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Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about the aims of the Institute of Grocery Distribution study on identifying major food stocks for defence planning.
Mr. Gummer : The aim of this study is to provide my Department with up-to-date information on food stocks and patterns of food distribution for contingency planning purposes.
Intervention Board
Mr. Gill : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made towards establishing the Intervention Board as an executive agency ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : I am pleased to announce that the Intervention Board will become an executive agency with effect from 1 April 1990. The Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce was set up by the European Communities Act 1972. It is appointed by Agricultural Ministers to carry out this country's obligations under the common agricultural policy of the European Community. The board delegates its functions to the Government Department created by section 6 of the 1972 Act, and this is the new agency.
The agency's task is to administer the market regulation and production support measures of the guarantee section of the European agricultural guidance and guarantee fund. Its aim will be to operate them as economically, efficiently and effectively as possible. The board will oversee the way in which the agency exercises its responsibilities.
As a Government Department the Intervention Board has achieved a great deal since it was created in 1972. Establishing it as an agency will give it the impetus and additional financial and management tools to build on the good work achieved ; to strengthen its performance ; and to promote a more effective and efficient quality of service to
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its customers. The agency's efficiency will mainly be judged through indexes of unit cost and productivity. Additional performance measures relating to its objectives will be developed through its corporate and business plans. The financial targets for 1990-91 will be :(i.) to achieve annual cumulative efficiency gains on its running costs of 2 per cent.
(ii.) to keep disallowance resulting from the agency's actions and falling on the Exchequer following the clearance of the 1988 EAGGF accounts to 0.5 per cent. of the vote 1 turnover ; and
(iii.) to keep non-financing losses on intervention stocks to 6.5 per cent of total intervention activity.
Mr. Guy Stapleton who has been the chief executive of the Intervention board as a Government Department since 1986, has been appointed chief executive of the agency. We wish him and his staff every success in their new role.
Copies of the framework document are being placed in the Library of the House.
Lead-contaminated Food
Mr. Boswell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about the action taken by his Department to protect consumers following the recent importation of lead-contaminated animal feedingstuffs.
Mr. Gummer : As soon as there was clear evidence of a possible threat to the safety of food supplies, the Government imposed strict statutory controls to protect consumers under part I of the Food and Environment Protection Act 1985.
Two thousand and eight-five tonnes of lead contaminated maize gluten replacer pellets were imported of which 730 tonnes were distributed and incorporated into 7,400 tonnes of commercial animal feed rations. My Department had the task of tracing all this imported material through the complex chain of importers, compounders, merchants and agents, of informing all recipients, implementing the necessary controls and supervising the withdrawal and disposal of contaminated feed. In all, some 2,100 farms in England and Wales were found to have received varying amounts of lead- contaminated feedingstuffs, including 1,062 dairy farms.
All milk produced on these farms was collected separately and used to manufacture powdered milk and butter which were stored pending full scientific analysis. In addition, an intensive sampling programme for ex- farm liquid milk was organised, in conjunction with the Milk Marketing Board, to enable restrictions to be lifted from individual farms as soon as lead levels were confirmed to have fallen below the limit set by Department of Health. A total of nearly 14,000 individual milk samples were taken and, by 13 December, milk restrictions were lifted from all farms.
Three livestock release schemes were introduced, two of which required the taking and analysing of blood samples from the animals concerned. During the 11 weeks for which these schemes were in operation, 20 complete farms were released from all restrictions under scheme I, 116,000 animals were released under scheme II and 7, 000 animals under scheme III. We analysed 22,000 blood samples. A number of scientific research and monitoring programmes were set up at short notice to elucidate the behaviour of lead in livestock and foods of various types and to monitor the decline in lead levels once all the contaminated feed had been removed. In the light of the
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information obtained, all the remaining livestock movement and slaughter restrictions were lifted on 12 February.As a result of the firm action taken by the Government, together with the painstaking work undertaken by officials in the various Government Departments and outside organisations involved, and with the constructive co-operation of the vast majority of farmers and traders, I believe that the Government have been able to ensure the full protection of consumers, and to preserve justifiable confidence in British agricultural produce, both at home and overseas.
Salmonella
Mr. Boswell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on progress on control of salmonella in the European Community.
Mr. Gummer : The European Commissioner for Agriculture has assured me that he will present proposals on the control of zoonoses by May with a view to adoption by the Council in the summer. I welcome this undertaking as I believe that controls on salmonella should be adopted on a Community basis.
We have a strong basis upon which to pursue discussions in the Community because of the stringent and comprehensive set of measures in the United Kingdom to combat the salmonella problem. Our measures extend throughout the production chain, covering feedingstuffs, controls on breeding flocks, hatcheries and laying flocks and hygienic practices during slaughter and processing. These have been directed in particular at egg production, but have also helped to control salmonella in the poultry meat sector. The action that we have taken in the United Kingdom has clearly had an impact in reducing potential causes of human food poisoning, particularly from eggs.
As for the Community policy, we believe that the key priority areas will be to ensure clean hatchery and breeding stock for both layers and broiler flocks and to minimise any risk of infection entering through feed. Good hygiene is essential through all stages of production as this reduces overall infection. We believe that the Community measures will also need to require regular testing of laying flocks and to specify appropriate action when salmonellae, of types particularly associated with human food poisoning, are found. The Community measures will need to take account of all relevant research and to ensure that the action taken in respect of particular poultry flocks is commensurate with the health risks which may be present. Consideration should be given, for example, to including in Community policy the option of treating certain types of flock to remove or prevent infection in young birds before they come into lay. The Government are already reviewing this possibility. In addition, there is a need to consider whether inhibitory treatment of chicks is an option that should be encouraged in commercial laying flocks to prevent them becoming infected.
The risk of infection in eggs arises from certain invasive forms of salmonellae which can infect the egg before it is laid. When these are present in laying or breeding flock our policy has been to prevent any eggs from the flock entering the food chain and we will be looking for similar steps to be taken throughout the Community. It is important to remove any risk to public health when infected flocks are compulsorily slaughtered. We have
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hitherto ensured this by requiring the carcases to be destroyed. However, in discussions in the Community it has become clear that regulations are likely to follow the approach of applying safeguards to the end products permitting them to be consumed without danger to health rather than requiring carcases from infected flocks to be destroyed. We recognise that an alternative to our present policy would be to ensure that any salmonellae present in the bird are destroyed by thorough cooking. This is the normal treatment process for birds at the end of their laying cycle. In the light of these considerations, the Government have decided to permit carcases from infected flocks to be processed under carefully controlled conditions and subject to stringent safeguards to remove any risk from the product to public health and we will be seeking to ensure similar requirements in the Community discussions.The flock owner will retain the proceeds from the sale of the birds and our compensation arrangements will be adjusted accordingly. We will be issuing on 2 April further advice to local authorities, which enforce the poultry meat hygiene legislation, on measures to minimise the spread of salmonellae in poultry slaughterhouses. This, like the action taken over breeding flocks and hatcheries, will minimise the level of infection in birds reared for the table. It will, of course, continue to be necessary for caterers and retailers to ensure that raw and partly cooked poultry products are carefully handled and for any raw meat to be handled properly in the home and fully cooked, as emphasised in the Government's food safety leaflet. I believe that measures adopted on a Community basis will give the best protection to consumers and I will be working to achieve a speedy and effective agreement so that consumers can have confidence in food supplies whether they are home-produced or imported from other member states.
Sheep Scab
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the number of outbreaks of sheep scab in (a) England, (b) Wales and (c) Scotland for each of the last 10 years.
Mr. Gummer : The information is as follows :
|c|Sheep scab outbreaks|c| Year |England |Wales |Scotland|Total ------------------------------------------------------ 1980 |33 |- |- |33 1981 |45 |11 |10 |66 1982 |87 |5 |2 |94 1983 |144 |10 |3 |157 1984 |116 |9 |6 |131 1985 |23 |41 |10 |74 1986 |19 |36 |- |55 1987 |23 |14 |1 |38 1988 |26 |9 |1 |36 1989 |60 |5 |1 |66 1990<1> |15 |5 |- |20 <1> January and February.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has plans to suspend the compulsory dipping of sheep not affected with sheep scab ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Gummer : As announced by the then Parliamentary Secretary on 14 April 1989, there will be national compulsory dips for sheep scab in the autumn of both 1989 and 1990.
Nuclear Accidents
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make it his policy to conduct an aerial survey of the whole or part of the United Kingdom in the event of an accident occurring in a nuclear power station in northern France ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : The safety of foodstuffs, for which my Department is responsible, requires direct measurement of dietary items. The potential value of an aerial survey in relation to food production would need to be assessed in the light of specific circumstances.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has conducted a review of his emergency planning procedures as a result of a nuclear accident in the last five years ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 18 December 1986.
My Department played a full part in the Government's post-Chernobyl review of contingency planning, including preparation of the national response plan for dealing with the effects of a future nuclear accident overseas. We shall continue to review and update our emergency arrangements in the light of technical and scientific developments both at home and overseas. Details of our arrangements for each of the major United Kingdom nuclear sites are being prepared for publication and copies will be placed in the Library of the House.
Drainage Rates
Mr. Ian Bruce : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he intends to introduce new regulations to amend the provisions of the Land Drainage Act 1976 in order to permit the National Rivers Authority and internal drainage boards to precept drainage rates from (i) domestic householders, (ii) business premises and (iii) agricultural holdings.
Mr. Curry : We have already made the Internal Drainage Boards (Finance) Regulations 1990 (SI 1990 No. 72) which came into force on 24 January 1990. They provide that, from 1 April 1990, internal drainage boards (and the NRA when acting as an internal drainage board), may continue to collect drainage rates direct from the agricultural sector and, in respect of the non-agricultural sector may impose a special levy on the district councils in whose area the internal drainage district lies.
Mr. Ian Bruce : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he will state what consultations he has held with interested parties over the method by which drainage rates will be levied after 1 April.
Mr. Curry : We consulted the Association of County Councils, Association of District Councils, Association of Drainage Authorities, Association of London Authorities, Confederation of British Industry, Country Landowners
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Association, Internal Drainage Boards, London Boroughs Association, National Association of Local Councils, National Farmers Union, National Rivers Authority and the Tenant Farmers Association.Veterinary Laboratories, Bangor
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to close the veterinary laboratories in Bangor ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Maclean : The review of the veterinary investigation service commissioned by the Minister, has now been finalised and is being submitted to Ministers for consideration.
As yet, no decisions have been made on any recommendations that might arise from this review.
Water Pollution
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects to publish his next report on water pollution from farm waste.
Mr. Gummer : It is intended to publish the joint MAFF/NRA report " Water Pollution From Farm Waste 1989" on 4 April.
Genetically Engineered Organisms
Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the labelling requirements in respect of foods containing genetically engineered oganisms.
Mr. Gummer [holding answer 23 March 1990] : Although there are no specific labelling requirements for foods containing such organisms ; the Food Labelling Regulations 1984 apply to most foods, including foods containing genetically engineered organisms. The Food Advisory Committee has been asked to consider, within the context of the Food Labelling Regulations, the need for special labelling of those products containing genetically engineered organisms following their approval by the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes. In the recent case of genetically engineered bakers' yeast the Food Advisory Committee recommended that additional labelling information was not required.
EMPLOYMENT
Enterprise Allowance Scheme
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) what plans he has to review enterprise allowance scheme allocations to Cumbria for the coming financial year ;
(2) whether his proposed allocations for the TEC in Cumbria provides support resources for enterprise allowance scheme awards in the financial year 1990-91.
Mr. Eggar : The size and scale of the enterprise allowance scheme is regularly reviewed to take account of levels of unemployment and the demand for places. Allocations to TECs in respect of the scheme will be determined by the Training Agency's regional directors. I am confident that the allocation to the Cumbria TEC will provide adequate support resources for that area.
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YTS
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what were the numbers of accidents on YTS, fatal, major and minor, for the period September to December 1989 ; and how many YTS placements were closed or not accepted in the period.
Mr. Nicholls : YTS accident statistics and closure and non- acceptance figures on health and safety grounds are collected on a quarterly basis. Table A provides YTS accident figures for the period 1 October 1989 to 31 December 1989.
|c|Table A|c|
Accidents<1>
Fatalities |Major |Minor injuries
|injuries<2>
------------------------------------------------------------
1<3> |170 |721
Table B provides the closure and non-acceptance figures for the period 1 October 1989 to 31 December 1989. These figures are provisional.
|c|Table B|c|
|Number
--------------------------------------
Placements closed |6
Placements not accepted |1
<1>Training Agency figures have been
compiled on a similar basis to those
prepared by the Health and Safety
Executive on employed persons.
However, the Training Agency's
figures will include a number of
accidents to trainees in educational
establishments and road traffic
accidents which may not have been
reportable to the Health and Safety
Executive had the individuals been
employed.
<2>Major injuries are classified
according to the severity criteria
laid down in the Reporting of
Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrences Regulations 1985.
<3>This fatality was a road traffic
accident in scheme time.
Wages Inspectors
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on plans for restructuring the wages inspectorate in Wales.
Mr. Nicholls : There are no plans to restructure the wages inspectorate in Wales.
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will state the number of establishments visited in Wales by wages inspectors in each year since 1979.
Mr. Nicholls : The information requested is given in the following table.
|Number visited
---------------------------------------------
1979 |2,097
1980 |2,131
1981 |1,753
1982 |1,720
1983 |1,508
1984 |1,249
1985 |1,577
1986 |1,318
1987 |1,039
1988 |1,014
1989 |970
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will state the number of wages
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inspectorate officers with responsibility for Wales at (a) senior executive officer grade, (b) higher executive officer grade and (c) clerical grades.Mr. Nicholls : Wages inspection in Wales is the responsibility of the wages inspectorate divisional offices in Manchester and Bristol and is not administered separately from the other areas covered by those offices.
The total number of staff in those offices at the grades specified is given in the table.
|Staff
-------------------------------------------
Senior executive officer grade |2.0
Higher executive officer grade |5.0
Clerical grades |8.5
Health and Safety Commission
Mr. Strang : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment on what date the annual report of the Health and Safety Commission was launched ; how many copies of the report have been published ; and on what date he expects copies of the report to be made available to the general public.
Mr. Nicholls : The Health and Safety Commission's annual report for 1988-89 was launched on Monday 26 February 1990. A total of 2,500 copies of the published report have been sent to HMSO for sale to the public. These will be available in London from 23 March and elsewhere by 29 March.
Training and Enterprise Councils
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment for how long Training Agency staff will be contracted to the training and enterprise councils.
Mr. Eggar : Training Agency staff who have volunteered to second to training and enterprise councils will normally go on secondment for an initial period of three years. This period may subsequently be extended by mutual agreement between the Training Agency, the secondee and the training and enterprise council.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how long training and enterprise council contracts will run.
Mr. Eggar : Training and enterprise council contracts will not have a fixed duration but will be subject to the production each year of an agreed business plan.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if any additional expenditure is being given to training and enterprise councils to undertake new training programmes other than employment training and youth training ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : Training and enterprise councils (TECs) will be responsible for running the training programmes and business support activities currently managed by my Department. They will be given appropriate budgets to enable them to do this. Additionally, TECs will have a local initiative fund which can be used to finance new initiatives or to strengthen and expand existing programmes and services.
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Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if any contracts have been concluded with any of the training and enterprise councils ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : I expect to conclude contracts with the first training and enterprise councils in early April.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if discussions have taken place with the training and enterprise councils regarding the reduction in expenditure on youth training per trainee week between 1989-90 and 1992-93 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : The budget available for youth training has been discussed with training and enterprise councils (TECs) as part of the discussions over their business plans. A number of TECs have now submitted their plans setting out how they intend to improve the skills and qualifications of young people in their area.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he has received representations from the National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses regarding the composition of training and enterprise councils ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : The National Federation of Self Employed and Small Businesses Ltd has raised a number of issues with me including the composition of the boards of training and enterprise councils. The federation was advised that TEC boards and their members must meet the criteria set out in "Training and Enterprise Councils : a Prospectus for the 1990s", published in March 1989.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the estimated training and enterprise councils' expenditure in England and Wales in 1990-91 for the provision of ET and YTS.
Mr. Eggar : The 1990-91 supply estimate (class VI vote 1, Department of Employment : training and enterprise programmes) shows the planned expenditure for ET and YT. Table 2 on page 13 shows the estimated expenditure for these and the Training Agency's other main programmes by TECs and area offices.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the applications received for setting up training and enterprise councils ; if he will list those given development funding including the expenditure involved ; if he will list those under consideration ; and if he will list the areas of England and Wales where applications are still awaited.
Mr. Eggar : The information requested is as follows :
Applications approved |Development
|funding
|awarded
|(£)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Essex |110,000
Hampshire |149,000
Hertfordshire |110,000
Isle of Wight |85,000
Milton Keynes |110,000
Devon and Cornwall |190,000
Dorset |95,000
Birmingham |139,00
Staffordshire |113,000
Walsall |104,000
Calderdale/Kirklees |106,000
Sheffield |138,000
South and East Cheshire |106,000
Cumbria |115,000
East Lancashire |118,000
Oldham |81,000
Rochdale |75,000
Teesside |127,000
Tyneside |136,000
Wigan |94,000
North Yorkshire |125,000
North Nottinghamshire |120,000
Wearside |90,000
Mid-Glamorgan |104,000
Kingston/Merton |111,000
Thames Valley |125,000
Somerset |110,000
Norfolk/Waveney |149,000
Suffolk |106,000
Rotherham |90,000
County Durham |94,000
North East Wales |98,000
Northumberland |92,000
West Wales |110,000
Stockport/High Peak |110,000
South Glamorgan |100,000
North West Wales |110,000
Wolverhampton |88,000
Heart of England |110,000
Dudley |98,000
Greater Peterborough |<1>-
Manchester |150,000
South Cambridgeshire |116,000
Avon |115,000
Kent |158,000
Gwent |100,000
St. Helens |75,000
Barnley/Doncaster |<1>-
Bolton/Bury |110,000
Leeds |120,000
Coventry/Warwickshire |114,000
Gloucestershire |112,000
Northamptonshire |<1>
Sandwell |115,000
Wakefield |109,000
London East |195,000
Bedfordshire |<1>
South London |<1>
Bradford |<1>
Central England |<1>
North Derbyshire |<1>
Southern Derbyshire |<1>
Merseyside |<1>
Powys |<1>
Lancashire Area West |<1>
Chester/Ellesmere Port/Wirral |<1>
Applications under consideration
Surrey
Lincolnshire
Greater Nottinghamshire
Hereford and Worcester
Applications awaited
Humberside
Central London
Shropshire
Enfield/Barnet
South Thames
Wiltshire
North Cheshire
Leicestershire
Inner London North City
Brent/Harrow
Sussex
West London
<1> Not finalised.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the training and enterprise councils in receipt of development funding by (a) those which have submitted operational budgets, including the amount of expenditure involved, (b) those which have contracts approved including the amount of expenditure and (c) those which have yet to submit operational budgets.
Mr. Eggar : Thirteen training and enterprise councils (TECs) have submitted their corporate and business plans. These are : Calderdale and Kirklees
Cumbria
Devon and Cornwall
Dorset
East Lancashire
Hertfordshire
Oldham
Rochdale
South and East Cheshire
Teesside
Thames Valley
Tyneside
Wearside
The budgets for these TECs are still under discussion. Contracts will be signed when the plans are approved.
The following TECs are currently in the development phase and have yet to submit their corporate and business plans :
Avon
AZTEC
Barnsley-Doncaster
Bedfordshire
Birmingham
Bolton-Bury
Bradford and District
Central and South Cambridgeshire
CENTEC
CEWTEC
County Durham
Coventry-Warwickshire
North Derbyshire
Southern Derbyshire
Dudley
Essex
Mid-Glamorgan
South Glamorgan
Gloucestershire
Gwent
Hampshire
Heart of England
St. Helens
Isle of Wight
Kent
LAWTEC
Leeds
London East
South London
Manchester
Merseyside
Milton Keynes
Norfolk-Waveney
Northamptonshire
North Nottinghamshire
Northumberland
North Yorkshire
Greater Peterborough
Powys
Rotherham
Sandwell
Sheffield
Somerset
Staffordshire
Stockport and High Peak
Suffolk
North East Wales
North West Wales
West Wales
Wakefield
Walsall
Wigan
Wolverhampton
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will outline the guidance given to each training and enterprise council regarding the preparation of a profile of the needs of the unemployed, an assessment of employer-based skill shortages and an analysis of training and education provision in their area ; and if he will make a statement.
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