral systems. [200279]

Mr. Leslie: The Government remain committed to their manifesto in respect of the reviews of electoral systems and will make any announcement on the time of a review at an appropriate moment.

Legal Aid

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans the Department has to promote the use of legal expenses insurance to the public as an addition to the cover provided by civil legal aid. [200986]

Mr. Lammy: The Government welcome the continuing growth in the market for "before-the-event" legal expenses insurance. We understand from insurance firms themselves that the breadth of coverage for LEI has grown substantially in recent years, and this has encouraged the Government in their wish to focus civil legal aid more carefully on the most vulnerable.

A consultation has recently closed on a package of reforms to the civil legal aid scheme to encourage early resolution of disputes; discourage unnecessary litigation and re-prioritise funding to ensure it is better targeted at deserving cases. This included a proposal to identify those applicants with "before-the-event" insurance early on, so that they can rely on this insurance rather than on public funding. We will announce the way forward on this in due course.

Libra Project

Mr. Leigh: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to the 44th report from the Committee of Public Accounts, Session 2002–03, whether the Libra Project is being delivered on (a) time and (b) budget; and what steps the Department has taken to ensure that outcome. [200053]

Mr. Leslie: Libra IT infrastructure was delivered two months early—in September 2003. The development of the Libra case management software is, however, taking longer than anticipated. We are working with our suppliers to establish a firm schedule for deployment and expect to be able to confirm this before Christmas. Precise costs depend on rollout timing, but the
 
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Department expects to manage any changes within its overall allocation and without any increase in the amount paid for the software.

HOUSE OF COMMONS COMMISSION

Website (Young People)

38. Mr. David Stewart: To ask the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire representing the House of Commons Commission what representations he has received in favour of a House of Commons website for young people aimed at increasing turnout at the next election. [200073]

Sir Archy Kirkwood: The Commission has not received any such submissions from the public. It agrees with the Modernisation Committee that the Parliament website should be continually improved. There have been a number of recent improvements with more to come. Research will shortly be commissioned on how the website could be better designed to reach out to various target audiences, and especially to be more accessible to young people.

TREASURY

Afghanistan

David Hamilton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has been spent on operations in Afghanistan; and how much has been allocated for future operations. [200230]

Mr. Boateng: Between 2001–02 and 2003–04 MOD drew down a total of £677 million through Main and Supplementary Estimates for the military operations in Afghanistan.

It is too early to assess the costs for 2004–05 and subsequent financial years.

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