§ Mr. LivseyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many times the European Committee of the Regions has met in the last two years; if he will list the attendance record of each of the United Kingdom's representatives on the committee; and if he will make a statement. [9833]
§ Mr. Doug HendersonThere are usually five plenary sessions of the European Union Committee of the Regions each year.
The United Kingdom has 24 full and 24 alternate members of the CoR. When a full member is unable to attend, an alternate member may do so. The UK is rarely represented by less than 24 full or alternate members.
We do not hold up-to-date attendance records for UK members. However, figures provided by the Local Government International Bureau show that for the 10 plenary sessions held up to September 1996 UK members attended as follows:
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Full members Attendance Dame Elizabeth Anson 9 David Bellotti 9 Albert Bore 10 Lord Bowness 9 Simon Day 8 Lady Josie Farrington 8 Robert Eccles 11 George Gill 10 Toby Harris 6(5) Christopher Penn 10 Dennis Pettitt 8 Janet Sillett 7 Lord Tope 9 Colin Warbrick 10 Daniel Coffey 7 Charles Gray 9 Rosemary McKenna 9
Full members Attendance Duncan McPherson 8 Brian Meek 8(7) John Evans 9 Lord Kenyon 10 Eurig Wyn 8 Reg Empey 10(9) Denis Haughey 9(8) In some cases attendance records are incomplete. In these cases the confirmed figure is shown in brackets.
1 Robert Eccles took up membership during 1996.
Alternate members Attendance John Battye 0 Kenneth Bodfish 7 Peter Cocks 1 Doreen Fleming 1 Elgar Jenkins 0 Fraser Mitchell 0 John Morgan 0 Sally Powell 5 Tony Prior 0 Hedley Salt 0 Peter Soulsby 4 Ian Swithenbank 0 Paul White 3 Milner Whiteman 4 Keith Geddes 2 Marcus Humphrey 2 Jean McFadden 1 Peter Peacock 1 Clive Sneddon 1 Jill Evans 3 Keith Griffiths 1 Bill Hughes 1 Simpson Gibson 0 Sean Neeson 1 Figures are based on information provided by the Local Government International Bureau.