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Asbestos
Mr. Nigel Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what investigation the Health and Safety Executive has conducted into the burning of asbestos at the protein fractionation centre in Edinburgh adjacent to the Liberton and Southfield hospitals ; and what conclusions they have reached.
Mr. Nicholls : Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive are currently investigating the incineration of filters at the protein fractionation centre in Edinburgh. I will write to the hon. Member when the investigation is complete.
Cobalt Dust
Mr. Bill Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what are the results of the Health and Safety Executive's recent hard metal special national project.
Mr. Nicholls : Results so far available show that measurements of cobalt dust in air were below the current recommended occupational exposure limit at 16 factories visited by the Health and Safety Executive in the hard metal special national project. At 17 factories visited the level of cobalt dust was not controlled below the recommended limit.
Mr. Bill Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what action the Health and Safety Executive will be taking to ensure that compliance by the hard metal industry with the occupational exposure limit for cobalt is improved.
Mr Nicholls : Inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive have enforcement powers under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to require an employer to comply with his duties to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare of his employees. These duties extend to the risks associated with the exposure of workers to cobalt dust.
At visits inspectors check that employers comply with the recommended occupational exposure limit for cobalt and its compounds and will take enforcement action necessary where companies do not meet the required standards.
Mr. Bill Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment under what instructions Health and Safety Executive inspectors have been working in taking enforcement action in relation to employers' failures to comply with the cobalt occupational exposure limit and to provide adequate medical surveillance.
Mr. Nicholls : At visits, inspectors consider whether employers have complied with their duties under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare of their employees. Inspectors check that employers comply with the recommended occupational exposure limit for cobalt and its compounds and will take any enforcement action necessary where companies do not meet the required standards.
Restart
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many claimants called for restart interview have failed to attend their interview ; how many
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of those failing to attend are believed to have found work ; how many of those failing to attend have not found work ; how many failing to attend have their benefit stopped and how many of these have successfully appealed against the benefit decision ; and how many failing to attend have subsequently re-registered as unemployed in the most recent 12-month period.Mr Lee : Between April 1988 and March 1989, 3,066,000 were called for restart interview of which 326,000 were referred to unemployment benefit offices for failing to attend that interview. 25,387 (7.8 per cent.) of these had their benefit or credits disallowed.
The other information requested is not available.
Unemployment Benefit
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many claimants each month have been referred to the unemployment benefit service due to doubts over non-availability or doubts about their restricted availability since December 1988 for each employment service region.
Mr. Lee : Up to December 1988 statistics on decisions by adjudication officers on availability cases were produced by the Department of social security on a six-monthly basis. From January 1989 the figures will be produced every quarter. The figures for the period ending 31 March 1989 are not yet available, but I will write to the hon. Member when statistics are to hand on decisions on availability cases for the period requested.
Child Minders
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many child minder allowances have been granted to lone parent ET participants since September 1988 ; and how many were granted during the most recently available monthly period, for each training agency area.
Mr. Nicholls : Information about the number of lone parents on employment training receiving child care payments before April 1989 is not available. The number of lone parents receiving child care payments during April is given in table 1.
Table 1
Employment Training
Number of lone parents receiving child care payments during April
1989
Training Agency area |Lone parents
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
South East region
Berkshire and Oxfordshire |49
Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire |47
Essex |47
Hampshire and Isle of Wight |43
Kent |35
Surrey |22
Sussex |87
London region
Inner London North |131
Inner London South |109
London East |92
London North |107
London South |74
London West |27
South West region
Avon |123
Devon and Cornwall |121
Dorset and Somerset |35
Gloucester and Wiltshire |46
West Midlands region
Birmingham and Solihull |229
Coventry and Warwickshire |55
Dudley and Sandwell |45
Staffordshire |48
The Marches, Hereford/Worcester |55
Wolverhampton and Walsall |16
East Midlands and Eastern region
Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire |40
Derbyshire |17
Leicester and Northamptonshire |84
Lincolnshire |19
Norfolk and Suffolk |47
Nottinghamshire |87
Yorkshire and Humberside region
Bradford, Calderdale and Kirklees |111
Humberside |71
North Yorkshire and Leeds |91
Sheffield and Rotherham |53
Wakefield, Doncaster and Barnsley |38
North West region
Cheshire |45
Cumbria |23
Lancashire |42
Central Manchester |80
Greater Manchester North |46
Greater Manchester East |96
Merseyside |190
Northern region
Cleveland |119
County Durham |56
Northumberland, North Tyneside and Newcastle |37
Sunderland, South Tyneside and Gateshead |41
Wales
Dyfed and West Glamorgan |58
Gwent |21
Gwynedd, Clwyd and Powys |56
Mid Glamorgan and South Glamorgan |54
Scotland
Ayrshire, Dumfries and Galloway |44
Central and Fife |44
Glasgow City |73
Grampian and Tayside |69
Highlands and Islands |16
Lanarkshire |37
Lothian and Borders |45
Renfrew, Dumbarton and Argyll |21
Claimants (Surveys)
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what are the terms of reference and other details of the surveys being carried out or commissioned by his Department amongst claimants at either unemployment benefit offices or jobcentres in the west midlands ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lee : My Department commissioned the Harris Research Centre Ltd. to undertake a survey of claimants at unemployment benefit offices in the west midlands conurbation. Interviewing took place during March and April. All those interviewed were selected at random by
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interviewers. All interviews were anonymous and voluntary. The aim was to collect information about a representative sample of claimants, not about individuals.This survey is part of a wider study of the labour market in the west midlands conurbation, which also includes a survey of employers' vacancies and recruitment practices. The aim of the study is to establish what the barriers are to the efficient operation of the labour market and, in particular to see what are the factors which prevent longer-term unemployed people from being able to take advantage of the available jobs and to help determine how best my Department's programmes can meet their needs.
Availability for Work
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list from the 1988 labour force survey by region, including Greater London and by male and female, the number of people not counted as unemployed by the definition using broad ILO guidelines on the grounds that they had not looked for a job in the four weeks prior to interview, but who stated that they would like a job if one was available, and (a) were available to start work within two weeks or (b) were not available to start work within two weeks.
Mr. Lee : Preliminary results from the 1988 labour force survey as requested are shown in the following table :
Persons not in employment and not unemployed on ILO-OECD
definition who had not looked for work in four weeks prior to
interview<1> but would like a job, by availability to start work
Spring 1988, thousands
Available to sta<2>Not available to
within two weeksstart within two weeks
|Males |Females|Males |Females
------------------------------------------------------------------
Great Britain |367 |763 |294 |554
Northern |20 |52 |33 |39
Yorkshire and
Humberside |34 |84 |30 |51
East Midlands |30 |62 |19 |40
East Anglia |11 |23 |<3> |11
South East |93 |201 |63 |175
of which Greater London |45 |90 |32 |91
South West |18 |57 |16 |40
West Midlands |44 |70 |30 |53
North West |56 |99 |52 |67
Wales |22 |42 |20 |28
Scotland |39 |74 |26 |51
<1> Includes those who did not state whether they had looked for
work.
<2> Includes those who did not state whether they were available
to start work.
<3> Sample size too small for a reliable estimate.
Fair Employment Act (Compensation Payments)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list those employers who have made a compensatory payment to a complainant under the Fair Employment Act ; and what were the sums involved in each case, the original date of each settlement and the actual date of payment since the Act became law to the present time.
Mr. Viggers : I have been asked to reply.
I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave on 21 April 1989 to the question from the hon. Member for Kingston-upon-Hull, North (Mr. McNamara) at column 316.
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ENVIRONMENT
Job Creation
102. Mr. Holt : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many part-time jobs have been created by Cleveland county council since 1979.
Mr. Gummer : Cleveland county council employed 10,616 part-time staff in December 1979. By December 1988 it employed 12,927, a net increase of 2,311, or 21.8 per cent.
National Business Rate
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much he estimates Lambeth will receive from the proceeds of the national business rate, in relation to the current yield from rates of non-domestic properties.
Mr. Gummer : The proceeds of the national business rate will be distributed as an equal amount per adult. The level of receipts in any area will depend on the distributable amount per adult and the number of adults in that area. This information will not be available before the autumn. It is of no significance to community chargepayers if the income from non- domestic ratepayers retained in Lambeth changes when the new system is introduced. Grant will be paid according to need. So if Lambeth retained more non-domestic rate income, the need for grant would be lower and chargepayers would not benefit.
Gipsy Sites
Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out the number of local authorities with designated gipsy sites and those without.
Mr. Trippier : The number of local authorities which are designated areas under the Caravan Sites Act 1968 is as follows :
|Designated |Not designated
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Shire districts |94 |203
Metropolitan districts |10 |26
London Boroughs |22 |10
Brodsworth Parish Council (Letter)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he replied to the letter sent to him by Brodsworth parish council in the county of South Yorkshire, dated 14 March, in respect of sewage and river pollution ; and if he will publish his reply in the Official Report.
Mr. Moynihan : The Department replied to the council on 9 May and I have sent a copy to the hon. Member. I have no plans to publish the reply.
Puffins
Mr. Barry Field : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will commission a study into the disappearance of puffins along the south coast.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : No. The Nature Conservancy Council advised that there has been no fall in the overall
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numbers of puffins on the south coast. The latest available figures show a maximum of some 260 birds in the area between 1985 and 1987, compared with 205 in 1969-70. While some small colonies may have declined or moved elsewhere, any localised changes are not considered so significant, in relation to the total British puffin population of over 500,000 breeding pairs, to justify commissioning a study.Sulphur Dioxide
Mr. McCrindle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on progress being made to remove sulphur dioxide from power station and factory emissions.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for St. Helen's, South (Mr. Bermingham) on 2 May, at column 53.
Community Charge
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table outlining how many people his Department estimates will gain and how many will lose as a result of the introduction of the community charge in (a) Leeds, West and (b) Kirkstall ward.
Mr. Gummer : I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 16 March at column 318, to the hon. Member for Nottingham, North (Mr. Allen).
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out (a) all the exempt categories of those who will not have to pay the poll tax and (b) the exact nature and amount of the exemptions including housing benefit payment arrangements ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : The Government have no plans to introduce a poll tax. The categories of people who are exempt from liability to pay the personal community charge are listed in schedule 1 to the Local Government Finance Act 1988. We estimate that the number of individuals in these categories will be about half a million.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside of 8 May, Official Report, column 350 , he will publish the letter in the Official Report.
Mr. Gummer : I refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's reply of 11 May at column 521 to the hon. Member for Copeland (Dr. Cunningham).
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment who (a) collected the local information for and (b) distributed the newspaper articles on the poll tax in the name of the Minister for Local Government which appeared last week.
Mr. Gummer : The Government have no plans to introduce a poll tax. My articles were distributed by the Department's press office and the regional offices of the COI. The information they contained was collected from a range of sources.
Mr. Randall : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many of the leaflets entitled "The Community Charge (the So-called Poll Tax) ; How It Will Work for You" have been printed.
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Mr. Gummer [holding answer 12 May 1989] : A total of 23 million.
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the cost of printing the leaflets entitled "The Community Charge (the So-called Poll Tax) ; How it Will Work for You."
Mr. Gummer [holding answer 12 May 1989] : The total cost of production was £367,887.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the newspapers which received articles on the poll tax in the name of the Minister for Local Government last week.
Mr. Gummer : I shall write to the hon. Gentleman shortly with this information.
Mr. Kaufman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when regulations relating to the processing of information gathered for the purpose of compiling the poll tax register will come into effect ; what guidelines his Department will issue to councils on this matter ; what representations he has received concerning the sending out by Westminster city council of registration forms with a 21-day deadline for reply ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer [holding answer 10 May 1989] : The Government have no plans to introduce a poll tax.
Regulations prescribing the powers of community charges registration officers to require information from the public were laid before Parliament on 17 March and come into force on 22 May. Where information is required under this provision, the person concerned has 21 days within which to respond. It is open to CCRO's to seek information before that date on a voluntary basis but they have been advised that such requests would not have any statutory character. I expect however that most recipients of requests before 22 May will co-operate by providing the information to compile the register in a smooth and economical manner.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to meet the costs which have so far been incurred in setting up the community charge system in Nottingham beyond the £307,000 specific grant for 1989-90 already made available.
Mr. Gummer : No. To agree to meet any costs incurred by authorities in preparing for the community charge would give no incentive to efficiency. Nottingham has been allocated £306,864 specific grant and a similar amount of expenditure has been supported through RSG. It is now for it to use its available resources to ensure that the new arrangements are effectively implemented.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what a managing director would pay (a) in community charge and (b) in a system of capital value rates plus local income tax paid in proportions of 80-20, respectively, if he or she lived in a typical five-bedroom house in Hornsey ;
(2) what a home-help would pay (a) in community charge and (b) in a system of capital value rates plus local income tax paid in proportions of 80-20, respectively, if he or she lived in a typical council high-rise flat in Hornsey.
Mr. Gummer : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 2 May, at column 46.
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Sea Dredged Aggregates
Mr. Barry Field : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the total United Kingdom demand for sea dredged aggregates for the last five years ; what is the percentage growth over the last ten years ; and what are the predicted levels of demand during the next five years.
Mr. Chope : The total United Kingdom demand for sea dredged aggregates over the last five years for which figures are available (1983- 87) was 70.03 million tonnes (mt).
The percentage growth over the last 10 years (1977-87) is 46 per cent. Specific predictions for the estimated level of demand over the next five years (1989-93) are not available. But an estimate is made in MPG5, "Guidelines for Aggregates Provision in England and Wales" that the total level of demand over this period is likely to be 81.1mt.
Nuclear Waste
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, pursuant to the reply to the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy, (Dr. Thomas) Official Report, 2 May, column 53, he will list the 12 sites earmarked by UK Nirex Ltd for further appraisal.
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Dr. Thomas) on 2 May Official Report, column 53, if he will list the 12 sites chosen for further appraisal by Nirex.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has not received a list of the 12 reserve sites identified by Nirex.
Rent Arrears
Mr. Heddle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the gross amount owed to each local authority in England in rent arrears ; what proportion such sums represent as a percentage of rental income ; and how much has been owed in each case for (a) three months, (b) six months, (c) one year and (d) two years.
Mr. Trippier : A table was placed in the Library on 1 March this year showing rent arrears reported at 1 April 1988 and the arrears as a percentage of rent roll. Corresponding information for the position at 1 April 1989 will be available towards the end of this year. Information about total tenants' arrears (including rates and service charges and so on) together with estimates of the length of arrears is contained in the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy publication "Housing Rents Statistics at April 1988", a copy of which is also in the Library.
BISF Homes
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he was invited to the national meeting of the BISF home owners held on 6 May ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Trippier : I was not invited to this meeting. I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 8 May at column 353, to my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood (Mr. Stewart).
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Waste Reduction
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to ensure that integrated pollution control will require industry to take account of waste minimisation and waste reduction.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Under the Government's proposals industrial processes scheduled for integrated pollution control will need a consent from Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution to operate. That consent will require the generation and emission of specified polluting wastes to be minimised through the application of best available technology not entailing excessive cost. The consent will also require the minimisation of the impact on the environment as a whole of all waste outputs from scheduled processes.
Energy Conservation
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to ensure that integrated pollution control will require industry to take account of energy conservation.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Integrated pollution control will not directly regulate the energy efficiency of prescribed processes.
Crown Suppliers
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Linlithgow of 24 April, Official Report, column 413, if he will make a statement as to the parameters within which Her Majesty's Government will define pensions for Crown Suppliers employees as broadly comparable to present arrangements.
Mr. Chope : The pension terms on offer would be assessed by the Government Actuary.
Plumstead Baths and Library
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what recommendations he has received from English Heritage about the possible listing of Plumstead baths and library ; and what has been his response.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : English Heritage has recommended that the baths and library are not buildings of special architectural or historic interest, and I have decided to accept its advice. Accordingly, these buildings will not be included in the statutory list.
Cryptosporidia
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what research is being undertaken to establish whether cryptosporidia is contained in water filter beds.
Mr. Howard : Research into cryptosporidia in water supplies is one of the questions being examined by the group of experts established by the Government under the chairmanship of Sir John Badenoch.
Bathing Waters
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the estimated cost for each of (a) Morecombe South ; (b)
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Morecombe North, and (c) Bardsea of (i) a long sea outfall, (ii) full sewage treatment works with a short sea outfall, and (iii) full sewage treatment works with a long sea outfall to enable them to comply with European Economic Community bathing water directive 76/160/EEC ; and when the appropriate solution will be put in place, giving the estimated cost of commencement and completion.Mr. Howard : I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 8 May, at column 352 , to his question about the bathing waters at Formby, Ainsdale and Southport.
Domestic Waste
Dr. Glyn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he is taking to encourage the reprocessing of domestic waste by local authorities ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : It is for waste disposal authorities to choose the most appropriate method of disposal for their own locality, taking account of the economic and environmental implications in so doing. We are currently considering changes to the legislation which will ensure that the true costs of waste disposal are met by those disposing of the waste. It may well be that recycling or other methods of treating waste will then be seen as more attractive options.
Local Government Boundaries
Mr. Rooker : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to receive the results of the review of local government district council boundaries in the west midlands.
Mr. Gummer [holding answer 11 May 1989] : Before 31 March 1992--the date by which the Local Government Boundary Commission must complete its reviews.
Paper Recycling
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many paper recycling plants there are operating in the United Kingdom currently ; what are their respective capacities ; and how much recycled paper they produce.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley [holding answer 12 May 1989] : I understand that there are 54 mills in the United Kingdom (approximately half of all the paper and board mills in the country) that use waste paper. In 1988 they consumed a total of 2.4 million tonnes of waste paper and produced an estimated 2.1 million tonnes of paper made wholly or partly from waste paper. Details of their respective capacities or production are not available.
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Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any plans to encourage the recycling of paper and the use of recycled paper.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley [holding answer 12 May 1989] : The Department has shown the way by phasing in the use of recycled paper for correspondence since 1984 ; other Departments are doing the same.
We are also co-operating in the current series of seminars organised by the Department of Trade and Industry aimed at raising awareness of the growing demand for waste paper as a raw material for newsprint production.
My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary for Trade and Industry has responsibility for co-ordinating Government policy on recycling. I and other colleagues work closely with him to promote recycling whenever it is an economically viable method of waste disposal.
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