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Angela E. Smith: The hon. Gentleman is right in many ways. The high demand for integrated education in some areas is unprecedented, but there are a number of vacancies in integrated schools in other areas, so the picture is different across Northern Ireland. The Department responds to parental demand. Where there is parental demand, where the plans are robust and they stand up, and where the schools are sustainable, we support those schools. However, we must take into account the demand for the school and its impact on other schools in the area.
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The Disappeared
4. Lady Hermon (North Down) (UUP): If he will make a statement on the remit of the forensic expert recently engaged to locate those known as ''The Disappeared''. [7312]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Angela E. Smith): The British and Irish Governments and the commissioners for the recovery of victims' remains recently agreed that an expert in recovering long-concealed human remains should be appointed to review the work of the commission to date and to assess what further progress can be made. On the basis of recent discussions, I hope that the commission will announce the appointment before the end of July.
Lady Hermon: I am most grateful to the Minister for her helpful reply. Will she kindly confirm that the remit of the expert will be extended to include the search for my young constituent Lisa Dorrian, who was murdered four months ago—it is believed by loyalist paramilitaries—but whose body has still not been recovered?
Angela E. Smith: I have seen the young lady's parents on television and read about them in the press, and I have enormous sympathy for the trauma they have suffered. Unfortunately, I cannot satisfy the hon. Lady because the commission's remit is limited by statute to considering only cases from before April 1998. If we were to include the case of Lisa Dorrian, we would have to change primary legislation and an international agreement. However, as a ministerial team, we fully understand her parents' desire to find out what happened, and my colleagues and I, working with the responsible agencies, will do whatever we can to help them.
Rev. Ian Paisley (North Antrim) (DUP): Does the Minister not find it strange that the leader of IRA-Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland has said that this should be a top priority and that money should be made available for it, when he and his murdering thugs put those people away and hid their bodies?
Angela E. Smith: It is important that everyone should support the work to recover the remains of victims. I have met the families of ''The Disappeared'', and their suffering had a tremendous impact on me. They have gone through the anguish of not knowing what happened, and they cannot bury their loved ones or hold a service for them. Everybody in Northern Ireland and beyond should support them.
Mr. Jeffrey M. Donaldson (Lagan Valley) (DUP): Is it not ridiculous that the Government have to pay out British taxpayers' money to do a job that we all understand is necessary—to find the bodies of ''The Disappeared'' and to pay for the forensic expert—when Sinn Fein-IRA are robbing banks of £26 million and making no financial contribution to the process? Last week, some 30 years after the event, the IRA finally admitted to the murder of an innocent girl in Londonderry, yet the Government are paying millions of pounds for inquiries and commissions into what the Army and the police are supposed to have done. Is it not time that republicans stepped up to the mark, did the decent thing and told the truth about what they
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have done in Northern Ireland over the past 35 years—and, what is more, paid for it as well?
Angela E. Smith: I hope that anyone who has information on the whereabouts of ''The Disappeared'' provides it, because that is the only way the families can get any closure or settlement on the issue. Having spoken to them, I have some understanding of how they feel, although not being in that position we cannot fully understand. The British and Irish Governments have accepted their responsibility to do whatever they can to find the remains of ''The Disappeared''. We will continue to work to that end and to assist and help the families.
Lorely Burt (Solihull) (LD): What discussions have the two Governments had with Sinn Fein to encourage the IRA to give more precise information on the location of those remains that have not yet been recovered? What mechanisms are in place to ensure that further information extracted from the IRA is transmitted accurately and effectively to the forensic expert?
Angela E. Smith: It may be helpful if I say that the Secretary of State and my ministerial colleagues are in discussion with Ministers in the Republic so as to do whatever we can. Those discussions are ongoing.
Protestant Representation
5. Mr. Gregory Campbell (East Londonderry) (DUP): What steps he is taking to ensure appropriate representation of Protestants in the (a) Child Support Agency, (b) the general service grades of the Civil Service and (c) the Housing Executive in Northern Ireland. [7313]
Angela E. Smith: The Northern Ireland civil service, including the Child Support Agency and the Housing Executive, make their appointments on the basis of merit after fair and open competition. Both organisations seek to be representative of the communities that they serve, and as part of their wider equality work the community background profile of staff is carefully monitored.
Mr. Campbell: I thank the Minister for that pronouncement, but she should be aware that representation of Protestants in the general grades of the civil service, the Housing Executive and the CSA is less than 40 per cent. Of those now being recruited for those three organisations, which form a huge swathe of public sector employment, less than 30 per cent. are Protestant. What steps will the Government take to address that under-representation of the Protestant community?
Angela E. Smith: I can tell the hon. Gentleman that the civil service and the Housing Executive consult the Equality Commission on the actions required to address a balance in the work force or in recruitment practices. That is ongoing, to ensure that we have greater equality. We are aware of the under-representation of women and Catholics in senior civil service posts, at 22 and 29.7 per cent. respectively. Our recruitment exercises must send the strong message
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that we are determined to ensure openness, transparency and fairness at all levels.
Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab): Can the Minister enlighten us on whether Catholics are under-represented in any civil service departments?
Angela E. Smith: Across the civil service, we see the under-representation of Protestants in some areas and of Catholics in others. The senior civil service has an imbalance as to women, with a figure of 22 per cent. The figure for the Catholic community is 29 per cent. Elsewhere, such as in the Northern Ireland Housing Executive, general grades are 47 per cent. Protestant and 51 per cent. Roman Catholic. We are concerned about ensuring equality across the board, but if the process is also transparent and fair, and we work with the Equality Commission, we can make significant improvements.
Nuisance Behaviour
6. Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab): What measures the Government have taken to tackle low-level nuisance behaviour in Northern Ireland. [7314]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Mr. Shaun Woodward): The community safety strategy that was launched in 2003 sets out a framework for achieving a more co-ordinated approach to reducing crime, the fear of crime, antisocial behaviour and low-level neighbourhood disorder.
Community safety partnerships established in each district council across Northern Ireland have developed local strategies to tackle a wide range of community safety issues, including low-level nuisance behaviour. The Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Delyn (Mr. Hanson), has recently announced an extra £9 million to assist with that work.
Huw Irranca-Davies: I welcome the initiatives in Northern Ireland, not least the introduction of antisocial behaviour orders last summer. May I ask the Minister, whom I belatedly welcome to his post, what lessons may be learned from the English experience? Not least among them is ignoring the doomsayers who say that antisocial behaviour measures are totally out of proportion. When they are used effectively and well targeted, they are an effective tool—in Northern Ireland, Wales, England and elsewhere.
Mr. Woodward: I thank my hon. Friend for his kind remarks. It is clear that ASBOs are most effective when they are used by all agencies. Yesterday, my hon. Friend the Minister of State laid before Parliament a draft criminal justice order, which includes additional powers and procedures in relation to making antisocial behaviour orders. I believe that we can learn a great deal from England, although I do not want to pre-empt what my hon. Friend will say in debate on the draft order. Suffice it to say that the Government believe from their experience in England that ASBOs remain a necessary component of the overall response to the growing incidence of antisocial behaviour in Northern Ireland.
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Mr. David Lidington (Aylesbury) (Con): Will the Minister confirm that it is unacceptable for paramilitary groups to seek to impose their own form of policing and justice among those who may be guilty of low-level offences, but who need to be brought before a properly constituted court? Will he also confirm that it would be an essential precondition of any political settlement in Northern Ireland for paramilitary groups that wanted to take part in government to forswear completely those activities and to give the police and the criminal justice system their full support and recognition?
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