asked the Chairman of Committees:When medical screening for Members of the House will be introduced. [HL4599]

The House agreed last year that each Member of the House should be offered free medical screening once every three years on a rolling basis. The service will begin on 10 June 2002, under contract with St Thomas' Hospital. Screenings and follow-up interviews will take place in the premises of the Occupational Health and Welfare Service, which will start issuing invitations to Members to make appointments shortly.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How they assess the risks that exports of arms and equipment licensed to the following countries may be diverted:

We assess all export licence applications on a case-by-case basis against the consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria. The consolidated criteria clearly state that we would not issue licences where there is a risk that exports might be diverted to undesirable end-users. The criteria were set out in the answer given by my right honourable friend the Member for Neath to my honourable friend the Member for Crawley on 26 October 2000 (Official Report, Commons; col. 199–203W).To assess the risk of diversion we examine open and sensitive source reports, and classified reports from our posts overseas. We have introduced a number of safeguards in order to minimise the risk of diversion; and those measures are under constant review. We do not disclose specific details of our safeguards, as they largely depend on information obtained from sensitive sources which is exempt from disclosure under part 2 section 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

asked Her Majesty's Government:In the light of recommendation 6.5 in the review of Korner Community Health Services and Cross Sector Returns (November 2000) that commissioners who use "total contacts" should move to more appropriate measures, how many commissioners have now moved to different systems of measurement; and what these systems are. [HL4390]

Commissioners, the professions and the Department of Health used total face-to-face contacts as a measure of activity levels. However the review group report on Korner Community Health Services and Cross Sector Returns details the weaknesses of using total contacts with patients as, for example, they represent only a small part of work done and there is no measure of quality of care or outcome. Collection of this information was also seen as particularly burdensome by the professional groups involved in the review. For these reasons, total face-to-face contacts were judged to be ill suited as a measure of workload and the review group recommended that the count of total face-to-face contacts should be abandoned. This recommendation was accepted by Ministers and collection of information about total face-to-face contacts was discontinued for 2000–01.Information about first contacts, the number of patients seen in a financial year, and initial contacts, the number of episodes of care in a year, were seen as more useful measures of activity and the review group's recommendation that these should be retained was also accepted by Ministers.The review group report also urged commissioners who use total face-to-face contacts to take the opportunity to consider and move to more appropriate measures of activity. This was regarded as a matter for local commissioners and service providers to determine and agree between themselves with due regard to local circumstances. The department has not collected information about these local commissioning arrangements and information about the numbers of commissioners who have moved to different systems of measurement, and what these systems are, is therefore not available centrally. Furthermore, the department would not seek to impose an additional data collection of this nature on the National Health Service where there is no central requirement for the information.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the information contained in paragraphs 28.38 to 28.41 of the Gambling Review Body's report (Cm 5207) was supplied to the review body by government officials. [HL4436]

Home Office officials made a summary of the department's view of Pronto lotteries available to the review body's secretariat. But is it not possible to say what information the review body, which was independent of the Government, drew on in preparing its report.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What research evidence they have to show that society lotteries with frequent draws have resulted in "uncontrolled or excessive play carrying risks encouraging problem gambling"; and whether they will place that research evidence in the Library of the House. [HL4437]

The Government are aware of no research evidence on this issue beyond what is set out in the review body's report.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will now publish the four submissions out of three hundred to the Gambling Review Body expressing concern about frequent draw lotteries; and whether they will place them in the Library of the House. [HL4438]

Copies of all submissions to the Government about the review body's report are already in the Library of the House. The four submissions expressing concern about frequent draw lotteries came from the Methodist Church, Camelot, Carlton Clubs and Rank.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether Sir Alan Budd and his colleagues were shown the results of the frequent draw society lotteries in the possession of the Home Office; if not, why not; and whether officials had concluded that those results contained no evidence of uncontrolled or excessive play, over a period of nine months in 800 pubs. [HL4439]

Inter Lotto (UK), of which the noble Lord was chairman, provided information about Pronto sales in 1997–98 to the Home Office. It was not possible to draw firm conclusions from this information about how individuals were playing Pronto. The Home Office did not provide this information to the Gambling Review Body, on the basis that it was open to Inter Lotto (UK) to do so if it had thought that information to be material, the review body having published at the outset of its work a general invitation to interested bodies to submit evidence.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why, in the light of the evidence contained in Chapter 17 of the Gambling Review Body's report (Cm 5207), they are not planning to restrict slot machines while at the same time they are seeking to ban society lotteries with frequent draws. [HL4440]

The Government have made detailed plans for the future regulation of gaming machines and have set them out in A Safe Bet for Success (Cm 5397). The maximum prize from a gaming machine in a public house is £25 and it will remain at that level. We have recently laid regulations which will increase the maximum possible prize from a society lottery to £200,000.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have any plans to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Union of the Crowns. [HL3523]

The Government have presently no plans to do so.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many jobs were created or safeguarded in the United Kingdom in the year ending 31st March 2002; and [HL4515]

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How they will mark the murders of members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and Royal Ulster Constabulary Reserve since 1969. [HL4423]

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland has provided for the establishment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC Foundation to mark the sacrifices and honour the achievements of the RUC.One of the functions of the foundation is to oversee development of a Garden of Remembrance and a new RUC Museum—this will draw together both projects into a complete "RUC experience" where visitors can reflect on the sacrifices of the RUC as they walk through the Memorial Garden and visit the many exhibits and displays about the RUC and its history in the Museum.Tragically, murdered officers leave behind bereft family and friends, and the foundation will undertake joint initiatives with the Widow's Association, Disabled Police Officers' Association and other members of the police family.Just as the families will never forget their loved ones, the Government will remember the ultimate sacrifice those murdered officers gave to this community.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Privy Seal on 13 May

The Acting Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland has confirmed that all staff (including catering staff) working at the Castlereagh police complex are security cleared. The arrangements for this security clearance are in accordance with existing best practice.