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Written Answers to Questions

Monday 15 October 2007

Northern Ireland

Departments: Executive Agencies

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list his Department's (a) executive agencies, (b) executive Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs), (c) advisory NDPBs, (d) tribunal NDPBs, (e) trading funds and (f) public corporations for each financial year since 2005-06 [156617]

Mr. Woodward: In the period 2005-07, the Northern Ireland Office had four executive agencies, as follows:

Information on all NIO NDPBs for 2005-06 was published at pages 338-46 of the Cabinet Office's Public Bodies Directory 2006 and can be viewed at:

The same information for 2006-07 was published on the NIO website at:

The Northern Ireland Office has neither trading funds nor public corporations.

Police Stations: Downpatrick

Mr. McGrady: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether a recent assessment of the security threat to Downpatrick police station has been made; and how the requirement for security measures at this station compares to other police stations in Down district. [156847]

Paul Goggins: I have been informed by the Police Service of Northern Ireland that a security assessment of Downpatrick police station was carried out in April 2007 and a further assessment has been scheduled for January 2008. For security reasons it would not be appropriate to comment on the exact nature of security measures taken at any police station.

Scotland

Abortion

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has any plans to bring forward legislation to devolve policy relating to abortion to the Scottish Parliament; what recent representations he has received on the issue; and if he will make a statement. [158306]


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David Cairns: There are no plans to devolve policy relating to abortion, and I have received no recent representations on this issue.

Departments: Aviation

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on (a) first class and (b) business class flights in the last 12 months. [153198]

David Cairns: The Scotland Office does not separately record expenditure on first class and business class flights. All travel is undertaken in accordance with the ‘Civil Service Management Code’ and the ‘Ministerial Code’, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House. Information relating to overseas travel by Ministers is published on an annual basis; the 2006-07 edition was published on 25 July 2007 and is also available in the Library of the House.

Departments: Manpower

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people have been appointed to his Department outside civil service grades in the last 30 days. [153201]

David Cairns: None.

Departments: Railways

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on first class train tickets in the last 12 months. [153197]

David Cairns: The Scotland Office does not separately record expenditure on first class train tickets. All travel is undertaken in accordance with the ‘Civil Service Management Code’ and the ‘Ministerial Code’, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House. Information relating to overseas travel by Ministers is published on an annual basis; the 2006-07 edition was published on 25 July 2007 and is also available in the Library of the House.

Departments: Redundancy Pay

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on redundancy payments in the last 12 months. [153191]

David Cairns: The Scotland Office incurred no costs on redundancy payments in the financial year 2006-07.

Departments: Training

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on staff away days in the last 12 months. [153192]


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David Cairns: £6,834 was spent on staff away days in 2006-07.

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on (a) staff and (b) communication training in the last 12 months. [153193]

David Cairns: The Scotland Office does not hold information in the form requested. The staff in the Office are on loan from the Scottish Executive or the Ministry of Justice, both of whom provide free access to training and development opportunities.

Departments: Tribunals

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much was spent by his Department on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months. [153194]

David Cairns: Nothing.

Elections

Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what measures are in place to ensure that Scottish returning officers receive appropriate guidance on who can register for elections anonymously; and if he will make a statement. [157815]

David Cairns: Statutory responsibility for the provision of guidance to electoral administrators, including returning officers, lies with the Electoral Commission. The Commission provided guidance on anonymous registration in Circular EC24/2007 which issued to all electoral registration officers and returning officers in Scotland on 22 May this year.

Ministers

David Mundell: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he has held discussions with the Scottish Executive on their Ministerial Code published in August 2003. [156504]

David Cairns: No. The Scottish Ministerial Code is a matter for Scottish Ministers.

House of Commons Commission

Accountability

Norman Baker: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission if he will list the steps taken to improve accountability of the Commission following the report produced by Sir Kevin Tebbit; and if he will make a statement. [158235]

Nick Harvey: The Commission has yet to consider this aspect of the Tebbit review but is interested to hear the views of hon. Members, not least when the review is debated in Westminster Hall on 18 October.


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Delivery Services

Norman Baker: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission if he will replace the envelopes used to deliver the Vote to hon. Members with reusable mail pouches. [157776]

Nick Harvey: No. The possibility has been considered but it is not practical. The reusable mail pouches in use to circulate mail on the parliamentary estate are intended for enveloped mail.

Leader of the Opposition

Norman Baker: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what square footage of (a) office space and (b) other space is available to the Leader of the Opposition on the Parliamentary Estate. [157803]

Nick Harvey: The Leader of the Opposition and his staff occupy a suite of six rooms in Norman Shaw South totalling 266.1 m(2) (approximately 2,864 ft(2)). In addition he has access to, but not sole use of, two meeting rooms; one in Norman Shaw South and a second in the Shadow Cabinet Block totalling 67.9m(2) (approximately 731 ft(2)).

Parliament: Drugs

John Mann: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission on how many occasions illegal drugs have been found in the Palace of Westminster in the last 30 years. [156911]

Nick Harvey: Police records date from 2001. Since then there have been three seizures of drugs, all cannabis, all in quantities consistent with personal use. Two of these were recorded in 2005, one in 2006.

Electoral Commission Committee

Committee on Standards in Public Life: Electoral Commission

Mr. Todd: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission what response the Speaker's Committee has made to the Eleventh Report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, on the Electoral Commission. [158430]

Peter Viggers: As I told the hon. Member for Liverpool, Walton (Mr. Kilfoyle) on 19 January 2007, Official Report, column 1398W, the Speaker's Committee supported the Committee on Standards in Public Life in undertaking this review of the role and governance of the Electoral Commission, and was grateful to Sir Alistair Graham and his colleagues for their thorough inquiry. The Speaker's Committee published its observations on the CSPL report in its
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First Report 2007, which was laid before the House on 26 July as House of Commons Paper No. 996, copies of which are available in the Vote Office. The CSPL report ranged widely over the mandate, governance and accountability of the Electoral Commission and also commented on aspects of the integrity of the electoral system, making 47 recommendations in all. Not all of these are directly relevant to the functions of the Speaker's Committee, and the Committee has restricted its detailed comments to recommendations directly addressed to itself, or in relation to which it has a specific policy interest.

The Committee looks forward to seeing the Government's response to the report as a whole. It shares the view of CSPL that any primary legislation arising from recommendations it has made should be enacted in the next parliamentary Session.

Electoral Commission: Standards

Angela Browning: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission whether the Speaker's Committee has received the Comptroller and Auditor General's statutory value for money report on the Electoral Commission 2005-06. [158431]

Peter Viggers: Yes. The Speaker's Committee considered this report, entitled ‘Electoral Registration: The lynchpin of democracy’, at its meeting on 27 June. The report focuses on the important issue of electoral registration and makes eight recommendations to the Electoral Commission, on: the use of its new powers to request information from Electoral Registration Officers, improving the completeness and the accuracy of the electoral register, and performance measurement.

The Committee is grateful to the Comptroller and Auditor General for this thorough report on a key element in the electoral process. It has been published as an Appendix to the Committee's Second Report 2007, and the Committee is now seeking the Electoral Commission's response to its recommendations. The report was laid before the House on 26 July 2007 as House of Commons Paper No 997, and copies are available in the Vote Office.

Wales

Departments: ICT

Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many (a) laptops, (b) mobile telephones and (c) personal digital assistant devices bought for the use of departmental Ministers have been returned to the Department following each Cabinet reshuffle since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [156729]

Mr. Hain: In July 2003 Wales Office became part of the then Department of Constitutional Affairs and new equipment was provided to the Wales Office under their contracts from April 2004.

Since that date there has been two Cabinet reshuffles where one mobile phone and one laptop were returned
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by the outgoing Parliamentary Under Secretary of State and re-allocated to the incoming one.

All equipment held by the Wales Office prior to 2004 was returned to the National Assembly for Wales, as supplied under their contracts.

Departments: Road Traffic Offences

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many fixed penalty tickets were incurred by vehicles within the purview of his Department in the last year for which figures are available; and what the total cost was. [157923]

Mr. Hain: Nil.

Departments: Secondment

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many staff are seconded to his Department from outside Government; from which outside body each has been seconded; and what the length is of each secondment. [157924]

Mr. Hain: None.

Justice

Courts: Translation Services

Mr. Evans: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how much was spent on translators in British courts in each of the last five years. [157701]

Maria Eagle: The information requested is not collected centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost through the manual searching of individual court files. Her Majesty's Courts Service is giving consideration to the routine collection of data relating to interpreting and translation services used in court.


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