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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 26 March 1990
PRIME MINISTER
Question Time
Mr. Allen : To ask the Prime Minister if she will make it her policy (a) to make her answers at Prime Minister's Question Time more brief and (b) to seek to make greater use of statements at 3.30 pm
The Prime Minister : It is not always appropriate to provide brief answers to some of the questions which are asked.
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Prime Minister how many representations she has received, and from whom, calling for the separation of a Ministry of Food from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food ; and if she will make a statement.
The Prime Minister : I have received representations calling for the separation of a Ministry of Food from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, as well as representations in favour of maintaining a single Department.
I do not believe that the interests of the consumer and industry would be best served by such a separation. The present arrangements ensure that ministerial responsibility for the food chain is covered from the point of production to the point of sale to the consumer. I said at the Royal show last year that I do not propose to dismember the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. This remains my view.
Nuclear Accident (Emergency Procedures)
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Prime Minister whether she will conduct a review of emergency procedures in the event of an accident at a nuclear power station in northern France, and the subsequent radioactive contamination of the United Kingdom population, food supplies and the environment ; and if she will make a statement.
The Prime Minister : The United Kingdom's emergency procedures for dealing with a nuclear accident overseas were thoroughly reviewed after the Chernobyl incident in April 1986. I reported the first results of that review to the House on 18 December 1986, Official Report, columns 612-13. I reported again on 30 June 1987, Official Report, columns 65-67. The contingency arrangements now in place would be implemented in the event of an accident at a nuclear power station in northern France or elsewhere which could have consequences for the United Kingdom. In the unlikely event of any such accident there would be, in accordance with normal practice following any emergency, a further review of our contingency arrangements in the light of experience gained.
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HOME DEPARTMENT
Non-custodial sentences
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number and proportion of offences triable only on indictment which attracted non-custodial sentences in each of the last three years.
Mr. John Patten : Information for 1986 to 1988 is given in the table.
Data for 1989 will not be available until autumn 1990.
|c|Persons given non-custodial sentences for offences triable only
on|c|
|c|indictment 1986 to 1988|c|
|c|England and Wales|c|
Year |Total |Number given |Per cent.
|sentenced |non-custodial
|sentences
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1986 |9,679 |2,520 |26
1987 |10,163 |2,498 |25
1988 |10,464 |2,752 |26
Animal Experiments
Mr. Roger King : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether animal experiments cond-ucted under LD50 tests are still being licensed.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Yes. The latest available information is published in table 14 of the "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain, 1988" (Cm. 743).
Personal Security Systems
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will consider providing pensioners, the disabled and those without incomes with grants to enable the installation at their homes of personal security systems.
Mr. John Patten : No. There are many examples of lock fitting schemes being conducted without a need for an individual householder's grant. These have often been carried out with valuable private sector support, and our safer cities programme already includes projects of this kind. Local authorities may also have access to urban programme and estate action resources for such purposes.
ENVIRONMENT
Chemicals (North Sea)
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many tonnes per annum of (a) nitrates, (b) phosphates, (c) cadmium, (d) zinc, (e) lead, (f) copper, (g) mercury and (h) liquid low level radioactive wastes in each case from United Kingdom sources are discharged or dumped into the North sea.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : Recent information on United Kingdom inputs of contaminants to the North sea via rivers, coastal discharges and dumping from ships is included in the 1990 interim report on the quality status of the North sea prepared for the third North sea conference in the Hague on 7 and 8 March. I am placing a copy in the Library together with the ministerial declaration and the
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implementation report on the action taken by North sea states since the London conference to reduce these discharges still further. Some of the figures quoted in the interim quality status report have been compiled using differing methodologies, particularly in the case of river inputs and are, therefore, not directly comparable.Local Government Finance
Mr. Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to take steps to ensure that volunteer carers who are employed by individual disabled people and who have not been introduced to that person by an independent charitable organisation will be exempt from the community charge, provided that they meet the other exemption criteria.
Mr. Chope : The criteria for the exemption of care workers require, inter alia, that the individual is employed to provide care or support to another person and that the employer is either a public authority, a body established for charitable purposes only, or the person receiving care. In this last circumstance I regard it as helpful that the regulations enable a community charges registration officer to have confirmation of the position of the claimant from an independent charitable organisation.
Mr. Brandon-Bravo : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the total net spending and relevant applicable community charge, to levels of spending at standard spending assessment, 10 per cent. and 20 per cent. above standard spending assessment, and the increase or decrease in each case against the currently approved community charge for each charging local authority.
Mr. Chope : I refer my hon. Friend to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswood (Mr. Hayward) on 19 March 1990, Official Report , column 478 .
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment for how many local authorities the poll tax is higher than the notional figure used in setting the level which income support beneficiaries are required to pay ; what is the median amount by which they are higher ; and what is the number and names of those which are lower.
Mr. Chope : The Government do not set a level of community charge which income support beneficiaries are required to pay.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy when he publishes the poll tax figures for each English district council to publish for each district the amount per capital also due to (a) that district, (b) the county, (c) the amount of each of these offseet by Government grants, (d) the safety net figure per capita plus or minus, (e) the amount per capita that poll tax would have been had
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central Government financed 50 per cent. of local Government spending and (f) the per capita gain or loss for the uniform business rate.Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the estimated total amounts of spending in 1989-90 and in 1990-91, and the percentage increase for (a) each English shire county and (b) each shire district within Somerset, Devon, Dorset and Wiltshire.
Mr. Chope : I intend to place a summary of the information returned from local authorities in the Library of the House after information has been received from all authorities.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he proposes to introduce regulations which ensure that a carer who resides part-time in his or her home and the remainder of the time in the home of the person being cared for pays only one poll tax liability ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Chope : The Community Charges (Miscellaneous Provisions) (No. 2) Regulations 1989 came into force on 28 December 1989. Regulations 62 of the regulations provides that no standard community charge will be payable on a property where the owner has moved to live in another place for the purpose of giving personal care and the property has been unoccupied for less than 12 months. Charging authorities have the discretion to extend the period of relief.
Mr. Ward : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review the conditions for the imposition of the standard community charge on a former home which the owner has not be able to sell within the present three-month limit.
Mr. Chope : I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities to my hon. Friend the Member for Gillingham (Mr. Couchman) on 21 March 1990, Official Report, columns 658-59.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list, in order of percentage loss or gain, the grant -related expenditure for 1989-90 against the standard spending assessment for 1990-91 for all English counties ; what is the cost change between the two ; and if he will list for each the proportion of the population living in urban areas.
Mr. Chope : The information requested is shown in the table. The proportion of the population living in urban areas is calculated from data in the 1981 Census publication "Key Statistics for Urban Areas" which contains a definition of urban areas. Similar data are not readily available for district councils or London boroughs.
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|Percentage |Cash change |Proportion of
|change adjusted|adjusted |population in
|GRE to SSA |GRE to SSA |urban areas
|Per cent. |£ million |Per cent.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Berkshire |12.8 |42.696 |92.5
Bedfordshire |12.3 |30.271 |87.1
Oxfordshire |11.7 |26.322 |77.7
Hertfordshire |11.5 |49.255 |93.5
Hampshire |11.3 |76.408 |90.6
Isle of Wight |11.0 |6.249 |84.2
Buckinghamshire |10.9 |31.902 |86.1
Essex |10.9 |74.691 |89.2
East Sussex |10.3 |30.401 |87.7
Surrey |10.3 |41.580 |91.4
Kent |10.2 |71.279 |86.7
West Sussex |9.1 |26.854 |87.4
Cleveland |9.0 |27.833 |97.0
Cambridgeshire |8.5 |25.007 |79.2
Avon |8.4 |35.031 |92.8
Northamptonshire |7.8 |21.531 |82.1
Somerset |7.7 |16.111 |65.1
Cornwall |7.5 |16.330 |64.6
Wiltshire |7.4 |18.623 |75.8
Cumbria |7.3 |16.721 |72.3
Dorset |7.1 |19.283 |85.5
Nottinghamshire |7.1 |33.952 |92.7
Shropshire |7.0 |13.738 |71.3
Humberside |7.0 |30.487 |88.5
Durham |6.9 |19.580 |87.3
Gloucestershire |6.9 |16.216 |79.5
Lincolnshire |6.7 |18.584 |70.5
Lancashire |6.6 |45.771 |91.3
Leicestershire |6.0 |26.115 |88.8
Suffolk |6.0 |16.691 |70.6
Devon |6.0 |27.428 |79.3
Norfolk |5.8 |19.258 |69.3
Cheshire |5.4 |24.483 |88.6
North Yorkshire |5.1 |16.245 |72.1
Northumberland |4.6 |6.263 |79.7
Hereford and Worcester |4.5 |13.654 |72.6
Derbyshire |3.9 |16.710 |88.9
Warwickshire |3.5 |7.661 |81.1
Staffordshire |3.5 |16.712 |89.0
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby of 19 March, how he calculates the figures of (a) £28 and (b) £2.
Mr. Chope : The figures are calculated by applying the appropriate monetary weights given in paragraph 3.32 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) to the values of the specified indicators for Humberside, multiplying the result by the appropriate national scaling factor for highway maintenance and expressing the result as an amount per relevant adult (rounded to the nearest £1).
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of (a) the number of second homes, (b) the relationship of the standard charge to the poll tax and (c) the extra revenue accruing from this for each local authority in England ; what are his proposals for taking this into account in faxing next year's expenditure targets ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Chope : Detailed information on the number of people registered as subject to the standard community charge, or on the multipliers being set by charging authorities is not yet available to the Department. Income from the standard charge is not taken into account in determining English local authorities' revenue-raising capacity for the purposes of grant distribution.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment with reference to his Revenue Support
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Grant Distribution Report (England), annex A, V, highway maintenance, what was the basis on which the multipliers for road type weighting factors were arrived at.Mr. Chope : Road lengths of different types are weighted in the following proportions :
|Weighted
--------------------------------------------------------
Principal roads in built-up areas |6
Principal roads in non-built-up areas |3
Other roads in built-up areas |2
Other roads in non-built-up areas |1
These weightings assume that the average cost of maintaining principal roads is three times that of maintaining non-principal roads and that the cost of maintaining built-up roads is double that of maintaining non-built- up roads. The 3 : 1 relative cost weighting between principal and non- principal roads is based on analysis of expenditure data for the two types of road from maintenance outturn forms returned to the Department of Transport. The 2 : 1 ratio between built-up and non-built-up roads is based on evidence from sparsely populated counties provided by the Association of County Councils in the early 1980s.
Mr. Ward : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will seek powers to require councils to reduce their community charge level next year by the amount contained in this year's charge for their contribution to the safety net.
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Mr. Chope : No, although I hope that councils will do so voluntarily. Community charge bills in 1990-91 show safety net contributions as a separate item. In following years bills for authorities that formerly contributed to the safety net will show a straightforward comparison between the amount needed to provide a standard level of service and authorities' actual spending plans. It will be for authorities to justify to their chargepayers any excess of the latter over the former. For authorities receiving area protection grant, which replaces the safety net after 1990-91, this will appear as a separate item on community charge bills.Lancashire (Derelict Land Reclamation)
Mr. Miscampbell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much funding has been provided by the Government for derelict land reclamation in Lancashire in each of the last three years.
Mr. Moynihan : The information requested is as follows :
£ million
Grant programme |Actual |Actual |Forecast
|1987-88 |1988-89 |1989-90
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derelict land grant |4.102 |3.278 |4.047
Urban programme<1> |0.372 |0.166 |0.264
Urban development grant}
Urban regeneration grant}<1><2> |3.941 |2.665 |3.535
City grant}
<1> Includes expenditure on unused or waste land as well as derelict land.
<2> Information does not relate solely to the costs of reclamation since grant is based on the
total project costs including those of reclamation.
New Town Tenants
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many new towns tenants have bought their homes since the right to buy was introduced ; and if he will show the percentages for each new town in England and Wales.
Mr. Chope : Some 28,300 tenants have bought their homes from English new town corporations since October 1980, of which 9,400 were bought under the terms of the right-to-buy legislation. This does not include the number of tenants who have bought their homes after the transfer of new town stock to various local authorities and housing associations during the period ; these sales cannot be distinguished from other sales by local authorities and housing associations. The table gives the estimated percentage of stock sold by individual new towns to tenants between October 1980 and the date of transfer to local authorities and-or housing associations.
|Date of transfer |Percentage of stock
|sold to sitting tenants
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Basildon |- |32
Central Lancashire |July 1985 |4
Milton Keynes |- |26
Northampton |April 1985 |12
Peterborough |November 1989- |42
|January 1990
Redditch |April 1985 |12
Runcorn |December 1989 |23
Skelmersdale |April 1985 |15
Telford |- |47
Warrington |- |21
Washington |January 1986 |10
For information about Welsh new towns I refer my hon. Friend to the Secretary of State for Wales.
Beach Pollution (Cleethorpes)
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what action is being taken to remedy the design fault in Cleethorpes long sea outfall pipe ;
(2) what action is being taken to stop designated bathing beaches at Bridlington, Cleethorpes, Hornsea and Withernsea being polluted by raw sewage from storm overflow pipes ;
(3) what action is being taken to stop sewage discharges from Grimsby, Paull and Hull being deposited on beaches in the Cleethorpes area.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : These are matters for the National Rivers Authority.
Radon
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the estimated percentage of properties in each Cornwall district with radon concentration above the new action level.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The estimated proportion of houses exceeding the new action level in each Cornwall district is as follows :
|per cent.
-----------------------------------
Caradon |20
Carrick |15
Kerrier |30
North Cornwall |25
Penwith |30
Restormel |20
Housing Associations
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what account is taken in providing grants for new housing associations of the assets or funding available to them in the allocation of resources for 1990 -91.
Mr. Chope : Housing Corporation circulars HC31/88 and HC74/89 set out the financial viability criteria that the corporation applies where registered housing associations seek housing association grant. They cover associations' property assets and reserves, and also their management competence. The corporation has discretion to vary the criteria for small or new associations.
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the average rent payable by a disabled person living in special needs accommodation provided by housing associations operating on Merseyside.
Mr. Chope : The Department does not have this information.
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Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received about the levels of grants payable to housing associations on Merseyside providing accommodation for people with special needs.
Mr. Chope : None, other than the hon. Member's letter of 16 March to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State about a proposed housing association development at Fazakerley, to which I shall be replying shortly.
Rents
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether his Department keeps an index of housing costs for those living in rented accommodation.
Mr. Chope : The Department does not maintain such an index. There are separate indices for rent and other items of housing expenditure within the general index of retail prices (RPI), which is published monthly by the Central Statistical Office. The RPI, of course, reflects the expenditure patterns of the majority of households and not just those in rented accommodation.
Pollution (Fines)
Mr. Ward : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the average fine imposed by magistrates courts in 1988 for river and harbour pollution.
Mr. Heatcoat-Amory : Information collected by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Home Department shows that for cases brought under sections 31 or 32 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 the average fine imposed by magistrates courts in 1988 for water pollution offences was £560. The maximum fine available is £2,000 and up to three months' imprisonment. On indictment in the Crown Court there is no limit on the fine that may be imposed and terms of imprisonment can be up to two years.
Local Government Boundaries
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the progress of the Local Government Boundary Commission's proposals for the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire border.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The Commission's programme is a matter for it to determine within the statutory requirement that it should complete the review of English county boundaries by 31 March 1992. I understand that the commission is actively considering the Suffolk-Cambridgeshire boundary in the light of responses to its draft proposals.
Mortgaged Property
Mr. David Porter : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will make it his policy to introduce a duty of disclosure to oblige landlords to disclose (a) details of outstanding charges against the property at the start of a lease and (b) whether the lender has granted permission for the property to be let ;
(2) if he will make it his policy to oblige mortgage lenders to obtain from borrowers an annual confirmation of occupiers of mortgaged property ; and if he will make a statement ;
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(3) if he will make it his policy to seek to amend part III of the Housing Act 1985 to make it a statutory duty on housing authorities to accommodate people who are outside the existing categories of the involuntarily homeless, who are made homeless because the landlord to whom they were paying rent has unbeknown to them fai led to pay his mortgage on that property ;(4) what legislation would need to be amended to bring into effect protection for people who pay rent to a landlord for property which they do not know is mortgaged ;
(5) if he will review the arrangements for repossessions of property by court orders where a borrower has failed to meet mortgage repayments but has collected rent from a tenant in the property, to enable the tenant to be offered a first refusal on an option to buy or an assured tenancy for a limited period.
Mr. Chope : I will write to my hon. Friend.
Local Government and Housing Act 1989
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has had any consultations with local authority associations on the main provision of part VIII of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 since January 1990 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Chope : Following the announcement on 22 February to defer implementation of part VIII of the 1989 Act until 1 July, the local authority associations have been consulted on the draft regulations for the test of "resources" for owner occupiers and tenants. They have subsequently been consulted on a draft direction and associated guidance on the test of resources for landlords. Once their comments have been received and considered we will finalise the regulations and circulars relating to part VIII for issue as soon as possible thereafter.
Council House Sales
Mr. Dykes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on how many dwellings each local authority has sold under the right-to-buy legislation or voluntarily since April 1979 ; and what percentage of the total local authority stock they represent.
Mr. Chope : I have placed in the Library a table giving available information on local authority sales up to December 1989. It shows year by year information for each authority since 1984-85 together with cumulative figures since April 1979 and the proportion of their stock sold since April 1979.
French Nuclear Power Stations
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the volume of irradiated material and the scale of pollution from radioactive discharges which entered British coastal waters from the nuclear power stations on or near the northern coast of France during 1989.
Mr. Trippier : A programme of regular and extensive monitoring of the marine environment around the United Kingdom coastline is carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. It is not possible to estimate the amount of irradiated material from overseas nuclear installations within the low levels of radioactivity measured in United Kingdom coastal waters.
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Nuclear Waste
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much is being spent by Nirex in the current financial year on research into the safe disposal of nuclear waste ; and how much money is being spent (a) in the United States and (b) Sweden on similar work in this financial year.
Mr. Trippier : I understand that Nirex's estimated expenditure for this financial year on research and development work towards a deep disposal facility for low and intermediate-level radioactive waste is £13.9 million. The Department does not have any information about expenditure on such research in the United States or Sweden.
Encapsulation Plants, Sellafield
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the projected timetable for intermediate-level waste encapsulation at Sellafield for each of the encapsulation plants.
Mr. Trippier : There are three intermediate-level waste encapsulation plants currently under construction at Sellafield. One will be operational later this year ; the others are expected to be commissioned in 1992.
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what was the level of expenditure by his Department on research into the safety of (a) intermediate and (b) low-level nuclear waste disposal for each year from 1970 to 1990, inclusive ; and what are the projected figures to 1999 ;
(2) what was the level of expenditure by his Department on research into the safety of high-level nuclear waste disposal for each year from 1970 to 1990, inclusive ; and what are the projected figures to 1999.
Mr. Trippier : My Department announced in 1977 that it would be assuming overall responsibility for radioactive waste management policy and in 1978-79 a full programme of research commenced under DOE control. Our wide-ranging research programme produces long-term benefits for the safe disposal of all levels of radioactive waste. It is not therefore practicable to divide the costs in the way requested. The level of expenditure by my Department on radioactive waste management research at actual prices for each financial year has been as follows :
|£ million
------------------------------
1978-79 |3.3
1979-80 |5.1
1980-81 |9.7
1981-82 |8.5
1982-83 |9.8
1983-84 |8.5
1984-85 |9.6
1985-86 |10.6
1986-87 |11.4
1987-88 |10.2
1988-89 |8.8
1989-90 |10.8
It is envisaged that current levels of expenditure are likely to be maintained broadly until the end of the century.
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether there are any plans to build a nuclear waste repository under the seabed.
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Mr. Trippier : The United Kingdom has no such plans.
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment why the table 3.2b on pages 3 to 11 of the United Kingdom radioactive waste inventory (DOE/RW 188.061) entitled "Conditioned Waste Volumes Classed According to Waste Category : Waste from Committed Sources" includes waste arising from British Nuclear Fuels plc. from uncommitted reactors which are not currently in existence, under construction or required in future for currently approved programmes.
Mr. Trippier : The uncommitted arisings are from the operations of the THORP plant at Sellafield following major maintenance after its first 10 years or so of operation. At the time the inventory was compiled, these were included with the committed arisings on the basis that THORP itself was committed.
Mortgages
Mr. David Porter : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to meet building society representatives and other mortgage lending institutions to discuss their approaches to rescheduling loans and repossession.
Mr. Michael Spicer : Ministers and officials at the Department of the Environment frequently meet representatives from mortgage lending institutions and discuss a range of issues, including mortgage arrears and possessions. I have met recently with representatives of the Council of Mortgage Lenders, whose members include all building societies of any size and many other mortgage lending institutions.
Rented Property
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether his Department keeps an index of housing costs for those living in rented accommodation.
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