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Mr. Gwilym Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales pursuant to his statement on 24 January, Official Report, columns 993-94, what proposals he has received from South Glamorgan, Powys, Gwynedd, Newport and Cardiff councils for lower community charges for the forthcoming financial year.

Mr. Grist : My right hon. Friend has received no such proposals.

Mr. Gwilym Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what analysis he has made of Cardiff city council's planned spending for 1990-91 ; and what is his assessment of how much of that planned spending will be expended in the financial year ;

(2) what analysis he has made of South Glamorgan council's planned spending for 1990-91 ; and what is his assessment of how much of that planned spending will be expended in the financial year.

Mr. Grist : My right hon. Friend has made no such assessments.

Mr. Gwilym Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what assessment he has made of the estimates published by the Council of Welsh District Councils on 20 December 1989 with regard to the average community charge for Wales in 1990-91 and the 1990-91 total community charge for Cardiff and South Glamorgan councils.

Mr. Grist : The estimates published by the Council of Welsh Districts on 20 December 1989 were of an average community charge in Wales of £209 and a community charge in Cardiff (including South Glamorgan county council's precept) of £193. It appears that these estimates were based on levels of spending 4 per cent. in excess of the 1990-91 local authority revenue settlement.


Column 662

Our assessment is that such increases are too high. The 1990-91 settlement for Wales allows for an increase of 7.1 per cent. in local authority expenditure--entirely adequate to maintain and where appropriate develop council services. On this basis the average community charge in Wales would be £173. However, if Cardiff city council and South Glamorgan county council were to increase their spending line with the settlement the community charge in Cardiff need be only £157.

Press reports indicate that on the basis of the expenditure plans apparently under consideration by the two councils the community charge in Cardiff could be as high as £235. We have urged both councils to exercise restraints over their spending in order to contain it to levels nearer the Department's plans. Such action would bring very significant benefits for chargepayers in Cardiff whilst allowing services to be maintained and developed.

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total budget of each county and district council in Gwynedd and Clwyd in (a) 1988-89 and (b) 1989-90.

Mr. Grist : The information requested is published in table 8.5 of "Welsh Local Government Financial Statistics" No. 13, 1989.

Abattoirs

Mr. Geraint Howells : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many abattoirs there are in each county in Wales ; how many of them are up to EEC standards ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Peter Walker : The number of abattoirs by county is as follows :



                |Number       

------------------------------

Clwyd           |17           

Dyfed           |12           

Gwent           |3            

Gwynedd         |9            

Mid Glamorgan   |6            

Powys           |12           

South Glamorgan |-            

West Glamorgan  |6            

These include three establishments which are EEC approved.

Airfield (Mid-Wales)

Mr. Geraint Howells : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he has any plans to build an airfield in mid-Wales during the next five years ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Wyn Roberts : We have no plans to do so. The provision of an airfield would be a commercial decision more appropriate for the private sector.

Hill Livestock Allowance

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total amount of hill livestock compensatory allowance contributions to the Meirionnydd Nant Conwy constituency in (a) 1988 and (b) 1989.

Mr. Wyn Roberts : Hill livestock compensatory allowance (HLCA) statistics are not held on a constituency basis. However, the figures for Gwynedd for the two calendar years were :


Column 663

(a) 1988--£5.82 million.

(b) 1989--£5.96 million.

Tourism

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total budget of the Wales tourist board in 1988-89 and 1989-90 ; and how much money was allocated to its north Wales office during both years.

Mr. Wyn Roberts : The WTB's gross budget was £11,381,000 for 1988-89, and £13,692,000 for 1989-90. The board operates three regional offices in Swansea, Machynlleth and Colwyn Bay. The 1988-89 provision for the Colwyn Bay office was £471,260 and the corresponding figure for 1989-90 is £516,500. These funds are primarily for salaries and general administration. Much of the board's other expenditure, although administered from Cardiff, is of direct benefit to north Wales.

Radiation Hotspots

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what action his Department has undertaken following the discovery of three radiation hotspots at Talycafn, Llanfairfechan and Trawsfynydd in Gwynedd.

Mr. Grist : A report that radiation hotspots had been discovered at Talycafn, Llanfairfechan and Trawsfynydd was investigated by Government scientists who found no evidence to support the claims.

Development Board for Rural Wales

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total budget of (a) the Development Board for Rural Wales and (b) Mid Wales Development in (i) 1988-89 and (ii) 1989-90.

Mr. Wyn Roberts : Mid Wales Development was the former marketing title of the Development Board for Rural Wales, which the board no longer uses to promote its activities. It had no separate budget. The further information requested on the DBRW budget is as follows :


1988-89    |1989-90              

Gross      |Gross                

provision  |provision            

£          |£                    

---------------------------------

18,183,000 |19,384,000           

Land Authority

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total budget of the Land Authority in Wales in (a) 1988-89 and (b) 1989-90 ; and what proportion of these moneys were spent in Gwynedd and Clwyd.

Mr. Grist : Expenditure on land purchases by the Land Authority for Wales in 1988-89 was £9.5 million. I have asked the chairman of the authority if he would write to the hon. Gentleman to give an estimate of the authority's expenditure in the current financial year and details of the amounts spent in Gwynedd and Clwyd.

Tai Cymru

Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total budget of Tai Cymru in (a) 1988-89 and (b) 1989-90 ; and what proportion of this money was spent in north Wales.


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Mr. Grist : In 1988-89, the Housing Corporation in Wales' gross outturn was £72.89 million. Of this, 13.7 per cent. was spent in Gwynedd and Clwyd. The figures for 1989-90 are not yet available.

Sheltered Placement

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many employment opportunities the sheltered placement scheme currently offers in Wales ; and how many places have been offered in total in Wales since the scheme started in 1985.

Mr. Wyn Roberts : The number of sheltered placements offered in Wales has increased from 29 in 1985 to 395 as at 31 December 1989, the latest date for which information is available.

Disabled Employees

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales under the present disabled employee quota system, how many Welsh companies have been prosecuted since 1960 ; and what has been the average fine resulting from prosecutions.

Mr. Wyn Roberts : There has been one prosecution in Wales since 1960 under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944. The case was dismissed.

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what percentage of registered disabled adults are in (a) full-time, (b) part- time and (c) home-based employment in Wales.

Mr. Grist : The information is not held centrally.

Earnings

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what are the latest figures for average gross earnings per week of (a) disabled adult men, (b) disabled adult women, (c) the male working population in general and (d) the female working population in general in Wales.

Mr. Grist : Figures for earnings of disabled persons in full-time employment in Great Britain are contained in table 3.1 of report 2 of the OPCS surveys of disability in Great Britain--"The financial circumstances of disabled adults living in private

households"--published in November 1988 by HMSO and available in the House of Commons Library.

Corresponding statistics for the disabled in Wales are not available, but figures for average gross weekly earnings obtained from the new earnings surveys were £238.6 and £168 for all full-time adult males and females respectively in April 1989.

Disabled People

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the total number of registered disabled people in Wales in each year since 1979.

Mr. Grist : The numbers of people in Wales on local authority registers for the disabled in each year since 1979 were as shown in the following table :


Column 665


             |Persons with|Others<1>                             

             |a mental                                           

             |handicap                                           

-----------------------------------------------------------------

1979         |n/a         |70,043                                

1980         |/a          |75,096                                

1981         |n/a         |84,291                                

1982         |n/a         |91,435                                

1983         |n/a         |100,037                               

1984         |n/a         |109,729                               

1985         |n/a         |119,091                               

1986         |n/a         |130,872                               

1987         |n/a         |138,302                               

1988         |n/a         |9,470       |144,770                  

1989         |n/a         |9,726       |149,612                  

<1> Includes the blind, deaf and persons with other classes of   

physical handicap.                                               

River Quality Standards

Dr. Kim Howells : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales which rivers in Wales do not comply with European Community river quality standards ; and what steps are being taken to improve them.

Mr. Grist : There is no EC legislation setting general quality standards for rivers. However, the United Kingdom has designated some 50,000 km of waterways for the purposes of the EC directive "Quality of freshwater needing protection or improvement in order to support fish life" (78/659/EEC). In 1984, a survey which formed the basis of a report to the European Commission and which was undertaken in England and Wales by the former water authorities showed that well over 90 per cent. of these waterways met all the directive's mandatory standards and in Wales only one length of designated river, a tributary of the Rhymney, failed. Another survey which is being conducted in England and Wales by the National Rivers Authority is currently under way and the results will be placed in the Library as soon as they are available. The NRA is now responsible for the control of water pollution in England and Wales and has wide powers to seek improvements in river quality when they may be needed.

EDUCATION AND SCIENCE

St. John the Baptist School, Dartmouth

Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he hopes to make a substantive reply to the letter from the hon. Member for South Hams concerning the specific points made by the head teacher of St. John the Baptist primary school, Mildon lane, Dartmouth, in his letter of 3 November 1989 to the Secretary of State which were not covered in his letter to the head teacher of 6 December 1989.

Mr. Alan Howarth : A reply will be sent as soon as possible.

Computer Security

Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what steps his Department has and is taking to improve the security of its computer systems.

Mrs. Rumbold : For unclassified but sensitive systems, Departments are expected to follow CCTA guidance covering all aspects of IT security and the application of


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this guidance has been tightened recently. CCTA advice is kept under continuous review and is based on analysis of security risks and requirements using structured methods such as CCTA's risk analysis and management methodology (CRAMM) which has also been made commercially available. More stringent conditions apply to classified systems.

Further Education (Grants)

Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what information he has as to how much each local education authority in England and Wales has allocated for discretionary grants to students undertaking full-time and sandwich further education courses for each of the last five years.

Mr. Jackson : The available data is listed in the table.



Discretionary awards made under section 2 of the   

1962 Education                                     

Act for further education courses at polytechnics  

and colleges.                                      

                        |1986-87 |1987-88          

                        |£000s   |£000s            

---------------------------------------------------

Barking<1>              |217.0   |238.1            

Barnet                  |203.3   |191.5            

Bexley                  |345.9   |240.1            

Brent                   |2,869.2 |2,675.6          

Bromley<1>              |106.3   |173.5            

Croydon                 |251.6   |315.2            

Ealing<1>               |220.6   |297.3            

Enfield<1>              |239.6   |321.8            

Haringey<1>             |346.1   |326.5            

Harrow                  |74.3    |47.6             

Havering<1>             |183.1   |256.1            

Hillingdon              |367.1   |297.0            

Hounslow                |188.4   |127.2            

Kingston upon Thames    |35.7    |33.0             

Merton<1>               |119.5   |55.6             

Newham                  |329.4   |386.5            

Redbridge               |43.2    |68.2             

Richmond upon Thames<1> |55.9    |43.6             

Sutton                  |152.0   |186.2            

Waltham Forest          |407.6   |535.2            

                                                   

Inner London<1>         |1,498.7 |1,854.0          

                                                   

Birmingham<1>           |399.0   |444.5            

Coventry                |314.4   |360.6            

Dudley                  |201.4   |335.1            

Sandwell<1>             |201.7   |385.6            

Solihull<1>             |4.7     |3.4              

Walsall                 |625.5   |553.4            

Wolverhampton           |0.0     |0.0              

Knowsley                |1,079.1 |1,265.5          

Liverpool<1>            |1,886.4 |2,158.1          

St. Helens<1>           |439.6   |476.6            

Sefton<1>               |105.4   |98.2             

Wirral<1>               |223.3   |1,169.4          

Bolton                  |779.0   |750.9            

Bury<1>                 |425.8   |560.6            

Manchester<1>           |1,346.1 |1,393.1          

Oldham                  |338.3   |343.2            

Rochdale                |293.7   |267.9            

Salford<1>              |407.0   |419.0            

Stockport<1>            |358.0   |370.3            

Tameside<1>             |193.8   |187.0            

Trafford                |208.5   |176.4            

Wigan<1>                |655.0   |595.6            

Barnsley                |508.4   |716.0            

Doncaster<1>            |132.1   |400.2            

Rotherham               |452.1   |587.8            

Sheffield<2>            |1,139.6 |1,383.7          

Bradford                |1,306.5 |2,068.4          

Calderdale              |123.5   |210.1            

                                                   

Kirklees<1>             |877.2   |944.4            

Leeds                   |984.8   |1,584.6          

Wakefield               |595.5   |758.6            

Gateshead<1>            |163.1   |180.2            

Newcastle-upon-Tyne<1>  |300.6   |368.6            

North Tyneside<1>       |585.8   |730.8            

South Tyneside<1>       |170.5   |223.8            

Sunderland              |1,024.0 |909.7            

                                                   

Isles of Scilly<1>      |73.6    |82.9             

Avon<1>                 |1,330.3 |1,375.4          

Bedfordshire            |742.8   |1,155.1          

Berkshire<1>            |120.8   |610.2            

Buckinghamshire<1>      |159.8   |261.2            

Cambridgeshire          |434.9   |511.6            

Cheshire                |2,337.7 |2,491.6          

Cleveland               |640.3   |701.6            

Cornwall                |1,082.2 |921.1            

Cumbria<1>              |594.6   |2,068.3          

Derbyshire<1>           |2,186.2 |2,048.9          

Devon                   |2,874.9 |2,662.0          

Dorset                  |1,192.2 |1,305.1          

Durham<1>               |500.2   |403.7            

East Sussex             |874.4   |840.4            

Essex                   |3,439.7 |3,237.4          

Gloucestershire         |1,685.7 |1,466.0          

Hampshire<1>            |3,737.6 |3,917.8          

Hereford and Worcester  |0.0     |0.0              

Hertfordshire           |319.2   |369.2            

Humberside              |1,761.3 |1,968.5          

Isle of Wight           |171.2   |199.4            

Kent                    |4,073.4 |3,610.2          

Lancashire              |3,026.5 |2,862.8          

Leicestershire          |2,887.5 |3,310.3          

Lincolnshire            |1,329.3 |1,337.5          

Norfolk<1>              |825.0   |811.7            

North Yorkshire         |3,675.3 |4,234.9          

Northamptonshire        |253.1   |216.1            

Northumberland<1>       |988.6   |970.0            

Nottinghamshire<1>      |1,499.1 |1,749.8          

Oxfordshire             |553.5   |384.2            

Shropshire              |429.4   |703.2            

Somerset                |463.2   |703.2            

Staffordshire<1>        |350.5   |862.1            

Suffolk                 |1,294.4 |1,378.0          

Surrey<1>               |473.7   |559.5            

Warwickshire            |390.5   |775.8            

West Sussex<1>          |307.5   |299.4            

Wiltshire               |973.7   |1,012.1          

                                                   

Clwyd                   |966.8   |1,049.3          

Dyfed<1>                |1,002.7 |879.7            

Gwent                   |1,530.4 |1,543.5          

Gwynedd<1>              |790.6   |803.2            

Mid-Glamorgan<1>        |160.5   |96.7             

Powys                   |473.5   |455.8            

South Glamorgan         |403.6   |428.7            

West Glamorgan<1>       |111.8   |76.2             

                        |----    |----             

  England and Wales     |82,597.4|91,762.5         

<1> Some authorities are unable to distinguish     

awards made to all students attending courses of   

further education, and include some such payments  

in their returns for higher education. The figures 

given here are therefore under-estimates of the    

total amounts.                                     

Preventable Loss

Mr. Norris : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what assessment he has made of the extent of preventable loss arising from theft or misappropriation in his Department.

Mrs. Rumbold : There is no assessment as such, as known preventable losses are prevented. The Department takes all reasonable steps to ensure that loss arising from theft or misappropriation is prevented. Financial controls operate to this end and the Department's internal audit


Column 668

unit provides assurance on their adequacy, effectiveness and application. The annual internal risk assessment and plan of work takes account of potential exposure. The Department's annual report of fraud to Her Majesty's Treasury for the financial year 1988-89 contained no cases of fraud perpetrated within the Department. Reassessment would occur in the light of evidence of losses from theft or misappropriation in the Department.

Mr. Norris : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will list the number of professionally qualified loss prevention staff employed by his Department and the qualifications held by such staff, excluding qualifications obtained during police or military service.

Mrs. Rumbold : The Department does not employ any professionally qualified loss prevention staff. Physical security is provided by private security companies and the Property Services Agency.

DEFENCE

Community Charge

Mr. Rooker : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what are the rates of pay of the 411 Royal Air Force apprentices and technicians classified as students for community charge purposes and referred to in his answer to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Perry Barr of 29 January, Official Report, column 62.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : These personnel are paid at various rates ranging from £3,708 per annum to £9,399 per annum.

Mr. Colin Wallace

Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Arundel (Mr. Marshall) of 30 January, Official Report, columns 110-13, if he will establish an internal inquiry into the reasons why certain relevant records were not made available to Ministers ; and what steps he is taking to ensure that there is no recurrence of such circumstances.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State told the House on 1 February, an inquiry is in hand within the MOD into how papers were overlooked and the outcome will be reported to the House.

Airmiss (Tranent)

Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will identify the unit and base of the Tornado aircraft which was involved in an airmiss with a civil BAC1-11 flight over Tranent on 2 August 1989.

Mr. Neubert : It is our policy to preserve the anonymity in airmiss publications in order to encourage full and frank reporting of airmisses and thus ensure that flight safety is not compromised.

DROPS Vehicles

Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on incidents of a Leyland DROPS trials vehicle overturning, since the last


Column 669

such incidents reported to the House, indicating whether the incidents occurred while being driven by Leyland- employed personnel or Ministry of Defence test drivers ; and whether he is satisfied with the stability of these vehicles.

Mr. Alan Clark : While undergoing tests on 23 November 1989, a DROPS medium mobility vehicle was involved in an incident in which it fell on its side when negotiating a bend on the snake section of the track at RARDE Chertsey. The vehicle, owned by Leyland DAF, was being driven by a company employee. A subsequent inquiry established that excessive speed was the cause of the incident ; the inherent stability of the vehicle is not in doubt.

Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessments he has made of the safety of DROPS vehicles on the public roads ; and on what grounds the decision was taken to use vehicles which exceed normal legal limits on size.

Mr. Alan Clark : As part of trials at RARDE Chertsey, all military vehicles have to be approved as suitable for road use before they are allowed on to public roads. It is MOD policy to keep within Department of Transport construction and use regulations wherever operational circumstances permit. However, because of the mobility necessary to meet its operational role, exceptionally it was necessary in the case of the DROPS improved medium mobility vehicle to invoke Crown exemption to exceed the limit laid down for axle widths by 0.4 m.

Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been achieved towards achieving the last revised in-service date for DROPS and to state (a) which components of the complete DROPS supply system have been accepted for service, (b) which components of the complete DROPS supply system have now been ordered in production quantities and (c) when these individual components of the system will be in service.

Mr. Alan Clark : The DROPS medium-mobility vehicles, including the load handling system, and the standard flatracks, have been accepted for service and production quantities have been ordered. They will enter service some four to five months beyond the due date. The improved medium- mobility vehicles have been accepted for service subject to the reliability requirements being satisfied ; their date of entry into service will depend upon the outcome of further trials. The rail transfer equipments have been accepted and ordered ; deliveries are being made on schedule. The simple rail transfer equipments have yet to complete reliability trials and it is expected that these will enter service about a year late.

Production options for the DROPS long wheel-base trailers are expected to be exercised in the very near future and these should enter service about 12 months later than intended. It is anticipated that the MLRS trailers and flatracks, which are required in a later time scale, will enter service on schedule.

Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the driver of the DROPS trials vehicle, 42 KC 12, was advised by his Department to plead guilty to a charge of driving without due care and attention ; whether he was advised to enter or not to enter a plea of


Column 670

mitigation to the effect that, due to the size or design of the vehicle, he was unable to see the car he crushed ; and whether the fine and costs imposed by Basingstoke magistrates court in December 1989 have been, or will be, reimbursed to the driver.

Mr. Alan Clark : The driver of the vehicle was given no advice and pleaded guilty of his own volition. He has considerable experience of driving this type of vehicle and freely admitted that the cause of the accident was driver error ; a plea of mitigation was not made. He has not been and will not be reimbursed for the fine or the costs he incurred as a result.

Western European Union

Mr. Wilkinson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what response he has had from the Belgian Defence Minister, now president of the WEU, to his letter of early December 1989 suggesting closer ties between the independent European programme group and the WEU ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Alan Clark : It is assumed that my hon. Friend is referring to the letter sent last November by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Defence, to my hon. Friend the Member for Hampstead and Highgate (Sir G. Finsberg), the leader of the United Kingdom delegation to the WEU assembly. That letter expressed merit in a closer association between the Independent European Programme Group (IEPG) and the WEU. A detailed information letter on the IEPG was subsequently sent to the WEU presidency by the IEPG chair. As yet there has been no response from the WEU.

Hunts

Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many hunts have licences to hunt on Ministry of Defence land ; and if he will provide details of the hunts, the areas they are permitted to hunt on and the conditions of the licences.

Mr. Archie Hamilton : My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State for the Armed Forces will write to the hon. Member.

Military Research and Development

Mr. Soames : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what progress has been made in exploiting military research and development for civilian purposes.

Mr. Neubert : Where technology developed for defence purposes also has civil applications, the Government are committed to maximising the benefit to the wider economy through spin-off to, and collaboration with, the civil sector. Some 70 technological transfer agreements with industry, mainly in the form of licences, have now been signed by Defence Technology Enterprises for the exploitation of innovative technology, and more are under negotiation. The civil industrial access scheme (CIAS), launched in February 1988, is designed to give commercial firms improved access to the facilities and expertise of the defence research establishments. They also undertake work funded by civil Departments, mainly in the fields of aerospace and electronics and participate in a range of collaborative initiatives with commercial firms.


Column 671

SCOTLAND

Fishing Quotas

Mr. John Townend : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what action he intends to take to ensure that Scottish FPOs will not in the future exceed their quotas.

Mr. Lang : Fisheries Departments will closely monitor the uptake of United Kingdom quotas by all groups in 1990. As in previous years, Fisheries Departments will close a fishery to any FPO if it appears, on the basis of available catch statistics, that the organisation is near to taking its allocation. Under current management arrangements, any group exceeding its quota to the detriment of others must compensate those who have been disadvantaged in the following year. Latest catch statistics show that various groups, both English and Scottish, exceeded their quotas in 1989 to the detriment of other Scottish and English fishermen.

Incoming Firms

Mr. Sillars : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much incoming firms, established since the formation of Locate in Scotland have contributed to (a) the Exchequer, (b) exports and (c) imports.

Mr. Lang : This information is not available.

Investment

Mr. Sillars : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will list the instances of inward investment into Scotland made since the formation of Locate in Scotland ; and what was (a) the total number of permanent new jobs created and (b) the number of companies created which had a research and development facility ; (2) if he will state the number of new jobs forecasted at the time of announcement of new inward investment projects by Locate in Scotland for each year of Locate in Scotland's operation, listing each project, the number of new jobs forecasted in the SDA/Scottish Office news release at the time of the announcement, and the actual number of jobs today.

Mr. Lang : It is not possible to provide details of individual projects, as much of the information concerned is supplied on a commercial in confidence basis ; and information is not available on the numbers of inward investing companies which established a research and development facility.

However, the table shows the total number of new jobs forecast by companies at the time their plans were made.



Year     |New jobs         

---------------------------

1981-82  |4,500            

1982-83  |4,200            

1983-84  |3,500            

1984-85  |8,169            

1985-86  |4,663            

1986-87  |4,106            

1987-88  |6,363            

1988-89  |4,846            

For a variety of reasons, job achievement has varied as plans have changed ; and many of the projects concerned have yet to be completed. Experience suggests, however, that on average the final direct employment outturn may


Column 672

be about two thirds of the planned level, although a significant number of additional jobs are also created indirectly in supply and service industries.

Mr. Sillars : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of industrial investment, inward investment has represented for each year since Locate in Scotland was formed.

Mr. Lang : The information requested is not readily available in the form required. The table shows manufacturing investment by foreign-owned enterprises as a percentage of total manufacturing investment from 1983 to the latest available figures for 1987.


Manufacturing investment by      

foreign-owned enterprises as a   

percentage of total              

manufacturing investment         

Year       |Percentage           

---------------------------------

1983       |29.2                 

1984       |25.9                 

1985       |31.4                 

1986       |29.1                 

1987       |26.0                 

Note: Information is not         

available for 1982.              

Source: Annual Census of         

Production.                      

Mr. Sillars : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of total employment in Scotland inward investment has represented for each year since Locate in Scotland was formed.

Mr. Lang : The information requested is not readily available in the form required. The table gives the information on employment in overseas- owned plants for the period 1982, when Locate in Scotland was formed, to 1988. Figures for 1988 should be regarded as provisional.


                |Manufacturing  |Total          |Percentage                     

                |employment in  |manufacturing  |of total                       

                |overseas-owned |employment in  |manufacturing                  

                |plants         |Scotland       |employment                     

                |(thousands)    |(thousands)    |attributable to                

                                                |overseas-owned                 

                                                |plants                         

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1982            |80.2           |421.7          |19.0                           

1983            |71.1           |398.8          |17.9                           

1984            |70.9           |382.0          |18.5                           

1985            |72.9           |375.5          |19.4                           

1986            |70.2           |368.6          |19.0                           

1987            |70.9           |358.0          |19.8                           

1988            |70.0           |351.0          |20.0                           

Source: Industry Department for Scotland Regional Data System.                  

Mr. Sillars : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will outline the monitoring procedures for ensuring that inward investors use public money for spending on new jobs ; how many breaches of the rules there have been ; and how much money has been involved in such breaches.

Mr. Lang : Following the restructuring of regional assistance in 1984, all offers of grant, whether to foreign or United Kingdom-owned companies, have contained specific provisions for withholding grant payments, or securing recovery of grant already paid if, among other conditions, jobs are not created or safeguarded according to the conditions of the offer. Officials make periodic inspections to monitor progress of projects both before and after completion. Between April 1987 and January 1990, a total of about £1 million of regional assistance was recovered in Scotland because of failure to meet one or


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more conditions of offer. Separate information for inward investors, and on grant recovered or withheld specifically because of failure to meet job targets, could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Investors and Companies (Financial Assistance)

Mr. Sillars : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will list under each category of public sector financial assistance available to both inward investors and established companies in Scotland between 1979 and the latest available figures the total amount granted to incoming companies and the total amount granted to established companies and the average grant per company in each category by size ;

(2) what has been the total amount of public sector and central Government financial assistance made available to incoming firms since the formation of Locate in Scotland.


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