§ Mr. Silvesterasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information he has as to the number of individual applications made against each of the states which have accepted the right of individual petition under article 25 of the European convention on human rights for 1982, 1983 and 1984.
§ Mr. RentonAs the European Commission of Human Rights does not maintain a statistical record, broken down by country, showing the number of applications made against individual member states, no such information is available to me.
§ Mr. Silvesterasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the cost to Her Majesty's Government in the latest 12 months for which figures are available of dealing with individual applications against the United Kingdom lodged with the European Commission of Human Rights including those referred to the court.
§ Mr. RentonThe information is not available and can be compiled only at disproportionate cost.
§ Mr. Silvesterasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many cases have been referred to Her Majesty's Government for observations by the European Commission of Human Rights; and what is the subject matter of these cases.
§ Mr. RentonSince 1966 a total of 823 cases have been communicated to us by the European Commission of Human Rights.
In every case where the Commission has requested observations, these have been supplied. In some cases the Commission does not make a request and in others additional observations are submitted either at the request of the Commission or where the Government consider it appropriate.
Figures for the numbers of observations submitted over the period are not available.
§ Mr. Silvesterasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many cases arising from individual applications against the United Kingdom are currently known to be under consideration by the European Commission of Human Rights; and if he will briefly list the subject matter of each such case.
§ Mr. RentonA member state is not officially notified when an individual application is made against it to the European Commission of Human Rights. Such information becomes available only when the Commission communicates the case to the Government. At the end of 1984 a total of 132 cases against the United Kingdom were before the Commission. The subject matter of these was:
227W
Number Prisoners' complaints on conditions 18 Prisoners access to correspondence 4 Prisoners' letters censorship 27 Nationalisation compensation 2 Deportation orders 6 Refused entry to United Kingdom 11 Lease hold reform 2 Mental health detainees 6 Wardship cases 5 Corporal punishment 8 Freedom of expression 2 Unlawful detention 3 Immigrants rule 25 Video piracy 1 Trade union disputes 3 Sex change 3 Injury compensation 1 Criminal injury in Northern Ireland 1 Contempt of court 1 Compulsory purchase order 1 Aircraft noise 1 Legal aid 1 Total 132