HC Deb 26 February 2002 vol 380 c1190W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 29 January 2002,Official Report, column 255W, what the total area in square feet of all empty properties owned by (a) his Department, (b) his agencies and (c) other public bodies for which he has had responsibility was in each year since May 1997. [37912]

Mr. Wills

In the written answer that I gave to the hon. Member on 29 January 2002,Official Report, column 255W, I confirmed that the Lord Chancellor's Department has owned no empty properties in the last four years. The Court Service and the Northern Ireland Court Service have owned a total of 17 properties which have empty at some point over the last four years. In all cases these buildings were empty only while being marketed for sale, except in one case where the building was empty prior to conversion. The total area in square feet of the empty properties in each of the last four financial years is shown in the table:

Period Total area (square feet)
1997–98 38,929.07
1998–99 45,841.95
1999–2000 51,526.82
2000–01 61,108.90