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Local Government Councillors
Mr. McCartney : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what powers he has to take action against local government councillors who receive financial or pecuniary benefit or advantage for their elected office.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : None.
It is an offence for a councillor who has not received a dispensation to speak or vote on any matter in which he or she has a pecuniary interest. Prosecution of such offences rests with the Crown prosecution service.
Mr. McCartney : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what categories of councillors' expenses are deemed to be personal income ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Councillors may become entitled to attendance allowance, financial loss allowance, special responsibility allowance, and travel and subsistence allowance. Where these allowances are not to
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reimburse expenditure or loss incurred wholly, necessarily and exclusively in the performance of the councillor's duties, they may be treated as personal income for tax and social security benefit purposes.Cryptosporidia
Mr. Raffan : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the Government will be taking any further steps in respect of cryptosporidia in water supplies.
Mr. Howard : Thames Water has been dealing with a problem relating to cryptosporidia in water supplies in the Oxford and Swindon area. As a precaution, Thames Water extended special sampling to other parts of its area and by the end of last week a number of the organisms had been identified intermittently at some other water treatment works. However, no link has been established between currently reported cases of cryptosporidiosis and drinking water supplies outside the Oxford and Swindon areas and the Department of Health has advised that there is no need for consumers to take any special precautions. Thames Water is taking action aimed at removing the organisms from these additional supplies and will continue with intensive sampling. They also propose to undertake an independently led review aimed at learning lessons from the experience. This information was announced in a press release by Thames Water last Saturday.
In view of the absence of information on cryptosporidia in water supplies, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, in consultation with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health, has decided to establish a group of experts under the chairmanship of Sir John Badenoch to advise on the subject. The group will consider the extent to which this organism may be present in water supplies, the monitoring methods necessary to detect it, the public health significance of its presence and whether any action is necessary.
Bathing Waters
Dr. Cunningham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of designated bathing waters were tested for the presence of enteroviruses during 1988 ; and what proportion complied with the European Community bathing water directive.
Mr. Ridley [holding answer 28 February 1989] : Of the 380 waters identified under the EC bathing water directive in England, Northern Ireland and Wales, 164 were monitored for the enterovirus parameter and of these 42 per cent. met the directive's zero enterovirus standard. Monitoring for enteroviruses is required under the directive only if inspection of the bathing water indicates that they are present or if the quality of water has deteriorated. Enteroviruses are ubiquitous in the water environment and may arise not only from sewage but from birds and animals. In some circumstances it may, therefore, be impossible in practice to meet the zero standard. This is one of the issues likely to be considered in the review of the bathing water directive which has been proposed by the European Commission.
Business Rate
Dr. Cunningham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report figures, based on tables 1 to 5 of the Non-Domestic
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Rating : Transition consultation paper published on 15 February, showing separately the effects of (a) the revaluation and (b) the introduction of a unified business rate.Mr. Ridley [holding answer 21 February 1989] : The information is set out in the tables. It must be emphasised that it is based on a preliminary sample survey of the effects of the revaluation of non-domestic properties and the introduction of a uniform business rate (UBR). The new valuations supplied for the sample of properties were best estimates, and not actual revaluations. The results therefore need to be interpreted with caution.
As in the consultation paper the tables are all in 1988-89 prices. They break down the aggregate figures, to show first the effect of introducing a uniform business rate with no revaluation and second the effect of the revaluation with the UBR in place. The tables given here exclude the effects of the transitional arrangements for the new system. Table 3, and part of table 5, of the consultation paper show the effects of the transitional arrangements, which will apply to the total changes in rate bills, and are not defined in a way which enables their effect to be disaggregated between the introduction of the uniform business rate and the revaluation.
Columns and rows may not sum due to rounding in these and the original tables.
|c|Table 1A|c|
|c|Amounts of overall increases and reductions in rate bills|c|
|c|(excluding effect of transitional arrangements)|c|
|Aggregate reduction (-) |Net change on UBR |Net change on revaluation
|increase (+)
|£ million |£ million |£ million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
England
Gainers |-1,550 |-360 |-1,190
Little change
(less than 5 per cent.) |-4 |+41 |-45
Losers |+1,550 |+315 |+1,235
Wales
Gainers |-40 |-3 |-39
Little change
(less than 5 per cent.) |- |- |-
Losers |+40 |+3 |+40
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|c|Table 2A|c|
|c|Distribution of overall change in rate bills|c|
|c|(excluding effect of transitional arrangements)|c|
|Change in rate bill: |Net change on UBR |Net change on revaluation
|reduction (-) increase
|()
|£ million |£ million |£ million
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
England
Reductions
50 per cent. or more |-570 |-150 |-420
5 per cent.
to 50 per cent. |-980 |-210 |-760
Little change
(less than +- 5 per cent.)-4 |41 |-45
Increases
5 per cent.
to 50 per cent. |460 |200 |260
50 per cent.
to 100 per cent. |450 |50 |400
100 per cent. or more |650 |70 |580
Wales
Reductions
50 per cent. or more |-12 |-11
5 per cent.
to 50 per cent. |-30 |-3 |-27
Little change
(less than 5 per cent.) |- |- |-
Increases
5 per cent.
to 50 per cent. |+18 |+2 |+16
50 per cent.
to 100 per cent. |+16 |- |+15
100 per cent. or more |+8 |- |+8
|c|Table 4A: Possible change in rate bills by property type, England|c|
|c|and Wales (excluding effect of transitional arrangements)|c|
Property Type |Overall reduction (-) |Net change on UBR |Net change on revaluation
|increase (+) in rate
|bill
|per cent |per cent |per cent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
England
Factories |-25 |-8 |-18
Warehouses |-12 |-4 |-8
Shops |+14 |-3 |+17
Offices |+14 |+20 |-5
Other properties |+7 |-3 |+10
Wales
Factories |-16 |-3 |-14
Warehouses |-9 |+2 |-10
Shops |+18 |0 |+18
Offices |+5 |+4 |+1
Other properties |+6 |+1 |+5
|c|Table 5A:Projected changes in rate bills by region, England|c|
|c|(excluding effects of transitional arrangements.)|c|
Region |Overall reduction (-) |Net change on UBR |Net change on revaluation
|increase (+)
|£ million |£ million |£ million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North West |-310 |-160 |-150
West Midlands |-200 |-20 |-180
East Midlands |-130 |-70 |-60
Yorkshire and Humberside |-150 |-150 |0
Northern |-50 |-100 |+50
East Anglia |+40 |+10 |+30
South West |+130 |-20 |+150
Inner London |+390 |+460 |-70
Outer London |+50 |+80 |-30
Rest of the South East |+230 |-10 |+250
Rating Reform
Mr. Barry Porter : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list in the Official Report the estimate of the community charge his Department expects for the district councils in (a) Merseyside, (b) Greater Manchester, (c) Lancashire and (d) Greater London.
Mr. Gummer : The Government have made no estimates of future community charges. Illustrative figures were published on 23 June showing what the community charge would have been in each area had the new system been in force in 1988-89. Those illustrative figures assume existing levels of spending and existing local authority responsibilities.
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Local Authorities (Finance)
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the losses sustained to date by individual local authorities from open and closed transactions involving interest rate swaps and other money market futures and option contracts.
Mr. Gummer : This information is not available from the regular financial returns which are made by authorities and we do not have full information from other sources for any individual authority. I suggest my hon. Friend asks for details from councils engaging in this business who no doubt will want to be fully publicly accountable.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
EC Council Meeting
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what issues he expects to raise at the next European Community Council meeting.
Mrs. Chalker : I assume that the hon. Member is referring to the Foreign Affairs Council. The next meeting will be on 20-21 March. The agenda is expected to include consideration of the way forward in the GATT Uruguay round negotiations, and the relationship between the Community and the Council of Europe. A ministerial meeting with the EFTA countries will be held in the margins. Measures to tackle EC fraud are expected to be discussed in ECOFIN on 13 March.
Nuclear Disarmament
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the United Kingdom is party to any international agreement requiring the United Kingdom to be involved in nuclear disarmament negotiations.
Mrs. Chalker : Article VI of the non-proliferation treaty, to which the United Kingdom is a party, requires each of the parties to undertake to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control. Our policy in respect of this article is contained in the answer given to the hon. Member by my hon. Friend the Minister of State (Mr. Waldegrave) on 8 December, at col. 316- 17.
Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, during his recent trip to Japan, he had the opportunity to discuss with other foreign ministers or heads of state current progress on the strengthening of the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty and plans for the first preparatory committee for the 1990 non-proliferation treaty review conference, to be held on 1 to 5 May.
Mrs. Chalker : On this occasion, no. However, we regularly take the opportunity to discuss with other governments the strengthening of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, and are actively pursuing with other
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states the parties' preparations for the first preparatory committee for the 1990 non-proliferation treaty review conference.Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to instruct the United Kingdom delegation to the first preparatory committee meeting, to be held on 1 to 5 May, for the 1990 fourth review conference of the non- proliferation treaty, to negotiate full observer status for the European proliferation information centre to attend the 1990 review conference.
Mrs. Chalker : We have not yet received any such request from the European proliferation information centre (EPIC). However, as a recognised non-governmental organisation, the EPIC was granted observer status at the 1985 non-proliferation treaty review conference. If similar rules of procedure are adopted at the 1990 review conference, there should be no objection to EPIC attendance as observers.
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what occasion ministers or officials of his Department last raised the question of accession to the nuclear non- proliferation treaty by France and the People's Republic of China, respectively, with ministers or officials of those states.
Mrs. Chalker : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 20 February by my hon. Friend the Minister of State at column 472 .
Disarmament Conference
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if his Department received any invitations to send delegates or observers to the conference on conventional and non-nuclear disarmament at the polytechnic of the south bank organised by the British Peace Assembly.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Ms. Lestor : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the total amount of official debt owed to the United Kingdom by each country in sub-Saharan Africa ; and what proportion of their total official debt this represents.
Mrs. Chalker : Following the cancellation of £275 million of old aid debts for sub-Saharan Africa, remaining debt to ODA is insignificant. Debt owed to ECGD by sub-Saharan African countries as at 31 December 1988 was £1.868 billion (equivalent to about $3.25 billion at today's exchange rate). This amounts to around 4.5 per cent. of the $71.9 billion estimated in the IMF's October 1988 world economic outlook as sub- Saharan Africa's total long-term debt in 1988 to official creditors (including the international financial institutions except the IMF). Figures for debts owed to ECGD by individual countries are not published.
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TRANSPORT
Bus Services (Rural Area)
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what evidence he has received on the effect of the Transport Act 1985 on bus services in rural areas.
Mr. Portillo : Studies conducted for the Department's transport and road research laboratory indicated that the level of bus services in rural areas was broadly maintained following deregulation. In the English shire counties bus mileage increased by 18 per cent. between 1985-86 and 1987-88.
Heavy Goods Vehicles (Drivers)
Mr. David Marshall : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many heavy goods vehicle drivers have been (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted of offences arising out of breaches of Road Traffic Acts in each of the last five years.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : The number of HGV driver prosecutions arising from offences detected by traffic examiners for each of the last five years are as follows :
Year |Number of prosecutions --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1984 |6,530 1985 |5,576 1986 |6,721 1987 |5,893 1988 |6,895
Figures are not available for the number of absolute discharges.
Mr. Heddle : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is his Department's policy regarding the ownership, financing and management of airports in the ownership or management of local authorities.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : The policy is set out in paragraphs 9.15 and 9.16 of the White Paper "Airports Policy" of June 1985 (Cmnd 9542). Fifteen airports are now run by local authority-owned companies formed under the Airports Act 1986.
The Government would like to see the present local authority owners increasingly involve the private sector in the ownership, development and running of airports.
M4 (Lanes)
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish in the Official Report a list of those sections of the M4 motorway served by (i) two lanes in each direction and (ii) three lanes in each direction ; specifying the length to the nearest mile of (i) and (ii).
Mr. Peter Bottomley : The information for the M4 in England is as follows :
(i) Dual two-lane sections (11 miles)
Junction 1--Boston Manor
Junction 20--Junction 22
Includes Severn bridge
The section at Catherine hill (Junctions 20-21) is two lanes westbound and three lanes eastbound.
(ii) Dual three-lane sections (108 miles)
Boston Manor--Junction 4
Junction 4B--Junction 20
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(iii) Dual four-lane section (1 mile)Junction 4--Junction 4B (at M25 interchange)
The M4 in Wales is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he has any plans to construct additional lanes on the M4 motorway.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : We plan to widen the M4 to four lanes between the M25 and junction 8/9. There are also schemes in the trunk road programme to improve junctions 4 and 8/9.
The road programme is currently under review. We expect to make an announcement in the spring.
The M4 in Wales is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Roads (Hampshire)
Mr. Hunter : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what has been Hampshire county council's bid for spending on roads each year since 1979 expressed in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms, based on 1988-89 value.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : Local highway authorities submit bids only for allocations for capital expenditure on roads. Details of Hampshire county council's bids are given in the following table :
Year |Bid in cash terms |Bid in real terms<1>
|£ million |£ million
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979-80 |10.086 |18.815
1980-81 |12.677 |19.966
1981-82 |13.592 |19.488
1982-83 |12.987 |17.379
1983-84 |14.562 |18.638
1984-85 |16.955 |20.656
1985-86 |18.645 |21.552
1986-87 |17.219 |19.261
1987-88 |17.806 |18.919
1988-89 |16.519 |16.519
1989-90 |19.426 |18.501
<1>Conversion to 1988-89 prices using the GDP Deflator.
Insulation Grants
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list for each of the three counties of Yorkshire by year, for the last five years the number and cost of providing insulation grants and other assistance for people living adjacent to (a) motorways and (b) airports and airfields ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : I refer the hon. Member to the statement on noise insulation on 6 February at columns 535-36, in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Pembroke (Mr. Bennett). The Department has no information on payments made or insulation provided by local airport management or operators. The information in connection with motorways is as follows :
|c|(a) Noise insulation for dwellings near motorways|c|
Cost of grants or
insulation provided
|Number of dwellings|West Yorkshire |North Yorkshire |South Yorkshire
|£ |£ |£
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984-85 |406 |310,790 |- |-
1985-86 |540 |421,864 |- |-
1986-87 |103 |79,291 |20,000 |-
1987-88 |16 |1,132 |31,300 |-
1988-89 |2 |843 |- |-
Road Building (Yorkshire)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the road building work contracts within the three counties of Yorkshire during (a) 1988-89 and (b) 1989-90 scheduled to cost over £1 million ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : Trunk road improvement scheme contracts costing over £1 million in the counties of North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire are as follows :
Completed during 1988-89
A616 Stocksbridge to M1
A1 Wetherby Bypass
A629 Airedale, Section 1
A650 Airedale, Section 2
A65 Settle and Giggleswick Bypass
M62 Climbing Lane west of Junction 25
Presently under construction
A1 Dishforth Interchange
Due to commence construction in 1989-90
A65 Addingham Bypass
A650 Drighlington Bypass
A1 Improvement, Bramham to Wetherby (Subject to the completion of outstanding statutory procedures).
In addition work has been carried out in 1988-89 on four major maintenance contracts with a value of over £1 million. There are eight major maintenance contracts with a value of over £1 million planned for 1989 -90.
Road building contracts on non-trunk roads are the responsibility of the local highway authorities.
Stansted Airport
Mr. Snape : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the anticipated capital expenditure programme is for the development of Stansted airport to accommodate 8 million passengers a year, split between financial years.
Mr. Peter Bottomely : The Government do not hold this information. BAA plc is responsible for developing Stansted airport.
Chapel-en-le-Frith/Whaley Bridge Bypass
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give details of the amount already paid to contractors for the Chapel- en-le-Frith/Whaley bridge bypass and his estimate of the likely final claims ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : The amount certified to date for payment to the contractor is £36,187,743.
The outstanding claims for additional payments remain commercial matters between the Department and the contractor until they have been settled.
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give details of the extraordinary or unexpected localised groundwork conditions encountered during construction of the Chapel-en-le-Frith/Whaley bridge bypass ; and if he will make a statement.
Column 294
Mr. Peter Bottomley : The main problems encountered reflect the particularly difficult and variable geology on the route of the bypass. The road crosses alternating layers of sandstone, shale and mudstones which are overlain by variable depths of glacial clays, sands and gravels, alluvium and industrial fill. In places erosion has produced over steepened slopes which have marginal stability and are prone to landslips.
In particular there were problems with the foundations to the eastern end of the Hayfield road viaduct, difficulties with the construction of the Western lane retaining wall, problems with the stability of the Carley lane embankment and the cutting slope at Silk hill, and greater than anticipated amounts of unsuitable material along the route of the bypass.
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the report by Allott and Lomax, consultng engineers, into the performance of the consulting engineers employed on the Chapel-en-le-Frith/Whaley bridge bypass ; and if he will place a copy in the Library.
Mr. Peter Bottomley : The report is not yet complete. We shall consider whether it should be placed in the Library at the appropriate time.
Coastal Waters (Pollution)
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what sanctions his Department has over the owners of foreign vessels which cause pollution within United Kingdom territorial waters.
Mr. Portillo : Where the owner of a foreign vessel has a registered office in the United Kingdom he may be prosecuted in United Kingdom courts and fined up to £50,000 of summary conviction ; otherwise the Department notifies the relevant flag administration and asks it to consider prosecution. In addition the costs of the clean-up are recovered from the owners.
Coal Imports
Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list coal imports through the port of Sunderland for 1987 and 1988 by country of consignment.
Mr. Portillo : Her Majesty's Customs and Excise figures for imports of coal at Sunderland include imports at Seaham. Details by country of consignment for 1987 and for 1988 (provisional) are as follows :
|c|Coal imports at Sunderland (including Seaham)|c|
Thousand tonnes
Country of consignment |1987 |1988
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
France |4 |2
Belgium/Luxembourg |13 |17
Netherlands |113 |166
Federal Republic of Germany |17 |13
Denmark |- |2
Portugal |- |4
Iceland |- |6
Norway |2 |13
Sweden |7 |2
USSR |6 |40
Poland |30 |28
Australia |2 |-
Canada |- |29
United States of America |1 |27
Colombia |3 |-
Venezuela |- |69
|------- |-------
Total |198 |418
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