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Northern Ireland Office and Northern Ireland Administration: Documents
Lord Maginnis of Drumglass asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many "glossy" documents, including consultative documents, each Northern Ireland Office department has produced in each of the last three years; and what has been the cost. [HL321]
Baroness Amos: The Northern Ireland Office and Northern Ireland Administration commission produce a very large number of documents in a wide range of formats.
The information sought by the noble Lord could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Waterways Ireland
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord President on 2 December (WA 13), whether they will place in the Library of the House a copy of the report into complaints of staff bullying in Waterways Ireland. [HL323]
Baroness Amos: The report contains personal information and information provided in confidence and therefore it would be inappropriate, under Paragraphs 12 (Privacy of an Individual) and 14 (Information given in Confidence) of Part 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, to place a copy in the Library.
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Northern Ireland: Departmental Budgets
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the Written Answer by the Lord President on 1 December (WA 5) and in view of the underspend of £111.6 million by the Northern Ireland Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, what steps the department is taking to reduce hospital operation waiting lists. [HL326]
Baroness Amos: The underspend in 2003–04 mainly reflected slippages in both the capital investment programme and executive programme fund projects. These slippages have been honoured in 2004–05 to continue or complete the relevant projects or schemes and the money allocated for them has been fully used.
A determined programme of action is in place to reduce hospital waiting lists and waiting times across Northern Ireland. This has resulted in 95 per cent of patients receiving their treatment within 12 months and almost 75 per cent within three months. Moreover, in-patient and day-case waiting lists have fallen by 10,000 over the past two years. A regional steering group has been established to oversee a significant regional programme of work to further reduce waiting times. Targets have been set to ensure that by 31 March 2005, other than in exceptional circumstances, no patient is waiting for in-patient or day-case treatment for more than 18 months, and by March 2006, no longer than 15 months. An additional £8.5 million was allocated in 2004–05 to support this work.
Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Earl of Northesk asked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they consider that the alleged destruction of information and documents by government departments, as reported in the Daily Telegraph on 27 November, represents an appropriate preparation for the coming into force of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. [HL255]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Baroness Ashton of Upholland): All organisations responsible for public records carry out the disposal of records not identified as worthy of permanent preservation according to agreed disposal schedules. The mechanism covering disposals of public records is set out in Section 3 of the Public Records Act 1958, which places a duty upon every person responsible for such records to make arrangements for their safe-keeping and for the selection of any records which ought to be permanently preserved.
Departmental action to select records worthy of permanent preservation, and to destroy those not selected, is carried out under the guidance, co-ordination and supervision of the Keeper of Public Records and trained National Archives staff. The National Archives (TNA) has developed a raft of policies and guidance in the area of records management and selection. Precise criteria for the
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disposal of public records vary from department to department, in accordance with their business needs.
Further information can be obtained from the National Archives website at: www.nationalarchives. gov.uk/recordsmanagement.
The Freedom of Information Act has undoubtedly brought a renewed focus on good records management, and paragraph 9 of the Lord Chancellor's code of practice on records management (issued under Section 46 of the Act) recognises that the managed destruction of records is a proper and necessary part of efficient record keeping.
Royal Navy: Fast Patrol Vessels
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to provide the Royal Navy with fast patrol vessels having a substantially smaller displacement and a lower cost than conventional frigates and destroyers. [HL176]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach): The type and size of the future and surface combatant (FSC) platforms will be driven by the future capability requirement. The FSC project is still in its concept phase. No decision has yet been taken about the timescale for delivering the FSC capability and studies continue to develop ideas for the platform solution.
Armed Forces: Officer Cadets
Lord Astor of Hever asked Her Majesty's Government:
How many officer cadets from foreign countries have been accepted for officer training at:
(a) Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth;
(b) Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst; and
(c) Royal Air Force College, Cranwell;
in each of the years from 2000 to 2004; and what were their countries of origin; and [HL272]
How decisions are made as to which countries send officer cadets to:
(a) Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth;
Lord Bach: The table below shows how many officer cadets from foreign countries have undertaken training, from 2000 to 2004, at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and Royal Air Force College, Cranwell.
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The Ministry of Defence sits at the centre of the allocation process for all International Defence Training, including international student places at the respective colleges. MoD liaises with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as well as the colleges, as necessary, and is guided by a strategy which provides a global, regional and country focus for MoD's politico-military engagement around the world. This supports our foreign, defence and wider security policy objectives, which include strengthening international peace and security by promoting good governance, building local operational capability and improving interoperability.
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