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UK Embassies

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff are employed in the commercial sections of each UK embassy and consulate. [222029]

Mr. Mullin [holding answer 15 March 2005]: I have placed in the Library of the House a table of the number of full-time equivalent staff working to UK Trade and Investment's trade development and inward investment objective in commercial sections at each Foreign and Commonwealth Office Post in 2004, broken down by UK-based civil servants and locally engaged staff.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Accidents

Jon Trickett: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many accidents occurred at his departmental premises in each of the last five years involving (a) members of his Department's staff and (b) members of the public. [222563]

Mr. Lammy: The Department for Constitutional Affairs has accident records which identify how many accidents have occurred for the past three years: 2002, 2003, 2004. For 2002, no differentiation was made between accidents to staff and the public. The figures are:

	Staff	Public	Total
2002	(30)—	(30)—	467
2003	430	128	558
2004	497	166	663
2005 (to date)	58	26	84

⁽³⁰⁾ No analysis



 
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Jon Trickett: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether he publishes data for the number of accidents at work involving employees of his Department; and if he will make a statement. [222579]

Mr. Lammy: Yes. It is intended that accident data will be published in the Department's report for 2005–06, when produced.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what arrangements for monitoring accidents at work involving members of staff of his Department are in place; and if he will make a statement. [222619]

Mr. Lammy: The Department for Constitutional Affairs has appointed health and safety advisers across the Department who maintain systems for monitoring accidents at work to employees. The advisers investigate and report accidents via the normal management structures to ensure that control measures are identified to prevent recurrence.

Departmental Accounts

Tony Baldry: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether Ministers in the Department have issued written instructions to override his Department's accounting officer's objections since 1997. [221105]

Mr. Leslie: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury on 14 March 2005, Official Report, column 80W.

Electoral Registration

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many heads of households have been prosecuted since 2001 for failing to supply information to the electoral registration authorities in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland. [223309]

Mr. Leslie: Local Electoral Registration Officers (EROs) are responsible for compiling the electoral register for their registration area, and electoral law provides that an ERO may require any person to give information required for the purposes of that officer's duties in maintaining electoral registers. It is an offence to fail to comply with such a request. Figures are not collected centrally in respect of prosecutions arising from this provision.

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans the Department has to introduce further sanctions for failing to supply correct information on an electoral registration form. [223310]

Mr. Leslie: The Electoral Commission recommended in the report Voting for Change" that it should become an offence for an individual to fail to supply information at any time to the Electoral Registration Officer or to supply false information. We agree in principle that the existing offence of failure to supply or giving false information on the canvass form should be extended to
 
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other communications with the Electoral Registration Officer and we are considering how this might be taken forward.

EU Referendum

Mr. Davidson: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether UK rules on spending during the EU referendum period will apply to spending in the UK by the UK Representation of the European Commission. [221569]

Mr. Leslie: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 governs the conduct of the referendum and contains the rules on spending during the referendum period. The European Commission have said that they will not intervene or fund activities against the wishes of the member states.

Judges

Ross Cranston: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what estimate he has made of the difference in cost of permanently locating a High Court judge or judges in a large commercial centre such as Birmingham compared with the costs of the present system of visiting High Court judges. [222771]

Mr. Leslie: No assessment has been made of the difference in cost of permanently locating High Court judges to the larger commercial centres as compared to the present system, although the cost effectiveness of the current arrangements for housing High Court judges while out on circuit is regularly reviewed.

Mr. Amess: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many judges have been appointed in each year since 1997. [222479]

Mr. Leslie: The number of judges appointed since 1997 can be found in the following table and includes appointments to courts and tribunals administered by my Department.

The figure quoted for 1997 is for the calendar year and for full-time appointments only. The number of part-time appointments can be determined only at disproportionate cost.

Figures from 1998 are obtained from the Judicial Appointments Annual Reports to Parliament for each of the financial years from 1998–2004 and include both full and part-time appointments.

	Number of appointments
1997	66
1998–99	634
1999–2000	464
2000–01	753
2001–02	915
2002–03	697
2003–04	480

 
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Small Claims Procedure

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many cases have been brought using the small claims procedure in the last year for which information is available; and what proportion have been transferred to a higher court or procedure. [223484]

Mr. Lammy: All proceedings issued in the county court are issued using the same procedure. A small proportion of these are then allocated to the small claims track. The number of such claims cases dealt with during 2004 was 45,323. These cases are dealt with by a district judge in the county court. Information is not maintained centrally about cases transferred to a higher court or any other procedure.

Surplus Assets Sales

Mr. Evans: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether his Department sold any surplus stock on the eBay auction website, in each year since 2000–01. [220951]

Mr. Leslie: The Department has no record of placing for auction any surplus stock on eBay.

Mr. Evans: To ask the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the value of sales of surplus assets from the Department was in each year since 2000–01. [220970]

Mr. Leslie: The proceeds from disposal of surplus assets since 2000–01 are shown as follows.
£000

	Cash proceeds	Accrual proceeds
2000–01	8,206	8,206
2001–02	310	310
2002–03	4,194	4,194
2003–04	3,262	59,877

 
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In line with the guidance in the Resource Accounting Manual and Government Accounting these figures are disclosed in the departmental Resource Accounts. Copies of the Resource Accounts are available in the Library of the Houses of Parliament.

The reason for the large difference between cash and accrual proceeds for 2003–04 is that payments are being made in stages with a further £56.6 million due to be received by the Department by the end of the 2006–07 financial year.

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