§ Mr. KeetchTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many sexual discrimination cases involving his Department are pending before(a) the European Court of Justice and (b) the European Court of Human Rights. [97666]
§ Mr. SpellarThere are no cases pending before either Court.
§ Mr. KeetchTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many sexual discrimination cases have been brought against his Department in industrial tribunals since 1 February 1995; in how many such cases rulings were made against his Department; how much financial compensation was paid in each case; and how many cases are awaiting decision. [97668]
§ Mr. SpellarThe information requested relating to Industrial (now Employment) Tribunal applications together with details of compensation paid is available only for applications made by serving members, or former members, of the Armed Forces, since 1996–1997 when complete records began to be kept. The information provided does not include those applications submitted by MOD civilian and former civilian staff to Employment Tribunals, for which information is not held centrally.
Legal advice is taken on all cases and where a thorough and objective assessment of the case proves that there is a legal liability to pay compensation we do so. In such cases, the Ministry of Defence would hope to avoid cases proceeding to a full Tribunal hearing. My Department is currently handling 35 Employment Tribunal cases for sexual discrimination, two of which have been listed for full hearings.
The following figures exclude Employment Tribunal applications from those Servicewomen who were obliged to leave the Services on grounds of pregnancy. All 5,038 of these claims received have been settled in full at a cost of £60,279,782.
407W
Number of Employment Tribunal applications received in period Number of Employment Tribunal cases settled/ repudiated in period Compensation paid in period (£) 1996–97 58 15 settled 15 repudiated 260,000 1997–98 57 16 settled 25 repudiated 271,000 1998–99 25 14 settled 20 repudiated 425,000 1999–20001 12 1 settled 7 repudiated 1,000 1 To 4 November 1999
§ Mr. KeetchTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many sexual discrimination complaints against his Department since 1 February 1995(a) have been made under service redress procedures, (b) were upheld by his Department at that stage, (c) came before industrial tribunals, (d) came before the European Court of Justice and (e) came before the European Court of Human Rights. [97664]
§ Mr. SpellarI will write to the hon. Member and a copy of my letter will be placed in the Library of the House.