House of Commons Hansard Debates for 25 Oct 1993

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Written Answers to Questions

Monday 25 October 1993

CHURCH COMMISSIONERS

Birkenhead Precinct

Mr. Frank Field : To ask the right hon. Member for Selby, representing the Church Commissioners, how the proceeds of selling the commissioners' holding in the Birkenhead precinct have been reinvested.

Mr. Alison : Proceeds from sales of commissioners' property are, generally speaking, applied towards the consolidation of the investment portfolio. Recent sale proceeds, including those from Grange precinct, have been used mainly to fund the remainder of the commissioners' development programme and to reduce borrowings.

HOUSE OF COMMONS

Voting Procedures

Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Lord President of the Council if he has any plans to change the House's voting procedures ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Newton : I have no such plans.

Parliamentary Television Feed

Mr. Allen : To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will make a statement on securing direct television feeds to hon. Members' offices from the Chamber.

Mr. Newton : Until recently the only Members authorised by the Broadcasting Committee to receive a clean television feed from the Chamber in their offices within the House were the Speaker and the Chairman of Ways and Means. However, at its meeting on 19 July, the Committee agreed that for the purposes of facilitating the management of the business of the House, the following additional Members' offices should be supplied with a clean television feed : the Prime Minister ; the Leader of the Opposition ; the Leader of the House ; the Shadow Leader of the House ; the Leader of the Liberal Democrats ; and the Whips Offices of the Government, the Official Opposition and the Liberal Democrats. The installation of the necessary cabling and television sets was carried out during the summer recess. So far as individual hon. and right hon. Members are concerned, the hon. Gentleman will be aware from previous answers on this subject that the Committee has approved in principle the supply of a feed to all Members' offices, provided that the service is available to all parts of the Parliamentary estate simultaneously. The Committee has also accepted, however, that because of the complexity and cost of the cabling work involved in such an undertaking, further progress must await decisions on the broader question of the provision of a parliamentary data and video network to Members' offices. Proposals on this

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subject, which are currently under consideration by the Information Committee, are not expected to come before the House until the beginning of 1994 at the earliest.

Members' Employees

Mr. Allen : To ask the Lord President of the Council how many employees of hon. Members are paid out of the office costs allowance ; and how many hon. Members have given their employees a contract of employment.

Mr. Newton : At 30 September 1993, 1,656 employees of hon. Members were directly paid salaries which were charged to the employing Members' office costs allowance. A total of 617 hon. Members have given one or more of their employees a contract of employment.

Mr. Allen : To ask the Lord President of the Council how many individuals currently in receipt of employee payments from the office costs allowance are married or otherwise related to current hon. Members.

Mr. Newton : This information is not available.

Mr. Allen : To ask the Lord President of the Council how many hon. Members have not yet given any of their staff a contract of employment ; how many individual staff do not have contracts ; what action he is taking to ensure contracts are provided ; what sanction he has against hon. Members who refuse to issue contracts ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Newton : Twenty-four Members have not lodged a copy of the contract of employment in respect of any of their staff who are classified as employees.

Copies of contracts have not been sent to the Fees Office in respect of 264 employees of Members. The Fees Office continually monitors the position and periodically reminds hon. Members of their obligation to provide contracts.

I am not aware of any Members who have refused to issue contracts and I have no plans to make a statement.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Allen : To ask the Lord President of the Council how many parliamentary questions have been answered in the last 12 months with the statement that the required figures are not available.

Mr. Newton : This information is not in a readily available form and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Inhumane Weapons

Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many states have made representations to his Department with regard to the holding of a conference to review the inhumane weaspons convention.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : We are in touch with EC and NATO partners about the proposal to convene a review conference on the United Nations weaponry convention, but no states have so far made representations to us on this issue.

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Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list those states that have (a) signed and (b) ratified the 1977 additional protocols to the Geneva conventions.

Mr. Douglas Hogg : The following states have ratified, accepted or acceded to additional protocol I to the Geneva conventions : Albania

Algeria

Angola

Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina

Armenia

Australia

Austria

Bahamas

Bahrain

Bangladesh

Barbados

Belgium

Belize

Benin

Bolivia

Botswana

Brazil

Brunei Darussalam

Bulgaria

Burkina

Burundi

Byelorussia

Cameroon

Canada

Central African Republc

Chile

China

Colombia

Comoros Islands

Congo

Costa Rica

Croatia

Cuba

Cyprus

Czechoslovakia

Denmark

Djibouti

Ecuador

El Salvador

Equatorial Guinea

Finland

Gabon

The Gambia

Germany

Georgia

Ghana

Greece

Guatemala

Guinea

Guinea Bissau

Guyana

Holy See

Hungary

Iceland

Italy

Ivory Coast

Jamaica

Jordan

People's Democratic Republic of Korea

Kuwait

Kyrgyzstan

Laos

Latvia

Liberia

Libya

Liechtenstein

Luxembourg

Macedonia

Madagascar

Malawi

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Maldives

Mali

Malta

MauritaniaMauritius

Mexico

MoldovaMozambique

Namibia

The Netherlands

New Zealand

Niger

Nigeria

Norway

Oman

Paraguay

Peru

Poland

Portugal

Qatar

Romania

Russia

Rwanda

Samoa

Saudi Arabia

Senegal

Seychelles

Sierra Leone

Slovakia

Slovenia

Solomon Islands

Spain

St. Kitts and Nevis

St. Lucia

St. Vincent and the Grenadine

Suriname

Sweden

Switzerland

Syria

Tanzania

Togo

Tunisia

Turkmenistan

Uganda

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

Uruguay

Uzbekistan

Vanuatu

Vietnam

Western Samoa

Yemen Arab Republic

Yugoslavia

Zaire

The following states have signed but not ratified additional protocol I :

Egypt

Honduras

Iran

Ireland

Mongolia

Morocco

Nicaragua

Pakistan

Panama

Philippines

San Marino

United Kingdom

United States.

The following states have ratified, accepted or acceded to additional protocol II :

Albania