asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether any apologies were ever offered to General Pinochet following the non-disclosure of the connection between Amnesty International and Lord Hoffmann. [HL1127]

No apology was made directly to Senator Pinochet. However, I refer the noble Lord to the article in The Times on 9 February 1999, where I was accurately quoted as saying "What we are talking about here is an error of judgment … It is very, very unfortunate. It has never happened before this century and I don't believe that it will happen again in 100 years.". I am sure that would have been read by Senator Pinochet or his advisers.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What representations have been made to the Spanish Government following the disclosure of the medical report on General Pinochet. [HL1126]

Following receipt of a letter from Senator Pinochet's solicitors dated 16 February 2000 expressing concern about the leaking of the medical report in a Spanish newspaper, Home Office Officials wrote to the Crown Prosecution Service, as representatives of Spain, asking whether Spain could provide any information on how the report had been disclosed.A reply from the Spanish authorities on the same day indicated that enquiries which they had made did not make it possible for them to conclude that the leak had occurred in Spain, but expressed regret for any difficulty caused by the report's disclosure in the Spanish press.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, following receipt of the medical report on General Pinochet, it is appropriate that demonstrators should be allowed to bang drums outside General Pinochet's house and keep him awake. [HL1172]

The policing of demonstrations is an operational matter for the local police, and is not a matter in which government Ministers can intervene.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Senator Pinochet has been held on bail for 16 months pending proceedings pursuant to an extradition request received from the Kingdom of Spain. This length of time reflects the opportunities to mount legal challenges and appeals, of which the parties to the request have availed themselves.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are in touch with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights concerning alleged torture and rape by Russian forces in and near Chechnya; and whether they are studying reports on these matters that appear in

We are in regular contact with the UN High Commission for Human Rights concerning alleged human rights abuses in and around Chechnya. We are studying reports on such abuses from a number of sources, including from the UNHCR, the Council of Europe, NGOs and the media. During his recent visit to Moscow (22–23 February), the Foreign Secretary urged early contact between Mrs Robinson, the UN High Commissioner, and Mr Kalamanov, the recently appointed Russian president's special representative for human rights and civil liberties in Chechnya.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list the forthcoming business in the Council of the European Union for March; and whether they will list the major European Union events for the next six months. [HL1279]

See separate list.This calendar is primarily concerned with European Union matters, but certain other relevant events are also included. Events and dates quoted are based on the information available on the date of issue.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In which European Union countries, for the purpose of the Integrated Administration and Control System (IACS) of the Common Agricultural Policy, accurate field areas are supplied by national governments to farmers; in which countries farmers are expected to engage surveyors at their own expense to measure field area; and whether they believe that the practice should be uniform within the European Union or whether it should differ under the concept of subsidiarity of the Maastricht Treaty. [HL1079]

Agriculture ministries in most or all member states and regions of the European Union supply IACS claimants with area information about their land. This may take the form of a map, an aerial photograph, a printout showing areas of fields claimed in the previous year, or a combination of more than one of these. However, it is only farmers themselves who are in a position to determine the actual proportion of the total area of their land that they are entitled to use as the basis of their IACS claims each year, and throughout the EU it is they who are responsible for ascertaining what those areas are. The IACS regulations, rightly in the Government's view, do not prescribe uniformity in the determination of areas used for the basis of aid claims.Instead, member states have the option of allowing farmers to claim, where appropriate, the total area of a field as shown on an official map or alternatively the area actually utilised. The option of claiming the total field area has been of value to UK farmers, since it avoids the need for them to incur costs associated with determining actual cropped areas, but the European Commission has indicated that its continued availability can only be justified if the extent of uncropped areas around field margins is kept within reasonable limits.

asked Her Majesty's Government:

The Secretary of State for Health announced in another place on 2 December that the Government were broadly accepting one of the Royal Commission's main recommendations by establishing a National Care Standards Commission. We are also implementing several of the Royal Commission's other recommendations—such as extending direct payments to people over 65. We are looking at more costly changes as part of the Year 2000 Spending Review, which will be completed this summer. We will then publish a White Paper.A large number of representations to the Government on a variety of issues refer to long-term care. Nine hundred and eighty letters to the Department of Health have specifically focused on the Royal Commission's report. Many of the representations have broadly supported the recommendations in the Royal Commission's majority report; others have been critical and some have put forward alternative proposals. The Government will be exploring with the financial industry how they could best design long-term care insurance products to make them attractive to a wider audience.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many doctors, other than those who have reached retirement age, have ceased to work for the National Health Service in the years 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999; what percentage of working doctors this figure represents for the year in question; and what is the split of this figure between men and women doctors. [HL1216]

The information requested is not collected centrally.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What steps they are taking to encourage doctors who have ceased to work for the National Health Service, other than those who have retired, to return to National Health Service practice. [HL1217]

The Government are making progress on modernising services and modernising employment practice in the National Health Service to retain staff. We are developing more supportive, flexible and family friendly working practices; extending and improving investment in lifelong learning and professional development; tackling violence and racism in the workplace; and involving staff in the way services are delivered and in the changes and developments that affect their working lives.In particular, the salaried doctors scheme will enable doctors to work in general practice, who would otherwise have to buy into a practice: improvements to the general practitioner retainer scheme will increase the hours that GPs can work while out of mainstream employment and enhance the educational component to ease future reintegration into the workforce: and the Personal Medical Services Primary Care Act pilots will enable a flexible range of employment opportunities to be offered and the development of new ways in which services are delivered.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the average number of days of sickness absence taken by (a) nurses; (b) healthcare assistants and nursing auxiliaries; and (c) other employees, in each National Health Service Trust for each Health Service Region in the years 1998 and 1999. [HL1218]

The information available centrally is shown in the table. We have agreed national improvement targets in sickness absence rates of 20 per cent. by 2001 and 30 per cent. by 2003.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Which pilot schemes have been approved for the May 2000 local elections. [HL1146]

Provisional approval has been given to the schemes that follow. A final decision will be taken on each scheme once the Representation of the People Bill has received Royal Assent.

• Early voting
• Blackburn
• Blackpool Chester
• Coventry
• Kingston upon Hull
• Knowsley (three wards)
• Manchester
• Norwich^*
• Pendle
• Plymouth
• Redditch
• St Helens (six wards)
• Stoke on Trent
• Sunderland^*
• Telford and the Wrekin (two wards)
• Watford^*

• All-postal ballots
• Bolton (three wards)
• Doncaster (one ward)
• Gateshead (two wards)
• Norwich (two wards)^*
• Salford (one ward)^*
• Stevenage (two wards)
• Swindon (four wards)
• Wigan (three wards)

• Electronic Voting/counting
• Broxbourne
• Bury (one ward)
• Salford (two wards)^*
• Stratford on Avon
• Three Rivers
• Warrington

• Extension of postal vote entitlement
• Amber Valley (two wards)
• Eastleigh
• Gloucester (three wards)
• Milton Keynes

• Extension of hours of poll
• Leeds
• Mole Valley

• Mobile polling facility
• Norwich^*
• Sunderland (eight wards)^*
• Watford^*
• Windsor and Maidenhead (two wards)

• Weekend voting
• Watford^*

• Freepost
• Watford^*
• ^*Councils running more than one scheme.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will introduce a measure ensuring that police officers are given protection for the disclosure of information in the public interest equivalent to the protection given to workers to make a qualifying disclosure by the Employment Rights Act 1996 as amended by the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998. [HL 1176]

Guidance issued by my right honourable friend the Home Secretary to police forces under Sections 83 and 87 of the Police Act 1996 makes it clear that police officers have an obligation to disclose wrongdoing by others in the force, and that supervisors and managers should ensure that any officer who makes such a disclosure is not victimised, whether by act or omission. Any officer who is thought to have victimised another officer is liable to misconduct proceedings.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the meaning of (a) "racism" and (b) "xenophobia" in Article 29 (formerly Article K1) of the Treaty of Amsterdam. [HL 1147]

Article 29 of the Treaty of the European Union, as amended by the Treaty of Amsterdam, sets "preventing and combating racism and xenophobia" as an element in achieving the objective of providing citizens with "a high level of safety within an area of freedom, security and justice". The Treaty provides for no definition of the terms "racism" and "xenophobia". In the view of the United Kingdom Government, the terms are to be given their ordinarily accepted meaning, having regard to the context in which they are used. In Article 29, the terms are used more particularly in connection with the prevention and combat of crime.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What progress has been made on the Police Service Radio Communication Project. [HL 1282]

On 13 January, my right honourable friend the Home Secretary laid before Parliament a departmental minute notifying a non-statutory liability arising from the issue by the Police Information Technology Organisation (PITO) of a letter of instruction to proceed to British Telecom plc. This letter authorised them to invest in the project infrastructure, pending satisfactory conclusions of the final contract negotiations. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary can now confirm that yesterday evening PITO signed a contract with British Telecom plc for the provision of the Public Safety Radio Communications Service (PSRCS) to all police forces in England, Wales and Scotland. My right honourable friend the Home Secretary will be announcing shortly further details on the scope and timetable of the project.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the number of Afghan passengers who returned home after the recent hijack corresponded with the estimated number who left Afghanistan against their will. [HL1159]

Seventy-three people, including 15 members of the cabin crew, returned voluntarily to Afghanistan on 14 February. It would be wrong to speculate on whether this corresponds with the number who were victims of the hijacking.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have taken a decision in the case of Senator Pinochet. [HL1311]

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary expects to make a decision in the case of Senator Pinochet at 8 a.m. tomorrow. He will give full reasons for his decision.

asked her Majesty's Government:How many people applied for asylum in Northern Ireland in 1999: and how many were granted that status. [HL1163]

Information on the number of people applying for asylum in Northern Ireland and how many were granted that status is not separately identifiable within the statistics. The available information relates to total applications for asylum in the United Kingdom and those granted that status and can be accessed via the Internet at: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/index.htm

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they intend to seek the provision of suitable acommodation for those seeking asylum in Northern Ireland who are at present detained in Magilligan or Magheberry Prisons. [HL1164]

The number of persons in Norther Ireland who are seeking asylum and who are detained has always been small. The normal course of action has been to grant temporary admission or bail while their claim is under consideration. The Government have no plans to change this arrangement Because of the small number involved, the Government do not believe that a dedicated detention facility in Northern Ireland would be viable on cost or efficiency grounds. There are also considerable practical difficulties in segregating immigration detainees from prisoners at Magheberry and Magilligan. However, the Home Office and the Northern Ireland Prison Service recognise the difficulties of using prisons for people detained under the Immigration Act 1971 and plan to undertake a joint review of future provision of detention facilities in Northern Ireland. A meeting between the Immigration Service and the Northern Ireland Prison Service is scheduled to take place on 9 March.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish a table showing the number of applications for asylum received, the number granted, the number given exceptional leave to remain and the number rejected in respect of citizens of Turkey in each of the years 1997, 1998 and 1999, and the number of such applications outstanding at the end of each of those years. [HL1168]

The available information is given in the table.