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18 Apr 2006 : Column 478W—continued

Employment Statistics

David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) males over 65 and (b) females over 60 years of age were in (i) full-time and (b) part-time employment in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years. [63486]

Angela E. Smith: The relevant estimates from the Northern Ireland Labour Force Survey are contained in the following table.
Full-time and part-time employment in NI by age and sex(212)

Males aged 65 and over
Females aged 60 and over
Full-timePart-timeFull-timePart-time
20013,0004,0004,0008,000
20027,0006,0003,00010,000
20035,0002,0004,0009,000
20044,0004,0004,0008,000
20056,0005,0003,00010,000


(212) Estimates are based on small sample sizes and are therefore subject to a higher than usual degree of sampling variability. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Source:
Labour Force Survey, Autumn (September—November) quarters.




Ethnic Minorities

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many members of the ethnic minority community in Northern Ireland are employed within (a) the Police Service for Northern Ireland (PSNI) and (b) the PSNI staff support services, broken down by (i) ethnic minority and (ii) rank. [61495]

Mr. Woodward: The following tables represent the current monitoring information on race, as at 23 March 2006, that has been gathered through the usual voluntary monitoring.
PSNI officers

Black OtherChineseIndianMixed ethnicPakistanOtherTotal
Student Officer11
Constable15131718
Sergeant22
Total15141921

PSNI police staff—direct recruit

Irish TravellerMixed ethnicOtherTotal
Administrative Assistant112
Financial Investigator11
Imaging Officer11
SGB2 Day Cleaner11
Total1315

 
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I am advised there are also two civilian staff from an ethnic background, the details of which are held by the Civil Service who maintain monitoring information on these individuals.

Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps are being taken to promote recruitment to (a) the Police Service of Northern Ireland, (b) the Public Prosecution Service and (c) the judiciary from ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland. [61496]

Mr. Woodward: I am advised by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Public Prosecution Service (PPS) and Judicial Appointments Commission, who are responsible for promoting recruitment from ethnic minorities in Northern Ireland within these areas respectively, that they take the following steps:

Police Service of Northern Ireland

The PSNI have a number of outreach measures for recruiting people from ethnic minority backgrounds. They include:

Public Prosecution Service

Open recruitment exercises for legal and some administrative grades within the PPS are managed and delivered by the Northern Ireland Civil Service Recruitment Service (RS) who actively seek, through the use of relevant NI equality legislation, to encourage applications from all under-represented groups and minorities in order to create a truly reflective and balanced workforce.

The PPS has sought to assist RS throughout this process by advertising such vacancies in local papers of the towns in which new PPS regional offices will be opened. Adverts have also been placed in the three regional daily newspapers and a major national daily. As RS are the NICS recruitment providers with approved equality systems in place, and are acting as the PPS's agent, all other positive advertisement and equality issues are taken forward by them.

Administrative staff are not always recruited directly by the PPS but are assigned directly via the Northern Ireland Office from other Northern Ireland Departments. As these staff were initially recruited through RS, they were subject to the same equality of opportunity processes as those staff currently being recruited.

Judiciary

The Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission has responsibility for recommending candidates for appointment as judges up to the level of High Court Judge to the Lord Chancellor. The Commission is required to engage in a programme of action which is designed to secure, so far as is reasonably
 
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practicable, that appointments to listed judicial offices are such that those holding such offices are reflective of the community in Northern Ireland. The Commission is also required to secure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that a range of persons reflective of the community in Northern Ireland is available for consideration to be appointed as a judge. Appointment is on the basis of merit.

Farm Incomes

Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland what the average annual income offarmers was in the Province in each of the last 15 years. [62466]

Angela E. Smith: Net farm income is a standard measure of farm business income in the UK. It represents the return to the farmer and spouse for their manual and managerial labour as well as the return on the tenant type assets of the farm, such as livestock, crops and machinery. The average annual net farm income in Northern Ireland for all types of farms and sizes above 0.5 standard labour requirements, for the most recent 15 years available, is presented in the table.
Average net farm income, all farm types, Northern Ireland 1990–91 to 2004–05

Net farm income (£)
1990–915,765
1991–927,378
1992–9310,607
1993–9410,458
1994–9512,351
1995–9614,105
1996–979,265
1997–984,915
1998–992,154
1999–20001,141
2000–015,800
2001–028,278
2002–034,499
2003–048,652
2004–059,413

General Practitioner Clinics

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (a) how many attendees at general practitioner clinics there were in Northern Ireland in 2004–05; and (b) what estimate he has made of that number which could be treated by a suitably qualified nurse or pharmacist. [63266]

Mr. Woodward: The information is as follows.

(a) Information is not available in the format requested. It is possible, however, to estimate from surveys, the total number of persons who had a consultation with a GP at either the GP surgery, in their own home or by telephone. The total number of such consultations and the number per head of NI population are shown in the following table for 2004–05.
 
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2004–05 financial yearNumber
Estimated total number of GP consultations (million)7.03
Estimated number of GP consultations per person4.11




Source:
Northern Ireland Continuous Household Survey 2004–05 and 2004 Civilian Mid-year Estimate




(b) Information on the number of attendees at general practitioner clinics who could be treated by a suitably qualified nurse or pharmacist is not available.


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