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27 Apr 2006 : Column 1245W—continued
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to promote in Northern Ireland the Smithsonian Folklife Festival to be held in Washington D.C. during the summer of 2007. [65709]
Mr. Hanson: A communications strategy is being developed to promote to the general public, opinion formers, politicians and the media, the benefits of Northern Ireland's participation in the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival in 2007. Although there has been some publicity, the main actions cannot commence until July when the Smithsonian Institution announce Northern Ireland's representation at the festival.
Superannuation Entitlements
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many part-time members of staff at each health trust in the Province have submitted industrial tribunal applications regarding non-payment of superannuation entitlements. [65347]
Mr. Woodward: 281 industrial tribunal applications have been lodged by part-time staff seeking retrospective access to the HPSS Superannuation Scheme.
Details of numbers of applications by Trust are not held centrally. I will write to the hon. Member with the information as soon as it becomes available and place a copy in the Library.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many industrial tribunal applications by part-time staff from each health trust in the Province regarding superannuation entitlements (a) have been successful, (b) have been rejected and (c) are still to be resolved. [65348]
Mr. Woodward: This information is not held centrally. I will write to the hon. Member with the information as soon as it becomes available and place a copy in the Library.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether job contracts from prior to 1976 stating that part-time staff payments to NHS staff in the Province are not superannuable have been considered significant by the industrial tribunal. [65349]
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Mr. Woodward: Any HPSS employee who worked at least half the standard weekly contractual hours has been entitled to join the HPSS superannuation scheme since 1 April 1973. The industrial tribunal has no jurisdiction to consider claims for exclusion from the superannuation scheme in respect of any period earlier than 8 April 1976. This was the date on which the European Court of Justice decided that pensions formed part of pay and that the provisions about equality between men and women applied to access to pension schemes in the public service. These provisions are identical to those applicable in Great Britain.
Undercover Agents
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will review the adequacy of the arrangements for the permanent protection of former undercover agents in the republican movement. [64914]
Mr. Woodward: I am satisfied there are adequate arrangements in place to counter the threat to individuals across a range of circumstances, including where individuals are suspected of providing assistant in confidence to the authorities.
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what provisions exist for the protection of current and former undercover agents in the Republican movement once exposed; and whether such protection was offered to Denis Donaldson. [65385]
Mr. Woodward: It is not Government policy to comment on specific national security and intelligence matters.
Vice Chancellor (University of Ulster)
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the cost to public funds has been of the suspension of the previous Vice Chancellor of the University of Ulster since December 2004. [65091]
Angela E. Smith: The former Vice Chancellor, Professor McKenna, was at no time suspended from duty. The question of cost to public funds as a result of suspension does therefore not apply.
Visitor Attractions
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the change was in annual numbers recorded at each of the 10 most frequented visitor attractions in Northern Ireland over the last 10 years. [65926]
Angela E. Smith:
The NITB conducts a voluntary annual survey designed to give an overview of the visitor numbers to the various attractions across Northern Ireland. Of the top 10 attractions participating in the 2005 survey, eight had previously participated in the 1995 survey. The results are presented in the following table.
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(4) Nearest survey return for Crawfordsburn Country Park to the year 1995 was in 1993, with 700,000 visitors.
(5) 2005 is the first time that Lagan Valley Regional Park has participated in the survey.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Departmental Websites
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list (a) the websites operated by his Department and (b) the reports placed on the internet in March 2006, indicating in each case whether paper copies were also made available. [65205]
Mr. Charles Clarke: As of 21 April 2006, the Home Office operates 40 websites.
The core Home Office website also has a number of sub-domains, such as police.homeoffice.gov.uk, which act as portal sites for practitioners around policy issues.
After a major redevelopment in September 2005, which brought nine separate websites under the main Home Office domain, a plan is under way to consolidate all of our sites by March 2007.
The Home Office does not keep a central record of all of the reports published on its websites. The information requested about numbers of reports published on the internet in March 2006—and also made available in paper copy—can therefore not be collected without incurring disproportionate cost.
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