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Trade Justice

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will press for trade justice at the meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Hong Kong in December. [29476]

Mr. Douglas Alexander: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Gravesham (Mr. Holloway) on 2 November 2005, Official Report, column 1092W. As my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister made clear in his speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet on 14 November, the current round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations is an opportunity to tackle some of the most fundamental injustices at the heart of world trade and to help millions of people to escape poverty. We are making the same argument to our EU partners, the European Commission and to other WTO members and stakeholders.
 
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A successful, pro-development outcome to the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong in December remains a priority for the UK as presidency of the EU. The EU has agreed to negotiate an end to agricultural export subsidies, which are damaging to developing country producers, provided that other developed countries follow suit. The UK believes this date should be 2010. The EU is also pushing developed countries to extend tariff and quota free access to least developed countries, as the EU has already offered under the Everything But Arms initiative.

This is also why my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister announced that the UK will treble aid to £100 million a year by 2010 in order to help the poorest countries develop their capacity to trade. At the G8 Gleneagles summit, the European Commission already pledged to increase its aid for trade to €1 billion per year. We have called for EU member states to match that amount. We have also challenged other G8 countries to increase their aid for trade ahead of the Hong Kong ministerial conference.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Consultants/Special Advisers

Martin Horwood: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps the Department takes to ensure that consultancies do not claim excessive expenses whilst working for her Department and its agencies. [29096]

Ms Harman: Expenses payable to consultants are governed by our terms of contract. It is general practice to only allow expenses where these have been actually and necessarily incurred in undertaking the work involved up to an agreed maximum for the assignment. It is standard practice to pay in line with civil service travel and subsistence rates.

Martin Horwood: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will list departmental projects conducted by consultants in each year since 2000; what the cost was in each case; and what the total cost of employing consultants was in each year. [29097]

Ms Harman: My Department does not use consultants to conduct projects. However, appropriate consultancies may be engaged to assist with specialist work, advice or other support.

An exhaustive list of past and present Departmental projects is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The total cost of consultants in each of the financial years since 2000–01 is as follows:

	£ million
2000–01	2.6
2001–02	6.5
2002–03	5.7
2003–04	9.0

 
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This information is not held centrally by my Department, but is collected retrospectively. The data collection exercise relating to expenditure on consultancy in 2004–05 is under way, and on completion, details will be sent to the hon. Member.

Martin Horwood: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what mechanisms are in place to assess the effectiveness of consultant-led projects in her Department; what sanctions are available to penalise consultants who run unsuccessful projects; how many projects conducted by consultants were assessed as unsuccessful in each year since 2000; and what sanctions were imposed in each case. [29117]

Ms Harman: My Department does not use consultants to conduct projects. However, appropriate consultancies may be engaged to assist with specialist work, advice or other support.

Consultants engaged by my Department are required to deliver against the commitments they are contracted to deliver.

It is the responsibility of individual project managers to monitor consultants' performance and to ensure that they meet contractual obligations.

Appropriate sanctions for breach of contract are contained within our contract terms.

No records are held centrally of sanctions applied within contracts and the information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Mike Penning: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many (a) consultants and (b) special advisers were employed by her Department in each year since 1997; what the cost of each was in each year; and if she will make a statement. [27416]

Ms Harman: My Department uses consultants for expert professional advice and support on specific, time-limited tasks, usually in support of projects, but sometimes in the ongoing operation of the Department. However, information on the number of individual consultants involved in these exercises is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

My Department does collect details of expenditure with consultants on a financial year basis. From April 1997 until March 2004, my Department's expenditure with consultants was as follows:

	£ million
1997–98	0.7
1998–99	1.2
1999–2000	1.9
2000–01	2.6
2001–02	6.5
2002–03	5.7
2003–04	9.0

This information is not held centrally by my Department, but is collected retrospectively. The data collection exercise relating to expenditure on consultancy in 2004–05 is under way, and on completion, details will be sent to the hon. Member.
 
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The level of expenditure reflects the wide-ranging and fast-paced programme to modernise the Department's work, to increase efficiency, provide better customer service, and value for money for the taxpayer.

The numbers of special advisers employed by my Department appears as follows:

1997–2002: 1 special adviser per year

2003–05: 2 special advisers per year

The hon. Member is referred to the Cabinet Office response given by the Parliamentary Secretary (Jim Murphy) on 16 November 2005, which reads:

Since 2003, the Government have published on an annual basis the names and overall cost of special advisers and the number in each payband. For the most recent information I refer the hon. Member to the statement made by my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister on 21 July 2005, Official Report, columns 158–62WS.

Information on the numbers of special advisers prior to 2003 was provided at regular intervals and this information will be available in the Library of the House.

Court Security

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many courts in (a) England and (b) the Tees Valley do not have security personnel to protect the premises. [26491]

Ms Harman: The information requested is as follows:

(a) The number of courts whose premises are known to have no security guarding is currently 53, the majority of which are county courts.

(b) All courts in the Tees Valley area do have security guards.

Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much was spent on security in (a) county courts, (b) magistrates courts and (c) Crown courts in each of the last five years. [26492]

Ms Harman: The information is found in the following table.
£

	Crown and county	Magistrates
2004–05	10,089,096	9,932,848
2003–04	10,818,965	9,694,162
2002–03	9,181,097	7,769,358
2001–02	8,077,677	6,640,247
2000–01	7,545,521	3,839,638

Please note the figures in the table are for pre-HMCS period and represent best available information on magistrate courts. This is because the magistrate courts, pre-HMCS, were self-autonomous organisations and were grant funded by the Department. The split between Crown and county security costs is not available.

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