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11 May 2006 : Column 484W—continued

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the Registrar General's conclusion, dated 18 February 2004, regarding the effect of the release of the 1911 Census before 2012 on public trust in statistical confidentiality; and if she will make a statement. [69255]

Bridget Prentice: I have today placed in both Libraries copies of correspondence between my Department and the Office for National Statistics to which the hon. Member refers. No formal assessment was made in response to the letter of 18 February 2004. The Government’s view is that a closure period of 100 years strikes the right balance between the access interests of family historians and the right of citizens to have the personal information about themselves in their census returns kept confidential. Maintaining the security and confidentiality of the information that citizens supply about themselves in their census returns is of paramount importance. It remains government policy to make census returns publicly available after a period of 100 years.

Census Closure Rule

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of (a) the Registrar General's proposal, dated 18 February 2004, to enshrine a 100-year census closure rule in primary legislation and (b) the implications for that proposal of
11 May 2006 : Column 486W
the principles of the Freedom of Information Act 2000; and if she will make a statement. [69256]

Bridget Prentice: There are no current plans to enshrine a 100-year census closure rule in primary legislation.

Children's Services

Mr. Kemp: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many nursery and creche places are provided for people working in her Department; what charges are made for the provision of such services; and what other facilities are provided for children of employees of her Department. [67359]

Bridget Prentice: My Department has 37 bought-in nursery places and during the past year provided74 holiday playscheme places. The Department offers a25 per cent. subsidy towards nursery places anda 50 per cent. subsidy towards playscheme places. The total cost was £43,712.05 during the last financial year. £34,253.88 was spent on subsidised nursery places at a cost of £1,200.00 per child; and a total of £9,458.17 for subsidised playscheme places at a cost of £127.00 per place. The Department has participated actively in an inter-departmental working party in collaboration with the Daycare Trust to establish the Civil Service Childcare Toolkit.

Departmental Staff

David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what opportunitites exist for people to work beyond retirement age in her Department. [69030]

Bridget Prentice: My Department has a retirement policy which explicitly states that if a member of staff below senior civil service level wishes to work beyond the normal retirement age of 65 we will normally agree to such a request subject to the normal standards of health, efficiency, conduct, performance and attendance being met. Individuals may not work beyond the age of 70 except in exceptional circumstances. The normal retirement age in the senior civil service is 60. However, the Department retains members of the senior civil service if it is judged to be in the public interest to do so and it is satisfied as to the fitness and efficiency of the individual to carry out his or her duties. This flexibility allows the Department to meet its business needs, retaining valuable knowledge and skills, while giving staff as much choice as possible about when they retire.

Election Registers

John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many General Election marked registers were not available (a) six months and (b) nine months after the 2005 general election. [69822]


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Bridget Prentice: The only marked register that was unavailable in either the six months or nine months following the 2005 General election was Woking, which was missing in its entirety.

Electoral Registration

Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what percentage of those eligible to vote were registered to vote in each local authority in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in each of the last 10 years. [64195]

John Healey: I have been asked to reply.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 11 May 2006:


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Total electorate for Vale of Clwyd and Denbighshire 1997 to 2005
Total electorate( 1)
Year( 2) Vale of Clwyd Denbighshire

1997

52,966

70,770

1998

52,418

70,198

1999

51,402

69,011

2000

50,696

67,933

2001

51,237

68,556

2002

51,409

68,936

2003

50,627

68,060

2004

52,356

70,193

2005

53,251

71,316

(1) Total number registered to vote as parliamentary or local electors, combined. (2) Data for years up to and including 2000 relate to 16 February, data for 2001 and subsequent years relate to 1 December. Source: Office for National Statistics

11 May 2006 : Column 490W

Electoral System

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on the outcome of the pilots for postal voting. [67091]

Bridget Prentice: Although it is too early to make a full assessment, initial indications suggest that the pilots of administrative changes to the postal voting process at the May 2006 local elections have been conducted successfully. The Electoral Commission will formally evaluate the pilots and report by 3 August 2006.

Legal Services Commission

Julie Morgan: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many matters were started under Legal Services Commission contracts in civil law, in each of the financial years 2000-01 to 2004-05, broken down by category of law; and what the projected total is in each category for 2005-06. [68382]

Vera Baird: The following table shows the number of matters started as reported by solicitor firms and not for profit suppliers, including community legal service direct, for each financial year since 2000-01. The number of matters started differ slightly from what has previously been published in the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) annual reports as matters started during the year are still reported after the publication of the annual report, and the annual report does not include new matters started through community legal service direct.


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Number of matters started as reported to the LSC by solicitors' firms and not for profit suppliers
Category of law 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 (projected total)

Actions against the police

5,414

5,341

5,455

4,474

4,584

4,540

Community care

2,037

2,117

2,711

3,098

3,459

4,051

Consumer

11,772

9,150

7,327

5,015

3,939

3,845

Debt-solicitor/nor-for-profit contracts

50,137

48,635

52,802

55,708

59,327

72,463

Debt-community legal service direct

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

13,589

29,508

Education-solicitor/nor-for-profit contracts

3,007

3,327

3,452

2,984

2,663

2,614

Education- community legal service direct

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

2,312

4,631

Employment-solicitor/not-for-profit contracts

12,076

10,977

11,719

10,522

9,658

11,389

Employment-community legal service direct

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

2,311

11,562

Housing-solicitor/not-for-profit contracts

87,718

86,307

88,014

81,606

84,220

96,985

Housing-community legal service direct

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

1,902

12,397

Family

309,975

320,373

339,043

302,764

277,125

281,684

Mental health

23,242

26,118

28,637

29,063

31,003

34,081

Miscellaneous-solicitor/not-for-profit contracts

34,675

28,359

22,731

14,949

9,896

9,251

Miscellaneous-community legal service direct

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

394

1,480

Public law

1,429

1,429

1,811

1,614

1,649

1,797

Welfare benefits-solicitor/not-for-profit contracts

86,420

78,479

78,992

76,439

73,891

83,975

Welfare benefits-community legal service direct

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

6,000

14,047

Personal injury

10,357

7,237

5,787

4,827

3,155

2,836

Clinical negligence

4,570

4,892

4,585

4,076

3,693

3,519

Other methods of delivery

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

N/a

21,855

Total

642,829

632,741

653,066

597,139

594,770

708,510


Matters started in the immigration and asylum category are not reported as part of civil law. However, the matters are still started as part of the general civil contract. The matters started in this category are in the following table.

2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 (projected total)

Immigration and Asylum

137,940

140,605

156,227

121,918

95,038

90,635



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