asked Her Majesty's Government:What role they are playing in the current attempts to end the strife in the Sudan and what humanitarian assistance they are providing to the government of Uganda and to the United Nations in relation to the refugee camps for Sudanese.

We are in regular touch with all sides involved in the civil war. We continue to stress the need for a negotiated settlement. Since 1991 the UK has committed over £100 million bilaterally and through the EU to Sudan and Sudanese refugees. Of this, over £2 million has supported NGO programmes to help Sudanese refugees in Uganda. We are also a major contributor to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), whose programmes include assistance to Sudanese refugees in Uganda.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will take any further action to encourage wildlife in arable areas.

We intend to introduce a pilot incentive scheme to promote techniques of arable farming which might benefit wildlife across England.The objectives of the scheme will be to test the practicability of specific management measures and the extent to which they bring benefits for biodiversity, including farmland birds.We have listened carefully to advice from the National Agri-environment Forum, which we created last year. We are grateful for detailed proposals made by the Game Conservancy Trust, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and English Nature, which have been welcomed by a working group of the forum. Next month the Ministry will consult forum members on arrangements for the pilot scheme, which will take these proposals fully into account.The pilot scheme will be managed as a separate element of the Countryside Stewardship scheme, with farmers being offered five-year agreements to manage arable fields according to specific requirements. It will apply in one or more pilot areas of England. We intend to open the scheme to applications in spring 1998.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why they failed to consult the opposition parties about the successor to the Royal Yacht "Britannia" before announcing their decision to pay the full £60 million cost of the new "Britannia" from public funds.

The decision to replace the Royal Yacht was a Government procurement decision and is not a constitutional matter. It is not the practice to consult the Opposition about procurement decisions before they are announced.

asked the Chairman of Committees:Who were the unsuccessful bidders for the Palace of Westminster Message Handling Review and what were the sums involved in the unsuccessful bids.

The unsuccessful bidders were PA Consulting and Ernst & Young. For reasons of commercial sensitivity it is not the practice to reveal the sums involved in the unsuccessful bids.

asked the Chairman of Committees:How the figure of £144,667.18 for the total cost of the Palace of Westminster Message Handling Review was arrived at.

The cost of the Message Handling Review was made up entirely of consultants' time as agreed necessary to carry out the work required.

• The days agreed were:
• Managing Partner: 2 days
• Senior Consultant: 14 days
• Consultant: 60 days
• Consultant: 54 days.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What standards they have laid down to the Highways Agency for keeping Britain's motorways and trunk roads clean, tidy and free from litter and what arrangements exist to monitor that the standards are being met.

The Highways Agency, like any other litter authority in England, is required to keep its road network clean in accordance with the provisions laid down in the Environmental Protection Act 1990. This is specified in the agency's instruction to its network maintaining agents. The agency is the litter authority for all its motorways and for a small number of its strategic trunk roads. The district and borough councils in England are responsible for keeping the rest of the trunk roads clean.The agency monitors its motorways and trunk roads through a programme of regular inspections which are intended to ensure that standards of cleanliness are being met. The agency will also respond positively to any representations about compliance with the 1990 Act.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will legislate to allow compensation to be paid in Northern Ireland to victims of child sexual abuse who have since become adults; whether such legislation, bringing Northern Ireland into line with Scotland, England and Wales, is already in draft; approximately how many such cases are known; and what is the estimated cost.

The Government have no plans to change the criminal injuries compensation legislation in Northern Ireland, and no amending legislation has been drafted. The scheme is different in concept from that in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, awards are made on the quantum for common law damages cases, whereas in Great Britain compensation is paid on the basis of a statutory tariff, which results in generally lower level settlements than claims based on common law damages. There is also a two-year time limit on applications, as

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will state the number of United Kingdom owned and registered ships in excess of 500 tonnes gross weight in each of the 17 years up to the end of 1996.

The information on United Kingdom-owned and registered ships alone was not available prior to 1986. The information that is available is as follows:opposed to three years in Northern Ireland, although this can be waived by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority in certain circumstances. Also there is no right of appeal to the courts, which there is in Northern Ireland.Despite these differences, the Northern Ireland scheme already recognises that special relief is needed where children are involved. Where a victim is under 18 at the time of injury, there is discretion to waive the statutory time limit on making an application for compensation for up to three years after the victim's 18th birthday.The Compensation Agency is aware of some 82 cases of child sexual abuse which fall outside the statutory time limits, but not all of these would qualify for payment if the current limits were relaxed. On the information available at this time, it is likely that around 30 might qualify for payment, the total cost of which is estimated to be in the region of £450,000. This figure does not, however, include any provision to take account of the likelihood of other cases which have not yet come to light, and which make it impossible to quantify the total cost in public expenditure terms.