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Sustainable Development
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what strategies for sustainable development the Northern Ireland Office has in place. [80977]
Mr. Hain: The Northern Ireland Office is working along side the Northern Ireland Departments in developing strategies for Sustainable Development and will have the same targets to achieve. I made a speech on this explaining my overall strategy in Belfast on 9 May, a copy of which has been placed in the Library.
At present the department is making a contribution to Sustainable Development on a number of fronts, including reducing waste to landfill through recycling schemes, contributing to the government carbon offsetting fund (GCOF) to make official air travel carbon neutral, purchasing electricity from renewable sources, replacement of oil/electric heating systems with gas, use of recycled paper, development of plans for use of energy from renewable sources at Hillsborough Castle, installation of a combined heat and power system at Stormont House.
Translated Documents
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many documents have been translated by the bilingual translation services in the Departments of (a) Education and (b) Health, Social Services and Public Safety in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years; and if he will list the languages for which translation services are provided. [81816]
Maria Eagle: The translation of any documents is provided for Northern Ireland Government Departments by the translation services unit in the Department for Culture, Arts and Leisure. Translations can be provided in any language. Details of the number of documents translated for the Department of Education and Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety in each of the last five years are provided in the following tables.
Production of documents in British sign language and Irish sign language is responsive to demand within the confines of budget.
| Table 1: The Department of Education | |||||
| 2001-02( 1) | 2002-03( 2) | 2003-04( 3) | 2004-05( 4) | 2005-06( 5) | |
| (1)
Two x
Cantonese. (2) One each for Cantonese and Portuguese. (3) One each for Urdu, Cantonese, Portuguese, Arabic, Bengali and French. (4 )French, German, two x Portuguese. (5 )Three x Spanish, four x French, six x Portuguese, four x Lithuanian, two x Hungarian, two x German, Ukrainian, Danish, Afrikaans, Latin, Italian, Bulgarian, Filipino and Russian. | |||||
An analysis of other figures for 2001-04 is not available from the Department concerned.
Table 2 does not include figures on the number of letters translated to and from the public. This information is unavailable from the Department.
Travel Assistance
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what financial assistance is available to (a) patients who have to travel outside Northern Ireland for NHS treatment and (b) their relatives. [88172]
Paul Goggins: Patients who have to travel outside Northern Ireland for treatment are entitled to receive financial assistance from their local health board for all costs associated with the medical treatment, including any related travel and accommodation costs incurred during the hospital stay.
In addition, health boards will cover the cost of relevant travel and accommodation for one named adult for the duration of the patient's stay in hospital. In the event that the patient develops post-operative complications that necessitate a prolonged hospital stay, additional costs for laundry and interim return trips home may be permitted.
In exceptional circumstances, on application to the health board, limited costs for additional family members may be met, e.g. where a patient experiences serious post-operative complications or for the second parent of a paediatric patient.
Twelfth Celebrations
Mrs. Iris Robinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many (a) Republicans and (b) Loyalists have been arrested and charged with street disturbances in connection with the recent Twelfth Celebrations; how many such arrests and charges there were in (i) 2003, (ii) 2004 and (iii) 2005; and if he will make a statement. [86321]
Paul Goggins: The information requested in relation to the number of Republicans and Loyalists arrested and charged during the Twelfth Celebrations would require a manual trawl of police records and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. In addition, it would be impossible to confirm whether each arrest made was directly connected to those celebrations.
Workplace 2010
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what (a) discussions he has had and (b) decisions he has made on expanding Workplace 2010 to involve other public service and local government premises whose future use could be affected by the Review of Public Administration. [87272]
Mr.
Hanson: There have been no decisions taken to expand
Workplace 2010 to include the wider public sector estate. Preparatory
work for the implementation
of the Review of Public Administration is, however, well under way
including considering the impact on central and local government
assets. The Workplace 2010 programme team is involved in this work and
will give due consideration to the outcome in determining the way
forward.
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which premises will be involved in Workplace 2010; and how many jobs in each location he estimates will transfer from the civil service to the facilities manager or landlord, broken down by category. [87273]
Mr. Hanson: It is proposed that 76 properties be included in the Workplace 2010 contract details which are outlined in the following table. It is expected that a range of property and services related functions could transfer to the private sector partner. However, final decisions will not be taken until later and the implications for the staff working in these jobs are still being considered in full consultation with trade union representatives.
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what flexibility is available for bidders under Workplace 2010 to provide alternative locations for civil service employment. [87274]
Mr. Hanson: The geographical location of civil service employment is not a matter for bidders and as such they will not be invited to provide alternative locations. They will, however, be required to provide flexibility within the terms of the contract to respond quickly and efficiently in the event of future decisions on the location of civil service jobs.
Mark Durkan: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment has been made of the potential for decentralising Civil Service employment under the Government’s plans for Workplace 2010. [87275]
Mr. Hanson: The potential for the decentralisation of civil service jobs has been a key consideration in the development of Workplace 2010. The programme is therefore being progressed on a phased basis. This will ensure that there is sufficient scope and flexibility to relocate civil service jobs within the terms of the contract and as part of a second phase as and when decisions are made.
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