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in Scotland in nurseries, pre-school playgroups or other forms of education (a) at the latest available date, (b) five, (c) 10 and (d) 15 years ago, expressed numerically and as a percentage of the age group ; and if he will make a statement.Mr. Michael Forsyth : The numbers of children aged three and four years (at December each year) in nursery, special and primary schools in September 1972, 1977, 1982 and 1987 were 21,880, 40,570, 45,010 and 50,070 respectively which were 12.3, 28.4, 36.5 and 39.7 per cent. of the population respectively. In addition, in 1987 there were 43,430 places in pre-school playgroups and 4,470 in day nurseries, children's centres and family centres ; information on pupil numbers is not available for these establishments. It is estimated that in total about 80 per cent. of three and four-year-olds were involved in one of the above mentioned forms of activity in 1987.
Empty Properties
Mr. Gregory : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the most recent figure for empty local authority housing ; how many of these properties have been vacant for periods over six, 12 and 24 months, respectively ; and if he will make a statement.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : On the basis of information returned to the Scottish Development Department, some 23,000 local authority houses are estimated to have been vacant at the end of March 1988. Information on the length of vacancies is not collected in the form requested, but, of the 8,150 vacant houses estimated to be available for letting, approximately 1,500 had been vacant for more than six months.
I am concerned that, where possible, empty houses should be brought back into use and I have sought details of authorities' policies in this regard.
Health Service (Dismissals)
Dr. Godman : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what current procedures are in force concerning an appeal against dismissal, by a health board, of a consultant-surgeon ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : There are two avenues of appeal to the Secretary of State which are available to an NHS consultant dismissed by a health board. One, which is open only to senior medical and dental staff, is that set out under paragraph 190 of their terms and conditions of service. Under this the doctor remains suspended from duty until the appeal process is completed. The other procedure, which is open to all NHS staff, is that set out under section 40 of the general Whitley council agreements. This is normally invoked after dismissal has taken effect.
Rates
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list for each year from 1982-83 (a) the average rates and (b) the percentage annual increase in the average rates payable per household in Scotland.
Mr. Lang : The figures requested are shown in the table.
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|Average domestic rate|Percentage increase
|bill
|£
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1982-83 |309 |13.6
1983-84 |310 |0.1
1984-85 |328 |6.0
1985-86 |392 |19.5
1986-87 |417 |6.3
1987-88 |474 |13.8
1988-89 |495 |4.4
Rating Reform
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the organisations which have made representations concerning exemptions from the community charge for people with a severe mental impairment.
Mr. Lang : The following organisations with an interest in the exemption for the severely mentally impaired were consulted about the detailed provisions relating to that exemption :
Archdiocesan Council for the Mentally Handicapped
Association of Directors of Social Work
British Association of Social Workers
British Psychological Society (Scottish Branch of the Division of Clinical Psychology)
Church of Scotland Board of Social Responsibility
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
Health Board General Managers
Housing Corporations
Institute of Health Service Management (Scottish Division) Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
Psychiatric Nurses Association
Royal College of General Practitioners (Scottish Council) Royal College of Nursing
Royal College of Psychiatrists (Scottish Division)
Scottish Assessors' Association
Scottish Federation of Housing Associations
Scottish General Medical Services Committee
Scottish Society for Mental Handicap
In addition my right hon. and learned Friend has received representations or inquiries from :--
Alzheimers Scotland
ACORN Centre, Edinburgh
British Medical Association
Scottish Action on Dementia
and a number of Health Boards and other NHS organisations.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list by district council area the weekly net income level at which a single person with no dependants would lose entitlement to the community charge rebate.
Mr. Lang : This information is not available.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the number of adults who will be eligible for a community charge rebate.
Mr. Lang : It is estimated that over 1 million adults in Scotland will receive a community charge rebate.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the number of premises, broken down by community charge registration area, which have been designated as liable for the collective community charge.
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Mr. Lang : The number of designated premises included on the community charges register for each regional and islands council area as at 1 October 1988 was as follows :
|Number
------------------------------------
Borders |3
Central |n/a
Dumfries and Galloway |8
Fife |5
Grampian |n/a
Highland |6
Lothian |37
Strathclyde |40
Tayside |60
Orkney |0
Shetland |1
Western Isles |0
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to introduce flexibility in the application of the standard community charge multiplier.
Mr. Lang : Under section 10(7) of the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987, as amended by the Local Government Finance Act 1988, local authorities already have discretion to set the standard community charge multiplier at between one and two times the level of the personal community charge for their areas. There are no plans to introduce greater flexibility.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what advice he will give to private sector tenants who do not have registered rents and to private landlords regarding the abolition of domestic rates and the consequent reduction which should be made to the tenant's period charge following the removal of the rates element.
Mr. Lang : After 1 April this year private sector tenants whose accommodation charges include contributions towards their landlord's domestic rates bills will be entitled to a reduction in their payments to reflect the abolition of domestic rates. Landlords will have no right to ask for such contributions. Regulated tenants who do not have a registered rent at present will be able to enforce their right to lower payments by applying to the rent officer for their rent to be registered. They will then know by how much they should reduce their payments, because registered rents are net of any payments towards rates. Tenants in regulated tenancies will have a right to seek registration of a fair rent for as long as their tenancy lasts.
Tenants of assured tenancies taken out from 2 January this year will see from the written statement of the terms of their tenancy which their landlord is obliged by law to give them what reduction should be made in their payments from 1 April. Thereafter, prospective tenants will be able to ask the landlord what adjustment has been made to the total accommodation charge to take account of the rates element of the previous charge.
Tenants will therefore have full protection against unreasonable charges by landlords.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if single persons in prison will be liable for a standard community charge and community water charge in respect of a house they own, rent or lease during the period of their imprisonment ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lang : Where a prisoner's house ceases to be his sole or main residence and there is no one else solely or
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mainly resident there he will be liable to pay the standard community charge and the standard community water charge in respect of it.Public Spending
Mr. Gordon Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is his estimate of gross and net public sector capital spending by his Department by both central Government and local authorities for 1988-89, and for each of the next three years, at current prices and at constant 1987-88 prices.
Mr. Lang : Information on public expenditure in Scotland will be provided in the Scotland and supplementary analyses chapters of the public expenditure White Paper which will be published on Monday 30 January 1989.
Employment Training
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, what was the total number of employment training places (a) authorised and (b) filled on the latest date for which information is available.
Mr. Lang [holding answer 19 January 1989] : There is provision for 41,473 employment training places in 1988-89 once the programme is fully operational. On 13 January 1989, 12,497 places were filled by employment training trainees. A further 7,174 were filled by those continuing under community programme terms and conditions.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
City Technology Colleges
Mr. Amos : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will consider extending the establishment of city technology colleges to rural areas.
Mrs. Rumbold : The terms of section 105 of the Education Reform Act, under which we shall pay grant to CTCs, lay down that a CTC should be situated in an urban area because it is there that the expectations of parents and pupils of the education system are furthest from fulfilment. However, CTCs will have lessons for all schools in combating underachievement, in establishing closer links with employers, in the use of information technology throughout the curriculum and in more effective school management.
Pupil Numbers
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many children have been in fee-paying schools for the last three years for which figures are available.
Mr. Butcher : The total number of pupils attending non-maintained schools in England in 1986, 1987 and 1988 wre 526,000 538,000 and 547,000 respectively.
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his latest estimate of the proportion of children at school who are educated within the state education system.
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Mr. Butcher : In January 1988 the number of children attending maintained schools in England as a proportion of all children in school was 92.8 per cent.
History
Mr. Andrew F. Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he expects the curriculum working group on history to report ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Rumbold : I refer the hon. Member to the reply which my right hon. Friend gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Mr. Pawsey) on 13 January at column 762.
Truancy
Mr. Barry Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has any plans to provide national truancy statistics to enable comparison to be made between schools that have opted out and those that remain with the local education authority.
Mr. Butcher : My right hon. Friend has no plans to require local education authorities and governors of grant-maintaind schools to submit information to him on attendance levels. It will be for local education authorities and governers of grant-maintained schools to monitor attendance levels at their schools and to decide whether to publish information on attendance.
Higher Education
Mr. Wray : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many full-time students entered (a) university or (b) polytechnic courses for the first time in the academic year 1988-89.
Mr. Jackson : Provisional estimates for 1988 indicate that there were 87,000 full-time first year students, other than postgraduates, in universities and 124,000 in polytechnics and colleges in Great Britain.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the total amount spent, per capita, on children with special educational needs in each of the last five years at constant prices.
Mr. Butcher : The average net institutional expenditure per pupil in maintained special education for the five years to 1986-87, the last year for which information is available, is as follows :
Net institutional
expenditure per
pupil (£)
Special
education-England<1>
<2>
£ per pupil
1986-87 real
terms<3>
|£
--------------------
1982-83 |3,655
1983-84 |3,725
1984-85 |3,880
1985-86 |4,175
1986-87 |4,460
<1> The figures are
based on LEA
expenditure returns
to DOE and pupil
number returns to
DES.
<2> The figures
cover maintained
special schools,
home teaching,
individual teaching
in hospitals, other
special education
provided
other than at
school and
education in social
services
establishments
where this is
charged to the
education account.
Information on
expenditure on
pupils with special
needs educated in
primary and
secondary schools
is not available.
<3> The cash
figures for the
earlier years have
been repriced to
1986-87 prices
using the gross
domestic product (
market prices)
deflator.
ECCTIS and CATS
Dr. Hampson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the scale of operations cost and relationship of the educational counselling and credit transfer information system (ECCTIS) and the credit accumulation of transfer systems (CATS).
Mr. Jackson : The ECCTIS is a computerised information service funded by the Department of Education and Science at an estimated cost in 1988-89 of £789,000. Its main purpose is to provide prospective students with information about courses in further and higher education. It also contains a facility to provide information about credit transfer opportunities including, where available, the credit rating of certain courses included in its database. The credit rating information is provided by the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA) which runs CATS. The CNAA is an independent chartered body funded from fee income and CATS forms an integral part of the services which the council provides. I understand that the annual cost to the CNAA for CATS is of the order of £350,000.
AIDS
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what research is being undertaken in the United Kingdom on the effectiveness of anti-viral drugs in preventing or delaying the development of AIDS in people who are HIV positive ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Jackson : The Medical Research Council is conducting a clinical trial to test whether zidovudine (formerly known as AZT) benefits healthy HIV positive people. In the MRC's view, no other drug is yet developed enough to justify a trial. The MRC directed programme aims to develop anti- viral drugs and vaccines to prevent or delay the development of AIDS in people infected with HIV.
Medical Students (Drugs)
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will undertake research into the number of medical students who have taken cannabis or other addictive drugs.
Mr. Jackson : My right hon. Friend has no plans to initiate such research.
Residential Special Schools
Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will be providing additional financial support to inner London boroughs to maintain the Inner London education authority's residential special schools after transfer in April 1990.
Mrs. Rumbold : It is hoped that detailed decisions about the allocation of responsibility for these schools will be
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reached shortly. Like other local education authorities, from April 1990, the inner London councils will be operating under the financial arrangements established by the Local Government Finance Act 1988 ; in this context, the Government are currently consulting the local authority associations about a new simplified needs assessment for education.Marine Pollution
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the level of funding for research into marine pollution.
Mr. Jackson : The Natural Environment Research Council plans to undertake research relevant to marine pollution in the financial year 1989- 90 at a level of some £4.55 million, including the North sea project to study
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water quality. In the wider context, the co- ordinating committee on marine science and technology will report in due course on a national strategic framework for Government-funded marine science.Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Gordon Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of gross and net public sector capital spending by his Department by both central Government and local authorities for 1988-89 and for each of the next three years, at current prices and at constant 1987-88 prices.
Mrs. Rumbold : The estimated capital spending outturn for 1988-89 within the Department of Education and Science programme and planned provision for the next three years are as follows :
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|1988-89 estimated outturn|1989-90 plans |1990-91 plans |1991-92 plans
|£ million |£ million |£ million |£ million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cash
Local authority
gross |619 |545 |555 |563
net |461 |385 |394 |403
Central Government
gross |378 |494 |475 |481
net |371 |487 |466 |472
Real terms (1987-88 prices)
Local authority
gross |583 |489 |481 |473
net |434 |345 |341 |339
Central Government
gross |356 |443 |411 |404
net |349 |437 |403 |397
|1983-84 |1984-85 |1985-86 |1986-87 |1987-88
Stranmillis
New Starts |Nil |Nil |Nil |25 |Nil
Carry over |59 |35 |Nil |Nil |25
St. Mary's
New Starts |34 |25 |10 |29 |9
Carry over |77 |69 |56 |34 |29
Note:
The numbers of St. Joseph's college of Education are included with St. Mary's in respect of 1983-84 and 1984-85. The 2 colleges amalgamated on 1 September 1985 to form St. Mary's
college.
The Department does not hold any information about "independent" students who are not receiving student awards.
From 1989-90 the central Government figures include capital expenditure on the polytechnics and other higher education institutions transferring from the local education authorities to the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council sector.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Mater Hospital
Mr. Jim Marshall : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the Eastern health board's proposal to remove obstetrics from the Mater hospital.
Mr. Needham : This proposal is one of the recommendations of the eastern board's complementarity study which are currently the subject of consultation as part of the draft operational plan for 1989-90. When the board reaches conclusions on the study I shall want to discuss the implications for the Mater hospital with the chairman.
Prisoners (Working Out Scheme)
Mr. McCusker : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many prisoners in Northern Ireland have been processed through the working out scheme operated from Her Majesty's prison, Belfast during the past three years ; how many prisoners are currently working out ; how many are awaiting an opportunity to
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participate in the scheme ; what is the average waiting time for the scheme ; and if he will consider its extension to Her Majesty's prison Maze.Mr. Ian Stewart : During the thre-year period between 1 January 1986, and 31 December 1988, 71 indeterminate sentence prisoners were released on licence after completing a pre-release programme operated from Her Majesty's prison, Belfast. Thirty-eight prisoners are currently involved in the pre-release programme. Fifteen of them are working out of the prison each day and eight are working and living in the community, reporting to the prison at intervals.
There are no prisoners awaiting an opportunity to participate in the scheme. The practice is that once a provisional release date has been set by the Secretary of State the prisoner is informed and transferred to Belfast prison shortly afterwards.
There are no plans to move the pre-release unit from Belfast prison. The use of other prisons, including Maze, on an ad hoc basis has not, however been ruled out should the number of prisoners on pre-release exceed the capacity at Belfast.
Students Numbers
Mr. Eddie McGrady : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what were the student numbers in each year group of the bachelor of education honours in-service
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part-time degree courses in each of the years 1983-84 to 1987-88 in (a) Stranmillis college of education and (b) St. Mary's college of education, Belfast.Column 602
Dr. Mawhinney : The numbers of students receiving support from the Department of Education for Northern Ireland in each year are as follows :
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Table file CW890125.027 not available
Mr. McGrady : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what were the student numbers in the post-graduate certificate in education course in each of the years 1983-84 to 1987-88 in (a) Stranmillis college of education and (b) St. Mary's college of education, Belfast ;
(2) what were the student numbers in years 1 and 2 of the bachelor of education degree course in each of the years 1983-84, to 1987-88 in (a) Stranmillis college of education and (b) St. Mary's college of education, Belfast ;
(3) what were the student numbers in year 3 of the bachelor of education (a) honours and (b) pass degree course in each of the years 1983-84, to 1987-88 in (i) Stranmillis college of education and (ii) St. Mary's college of education, Belfast.
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