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In accordance with the 2002 Act, the power of supervision and direction over the director by the Attorney-General for Northern Ireland will lapse on the devolution of justice functions to the Assembly. There is no need, therefore, for it to be dealt with in the constitutional renewal Bill
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Public Appointments
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
In what circumstances the Northern Ireland Office pays the national insurance and income tax of its appointees to public bodies. [HL3917]
Lord Rooker: If an individual carries out work for the Northern Ireland Office and she/he is considered by HM Revenue and Customs to be an employee or office holder, income tax and national insurance contributions are deducted at source from payments made on a pay-as-you-earn basis.
Public Prosecution Service
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
What happens to Northern Ireland Public Prosecution Service's case papers once a case is concluded; what is the access policy on case papers over 30 years old; what papers have been transferred to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and when; and by what rules access to them or their index is restricted. [HL4014]
The Attorney-General (Baroness Scotland of Asthal): When a case is concluded, Public Prosecution Service (PPS) case papers are held in PPS storage in accordance with the PPS retention and disposal policy as agreed with the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland. Under this policy, files are destroyed after two years, 10 years or 20 years depending on the nature of the case and its seriousness. Some files are kept for longer periods where, for instance, life sentences have been imposed.
A file becomes an “historical record” in the meaning given to it by the Freedom of Information Act 2000 at the end of the period of 30 years beginning with the year following that in which it was created. Access to all such records is governed by the provisions of Part VI of that Act.
The Public Records Office holds a small number of miscellaneous, policy and practice files but, at the PRO's request, the PPS retains in its own custody individual case files.
The rules governing access to historical files are set out in the Freedom of Information Act and are applied by the Public Record Office.
Republic of Ireland: Human Rights
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by Lord Rooker on 7 May (WA 77) concerning human rights in the Republic of Ireland, on what basis and by whom it was considered that the answer could be provided only at a disproportionate cost. [HL3729]
Lord Rooker: The disproportionate cost threshold (DCT) is set by the Treasury and is currently £700. The cost of answering a PQ is the direct cost of civil servants' time in preparing answers for written PQs or producing the relevant data.
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The requested information is not collated centrally. To provide it would involve a manual trawl of a vast quantity of records, including minutes of meetings, ministerial advice and correspondence. This could only be done at disproportionate cost.
Roads: Dartford Crossing
Lord Hanningfield asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Statement by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 12 June (WS 61-2), what estimate has been made of the average number of Dartford crossings made by residents who will become eligible for limited free crossings in the autumn. [HL4227]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: We estimate that about 2.5 million crossings are made each year by residents who will become eligible for the local residents’ discount scheme.
Schools: Spending per Pupil
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
What was the average amount spent per primary school pupil in England and Wales in each year since 2001-02; and what is the figure in equivalent 1996-97 values. [HL4125]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Children, Schools and Families (Lord Adonis): The tables below provide the available information for England and Wales. The figures provided are not comparable for the reasons set out in the notes:
- 1. School-based expenditure includes only expenditure incurred directly by the schools. This includes the pay of teachers and school-based support staff, school premises costs, books and equipment, and certain other supplies and services, less any capital items funded from recurrent spending and income from sales, fees and charges and rents and rates. This excludes the central cost of support services such as home-to-school transport, local authority administration and the financing of capital expenditure.
- 2. Pupil numbers include only those pupils attending local authority-maintained primary schools and are drawn from the DCSF schools census adjusted to be on a financial-year basis.
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- 3. 2002-03 saw a break in the time series following the introduction of consistent financial reporting (CFR) to schools and the associated restructuring of the outturn tables. The change in sources is after the 2001-02 figures.
- 4. The calculation for 2002-03 onwards is broadly similar to the calculation in previous years. However, 2001-02 and earlier years include all premature retirement compensation (PRC) and Crombie payments, mandatory PRC payments and other indirect employee expenses. In 2001-02 this accounted for approximately £70 per pupil. From 2002-03 onwards only the schools element of these categories is included and this accounted for approximately £50 per pupil of the 2002-03 total. Also, for some LAs, expenditure that had previously been attributed to the school sectors was reported within the LA part of the form from 2002-03, though this is not quantifiable from existing sources.
- 5. Cash-terms figures are converted to 1996-97 prices using March 2008 gross domestic product deflators.
- 6. Figures are as reported by local authorities as at 12 June 2008 and are rounded to the nearest £10. 2006-07 data remain provisional and subject to change by the local authority.
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- (a) The figures include all expenditure spend directly by the schools and also spent by the LEA on behalf of the schools.
- (b) The numbers of pupils are taken from the annual schools census taken at January each year. The figures have been adjusted to be on a financial-year basis.
- (c) Cash-terms figures are converted to 1996-97 prices using March 2008 gross domestic product deflators.
Transport: Heavy Goods Vehicles
Lord Roberts of Llandudno asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many breaches of the law by foreign-registered heavy goods vehicles in 2007-08 resulted either in a fixed penalty notice or a court summons; and how many of these were successfully enforced. [HL4165]
Lord Bassam of Brighton: No fixed penalty notices or court summonses were issued by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency (VOSA) to foreign-registered heavy goods vehicle drivers in 2007-08. However, VOSA did issue some 15,000 prohibition notices to prevent continued non-compliance with the law by foreign-registered vehicles.
We have no figures for police activity, but we understand that the police do not collect separate statistics relating to nationality of offender or country of residence.
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