§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer on 23 January 2002,Official Report, column 886W, on the UN World Conference against Racism, what the results of his consultation on drawing up a National Action Plan on 4 February were; what bodies were represented at the meeting; if he will place the notes of the meeting in the Library; what arrangements have been made for a follow-up meeting; what plans he has to make the WCAR report available to hon. Members; and what plans he has to debate the report and publicise UK support for the Declaration. [38306]
§ Mr. MacShaneOn 4 February, the Home Office held informal consultations with NGOs who had been involved in national consultations on the World Conference Against Racism, including the 1990 Trust, the Runnymede Trust, the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities, UNA-UK, the Churches Commission for Racial Justice and the Women's National Commission and representatives from the devolved administrations.
The purpose of the meeting was for Home Office officials to seek views on how work on the National Action Plan should be taken forward before putting advice to Ministers. The meeting's main concern was to ensure that a fully representative group of NGOs were consulted on the development and implementation of the plan and discussion focused around which organisations should be included. The Home Office is currently considering these proposals. As this meeting was informal, there are no plans to put a record in the Library of the House. There will be a further meeting of the informal group on 19 March.
The UK World Conference Against Racism report is available to hon. Members on the UN website (http://www.un.org/WCAR/aconf189_12pdf) which is accessible through the House Library.
We will of course inform hon. Members as soon as we have identified and agreed the best way to take forward work on the National Act Plan.