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Provision of accountancy books to university libraries and management training institutions--£275,000.Four workshops for accountants with particular reference to joint ventures- -£137,000.
Short-term industrial attachments with British companies in cooperation with the Confederation of British Industry--£270,000. Secondment of an adviser on financial markets to the Ministry of Finance--£100,000.
Assistance to the Ministries of Industry and Finance for industrial restructuring--£300,000.
Four consultancies in the energy sector looking at the economic restructuring of the hard coal, oil and gas, lignite and electricity sectors, and a study on gas pricing--£1,600,000.
Management training for Polish railways--£150,000.
Hungary
Secondment of two staff to the State Property Agency--£350,000. Management training course for the National Savings Bank--£55,000. Small enterprise development project managed by B'nai B'rith--£150, 000.
Short-term attachments by all 14 State Secretaries--£35,000. Czechoslovakia
Follow-up visit by Czechoslovak employment officials--£8,000. Seminar attended by Czechoslovak environmental officials--£13,000. Health workshops for Civil Forum and the Ministry of Health--£13, 000.
Study tour of Czechoslovak social security officials--£4,000.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Income Support
Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answers of 6 June to the questions by the hon. Member for Sunderland, South on income support, what information is maintained at (a) national and (b) sub-national level on the numbers of, and expenditure on, people on income support living in private residential care.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information on all income support claimants is collected by way of quarterly and annual 1 per cent. samples of live cases in each local office. This method means that, for the small population of claimants in homes, reliable information is limited to numbers of claimants and expenditure at national level. Reliable data on claimant numbers at regional level can be obtained from averages of a number of quarterly surveys.
Severe Disablement Allowance
Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answers of 6 June to the hon. Member for Sunderland, South on severe disablement allowance, what information is maintained at (a) national and (b) sub-national level on numbers in receipt of the severe disablement allowance.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Information on severe disablement allowance is maintained as follows :
A return is made every calendar month by each local office producing a figure comprising the number of claimants to the benefit and including those cases where final action is still outstanding although benefit has ceased. These figures are collated regionally and nationally.
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Additional statistics based on a 1 per cent. sample of cases, are produced once a year for Great Britain and for standard statistical regions. Reliable figures cannot be produced for any smaller geographical area.For completeness, pursuant to my reply on 6 June, I would add that information on recipients of the income support severe disability premium is maintained at a national and regional level.
Attendance Allowance
Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to his answer of 6 June to the hon. Member for Sunderland, South on attendance allowance, what information is maintained at (a) national and (b) sub-national level on the numbers in receipt of attendance allowance and payments from the independent living fund.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : No information is maintained at (a) national and (b) sub-national level on numbers in receipt of both attendance allowance and payments from the independent living fund.
Pensions
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he expects to be able to make a statement in the light of the outcome of the Barber case on pension ages, in the European Court.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher) on 21 May at column 10.
Nuclear Test Veterans
Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many nuclear test veterans have made claims for pensions ; how many have been awarded ; how many have been rejected ; and how many are still under consideration.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Records show that 248 claims for war pension have been made by ex-service men, or the widows or dependants of ex-service men who participated in the United Kingdom nuclear weapons test programme. Most, but not all, of these were for disablement or death resulting from alleged exposure to ionising radiation. Fourteen claims are still under consideration. The war pensions scheme provides for pensions where there is reliable evidence which raises a reasonable doubt that a condition is caused or aggravated by service or that death was due to or substantially hastened by service. It is accepted that the evidence raises such a doubt in the case of participants who have contracted leukaemia (excluding chronic lymphatic leukaemia) or multiple myeloma. Two war disablement pensions and eight war widows' pensions have been awarded as a result.
Child Benefit
Mr. Nigel Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be (a) the gross and (b) the net cost of raising child benefit in a full financial year in line with the rise in tax thresholds in between 1989-90 to 1990-91 uprated according to the statutory formula.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The costs would be about £345 million gross and £260 million net.
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Repetitive Strain Injury
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on present policy towards compensation for repetitive strain injury ; and what changes are being considered.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Two forms of upper limb disorder caused by repetitive movements are included in the list of prescribed diseases allowing entitlement to industrial injuries benefits :
Cramp of the hand or forearm due to repetitive movements--in any occupation involving prolonged periods of handwriting, typing or other repetitive movements of the fingers, hand or arm.
Traumatic inflammation of the tendons of the hand or forearm, or the associated tendon sheaths--in any occupation involving manual labour, or frequent or repeated movements of the hand or wrist. The Industrial Injuries Advisory Council, who advise the Secretary of State on matters relating to the industrial injuries scheme, announced on 5 June a study to review all new evidence which has become available since 1986 on the occupational causation of upper limb disorders.
Family Benefits
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people are currently receiving family credit or income support in (a) Wales as a whole, (b) each county in Wales and (c) each district council area in Wales.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : I refer the hon. Member to my reply to the hon. Member for Caernarfon (Mr. Wigley) on 18 May at column 568. Income support information is only available by social security region, or for Wales as a whole. At November 1989, some 253,000 claimants in Wales were in receipt of income support.
Source : Quarterly statistical inquiry November 1989.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Research and Development
Sir Gerard Vaughan : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will set out the procedures and criteria for deciding priorities when allocating funds for scientific and technological research and development in Europe.
Mr. Jackson : Funds from the science budget are not specifically allocated for the support of European scientific research. From the resources made available to them annually, however, research councils and other agencies expend substantial sums on collaborative research within Europe. Decisions on priorities will generally reflect the scientific judgments of those involved. In reaching decisions in individual cases account is likely to be taken of a range of factors including the added value likely to be achievable from particular collaborative arrangements ; their complementarity to domestic research priorities ; their scope for improving the quality of European science ; the likelihood of technology transfer ; the pursuit of research goals requiring study of trans-border issues ; and the extent to which the costs and risks of large-scale investment may be shared.
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Retirement (Ill Health)
Mr. Murphy : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many ill health retirements took place in maintained further and higher education for each academic year from September 1979 to August 1989, inclusive.
Mr. Jackson : The information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
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Teachers (Further Education)
Mr. Murphy : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many full-time teachers aged (a) less than 30 years, (b) 30 to 39 years, (c) 40 to 49 years, (d) 50 to 59 years and (e) 60 years and above were employed in maintained further and higher education for each academic year from September 1979 to August 1989, inclusive.
Mr. Jackson : The numbers and age distribution of full-time teachers in establishments of further and higher education maintained by local education authorities in England and Wales are given in the table.
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January Total Percentage aged
|number |Under 30 |30 to 39 |40 to 49 |50 to 59 |60 and over
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1980 |77,941 |7.1 |30.6 |33.4 |24.7 |4.2
1981 |77,465 |6.1 |30.9 |33.0 |25.4 |4.6
1982 |77,378 |5.6 |31.4 |32.7 |25.7 |4.6
1983 |79,036 |5.4 |31.6 |32.8 |25.6 |4.6
1984 |79,852 |5.2 |31.1 |33.4 |25.7 |4.6
1985 |80,408 |5.0 |30.4 |34.4 |25.6 |4.6
1986 |80,288 |4.9 |30.2 |34.9 |25.7 |4.3
1987 |80,776 |4.5 |28.5 |36.8 |25.9 |4.3
1988 |82,167 |<1> |<1> |<1> |<1> |<1>
1989 |81,538 |<1> |<1> |<1> |<1> |<1>
<1> Not yet available.
Note: All figures include lecturers in establishments now funded by the Polytechnics and
Colleges Funding Council.
Building Programmes
Mr. Murphy : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much public money has been spent in real terms on major building programmes in maintained further and higher education for each academic year from September 1979 to August 1989, inclusive.
Mr. Jackson : The information (by financial rather than academic year) is as follows :
|c|Capital expenditure on
maintained further and higher
education|c|
|c|(1979-80 prices)|c|
|£ million
------------------------------
1979-80 |82.2
1980-81 |108.2
1981-82 |76.4
1982-83 |88.7
1983-84 |84.4
1984-85 |87.4
1985-86 |88.5
1986-87 |94.1
1987-88 |73.5
1988-89 |76.8
The figures refer to gross capital expenditure in England, and include expenditure from the urban programme.
Management Consultants
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the studies conducted inside his Department by management consultants over the last 10 years, naming the consultancy, the cost, the subject and the outcome in each instance.
Mrs. Rumbold : The studies conducted during the financial years 1986 -87, 1987-88, 1988-89, 1989-90 were as follows :
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1986-87Arthur Young--Financial Management
Deloitte, Haskins and Sells--Audit Management
1987-88
CCTA--Education Information Study
Coopers and Lybrand--Financial Delegation to schools
Peat Marwick McClintock--Review of Inspection reports
Research Services--Undergraduate income and
expenditure survey
Deloitte, Haskins and Sells--Financial Management advice and assistance to the UGC
Spicer and Pegler--Review of accounting procedures at one of the grant aided bodies
1988-89
Ernst Whinney--Management of HMI travelling and subsistence Peat Marwick McClintock--Resource Management
ITS Ltd--Training review
Coopers Lybrand--Management framework
Deloitte, Haskins and Sells--Financial Management of UGC 1989-90
Peat Marwick McClintock--Financial management survey of SERC Peat Marwick McClintock--Student loans
Price Waterhouse--Student loans
PAS Limited--Parent awareness survey
It is not possible to state the amount paid in respect of each consultancy without breach of commercial confidentiality. The total cost was £23,200 in 1986-87 ; £255,413 in 1987-88 ; £153,939 in 1988- 89 and £332,502 in 1989-90. The results of these studies where appropriate have been implemented. Details of studies undertaken in previous years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Scientific Research
Mr. Hoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) whether he intends to implement the recommendation of the Advisory Board for the Research Councils that higher education institutes should receive an
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extra £259 million for additional equipment to support current scientific research and an extra £200 million for equipment to initiate new scientific research ;(2) what are his latest estimates of the cost of additional equipment necessary for higher education institutes to (a) support current levels of scientific research and (b) initiate new scientific research.
Mr. Jackson : The "Survey of Academic Research Equipment in the United Kingdom" commissioned by the Advisory Board for the Research Councils and published in November 1989 identified the equipment needs of universities and polytechnics. The advice which the ABRC offered my right hon. Friend last year on the Government's expenditure plans for the science budget took into account these needs.
The increases to the science budget announced on 15 November included substantial provision for expenditure on equipment in higher education institutions via the science budget, the UFC and the PCFC. The funding requirements for the science base, including equipment needs, will of course be reviewed again in this year's survey in the usual way.
Governing Bodies
Mrs. Peacock : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has any plans to repeat the survey on the composition of governing bodies ; and how many business men or women without connections with the education world are members of governing bodies.
Mrs. Rumbold : The third in a series of surveys, currently being conducted by the National Foundation for Educational Research, will provide further information about the composition of school governing bodies. The results will be available in the autumn. The second survey in the series, conducted last year, showed that over 40 per cent. of working governors, other than heads and elected teacher representatives, came from business or the professions.
John Ball School
Mr. Evennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what representations he has received concerning the judgment of the Court of Appeal in the case of Regina v . London Borough of Greenwich ex parte the governors of John Ball school.
Mrs. Rumbold : My right hon. Friend has received a number of representations from local authorities following the judgment in the case to which my hon. Friend refers. These have been carefully considered.
Mr. Evenett : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has any plans to
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introduce legislation to amend the Education Act 1980 in the light of the judgment in Regina v . London Borough of Greenwich ex parte the governors of John Ball school.Mrs. Rumbold : My right hon. Friend is not at present contemplating a change in the law following the judgment in the case to which my hon. Friend refers.
Licensed and Articled Teachers
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the local education authorities participating in (a) the licensed teacher schemes and (b) the articled teacher schemes, with the number of trainees in every case, and the estimated cost per place, together with an estimate of the cost of training, by postgraduate, of certificate of education and bachelor of education route.
Mrs. Rumbold : Licensed teachers are appointed by local education authorities and schools to specific posts, and the nature and the cost of the training to be provided will depend on the needs of the individual teachers appointed.
The training costs of licensed teachers are eligible for support under the local education authorities training grants scheme. Table A lists the local education authorities which are to receive support for licensed teacher training and associated costs in the financial year 1990-91. The amount of eligible expenditure to be supported, the number of licensed teachers expected to be supported and the average training costs implied by this for the financial year are also shown in each case. However, local education authorities and schools may appoint licensed teachers beyond these.
Consortia of local education authorities and initial teacher training institutions were invited to submit bids to run articled teacher pilot schemes in June 1989. The number of places allocated to successful consortia is listed in table B, together with the participating local education authorities and the estimated costs per student.
The annual cost of PGCE and BEd places varies considerably from institution to institution. For the 1991-92 academic year the guide price for initial teacher training places applied by the UFC is £3, 500, which includes the tuition fee but excludes any research costs. Institutions in the PCFC sector have been advised that, as an upper reference point, the mean unit of funding in 1990-91 is £1,950 and that they should assume that they will receive through the tuition fee £2,500 for a band 2 student (which includes PGCE students and some BEd students) and £1,675 for a band 1 student. Both the UFC and the PCFC sector figures exclude provision for student maintenance.
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|c|Table A|c|
|(a) |(b) |(c)
Local education authority |Training |Expected |Implied
|of licensed |number licensed |average training
|teachers |teachers |costs<1>
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barnet |30,000 |10 |3,000
Bexley |37,100 |10 |3,710
Bromley |9,000 |10 |900
Ealing |48,400 |10 |4,840
Enfield |47,700 |10 |4,770
Haringey |72,000 |14 |5,142
Harrow |52,000 |9 |5,777
Havering |31,000 |10 |3,100
Hillingdon |42,700 |15 |2,846
Hounslow |14,600 |5 |2,920
Kingston upon Thames |26,000 |10 |2,600
Merton |30,000 |10 |3,000
Newham |91,000 |16 |5,687
Redbridge |17,500 |5 |3,500
Richmond upon Thames |10,000 |15 |666
Sutton |28,000 |6 |4,666
Waltham Forest |58,000 |11 |5,272
Greenwich |13,000 |20 |650
Hackney |37,000 |30 |1,233
Hammersmith and Fulham |17,000 |12 |1,416
Islington |106,000 |140 |757
Kensington and Chelsea |30,000 |10 |3,000
Tower Hamlets |38,330 |10 |3,833
Wandsworth |31,500 |20 |1,575
Westminster |8,000 |6 |1,333
Coventry |31,800 |7 |4,542
Dudley |42,000 |10 |4,200
Sandwell |48,250 |10 |4,825
Bolton |3,000 |1 |3,000
Stockport |1,000 |1 |1,000
Bradford |20,500 |5 |4,100
Bedfordshire |35,000 |10 |3,500
Berkshire |30,000 |10 |3,000
Buckinghamshire |72,000 |14 |5,142
Cambridgeshire |27,360 |6 |4,560
Derbyshire |34,000 |12 |2,833
Devon |24,500 |6 |4,083
Dorset |20,000 |6 |3,333
Essex |162,000 |25 |6,480
Gloucestershire |30,330 |10 |3,033
Hereford and Worcester |6,000 |2 |3,000
Hertfordshire |93,000 |32 |2,906
Kent |120,000 |35 |3,428
Lancashire |30,000 |10 |3,000
Lincolnshire |40,600 |20 |2,030
North Yorkshire |24,000 |15 |1,600
Northamptonshire |138,000 |25 |5,520
Nottinghamshire |12,200 |4 |3,050
Oxfordshire |10,950 |10 |1,095
Somerset |28,400 |6 |4,733
Staffordshire |28,000 |10 |2,800
Surrey |50,000 |16 |3,125
West Sussex |10,000 |3 |3,333
Wiltshire |38,300 |10 |3,830
<1> (a)ö(b).
Bid area |Participating |Number of |Annual cost
|LEAs |student places |per student
|allocated |excluding
|bursary (£)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cambridge |Cambridgeshire |50 |4,000
|Bedfordshire
|Hertfordshire
Hampshire |Hampshire |50 |3,181
|West Sussex
|Isle of Wight
East London |Havering |34 |4,681
|Tower Hamlets
Leeds |Leeds |50 |4,810
Buckinghamshire |Buckinghamshire|16-20 |4,655
Kent |Kent |50 |1,747
Cheshire |Tameside |30-35 |3,223
Devon |Devon |60 |4,053
Humberside |Humberside |36 |3,810
North East |Newham |30 |3,607
London |Tower Hamlets
North London |Brent |50 |1,210
|Islington
|Camden
|Hackney
|Enfield
South West |Wandsworth |52 |607
London |Kensington and
|Chelsea
|Hillingdon
|Westminster
|Croydon
|Ealing
Warwickshire |Warwickshire |15 |5,876
|Coventry
|Solihull
Central/ |Camden |40 |5,000
North London |Hackney
|Harrow
|Islington
Manchester |Oldham |50 |4,983
|Rochdale
|Salford
|Wigan
Bristol |Gloucestershire|30 |4,357
|Wiltshire
Notes:
1. Costs are incurred for two academic years.
2. Figures exclude institutional funding from the UFC and PCFC which will be
based on 0.5 of a full-time equivalent place each year.
3. 65 per cent. of the costs will be met from the LEA Training Grants Scheme;
the other 35 per cent. will come from LEAs.
4. The cost of the bursary per student, over the two year training period is
£13,000 in London and £11,000 elsewhere.
Local Management of Schools
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many teachers in which local education authority areas have been declared redundant as a consequence of the introduction of local management of schools.
Mrs. Rumbold : This information is not available. Where there have been reports of possible teacher redundancies, it is by no means clear that these would be solely a consequence of the introduction of local management of schools rather than a reflection of the constant process of adjustment that has always been necessary as the circumstances of individual schools change over time.
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what data are collected by his Department about the consequences of local management of schools.
Mrs. Rumbold : The Department is collecting budget information for 1990-91 from statements prepared by each LEA under section 42 of the Education Reform Act. Information on actual expenditure in 1990-91 will also be collected from outturn statements, prepared under the same section. We are monitoring and reviewing all aspects of the effects of local management with the help of Her Majesty's inspectorate of schools.
Higher Education Expenditure
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was (a) recurrent and (b) capital spending by the Government on (a) universities, (b) polytechnics and (c) colleges of further education for each year since 1978-79 in (i) cash terms and (ii) real terms, indexed so that 1978-79 = 100.
Mr. Jackson [holding reply 11 June 1990] : The information for universities covered by the University Grants Committee and, from April 1989, by the Universtities Funding Council, is as follows (real terms figures are derived using the GDP deflator) :
Financial Recurrent Capital
year
|Cash |Real terms|Cash |Real terms
|£'000s |£'000s
------------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |612,599 |- |79,304 |-
1979-80 |741,190 |634,622 |101,370 |86,795
1980-81 |956,464 |691,997 |110,598 |80,017
1981-82 |982,335 |647,316 |116,308 |76,642
1982-83 |1,193,333 |733,413 |118,926 |73,091
1983-84 |1,240,179 |728,217 |117,616 |69,063
1984-85 |1,272,416 |707,007 |119,195 |66,230
1985-86 |1,302,752 |691,686 |132,688 |70,450
1986-87 |1,341,817 |689,021 |145,465 |74,696
1987-88 |1,490,175 |726,267 |144,106 |70,233
1988-89 |1,608,497 |731,818 |157,457 |71,638
1989-90 |1,711,604 |726,968 |179,247 |76,131
It is not possible to disaggregate from other local education authority expenditure that element which represents recurrent or capital expenditure on colleges of further education or polytechnics which were or are funded by local authorities.
WALES
Beef
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received about the need for direct governmental assistance towards additional promotion of the sale of beef ; and what has been his Department's response.
Mr. David Hunt : This issue was discussed at a recent meeting between the Farmers Union of Wales and my Department.
Promotion of the sale of beef is a matter for the Meat and Livestock Commission, whose promotional activities are supported by the industry itself.
Housing Improvement Grants
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales on what date he sent to local authorities in Wales draft application forms for housing improvement grants under the new legislation which comes into force on 1 July ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Grist : Application forms for the new renovation grant regime are included in the Application for Grant (Prescribed Forms and Particulars) Regulations 1990, which will be laid before the House shortly. Copies will be placed in the Library and will be sent to all housing authorities.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many letters he has received concerning the poll tax since its introduction in April ; and how many of these have been (a) in support of and (b) opposed to the new system.
Mr. David Hunt : Between 1 April and 8 June 339 letters have been received from members of the public and 239 letters from hon. Members on behalf of constituents. These have covered a wide range of issues concerning the community charge. Many have sought information or explanation about particular aspects of the new arrangements as they affect individuals. No meaningful analysis along the lines requested by the hon. Gentleman can be provided.
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