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Written Answers to Questions
Wednesday 21 June 1995
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Farming Subsidies
Mr. Tyler: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many farm holdings receive subsidy payments, excluding environmental and hill livestock compensatory allowances, in excess of (a) £30,000, (b) £40,000 and (c) £50,000 per annum. [28354]
Mr. Jack [holding answer 13 June 1995]: Farm holdings can receive subsidy payments under one or several schemes. Those holdings in England receiving payments under the sheep annual premium, suckler cow premium, beef special premium and arable area payments schemes which either together or separately exceeded the totals stated for the 1994 scheme year are as follows:
(a) £30,000: 10,857
(b) £40,000: 7,219
(c) £50,000: 5,055
Mr. Tyler: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much money would be saved if farm subsidy payments, excluding environmental and hill livestock compensatory allowances, were capped at a ceiling of (a) £30,000 per holding, (b) £40,000 per holding and (c) £50,000 per holding per annum. [28355]
Mr. Jack [holding answer 13 June 1995]: Farm holdings can receive subsidy payments under one or several schemes.
The total sums paid under the sheep annual premium, suckler cow premium, beef special premium and arable area payments schemes, in respect of the 1995 scheme year, would have been reduced by the following amounts if the respective ceilings per holding had been applied:
|Reduction in total
Ceiling applied per |payments
holding
£ |£ million
------------------------------------------------------------
(a)
30,000 |350.4
(b)
40,000 |261.7
(c)
50,000 |201.1
Brent Spar
Mr. Harvey: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what measure HMS Alderney is taking in respect of (a) monitoring pollution and (b) monitoring the activities of Greenpeace; [29181]
(2) for what reasons HMS Alderney is following the Shell flotilla towing the Brent Spar; and what task it is undertaking. [29180]
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Mr. Soames: I have been asked to reply.
The Royal Navy ship which has been deployed to the area of Brent Spar has been asked to monitor the general situation. It has been taking no measures beyond this specifically to monitor pollution or Greepeace activity.
Mr. Harvey: To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how may (a) sheriff officers and (b) police officers are present on HMS Alderney on its current voyage following the Shell flotilla towing the Brent Spar. [29182]
Mr. Soames: I have been asked to reply.
The answer is none.
DUCHY OF LANCASTER
Justices of the Peace
Ms Janet Anderson: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what is the political profile of justices of the peace on all benches under his jurisdiction. [29481]
Mr. David Hunt: The political breakdown of justices of the peace for benches in the counties of Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside is as follows:
Political profile of benches in the counties of Lancashire,
Greater Manchester and Merseyside
|Liberal |Others
|Conservative|Labour |Democrat |uncommitted
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lancashire
Blackpool |68 |31 |14 |30
Fylde |29 |7 |7 |9
Wyre |38 |13 |10 |7
Preston |53 |33 |3 |22
Lancaster |30 |19 |14 |20
Chorley |40 |12 |6 |15
South Ribble |33 |16 |4 |20
Ormskirk |46 |19 |7 |11
Blackburn,
Darwen and
Ribble Valley |49 |32 |10 |29
Hyndburn |22 |19 |3 |10
Burnley and
Pendle |67 |40 |17 |36
Rossendale |27 |11 |4 |5
Greater
Manchester
Bolton |83 |44 |16 |48
Bury |62 |26 |20 |33
Manchester |122 |104 |59 |74
Oldham |62 |49 |32 |50
Rochdale |29 |19 |35 |27
Middleton and
Heywood |26 |23 |11 |19
Salford |61 |47 |21 |34
Stockport |73 |35 |30 |44
Tameside |81 |40 |14 |48
Trafford |50 |26 |20 |26
Wigan |62 |40 |12 |49
Leigh |26 |28 |3 |29
Merseyside
Knowsley |45 |39 |27 |24
Liverpool |171 |76 |89 |62
North Sefton |45 |2 |19 |45
South Sefton |50 |25 |22 |30
St. Helens |41 |18 |18 |50
Wirral |123 |49 |36 |55
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. McMaster: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many written parliamentary questions were tabled for answer by his Department in each of the past five years; how many of these were not answered because the information (a) could be obtained only at disproportionate cost, (b) was not held centrally and (c) was not normally disclosed; how many of these could now be answered now due to computerisation; more effective and efficient operational systems or more open government; and if he will list each question along with the name and constituency of the right hon. or hon. Member who originally tabled it. [28509]
Mr. David Hunt: The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. McMaster: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what percentage of parliamentary questions, which would have been answered directly by him or his Ministers prior to the establishment of executive agencies, are now referred to the chief executive of such an agency. [28499]
Mr. David Hunt: Ministers are accountable to Parliament for all matters concerning their agencies. Written parliamentary questions concerning matters which have been delegated to the chief executive of an executive agency in its framework document normally receive a reply from the Minister to the effect that he or she has asked the chief executive to reply direct to the Member by letter. The chief executive's letter is published in Hansard after the Minister's reply.
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Legal Aid
Mr. Hutton: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 14 June, Official Report , column 519 , what was the total amount of fraudulent legal aid claims made by solicitors in each of the last five years; how much was recovered in each year; and how many cases resulted in criminal prosecutions and conviction. [29707]
Mr. John M. Taylor: It is not possible to quantify the total amount of fraudulent legal aid claims made by solicitors in each of the last five years. This is because there may well be an element within the total amount of the claims under suspicion which may relate to work actually and reasonably done by the solicitor. In addition,
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it is very difficult to identify fraud separately from claims made outside the regulations either through abuse, misuse, ignorance or incompetence. The number of cases involving solicitors and/or their employees prosecuted in the past five years is shown in the table, together with the outcome of those proceedings:
|Number of
Financial |solicitors/employees
year |Cases |prosecuted |Outcome
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1990-91 |3 |7 |4 convictions
|3 acquittals
1991-92 |2 |3 |3 convictions
1992-93 |2 |2 |1 conviction
|1 acquittal
1993-94 |4 |4 |3 convictions
|1 acquittal
1994-95 |1 |1 |1 jury failed to agree
|-acquitted at retrial
The amounts recovered either by order of the court or by the board's investigation section, in each of the last five years were as follows:
1990 91: £50,331
1991 92: £2,853
1992 93: £20,153
1993 94: £143,001
1994 95: £524,276
Judiciary
Mr. Allen: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will update the information given in his answer of 7 February 1994, Official Report , column 11 , to the hon. Member for Nottingham, North regarding the composition of the judiciary. [28889]
Mr. John M. Taylor: The information relating to numbers of men, women, barristers and solicitors in post, correct as at 1 June 1995, is set out in table 1. The figures for black and Asian office holders are believed to be correct, but the formal recording of the ethnic background of applicants for judicial office began only on 1 October 1991, so such information may be incomplete. Aggregated information is not generally kept on the average ages of judges. The information supplied on 7 February 1994 was available as a result of a special exercise, which has not since been repeated, and no new information is readily available. Aggregated information is not generally kept about the educational background of judges, but the results of a recent special exercise in relation to the university background of the more senior levels of the judiciary, as at 26 May 1995, is set out in table 2.
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Table 1: Details of judiciary in post as at 1 June 1995
|Number |Men |Women |Barrister<1>|Solicitor |Black/Asian
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lords of Appeal in Ordinary |12 |12 |0 |12 |0 |0
Lords Justices |32 |31 |1 |32 |0 |0
Heads of division (excludes Lord Chancellor) |4 |4 |0 |4 |0 |0
High court judges |95 |89 |6 |94 |1 |0
Circuit judges (include official referees) |514 |483 |31 |455 |59 |3
Recorders |927 |872 |55 |833 |94 |10
Assistant recorders (excludes assistant
recorders in training) |334 |284 |50 |270 |64 |8
Stipendiary magistrates |87 |76 |11 |36 |51 |1
Industrial tribunal chairmen<2> |80 |70 |10 |34 |46 |2
Value added tax chairmen<2> |4 |4 |0 |3 |1 |0
Social security appeal tribunal chairmen<2> |42 |31 |11 |13 |29 |1
<1> Or member of the faculty of advocates.
<2> The figures relate to full-time chairmen.