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18 Apr 2006 : Column 473W—continued
Contracts (Voluntary Sector)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many contracts are let by his Department to voluntary sector organisations; how many of those are let on an annual basis; and how many of those had received finalised contracts for 2006–07 by 31 March. [63204]
Mr. Hain: The information is as follows.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Number of contracts let to voluntary sector organisations | 5 |
| of which: | |
| How many were let on an annual basis | — |
| How many had received finalised contracts for 2006–07 by 31 March | 5 |
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Coolkeeragh Power Station
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the total running hours were against anticipated hours for Coolkeeragh Power Station between 1 January 2006 and 24 March 2006. [63585]
Angela E. Smith: Coolkeeragh Power Station operated for 1,359 hours against an anticipated 1,832 hours during the period 1 January 2006 to 24 March 2006.
Criminal Records
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of adult (a) males and (b) females resident in Northern Ireland has a criminal record. [62528]
Mr. Hanson: The requested information is not available. Current databases, for example, contain information on persons not normally resident in Northern Ireland or who have subsequently died or left Northern Ireland. It would incur disproportionate cost to obtain the information requested.
Defibrillation
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the merits of developing a Province-wide public access defibrillation scheme. [62376]
Mr. Woodward: The effectiveness of public access to defibrillators is currently being assessed through a research project commissioned by the Research and Development Office, on behalf of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS), entitled A study of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public access to defibrillation in urban and rural populations in Northern Ireland". This three-year project, which began on 1 January 2004 is due to be completed and evaluated by 31 March 2007. At that point, DHSSPS will be in a better position to make decisions about the merits of developing a province-wide public access defibrillation scheme.
Dental Patients (Compensation Claims)
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much was claimed in compensation by patients from the NHS in Northern Ireland where a dentist was involved, in each year between 1995 and 2005. [63265]
Mr. Woodward: The information is not available in the form requested and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Departmental Job Vacancies
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what criteria are used to determine which departmental job vacancies in Northern Ireland are (a) internally advertised in trawl notices, (b) advertised publicly and (c) appointed via the Central Transfer List. [63450]
Angela E. Smith:
The decision may be made to trawl a specific vacancy where the post in question requires specialist skills or aptitudes, which are unlikely to be
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confined to staff in any one discipline (i.e. General Service, Scientific, IT etc.) within the Northern Ireland Civil Service. It is normal practice to fill job vacancies in the basic recruitment grades by open competition, for example, Administrative Assistant, Administrative Officer, Assistant Scientific Officer, Professional & Technology Officer. Departments reserve the right to fill vacancies above the basic recruitment grades by open competition where the skills/qualifications required are not available in the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
A Staff Officer Graduate recruitment programme is held annually to recruit and develop good graduates to improve the skills mix within our middle management cadre and to recruit and develop our share of graduates in the marketplace who have the potential to rise to senior management positions within the Service. To comply with recommendations made under the Criminal Justice Review that a more representative workforce could be achieved through increasing the candidate pool, all administrative posts at Grade A (Grade 7) and above, and all legal posts in the Public Prosecution Service are filled through open recruitment.
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Vacancies within the Senior Civil Service are normally filled by open competition. When a Department has a vacancy, the Personnel Division will in the first instance consider the claim of officers on the Central Transfer List irrespective of the Department in which they are working. Priority is given to staff with Welfare Officer ratings 1 and 2. The final decision on whether to offer a particular post to an applicant on the Central Transfer List rests with the Personnel Officer of the Department in which the vacancy has occurred.
Departmental Staff
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many and what proportion of (a) staff and (b) new staff employed in (i) his Department and (ii) each of the agencies for which he has responsibility, were registered as disabled in each of the last three years for which data are available. [61382]
Mr. Woodward: With the introduction of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, the requirement to register as disabled was abolished, and information on disability is now provided by staff on a voluntary basis. The following table provides details of the numbers and percentages of staff in the Northern Ireland Office and its agencies declaring a disability from 2003 to 2005. Information on new staff is not available.
Notes:
1. Figures are based on work force figures for 1 September of each year.
2. Percentages shown are calculated as a percentage of total work force at that time.
Eating Disorders
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern Ireland are estimated to be suffering from an eating disorder; and what assistance is available to them. [63491]
Mr. Woodward: In Northern Ireland, it is estimated that approximately 1,700 people suffer from anorexia nervosa and 17,000 people suffer from bulimia nervosa. Health and Social Services Trusts provide a range of services largely through generic mental health, primary care and acute services, including community-based specialist eating disorder teams within each Board area.
Elderly Population
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people over the age of85 years in Northern Ireland (a) there were at the end of 2005 and (b) there are expected to be at the end of 2015. [62820]
Angela E. Smith: The latest estimate of the Northern Ireland resident population relates to mid-year 2004; for people aged 85 years and over the estimate was 24,000 people.
At mid-year 2015, the number of people resident in Northern Ireland aged 85 years and over is projected to be 36,300.
Employment
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of likely trends in employment in Northern Ireland in each of the next three years. [63482]
Angela E. Smith: The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment does not provide forecasts of labour market trends. However, research commissioned by the department predicts a continuation of the broad trends experienced over the last five years, which have been characterised by growth in private services and a decline in manufacturing.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people were employed in Northern Ireland's manufacturing industry in each of the last five years (a) in total and (b) in each constituency. [63483]
Angela E. Smith:
The most recent estimates of the number of employee jobs at Northern Ireland level are available from the Quarterly Employment Survey. The
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number of employee jobs in the manufacturing industry in Northern Ireland at December for each of the last five years is shown in table 1.
Estimates of the number of employee jobs below Northern Ireland level are only available from the Census of Employment on a biennial basis and the most up to date figures relate to September 2003. Estimates of the number of employee jobs in manufacturing at September 2001 and September 2003 for each parliamentary constituency area within Northern Ireland can be found in table 2.
| Manufacturing jobs | |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 99,120 |
| 2002 | 95,540 |
| 2003 | 90,760 |
| 2004 | 88,090 |
| 2005 | 86,640 |
Source:
Quarterly Employment Survey, DETI
Source:
Census of Employment, DETI
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