| Previous Section | Home Page |
Czechoslovakia
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, during his recent visit to Czechoslovakia, the Minister of State, the right hon. Member for Bristol, West (Mr. Waldegrave), discussed verification of demilitarisation with the Czech authorities.
Miss Toi Kwanran
Mr. Franks : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) when the Bankok entry clearance officer's statement of refusal of entry concerning Miss Toi Kwanran, FCO Ref. GV100/6949 was forwarded (a) to his Department in London and (b) to the immigration appeals office ;
(2) when the entry clearance officer's explanatory statement of refusal of entry was prepared in Bankok concerning Miss Toi Kwanran, who wishes to join her husband Mr. Neil Houghton of 32 Skelwith drive, Barrow.
Mr. Sainsbury : In accordance with the guidelines on the handling of representations by Members of Parliament in immigration cases, issued to Members of 14 December 1988, I have referred the questions to the correspondence unit of the migration and visa department of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. My hon. Friend will receive a reply from the unit as soon as possible.
Column 575
Angola
Mr. Riddick : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will raise the question of the withdrawal of Russian military advisers from Angola with Russian Government representatives in London ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Waldegrave : We have discussed the presence of the Soviet military advisers in Angola with the Soviet Government on a number of occasions, most recently on 13 February in Moscow. Withdrawal of the advisers would promote the cause of peace in Angola.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Deaf-blind Children
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what additional provision is being planned for the training of teachers of deaf-blind children.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The cost of training teachers of deaf-blind children is already provided for within the national priority areas within the LEA training grants scheme and consequently attracts financial support at the higher rate.
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) what consideration he has given to providing financial assistance to voluntary organisations to provide educational services, including pre- school services, for deaf-blind children ; (2) what financial support is being offered to local education authorities which wish to set up family centres as recommended in the policy statement, "Educational Provision for Deaf-Blind Children"; (3) what plans his Department has to offer financial support to local education authorities to enable them to carry out the recommendations made in the policy statement "Educational Provision for Deaf-Blind Children" ;
(4) what responses he has received from local education authorities to his Department's policy statement "Educational Provision for Deaf-Blind Children" ;
(5) what steps are being taken by his Department to follow up his Department's policy statement "Educational Provision for Deaf-Blind Children" published in March 1989.
Mr. Alan Howarth : Responsibility for educational provision for deaf -blind children rests with local education authorities. The Department's policy statement on the educational needs of these children is intended to provide a framework within which local education authorities and bodies responsible for non-maintained schools will be able to plan services and provision for deaf-blind children. The Department will be following up this document later in the year, to see what progress has been made by authorities towards providing for the needs of deaf-blind children. It is for individual authorities, in the light of local circumstances, to decide upon the allocation of resources for the provision for deaf-blind children from the total funds available.
Column 576
Manchester Local Education Authority
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he has any plans to meet representatives of Manchester local education authority.
Mr. Alan Howarth : My right hon. Friend recently visited Manchester LEA. I have myself agreed to meet a delegation from the authority.
National Curriculum
Mr. Gill : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about the arrangements for assessing pupils' achievements under the national curriculum.
Mr. MacGregor : The Secretary of State for Wales and I have today broadly endorsed the recommendations of the School Examinations and Assessment Council (SEAC) about arrangements for administering assessments in the core subjects of the national curriculum at key stage 1.
We have in particular accepted the council's advice that it should have responsibility for the national administration of the assessment arrangements ; and that the local responsibility should rest generally with local education authorities (LEAs). We believe that this should apply to key stage 2 as well as key stage 1. We do not propose to prescribe in detail how the assessment arrangements should be implemented. In our view, effectiveness will best be secured by arrangements which, whilst conforming to the overall criteria of national policy, take account of LEAs' local circumstances and their existing patterns of organisation for monitoring and evaluating the performance of their schools.
LEAs and schools will need to make appropriate provision within the resources available to them for the establishment of these assessment arrangements as an integral part of the national curriculum. We have provided specific grant support to help redirect resources to these new priorities in 1990-91. We propose to extend this support in later years, and will be announcing details as soon as possible after Easter, following consultation with the local authorities. As a means of securing effective planning within the framework of national policy, we intend to make it a condition of grant that LEAs underpin their bids with coherent national curriculum assessment implementation plans.
A draft order under section 4(2)(c) of the Education Reform Act, setting out the proposed statutory requirements, will be published around Easter, and submitted to the House in final form by November 1990 in readiness for the first statutory assessments in summer 1991.
These arrangements are an important element in ensuring that the national curriculum does raise standards of teaching and learning in our schools.
I am arranging for copies of SEAC's advice and of my reply to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
HEALTH
NHS Expenditure
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will provide a breakdown of National Health Service spending per capita in relation to both capital and revenue spending by district health authorities.
Column 577
Mr. Freeman : Tables showing district based figures of average total revenue and capital expenditure per head of resident population for 1988-89, the latest year available, have been placed in the Library.Hospital Laundering
Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list all appropriate cost headings taken into account by health authorities in determining the true cost of in-house laundering and dry- cleaning facilities.
Mr. Freeman : We expect health authorities to take account of all relevant expenditure in determining the cost of their in-house laundering and dry cleaning facilities.
Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what capital expenditure has been incurred by health authorities on the purchase of new laundering and dry-cleaning equipment over the past two years ;
(2) what proportion of the capital expenditure incurred on the purchase of new laundry and dry-cleaning machinery and on the construction of new and renovation of existing laundry facilities over the last two years was for the creation of additional laundry capacity.
Mr. Freeman : Capital expenditure incurred by health authorities on the purchasing of laundry and dry cleaning equipment over the last two years is as follows :
|£
------------------------------
1987-88 |2,350,000
1988-89 |2,069,000
It is for health authorities to determine the laundry facilities required to meet their needs.
Mr. Robert G. Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what capital expenditure has been incurred on the building of new National Health Service laundries and the renovation of existing laundry facilities over the last two years.
Mr. Freeman : No new National Health Service laundries have been built in the last two years. Renovation of existing laundries is a matter for local health authorities.
Business Rates
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the amount of uniform business rate to be paid for each district health authority and special health authority.
Mr. Freeman : Information is not held centrally about the contribution in lieu of the uniform business rate to be paid in respect of individual district health authorities. The estimated contributions for London postgraduate special health authorities to be paid in 1990-91 are as follows :
SHA |1990-91
|Contribution
|in lieu of the
|Uniform
|Business Rate
---------------------------------------------------------------------
|(£000s)
Hospital for Sick Children |588
National Hospital for Nervous Diseases |283
Moorfields Eye Hospital |118
Bethlem Royal and Maudsley |267
National Heart and Chest |232
Royal Marsden |241
Hammersmith and Queen Charlottes |654
Eastman Dental |62
Nuclear Weapons Testing
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has received any communication over the past three months from his counterpart in the Soviet Union on the subject of the health effects of nuclear weapons testing.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Yes. In December last, I received a letter from Mr. E. Chazov, Minister of Public Health of the USSR, about nuclear weapons testing. I sent a reply on 19 January.
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he requested that any official papers concerning public health effects of atmospheric atomic weapons tests be withheld from publication on 1 January under sections 3(4) and 5(1) of the Public Records Act 1958.
Ugilec
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy to initiate a study of the potential adverse health effects on (a) the general public and (b) the production work force on the development of the chemical ugilec.
Mr. Freeman : The Commission of the European Communities has recently made a proposal to the Council of Ministers for a directive to prohibit the marketing and use of ugilec 141 and ugilec 121 in the Community. I understand that neither of these substances has been used to a significant extent in this country nor has either been manufactured here. However, the Government will be pressing for a full assessment, at the Community level, of the risks posed by these substances compared with the risks of PCBs which they are intended to replace.
GP Drug Budgets
Ms. Harman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish in the Official Report details of cash limits on general practitioners' drug budgets that he plans to introduce in the next 12 months.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : There are no plans to introduce cash limits on GP drug budgets.
AIDS
Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has any plans to change the current methods of funding AIDS education and research.
Column 579
NHS Reform
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make it his policy that all working papers, implementation documents, consultative documents, departmental circulars and other publications in regard to the implementation of (a) the National Health Service aspects and (b) the care in the community aspects of the National Health Service and Community Care Bill and the associated White Papers shall be numbered sequentially and shall be available in the Vote Office and the Library, together with a comprehensive list of all such publications which is brought up to date from time to time.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : All relevant documents are already placed in the Vote Office or Library as appropriate.
Goodmayes Hospital, Essex
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what conclusions his Department has drawn from investigations into the causes of the recent outbreak of food poisoning at the Goodmayes hospital, Essex ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Roger Freeman : This is a matter for North East Thames regional health authority ; in implementing its food hygiene policy, the region has taken note of the recommendations in the report into the outbreak of food poisoning at Goodmayes hospital.
Vasectomies
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what conclusions his Department has drawn from the retrospective study into the possible connection between vasectomy operations and the development of testicular cancer, undertaken at Bangour central hospital ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I am advised that this study provides no conclusive evidence of a causal association between vasectomy and testicular cancer.
Condoms
Mr. Key : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he will introduce mandatory kite-marking of condoms on sale in Britain, to conform to the British Standard Institution's requirements ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : We have no plans to make the new standard mandatory, although the matter is under review while an international standard is being considered.
The standard for condoms set by the British Standards Institute (BS 3704.1989) was issued on 30 March 1989. It has been approved under the Consumer Protection Act 1987 which makes it easier for action to be taken, for example, by trading standards officers, against suppliers of condoms which do not meet the standard.
NHS Trusts
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how he will define the necessary level of senior professional staff involvement in the management of the hospitals in assessing applications for National Health Service trust status.
Column 580
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Each application will be judged on its own merits taking into account local circumstances.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if he will list the types of organisations he will expect regional health authorities to consult on National Health Service trust applications ;
(2) what procedures regional health authorities will be required to follow in local consultations on National Health Service trust applications.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : It will be for regional health authorities to determine locally the detailed arrangements to be made for consultation on NHS trust applications. We would, however, expect them to seek the views of district health authorities, the staff of the unit concerned, general practitioners, community health councils, and the local community.
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what advice he will be issuing on the format of National Health Service trust applications.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : An outline application document was circulated on 16 August 1989, under EL(89)(MB)148, and has been placed in the Library.
Abortions
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many abortions have been performed by the procedure of killing the unborn baby by an injection of intra-cardiac potassium chloride administered through the wall of the womb.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 26 February 1990] : There were 15 abortions recorded in England and Wales during 1988 where an injection of intra-cardiac potassium chloride was administered through the wall of the womb.
Ms. Harman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many pregnancy terminations were made after 24 weeks in the last year.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 5 March 1990] : The latest complete year for which data are available is 1988. In that year, the number of terminations performed after 24 weeks gestation in England and Wales was 22. The provisional figure for the first nine months of 1989 is 17.
NHS Reform
Mr. Robin Cook : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the names of any firms of outside consultants and the terms of their contracts employed by his Department in connection with the National Health Service reforms.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley [pursuant to her reply, 27 February 1990, c. 127-28] : I regret that the following details of consultants usefor the launch of "Working for Patients" in 1989 were inadvertently omitted.
NML Presentations Limited --To assist with the launch of the White Paper.
NML Presentations Limited --To assist with the launch of the Self Governing Hospitals initiative.
Kingsley Lord --To assist with the development of an NHS Communications Programme.
Column 581
SOCIAL SECURITY
Income Support
Ms. Gordon : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people are receiving income support in the areas covered by the (a) Poplar, (b) Stepney and (c) Shoreditch Department of Social Security offices ; and how many in Tower Hamlets as a whole.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The information requested is in the table.
Local office Income
support
live load<1>
--------------------------------------------
(a) |Poplar |13,680
(b) |Stepney |8,901
(c) |Shoreditch|9,917
Tower Hamlets is served by four social
security offices-the three listed in the
table and Hackney local office. The total
income support live load<1> for these four
offices is 47,870.
<1> Source: 100 per cent. of the cases in
action on 30 November 1989. These figures
include a number of cases where benefit has
ceased but other action on the case is
continuing.
Accountancy Firms
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby of 18 December 1989, Official Report, column 68, he will list the six accountancy firms and provide details of the payments made to them during 1988 and 1989.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information about the five accountancy firms employed by the Department is setout in the table. The firms have been employed on accountancy-orientated tasks which includes work on management information systems.
|1988-89|1989-90
|to date
|£ |£
-----------------------------------------------
Touche Ross |73,647 |53,112
Price Waterhouse |380,000|236,000
BDO Binder Hamlyn |34,063
Peat Marwick McLintock |19,603
Ernst Young |25,404 |85,863
I regret that the sixth firm referred to in the answer of 18 December at column 68 was a management consultancy firm included in error, which has not been employed on accountancy related work.
Pensioners
Mr. Skinner : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether he has any plans to meet pensioners' representatives to discuss pensions, standing charges, concessionary fares and other matters ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : We regularly meet representatives from pensioners' organisations. Most recently my right hon. Friend the Minister of State accompanied the Prime Minister at a meeting with a delegation from the National Pensioners' Convention and discussed a range of issues of concern to them.
Column 582
Local Offices
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if, pursuant to his answer on 14 February, Official Report, column 298, he will now provide the information on single payments and social fund expenditure by local offices in machine-readable form to the Library.
Mr. Scott : Information in the form requested is not currently available. However, we hope to make available details of social fund expenditure in a machine-readable form early in the new financial year.
Disability
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many deaf people are in receipt of (a) disability premium and (b) severe disability premium.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I regret that the information requested is not available. However, in May 1988, the latest date for which information is available, 248,000 income support claimants were receiving the disability premium ; and 35,000 the severe disability premium.
Source : Annual Statistical Inquiry.
Taxable Incomes
Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his latest estimate of the total number of families with children whose taxable incomes are below the income tax thresholds ; how many are in paid work ; how many are receiving income support ; and how many are receiving invalidity benefits.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard [holding answer 17 January 1990] : The number of families with children in 1987, the latest year for which information is available, whose taxable income was below the income tax threshold was about 1.5 million. Of these, 300,000 were in paid work, 100,000 received invalidity benefits and all but about 30,000 received supplementary benefit.
Notes :
1. Paid work is defined as where either the head or the spouse earns more than £4.00 per week.
2. Invalidity benefits included are :
Invalidity pension/allowance
Non-contributory Invalidity pension
Statutory sick pay
Sickness/industrial injuries benefit
3. Source : 1987 Family Expenditure Survey.
THE ARTS
British Library
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Minister for the Arts what financial assistance he is providing to the British library (a) to help it relocate 300 staff from London to Yorkshire and (b) to purchase new buildings at Boston Spa.
Mr. Luce [holding answer 1 March 1990] : Relocation of staff from London to Yorkshire is part of the library's requirement for its future operations and is based on best value for money. The costs would normally be found from the library's grant-in-aid. Exceptionally, because the move will bring significant savings in long-term running costs, the Government are prepared in principle to allow the British library to retain up to half the receipts from the sale
Column 583
of the building which it currently occupies at Store street in London as a contribution to the costs of constructing a new building at Boston Spa in Yorkshire and the relocation of staff.This is subject to a satisfactory proposal for major expenditure commitments being presented by the board for my approval in the normal way.
| Next Section
| Home Page |