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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Barristers

Mr. Dismore: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will list the 10 barristers who received the highest payments from the civil legal aid budget in the last financial year; how much each received; and if she will make a statement. [23496]

Bridget Prentice: I refer my hon. Friend to my letter to him of 14 September pursuant to my previous answer on 26 May 2005, Official Report, column 170W. In the letter I enclosed tables listing the 12 highest paid barristers from the CDS and the CLS in each of the last three years. A copy of the letter and the tables were placed in the House of Commons Library.

In line with the DCA's publication scheme, the tables are also on the Department's website at www.dca.gov.uk.

Correspondence

Mike Penning: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps she is taking to improve the Department's performance in replying to hon. Members' correspondence. [21912]

Bridget Prentice: My Department attaches great importance to ensuring that all correspondence receives an appropriate response without delay. All correspondence from hon. Members and Peers is handled in accordance with the principles set out in 'Handling Correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, MEPs and
 
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Members of Devolved Assemblies: Guidance for Departments'. The same principles apply when handling correspondence from members of the public.

Information relating to the performance of Departments in replying to Members/Peers correspondence is published on an annual basis. The Report for 2004 was published on 6 April 2005, Official Report, columns 137–40WS.

My Department began a project to improve the handling of correspondence from hon. Members in July 2004; performance against its 20-working day target in that year was 64 per cent. (and 88 per cent. in the second half of 2004) and performance in 2005 is projected to be 92 per cent.

Mike Penning: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps she is taking to improve the Department's performance in replying to correspondence from members of the public. [21913]

Bridget Prentice: My Department attaches great importance to ensuring that all correspondence receives an appropriate response without delay. All correspondence from hon. Members and Peers is handled in accordance with the principles set out in 'Handling Correspondence from Members of Parliament, Members of the House of Lords, MEPs and Members of Devolved Assemblies: Guidance for Departments'. The same principles apply when handling correspondence from members of the public.

Information relating to the performance of Departments in replying to Members/Peers correspondence is published on an annual basis. The Report for 2004 was published on 6 April 2005, Official Report, columns 137–40WS.

My Department began a project to improve the handling of correspondence from members of the public in April 2005; performance against its 15-working day target in 2004 was 73 per cent. and performance in 2005 is projected to be 80 per cent.

Departmental Energy Consumption

Norman Lamb: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much energy has been consumed by her Department in each of the last five years; and how much was spent on energy in each year. [22457]

Ms Harman: The amount of energy consumed each year, by my Department, since 2000 is provided within the following table. Also included within the table is the cost of the energy consumed.

	Total cost (£)	Annual consumption (kWh)	Weather corrected annual consumption (kWh)
2000–01	4,591,211.00	163,981,500.00	163,981,500.00
2001–02	4,983,831.00	149,684,200.00	149,684,200.00
2002–03	5,111,945.00	169,236,800.00	169,236,800.00
2003–04	5,328,156.00	176,411,580.00	176,411,580.00
2004–05	6,031,199.78	177,477,430.61	188,547,808.60

 
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Elections

Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many complaints she has received from individuals in relation to being unable to vote in (a) local, (b) general and (c) European elections in each year since 1997; and if she will make a statement. [21989]

Ms Harman: This information is not systematically collected or permanently recorded. However, In 2005, complaints were received from individuals in respect of being unable to vote in the general election held this year as set out below.

Category	Number
Non-registration	61
Postal voting time limits	34
Non-eligibility of foreign nationals	15
Minimum age too high	15
Overseas voters, limitation of eligibility	12
Administrative errors	5
Convicted and detained prisoners	4
Non-receipt of pollcard	4
Other	5

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will deposit a copy of each submission to the Department's consultation on the Electoral Administration Bill in the Library. [23637]

Ms Harman: We received over 160 responses, within the deadline, to the policy paper on electoral administration which was put out on 25 May this year.

On Tuesday 11 October, alongside introduction of the Electoral Administration Bill, we published a paper which detailed and analysed the responses received. Copies of the paper were put into the Libraries of both Houses on that day.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs why the Department's announcement of 12 October 2005 on plans for pilots of electoral modernisation in the 2006 elections was not made in Parliament. [23635]

Ms Harman: The Department have issued an invitation to local authorities having elections in May 2006 to apply to run electoral modernisation pilots under S. 10 of the Representation of the People Act 2000. When, following consultation with the Electoral Commission, a decision is made on which pilots to approve, an announcement will be made to the House.

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what recent discussions she has had with the Electoral Commission regarding the potential for postal vote fraud. [22476]

 
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Ms Harman: Regular discussions take place between officials from my Department, the independent Electoral Commission and me on a wide range of electoral issues, including measures to prevent postal voting fraud.

This was one if the issues discussed when I met with the chairman, chief executive and other officials from the Commission on 19 October.

Mike Penning: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on voting arrangements for military service personnel serving (a) in the UK and (b) abroad. [21519]

Ms Harman: The Government has increased the voting options for service personnel. As a result of the RPA 2000, service personnel have been able to vote by post as an alternative to appointing a proxy. The Government is committed to ensuring that all members of the Armed Forces are aware of their voting rights. To achieve this we are working with the independent Electoral Commission to run a publicity campaign, which has consisted of voting information being displayed in a leaflet, that is being distributed to all members of the Armed Forces, and on service websites.

Ethnic Minorities

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the likely impact of the recommendations in the Legal Services Commission's consultation paper Improving Value for Money" on the number of ethnic minorities carrying out publicly-funded legal work in London. [22323]

Ms Harman: The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is strongly committed to promoting diversity within the supplier base and is aware of the concerns of small black and minority ethnic (BME) firms providing London based criminal defence services.

The potential impact of competitive tendering upon BME firms was raised in the consultation paper Improving value for money for publicly funded criminal defence services in London", published in January 2005. The LSC has been working closely with both BME suppliers and their representative bodies throughout the consultation process to address any concerns they may have.

The LSC have also commissioned research into the issues faced by BME firms within the legal aid supplier base. This research will help to cultivate further measures to protect small black and minority ethnic suppliers against unfair discrimination and is expected to report this month.

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