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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Departmental Staff

Mr. Laws: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many people were employed by (a) his Department and (b) the Court Service in each year from 1998–99 to
 
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2003–04; what his estimate is of the number who will be employed by each in each year from 2004–05 to 2007–08; and if he will make a statement. [211490]

Mr. Lammy: Data on staffing levels in the civil service are now collected from Departments and agencies annually, in April each year. Headline figures are published under National Statistics guidelines via a press notice. Previously, data were collected twice yearly, in April and October and those for October 2003 were published on 22 April 2004. Data relating to 1 April 2004 were published on 21 October 2004.

A copy of the press notice, accompanying media brief and supporting tables is available at www.civil-service.gov.uk/statistics. Copies of these documents have also been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

More detailed information on the civil service is published annually in Civil Service Statistics", copies of which are laid in the Libraries of both Houses. The latest edition, based on April 2003 data, was published on 6 August 2004.

Estimates (FTE)	Department	Court Service(5)
2004–05	2,250	10,910
2005–06(5)	2,150	21,810
2006–07	1,950	20,510
2007–08	1,950	20,310

⁽⁵⁾ HMCS WEF 1 April 2005

Magistrates (Northern Ireland)

Richard Ottaway: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs pursuant to his oral answer of 11 January 2005, Official Report, column 159, whether magistrates are remunerated in Northern Ireland. [212296]

Mr. Leslie: Resident magistrates in Northern Ireland are remunerated at the rate of £90,760 per annum. Justices of the Peace and members of the Lord Chancellor's Lay Panel in Northern Ireland are paid expenses only.

Upon the creation of the new office of Lay Magistrate in Northern Ireland on 1 April 2005, lay magistrates in Northern Ireland will be paid £80 per half day for attending court sittings.

Special Advisers

Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will list the occasions between 31 March 2003 and 31 March 2004 when special advisers attended meetings with external representatives at which Ministers were not present. [210543]

Mr. Leslie: Special advisers hold meetings with a wide range of external representatives in their official capacity. All such meetings are conducted in accordance with the requirements of the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers.

Welsh Language Scheme

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the
 
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Department's Welsh language scheme was approved by the Welsh Language Board; and on what date the scheme was implemented. [211344]

Mr. Lammy [holding answer 27 January 2005]: The Department for Constitutional Affairs' Welsh Language Scheme has not been finally approved by the Welsh Language Board. The Department is in close consultation with the board with the aim of producing an agreed draft, which will go out for public consultation in the near future.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Climate Change

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the key impacts for (a) different regions, (b) different sectors and (c) the world as a whole arising from different predicted levels of climate change. [211755]

Mr. Morley: The Department has followed the approach of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in supporting the use of climate change scenarios to project future impacts at various levels.

The UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) was set up to facilitate an integrated assessment of the impacts of climate change in the UK through the production of a common set of tools, including climate change scenarios, and through shared expertise. This assessment has progressed through regional and sectoral studies led by stakeholder partnerships. A report summarising the results from UKCIP studies will be published later this year, and copies made available in the Libraries of both Houses. Further information about UK regional and sectoral climate change impacts is available from www.ukcip.org.uk.

From time-to-time, I convene a group of UK experts on climate change to produce an academic review of the impacts of climate change in the UK. The last such review was in 1996, prior to the establishment of the UKCIP.

In terms of impacts for the world as a whole, the Department contributes to the definitive assessments of this type, those developed by the IPCC. Specifically, the Department funds the Technical Support Unit for Working Group II (on climate change impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability), provides support for the UK co-chair of this working group and also funds the Data Distribution Centre that makes the results from the IPCC available to climate researchers.

Other work that has been conducted or supported by the Department in assessing the impacts of climate change is summarised in Defra's Global Atmosphere Division Research Programme Annual Report (the latest publication was for 2002–03), which is available in the Libraries.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether her Department will be promoting the concept of
 
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contraction and convergence at the conference on climate change at Hadley Centre for Climate Research and Prediction on 1 to 3 February. [211753]

Mr. Morley: The aim of the conference is to advance scientific understanding of and encourage an international scientific debate on the impacts of climate change for different levels of greenhouse gas stabilisation, and the pathways and options to achieve such levels, and to encourage research on these issues. Possible models for emission reduction regimes, such as contraction and convergence, are beyond the remit of the conference.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what targets for carbon dioxide emission reductions by 2050 her Department will be promoting at the conference on climate change at Hadley Centre for Climate Research and Prediction on 1 to 3 February. [211754]

Mr. Morley: The aim of the conference is to advance scientific understanding of and encourage an international scientific debate on the impacts of climate change for different levels of greenhouse gas stabilisation, and the pathways and options to achieve such levels, and to encourage research on these issues. No targets will be promoted.

Departmental Equipment

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many items of electrical equipment were used by her Department in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by (a) cost and (b) number of each type of item. [205725]

Alun Michael: All those purchasing electrical equipment in the Department are required to have regard to economy and sustainability but it is not possible to provide a breakdown in the form requested for the very wide range of office and specialist equipment used.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many electronic devices are owned by the Department, broken down by type. [207672]

Alun Michael: Electronic devices such as desktop computers, laptops, printers and other IT equipment are no longer owned by the Department. As from 1 October 2004, all of Defra's IT assets were transferred to IBM as part of the IT outsourcing contract (e-nabling Defra).

Details of other electronic office equipment such as fax machines and photocopiers, which are normally leased, are not held centrally.

There are approximately 2,800 mobile telephones owned by the Department. This figure includes core Defra, RDS and SVS.

Departmental Expenditure

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much has been spent by her Department on (a) new furniture and (b) hired furniture in each year since 1997. [205605]

 
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Alun Michael: Furniture purchases and hirings are not separately identified. However, hired furniture would be a minute fraction of the total number of items.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cost of travel within the UK for the Department was in each year since 1997; and how much of this was spent on (a) hire cars, (b) helicopter hire, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence. [206478]

Alun Michael: The following table shows the expenditure in fiscal years since the Department was formed in 2001, up to 31 October 2004 in the current year. Further analysis of vehicle hire and subsistence (which includes hotel accommodation) would incur disproportionate cost.
£ million

	Travel	Vehicle hire	Subsistence	Total
2001–02	14.3	8.7	25.7	48.7
2002–03	10.3	1.5	3.9	15.7
2003–04	11.1	0.5	3.8	15.4
2004–05	10.7	0.4	2.4	13.5

Only one occasion of helicopter hire has been traced in 2003–04 at a cost of £1,796. All travel was in accordance with the requirements of the Ministerial Code, Travel by Ministers and the Civil Service Management Code.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many overseas trips, and at what total cost, have been made by her Department in each year since 1997; and what the costs of (a) flights, (b) internal travel, (c) hotel accommodation and (d) subsistence were of each trip. [206648]

Alun Michael: We are able to provide the total expenditure recorded since the Department was formed in 2001 whereas in the precise form of the question the information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost. The expenditure can be broken into two sub-headings;

Foreign Travel including flights and internal travel and

Subsistence including hotel accommodation.

These figures exclude Agency figures which are shown in a separate table as follows:
£000

	Foreign Travel	Subsistence	Total
2001–02	1,425	363	1,788
2002–03	1,644	797	2,441
2003–04	1,565	659	2,224

All travel was in accordance with the requirements of the Ministerial Code, Travel by Ministers and the Civil Service Management Code.

The expenditure for related Agencies (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Central Science Laboratory, Pesticides Safety Directorate, Rural Payments Agency, Veterinary
 
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Laboratories Agency and Veterinary Medicines Directorate) in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is as follows:

	Foreign travel including subsistence (£000)
2001–02	972
2002–03	1,085
2003–04	1,283

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