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The annual bounty paid to reservists is treated as capital under Income Support (General) Regulation 48 and Housing Benefit (General) Regulation 40(1) and does not affect entitlement as long as the total capital held does not exceed £3,000.For income support only, reservists attending annual training camp are normally treated as being in remunerative work and are not entitled to benefit in accordance with regulation 5 of the Income Support (General) Regulations. Earnings arising from this period are ignored completely on reclaiming benefit under the provision of paragraph 1 of schedule 8 to the regulations.
Community Care Grants
Ms. Harman : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether in addition to any provision in the Acts and regulations, there is any (a) guidance to all Departments of Social Security offices and (b) internal guidance within the offices covering the Peckham constituency on the amounts to be awarded to people in different categories who are given community care grants.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Guidance has been issued in the social fund manual on suggested maximum amounts which may be awarded to applicants who need a start-up grant, a clothing grant and minor structural repairs to the home. The decision on how much to award in an individual case rests with the social fund officer.
Ms. Harman : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether there is any (a) guidance to all Departments of Social Security offices and (b) internal guidance within the offices covering the Peckham constituency on the priority for community care grants as between homeless women in refuges, people coming out of mental institutions, children leaving care, and others.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Guidance on the national priorities for community care grants has been issued in the social fund manual. Local office managers have issued guidance to social fund officers on local priorities.
Benefits
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what level of state benefit income an unemployed family consisting of mother, father, and two children aged 12 and 5 years received in 1979 ; and what benefit they would receive today if 1979 benefits had been increased to match inflation if the benefits were paid on the same basis as in 1979.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : There is no prescribed procedure for uprating supplementary benefit or housing benefit--different elements of these schemes have been uprated in different ways and by different indices at different times.
Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish figures showing the number of families with children : (a) entitled to and (b) receiving supplementary benefit/income support in each year since 1970, distinguishing between one and two-parent families.
Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 3 May 1989] : The available information is as follows :
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Families with children receiving supplementary benefit/income support and estimated eligible non-recipient families by family status
|Total in receipt |One parent families in|One parent families |Two parent families in|Two parent families
|receipt |eligible but not in |receipt |eligible but not in
|receipt |receipt
|(000s) |(000s) |(000s) |(000s) |(000s)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1970 |364 |218 |- |146 |-
1971 |436 |246 |- |190 |-
1972 |433 |259 |- |175 |-
1973 |373 |257 |60 |116 |80
1974 |405 |269 |- |136 |-
1975 |502 |296 |- |206 |-
1976 |556 |323 |- |233 |-
1977 |553 |326 |50 |227 |-
1978 |535 |339 |- |196 |-
1979 |488 |322 |60 |166 |60
1980 |581 |336 |- |245 |-
1981 |794 |392 |50 |402 |150
1982 |929 |441 |- |488 |-
1983 |975 |475 |40 |500 |-
1984 |1,057 |518 |- |539 |-
1986 |1,172 |606 |- |565 |-
1987 |1,181 |664 |- |517 |-
Notes:
1. Sources: Annual statistical enquiries 1970 to 1987 for those families with children in receipt of benefit. For eligible non-recipient families appropriate
Family Expenditure Survey data.
2. The two columns can not be added to give a total figure of those claiming and not claiming. Recipient families are identified on a snapshot basis'. Take-up
estimates are based on an average caseload over the year and exclude the institutional population and from 1983 to 1987 Housing Benefit Supplement recipients.
3. All estimates, but especially of eligible non-recipients, are subject to sampling error.
4. One parent familes exclude those temporarily separated.
Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish figures showing the estimated number of families (a) entitled to and (b) receiving family income supplement/family credit in each year since 1971,
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distinguishing between employed, self- employed, one-parent and two-parent families, and including a case-load estimate for its current year.Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 3 May 1989] : The information is as follows :
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Families with dependent children receiving family income supplement/family credit and eligible non-recipient families with dependants by family
and employment status
Employed<10> Self-employed<10><11>
|One parent |Two parent |Estimated eligible |One parent |Two parent
|non-recipients (one or
|two parents)<3><9>
|(000s) |(000s) |(000s) |(000s) |(000s)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Family income supplement<1>
August 1971 |15 |30 |- |<8>- |1
April 1972 |27 |51 |- |<8>- |3
April 1973 |35 |44 |- |1 |3
April 1974 |39 |33 |- |1 |3
April 1975 |30 |22 |- |1 |3
April 1976 |30 |25 |- |1 |4
April 1977 |36 |42 |- |1 |5
April 1978 |40 |49 |<4>75 |1 |5
April 1979 |37 |36 |- |1 |4
April 1980 |49 |33 |- |1 |5
April 1981 |53 |45 |<5>130 |1 |7
April 1982 |63 |66 |- |2 |11
April 1983 |76 |92 |<6>150 |3 |18
April 1984 |78 |100 |- |3 |23
April 1985 |80 |95 |- |3 |25
April 1986 |79 |92 |- |4 |26
April 1987 |87 |97 |- |4 |31
Family credit
April-December 1988 |n.a. |n.a. |<7>250 |n.a. |n.a.
March 1989<2> |100 |139 |- |8 |35
<1>Source: 10 per cent. sample of Family Income Supplement awards.
<2>1989 Family Credit figures derived from Family Credit statistical system and North Fylde Central Ofice load. Earlier figure on comparable terms are not
available.
<3>Eligible non-recipients from Family Expenditure survey.
<4>1978-79 FES.
<5>1981-82 FES.
<6>1983-84 FES.
<7>April-December 1988 FES. Around 50 per cent. of eligible population of 500,000 employees.
<8>Under 500.
<9>Columns for claimants and eligible non-claimants cannot be added to give a precise total figure of those claiming and not claiming. Recipient families are
identified on a snapshot basis'.
Take-up estimates are usually based on an average caseload over two years. For Family Credit, the take-up estimate is based on 9 months of Family Expenditure
Survey data.
<10>All estimates, especially those for eligible non-recipients, are subject to sampling error.
<11>No estimates are available for self-employed eligible non-recipients. Separate estimates of eligible non-recipient one parent and two parent employed cases
would be subject to large sampling errors.
Benefits (Children)
Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many English children depended on (a) SB/IS and (b) FIS/FC in each year since 1978-79 (i) in total and (ii) as a percentage of all English children.
Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 4 May 1989] : The latest available information is set out in the following tables.
Dependent children in families in England in receipt of
supplementary benefit
Year |Number of children<1> in|Proportion of all
|families receiving |children in England<3>
|supplementary benefit<2>|Per cent.
|Thousands
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978 |894 |7.8
1979 |784 |6.9
1980 |937 |8.4
1981 |1,294 |11.7
1982 |1,495 |13.8
1983 |1,573 |14.8
1984 |1,704 |16.3
1986 |1,870 |18.2
1987 |1,880 |18.4
<1> Dependent children aged under 19.
<2> Source: Annual Statistical Enquiries 1978 to 1987.
<3> Based on the Child Benefit recipient population.
Children in families in England receiving Family Income Supplement
Year |Children in families |Proportion of all
|receiving FIS<1> |children in England<2>
|Thousands |Per cent.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |169 |1.5
1979-80 |151 |1.3
1980-81 |154 |1.4
1981-82 |193 |1.7
1982-83 |267 |2.5
1983-84 |338 |3.2
1984-85 |354 |3.4
1985-86 |340 |3.3
1986-87 |367 |3.6
1987-88 |376 |3.7
<1> Source: 10 per cent. sample of Family Income Supplement awards and Social Security
Statistics for those receiving Child Benefit.
<2> Based on Child Benefit recipient population.
Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many Scottish children depended on (a) SB/IS and (b) FIS/FC in each year since 1978-79 (i) in total and (ii) as a percentage of all Scottish children.
Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 4 May 1989] : The available information is as follows :
Children in families in Scotland in receipt of supplementary benefit
Year |Number of children<1> in|Proportion of all
|families receiving |children in Scotland<3>
|supplementary benefit<2>
|Thousands (000) |Percentage
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978 |122 |9.3
1979 |112 |8.7
1980 |122 |9.6
1981 |159 |12.8
1982 |187 |15.5
1983 |181 |15.3
1984 |202 |17.4
1986 |219 |19.6
1987 |225 |20.5
<1> Dependent children aged under 19.
<2> Source: Annual Statistical Enquiries 1978 to 1987.
<3> Based on the Child Benefit recipient population.
Children in families in Scotland receiving family income supplement
Year |Number of children<1> in|Proportion of all
|families receiving |children in Scotland<3>
|family income
|supplement<1>
|Thousands (000) |Percentage
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |24 |1.8
1979-80 |20 |1.6
1980-81 |24 |1.9
1981-82 |28 |2.3
1982-83 |37 |3.0
1983-84 |38 |3.2
1984-85 |50 |4.3
1985-86 |48 |4.2
1986-87 |51 |4.5
1987-88 |53 |4.8
<1> Dependent children aged under 19.
<2> Source: Annual Statistical Enquiries 1978 to 1987.
<3> Based on the Child Benefit recipient population.
Grants and Loans
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of (a) budgetary loans and (b) community care grants were awarded to each of the 15 client groups defined by his Department for the midlands region in the financial year 1988-89.
Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 19 June 1989] : The table shows the figures for the midlands region for the period 11 April 1988 to 31 march 1989.
Budgeting loans and community care grants for midlands region Percentage by client group-1988-89 Client group |Budgeting loans |Community care grants --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unallocated or unidentified |0.34 |0.21 Over 80-with income support higher pensioner premium |0.35 |5.19 Aged 60-79-disabled with higher pensioner premium |0.49 |4.03 Aged 60-79-with ordinary pensioner premium, or over 60 without pensioner premium |4.10 |16.59 Lone parent with income support disability premium |0.30 |0.82 Family with disability premium |3.28 |3.00 Other with disability premium |2.67 |9.48 Lone parent without disability premium |43.90 |25.13 Signs at UBO quarterly with income support family premium |0.85 |0.51 Signs at UBO quarterly without family premium |2.29 |1.34 Signing unemployed or with training allowance with family premium |18.39 |8.51 Signing unemployed or with training allowance without family premium |18.55 |16.67 Others with family premium |0.92 |2.14 Others without family premium |3.55 |5.72 Involved in trade dispute |0.01 |0.00 Applicant not in receipt of income support-not applicable for budgeting loans |n/a |1.00
HEALTH
NHS Reform
Mr. Yeo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the latest figure for the number of hospitals which have expressed interest in becoming self-governing institutions within the National Health Service.
Mr. Mellor : A total of 179 expressions of interest in self- governing status have been received. Some are for non-hospital facilities and others include more than one hospital.
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Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to ensure that his proposals for hospitals opting-out of the National Health Service management structure will be supported by the staff responsible for providing all services to hospital patients.
Mr. Mellor : Self-governing hospitals will not opt out, but will remain fully within the NHS. When a unit decides to submit an application for self-government, the relevant regional health authority will seek the views of those with an interest including staff at the hospital. My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State will consider any responses alongside the application, although no group will have a veto on any proposals.
Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the leaflets issued in connection with proposals to reform the National Health Service together with the print runs and costs of production for each leaflet, their main avenues of distribution and their estimated costs of distribution.
Mr. Mellor [holding answer 19 June 1989] : The following leaflets have been issued in connection with proposals to reform the National Health Service :
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Leaflet Print run Production cost
|£
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Working for Patients:
Management summary |350,000 |109,250
|FPCs; GPs
|RHAs; DHAs; Post Offices;
Popular leaflet HSR1 |3,000,000 |117,050 Libraries; Pharmacies
Self Governing Hospitals:
Staff leaflet HSR2 |250,000 |RHAs
|23,000e
Local public leaflet HSR3 |250,000 |RHAs
<1> Estimated cost.
<2> Excludes Post Office distribution costs covered by an annual contract.
RHA Regional Health Authority.
DHA District Health Authority.
CHC Community Health Council.
FPC Family Practitioner Committee.
GP General Medical Practitioner.
Private Health Care
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received from the Health Service unions on the question of private health provision.
Crown Indemnity
Sir Gerald Vaughan : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he proposes to implement a scheme of Crown indemnity for doctors and dentists working in National Health Service hospitals and community health services, as outlined in the reply to the hon. Member for Newbury (Sir. M. McNair-Wilson), on 7 April, Official Report , column 304 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Mellor : We are currently considering the responses to the consultation exercise which finished in May. An announcement will be made as soon as possible.
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Public Relations
Mr. Blair : To ask the Secretary of State for Health which public relations firms his Department has employed and at what cost, for each year since 1979.
Mr. Mellor : None. The consistent practice of successive Governments has been to avoid the use of public relations firms or other firms outside government for public relations work.
Waiting Lists
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the waiting list for each district health authority as at 31 March and indicate the rank order of each district in size of its waiting list.
Mr. Mellor : We do not yet have available figures of the number of people waiting for hospital treatment in each district health authority at 31 March 1989.
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Working for Patients"
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will state the distribution by National Health Service region, by spending head and by spending head within each National Health Service region of the extra £40 million so far announced for the implementation of the proposals in "Working for Patients".
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Mr. Mellor : A total of £32 million of the additional £40 million is for the hospital and community health services and has been distributed as shown in the table. The remainder is to meet the administrative costs incurred by the Department of Health in implementing the review.
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Distribution of £32 million additional funding for the hospital and community health services 1989-90
(£ million)
|<1>Personnel function|<1>Finance function |<2>Capital charging |<3>Medical audit |Total allocated
|(staff)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern |0.366 |0.634 |0.865 |0.051 |1.916
Yorkshire |0.411 |0.711 |0.920 |0.053 |2.095
Trent |0.512 |0.887 |0.946 |0.064 |2.409
East Anglian |0.220 |0.381 |0.460 |0.031 |1.092
North West Thames |0.427 |0.739 |0.865 |0.051 |2.082
North East Thames |0.526 |0.910 |1.062 |0.063 |2.561
South East Thames |0.463 |0.801 |0.959 |0.060 |2.283
South West Thames |0.374 |0.648 |0.800 |0.044 |1.866
Wessex |0.307 |0.532 |0.643 |0.042 |1.524
Oxford |0.247 |0.427 |0.518 |0.048 |1.240
South Western |0.364 |0.631 |0.738 |0.044 |1.777
West Midlands |0.587 |1.016 |1.288 |0.077 |2.968
Mersey |0.294 |0.509 |0.601 |0.036 |1.440
North Western |0.502 |0.869 |1.108 |0.067 |2.546
|------- |------- |------- |------- |-------
All RHAs |5.600 |9.695 |11.773 |0.731 |27.799
London post-graduate SHAs |0.100 |0.174 |0.227 |0.019 |0.520
|------- |------- |------- |------- |-------
Total RHAs and SHAs |5.700 |9.869 |12.000 |0.750 |<4>28.319
<1>Total allocated pro rata to initial revenue cash limits.
<2>Comprises a basic allocation of £13,000 per RHA/SHA plus £25,000 per district (excluding Peterborough, Chester and Calderdale health authorities which
have attracted separate funding as capital asset pilot sites), with the remainder allocated pro rata to initial revenue cash limits.
<3>Total allocated pro rata to number of medical consultants in each RHA/SHA.
<4>Total excludes sums held back for later allocation for example:
|£ million
----------------------------------------------
Internal markets:
training |0.771
Medical audit:
regional implementation |0.750
methodology development |0.500
Finance function:
training initiatives |1.660
|-------
Total |3.681
Psychiatric Services (Children)
Mr. Gale : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many children under the age of 16 years were seen for assessment of treatment by child and adolescent psychiatric services in 1986-87 and 1987-88 ; how many of these children were severely or profoundly deaf ; what proportion used sign language ; and what proportion used spoken language as their main method of communication.
Mr. Mellor : We do not hold this information centrally.
Hospitals (Cleaning)
Mr. Gale : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the implications of the incidence of occasions, since the award of private cleaning contracts at the Kent and Canterbury hospital, the Thanet district hospital and the Royal Seabathing hospital, upon which payments for specific cleaning areas have been suspended ; and what action he proposes to take to deal with such occurrences.
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Mr. Freeman : The issues raised are contractual matters between the relevant contractor and the Canterbury and Thanet district health authority. Ultimately both parties have the sanction of terminating the contract if there are continuing and serious breaches of its terms. Usually, however, mutually satisfactory arrangements are achieved without the need for drastic action.
Blood Transfusion Service
Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the terms and conditions under which blood is transferred from the blood transfusion service to organisations outside the National Health Service.
Mr. Freeman : Blood from the national blood transfusion service is supplied to non-NHS hospitals in England and Wales according to the terms of health circular HC(89)14 a copy of which is in the Library. A handling charge is made for blood supplied in this way to
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cover items such as the costs of collection, testing and processing. No charge is made for the freely donated blood itself.Rotherham Health Authority
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what financial provision has been made for the Rotherham Health Authority in 1989-90 ; and what was the comparable provision in the previous two years.
Mr. Freeman : Allocations to individual district health authorities are a matter for the regional health authority concerned. I suggest the hon. Member contacts the chairman of Trent regional health authority for the information he seeks.
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the financial provision per capita for the Rotherham health authority in 1989- 90 ; what is the average provision for health authorities on a per capita basis ; and what significant progress will be made this year in the resources allocation working party context.
Mr. Freeman : Allocation of resources to district health authorities is a matter for the relevant regional health authority. The national average provision for health authorities in England in 1989-90 is £264 per capita.
The allocations for 1989-90 announced on 21 December 1988 allow every regional health authority to benefit to the maximum extent from the additional resources available. As the White Paper makes clear, the Government now intend to move on from RAWP to a simpler and fairer approach.
Benzodiazepines
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what instructions relating to deprioritising the benzodiazepine issue he has issued to health authorities or other bodies.
Mr. Mellor : None. On the contrary in guidance issued to health and local authorities we continue to give a high priority to the development and expansion of services for drug misusers including those dependent on benzodiazepines. This high priority is emphasised by the allocation by the Department of nearly £15 million in 1989-90 to regional health authorities specifically for the development of these services. The Department will also continue to encourage doctors to prescribe benzodiazepines only in accordance with current guidelines, as contained in the Committee on Safety of Medicines "Current Problems" No. 21 and in the British National Formulary.
Foster Parents (Insurance)
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if his Department's boarding out of children regulations require agencies arranging placements to make provision for the insurance of foster parents.
Mr. Mellor : Agencies are required under the Boarding-Out of Children (Foster Placement) Regulations 1989 to inform foster parents of the agency's arrangements for meeting any legal liabilities of a foster parent arising by reason of the placement. We expect that agencies will make effective arrangements : A number of options are suggested in the handbook of guidance issued in association with the regulations.
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Dystonia
Sir Michael McNair Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will make a grant to the Dystonia Society under section 64 ;
(2) what action his Department is taking to make dystonia better understood by medical professionals, to improve hospital facilities for dystonia sufferers and to enable them to obtain their drugs fee of prescription charge.
Mr. Mellor : The Dystonia Society was included as a candidate for funding from the RPI error money which was announced by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Social Security on 9 February. They were awarded £10,000 towards the cost of providing a nurse practitioner at the national Hospital for Nervous Diseases to give advice and counselling to sufferers of dystonia. This project, which is scheduled to run for three years, will offer the opportunity to evaluate whether this ensures a better service for dystonia sufferers with a view to introducing it into other NHS hospital neurological departments, if appropriate.
Unfortunately it was not possible to award a section 64 core grant to the society in the current financial year since the number of applications for funding exceeded the level of funds available for grant awards.
Undergraduate and postgraduate medical education is, primarily, a matter for medical schools and postgraduate medical institutions. Measures to increase doctors' knowledge of dystonia and movement disorders is more appropriate for these bodies and the medical profession.
Because of the existing wide-ranging provisions for exemption from prescription charges and particularly those for persons on low incomes, we have no plans to include dystonia in the list of medical conditions which confer exemption from prescription charges.
Prescriptions
Mr. Sayeed : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when his Department decided to set up a new discount inquiry for products dispensed under National Health Service prescriptions ; when he expects it to come into force ; when was the last inquiry ; and what kind of discounts are currently available.
Mr. Mellor : We consider the need for discount inquiries annually in consultation with the pharmaceutical services negotiating committee (PSNC). The next discount inquiry will be based on purchases of drugs made during April 1989. The results of the inquiry will be implemented from April 1990 or such earlier date as may be agreed between the Department and the PSNC. The last inquiry was undertaken in respect of April 1986 purchases. The price differences taken into account include discounts for volume and early settlement, special lines, the ordering of supplies by computer, free offers and lower prices for parallel imported and other products.
Abortions
Mr. Amess : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish in the Official Report a breakdown of the reasons for abortions performed under ground two of the Abortion Act 1967 for 1987 and 1988.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 23 June 1989] : The information is shown in the table.
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Abortions performed under ground 2<1> (alone) of the 1967 Abortion
Act: numbers by principal medical condition,
England and Wales 1987-88
ICD<2> and Number
Condition
|1987
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| All legal abortions |154,627
| With mention of a medical condition|144,687
Without mention of a medical condition 9,940
638 Failed attempted abortion |1 |-
640 Haemorrhage in early pregnancy |- |1
641 Antepartum Haemorrhage, abruption
placentae and placenta praevie |- |-
642 Hypertension complicating pregnancy,
childbirth and puerperium |49 |98
643 Excessive vomiting in pregnancy |16 |28
646 Other complications in pregnancy, not
elsewhere classified |15 |17
647 Infective and parasitic conditions in the mother classified elsewhere |11 |8
648 Mental disorders |144,046 |153,907
| Neurotic disorder |100,688
| Depressive disorder not
| elsewhere classified |43,036
| Other |322
654 Abnormality of organs and soft tissue
of pelvis |41 |25
655 Known or suspected foetal abnormality
affecting management of mother |116 |64
656 Other foetal and placental problems
affecting management of mother |4 |2
<1> The continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated.
<2> International Classification of Diseases (ICD) code, 9th revision.
Mr. Amess : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many incomplete abortion notification forms were accepted by his Department in 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988 where no medical reason was given for the operation.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 23 June 1989] : The table shows the number of abortions performed in England and Wales during 1984-88 where no medical reason for the operation was given on the notification form. This does not mean, however, that these notification forms were incomplete ; on a number of occasions, notifications are received where, quite properly, no existing medical condition has been recorded.
Such notifications refer to situations where there is an implied future risk to the mother were the pregnancy to continue, rather than to an existing medical condition. The Abortion Act 1967 allows an abortion to be performed if two registered medical practitioners are of the opinion formed in good faith that
"the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated."
Most of the cases without mention of medical condition are terminations performed under this ground.
There are also a small number which are accounted for by those notified on the grounds that
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"the continuance of the pregnancy would involve risk or injury to the physical or mental health of any existing child(ren) in the family of the pregnant woman greater than if the pregnancy were terminated"(Ground 3 of the 1967 Abortion Act).
Legal abortions performed without mention of medical condition, England and Wales, 1984-88 Year |Total --------------------- 1984 |12,533 1985 |12,815 1986 |13,166 1987 |13,645 1988 |12,177
HOME DEPARTMENT
Passports
81. Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he last met representatives of the trade unions ; and whether the subject of the issue and renewal of passports was discussed.
Mr. Renton : Officials at the Passport Department last met representatives of the Civil and Public Services Association and the National Union of Civil and Public Servants on 16 June in the course of efforts to resolve the current dispute over staffing levels at the passport offices. An offer was made to increase numbers of permanent staff in return for greater flexibility in working practices and co-operation in a number of management initiatives to improve the efficiency of the Passport Department. We expect this will lead to a return to work by striking staff at the Liverpool office tomorrow and a resumption of normal working at the other passport offices. The first priority will then be to clear the current backlog of applications and to provide an improved service to the public.
Sunday Trading
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary for State for the Home Department whether he has any proposals to increase the fines available to the courts for traders who break the Sunday trading laws.
Road Traffic Law Review
Mr. Knox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he last met (a) the Association of Chief Police Officers and (b) the Magistrates Association to discuss some of the recommendations for improving traffic regulation enforcement made by the road traffic law review.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : My right hon. Friend last met the Association of Chief Police Officers to discuss road traffic matters on 24 October 1988. He has not met the Magistrates Association to discuss this subject. Home Office officials are involved in continuing discussions with representatives of the police service and the magistrates courts about implementation of the proposals set out in the White Paper "The Road User and the Law" (Cm. 576).
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United Kingdom Immigrants Advisory Service
Mr. Wray : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the financial support given to the United Kingdom Immigrants Advisory Service for each year since 1976 in 1989 money.
Mr. Renton : The total Home Office grant-in-aid to the United Kingdom Immigrants' Advisory Service in each of the financial years from 1976-77, expressed at assumed 1989-90 prices by use of the GDP deflator, is given in the table :
|£
------------------------------
1976-77 |755,000
1977-78 |692,000
1978-79 |909,000
1979-80 |850,000
1980-81 |891,000
1981-82 |993,000
1982-83 |1,026,000
1983-84 |1,058,000
1984-85 |1,038,000
1985-86 |1,086,000
1986-87 |1,060,000
1987-88 |1,087,000
1988-89 |1,062,000
Political Asylum
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for political asylum in the United Kingdom are currently being received each month ; and from what nationalities.
Mr. Renton : Information is not available in the form requested. A provisional breakdown by nationality of all applications made in each quarter is supplied by the United Nations High Commissioners for Refugees, one quarter in arrears. Copies are placed in the Library. Statistics for the first quarter of 1989 will be available at the beginning of July. We know that there has recently been a large increase in the number of Turkish nationals applying for asylum on arrival at ports. There have been over 3,000 such applications since the beginning of May.
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many applications for political asylum in the United Kingdom he expects to be granted on the basis of his Department's backlog criteria ;
(2) in what circumstances applications for political asylum in the United Kingdom are to be granted in order to reduce the current backlog of such cases and to release staff to deal with new applications.
Mr. Renton : Asylum applications continue to be decided under the criteria of the 1951 convention. There is no question of granting refugee status in cases which do not qualify under the convention in order to reduce the backlog of outstanding applications. Efforts are being made to reduce the backlog and staff are encouraged to identify and resolve more quickly through the grant of exceptional leave cases which do not qualify under the convention but in which outright refusal is likely to be inappropriate or impractical. Cases continue to be resolved on their individual merits and we can make no estimates of the likely outcomes.
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for political
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asylum in the United Kingdom are currently awaiting a decision ; and how many of these have been delayed for 12 months or longer.Mr. Renton : Information on the number of applications for refugee status in the United Kingdom awaiting a decision at the end of the year is published annually in Home Office Statistical Bulletin "Refugee Statistics, United Kingdom". The 1988 volume of this bulletin will be published next month. The latest available volume is for 1987 (Issue 16/88), a copy of which is in the Library. Of the estimate of a total of 8,300 applications recorded as awaiting a decision at the end of 1987, approximately 4,200 were recorded as outstanding for 12 months or more. However, these figures are maxima which overstate the position, because of under recording of decisions made earlier.
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many immigration officers are currently dealing with applications for political asylum in the United Kingdom ; and what were the comparable figures one, three, five and 10 years previously.
Mr. Renton : The information centrally available does not distinguish the number of immigration officers who, as part of their duties, may currently be dealing with asylum applications, or might in the past have been so engaged. But the arrival of substantial numbers of Turkish asylum applications this year has significantly increased the demands on the resources of the immigration service.
Immigration Appeals
Mr. Wray : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has as to the average length of time which immigration appeal cases in Scotland take to be prepared and presented.
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