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Mr. Waldegrave : We have already raised these reports with the Ugandan Government, who are committed to upholding human rights standards.
German Unification
Mr. Marlow : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on implications for the United Kingdom of German unification ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Waldegrave : The unification of Germany will have important consequences for the United Kingdom, for our partners in the EC and NATO, and for others. There will be discussions on all these questions in the appropriate fora, including, as has just been agreed in Ottawa, a meeting between the four powers and the two Germanies.
South Africa
Mr. Teddy Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement setting out the EEC agreed sanctions against South African trade ; and if Her Majesty's Government have any entitlement to cancel any of these measures unilaterally.
Mr. Waldegrave : The following measures adoped by EC partners relate to trade with South Africa :
--A rigorously controlled embargo on exports of arms and para-military equipment to South Africa.
--A rigorously controlled embargo on imports of arms and para-military equipment from South Africa.
--The cessation of oil exports to South Africa.
--The cessation of exports of sensitive equipment destined for the police and armed forces of South Africa.
--The prohibition of all new collaboration in the nuclear sector. --A ban on imports of certain South African gold coins.
--A ban on certain new investment in South Africa.
--A ban on the import of iron and steel.
Certain of these measures were enacted by the European Communities under the Community treaties, whereas others amongst them were adoped by the member states outside the Community treaties as such. As my hon. Friend will be aware, we are in consultation with our European partners on the question whether the various measures continue to make good sense in the light of the most recent developments in South Africa which, it will be clear, respond directly to the actions for which the Twelve have called since 1986.
If we fail to reach agreement, the Government must reserve the right to act on their own if necessary.
ENERGY
Nuclear Energy
Mr. Malcolm Bruce : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on the future relationship between Nuclear Electric and Nirex.
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Mr. Baldry : Upon vesting, the CEGB's 42.5 per cent. shareholding in UK Nirex Ltd. will be transferred to Nuclear Electric.
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what information he has concerning the proportion of the unit cost of nuclear electricity that is allocated to waste management and decommissioning in France and the United Kingdom, respectively.
Mr. Baldry : Direct comparisons between France and the United Kingdom cannot be made because nuclear power is generated in each country by different reactor types which have different waste management and decommissioning requirements.
Nuclear Power Stations
Mr. Malcolm Bruce : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make it his policy to establish a special Government fund to cover the decommissioning costs of nuclear power stations, to be filled by annual payments from the operators of nuclear power stations.
Mr. Baldry : No. Financial provision for decommissioning costs is a management matter for the operators of nuclear power stations.
Non-Fossil Fuel Obligation
Mr. Malcolm Bruce : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make it his policy to require all electricity bills to specify that amount which is directly attributable to the non-fossil fuel obligation.
Nuclear Waste Disposal
Mr. Malcolm Bruce : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what financial arrangements are being made for the disposal costs of the low- level and intermediate-level wastes produced at Sellafield due to the reprocessing of nuclear fuel rods.
Mr. Baldry : Under the terms of contracts which BNFL has for reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel the costs of disposing of the vast majority of low and intermediate level wastes arising fall to BNFL's customers. BNFL makes provision in its accounts for those costs which do not fall to customers.
BNFL (Contracts)
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if, pursuant to his reply of 2 February to the hon. Member for Newport, West, Official Report, column 385, he will set out details of (a) the disaggregated contracts making up the £80 million fuel services, (b) the disaggregated details of the contracts making up the 80 per cent. of additional capacity for overseas customer use of THORP and (c) the details of each export contract requiring the approval of the Secretary of State under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965.
Mr. Baldry : The export contracts awarded to British Nuclear Fuels plc within the past two years were for :
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|£ million
-----------------------------------------------------
Uranium processing services |12
Uranium enrichment services |46
Consultancy services, design and
engineering work; technology |9
Spent fuel transport services |13
|--
|80
Orders for additional reprocessing in THORP have been secured from the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
Approvals under the Nuclear Installations Act 1965 are given at the time of shipment rather than when contracts are awarded. The details are commercially confidential.
Nuclear Services Group
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if, pursuant to the reply to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson), (Official Report, 5 February, columns 454-56), he will set out the date on which the contract was issued to Nuclear Services Group to advise the Secretary of State on decommissioning costs in regard to electricity industry privatisation ; when the report, or reports were received by him from Nuclear Services Group ; what was the total costs of the consultancy contract ; and if he will place a copy of the report in the Library.
Mr. Baldry : The contract was awarded on 10 April 1989 and the report was received on 16 May 1989. The report considers BNFL's estimates of its decommissioning costs. The cost and content of the report are commercially confidential.
Electricity Prices
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will carry out consultations to establish the degree of disadvantage which higher electricity prices create for significant exporting industries.
Mr. Baldry : Privatisation will create a market in which large users can seek competing bids for supply. To give them time to do so, the Government have asked the electricity industry to offer customers taking more than 1 MW a real price freeze for one year. It would be premature to conclude that such users will face higher prices thereafter.
Wind Power
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what consideration he has given to the application submitted by AEA Technology to undertake a wind power feasibility study in the north of Scotland.
Mr. Peter Morrison : As part of its review of renewable energy technologies, my Department carries out regional resource studies. One of these will be a study to examine the potential wind energy resource in Caithness and Sutherland and this will form part of a wider review of the wind energy resource for the United Kingdom as a whole.
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Cash Limits
Mr. Quentin Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits or running costs limits for 1989-90.
Mr. Wakeham [pursuant to his reply, 26 January 1990, Official Report, col. 904] : The cash limit for class VI, vote 6 relating toexpenditure on the privatisation of the electricity supply industry in England and Wales has been reduced by £14,000,000 from £30,000,000 to £16,000,000. This change reflects reductions in expenditure on the expenses of privatising the electricity supply industry in 1989-90 resulting from the delay in the vesting which I announced in September last year, and the consequent delay in the flotation of the area boards and the generating companies.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Libel Law
Mr. John Garrett : To ask the Attorney-General what plans he has to implement the 1977 Faulks committee report's recommendations that the defence of innocent dissemination in libel law, now available to booksellers, be extended to the printer.
The Attorney-General : My noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor intends to issue a consultation paper inviting views on proposals to deal with the problems of those who use advanced technology and innocently disseminate defamatory materials. This is one of a number of proposals relating to defamation which will be announced today.
Incitement to Murder
Mr. Winnick : To ask the Attorney-General if he will list the criteria used by the prosecution authorities in deciding whether action should be taken over incitement to murder ; and if he will make a statement.
The Attorney-General : The criteria set out in the code for crown prosecutors, issued under section 10 of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, are applied in all prosecutions considered by the crown prosecution service. The criteria require that there is sufficient evidence to afford a realistic prospect of a conviction, and the public interest requires a prosecution in the circumstances.
Mr. Winnick : To ask the Attorney-General what representations have been received by the prosecution authorities in the last year regarding incitement to murder calls against Mr. Rushdie.
The Attorney-General : In March 1989 the Director of Public Prosecutions instructed all chief crown prosecutors to refer to him all correspondence relating to any possible offence of incitement to murder Mr. Rushdie. Over the last year the crown prosecution service has received or had referred to it letters from a total of 39 correspondents in respect of alleged death threats against Mr. Salman Rushdie.
Additionally, three police reports have been received concerning instances of alleged threats.
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Liverpool County Court
Mr. Bermingham : To ask the Attorney-General what action is being taken in response to complaints lodged with the circuit administrator at Manchester against the conduct of the chief clerk at Liverpool county court ; what action is under consideration ; and if he will make a statement.
The Attorney-General : Complaints against the conduct of employees of the Lord Chancellor's Department always receive careful consideration from senior officers. Each complaint has been considered and the conduct of the chief clerk of Liverpool county court has been reviewed ; no further action is considered necessary.
Mr. Bermingham : To ask the Attorney-General what is the total number of complaints lodged with the circuit administrator at Manchester against the conduct of the current chief clerk at Liverpool county court ; and if he will make a statement.
The Attorney-General : Since 1 February 1989, some 82 complaints by the firm of E. Rex Makin & Co. have been lodged with the circuit administrator specifically referring to the conduct of the chief clerk of Liverpool county court.
Defamation
Mr. Carrington : To ask the Attorney-General whether the Government have completed their review of defamation.
The Attorney-General : The Government have examined current issues and complaints relating to the law of defamation and have found that there are justified criticisms principally concerning the way in which the law of defamation operates in practice. The Government now propose the following series of reforming measures.
The powers of the Court of Appeal to review the awards of civil juries, particularly in defamation cases, are not adequate. Even if the Court of Appeal considers that a jury award is excessive or inadequate it can only substitute its own award if both parties agree. Otherwise it is limited to ordering a new trial, which involves further delay and expense to the parties. It is therefore proposed to empower the Court of Appeal itself, in cases where it can now order a retrial, to substitute for the sum awarded by the jury such sum as appears to the Court of Appeal to be proper. This will be done by enlarging the existing statutory powers of the Rule Committee.
The present rules and practice for pleadings in defamation cases have been criticised as being unnecessarily complex, and adding to the difficulty and cost of preparing and conducting litigation. The Lord Chancellor is to invite the Supreme Court Procedure Committee to examine the rules and practice, and to propose reforms. The committee is a body of judges and practitioners which was established in 1982 to make recommendations in relation to Supreme Court practice and procedure.
A plaintiff who is considering whether or not to accept a payment into court needs to know whether the judge will give him an opportunity to make a statement in open court which will clear his name. As a result of a recent change in the rules, a plaintiff can now apply to the judge for approval of a proposed statement before accepting a payment in.
Once the problem of complexity has been tackled the Lord Chancellor will wish to consider providing for some
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categories of defamation cases to be heard in the county court, with a view to reducing delay and cost and ensuring the most appropriate use of judicial resources.The Lord Chancellor intends to issue two consultation papers inviting views on proposals to modify specific aspects of the substantive law of defamation. These papers will deal with the problems of those who use advanced technology and innocently disseminate defamatory materials, and the problems which arise when a party to defamation proceedings has died.
NATIONAL FINANCE
Visible Trade
16. Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the United Kingdom's visible trade balance in 1989.
Mr. Norman Lamont : The latest estimate is for a visible trade deficit of £23 billion in 1989.
Inflation
17. Mr. Bradley : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the current inflation rates in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) other Group of Seven countries.
Mr. Lilley : The inflation rate in other G7 countries, all but one of which exclude mortgage interest payments from the index, was 4.2 per cent. On a comparable basis the United Kingdom inflation rate was 6.1 per cent. in December 1989.
29. Mr. Bell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many other European Community countries have a higher inflation rate than the United Kingdom.
Mr. Ryder : Four EC countries have higher inflation rates than the United Kingdom when estimates of home owners' costs are excluded so as to bring the published figures on to a more comparable basis.
33. Mr. Tim Smith : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the current rate of inflation.
40. Mr. Andrew MacKay : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the current level of inflation.
Mr. Ryder : The all-items annual rate of inflation as measured by the RPI is 7.7 per cent. The underlying rate, excluding mortgage interest payments, is 6.1 per cent.
Family Expenditure
18. Mr. Skinner : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the effect on a married man with a wife who is not working and two children who has a £37,500 mortgage and earns £15,000 a year if (a) mortgage rates are cut by 2 per cent. and (b) if 2p is cut off the standard rate of tax.
Mr. Ryder : The estimated effects of these changes would be (a) a reduction in annual mortgage interest payments, net of basic rate tax relief, of £600 and (b) a reduction in income tax of £212.50.
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Child Poverty Action Group
19. Mr. Benn : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he last met representatives of the Child Poverty Action Group to discuss taxation.
Mr. Major : I refer the right hon. Member to the reply that I gave earlier today to the hon. Member for Clwyd, South-West (Mr. Jones).
32. Mr. Morgan : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he last met representatives of the Child Poverty Action Group to discuss taxation.
Mr. Lilley : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given earlier today by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the hon. Member for Clwyd, South-West (Mr. Jones).
Bank of England
20. Mr. Bill Michie : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he last met the Governor of the Bank of England ; and what matters were discussed.
Mr. Ryder : My right hon. Friend meets the Governor of the Bank of England from time to time to discuss a variety of matters.
Take-home Pay
21. Mr. Moss : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the growth in real take-home pay of a married man with two children on male average earnings during the 1980s.
Mr. Lilley : A married man on average male earnings with two children enjoyed an increase in real take-home pay of over 26 per cent. between 1979-80 and 1989-90.
Interest Rates
22. Mr. Knox : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the current level of interest rates.
52. Mr. Roger King : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the current level of interest rates.
Mr. Ryder : Bank base rates are 15 per cent.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the current short-term interest rates in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) West Germany.
Mr. Battle : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the current short-term interest rates in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) West Germany.
Mr. Ryder : I refer the hon. Members to the reply that I gave to the hon. Member for Leeds, Central (Mr. Fatchett) on 15 February.
26. Mr. Fatchett : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the current short-term interest rates in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) West Germany.
Mr. Ryder : On 14 February three-month interbank rates were 15.1 per cent in the United Kingdom and 8.5 per cent. in Germany.
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37. Mr. Salmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations he has received from Scottish industry and other business interests about interest rate policy.
38. Mr. Sillars : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations he has received from Scottish industry and other business interests about interest rate policy.
Mr. Ryder : My right hon. Friend has received a number of such reperesentations.
49. Mr. Fearn : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has for reducing interest rates this year.
Mr. Ryder : There will be no early relaxation of policy. Interest rates will remain high for some time to come.
Tax Office
23. Mr. Trotter : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to transfer offices of the Inland Revenue and the Customs and Excise from London and the south-east to the northern region.
Mr. Lilley : The Inland Revenue plans to open new offices in Sunderland and Middlesbrough, taking in total 420 posts from London.
Mr. Stern : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has any plans to merge the offices of collectors and inspectors of taxes.
Mr. Lilley : As reported in the Inland Revenue management plan for the next three years, published today, it has been decided that the time is now ripe to consider whether greater operational efficiency and improved service to taxpayers could be obtained by bringing together the work of local collectors and inspectors of taxes. With Ministers' approval, the board is studying all the implications, and planning experiments both to test the concepts involved and to establish the likely benefits to the Department and to taxpayers. Details of these experiments will be announced when this preliminary work is further advanced.
European Monetary System
24. Ms. Quin : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations he has received from business in relation to British membership of the exchange rate mechanism of the European monetary system.
Mr. Ryder : My right hon. Friend and I have received a number of representations.
31. Mr. Doran : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what realignments there have been within the past 12 months of currency levels within the exchange rate mechanism of the European monetary system.
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