§ Ann ClwydTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the case load of the European Court of Human Rights, including registered applications; what was the average time between a case being referred to the European Court of Human Rights and judgment in the last three years; what monetary contribution the UK Government make towards the expenditure of the European Court of Human Rights; and whether the budgeting expenditure for the European Court of Human Rights is sufficient to enable the Court to determine cases within the two year time limit set down by the Court. [3228]
§ Mr. MacShaneFigures provided by the Court's Registry indicate that the case load is 17,329 as of March 2001 and the average time between referral of a case and judgment is approximately three years. The Court aspires to reduce this to two years, but the set limit remains three years. This limit has been exceeded in about one third of the applications pending. The Court's budget is an integral pant of the Council of Europe budget, of which the UK share is 12.7 per cent. In 2001, some £2 million of the UK total contribution went to the Court. HMG are actively supporting the work of the Evaluation Group which has been established to consider all potential means to guarantee the Court's continued effectiveness in the face of rapid growth in the number of applications to it. The 45W Group's recommendations, due in September, are likely to include proposals requiring an increase in the Court's budget.