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Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 23 March 2005
NORTHERN IRELAND
Paramilitary Activity
8. Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what recent assessment he has made of the level of crimes being carried out by each of the main paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland. [222764]
Mr. Pearson: All of the main paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland are engaged in organised criminality to varying degrees. Of the top 25 organised criminal gangs who operate in Northern Ireland, two thirds have links to paramilitary gangs with both loyalist and republican gangs engaging in a range of illicit activity including drugs, smuggling, extortion, armed robbery and intellectual property crime.
Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on terrorist group related crime in Northern Ireland. [222759]
Mr. Pearson: Both loyalist and republican paramilitary groups are heavily involved in organised crime in Northern Ireland. The Organised Crime Task Force Threat Assessment published in May 2004 clearly indicated paramilitary involvement in organised crime. The Independent Monitoring Commission's report of 4 November also provided a clear assessment of the criminal activities of paramilitary groups.
Single-sex Schools
9. Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of secondary school children in Northern Ireland are in single sex schools; and what the percentage was (a) five and (b) 10 years ago. [222765]
Mr. Gardiner: 31 per cent. of post-primary pupils in Northern Ireland currently attend single sex schools. This compares to 34 per cent. five years ago and 37 per cent. 10 years ago.
Unemployment
10. Mr. Joyce: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of the working age population of Northern Ireland is unemployed. [222766]
Mr. Gardiner: Seasonally adjusted figures from the Labour Force Survey for the period November 2004-January 2005 estimate that 3.4 per cent. of the working age population in Northern Ireland are unemployed.
Peace Process
11. Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the peace process. [222767]
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13. Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the peace process. [222769]
Mr. Paul Murphy: I refer my hon. Friend and the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland to the answer I gave earlier today to the hon. Members for Basingstoke (Mr. Hunter) and Tewkesbury (Mr. Robertson), Official Report, column 868.
Assets Recovery Agency
12. John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the work of the Assets Recovery Agency in Northern Ireland. [222768]
Mr. Pearson: The Assets Recovery Agency has set an objective that 80 per cent. of the cases pursued in Northern Ireland will focus on property obtained by, or in the hands of, paramilitaries and organised criminals. The agency met its operational targets in Northern Ireland last year and is set to meet or exceed its targets for this year.
To date the agency has received 73 referrals. Action has been completed in six cases at a value of £1,720,000 and action is under way in 12 cases, with a value of £4,176,507. A further 13 cases are under investigation and 23 are under assessment. The remaining 19 have been returned to law enforcement agencies.
Value System Education
14. Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he plans to take to broaden the religious and other value system education in schools in Northern Ireland. [222770]
Mr. Gardiner: The Religious Education Core Syllabus is intended to comprise about half of the teaching time for RE, allowing schools scope to include other religions and value systems if they wish. The revised core syllabus that has been drawn up by the four main churches in Northern Ireland addresses the study of other world religions. In addition, Citizenship education, which will cover issues such as religious diversity, is currently being rolled out to all post-primary schools and will become compulsory from September 2006.
Belfast Agreement
Mr. Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) when the Code of Practice on access to information held by implementation bodies set up under the Belfast Agreement was (a) agreed and (b) published; [223145]
(2) how many of the implementation bodies set up under the Belfast Agreement have a Code of Practice on access to information held by them. [223146]
Mr. Paul Murphy:
The North South Implementation Bodies Agreement 1999 provides that a code of practice on access to information will be drawn up by the Irish and Northern Ireland Ministers with responsibility for
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freedom of information for approval by the North/South Ministerial Council. That code is at an advanced stage of preparation and will be published for public consultation shortly.
Farming
David Burnside: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what his estimate of the profitability of the (a) dairy, (b) beef, (c) pig and (d) poultry sectors of farming in the Province was in the last year for which figures are available. [223164]
Mr. Pearson: The level of profitability of the main agricultural sectors is not calculated by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). However, annual estimates are available of the contribution made by each sector towards the overheads and profitability of the agricultural industry, as measured by their aggregate sector gross margins.
The 2004 provisional sector gross margins are:
Detailed information on the value of outputs and costs included in the determination of the sector gross margins is given in the Statistical Review of Northern Ireland Agriculture 2004, which is available on the DARD website at www.dardni.gov.uk
Fishing Vessels
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what sources of assistance are available to the owners of fishing vessels under 10 metres in length; and what plans he has to extend this assistance to vessels under 10 metres. [223370]
Mr. Pearson: The under 10 metre fleet are mostly small scale in shore vessels using static gear and not directly affected by the cod closure, therefore, there are no plans to extend assistance. Currently, grant aid is available to this sector under the Building Sustainable Prosperity, Small Scale and Coastal sub-measure which provides assistance for co-ordination, distribution and marketing.
Illegal Immigrants
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will use the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to discuss with the Republic of Ireland the extent to which illegal immigrants are using the Republic of Ireland as a point of entry into the United Kingdom. [221338]
Mr. Browne: I have been asked to reply.
The British Government have no plans to raise this matter at a future meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference. We discuss this issue with Ireland in other bilateral forums.
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National Sports Foundation
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in relation to the extension to Northern Ireland of the new National Sports Foundation. [223269]
Angela Smith: I have had no discussions with the Chancellor of the Exchequer in relation to the extension to Northern Ireland of the new National Sports Foundation as detailed arrangements are still to be decided by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. I will, however, be consulting with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport on the matter in due course.
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