asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, in calculating the release date of a prisoner who is repatriated from abroad, they use the legislation which was in force at the time of the person's arrest, or at the time of his conviction or at the time of his repatriation. [HL818]

The release dates of repatriated prisoners are calculated on the basis of the legislation in force on the date on which the prisoner is repatriated, subject to the provisions of the Schedule to the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984 (as amended by Schedule 2 to the 1997 Crime (Sentences) Act).The warrants under which prisoners are repatriated may contain reference to two separate periods. The first is the balance to serve, which is deemed to be the prisoner's sentence in this country. The second, for prisoners for whom it is applicable, is a period used solely to calculate the parole eligibility date of the prisoner.In calculating the balance of the sentence remaining to be served by a prisoner following return to this country, account is taken of the time served abroad by the prisoner, including, where applicable, any remand time and any remission available to the prisoner. The resulting balance is administered in accordance with the relevant United Kingdom legislative provisions. Automatic release in the case of prisoners sentenced abroad to four years or more therefore occurs at the two-thirds point of the balance to serve, and, for prisoners sentenced abroad to less than four years, at the halfway point. Prisoners sentenced to periods of imprisonment abroad of four years or more are also eligible to be considered for discretionary release on licence (parole).As far as parole is concerned, it has always been the policy that a repatriated prisoner should be treated as if he had been sentenced here—i.e., he should become eligible for parole after having served one-half of his original term of imprisonment (or one-third in the case of prisoners sentenced prior to 1 October 1992). For the purposes of achieving this, it was the practice to specify in the warrant, for the purposes solely of calculating parole eligibility, a period equivalent to the time actually served by the prisoner abroad.Amendments made to the 1984 Act as a consequence of the introduction of the 1991 Criminal Justice Act resulted in anomalies with regard to the position of repatriated prisoners. In particular, the amendments linked parole eligibility and automatic release dates. As a consequence, specifying a period in the warrant for the purposes of calculating parole eligibility had the unintended effect of bringing forward the prisoner's automatic release date. Judicial reviews in 1995 and 1996 brought these difficulties to light for the first time. It also emerged that the parole eligibility dates of prisoners had not previously been calculated fully in accordance with the terms of the legislation.The difficulties identified in the legislation were corrected by means of amendments to the 1984 Act contained in Schedule 2 to the 1997 Crime (Sentences) Act. In the light of the amendments and the discovery that parole dates were not previously calculated entirely in accordance with the legislation, it has become clear that it is not always appropriate to specify in the warrant a period equivalent to the actual time served by the prisoner abroad since this does not always result in the correct parole eligibility date.Since 1 October 1997, therefore, normal policy has been to specify, for the purposes of calculating parole eligibility in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule to the 1984 Act, a period which ensures that the prisoner becomes eligible to be considered for parole after having served one-half (or one-third) of the original sentence. Each case is considered on an individual basis, taking into account the length of the original sentence, the time served abroad, and the balance to serve in this country.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, in cases of violent assault, criminal damage or theft perpetrated by mental patients released into the community prematurely or without adequate supervision, the victims are entitled to compensation; and, if so, from whom. [HL833]

For most practical purposes, the victims of mentally disordered offenders are treated in the same way as any other victims of crime. Those sustaining injury, loss or damage may be awarded compensation by the court as part of the sentence, or as the sentence, when an offender is convicted. Victims sustaining personal injury may be eligible for compensation under the criminal injuries compensation scheme. Victims may also seek damages in a civil action, or look to whatever insurance arrangements they may have made.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish data for Wales showing for all state schools, independent schools and all schools taken together, the percentage of all seven year-old pupils in each of the years 1994 to 1997 passing National Curriculum tests at level 2 or better together with the average level attained per pupil and the corresponding average subject age of pupils, calculated using the relationship between expected National Curriculum level and actual pupil age published by the Department for Education and Employment, in the following subjects; mathematics, reading (where appropriate, showing data separately for the reading task and the reading comprehension test) and writing, showing separately for state schools the percentages and averages for local education authority schools, voluntary schools (including together voluntary controlled, voluntary aided, and special agreement schools) and grant-maintained schools showing data separately for boys, girls and all pupils and including, for each category of school, the number of schools and the number of seven year-old pupils. [HL867]

Industrial action by teachers severely affected Key Stage 1 testing arrangements in Wales in 1994, and to a lesser extent, in 1995. As a result, no reliable figures can be compiled for 1994. Participation was higher in 1995 and national figures for Wales were published for all subjects apart from Welsh. The information requested is shown, as far as is possible, subject to ensuring the confidentiality of individual schools, in the following tables. These figures do not attempt to define an average level of pupil performance. There would be no correspondence between any such average and the National Curriculum level descriptions, which are designed to be rounded descriptions of performance. Pupil level results are not held centrally, so that average subject ages cannot be calculated.The Key Stage 1 results figures relate to children assessed at Key Stage 1: most, but not all, of these children will have become seven years old during the school year.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish data for Wales derived from the results of National Curriculum tests for Key Stage 1 for each of the years 1994 to 1997 showing for each current (1997) local education authority the total number of 7 year-old pupils in state primary schools, the number of such 7 year-old pupils obtaining each of levels 3, 2A, 2B, 2C and 1, together with the number of pupils failing to achieve level I for whatever reason and the average level attained per pupil for each of the tests for mathematics, reading (where appropriate, showing data separately for the reading task and the reading comprehensive test) and writing. [HL864]

Industrial action by teachers severely affected Key Stage 1 testing arrangements in Wales in 1994 and, to a lesser extent, in 1995. As a result, no reliable figures can be compiled for 1994. Participation was higher in 1995 and national figures for Wales were published for all subjects apart from Welsh. Percentage figures for individual local education authority areas were published in respect of the 1997 results. Figures for 1995 to 1997 have been compiled specially to answer this question and they have been compiled on the same basis as far as is possible as the published 1997 figures. Thus figures for all years shown in the following tables relate to local authority areas and so include both maintained and independent schools. The 1995 figures, which pre-date local government reorganisation in Wales and are based on a lower participation rate than the 1996 and 1997 figures, should be treated as estimates. These figures do not attempt to define an average level of pupil performance. There would be no correspondence between any such