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26 Oct 2005 : Column 411W—continued
Broadband Internet Access
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the level of broadband internet access in Northern Ireland. [20641]
Angela E. Smith: Currently a broadband service is available to 99.15 per cent. of the population. However, as a result of the DETI broadband services contract, by the end of 2005 BT must provide broadband services of at least 512kb to 100 per cent. of businesses and households until 2009.
Cardiology
Dr. McCrea: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many cardiac-related emergency cases have been treated in hospitals in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years. [21364]
Mr. Woodward: The number of emergency admissions 1 to the cardiac surgery and cardiology specialties, in hospitals in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years, is detailed in the following table.
| Total | |
|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 14,608 |
| 2001–02 | 14,120 |
| 2002–03 | 12,969 |
| 2003–04 | 13,708 |
| 2004–05 | 13,701 |
| Source: Hospital inpatients system |
Child Care Costs
Mr. Donaldson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will introduce financial help towards child care costs for NHS funded students in Northern Ireland. [20452]
Mr. Woodward:
Significant additional resources would be required to provide financial help towards child care costs for HPSS funded students. Within the prioritisation of the limited resources available, my Department is not in a position to fund such an initiative at present.
26 Oct 2005 : Column 412W
Civil Partnership Document
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what the total cost of the publication Civil Partnership: What does it Mean for You" was; and which organisations were consulted in relation to its content; [20768]
(2) what estimate has been made of the number of people in Northern Ireland who will take advantage of the new civil partner status; [20728]
(3) how many copies of the publication Civil Partnership: What does it Mean for You?" were printed; and if he will make a statement on its circulation in Northern Ireland. [20729]
Angela E. Smith: No official estimate has been made of the number of people in Northern Ireland who will take advantage of the new status of civil partner. The regulatory impact assessment which accompanied the Civil Partnership Act 2004 attempted to estimate the proportion of the lesbian, gay and bisexual population in Great Britain who will be in a civil partnership in 2050. It proceeded on the assumption that 5 percent. of the adult population in Great Britain is lesbian, gay or bisexual. It then examined evidence of take up of comparable partnership schemes in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands and concluded that the take-up would be small, possibly in the region of 5 percent. to 10 percent. of the proportion of the heterosexual population who choose to marry. The legislation, however, has implications for same-sex couples who choose not to form a civil partnership but to live together as if they were civil partners.
1000 copies of the guidance, Civil Partnership: What does it Mean for You", were printed at a cost of approximately £1,500. Copies have been circulated widely throughout Northern Ireland to political parties, Citizens Advice Bureaux, public libraries and other advice givers in the voluntary sector as well as groups representative of the lesbian and gay community in Northern Ireland. A draft of the guidance was considered by the coalition on sexual orientation, an umbrella group for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community in Northern Ireland. In addition, the guidance is available on the Office of law reform website at www.olrni.gov.uk
Civil Service
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what factors underlay the introduction of new pension arrangements for members of the Northern Ireland civil service from April 2006; and what assessment he has made of the likely impact of the new arrangements upon current members. [18910]
Angela E. Smith: The Cabinet Office issued a consultation document, proposals for changes to civil service pension arrangements on 9 December 2004.
The consultation document detailed a number of proposed changes to the provision of pension arrangements for the Home civil service, the main aims were to:
make pension provisions which reflect the changing culture in which the remuneration, including pensions, are expected to reflect performance;
address changing employment patterns and provide pension arrangements which fit with emerging patterns of employment;
take account of legislative and other changes which will become effective in the next few years, including tax simplification for pension provision, civil partnerships and anti-age legislation; and
In the Northern Ireland civil service, the principal civil service pension scheme (Northern Ireland) operates on a policy of parity with the Home civil service scheme, the principal civil service pension scheme, therefore it would be the normal approach of the Northern Ireland civil service to introduce the same pension provisions as apply to the Home civil service.
No decision on new pension arrangements for members of the Northern Ireland civil service has yet been taken. Before a final decision is taken on reform of the pension scheme due consideration will be given to the affect on existing staff.
Co-ownership Scheme
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many homes in the co-ownership scheme there are in each parliamentary constituency in the Province; how many more are planned for 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [21201]
Mr. Hanson: Information on co-ownership activity is collected on a district council rather than a constituency basis.
The following table indicates the number of participants currently in the scheme, by district council area, as at 30 September 2005.
It is currently anticipated that 650 participants will be assisted during the financial year 2005–06; however as the scheme is demand led it is not possible to determine the spread of these.
The Northern Ireland Co-ownership Housing Association continues to target those areas where take up of the scheme is lowest.
26 Oct 2005 : Column 414W
Disability Living Allowance
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland how many people in each parliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland are inreceipt of disability living allowance high rate casecomponent as well as the high rate mobility component. [21198]
Mr. Hanson: Please note that in answering the question the word case was taken to mean care. The figures requested are shown in the following table and are the most recent information available taken at August 2005.
(15) In producing this analysis, individual records were attributed to wards and parliamentary constituency on the basis of their postcode. Not all records can be correctly allocated to a ward using this method, and some cannot be allocated at all; this occurs when a postcode is recorded incorrectly or is missing.
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