asked Her Majesty's Government:Which of the health trusts in Northern Ireland bank with the Bank of Ireland; how much was paid to the Bank of Ireland in fees and charges by health trusts in Northern Ireland in each of the past five years; and when the bank accounts of these trusts are due to be renewed. [HL408]

All 19 health trusts in Northern Ireland bank with the Bank of Ireland.No bank fees or charges were paid to the Bank of Ireland by any health trust in any of the past five years.The bank accounts of these trusts are due to be renewed on 1 September 2005. There is an option in the contract with the Bank of Ireland to extend it for a further two years.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord Falconer of Thoroton on 13 December

The responses did not indicate how many serving judges would resign, but did not suggest that it might be a substantial number.

asked Her Majesty's Government:When they will reply to the letter from the Lord Faulkner of Worcester of 7 November to the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office about the application for British citizenship by Mr Ross Brans. [HL453]

As far as I am aware, the Home Office has not received this letter. We would be most happy to reply if the noble Lord would be kind enough to forward a copy to us.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is their response to the Lord Williams of Elvel's suggestion on 8 December (HL Deb, col. 909) that there should be a standard, included in prison audits, for the conduct of prison visits; and, if so, how they propose to introduce such a standard. [HL527]

Prison Service policy is for visits to take place in the most humane conditions possible. Prison guidelines stipulate that the duty to treat prisoners with humanity also applies to the treatment of families and other visitors, and they should be treated courteously and sensitively.The Prison Service has around 70 performance standards applying to all aspects of the management of prisons and prisoners, each comprising a number of measurable baselines that are audited regularly. The prisoners' family life standard currently contains 13 key audit baselines relating to social visits, including visiting arrangements and the provision of information to visitors.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much they are spending on the current round of anti-binge drinking advertisements. [HL533]

The Home Office is supporting work by police and trading standards, but is not currently running any advertisements on anti-binge drinking.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much additional money will be provided to (a) the Prison Service and (b) the Probation Service in 2005–06 to implement the strategy of addressing alcohol misuse. [HL537]

The strategy will be implemented within existing funding settlements within the Prison Service. The National Probation Directorate is developing a parallel strategy that will result in a consistent approach across the National Offender Management Service.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will extend the assessment of prisoners on reception from the identification of immediate need for the management of alcohol withdrawal to the risk of harm from drinking, by use of the Paddington alcohol test or a similar questionnaire which can be administered briefly. [HL539]

For prisoners who are assessed as not being physically dependent on alcohol upon reception, Prison Service guidance recommends the use of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT), which is similar to, but fuller than, the Paddington test.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, following the research conducted by Professor Karen Bryan on speech and language therapy for young people in prison under the auspices of the University of Surrey in collaboration with the Prison Service, they will screen young offenders for communication problems and provide therapy where appropriate. [HL538]

We will be studying the findings of Professor Bryan's report very carefully and will then consider any action that may be appropriate.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they consider it part of the function of the Criminal Cases Review Commission to investigate the following possibilities if brought to its attention in relation to a claim: (a) forensic evidence not presented at trial; (b) exculpatory evidence known about but not sufficiently highlighted at trial; (c) the creditability of confession evidence provided from a prison cell; (d) a mistaken direction by the trial judge; and (e) inconsistencies between evidence given at trial and evidence given at retrial. [HL599]

The commission may refer a conviction, verdict or finding to a court of appeal if it considers that there is a real possibility that the conviction, verdict or finding would not be upheld if the reference were made. The commission is responsible under the Criminal Appeal Act 1995 for interpreting "real possibility", and will generally be looking for evidence not adduced, or arguments not raised, in the proceedings that led to the conviction, verdict or finding, or in any appeal or application for leave to appeal. In exceptional circumstances, the commission can refer a conviction in the absence of such evidence and arguments. The commission can only refer a sentence to a court of appeal if it considers that it would not be upheld because of an argument on a point of law, or information, not so raised.In the exercise of its role to investigate miscarriages of justice, it would be part of the commission's function to investigate any of the possibilities to which the noble Earl refers.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list all infantry battalions in the British Army, indicating in respect of each the total number of persons currently serving and how many of these are female. [HL531]

The infantry battalions in the British Army as at 1 November 2004 are as listed in the table below.Females are not enlisted into the infantry (nor the Household Cavalry or the Royal Armoured Corps), though women may serve alongside the infantry as attached personnel. Therefore, the numbers shown in the table below refer only to male serving officers and soldiers.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What estimate they have made of the annual cost to government departments, agencies, non-executive bodies and local authorities arising from compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000 from 1 January 2005. [HL574]

Current estimates of the annual cost to government departments, agencies, non- executive bodies and local authorities from the full implementation of the Freedom of Information Act on 1 January are necessarily inexact.The Government's analysis of international experience shows that in some other jurisdictions which have introduced FoI legislation there has been an initial surge of requests by campaigners and the media followed by a decline, and then a rise in year two in the public use of the rights. The annual cost of implementation during the first year is unlikely to provide an accurate reflection of subsequent years. Likewise, different parts of the public sector will experience varying demand according to the nature of their current business. One local authority engaged in a high profile decision in a matter of public controversy could receive a large number of requests in correspondence generated by that business. A neighbouring authority without such a controversial piece of business may receive very few requests.The Government have always maintained that the costs of implementing FoI should be borne from existing resources and should act as a stimulus to better decision-making and to more efficient and cost-effective records and information management. For local, police and fire authorities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, increases in the revenue support grant will cover the new burdens of meeting costs of FoI.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What works of art including paintings and sculptures, were bought or commissioned by each government department in the past two years. [HL576]

The Government Art Collection (GAC) part of the Department for Culture, Media & Sport purchased the following works of art for its holdings during the Calendar Years 2003 and 2004:

asked Her Majesty's Government:What financial contribution, on a case-by-case basis, the use of 0870 telephone numbers makes to the budgets of government departments and agencies. [HL435]

This information is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much each government department spent on travel for its staff in the past two financial years, broken down by each method of transport. [HL577]

There is no centrally held record of expenditure on staff travel either by department or by mode of transport.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by the Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 3 November (WA 33). how many United Kingdom jobs are dependent on United Kingdom trade with countries outside the European Union; and upon what data their estimate is based. [HL562]

H M Treasury estimates suggest that around 3 million jobs are linked to UK trade with countries outside the European Union. This figure is calculated on the same basis as previous estimates of how many UK jobs are linked to trade with the EU. The analysis uses ONS data of exports of goods and services to the non-EU, GDP in market prices, UK workforce jobs, compensation of employees, and UK input-output analytical tables.

asked Her Majesty's Government:How much the 395 tonnes of gold sold by the Bank of England between 1999 and 2001 would raise if sold at the current price of gold as at 20 December. [HL575]

Attempting to sell 395 tonnes of gold over a short period of time would significantly distort the market price so it is not possible to give a meaningful estimate of what such a sale would raise. However, hypothetically, using the closing gold spot price on 20 December 2004 of 441.89 dollars per ounce, the value of 395 tonnes (32,105.747 ounces = tonne) would be 5.6 billion dollars or around £2.9 billion.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD), in considering whether to grant cover for contracts forming part of the Baku-Tbilisi- Ceyhan pipeline project, investigated whether the project complied with local law as defined by the host government agreements for the project; whether the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development guidelines on multinational enterprises formed part of the legal regime for the project; and whether the guidelines fell within the main criteria applied by the ECGD in making its assessment of the project. [HL541]

ECGD carried out a full and thorough due diligence on all local law aspects in respect of the Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline project.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guidelines on multinational enterprises did not form part of the local legal regime for the project. However, BTC Co is contractually committed to complying with the guidelines.The OECD guidelines on multinational enterprises were not amongst the main criteria applied by ECGD in making its assessment of the BTC project. However ECGD reached its decision to provide cover only after a very thorough appraisal of all aspects of the project, including the environmental, social and human rights impacts.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What funds are being made available for the implementation of the national alcohol strategy. [HL397]

Primary care trusts are responsible for providing their populations with healthcare and deciding how to configure local services to meet the needs of local residents. Overall expenditure plans for the National Health Service indicate an average annual increase of 7.3 per cent, in real terms between 2002–03 and 2007–08, a total increase of 42 per cent, in real terms over the period.

asked Her Majesty's Government:What financial and non-financial support is available to schemes which help prevent misuse of designated disabled parking spaces by able bodied drivers. [HL580]

The Government have offered their support to Baywatch, a coalition of the major supermarkets and disability organisations (including the Disabled Drivers' Association and the Disabled Drivers' Motoring Club), who are committed to encouraging more protection of disabled persons' parking bays in retail car parks from abuse by non-disabled drivers. The Department for Transport has provided funding for the campaign's recent initiative to raise awareness of disabled persons' parking bays in supermarket car parks. Officials have worked closely with representatives of the campaign and are considering a report on the initiative before discussing with them how best to take it forward.In respect of the blue badge scheme of parking concessions for disabled people there are a wide variety of powers available to local authorities, who are responsible for administering the scheme, to tackle misuse of disabled persons' parking spaces and abuse of the badge itself.In respect of disabled persons parking bays:it is an offence under Section 47 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 to park a vehicle which is not displaying a badge in a designated disabled persons' parking bay.In terms of the badge:it is an offence under Section 117 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 for the badge itself to be misused by a non-disabled person, the maximum fine on conviction being £1,000;local authorities have powers to withdraw a badge if the holder constantly misuses it or allows it to be misused by others.The issues of misuse and abuse of badges were considered during a recent comprehensive review of the scheme, which concluded with 47 recommendations (including a number of enforcement measures) from DfT's statutory advisers, the Disabled Persons' Transport Advisory Committee. The majority of the recommendations have been accepted by the Government and are being taken forward. The enforcement measures include an important power for the police, traffic wardens and local authority parking enforcement officers to inspect badges to check details and the photograph of the badge holder. Additionally, consideration is being given to the feasibility of establishing a national database of badge holders.Provision for a power to inspect badges was included in the Traffic Management Act 2004. It will be implemented by commencement order this year. This will allow time for guidance to be prepared and issued to those who will be using the power. It has always been the Government's intention to implement all the changes at the earliest opportunity.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Where the waste from domestic and freight flights to Newcastle Airport was disposed of prior to February 2001; and where it is disposed of currently. [HL608]

I understand from Newcastle International Airport that its waste management contractors dispose of general waste from incoming aircraft at a number of landfill sites. For the period from May 1999 to May 2004 these included St Bedes, Holystone and Brenkley, but most such material currently goes to Houghton Quarry. Waste material from aircraft lavatories is disposed of via the foul sewer.

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether there were any direct passenger or freight flights to the United Kingdom from South Africa via Newcastle Airport between January 2000 and February 2001. [HL610]

The Department for Transport is not aware of any direct passenger or freight flights between South Africa and Newcastle Airport since January 2000.