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NORTHERN IRELAND
Correspondence
Mr. Ian Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans her Department has to correspond electronically with (a) hon. Members and (b) members of the public. [49887]
Mr. Paul Murphy [holding answer 13 July 1998]: Each of the Northern Ireland Departments and the Northern Ireland Office has a Web site which includes an Internet e-mail address. The latter enables hon. Members and members of the public to communicate electronically with Departments and for responses to be provided using the same medium.
Northern Ireland Civic Forum
Mr. Barnes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will make a statement on the membership, indicating which organisations members will be drawn from, and the role of the Northern Ireland Civic Forum. [50194]
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Mr. Paul Murphy:
The Civic Forum will comprise representatives of the business, trade union and voluntary sectors and such other sectors as agreed by the First and Deputy Ministers of the new Northern Ireland Assembly. The Forum will act as a consultative body on social, economic and cultural issues.
Mr. Barnes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate she has made of the number of people suffering from dementia in Northern Ireland. [50219]
Mr. Worthington:
Figures on the actual incidence of people with dementia are not available as many sufferers are not in contact with services. Based on surveys elsewhere of the prevalence of dementia within the population it is estimated that in Northern Ireland there could be some 13,500 people suffering from one or other of the various forms of the disease.
Mr. Barnes:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will list the organisations in receipt of funding from the Central Community Relations Unit in (i) 1995, (ii) 1996 and (iii) 1997, giving in each case the amount. [50190]
Mr. Worthington:
The Central Community Relations Unit provided funding totalling £5,586,200.09 in 1995-96, £5,531,857.76 in 1996-97 and £5,627,728.91 in 1997-98. Details of the organisations funded in those years, together with the amount of funding they received, have been placed in the Library of the House. These do not include payments from the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund in respect of European Union Measures administered by the Central Community Relations Unit.
Women Prisoners
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many women sentenced to imprisonment in England and Wales in each of the last three years had children under the age of five years at the time of their sentence. [49525]
Ms Quin: This information is not collected centrally. However, a study of women in prison was carried out in November 1994 by the Office for National Statistics. It found that, of the 1,766 women interviewed, 265 (or 15 per cent.) had, at the time of imprisonment, at least one child under the age of five.
Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) which women's prison has the largest use per inmate of (a) chlorpromazine (Largactil), (b) Melleril and (c) other anti-psychotic drugs; how many were prescribed there; and what was the prison population there, in each of the last five years; [50178]
- (2) how many prescriptions for (a) chlorpromazine (Largactil), (b) Melleril and (c) other anti-psychotic drugs were issued in each of the past five years in each women's prison; [50180]
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(3) what changes have taken place in the prescription of (a) minor tranquillisers, (b) major tranquillisers and (c) neuroleptic drugs in women's prisons since the publication of the 1996 report of the Advisory Council on Drugs Misuse. [50179]
Ms Quin: Details about prescriptions issued are not available in a form that could be used to provide the information sought and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
The Prison Service recognises that many women received into custody have complex medical histories and have very often already been prescribed the types of medications cited. A Prison Service health care standard on the use of medicines makes clear that medication will be prescribed only for clinical reasons and in line with the recommendation in the 1996 report from the Advisory Council on Drugs Misuse. Efforts are being made to reduce the prescribing of major and minor tranquillisers and neuroleptic drugs, except where their use is clinically essential. Increasing collaboration with NHS specialist psychiatric services is bringing prescribing in prisons under the influence of NHS consultant psychiatrists and concern about prescribing levels in prisons will continue to be addressed through improved monitoring of health care standards.
Police (Homosexuals)
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps his Department has taken to encourage homosexual people to join police forces in England and Wales; and if he will make a statement. [49526]
Mr. Michael: The responsibility for making appointments to the police service in England and Wales lies with the chief constable of each police force. Chief constables, with the assistance of their police authorities, are also responsible for ensuring that their forces represent the community they serve. It is for individual chief constables to decide whether to target certain groups in any recruitment campaigns, and I am aware that a number of forces now place recruitment advertisements in gay newspapers and magazines.
It is important for the police force in any area to reflect the composition of the wider community it serves. This issue was explored in a thematic inspection undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary last year. The report "Winning the Race. Policing Plural Communities" was published last year and copies are available in the Library.
Prison Officers
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will give the total number and percentages of prison officers working with juveniles in young offender institutions and prisons by ethnic and religious background. [49872]
Ms Quin:
These figures are not collated centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
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Mr. Clappison:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of 6 July 1998, Official Report, column 347, which of the initiatives listed were (a) initiated during the United Kingdom presidency and (b) in progress at the commencement of the United Kingdom presidency. [49993]
Mr. George Howarth:
The new initiatives launched under the United Kingdom Presidency were:
The other activities listed in my earlier answer were taking forward important work, initiated by the United Kingdom and other member states, but not completed during previous Presidencies.
Gillian Merron:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the total number of (a) police officers and (b) constables in each police force in England and Wales. [50865]
Mr. Michael:
Provisional figures show that at 31 March 1998 there were 126,944 police officers (down 214 from March 1997) in England and Wales, including 98,387 constables (up 255 from March 1997).
proposals and agreement on the key elements of a new European Union drugs strategy for 2000-04;
the first two large-scale Customs joint surveillance exercises involving the 15 member states and the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe;
introduction and completion of a joint action on good practice in mutual legal assistance;
introduction of a joint action on the identification, tracing, freezing, seizing and confiscation of assets; and
agreement to a common European Union standard for the exchange of fingerprint information.
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