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Lollipop Persons
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will detail the number of lollipop ladies and gentlemen in post in (a) the Ealing, North constituency, (b) the London borough of Ealing and (c) the Metropolitan police area against the agreed number required ; if he will instigate an inquiry into their pay and conditions ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that the number of persons employed on school crossing patrol duty is as follows :
K
|Strength |Establishment
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) Ealing, North<1> |22 |30
(b) London Borough of Ealing<1> |44 |62
(c) Metropolitan police district |1,098 |1,350
<1> The figures given are based upon the Metropolitan police divisions
rather than constituency or borough boundaries. For the purpose of this
answer, Ealing, North is taken to be the subdivisions of Ealing and
Greenford, and the London borough of Ealing to be the divisions of Ealing
and Southall.
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The pay of Metropolitan police schools crossing patrols is being reviewed.Sports Grounds (Safety)
Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the progress made in implementing each of the recommendations made in the report by the committee of inquiry into crowd safety and control at sports grounds.
Mr. John Patten : The Government's proposals for giving effect to the safety recommendations in the final report were set out in a consultative document produced in June 1986. All of these proposals except amendment to building regulations guidelines codes have been implemented.
The question of structural fire precautions and means of escape in buildings (including covered sports stands) is under review as part of the Government's comprehensive overhaul of the building regulations. It is the intention of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment to issue a consultative paper by the end of this year seeking comment on a package of proposals dealing with these issues.
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 which came into force on 1 January 1986 had already extended the police powers of search and arrest in ways which help them to deal with troublemakers at football grounds. The Public Order Act 1986 created a new offence of disorderly conduct to cover hooliganism in football grounds as elsewhere.
A further recommendation was to review the provisions of the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985 in relation to executive boxes. Following that review a relaxation of the controls over the sale and possession of alcohol in executive boxes was introduced in the Public Order Act 1986.
The Government's proposals for a membership scheme are contained in the Football Spectators Bill. This follows previous efforts to encourage the football authorities to introduce membership schemes on a voluntary basis.
Community Centres
Mrs. Beckett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether it remains the policy of the Government that community centres should be encouraged, supported and if necessary funded to provide facilities otherwise unavailable to a range of community groups.
Mr. John Patten : The Home Office supports community centres through its funding of the National Federation of Community Organisations. The funding of individual centres is a local matter.
Female Prisoners (Education)
Mr. Bermingham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many females in Holloway prison were engaged in (a) work, (b) daytime education and (c) evening education on the most recent date for which figures are available ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg [holding answer 18 April 1989] : On 3 April 1989, the latest date for which information is available 109 inmates were engaged in work, 76 in daytime education and 40 in evening education at Holloway prison.
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Mr. Bermingham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total average number per day during 1988 of females in Holloway prison engaged in (a) work, (b) daytime education and (c) evening education ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg [holding answer 18 April 1989] : Information held centrally relates to the period April to December 1988 and is not complete. Typically, some 40 to 50 inmates were working and about 85 were involved in daytime education, including vocational training courses. Information about the number of inmates participating in evening education is not readily available. However, on average, about 430 hours of evening education were provided each week.
Mr. Bermingham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many females in Styal prison were engaged in (a) work, (b) daytime education and (c) evening education, on the most recent date for which figures are available ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg [holding answer 18 April 1989] : On 3 April 1989, the latest date for which information is available, 187 inmates were engaged in work and 41 in daytime education at Styal prison. No evening education took place on that particular date.
Mr. Bermingham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total average number per day during 1988 of females in Styal prison engaged in (a) work, (b) daytime education and (c) evening education ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg [holding answer 18 April 1989] : Based on information held centrally for the period April to December 1988, an average of 167 inmates were daily engaged in work and 74 in daytime education. Information about the number of inmates participating in evening education is not readily available. However, on average, about 170 inmate hours of evening education were provided each week.
PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSIONER FOR ADMINISTRATION
Barlow Clowes
Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the hon. Member for Colchester, North, as Chairman of the Select Committee on the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, whether his Committee has received any report from the commissioner on the progress of his inquiry into the Department of Trade and Industry's handling of the Barlow Clowes affair.
Sir Antony Buck : It is not the practice of Select Committees to comment on their proceedings except by way of a report to the House.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Workplace Inspections
Mr. Allen : To ask the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, as representing the House of Commons Commission, what inspection of the House of Commons as a workplace takes place to ensure that it meets statutory standards.
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Mr. Chope : I have been asked to reply.
In meeting its responsibilities for the care and maintenance of Crown buildings, PSA's procedures are prescribed, as a minimum, to meet the requirements of all relevant legislation affecting the safety of the workplace. These procedures are applied on the parliamentary estate.
Organic Food
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Lord President of the Council whether organic food is served in restaurants and cafeterias in the House ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Wakeham : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply he received from the hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) on Tuesday 18 April. In future, whenever organic food is presented on a menu, its availability will be indicated.
Explanatory Memoranda
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Lord President of the Council what circulation is given outside the House to explanatory memoranda on Community legislation submitted to the House by Government Departments.
Mr. Wakeham : After deposit in both Houses, copies of explanatory memoranda are made available to the public primarily from the British library through public and other libraries.
ENVIRONMENT
Canary Wharf
Ms. Mahon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information is available on the £1 billion tax allowance to the developers of Canary wharf, whether this amount of tax concession was envisaged when the enterprise zones were established ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Norman Lamont : I have been asked to reply.
I cannot comment on the tax affairs of particular individuals or companies. The position generally is that a property developer who builds property for sale, whether within an enterprise zone or elsewhere, incurs his expenditure on revenue account and is entitled to relief for all expenditure incurred wholly and exclusively for trade purposes under the normal business expenses rules. The amount of relief available by way of the special 100 per cent. initial allowance to those who incur capital expenditure on the construction of property within an enterprise zone will depend on how the expenditure is split between business buildings and non- qualifying premises such as residential dwellings.
Planning Applications
Mr. Gregory : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many planning applications have been refused by the local authority and subsequently reversed on appeal (a) in York and (b) nationally for each year since 1983 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Chope : The information available from the Department's records is given in the table.
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Planning appeals Percentage
Year |Received |Decided |Allowed |appeals allowed
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1985-86
York |16 |14 |5 |35.7
England |17,839 |14,130 |5,581 |39.5
1986-87
York |36 |21 |9 |42.8
England |19,856 |15,613 |6,208 |39.8
1987-88
York |37 |38 |14 |36.8
England |22,482 |18,474 |6,955 |37.6
Recreational Facilities
Mr. Sayeed : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment in what proportion of planning appeals concerning development of recreational open space professional lawyers represented (a) developers, (b) local authorities, (c) sports associations and (d) amenity and residents societies, over the most convenient representative period available.
Mr. Chope : The information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
HIP (Lambeth)
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out in the Official Report the annual housing investment programme approved for the London borough of Lambeth for five years up to and including the financial year 1989-90.
Mr. Trippier : The total housing capital resources allocated to the London borough of Lambeth for these years are as follows :
|£ million
------------------------------
1985-86 |34.322
1986-87 |35.587
1987-88 |33.969
1988-89 |30.683
1989-90 |22.351
UDCs (Publicity)
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what percentage of urban development corporation budget in both 1988-89 and 1989 -90 is allocated for publicity, information and public relations.
Mr. Trippier : Information for each UDC is as follows :
|c|Publicity/promotion as percentage of total expenditure.|c| UDC |1988-89|1989-90 ------------------------------------------- Black Country |2.8 |3.0 Bristol |16.8 |nya Central Manchester |17.2 |7.3 Leeds |8.5 |2.2 London Docklands |1.2 |0.9 Merseyside |3.3 |2.8 Sheffield |0.6 |2.4 Teesside |8.2 |5.9 Trafford Park |8.6 |4.8 Tyne and Wear |7.1 |5.8
Planning Control in Western Europe"
Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he intends to make any amendments to the planning system following the publication by his Department of "Planning Control in Western Europe".
Mr. Chope : We have published proposals to simplify and improve the development plan system in the White Paper "The Future of Development Plan" --Cm. 569. The study of planning control in Western Europe does not indicate the need for any immediate additional changes, but it provides valuable information which we shall take into account in our continuing review of the planning system.
UPGs (Lambeth)
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out in the Official Report the total amount of urban programme grants for the London borough of Lambeth for each of the last five years including the year 1989-90 ; and if he will indicate the extent to which each year's grant represented an increase or decrease in real terms on the previous year.
Mr. Trippier : The total amount of urban programme grants paid to the London borough of Lambeth in the years 1985-86 to 1988-89 was as follows :
Year |Grant
|£
------------------------------
1985-86 |4,984,243
1986-87 |5,070,520
1987-88 |5,162,332
1988-89 |4,268,983
The amounts paid over to the authority to date are in respect of final claims for 1985-86 and 1986-87. Amounts paid for 1987-88 and 1988-89 are in respect of interim grant claims ; final claims have not yet been submitted for these years. All grant claims are subject to audit certification, and none of the above has yet been so certified. Any analysis of increase or decrease in grant levels would be premature.
Rating Reform
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to collect the local statistics relating to registration for, and payment of, the community charge.
Mr. Gummer : We are currently considering the information to be collected under the new arrangements.
Mr. Barry Field : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to make a decision on the new needs grant assessments under the community charge regulations for England and Wales.
Mr. Gummer : My right hon. Friend will be making decisions this autumn on the new needs assessments to apply in England from 1990-91.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek to obtain powers to issue directions to community charge registrars to choose freezing of bank accounts as a method of enforcing either fines for non-registration or for non-payment of the poll tax.
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Urban Development Corporations
Mr. Cran : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the cumulative total of private sector investment committed to urban development corporation projects.
Mr. Trippier : By end of March 1989 over £7 billion of private sector investment had been committed within urban development corporation areas.
Housing Associations
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on his policies on (a) the management of (b) the purchase of land by, and (c) the introduction of the right to buy in relation to housing associations.
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Mr. Trippier : Housing associations are restricted as a condition of grant in what they may pay for land, and purchasing procedures are monitored by the Housing Corporation and by associations' own auditors.
Secure tenants of registered housing associations normally have the right to buy, unless the association is a charity. New lettings by housing associations, as by other private landlords, will be on assured tenancies which do not carry the right to buy.
Local Government Staff
Mr. Ralph Howell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Stockport (Mr. Favell) of 30 January, Official Report, column 22 , he will give for each available category of local government staff the numbers in (a) 1979 and (b) 1989, or the latest date for which figures are available, showing the net and percentage change in each case.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The information is as follows :
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|c|Joint manpower watch (England) annual change in full-time equivalents 1979 to date
at December|c|
FTE's DecemFTE's DecemChange since December
1979
|FTE's |percentage
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. General Services
Education-lecturers and teachers |537,958 |502,932 |-35,026 |-6.5
Education-others |402,409 |382,543 |-19,866 |-4.9
Construction |121,789 |100,359 |-21,430 |-17.6
Transport |20,232 |2,592 |-17,640 |-87.2
Social services |195,182 |229,836 |34,654 |17.8
Public libraries and museums |31,258 |33,216 |1,958 |6.3
Recreation, parks and baths |69,686 |74,550 |4,864 |7.0
Environmental health |20,679 |19,130 |-1,549 |-7.5
Refuse collection and disposal |47,325 |34,109 |-13,216 |-27.9
Housing |48,118 |60,957 |12,839 |26.7
Town and country planning |20,602 |21,607 |1,005 |4.9
Fire service-regular |33,959 |34,209 |250 |0.7
Fire service-others |4,894 |5,685 |791 |16.2
Miscellaneous services |244,500 |232,258 |-12,242 |-5.0
|----- |----- |----- |-----
Total |1,798,591 |1,733,983 |-64,608 |-3.6
2. Law and order services
Police-all ranks |107,027 |118,249 |11,222 |10.5
-cadets |3,600 |351 |-3,249 |-90.3
-traffic wardens |4,113 |4,486 |373 |9.1
-civilians |33,106 |40,037 |6,931 |20.9
Magistrates courts-staff |7,638 |9,223 |1,585 |20.8
Probation staff-officers |4,879 |6,343 |1,464 |30.0
Others |4,207 |6,396 |2,189 |52.0
|----- |----- |----- |-----
Total |164,570 |185,085 |20,515 |12.5
3. Agency staff |595 |1,644 |1,049 |176.3
|----- |----- |----- |-----
Grand total |1,963,756 |1,920,712 |-43,044 |-2.2
Note: There is likely to have been some reclassification of staff between service
categories over this period, so the figures for the two years may not be entirely
comparable. Local authority functions have also changed over the period.
Building Regulations
Mr. Tony Speller : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will approve the new building regulations ; and when they will come into force.
Mr. Trippier : Consultation papers proposing amendments to five parts of the Building Regulations 1985 and to the approved documents which provide practical guidance on meeting the requirements in them were issued last year. The responses are still under consideration, but I hope that the amending regulations will be laid before Parliament by
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the summer, and that the amendments will come into operation early next year. The intention is that revised approved documents will be published at the same time the regulations are laid. Consultation papers on other parts of the regulations will be issued during the course of this year, but it is too early to say when these amendments are likely to be made.Column 297
BISF-designed Properties
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress his Department has made with local building societies in Nottingham regarding offering mortgages to those who wish to buy BISF- designed properties ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Trippier : Discussions are proceeding, and I hope to make a full statement very shortly.
Goods and Services
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what restrictions have been placed in relation to whom they are allowed to provide goods or services on (i) the Crown suppliers, (ii) the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre and (iii) the Property Services Agency's (a) project and (b) estates services divisions.
Mr. Chope : My reply to my hon. Friend, the Member for Gainsborough and Horncastle (Mr. Leigh) on 8 December 1988 at column 273 announced that the Crown Suppliers had been authorised to commence selling to the private sector, as well as to public sector customers. The Queen Elizabeth II conference centre can make its facilities available to any client meeting its standard conditions of hire. I am considering what freedom PSA should have to offer its services to other customers particularly after April 190, when its traditional Government customers are fully untied from the agency and able to buy services from the private sector.
Empty Property
Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what percentage of properties owned by his Department and suitable for residential accommodation have been empty for (i) up to a year and (ii) over a year ; and where these properties are located, by region of the United Kingdom or local authority area.
Mr. Ridley : As at 1 April 1989, 3.2 per cent. of the 433 residential properties owned by the Department of the Environment had been empty for less than a year and 5.5 per cent. for more than a year. Of these 34 per cent. are in the process of disposal on the open market. These properties are located in the following regions of the United Kingdom and local authority areas :
Scotland : Argyll, City of Glasgow, Midlothian, Inverclyde, Motherwell, Banff Buchan.
North East : Hambleton, Langbaurgh.
North West : Manchester.
Eastern : Brentwood, Suffolk Coastal.
London : Westminster.
South West : Cotswold, Isles of Scilly, Sedgemoor.
South East : Medina.
Water Privatisation
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he will be taking to ensure that the privatised water authorities will not be able to increase the charges being imposed on their customers in order to maximise their market capitalisations when facing takeover bids from other companies.
Mr. Howard : In appointing water and sewerage undertakers under the Water Bill, my right hon. Friend the
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Secretary of State will make it a condition of appointment that charges do not increase by more than specified amounts above the general rate of inflation. These limits will be subject to review by the Director General of Water Services. Companies will not therefore be able to increase charges above the limits set either by the Secretary of State or the director general in order to defend themselves against takeover bids, nor more generally to compensate for inefficient management.Pollution Control
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the maximum fine for offences under the Control of Pollution Act.
Mr. Moynihan : I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. and learned Friend the Minister for Water and Planning to my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Mr. Conway) on 22 March 1989 at column 631.
Mr. Page : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals he has to charge operators under his proposed system of integrated pollution control.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The Department of the Environment and the Welsh Office have today issued a consultation paper which sets out proposals for a new charging system to recover the costs incurred by Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution in implementing the system of integrated pollution control (IPC) of the major industrial dischargers of air and water pollutants and wastes.
Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution's costs in granting integrated authorisations, sampling and monitoring discharges and enforcing the controls will be borne by the dischargers themselves rather than the general taxpayers, as happens at present. This is an important extension of the principle that polluters should pay the costs of protecting the environment from their activities.
The proposed charges would cover about 70 to 75 per cent. of Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution's total expenditures associated with integrated pollution control. They would fully recover the costs of Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution's authorisation and inspection functions under IPC. They would not cover such Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution activities as support for policy development that serve wider Government objectives.
In working up these proposals, the Departments have paid particular attention to ensuring that the system is both practicable to administer and equitable. So a large site with a higher potential to pollute would pay substantially more than a smaller, less-polluting site.
Similar cost-recovery charging systems are levied in other European countries such as Germany and France.
The Government will finalise the details of the charging scheme in the light of the views expressed by interested bodies in response to this consultation paper.
North West Water
Mr. Hoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment under what authority the financial director and corporate affairs manager have been appointed to North West Water plc ; what are their salaries ; and who is paying their salaries.
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Mr. Howard : The appointments to which the hon. Member refers have been made by North West water authority to the posts of financial director and corporate affairs manager in the authority. It is envisaged that the appointees will continue to fill these posts in North West Water plc when that company is established under the provisions of the Water Bill. Staff salaries are the responsibility of the authority.
Council Tenants (Opting-out)
Ms. Mowlam : to ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the total cost of the advertising campaign advertising the rights of council tenants to opt out of local authority control.
Mr. Trippier : A total of £524,000.
Ms. Mowlam : to ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the cost of the advertisements advertising the rights of council tenants to opt out of local authority control carried in the Sunday newspapers on 26 March.
Mr. Trippier : Approximately £77,600.
Art and Culture (London)
Mr. Tony Banks : to ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what policies and proposals in his draft planning guidance he has put forward for the future development of art and cultural facilities in London.
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