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Written Answers
Thursday, 5th July 2001.
Asylum Appeals
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many asylum appeals have been received by the Appeals Support Section of the Immigration and Nationality Department since the beginning of 2000 to the latest convenient date; how many have been sent to the Immigration Appellate Authority over the same period; what is the average length of time between these events; and whether they have established any target for this interval.[HL22]
The Minister of State, Home Office (Lord Rooker): Provisional data indicate that between January 2000 and April 2001, 88,005 asylum appeals have been received by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) and in the same period 43,040 appeals have been passed to the Immigration Appellate Authority (IAA). The date on which appeals are received in the Appeals Support Section is not recorded by data from the IAA's IRIS database indicate that for the year ending March 2001 the average time from receipt of an asylum appeal in IND (which will not necessarily be the same as the date of its receipt in ASS) to receipt in the IAA was seven weeks. No formal target has been set for the time in which appeals should be sent from IND to the IAA.
Employment Tribunals: Legal Aid
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Chancellor on 3 May (WA 295), what are the criteria for deciding whether a case is "complex" so as to make it appropriate and necessary for him to exercise the power under Section 6(8)(b) of the Access to Justice Act 1999 to authorise funding for representation in a case brought before an employment tribunal.[HL38]
The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg): My guidance to the Legal Services Commission sets out the circumstances in which I would be prepared to consider an application for exceptional funding in any area of work or forum where public funding was not normally available. That guidance is published in the Legal Services Commission Manual. For representation before tribunals, the criteria are:
- (a) the client would have to be financially eligible for funded representation;
- (b) the case would have to pass all the relevant criteria in the General Funding Code; and either involve a significant wider public interest or have overwhelming importance (affecting the life, liberty or physical safety of the client or his or her
- immediate family or the roof over their heads) to the client (or clients) seeking funding; and
- (c) there would have to be convincing evidence that, given the procedures and other arrangements in the court or tribunal concerned, legal representation was the only adequate way of establishing the facts and presenting the case; and that no alternative means of funding that representation was available; so that taking these factors together, and having regard to our obligations under the European Convention on Human Rights, it was essential to provide public funding for representation in order to serve the interests of justice.
- Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Chancellor on 3 May (WA 295), what are the differences between legal proceedings before employment tribunals in Scotland and in England and Wales which justify the provision of limited legal aid for representation in proceedings in Scotland but less favourable provision for representation in proceedings in England and Wales.[HL39]
The Lord Chancellor: There are no material differences between employment tribunals in Scotland and in England and Wales. The Government have no plans to make any changes to the provision of public funding for representation before employment tribunals in England and Wales. We will consider any recommendations that Sir Andrew Leggatt may make in his review of tribunals.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Chancellor on 3 May (WA 295), whether they consider that the difference of treatment in providing legal aid for representation in proceedings before employment tribunals in Scotland and in England and Wales is compatible with Article 6 and Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights; and, if so, what are their reasons for this opinion.[HL40]
The Lord Chancellor: I am confident that the public funding in England and Wales is fully compliant with all articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. Although employment tribunals are excluded from scope, I have the power under Section 6(8)(b) of the Access to Justice Act 1999 to authorise funding in exceptional cases where the Legal Services Commission asks me to do so.
Teaching Professionals: Salaries
Lord Shore of Stepney asked Her Majesty's Government:
- In each year since 1996, what has been:
(a) the increase in national average earnings; and
(b) the increase in the earnings of (i) a secondary school teacher with five years' experience, and (ii) a university lecturer; and what has been the increase in the cost of living during those years.[HL51]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from the National Statistician Len Cook, dated 27 June 2001.
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question about increases in: (a) national average earnings; (b) the earnings of secondary school teachers with five years experience and of university lecturers; and (c) the cost of living in each year since 1996 (HL51).
The tables attached provide the requested information, drawing upon the Average Earnings Index, the New Earnings Survey (NES) and the Retail Prices Index. The percentage change on year has been provided back to 1996.
The NES, which was used to provide information on earnings by occupation, does not collect information about the duration of workers' experience. It is therefore not possible to give the increase in earnings for secondary school teachers with 5 years experience. We have, however, provided data for all secondary school teaching professionals regardless of experience. 2001 Data for the NES is not yet available.
Source:
Average Earnings Index, Great Britain, seasonally adjusted.
Whole economy: percentage change on year.
Index 1995 = 100.
Source:
New Earnings survey, Great Britain, not seasonally adjusted.
Full-time employees on adult rates, whose pay for the survey pay-period was unaffected by absence.
(1) For all secondary education teaching professionals, regardless of experience.
Retail Prices Index, United Kingdom, not seasonally adjusted.
Retail Prices Index (All items) pecentage change on year.
Lord Shore of Stepney asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The Government attach great importance to creating a positive environment for businesses to start, grow and succeed. The most fundamental contribution that the Government can make is through establishing a platform of economic stability. The Government achieved this by making major reforms to the macroeconomic framework in the last Parliament. The Government have also taken numerous steps to strengthen the environment for enterprise, innovation and competition more directly. The most recent measures were announced jointly on 18 June by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and the Secretary of State for Education and Skills.
Lord Avebury asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Amos): The Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Peter Hain, raised this issue with the UAE Authorities during his visit to the UAE in October 2000. He subsequently wrote to His Highness Shaikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces, to register concern that Victor Butt, named by the UN Expert Panel on Sierra Leone and the Monitoring Mechanism Report on Angola for his involvement in illegal supplies to Liberia and Sierra Leone in breach of UN Sanctions,
Percentage change on year
April 1996 3.4
April 1997 3.8
April 1998 5.9
April 1999 4.1
April 2000 4.6
April 2001 4.7
Percentage change on year in
average weekly pay
University and polytechnic teaching professionals Secondary education teaching professionals (1)
April 1996 -0.1 2.7
April 1997 5.6 3.2
April 1998 3.2 2.5
April 1999 2.0 4.9
April 2000 2.9 3.8
Percentage change on year
April 1996 2.4
April 1997 2.4
April 1998 4.0
April 1999 1.6
April 2000 3.0
April 2001 1.8
Source:
What measures they propose to take to alleviate the damage to British industry caused by the weak exchange rate of the euro.[HL52]
What measures they have taken, either through the United Nations Security Council or otherwise, to persuade the authorities in the United Arab Emirates to withdraw permission to operate flights from Sharjah and elsewhere in the United Arab Emirates of aircraft owned by companies which are alleged, in the reports of the United Nations Expert Panel on Sierra Leone and the Monitoring Mechanism on Angola Sanctions, to be engaged in deliveries of illicit arms.[HL23]
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