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17 July 2006 : Column 79W—continued
Constitutional Affairs
Command Papers
Mr. Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will list the unnumbered Command Papers produced by her Department in each session since 1976; by what means (a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public can (i) inspect and (ii) obtain copies; and if she will make a statement. [81265]
Vera Baird: Documents which are laid before Parliament as unnumbered Command Papers are generally restricted to Explanatory Notes to Treaties, Explanatory Memorandum to Statutory Instruments and some Treasury Minutes. All other documents are published in the numbered Command Papers series.
Details of unnumbered Command Papers published since 1976 can be produced only at disproportionate cost.
Coroners
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what powers coroners have to investigate deaths abroad. [84513]
Ms Harman: A coroner has the duty to investigate a death abroad which is reported to him or her where the body is brought back to England and Wales and where there is a reasonable cause to suspect that the death was violent, or unnatural, or sudden and of unknown cause or where the death occurred in prison.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what powers coroners have to reduce waiting times by transferring cases from one area to another. [84514]
Ms Harman: Under section 14 of the Coroners Act 1988 coroners have limited powers to seek to transfer cases to another coroner on grounds of expediency.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans she has to review the powers of coroners to enter and search premises. [84515]
Ms Harman: Proposals are outlined—in clauses 50 and 51—in the draft Coroners Bill which I published on 12 June 2006.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the normal retirement age is for coroners. [84577]
Ms Harman: There is no compulsory retirement age for all coroners. However, coroners who held office immediately before April 6, 1978, and did not opt out of the statutory provisions, can be required by the relevant council to vacate office if they have completed 15 years service and attained the age of 65 years. Coroners’ pensionable service under the applicable local government scheme will come to an end at the age of 70 years.
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many inquests have been successfully appealed against in the last five years. [84578]
Ms Harman: There is no appeal against a coroner’s verdict at an inquest. However, each year a number of inquests are held, quashed or amended by order of the High Court, and the number of such occurrences over the last five years is shown in the table as follows.
| Number of inquests held by order of the High Court | Number of inquests quashed or amended by the High Court | |
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what plans she has to remove boundary restrictions on coroners’ jurisdictions. [84648]
Ms Harman: Removing boundary restrictions on coroners’ jurisdictions is a measure in the draft Coroners Bill which I published on 12 June 2006.
Court Facilities
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many courts have separate facilities for victims and witnesses. [84567]
Ms Harman: There are 93 Crown courts 88 of which have dedicated witness facilities. Of the 355 operational magistrates courts 302 can provide dedicated facilities. The remaining courts, which are used on a more infrequent basis, make use of alternative facilities.
Crown Dependencies
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what assessment she has made of the effects on the Crown Dependencies of Protocol 3 of the 1972 Act of Accession; and if she will make a statement. [84932]
Ms Harman: I have not made any such assessment, however the governments of the Crown Dependencies have confirmed that they are satisfied that the Protocol has achieved the purposes for which it was established in 1972, that is the free flow of goods between the Islands and the European Community.
Departmental Premises (Security)
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what measures are in place to ensure that no illegal immigrants are employed in the manned guarding of her Department’s premises. [80803]
Ms Harman: My Department uses a mix of in-house and contract security guards.
Where security guards are recruited directly to provide in-house services, recruitment is carried out in accordance with the requirements of the Civil Service Commissioners Code.
Two suppliers have provided manned guarding services to all Crown and county courts since 2000. Another supplier provides manned guarding services to offices on the DCA HQ estate. Under the terms of their respective contracts, these suppliers are required to carry out security vetting of personnel they propose using.
My Department assumed responsibility for magistrates courts in April 2005, many of which have contracts for manned guarding services awarded prior to this date. Information on individual contractual arrangements is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
A national procurement exercise covering all courts in England and Wales, which will standardise the contractual arrangements including vetting requirements, will begin later this year.
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs whether her Department has (a) directly and (b) indirectly employed illegal immigrants as security guards. [80812]
Ms Harman: In 2005, an individual employed as a security guard by Her Majesty’s Courts Service, an Executive Agency of the Department, was found to be an illegal immigrant. His status was discovered in the process of an immigration officer's investigation, and he was found to have provided false information in order to obtain documents that showed him to be fit for employment. He was dismissed.
Departmental Staff
David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many of her staff are (a) under and (b) over 55 years of age. [77300]
Ms Harman: The statistics are provided as at 31 December 2005 as staff headcount:
| Headcount | |
| Note: Data on civil service entrants has been collected by the Cabinet Office on an annual basis. Previously published data on entrants has been based on Departments submitting returns on a ‘Mandate’ or summary level basis. Data on entry age is only available from Departments’ records of individual civil servants, as civil service statistics does not include this information for all Departments. | |
David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many people over the age of 55 years have been recruited into her Department in each of the last three years. [77301]
Ms Harman: The statistics for the last three financial years are set out in the table as follows.
| Financial year | Total |
| (1) The figures do not include the magistrates courts prior to 1 April 2005. | |
Early Retirement
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many departmental employees have taken early retirement due to ill-health in each of the past five years for which figures are available. [46751]
Vera Baird: The number of employees who have taken early retirement due to ill-health in each of the last five years is set out as follows. These figures are for the period April to March for each of the years shown.
| Number | |
Family Courts
Keith Vaz: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what measures she has taken to increase confidence in family courts. [84555]
Ms Harman: I refer my hon. Friend to my written statement of 11 July 2006, Official Report, column 60WS.
Home Repossessions
Chris Huhne: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many court orders have been made for the repossession of homes in (a) Eastleigh constituency and (b) each district in (i) Hampshire, (ii) Southampton and (iii) Portsmouth in each year since 1987. [84659]
Ms Harman: The following table shows the number of mortgage possession orders made in county courts in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight (includes Aldershot and Farnham, Basingstoke, Portsmouth, Southampton, Winchester and Newport) since 1987. These are the only county courts in Hampshire and Isle of Wight that deal with mortgage repossession matters.
The civil procedure rules provide that all claims for the repossession of land must be commenced in the district in which the land is situated. However, these county courts cover areas that are not necessarily consistent with other administrative or constituency boundaries, and therefore for instance repossessions at Portsmouth county court may relate to properties in other constituencies besides Portsmouth.
These figures do not indicate how many houses have been repossessed through the courts, since not all the orders will have resulted in the issue and execution of warrants of possession.
| Number of mortgage( 1) possession orders made in Hampshire county and the Isle of Wight county, 1987-2005 | ||||||||||
| Possession orders made( 2) | ||||||||||
| 1987( 3) | 1988( 3) | 1989( 3) | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | |
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