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Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : As I have stated in another answer, my noble and learned friend, the Lord Advocate has overall responsibility for the criminal investigation and any criminal proceedings in this country which may result from it.
In a press statement which he issued on Monday 30 October and again on 5 November he emphasised that the degree of international co-operation in this case has been unprecedented. That co-operation has included unprecedented access to evidential material held by the West German federal police (BKA). Neither he nor the chief constable of Dumfries and Galloway constabulary, who is leading the international inquiry, has any reason to believe that any evidence available to the German police has been denied to the investigating team.
Oil Seed Rape
Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what information he has about the impact of the cultivation of oil seed rape on human health or allergies ; and if his Department will sponsor any research on this subject.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Although oil seed rape pollens have been identified as a cause of allergic reactions in some individuals there are at present no medical grounds for distinguishing their effects from those of the pollens of other plants and trees. A range of medicines is available for the treatment of such allergic conditions.
The Scottish Office will give favourable consideration to any soundly based relevant research proposal.
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Childhood Leukaemia
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list by year to date, and by health authority, the number of incidences of childhood leukaemia that have been reported following the Chernobyl accident ; and what was the reported number of incidences in 1980 and 1986.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The numbers of cases of leukaemia recorded in children in the 0 to 14 age group in Scotland, analysed by health board of residence in the years 1980, 1986 and 1987, are shown in the following table. 1987 is the latest year for which cancer registration in Scotland is complete.
Health Board |1980 |1986 |1987
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Argyll and Clyde |4 |4 |6
Ayrshire and Arran |2 |1 |4
Borders |1 |0 |0
Dumfries and Galloway |1 |0 |0
Fife |3 |2 |7
Forth Valley |4 |1 |3
Grampian |3 |5 |2
Greater Glasgow |12 |11 |9
Highland |3 |1 |0
Lanarkshire |5 |1 |5
Lothian |6 |6 |9
Orkney |0 |0 |0
Shetland |0 |0 |0
Tayside |7 |0 |5
Western Isles |0 |0 |1
|--- |--- |---
Scotland |51 |32 |51
Gaelic Broadcasting
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make it his policy to support a Gaelic broadcasting council ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lang : The Government are currently considering the future of Gaelic broadcasting, including Comunn na
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Gaidhlig's proposals for the establishment of a Gaelic broadcasting council ; and we will announce our conclusion shortly.Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he last met representatives of Grampian Television to discuss Gaelic broadcasting ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lang : My right hon. and learned Friend met the managing director of Grampian Television on 5 April 1989 to discuss issues, including Gaelic broadcasting, arising from the broadcasting White Paper. The meeting was also attended by representatives of Scottish Television and Border Television.
Advisers
Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list in the Official Report all current advisers to his Department who are not career civil servants, giving their date of appointment and fees.
Mr. Rifkind : There are currently two part-time advisers to the Scottish Office. They are :
Professor J. Lamb CBE, Scientific Adviser, appointed on 20 September 1987.
Dr. C. K. Bennington, Industrial Adviser, appointed on 8 August 1988.
It is not our practice to divulge the remuneration of industrial advisers. Fees are negotiated individually and relate to previous outside earnings.
School Boards
Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list in the Official Report the total number, in each regional council area, of schools in (a) the primary sector and (b) the secondary sector which now have a school board in place, showing each total as a percentage of the total number of such schools in the area.
Mr. Lang : The information is set out in the table :
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Number of schools with school board
Region/Islands areas |Primary schools |Percentage of Primary |Secondary schools |Percentage of Secondary
|schools |schools
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Borders |35 |45 |7 |78
Central |60 |51 |10 |53
Dumfries and Galloway |58 |50 |13 |81
Fife |72 |50 |15 |79
Grampian |151 |55 |28 |72
Highland |83 |41 |22 |81
Lothian |159 |65 |40 |78
Orkney |15 |75 |5 |83
Shetland |15 |54 |8 |100
Strathclyde |636 |71 |158 |85
Tayside |96 |52 |25 |78
Western Isles |31 |69 |5 |100
Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list in the Official Report the total number, in each regional council area, of schools in (a) the primary sector and (b) the secondary sector which did not
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require to hold elections for school boards, showing these as a percentage of the total number of boards currently in place.Mr. Lang : The information is set out in the table.
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Number of schools where a School Board has been established without a contested election
Region/Islands area |Primary |Percentage oftotal number|Secondary |Percentage of total
|of primary School Boards |number of secondary
|School Boards
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Borders |7 |20 |2 |29
Central |22 |37 |0 |0
Dumfries and Galloway |28 |48 |5 |38
Fife |23 |32 |4 |27
Grampian |48 |32 |5 |18
Highland |37 |45 |3 |14
Lothian |39 |25 |4 |10
Orkney |0 |0 |0 |0
Shetland |5 |33 |0 |0
Strathclyde |258 |41 |50 |32
Tayside |29 |30 |4 |16
Western Isles |22 |71 |1 |20
Nature Conservancy Council
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a list of the bodies which have expressed themselves to his Department (a) in favour and (b) against the proposal to create three separate Nature Conservancy Councils, as referred to in the letter to the hon. Member for Linlithgow from the Minister of State at his Department, dated 31 October.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : The Scottish Development Department consultation paper "Scotland's Natural Heritage" invited comments on the proposals to merge the Countryside Commission for Scotland (CCS) with a new Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland (NCCS) to form a single natural heritage agency for Scotland. Although not specifically invited to do so, some respondents commented on the Government's decision to create three separate NCCs but it is not possible to give a breakdown of these in the manner requested. My right hon. and learned Friend hopes to announce the outcome of the consultation exercise soon.
Health Service (Grading Appeals)
Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list in the Official Report, to the latest available date, the number of appeals against clinical grading which have now been heard, the number that are still outstanding and the figures for each health board area.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 1 November 1989] : The information is not available since there is no central record of the total number of appeals lodged nor of the number resolved at unit level.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Steel : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland on what basis is the notional income on capital calculated, under the Housing Benefit (Community Charge Rebate) (Scotland) Regulations 1988, such that £1 is deemed the notional income for every £250 increment of capital between £3,000 and £8,000.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I have been asked to reply.
Tariff income on capital progressively reduces entitlement to community charge rebate for those with higher levels of capital. The Government believe that it is right to expect claimants with savings above £3,000 to use some of those resources to meet their day-to-day living expenses thereby reducing the burden on taxpayers.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
Local Government Finance
83. Mr. Marlow : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the proportion of (a) all pensioner households and (b) those pensioner households financially dependent solely on state benefit likely to receive a rebate on the community charge.
Mr. Scott : All elderly people financially dependent solely on state benefits will be entitled to receive community charge benefit, and the vast majority of them will be entitled to maximum community charge benefit. The precise number of pensioner households who will receive community charge benefit will be affected by the community charge transitional relief scheme, and I will write to my hon. Friend about the remainder of his question when the Government's public expenditure plans have been published.
Attendance Allowance
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will now reconsider the six-month rule relating to attendance allowance in order to ensure that there is no systematic failure to provide early stage community care for people with a proven attendance need arising out of chronic sickness or disability.
Mr. Scott : The provision of community care services is a matter for local authority social service departments who will consider clients' needs whether or not they are getting attendance allowance. We shall look at the six months waiting period for the allowance when we consider the future of disability benefits in the light of the results of the OPCS disability surveys. Meanwhile, we have already announced our intention to remove this waiting period for terminally ill people.
Income Support
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will state the levels of weekly income which may be disregarded for persons whose families are in receipt of income support and who may have some part- time self-employed work ; and how these levels of disregard have changed over the past 10 years, under the present system and the previous supplementary benefit system.
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Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The weekly amount of earnings that may be disregarded for people with families who are in part-time self-employment and receiving income suport are :
|£
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Couples aged under 60 years who have been
continuously in receipt of supplementary
benefit/income support for two years or
more. |15 per couple
Couples receiving or with underlying title to the
disability premium (for example people who
have been sick for 28 weeks or more, or are
disabled). |15 per couple
All other couples. | 5 each member
Lone parents. |15
The equivalent levels of earnings disregarded under the Supplementary Benefit scheme since 1979 were :
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|1979-80 |November 1980-April 1988
|£ |£
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
People required to register for
employment. |2 |4
People not required to register for
employment. |4 |4
Lone parents. |6 |<1>12 maximum
<1>£4 plus half the amount of any earnings between £4 and £20.
Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list in the Official Report the total numbers in each region of the United Kingdom of (a) direct recipients of supplementary benefit or income support payments and (b) the estimated number of dependants of such recipients in June of each year since 1986.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information for Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland. The information by social security region for Great Britain is as follows :
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Claimants Partners Dependants
|<1>1986|<1>1987|<1>1988|<1>1986|<1>1987|<1>1988|<1>1986|<1>1987|<1>1988
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North Eastern |794 |777 |700 |200 |193 |155 |376 |386 |382
London North |774 |755 |643 |166 |164 |117 |338 |342 |310
London South |680 |664 |581 |134 |121 |93 |280 |267 |273
Wales and South Western |624 |607 |546 |142 |129 |105 |258 |245 |240
Midlands |821 |818 |714 |213 |200 |152 |403 |396 |374
North Western |739 |738 |669 |165 |164 |128 |352 |375 |380
Scotland |506 |535 |499 |107 |102 |92 |219 |225 |236
|--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |---
Totals<2> |4,938 |4,896 |4,352 |1,127 |1,074 |841 |2,227 |2,236 |2,196
<1> Figures for June of each year are unavailable. The information relates to February 1986, May 1987
and May 1988. Figures are in thousands.
<2> Totals do not consistently sum due to rounding.
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the latest estimate of the number of sick people receiving income support.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information on the number of sick people receiving income support is not available. However, the latest available estimates are that some 248,000 income support claimants are in receipt of the disability premium which is payable to sick or disabled people.
Grants and Loans (Clothing)
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what discretion his Department's local offices have over the payment of grants or loans to help people on pensions, income support and invalidity benefit meet the additional costs of purchasing necessary extra clothing for a person as in-patients in hospital ; and if he will take steps to ensure that these provisions are interpreted with adequate generosity at local level to ensure that the real needs of claimants are met.
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Mr. Scott : Social fund budgeting loans and community care grants may be awarded, at the discretion of a social fund officer, to help people on income support with the cost of clothing. Hospital in-patients who are not receiving income support may be able to obtain a crisis loan where it is planned that they will be discharged from hospital within two weeks and a loan is the only means of avoiding serious risk to health or safety. Whether a loan or grant can be made is for a social fund officer to decide having regard to the circumstances of the individual case.
Benefit Limits
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretaryof State for Social Security if he will list in the Official Report the various capital limits that have existed for each relevant social security benefit, including housing benefit, since 1979, above which no benefit is payable.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The information requested is as follows :
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£
|Supplementary benefit (to |Family income supplement |Rent rebates and rent
|April 1988) |(to April 1988) |allowances<1> to April
|1983)
|Income support (from |Family Credit (from April |Housing benefit (from
|April 1988) |1988) |1982-83)
|Community charge benefit
|(from April 1989)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |Up to £1,200 ignored. Over £1,200, an |No capital limit |No capital limit
| income of 25p a week was taken into
| account for each complete £50
November 1980 |Up to £2,000 ignored. No entitlement to |No capital limit |No capital limit
| benefit if capital exceeded £2,000
November 1982 |Up to £2,500 ignored. No entitlement to |No capital limit |No capital limit
| benefit if capital exceeded £2,500
November 1983 |Up to £3,000 ignored. No entitlement to |No capital limit |No capital limit
| benefit if capital exceeded £3,000
April 1988 |Up to £3,000 ignored. Over £3,000, an |As in Income Support |As in Income Support
| income of £1 a week is taken into
| account for each £250, or part of £250,
| between £3,000 and £6,000. No
| entitlement to benefit if capital exceeds
| £6,000
May 1988 to date |As above |As in Income Support |Up to £3,000 ignored. Over £3,000, an
| income of £1 a week is taken into
| account for each £250, or part of £250,
| between £3,000 and £8,000. No
| entitlement to benefit if capital exceeds
| £8,000
<1> Note.-Between 1979 and the phased introduction of Housing Benefit in 1982-83 assistance with rent and rates was through the former rent rebate, rent allowance and rate rebate schemes which were not Social Security
benefits.
Wheelchairs
Mr. Mills : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will allocate funds to set up a working group to investigate improvements of wheelchairs for disabled people ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Scott : No. The disablement services authority, which has responsibility for the provision of wheelchair services in England, has this matter under consideration.
Column 668
Offices (Doncaster and Wath-on-Dearne)
Mr. Martin Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list by social security offices in (a) Doncaster and (b) Wath-on-Dearne, the number of social fund applications that remained unprocessed at the end of the financial year 1988-89, the number that are currently awaiting determination, and the underspend at each office in 1988 -89.
Mr. Scott : The information requested is shown in the tables.
Grants Loans
Local Office |Allocation for grants |Applications remaining to|Allocation for loans |Applications remaining to
|remaining at 31 March |be processed at 31 March |remaining at 31 March |be processed at 31 March
|1989 |1989 |1989 |1989
|(£000s) |(£000s)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doncaster East |-<1> |2 |-<1> |57
Doncaster West |97 |33 |75 |181
Wath-on-Dearne |77 |13 |9 |114
Social Fund Allocations 1989-90
Grants Loans
Local Office |Allocation for grants |Applications remaining to|Allocation for loans |Applications remaining to
|remaining at 30 |be processed at 30 |remaining at 30 |be processed at 30
|September 1989 |September 1989 |September 1989 |September 1989
|(£000s) |(£000s)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Doncaster East |71 |10 |187 |49
Doncaster West |152 |33 |290 |163
Wath-on-Dearne |68 |28 |170 |93
<1> Figures not available.
Part-time Workers
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will introduce legislation to revise the current national insurance plan to include provision for cover for part-time workers on a pro-rata basis.
Column 668
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Part-time workers who earn above the lower earnings limit, currently £43 per week, are already included in national insurance on the same basis as full-time employees. We have no current plans to introduce legislation to extend national insurance to those who earn less than the lower earnings limit.
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Homelessness
Mr. Hawkins : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what problems he has identified arising from recent changes in social security regulations relating to homelessness among young people ; and whether he intends to make any changes to the regulations.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The broad thrust of our policy for the majority of 16 and 17-year-olds is correct ; it would be irresponsible to provide a perverse incentive to leave home needlessly.
However, our monitoring and discussions with interested bodies revealed earlier this year that a minority were facing real difficulties. As a result, the following changes were made in July : (
(a) 16 and 17-year-olds on income support who, for good reason, have to live independently, became entitled to a higher rate of income support as a recognition of higher and unavoidable expenses (there was a similar relaxation in the rules governing housing benefit) ;
(b) in addition, entitlement to income support during the child benefit extension period was extended to those 16 and 17-year-olds genuinely estranged from their parents ;
(c) those 16 and 17-year-olds who seek emergency accommodation in night shelters are now automatically considered for payment of income support under the "severe hardship" provisions ;
(d) special training arrangements were introduced for those officials who deal with claims from the vulnerable group of young people who are estranged from their families or who have had to leave home for some other good reason.
Those who are homeless continue to be able to claim a social fund crisis loan to enable them to secure accommodation.
We continue to monitor the effects of the 1988 social security reforms including those affecting 16 and 17-year-olds.
Social Fund
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the total amount for each social security region of unspent social fund allocations, and the national total, for both loans and grants, for the last financial year.
Mr. Scott : The information requested is contained in the table.
Table
|Grants |Loans
Year 1988-89 |Outstanding balance|Outstanding balance
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
National £ million |18.5 |17.5
North East Region |3.0 |1.5
North West Region |1.5 |2.5
Midlands Region |2.5 |2.0
London North Region |2.0 |4.0
London South Region |2.0 |4.0
Wales and South West Region |1.0 |1.0
Scotland |5.5 |2.5
Note: Figures rounded to the nearest £" million.
Housing Benefit
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many housing benefit recipients are (a) retired pensioners, (b) unemployed and (c) sick.
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Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information is not collected on a basis which can identify those who are sick. The information available is in the table.
Estimated numbers receiving housing benefit:
Great Britain May 1988
|Claimants also in receipt|Claimants in receipt of
|of Income Support |Housing Benefit only
|(000) |(000)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Claimant or partner aged
60 or over |1,440 |1,720
Registered unemployed |880 |n/a
Single Claimants
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the average weekly payment of (a) unemployment benefit, (b) sickness benefit, (c) invalidity benefit and (d) retirement pension received by a single claimant.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information is not available in the precise form requested. The table shows the average weekly payments of unemployment benefit, invalidity benefit and retirement pension, at the latest available dates, to persons without adult dependants. They may be single, married, widowed or divorced. I regret that similar information is not available for sickness benefit, but the average payment to all sickness beneficiaries at 2 April 1988 was £33.65.
Type of benefit |Average weekly payment to
|persons without adult
|dependants
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unemployment benefit |£34.41 (at May 1989)
Invalidity benefit |£46.74 (at 2 April 1988)
Retirement pension<1> |£38.87 (at 31 March 1989)
<1> Contributory retirement pension only.
Unemployed Persons
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the latest estimate of the number of unemployed persons in receipt of (a) unemployment benefit only, (b) unemployment benefit combined with income support and (c) income support only.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The information requested is as follows. The figures relate to August 1989, the latest date for which they are available.
|Number of unemployed
|claimants
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unemployment benefit only |242,573
Unemployment benefit and income support |88,128
Income support only |1,001,918
Mr. Jack : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he is yet in a position, following the undertaken given during the Committee stage of the Social Security Bill 1989, to publish the results of the monitoring exercise undertaken to establish the effects of the increase in the maximum period of disqualification for unemployment benefit on grounds of voluntary unemployment.
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Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I have today arranged for copies of two reports, one by Social and Community Planning Research, the other by the Department, to be placed in the Library.
War Widows
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is, for the latest year for which records exist, the average pension received from all sources by a war widow whose husband was of private rank or equivalent and who died or left the armed forces (a) before 31 March 1973 and (b) after that date.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 25 October 1989] : I regret this information is not available. Under the war pension scheme administered by the Department of Social Security a war widow of a private would receive currently a tax-free war widows pension of £56.65. In addition, age allowances of £6.10 at 65, £12.20 at 70 and £15.30 at 80 are payable. It is unlikely that widows whose husbands served on or after 31 March 1973 would be eligible for age allowances. A war widow whose husband served on or after 31 March 1973 would also receive a forces family pension paid under the armed forces pension scheme. For the widow of a private this would be about £68 a week, the exact figure depending on the year in which her husband's service ended. About 75 per cent. of war widows are also in receipt of a retirement pension, but no information is available about the rates received. Nor is it known what other pensions or income individual war widows may have.
Mr. Neil Thorne : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what definition his Department uses of war widow for pension purposes.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 27 October 1989] : The Department applies the legislation for the time being in force. Different orders or schemes apply in different circumstances, but none of these provides an express definition of the term "war widow". The Service Pensions Order provides a pension in certain circumstances for a widow of a member of the armed forces whose death was due to service. Whether death was due to service is determined in accordance with the substantive provisions of the order. The civilians scheme includes provision for the award of pensions to widows where the late husband's death was a direct result of war injuries or war service injuries. There are a number of other schemes which also provide pensions for widows who satisfy the requirements of that particular scheme. These include widows whose late husbands were members of the Naval Auxiliary Service, Mercantile Marine, Her Majesty's Coastguard, Auxiliary Coastguard, Home Guard, Ulster Defence Regiment, Polish forces who served under British command during world war 2, the Polish resettlement forces, or the nursing and auxiliary services.
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he has any plans to increase the pensions of widows of the two world wars to make them more comparable with the benefits paid to widows of service men who died after 1973.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 1 November 1989] : Under the war pensions scheme administered by the Department of Social Security, the pension paid to a
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war widow is the same regardless of when she was widowed. Provision for service men's widows through the occupational forces family pension paid under the armed forces pension scheme is a matter for my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Defence. The pensions paid under the war pensions scheme are larger than national insurance widows' pensions, can be received in addition to a retirement pension on the widow's own contributions and are free of tax. In addition, age allowances of £6.10 at age 65, £12.20 at 70 and £15.30 at 80 are paid. These allowances are unique to the war pensions scheme and will be increased from next April to £7, £13.50 and £20 respectively. Eighty five per cent. of all war widows receive age allowances.AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
River Crane
Sir Barney Hayhoe : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what surveys or investigations concerning the River Crane in Isleworth have been carried out or authorised by or on behalf of his Department and what financial assistance is being given or promised by his Department to the National Rivers Authority for works connected with the River Crane.
Mr. Gummer : My Department's involvement in works in connection with the alleviation of flooding from the River Crane has been limited to giving agreement to the outline proposals for contract 1 which comprises the rebuilding of the channel of the tidal river downstream of Talbot Road bridge to its confluence with the Thames. No financial commitment has yet been requested or issued.
Monofilament Fishing Nets
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will extend the prohibition on the use of monofilament nets by fishing fleets in inshore Scottish waters to cover the whole of Great Britain and offshore waters ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : We have no plans to extend the prohibition on the use of nylon monofilament gill nets although we maintain close monitoring of the fishery. However, there are national mesh size restrictions pursuant to the Salmon and Freshwater Fisheries Act 1975 ; the use of such nets is variously controlled in some inshore waters under byelaws made by National Rivers Authority regions or sea fisheries committee ; and we announced on 27 July 1988 our intention to introduce certain national restrictions on the use of gill and other nets whose mesh sizes fall between 65mm and 89mm.
Fishing Industry
Mr. Macdonald : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the future of the fishing industry.
Mr. Curry : I am well aware of the current difficulties facing the industry but these must be seen against the years of unparalleled growth and prosperity since 1983. I am sure that the industry will be able to tackle the future with confidence within the framework of the common fisheries policy.
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Sheepmeat Regime
Mr. Amos : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the current state of negotiations on the future of the sheepmeat regime.
Mr. Curry : The Council of Agriculture Ministers adopted a regulation in September providing for substantial changes to the sheepmeat regime. The regulation will begin to have effect in January next year.
Woodlands
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list by county in England and Wales the Forestry Commission woodlands which have been sold during each of the last three years, stating for each disposal the hectarage involved.
Mr. Maclean : I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland on 6 November 1989 at column 486 .
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