Mr. William O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will provide details of the expenditure in each area health board for the past financial year in defending or responding to fair employment cases showing(a) the total number of cases and total damages paid as a result of a Fair Employment Commission/ Tribunal decision, (b) the number of cases and compensation paid to claimants who had lodged cases with the FEC/FET, (c) the number of cases and total compensation paid to members of staff who had indicated an intention of taking a case to the FEC/FET and (d) the total administrative costs, including legal and manage-ment costs, in defending or awarding complaints to the FEC/FET.
§ Mr. AncramThe information is as follows:
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Expenditure by the health boards on defending or responding to fair employment cases—1992–93 (a) Total number of cases and total damages paid as a result of an FEC/FET decision Board Number of cases Amount of damages Eastern Nil Nil Northern Nil Nil Southern 119 Nil Western Nil Nil 1 12 cases withdrawn, seven are still ongoing.
(b) Number of cases and compensation paid to claimants who had lodged cases with the FEC/FET Board Number of cases Compensation paid £ Eastern 5 73,000 Northern Nil Nil Southern 119 Nil Western 4 27,000 1 See (a). 2 One case from 1990 settled on 18 January 1993 (out of court).
(c) Number of cases and total compensation paid to members of staff who had indicated an intention of taking a case to the FEC/FET Board Number of cases Total compensation paid Eastern Nil Nil Northern Nil Nil Southern 119 Nil Western Nil Nil 1 See (a). (d) Total administrative costs, including legal and management costs, in defending or awarding complaints to the FEC/FET
It is not possible to determine any of the above costs because of the wide-ranging duties of the staff involved in these areas, and because of the number of people who become involved as a result of investigations of allegations of discrimination.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will specify the total amount of damages or compensation paid cases in which there was a no publicity clause and the number of times that such a clause was indicated in settlement terms of cases(a) held before the Fair Employment Commission/Tribunal, (b) lodged with the FEC/FET and (c) when it was intended a case was going to be brought before the FEC/FET.
§ Mr. AtkinsA "no publicity" clause has been included in 27 settlements where the applicant was assisted by the Fair Employment Commission. Six of these were settled during the course of the FET hearing; the remaining 21 were settled before the cases were heard by the FET.
As the parties to these settlements agreed to a "no publicity" clause, it would not be appropriate to publish details of the amount of the settlements reached.
Information is not available on whether there are any cases, not assisted by the Fair Employment Commission, which were settled on these terms.