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Southern Africa Universities
60. Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much money was given in aid by the United Kingdom to universities during (a) 1988-89 and (b) 1989-90 in (i) South Africa, (ii) Malawi and (iii) Zimbabwe ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Chalker : The figures in the table represent the cost of the following activities--
(i) in South Africa scholarships for black students, and advice on strengthening academic support programmes for them ;
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(ii) in Malawi and Zimbabwe the supplementation from the bilateral aid programme of the salaries of British lecturers and the provision of equipment ; and expenditure in these countries from the ODA grant to the committee for international co- operation in higher education.
|1988-89|1989-90
|£ |£
-------------------------------------
South Africa |350,000|800,000
Malawi |613,000|760,000
Zimbabwe |264,000|756,000
Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference
61. Mr. Doran : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on British support for SADCC.
Mrs. Chalker : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) on 24 May at column 368 .
Zambia
62. Mr. Spearing : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what priorities Her Majesty's Government use in their aid programme for Zambia.
Mrs. Chalker : Our main priority is support for Zambia's structural adjustment programme, which is being monitored by the International Monetary Fund, and to which we have pledged £30 million in balance of payments support. In addition we are spending over £14 million per annum, largely on manpower support projects involving some 200 aid personnel in Zambia and training for over 300 Zambians in the United Kingdom ; and on the strengthening of institutional capacity at district level in the northern and central provinces.
Amazon Forests
63. Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what new measures he proposes to take to ensure an integrated and comprehensive approach to aid designed to protect Amazonian forests.
Mrs. Chalker : The United Kingdom is supporting the development of effective tropical forestry action plans in the Amazon countries as an important means of encouraging an integrated and comprehensive approach towards protection of the Amazonian rain forests. We are doing this both by seeking reforms of the tropical forestry action plans mechanism in general and by helping in specific countries.
South Africa
64. Mr. Cummings : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on British aid to black South Africans.
Mrs. Chalker : I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 19 March to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow, West (Mr. Hughes) at column 431 .
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Sri Lanka
66. Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what help has been given during the last 12 months to extend the services of the British Council in Sri Lanka ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Chalker : The British Council has not contemplated an extension of its services in Sri Lanka over the last 12 months in view of the security situation in the country. Help for this purpose has neither been sought from, nor offered by the Government. When the security situation permits, further assistance for English language teaching is one of a number of possibilities that we are prepared to consider under our bilateral aid programme to Sri Lanka.
Forestry Projects
67. Mr. Jack Thompson : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has any plans further to assist forestry projects overseas ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Chalker : The Overseas Development Administration is currently implementing a forestry initiative with the aim to commit a further £100 million bilaterally to assist forestry activities over the next three years.
Animal Conservation
69. Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much will be made available by his Department for animal conservation schemes in 1990-91.
Mrs. Chalker : We expect to spend over £2 million. This includes projects jointly funded by the ODA and non-governmental organisations which concentrate on environmental issues and their impact on local communities, but which are expected to have an indirect but distinctly beneficial effect on animal conservation.
Tropical Forests
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what he is doing to fund research designed to increase the productivity of tropical forests, particularly non-timber products.
Mrs. Chalker : We are funding 40 projects at a total cost of £6.2 million under the forestry research programme managed for the ODA by the Oxford Forestry Institute. These include projects on, for example, agro-forestry and buffer zones. The Natureal Resources Institute is considering research on the economic potential of rain forest products.
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the new projects in preparation which will be financed from the new £100 million for rain forest-related projects.
Mrs. Chalker : As the Prime Minister told the hon. Member on 11 December 1989, at column 459 , details of particular projects will be made known when formal agreement has been reached with the country concerned. I summarised recent developments in my speech to the rain forest harvest conference on 17 May.
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Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what action he is taking to strengthen forestry departments of tropical countries, where they are charged with conservation and management.
Mrs. Chalker : An ODA report on forestry projects of November 1989, a copy of which is in the Library, lists ongoing bilateral forestry projects aiming to strengthen forest departments in tropical countries. Many of the projects in preparation also have this as a major aim. I gave examples in my speech to the rain forest harvest conference on 17 May, a copy of which is also in the Library.
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the contract with Professor Malcolm Wilkins, regius professor of botany at the university of Glasgow, on the development of space-based monitoring of rain forest.
Mrs. Chalker : Professor Wilkins has recommended that the ODA should contact the European Space Agency and the British National Space Centre. Officials will do this.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Overseas Travel
Mr. Amos : To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will list the airline used and the destination of each of the overseas visits undertaken by the Select Committee on Employment for the last 12 months ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Geoffrey Howe : Since April 1989 the Committee has undertaken two visits overseas. The first, in July 1989, was to Copenhagen and Amsterdam, using British Airways flights except for the flight between Copenhagen and Amsterdam (KLM Royal Dutch Airlines) and one Member's return flight to Manchester (NLM Dutch Airlines). The second, in October/November 1989, was to Rome and Bordeaux ; the flight to Rome was by British Airways ; from Rome to Bordeaux by Air France and Air Inter ; from Bordeaux to London by Air France.
Broadcasting
Mr. Roy Hughes : To ask the Lord President of the Council what representations he has received from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf concerning sign language inserts on broadcasts of Parliament.
Sir Geoffrey Howe : I have received no recent representations from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf on the subject of sign language inserts. However, the Select Committee on Televising of Proceedings of the House, which I chair, has been examining the issue as part of its monitoring of the experiment, during the course of which evidence has been received from the RNID and other organisations representing the deaf. A closed-circuit trial with the signing of Prime Minister's questions was arranged by the Select Committee during the first two weeks after the Whitsun Adjournment and the relevant tapes were shown in the Division Lobby. The Select Committee's report, which will cover this aspect of the experiment, is expected to be published by about early July.
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FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Romania
Mr. Ken Hargreaves : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to extend the eastern European know- how fund to Romania.
Mr. Waldegrave : We have no plans to do so at present.
Lockerbie
Dr. Marek : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has received any offers of help from the Government of Syria with regard to the Lockerbie air disaster.
Prisoners (Turkey)
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many representations he has received calling for his Department to put pressure on the Turkish Government to release Demetrios Leuka and Christalis Savvides ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Maude : Nineteen. We have made it clear to the parties concerned that neither incursions into territory controlled by the Turkish Cypriots, nor the continued detention of the two youths, contributes to the creation of the right atmosphere for progress towards a settlement of the Cyprus problem.
BBC World Service
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will give the reasons for his approval of the BBC's decision to end World Service broadcasts in Japanese and Malay.
Mr. Sainsbury : The BBC and the FCO have jointly reviewed new broadcasting opportunities against the effectiveness of world service output. It was agreed, subject to the outcome of the 1990 public expenditure survey, to increase broadcasts in Russian, Mandarin Chinese and Vietnamese, as well as programmes in English for south-east Asia, the Indian sub-continent and west Europe. The review identified offsetting savings, including the ending of broadcasts in Japanese and Malay. In both countries, audiences for these services are small and there are many other sources of news and information from Britain, including the world service in English.
COCOM
Mr. Warren : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if his Department is party to the discussions between the United States Government and central European Governments on relaxations in the COCOM rules.
Mr. Waldegrave : Following an agreement reached at the COCOM high- level meeting on 6 and 7 June, we and other COCOM member Governments will be discussing with certain eastern and central European countries a more favourable application of the COCOM rules. These discussions will build upon earlier soundings carried out by the United States and other COCOM partners.
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Israel
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations Her Majesty's Government have made to the Government of Israel following the gas grenade attack on the United Nations health centre in Gaza city on 12 June ; what information he has as to the number and ages of the casualties ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Waldegrave : We condemn any use of excessive force by the Israeli Defence Force.
HEALTH
Dental Hygienists
Mr. Galbraith : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on regrading for dental hygienists in the national health service.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The pay and grading of dental hygienists are matters for negotiation in the professional and technical staffs B Whitley council. The management side of the council recently carried out a review of all dental auxiliary grades in order to inform this year's negotiations on pay. I understand that negotiations on the staff side's claim are expected to begin shortly.
Hospital Beds
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the total number of hospital beds available in each of the past five years within the constituency of Norfolk, North-West.
Mr. Dorrell : Information about hospital beds is collected centrally by district health authority, and is not available for individual parliamentary constituencies. The figures for West Norfolk and Wisbech health authority are given in the table.
|c|Average daily available beds, and in-patient cases treated, West|c|
|c|Norfolk and Wisbech district health authority, 1984 to 1988-89|c|
Year |Available |In-patient |In-patient cases
|beds |cases treated |treated per
|available bed
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1984 |841 |19,703 |23.4
1985 |847 |20,445 |24.1
1986 |838 |20,382 |24.3
1987-88 |871 |21,949 |25.2
1988-89 |876 |22,462 |25.6
Social Workers
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has on the number of cases prescribed by statute as requiring the attention of social workers which are not currently receiving appropriate attention.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not collected centrally.
Disabled People
Mr. Tom Clarke : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when sections 1 and 2 of the Disabled Persons (Services, Consultation and Representation) Act 1986 will be implemented.
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Mr. Dorrell : No decisions on the implementation of these sections can be taken until we have established their resource and service implications. We are consulting the local authority associations on these issues and are currently awaiting their preliminary assessments as a basis for discussion.Medical and Dental Education
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the second report of the steering group on undergraduate medical and dental education will be published ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : The report is published today, and is available in the Library. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education and Science and I are sending copies of the second report to all interested parties under cover of a message which reads as follows :
The report from the Steering Group on Undergraduate Medical and Dental Education has been prepared in response to the remit which our predecessors gave the Group to consider how the current arrangements for undergraduate medical (and subsequently dental) education can be improved to ensure that the policies and programmes of the bodies concerned are properly co- ordinated and directed. The Group was later invited to assess the implications for these matters of the proposed NHS reforms, and to make recommendations. The present report subsumes the Interim Report which was published in June 1989.
We welcome, and endorse, this new report. We are grateful to the members of the Steering Group, and to the organisations which have been associated with it, for working effectively together to support the common purpose of the NHS and the universities in maintaining and improving standards of undergraduate medical and dental education. The organisational and financial arrangements must encourage those responsible in both the universities and the NHS to work together to teach students, advance knowledge through research and provide and develop services for patients. These three functions are integral, something as true in the reformed NHS as it is today. That is why the Steering Group has emphasised the essential common purpose of the universities and the NHS in the fostering of medical knowledge and skills, an emphasis which we support. The ten key principles proposed by the Steering Group to underpin jointly agreed working arrangements have already been promulgated with our endorsement. The sense of common purpose will be strengthened by the new provision in the NHS and Community Care Bill regarding university membership of those health authorities and NHS Trusts having significant involvement in medical and dental education.
The Steering Group has given close attention to certain details of finance and management. It has proposed revised procedures for the distribution of the Service Increment For Teaching (SIFT) which again have been promulgated, and are being implemented, with our support. It has made proposals for handling the relationship known as "knock for knock", emphasising the importance of changing only by agreement the balance of expenditure between co-operating institutions. It has also suggested that the flexibility essential to the management of the job plans of clinical academics who are honorary consultants in the NHS might be achieved through a tightly defined package of clinical service commitments, to be delivered by university staff under the management of heads of clinical academic departments in consultation with NHS managers. We endorse these proposals, which encourage an agreed approach to the management of those areas in which the universities and the NHS must engage together in responsibilities which neither can discharge alone.
Eye Tests
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people on family credit or income support received free eye tests in England (a) in each quarter in 1988-89 and (b) in each quarter in 1989-90.
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Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Statistics prior to 1 April 1989 were not broken down by patient group. Since then, family practitioner committees have collected data on sight tests paid for under the general ophthalmic services on a six-montly basis. A tota of 530,660 national health service sight tests for adults receiving income support for family credit were paid for in England during the period 1 April to 30 September 1989. This figure is based on a 2 per cent. sample of NHS sight test application forms processed by family practitioner committees. It does not take into account sight tests paid for after 1 April but conducted before that period.
Dame Jill Knight : To ask the Secretary of State for Health by what method statistics relating to the collection of information on the number of (i) national health service eye tests and (ii) non-national health service eye tests have been collected.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Information on NHS sight tests is collected from family practitioner committees. The data are obtained from a count of the forms signed by patients at the time of their sight test and forwarded by the optician to the family practitioner committee for payment. Routine statistics on non-NHS sight tests are not collected. The NOP survey, the results of which were made available to the House on 6 June, was commissioned by the Department to provide an independent measure of total volume during the first quarter of 1990.
Allergies
Mr. Denzil Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he will consider appointing to the Committee on Safety of Medicines a consultant specialising in allergic diseases, such as hay fever and asthma.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Appointments and reappointments to the Committee on Safety of Medicines and its sub-committees were made as from 1 January 1990 : members include specialists in allergic diseases. Additional experts in this or other fields may be consulted or appointed as temporary members as necessary.
Nursing Homes
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations he has received from local authorities on the provision of nursing home care ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Ministers and officials have frequent meetings with representatives of local authorities at which this and other aspects of community care are discussed.
Community Care
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what consultation has taken place with local authority organisations on the additional staff required to carry out the necessary assessment for the provision of community care ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We are not aware of any specific consultations with local authority organisations on this matter although there have been frequent discussions with local authority associations on the
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implementation of the proposals in the White Paper "Caring for People". It is for individual local authorities to determine their own staffing needs.Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has as to how many extra social workers and support staff are being appointed ; what training provisions have been made to implement the proposed community care programme ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Information on the number of appointments of social workers and support staff is not collected centrally. The White Paper "Caring for People" recognises that its proposals have implications for the training of staff involved in community care. The social services inspectorate has established a community care training strategy group to identify and address these needs. We have increased this year's training support programme to £19.4 million in grant to local authorities, £2 million of which is targeted towards the training of management staff in social services departments.
GPs, Manchester
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the general practitioner practices in Manchester which have indicated that they wish to become fund-holders.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not available centrally.
Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport
Mr. Favell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds were operational at Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport on (a) 1 June 1979 and (b) June 1989.
Mr. Dorrell : The number of available beds at Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport on 21 June 1979 and 1 June 1989 was 589 and 791 respectively.
Mr. Favell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) trained and (b) untrained nursing staff were employed at Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport on 1 June 1979 and 1 June 1989.
Mr. Dorrell : The number of trained and untrained nursing staff at Stepping Hill hospital, Stockport on 1 June 1989 was 432 and 116 respectively. Comparable figures for 1 June 1979 are not available centrally.
Water Pollution, Camelford
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to establish whether children in the Camelford area have suffered any intellectual impairment as a result of the water pollution incident there on 6 July 1988 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : The report of the Lowermoor incident health advisory group, which was published in July 1989, a copy of which is available in the Library, concluded that no long-term effects on the health of people in the Camelford area were expected. It is for the district health authority to take any further measures it thinks necessary for the health of the population.
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Ambulance Services
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many ambulance services have expressed an interest in becoming self-governing trusts ; and if he will list them.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Five ambulance services have expressed interest in NHS trust status including two which are incorporated in other units. The units are :
Northumbrian Ambulance Service
Lincolnshire Ambulance Service
Norfolk Ambulances
Cornwall Community Services
Swindon Health Authority--All District Services
Income Generation
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether the income generated from a contract under the National Health Service and Community Care Bill by a district health authority-managed hospital will be credited specifically to that hospital.
Departmental Savings
Mr. Rooker : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what mechanisms exist in his Department for identifying and tracking value-for- money savings in its operations.
Mr. Dorrell [holding answer 5 June 1990] : The Government's policy is to secure significant improvements in value for money within the NHS through the reforms contained in the NHS and Community Care Bill. The NHS management executive has also established a value for money unit to stimulate--in collaboration with local NHS management--opportunities for improving value for money within the NHS.
The Department has various mechanisms for improving value for money within its own operations. The departmental accounting system, the public expenditure survey and the Department's management plan all place heavy emphasis on value for money and are supplemented by other mechanisms such as internal audit, staff inspection and consultancy.
Mr. Rooker : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what were the value-for-money savings in his Department's operations identified by internal audit and internal efficiency arrangements, and by external audit and by management consultants retained by his Department between 1983-84 and 1988-89 ; and what is the amount of those savings fulfilled to date.
Mr. Dorrell [holding answer 5 June 1990] : I refer to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security on 12 June 1990 at column 166.
Storm Damage
Mr. Onslow : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of total cost of storm damage to health authority property in England and Wales since 1987 ; and what consideration he is giving to enabling health authorities to insure against future risks of this sort.
Mr. Dorrell [holding answer 15 June 1990] : No central estimate has been made. NHS property is not covered by
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commercial insurance and authorities are expected to make provision within their allocations to meet such contingencies. While there are no plans to alter the current policy on commercial insurance, we are seeking powers in the National Health Service and Community Care Bill which would enable us to establish a scheme for meeting the losses and liabilities to health authorities and NHS trusts. However, no decision has yet been taken on when such a scheme would be implemented.PRIME MINISTER
Economic Policy
Mr. Allen : To ask the Prime Minister what steps she has taken since 26 October 1989 to improve co-ordination at ministerial level in the formulation and implementation of economic policy.
The Prime Minister : Economic policy is co-ordinated in the usual way at ministerial level with meetings between Ministers, including discussion at Cabinet.
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