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10 Feb 2005 : Column 1745W—continued
Work Permits
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many work permits were granted in 2004 to health workers from overseas; and from which countries they have come. [214608]
Mr. Browne: The number of work permit applications granted in 2004 to health workers from overseas, is shown in the table by the nationality of the prospective worker. The figures include the number of initial approvals for health workers inside and outside of the UK during 2004.
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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
Aircraft Charters
Chris Grayling: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much money his Department has spent on chartering aircraft in each of the past five years. [213709]
Mr. Leslie: The costs of chartering aircraft by the Department in each of the past five years are not separately identifiable within the Department's accounts without incurring disproportionate costs.
Travel by Ministers makes clear that special flights may be authorised when a scheduled service is not available, or when it is essential to travel by air, but the requirements of official or parliamentary business or security considerations or urgency preclude the journey being made by a scheduled service. In respect of overseas travel by Ministers, since 1999 the Government have published an annual list of all visits overseas undertaken by Cabinet Ministers costing £500 or more during each financial year. The list published in 1999 covers the period 2 May 1997 to 31 March 1999. Where RAF/Private Charter aircraft are used this is shown in the list. The Government have also published on an annual
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basis the cost of all Ministers' visits overseas. Copies of the lists are available in the Libraries of the House. Information for 2004–05 will be published in due course.
All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the Ministerial Code, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
Crown Courts (Nurses)
Vera Baird: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many Crown courts have a resident medical nurse. [215583]
Mr. Lammy: The Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey) has a resident qualified nurse (matron). The matron is employed by the City and Corporation of London which owns and manages the Old Bailey Building. No other Crown Court has a resident medical nurse.
Departmental Policies (Pendle)
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to Pendle constituency, the effects on Pendle of his Department's policies and activities since 2 May 1997. [215008]
Mr. Leslie: The Department for Constitutional Affairs is the Government Department responsible for upholding justice, rights and democracy. The Department's aim is to provide for effective and accessible justice for all, to ensure the rights and responsibilities of the citizen, and to modernise the law and constitution.
Currently, the Department has six strategic objectives, which cover the delivery of justice, civil and administrative law, protecting the vulnerable, modernising the constitution, increasing consumer choice and working in partnership with the independent judiciary. The Department also has seven Public Service Agreement targets to help deliver its strategic objectives.
Examples of the activity in 2004 to deliver these objectives include work with partners to make sure criminal trials are more efficient with the numbers of ineffective Crown Court trials falling from 24 per cent. in 2002–03 to 16 per cent. in September 2004. The rate has reduced from 31 per cent. to 25 per cent. for the same period in the magistrates' courts. The Department has also been involved in work to help people resolve their disputes in the most effective way, including pilots to test the effectiveness of court-based mediation. During 2004there was a reduction from almost 49 per cent. to 41 per cent. in those cases that had eventually to be resolved by a hearing. Another area where pilots were used successfully was for all postal voting in four regions of England at the combined European and local elections in June 2004. Voter turnout doubled in the pilot regions compared with 1999.
The range of the Department's policies and actions is wide and the statistical information relating to all of that activity is not collected on a constituency basis. Consequently, the information requested in the question cannot be provided in the form requested except at a disproportionate cost. However, statistical
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information about the Department's activities can be found at: http://www.dca.gov.uk/statistics/statfr.htm as well as at www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk
An example of the information available on those sites is data on persistent young offenders. The average number of days from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders sentenced between August and October 2004 was 59 days in the Lancashire criminal justice area, which covers the constituency of Pendle. This compares with 124 days in the Lancashire criminal justice area in the 1997 calendar year.
Freedom of Information
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what his policy is in respect of the publication (a) on the departmental website and (b) by placing copies in the Library of (i) all or (ii) only a selection of the information disclosed in response to Freedom of Information requests since January. [215192]
Mr. Leslie: A full list of information released by the Department for Constitutional Affairs under the Freedom of Information Act is published on the departmental website at http://www.dca.gov.uk/rights/dca/disclosure.htm.Where information released by the Department is of wider public interest, the documents are also published on the departmental website.
Information released under the Freedom of Information Act by the Department for Constitutional Affairs is not routinely placed in the Library. Copies of all documents released by the Department under the Freedom of Information Act are available on request.
Guidance on Publication Schemes, issued by the Department for Constitutional Affairs in July 2002, recommended that where information is disclosed to an individual in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act, Departments and NDPBs should consider whether the information disclosed is of general interest and include released information in the Publication Scheme where appropriate.
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