Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
24 July 2006 : Column 940Wcontinued
Mr. Heald: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs when she plans to make an announcement on the budget for the Information Commissioner's Office. [88294]
Ms Harman: I have no plans to make an announcement on the budget for the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO). The Commissioner's budget is derived from two sources. His data protection work is funded by notification fees payable under the Data Protection Act 1998. His freedom of information work is funded by grant in aid. On 18 April 2006, Baroness Ashton announced to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee that an additional £550,000 in funding would be provided to the ICO. This means that the total grant in aid for the ICO for 2006-07 is £5,550,000.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Consitutional Affairs how much in legal aid has been provided to Mr. Nabeel Sami Fathallah; and if she will make a statement.[67393]
Vera Baird: I am not able to disclose this information. The Department can only disclose legal aid details where individuals have received legal aid in connection with litigation, and where that litigation has ceased.
Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many magistrates there are in courts in each London borough, broken down by (a) age, (b) ethnicity and (c) sex. [87713]
Ms Harman: Magistrates are assigned to 28 Local Justice Areas in London. The following table provides a breakdown of the average age, ethnicity and gender of magistrates for each area, as of 20 July 2006.
Ethnicity | Gender | |||||||
Local justice area | Total | Average age | White | BME | Unknown | Female | Male | |
(1) Figures less than five are not quoted following established government statistics guidelines for protecting the confidentiality of data subjects. |
Sarah Teather: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what steps her Department is taking to encourage magistrates from ethnic minority backgrounds; and if she will make a statement. [87717]
Ms Harman: We have put in place a range of measures to attract magistrates from ethnic minority backgrounds including:
informative publicity material about the magistracy to encourage applications from all sections of local communities and to raise awareness among employers;
a new Working Group of the main employer organisations and the Trade Union Congress has been set up to seek their active support in encouraging employees to join the magistracy;
funding of the Magistrates Shadowing Scheme run by Operation Black Vote to enable people from black and minority ethnic (BME) groups to shadow magistrates in order to gain valuable insight into the roles and responsibilities of a magistrate, and encourage applications.
Progress has been made in increasing diversity among magistrates.
Next Section | Index | Home Page |