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Written Answers
Wednesday, 12th December 2001.
Commission for Judicial Appointments
Lord Varley asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What further progress has been made in establishing the Commission for Judicial Appointments since the First Commissioner was appointed in March 2001.[HL2017]
The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg): I am pleased to announce that Her Majesty yesterday made Orders in Council appointing 7 new Deputy Commissioners to assist Sir Colin Campbell, the first Commissioner for Judicial Appointments, in conducting an ongoing audit of the appointments procedures for judges and Queen's Counsel. The remit of the commission also extends to investigating individual complaints about the way these procedures are applied. The Deputy Commissioners are:
- Urmila Banerjee
- Tony Boorman
- Jane Drabble
- Frances Heidensohn
- Sir Duncan Nichol
- John Simpson
- Jean Tomlin
Land Registry
Lord Burlison asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What progress has been made towards the implementation of the recommendations made in the quinquennial review of Her Majesty's Land Registry.[HL1979]
The Lord Chancellor: The Government have approved a wide-ranging programme of work in response to the review. Details will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
HM Land Registry is committed to providing the world's best service for guaranteeing ownership of land, and for facilitating property-related transactions. As a fourth time Charter Mark winner, the Land Registry already delivers excellent service to its customers. Further improvements to its internal operations recommended by the review are being pursued vigorously. By bringing forward this wider work programme, the Land Registry can, with the help of other government departments and stakeholders, develop innovative and customer focused services for an even better service.
The main elements of the wider programme, much of which depends on the Land Registration Bill introduced in July, are to develop and promote electronic conveyancing services, including the National Land Information Service; expand the geographic coverage and content of the land register; explore ways in which the land register can contribute to making the property markets more efficient and more transparent; consider the business case for providing further advisory services relating to land registration by 2003; and launch a new independent adjudication service for land registration disputes in 2003.
Those elements of the programme which are for the Land Registry to take forward, will be delivered through a new 10-year strategic plan which I shall publish in the spring.
I and ministerial colleagues in other departments with responsibility for land and property markets will monitor the delivery of the programme closely. We will also review the arrangements for consultation across and between government and those involved in these markets.
Police Service of Northern Ireland
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission has the power to interfere in the work of the Consensia Partnership on police recruiting; and, if so, where this power may be found in the Northern Ireland Act 1998.[HL1283]
The Lord Privy Seal (Lord Williams of Mostyn): There is no specific role for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in the work of the Consensia Partnership under either the Police (Northern Ireland) Act 2000 or the Police Recruitment Regulations 2001. However, Section 69(1) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 places on the commission a general duty to keep under review the adequacy and effectiveness of practice relating to the protection of human rights in Northern Ireland.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
- With reference to the publication on 19 November of draft service flags for the Police Service of Northern Ireland:
(a) whether any of the designated members of the Policing Board were informed about the drafts before 7 November;
(b) which party leaders were consulted about the drafts; and
(c) when the drafts were commissioned, by whom, who carried out the designs and how much they cost.[HL1525]
Lord Williams of Mostyn: The chairman and vice-chairman of the Policing Board met the Minister, Jane Kennedy, on 11 October. At this meeting, they were told that work had been undertaken on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office by design consultants.
No party leaders were consulted about the drafts before the beginning of the consultation period on 19 November.
The drafts were commissioned by the Northern Ireland Office from a number of Northern Ireland-based designers, the details of which are commercially confidential. The aggregate costs for the sample emblem designs were £41,329.45 (inclusive of VAT). This figure includes research, presentation materials and colour photocopying.
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord Williams of Mostyn: As a designated public authority, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission is subject to the statutory equality duties set out in Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. Its compliance with these duties is monitored by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland in line with the procedures prescribed in Schedule 9 to that Act. This provides an important framework to ensure that the Human Rights Commission adopts a balanced approach to its work.
Appointments to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission are a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. In making these appointments, the Secretary of State made clear that he was satisfied that he had fulfilled his statutory obligation to Xsecure, as far as practicable, that the Commissioners as a group are representative of the community in Northern Ireland".
Once appointed, it is for the commissioners collectively to decide how best to explain their work and develop their relationships with all sections of the community in Northern Ireland.
Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Attorney-General (Lord Goldsmith): Where the High Court upholds a public interest immunity certificate, the effect is that the documents covered by that certificate should not be disclosed in the proceedings in question. Disclosure for other purposes is a matter for the party having control of the documents, but where the nature of the documents is such that PII has been claimed for them, it follows that
Baroness Pitkeathley asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): The report Better Services–Better Working Lives has been published today. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
This document reports back on the work undertaken to look at how health and education public services are delivered for women. We know that the proportion of women with dependent children working full time has risen from 59 per cent in 1991 to 65 per cent in 2001. But women are still the people responsible for accessing services—91 per cent of women with school-age children say they normally take them to the GP and 61 per cent take them to school.
In this publication we report back on what women have told us during a series of regional evidence-gathering visits supported by a wide range of good practice examples, new research findings and recommendations for national and local action.
Copies of Better Services—Better Working Lives will be distributed to all the women who took part in the regional evidence-gathering visits and through the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills.
The Earl of Sandwich asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Amos): We regularly remind the Israeli Government that we consider settlement activity illegal. We support the recommendations of the Mitchell committee, accepted by both parties, that all settlement activity, including natural growth, should be frozen. According to our information, the Defence Ministry approved 496 new
What measures they have adopted to ensure that a balanced approach is taken and seen to be taken, by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission; and how the commission plans to explain its composition and role to the unionist community.[HL1638]
Where a document is made subject to a public interest immunity ruling by the High Court, on whose authority and in what circumstances such a document could be made publicly available.[HL1726]
When they intend to report on their work on women and public services.[HL2015]
Whether they have made any representations to the Israeli Government about Israel's proposal to establish a new settlement named Ma'ale Rehavam in memory of the late Tourism Minister Rehavam Ze'evi and about the planned addition of 3,000 new housing units at Ma'ale Adumin, beside East Jerusalem.[HL1706]
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