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24 May 2005 : Column 90W—continued
Judicial Appointments
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many judicial appointments the Lord Chancellor has made since 1 March; and whom he has appointed. [389]
Harriet Harman: The Lord Chancellor has made 449 judicial appointments since 1 March 2005. A table detailing the names of those appointed, and the posts to which they were appointed to, has been placed in the Library of both Houses.
Lay Magistrates
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many people applied to become lay magistrates between 1997 and 2001; and how many were accepted. [293]
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Harriet Harman: The information can be found in the following table.
| Number of applicants | Number appointed | |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar year | ||
| 1997 | — | 1,573 |
| 1998 | — | 1,609 |
| 1999 | — | 1,743 |
| Financial year | ||
| 2001 | 5,320 | 1,618 |
Records of the number of people who applied to become a magistrate were not collected centrally prior to 2001.
Figures for the number of people who were appointed in 2000 are not available. Collection of figures in 2000 changed from the calendar year to the financial year, no figures were published because of the three month gap January to March 2000.
David Davis: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the budgeted departmental expenditure is for legal aid in asylum and immigration cases for 2005–06. [305]
Bridget Prentice: The budgeted expenditure for 2005–06 is £98 million.
Lord Chief Justice
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when she will announce the name of the next Lord Chief Justice. [390]
Harriet Harman: There is currently no vacancy in the Office of Lord Chief Justice. If in the future a vacancy does occur, the procedure will be that my noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor will advise the Prime Minister, who will make a recommendation to Her Majesty. Once the Queen has approved the appointment, it will be announced by the Prime Minister's Office.
Postal Votes
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether the Government plans to hold an inquiry into the use of postal votes during the 2005 general election. [340]
Harriet Harman: The Electoral Commission, under Section 5 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000, has a statutory duty to report on the administration of all parliamentary general elections. We would expect their report on the 2005 general election to include analysis of the administration of postal voting, as was the case with their report on the 2001 general election.
Additionally, information about postal votes at the 2005 general election will be included in The Electoral Commission's report on participation and turnout, to be released later in the summer.
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The Government currently have no plans for a separate inquiry into postal voting, but they will be discussing proposals for improvements to security with stakeholders.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what discussions her Department has had with electoral returning officers on (a) electoral fraud and (b) administrative errors involving postal votes. [343]
Harriet Harman: Throughout the general election period, we held daily discussions with representatives of electoral returning officers about the progress of the elections. An advisory board for the general election was set up in October 2004 to discuss the running of the general election.
Members of the group included electoral administrators and we will be holding an evaluation meeting to discuss the recent election, including the experience of postal voting. We have also arranged a number of meetings with electoral administrators to discuss the postal voting security measures announced after the general election.
Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will list the petitions made to Election Commissioners concerning allegations of electoral fraud involving postal votes since 1997; and what the findings of the Election Commissioners were in each case. [412]
Harriet Harman: A list of all petitions issued since 1997 in parliamentary, European and municipal elections is as follows. Those petitions that are recorded as "lapsed" are due to non payment of security for costs and as a result are not commonly in the public domain.
There have been a total of 37 election petitions issued since 1997:
High Court judges, will hear trials involving a parliamentary or European petition.
They may assign a municipal petition to be heard by a Commissioner.
As the table of petitions indicates, there have been only two trials before a Commissioner (in the Aston and Bordesley Green Wards, Birmingham city council).
Details of petitions are entered into two separate registers. These registers do not contain sufficient information to state which petitions specifically related to allegations of electoral fraud involving postal votes in every case.
The brief grounds and results of petitions have been indicated in the following table.
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