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In order to provide the requested information for the period before 2005, it would be necessary to carry out comprehensive data gathering and analysis across the prison estate. This would involve contacting each of the 138 prisons across the service and scrutinising case files.

Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones



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Lord Bach: The nationality of Prison Service staff is not recorded centrally and to obtain this information would mean approaching more than 140 establishments in England and Wales. Entitlement to work in the United Kingdom must be confirmed for all Prison Service staff, including imams.

Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones

Lord Bach: Instructions and guidance on the appointment of chaplains, including imams, are provided in Prison Service Orders 8100 (Recruitment) and 8110 (Filling Vacancies). These orders are in website format, and so cannot readily be placed in the Library of the House. However, both can be accessed on the Prison Service's website at www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk.

Public Bodies

Questions

Asked by Lord Selsdon

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Lord McKenzie of Luton): This information is not held centrally. Information on board membership and remuneration is published in individual bodies' annual reports and accounts. These can be accessed from the departmental website on the following link at www.dwp.gov.uk/ndpb/public_bodies.asp#ndpb.

Asked by Lord Selsdon

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): This information is not held centrally. To obtain the details it would be necessary to consult each of the Ministry of Justice non-departmental public bodies to identify which of their current membership belonged to the House of Lords. Information on board membership and remuneration is published in individual bodies' annual reports and accounts.



12 Mar 2009 : Column WA279

Questions for Written Answer

Question

Asked by Lord Jopling

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): The number of Questions allocated to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which were unanswered after 14 days during February 2009, as set out in the Lords business papers, are set out below.

2 February—13;3 February—8;4 February—11; 5 February—16; 6 February—15; 9 February—15; 10 February—22; 11 February—33; 12 February—18; 23 February—25; 24 February—47; 25 February—4; 26 February—4; and 27 February—7.

While these statistics do not reflect the standard to which we aspire, we are continually trying to improve our new system to ensure better performance.

Roads: Repair

Question

Asked by Lord Fearn

The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Adonis): None, as we have received no formal approaches from local authorities for help. The department will give careful consideration to any such requests, where they fulfil the department’s published criteria.

Rockall

Question

Asked by Lord Laird

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): The island of Rockall is UK sovereign territory, as provided for in the Island of

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Rockall Act 1972, which incorporated the island “into that part of the United Kingdom known as Scotland”, and made provision for the law of Scotland to apply to it.

UK sovereignty extends to the 12 nautical mile territorial sea around Rockall, under the provisions of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Terrorism

Question

Asked by Baroness Neville-Jones

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Justice (Lord Bach): The Home Office will shortly be publishing a statistical bulletin covering those persons arrested following a terrorist investigation with the resulting charges and convictions. This bulletin will also include information on those remanded or convicted of Terrorism Act or terrorism related offences at 31 March 2008 broken down by nationality and religion.

Traffic Penalty Tribunal

Questions

Asked by Lord Lucas

The Minister of State, Department for Transport (Lord Adonis): The Traffic Management Act 2004, the parking provisions of which were brought into force on 31 March 2008, provides in Section 81(4) that the relevant enforcement authorities shall provide, or make arrangements for the provision of accommodation and administrative staff and facilities for adjudicators; and determine the places where adjudicators are to sit, and shall defray all the expenses of the adjudication process and, in particular, expenses in relation to the remuneration of adjudicators.

Asked by Lord Lucas

Lord Adonis: This information is not held by central government.



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Wales: Divorce and Separation

Question

Asked by Lord Roberts of Llandudno

Lord Patel of Bradford: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, National Statistician, to Lord Roberts of Llandudno, dated March 2009.

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking how many divorces and separations there were in Wales in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008, and (d) 2009 to date. (HL1986)

Table 1 shows the number of divorces in Wales for 2006, 2007, and the first quarter of 2008. Figures for 2009 are not yet available.



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Table 1: Divorces in Wales
Number of divorces (thousands)

2006

6.9

2007

6.7P

2008—1stquarter

1.6p

2008—2nd quarter

1.5P

p - provisional

The latest quarterly and annual divorce statistics by country are also available in the quarterly publications, Population Trends and Health Statistics Quarterly. The most recent edition of Population Trends (#134) shows divorce statistics for Wales in table 2.1 on page 68, and is available online at www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_population/Population-Trends-134.pdf.

Divorce statistics are based upon information supplied to ONS by the courts in England and Wales. The fact that a divorce has taken place in Wales does not mean that either one or both parties are resident there.

Although it is possible to estimate the separated population in the constituent countries of the UK, figures on the number of separations are not available. This is because nationally representative statistical information on separations occurring is not readily available in any administrative or survey source.


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