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Mr. MacGregor : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply given on 25 May to my hon. Friend the Member for Maidstone (Miss Widdecombe) at column 740 .
Nitrates
Mr. Tredinnick : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what representations he has received recently concerning nitrates in water supplies ; what action he has taken ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. MacGregor : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Beverley (Mr. Cran).
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Waste Dumping (British Coal)
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his policy on the dumping by British Coal of solid sludge and liquid waste into the sea and on the development of alternatives to sea dumping ; and whether he will make a statement.
Mr. Donald Thompson : Licences for the disposal at sea of colliery waste are granted only where practical land-based means of disposal are not available. In particular, the sea disposal of spoil by tipping on Durham beaches creates an environmental problem and I am anxious to see it stopped as soon as possible. As a condition of the sea disposal licence issued by the Ministry, British Coal has reassessed the availability and cost of disposal of this waste on land in the area, by analysing a range of options.
I am now asking British Coal to study in more detail the land-based options already analysed which appear to merit further work, and to report to me. I intend this to provide the Ministry with a basis for a final decision on whether a practicable and environmentally preferable alternative to sea disposal exists.
Liquid colliery waste which is discharged to sea across Durham beaches is subject to control by the Northumbrian water authority. I consider, with the support of the authority, that it would be in the interests of protection of the land and marine environments for British Coal's more detailed studies to incorporate an assessment of the scope for disposal of these tailings on land in an
environmentally satisfactory way. I am pleased that British Coal is prepared to take on this further assessment.
Horticultural Trades Association
Mr. Patchett : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he last met representatives of the Horticultural Trades Association ; and what matters were discussed.
Mr. Donald Thompson : My noble Friend the Parliamentary Secretary in another place met representatives of the horticultural industry including the Horticultural Trades Association (HTA) on 31 May to discuss research and development.
OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
Greenhouse Effect
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what specific proposals his Department has put forward for consideration and enactment, in order to hold down and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, since the seminar on the greenhouse effect held by the Prime Minister on 26 April.
Mr. Chris Patten : The Government proposed a global climate convention, applicable to all countries, at the United Nations in New York on 8 May. At the Helsinki review meeting of the Montreal protocol on 3 May my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment outlined the support we could offer
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developing countries which are trying to avoid the use of CFCs. My Department has stepped up efforts to increase aid for forestry and is examining the scope for more support for energy efficiency.Non-governmental Organisations
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the non-governmental organisations associated with overseas development which received financial support from his Department in 1988-89, and the sum received by each organisation in that year.
Mr. Chris Patten : Figures for 1988-89 are not yet available. I shall let my right hon. Friend know when they are.
EMPLOYMENT
Remploy
Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the amount of the subvention paid to Remploy in the years 1975, 1979, 1984 and 1989.
Mr. Lee : The subvention paid to Remploy Ltd. for current expenditure in the following financial years was :
|£
---------------------------------
1974-75 |10,114,000
1978-79 |22,530,000
1983-84 |44,572,000
1988-89 |53,714,000
Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what information he has about plans by the Remploy company to close a number of its factories.
Mr. Lee : Other than Rutherglen, I am not aware of plans to close specific Remploy factories.
Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of the cost of employing disabled people employed by Remploy was provided by the Government and what proportion by the company in the years 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1989 to date.
Mr. Lee : The proportion of the cost of employing people with disabilities at Remploy provided by the Government in each of the following financial years was :
|Percentage
---------------------------------
1984-85 |100
1985-86 |100
1986-87 |94
1987-88 |87
1988-89 |90
The remainder was provided by the company from its trading surplus.
Disabled People
Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what responsibility the Government have to provide employment for disabled people in local areas.
Mr. Lee : The Secretary of State approves facilities which local authorities set up to provide employment for
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people with severe disabilities ordinarily resident in their areas. He also has powers to direct local authorities in the extent of this provision. My Department is using local labour market information to allocate its resources for providing employment for people with severe disabilities with the aim of producing an equitable distribution of resource, although this will take some time to achieve. We are planning in the future to pay closer attention to geographical provision as well as to the needs of individuals.Labour Statistics
Mr. Patchett : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list in the Official Report the number of long-term unemployed people, male and female, indicating in each instance how many are under the age of 25 years in Yorkshire and in each of the parliamentary constituencies of Yorkshire ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lee : The information is available from the Library. The following table shows for Yorkshire and for each parliamentary constituency of Yorkshire the total number of unemployed claimants in April 1989, who had been unemployed for over 12 months, analysed by sex and separately identifying those aged under 25 years. In the year to April 1989 long-term unemployment fell by an average of 28.1 per cent. in the parliamentary constituencies concerned.
Long-term unemployment in Yorkshire parliamentary constituencies
April 1989
Number of unemployed
claimants
Male Female
Parliamentary |Total |Of which under 25 years|Total |Of which under 25 years
constituency
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harrogate |241 |21 |94 |13
Richmond |391 |39 |187 |22
Ryedale |333 |22 |149 |14
Scarborough |739 |88 |252 |40
Selby |380 |41 |191 |25
Skipton and Ripon |242 |21 |135 |15
York |1,045 |142 |309 |62
Barnsley Central |1,730 |215 |287 |62
Barnsley East |1,461 |198 |259 |70
Barnsley West and
Penistone |1,378 |158 |304 |69
Don Valley |1,581 |181 |388 |84
Doncaster Central |1,836 |217 |501 |115
Doncaster North |1,875 |264 |458 |86
Rother Valley |1,322 |131 |338 |83
Rotherham |1,554 |241 |357 |100
Sheffield Central |2,628 |513 |665 |231
Sheffield Attercliffe |1,267 |205 |324 |88
Sheffield Brightside |1,969 |366 |466 |156
Sheffield Hallam |797 |181 |334 |104
Sheffield Heeley |1,582 |303 |476 |123
Sheffield
Hillsborough |1,053 |177 |403 |97
Wentworth |1,485 |177 |311 |63
Batley and Spen |844 |121 |244 |48
Bradford North |1,614 |232 |383 |92
Bradford South |1,149 |184 |297 |51
Bradford West |1,753 |241 |409 |106
Calder Valley |502 |61 |213 |35
Colne Valley |483 |69 |206 |55
Dewsbury |748 |100 |229 |74
Elmet |502 |49 |179 |33
Halifax |913 |128 |268 |59
Hemsworth |1,289 |144 |218 |42
Huddersfield |752 |120 |284 |57
Keighley |561 |55 |243 |33
Leeds Central |1,792 |320 |434 |109
Leeds East |1,517 |275 |408 |112
Leeds North East |860 |157 |266 |68
Leeds North West |617 |90 |207 |47
Leeds West |1,020 |160 |347 |70
Morley and Leeds
South |822 |111 |242 |37
Normanton |709 |67 |213 |29
Pontefract and
Castleford |1,409 |159 |259 |56
Pudsey |364 |45 |157 |21
Shipley |429 |46 |148 |18
Wakefield |1,043 |104 |270 |54
Long-term unemployment in Yorkshire, April 1989
Number of unemployed claimants
Male Female
County |Total |Of which under 25 years|Total |Of which under 25 years
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North Yorkshire |3,371 |374 |1,317 |191
West Yorkshire |21,692 |3,042 |6,142 |1,306
South Yorkshire |23,518 |3,527 |5,871 |1,531
Yorkshire |48,581 |6,943 |13,312 |3,028
Mr. Teddy Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many new jobs have been created over the past five years in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) the rest of the European Economic Community and (c) the European Free Trade Area ; and what assessment he has made of the reasons for the differences in these figures.
Mr. Lee : The latest available information is given in the following table. The EFTA unemployment rates are not
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directly comparable with those for the United Kingdom and the EEC because of differences in the definitions, methods of compilation and timing of the statistics.The unemployment rate in the United Kingdom remains lower than that of the majority of our European partners.
|Unemployment rate
|Per Cent.
---------------------------------------------------------
United Kingdom (Apr) |6.9
EEC (Apr) |9.3
EFTA<1> |2.8
<1> Excluding Iceland, Liechtenstein.
Note: Rates for United Kingdom and the EEC are
seasonally adjusted comparable rates produced by the
Statistical Office of the European Communities.
The rate for the EFTA is based on unadjusted
unemployment for the latest available month for each
country.
The Government have placed great stress on creating the right economic conditions in which enterprise can flourish and jobs can be created. Since 1980 the United Kingdom economy has been the fastest-growing major economy in Western Europe and we are now well into our eighth successive year of sustained growth. As a result of this, growth in employment over the past five years has been better than any other European country.
Council for Social Aid
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment on what date consideration was first given to withdrawing the contract for the Council for Social Aid, Manchester, as an ET manager ; and when the final decision to cancel the contract was made.
Mr. Nicholls [holding answer 26 June 1989] : The full extent of CSA's financial position became clear on 3 May with a report released by its accountants. Between that date and 18 May CSA Ltd. made unsuccessful efforts to raise additional funds. The decision to terminate the contract was made on 19 May.
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