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Written Ministerial Statements
Wednesday 23 February 2005
TREASURY
Budget Statement
The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Gordon Brown): I propose to deliver my Budget Statement to the House on Wednesday 16 March.
CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS
Community Legal Service (Asylum and Immigration) Regulations
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (Mr. David Lammy): Earlier today my noble Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, made a statement in the other place reporting that she had laid before Parliament, in accordance with section 103D of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 as inserted by section 26 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants, etc.) Act 2004, the Community Legal Service (Asylum and Immigration) Regulations 2005. These regulations prescribe the procedure to be followed by the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and the High Court, when retrospectively awarding legal aid for challenges to decisions of the Tribunal.
These regulations will come into force on 4 April. The new legal aid arrangements are being introduced to support the new Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and the new system of access to the higher courts, by discouraging weak applications. This will contribute to increasing speed and efficiency within the appeals process and ensuring that public money is focused on applicants with genuine claims.
Under the new arrangements legal aid will be awarded retrospectively at the end of the process, usually by the Tribunal judge following reconsideration and in a limited number of cases, following the determination of the review application.
HOME OFFICE
Animals (Scientific Procedure Licences)
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Caroline Flint):
In its report published on 16 July 2002 (HL Paper 150-I) the House of Lords Select Committee on Animals in Scientific Procedures made a number of recommendations that were broadly accepted by the Government in their published response in January 2003 (Command 5729).
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The Government have since acted upon most of the Select Committee's main recommendations. This statement concerns two remaining key recommendations, that the application form for a project licence under the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 should be simplified and shortened, and that anonymised details of granted project licences should be published.
The chief inspector of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Inspectorate has at my request, and in line with proposals from a joint Home Office/Stakeholder Working Group, been considering these recommendations as part of a review of the project licence application process. The review has been taken forward in close consultation with project licence holders, other stakeholders and members of relevant representative bodies, who have been involved at all stages in the related development work and field trials.
A revised project licence application form has now been placed with other licensing forms on the Home Office website at: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/animals/licensing.html.
The revised form commands the broad acceptance of all directly concerned with its use. It is generally seen as more user-friendly and as a significant improvement on the form it is replacing. It will allow applications to be submitted either in electronic format or as hard copy, and is expected in due course to be adapted for use in a new IT case-working system as a prelude to eventual on-line processing.
The revised form is gradually being phased into use, and we expect it to be used for all applications started afresh after 31 March 2005. There is provision on it for an applicant to produce an abstract of his/her proposed programme of work for publication on the Home Office website once a licence has been granted. This will help to implement a key recommendation of the House of Lords Select Committee, and will also meet the requirements of the Home Office Publication Scheme approved under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
We expect that a licence abstract in each case will cover points of general interest to the lay reader. These might include the expected benefits of the project, the reason for using animals and the choice of species, the procedures to be undertaken and their likely effects on the animals, and the steps taken to minimise the number of animals used and their suffering. Examples of abstracts provided by existing licence holders are already on the website and can be accessed at: www.homeoffice.gov.uk/comrace/animals/index.html.
The publication of licence abstracts is a major step towards greater openness and more informed public debate about animal experimentation. I wish to record the Government's appreciation of the willingness of many of the scientists concerned to co-operate in such a ground-breaking development. I also wish to make clear that we will continue to take the greatest care, in collaboration with the scientists, to ensure that no details are published which could jeopardise their safety or their work.
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SOLICITOR-GENERAL
Spring Supplementary Estimate
The Solicitor-General (Ms Harriet Harman): Subject to parliamentary approval of any necessary supplementary estimate, the Attorney-General's DEL will be increased by £24,517,000 from £621,109,000 to £645,626,000 and the Administration Costs Limits will be increased by £32,598,000 from £468,709,000 to £501,307,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are as set out in the following table:
| New DEL | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Change | Voted | Non-voted | Total | |
| Resource | 28,570 | 632,787 | - | 632,787 |
| Capital | -572 | 22,443 | - | 22,443 |
| Depreciation* | -3,481 | -9,604 | - | -9,604 |
| Total | 24,517 | 645,626 | - | 645,626 |
* Depreciation, which forms part of resource DEL, is excluded from the total DEL since capital DEL includes capital spending and to include depreciation of those assets would lead to double counting.
The Crown Prosecution Service's (CPS) element of the Attorney-General's DEL will be increased by £24,152,000 from £561,429,000 to £585,581,000 and the administration costs limit will be increased by £27,352,000 from £434,977,000 to £462,329,000.
The change in the CPS's DEL arises from:
Administration costs changes in respect of a transfer of £554,000 from the Department for Constitutional Affairs to fund the Effective Trial Management Programme.
Administration costs changes in respect of a transfer of £4,000,000 from the non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision (DUP) and the take up of £22,000,000 end year flexibility administration costs to fund the increased requirements for charging.
Administration costs changes in respect of a transfer of £448,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service to the Home Office to support the "No Witness No Justice" partnership programme to improve services to prosecution witnesses in criminal cases.
Administration costs changes in respect of a transfer of £354,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service to the Treasury Solicitor's Department to support the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers (LSLO).
Programme expenditure changes in respect of a transfer of £1,772,000 other current expenditure from the Home Office to provide additional resources from Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT) to fund Exchange Integration Services Stream Release 1 (ExISS r1), an initiative to improve the integration of Criminal Justice IT Systems.
Programme expenditure changes in respect of a transfer of £1,200,000 other current expenditure from the Home Office to provide additional resources from Criminal Justice Information Technology (CJIT) to begin development of the "No Witness No Justice" (NWNJ) IT Support Tool.
Programme expenditure changes in respect of a transfer of £3,000,000 transfer from non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision (DUP) required for increased costs related to the prosecution of criminal cases.
The change in the capital element of the CPS's DEL arises from £572,000 capital transferred from the Crown Prosecution Service to the Home Office to support the "No Witness No Justice" partnership programme to improve services to prosecution witnesses in criminal cases.
Other changes which have no net effect on the CPS's DEL are:
Programme costs changes in respect of the transfer of £1,600,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service other current expenditure to administration costs to support the increased deployment of internal resources in the Crown Court.
£2,600,000 Administration costs End Year Flexibility transferred to the Treasury Solicitors' Department for the PRACAMS project.
The Serious Fraud Office's (SFO) element of the Attorney-General's DEL will be increased by £365,000 from £40,640,000 to £41,005,000 and the administration costs limit will be increased by £865,000 from £23,740,000 to £24,605,000.
The change in the resource element of the SFO's DEL arises from:
Administration costs changes in respect of the draw down of £892,000 End Year Flexibility for additional costs related to accommodation, projects and efficiency review responses.
Administration costs changes in respect of the transfer of £27,000 to the Treasury Solicitor's Department to support the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers (LSLO).
Programme costs changes in respect of the transfer of £500,000 other current expenditure to the Treasury Solicitor's Department for increased costs related to the PRACAMS project.
The Treasury Solicitor's Department (TSD) element of the Attorney-General's DEL will not change from £19,040,000. However, the Administration Costs Limit will be increased by £4,381,000 from £9,992,000 to £14,373,000.
The change in the resource element of TSD's DEL of arises from:
Take up of End Year Flexibility of £2,600,000 to be drawn from the Crown Prosecution Service's element of the Law Officers' End Year Flexibility for increased costs related to the PRACAMS project.
Administration costs changes in respect of a transfer of £500,000 from the Serious Fraud Office to the Treasury Solicitor's Department for increased costs related to the PRACAMS project.
Administration costs changes in respect of a transfer of £354,000 from the Crown Prosecution Service, and a transfer of £27,000 from the Serious Fraud Office to the Treasury Solicitor's Department to support the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers (LSLO).
Other changes which have no net effect on TSD's DEL are:
Programme costs changes in respect of the transfer of £900,000 from Treasury Solicitor's Department other current expenditure to Administration costs for increased costs related to the PRACAMS project.
Administration costs changes in respect of the transfer of £16,000 from the Customs & Excise Prosecution Office to the Treasury Solicitor's Department to support the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers (LSLO).
Administration costs changes in respect of the transfer of £55,000 from the Treasury Solicitor's Department Agency to support the Legal Secretariat to the Law Officers (LSLO).
Administration costs changes in respect of a £7,000,000 increase in Treasury Solicitor's Department Administration costs offset by a corresponding increase in Administration income to meet an additional demand for legal services provided to other Government Departments.
Administration costs changes in respect of a £75,000 increase in Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate Administration costs offset by a corresponding increase in Administration income, to fund costs arising from work done for HMC&E.