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12 Dec 2005 : Column 1653W—continued
US Aircraft (Registration)
Peter Law: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions the Government have asked the US Administration what the purpose has been of aircraft registered with the United States Central Intelligence Agency landing at United Kingdom (a) civilian and (b) military airports since 11 September 2001. [35807]
Mr. Straw: I refer to the hon. Member to the answer I gave the right hon. Member for North East Fife (SirMenzies Campbell) today (UIN 36414).
US Detainees
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the Government know the identity of the detainees held by the United States and referred to in paragraph 78 of the report published in March 2005 by the Intelligence and Security Committee. [36404]
Dr. Howells: The International and Security Committee's Report described the circumstances under which UK personnel conducted or witnessed interviews with detainees held by the United States (US) authorities. Its main focus was not the identities of those detained. The Government do not have full details of all those detained by the US.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he has had with the US Administration about reports of US detention facilities which use torture in Eastern Europe. [35520]
Dr. Howells:
As EU President, my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary wrote to the US Secretary of State on 29 November seeking clarification of media reports of Central Intelligence Agency detention camps in Eastern Europe.
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I refer my hon. Friend to the US Secretary of State's statement and that of the Foreign Secretary of 5 December. These are available at http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/57602.htm and http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391638&a= KArticle&aid=l133771542523 respectively.
Zimbabwe
Mark Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on Zimbabwe's discovery of uranium. [33928]
Ian Pearson: The recent statement by President Mugabe is not the first announcement of uranium discoveries in Zimbabwe. It is not yet clear if the uranium is viable for extraction, or if Zimbabwe intends to invest the considerable time and money required to develop this resource. Zimbabwe is a signatory to the Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In accordance with its NPT obligations, Zimbabwe has signed a nuclear safeguards agreement with the IAEA. Any proliferation in this area would, therefore, be subject to international oversight, in accordance with their safeguards agreement. We will continue to monitor the situation.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Ageing
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many gerontologists are on the boards of the (a) Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and (b) Biotechnology and Biology Science Research Council; and if he will make a statement. [34228]
Alan Johnson [holding answer 2 December 2005]: The information is as follows:
(a) The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council's strategic advisory team for its 'Infrastructure and Environment Programme' has an independent member who is involved in ageing research.
(b) There are representatives on the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council's boards, committees and panels who are researching aspects of ageing in humans and animals. Two scientists who are members of the healthy organism strategy panel (whose role it is to devise the future strategy for BBSRC sponsored ageing research) and two scientists who are members of grant-awarding committees are involved in such research. In addition, two members of the bioscience for industry strategy panel and four members of grant-awarding committees are from companies with major ageing research programmes.
Justine Greening:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much Government funding has
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been made available for the Biotechnology and Biology Science Research Council programme of experimental research on ageing programme for the years 2002 to 2005; if he will list the (a) organisations and (b) projects to which grants have been made in each year; and if he will make a statement. [34233]
Alan Johnson
[holding answer 2 December 2005]: BBSRC has awarded a total of £4.2 million through the experimental research on ageing initiative. Estimated spend by year is as follows:
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| £ | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 68,000 |
| 2002–03 | 1,026,000 |
| 2003–04 | 1,286,000 |
| 2004–05 | 1,200,000 |
| 2005–06 | 592,000 |
| 2006–07 | 37,000 |
Further details on each grant can be found in the table including project title and name of the principal investigator.
Justine Greening: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he has made an assessment of the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee report Ageing: Scientific Aspects, published on 21 July 2005; and if he will make a statement. [34411]
Alan Johnson [holding answer 2 December 2005]: The Government's response to the report was submitted to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on 4 November 2005 and I expect it to be published by the Committee in due course.
Bankruptcies
Ed Balls: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people living in (a) West Yorkshire, (b) Wakefield district and (c) Normanton constituency have been declared bankrupt in the last 12 months; and how many such declarations occurred during the Christmas period. [35409]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
The regional breakdown available for the insolvency statistics is not directly comparable with standard administrative or electoral geographies. The insolvency regions" are areas assigned to groups of official receivers and are based around the location of county courts where the cases are heard and of courts having jurisdiction over these. As such the Metropolitan County of West Yorkshire (including Wakefield) is best matched to the Leeds official receivers office, however there is some overlap with adjoining areas. The county courts covered
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by the Leeds Official Receivers Office are Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Keighley, Leeds, Otley, Pontefract, Skipton, Todmorden and Wakefield. Bankruptcy statistics are not available at a lower geographical level than official receivers offices.
The following table records the number of individual bankruptcy orders classified under the Leeds Official Receivers' Office for the period October 2004 to September 2005 as a whole and for the months of December 2004 and January 2005 separately.
| Bankruptcy orders | |
|---|---|
| 12 month total | 1,826 |
| December 2004 | 114 |
| January 2005 | 128 |
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