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Mr. Scott : The earnings limit for people receiving invalid care allowance was increased, in April, from £12 to
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£20 per week. The extension of attendance allowance for children under age two from April, and for terminally ill people without the normal six-month waiting period, proposed for October 1990, will enable more carers to qualify for invalid care allowance. We also propose to introduce, from October, a £10 carers premium into income support, housing benefit and community charge benefit for those receiving invalid care allowance.Housing Benefit
45. Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will extend housing benefit to include water rates.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : No. Housing benefit is intended to meet reasonable accommodation costs. Help towards water charges forms an integral part of overall income support levels.
Carers' Premium
48. Sir David Price : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people he expects will benefit from the introduction of the new carers' premium.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : We expect the new £10 premium to be introduced in October, to help 30,000 carers through income support, housing benefit and community charge benefit.
Invalidity Pension
49. Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what has been the real increase in value of the invalidity pension since 1979.
Mr. Scott : The available information is as follows :
|£ |Per cent.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 1979 rates in cash |23.30 |-
April 1990 rate in cash |46.90 |-
Per cent. change in real terms |- |-3.1
Per cent. change between uprating periods
November 1978-79 to April 1989-90 |- |5.4
Notes:
(i) The figures relate to basic invalidity pension. In addition a
claimant may be entitled to Invalidity Allowance and/or Additional
Pension.
(ii) The percentage change between uprating periods is calculated as
the percentage change in the average real value of benefits during the
uprating periods April 1989 to April 1990, as compared to the period
November 1978 to November 1979.
Departmental Service
50. Mr. Rowe : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how his Department is planning to improve its service to the public. Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Since the Government reforms were introduced in 1988, the social security system has become simpler for claimants to understand and easier for staff to operate. There have been very real all-round improvements in the standards of service to the public. Nevertheless, there is still room for further improvement, particularly in inner London. This is being tackled by relocating work which requires no face-to-face contact away from 21 London offices to areas where recruitment and retention of staff is easier. There is already substantial evidence that significant improvements in accuracy, clearance times and quality of service are being made. By 1991 the major programme underway to computerise social security operations will bring major improvements in service standards to all local offices. It produces faster and more accurate payments and decisions, and provides fast access to information needed to deal with queries.
In 1991, the new agency to administer the benefit systems will be established, having as one of its principal aims a high quality service for customers.
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Community Charge Benefit
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether any information has been supplied by Lambeth council to his Department about claims for community charge benefit in that borough.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Community charge benefit caseload data have yet to be supplied by Lambeth council.
Attendance and Mobility Allowances
Mr. Terry Fields : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many claimants were examined by doctors acting on behalf of his Department for the purpose of assessing attendance allowance and mobility allowance claims over the last 12 months ; and what was the average fee paid to doctors for such examinations.
Mr. Scott : Approximately 700,000 claimants were examined in connection with claims to attendance and mobility allowances in the last 12 months. An average fee figure is not available. The fee per case in the financial year 1989-90 varied between £25.90 and £69.80 depending on the location and the duration of the examination. The great majority of these would be at or near the lower end of that range.
Mr. Terry Fields : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many complaints his Department has received about doctors arising from examinations for mobility allowance and attendance allowance ; and how such complaints are dealt with.
Mr. Scott : No central record is kept of the number of complaints against examining medical practitioners--EMPs. In fact, many apparent complaints are appeals against the decision made. The number of complaints against the doctors' conduct, manner or behaviour is very small in relation to the 700,000 examinations carried out annually. Each of these complaints is investigated by the Department's regional office senior medical officer. The doctor is sent a copy of the report of the examination complained about and of the claimant's complaint and asked for his or her comments. Subsequent action depends on the individual complaint and the past record of the EMP. In extreme cases the doctor's employment on this work may be terminated forthwith and an explanation of the reason sent to him or her.
If it appears that the doctor requires guidance on the attitude required to be shown to claimants in order to prevent further complaints this is done. If it becomes clear that despite such guidance the doctor is unsuited to the work, for one reason or another, further work is not made available and an explanation is sent to the doctor.
In all cases a detailed reply is sent to the complainant including, where appropriate, an indication of action which has been taken as a result of the complaint.
Mr. Terry Fields : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many medical centres his Department operates for the purpose of medical examinations for people who claim mobility allowance ; and how many medical centres there are in each region.
Mr. Scott : Examinations in connection with initial and renewal claims to mobility allowance are normally carried
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out in the examining doctor's own surgery premises. Appeals and references to a medical board are dealt with in the Department's medical adjudication centres which also deal with industrial injuries, war pensions and severe disablement allowance examinations.
The number of these centres is
94, divided among the regions
as follows:
|Numbers
---------------------------------
North-East |13
London North |14
London South |11
Wales/South-West |17
Midlands |14
North-West |12
Scotland |13
Earnings Allowance
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many new claims for reduced earnings allowance were made in each of the last five years ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Scott : I regret that the information is not available because details of claims for industrial injuries benefit do not distinguish between claims for disablement benefit and reduced earnings allowance. However, a special count undertaken last year suggests that about 23,000 claims for reduced earnings allowance were made in 1989.
Residential Homes
Mr. Norris : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when he intends to commission the study into the costs of residential care and nursing homes outlined in the Government's response to the second report of the House of Commons Social Services Committee of Session 1989-90 (HC 257) on "Community Care : The Future Funding of Private and Voluntary Residential Care".
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : We have commissioned the management consultants Price Waterhouse to undertake a rapid investigation into the costs of running residential care and nursing homes across the country.
Industrial Deafness
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list, by category, those statistics his Department maintains or has access to with regard to claims for pensions for industrially-induced deafness.
Mr. Scott : Information is maintained on the numbers of successful claims for occupational deafness and those disallowed either on the occupational criteria or on hearing losses below the prescribed standard.
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people dropped out of making claims for pensions for noise-induced industrial deafness at the stage where the five-year rule came into effect in (a) St. Helens and (b) the United Kingdom in the last five years for which figures are available.
Mr. Scott : The available information is as follows. In Great Britain during the five-year period April 1985 to March 1990 a total of 11,742 claimants were disallowed because they had not made a claim within five years of
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leaving the relevant occupation--the provision intended by regulation 25 of the Industrial Injuries (Prescribed Diseases) Regulations 1985. They were not, therefore, referred for audiometric testing to establish whether they satisfied the necessary level of hearing loss. For St. Helens the relevant figure for the four-year period to March 1990 is 107 claimants. Individual figures for St. Helens are no longer available for periods before April 1986.Documents
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what criteria he uses when deciding which documents to pass on to the Public Record Office.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The Department complies with the guidelines issued by the Public Record Office on the selection of documents for permanent preservation. Decisions on which documents are transferred to the Public Record Office for this purpose are taken in consultation with PRO inspecting officers.
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what systems he employs to classify log and otherwise record each document generated by his Department ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The Department receives and generates many millions of documents in the course of its business, and it would be impracticable, and disproportionately costly, to record these individually. However, the vast majority are placed with related documents, on registered files in accordance with well-established registry practices.
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of and how many documents in 1989 he estimates were (a) passed on to the Public Record Office intact, (b) passed on to the Public Record Office in censored form, (c) retained by his Department in full, (d) retained by his Department in part, (e) destroyed, (f) otherwise disposed of and (g) otherwise unaccounted for.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : No document falls for selection and transfer to the Public Record Office until it is at least 30 years old. A document's suitability for permanent preservation under the terms of the Public Record Act will be reviewed during that period. The Act does not require statistics to be kept in the form requested and to do so would inevitably incur disproportionate cost. However, in order to comply with their duties under the Act, Departments are obliged to ensure that all documentary records are properly preserved with a view to possible transfer to the Public Record Office and eventual release to the public. The general criteria under which the Department may retain documents over 30 years old are set out in section 3(4) of the Public Records Act.
Vaccine Damage Payment Scheme
Mr. Anthony Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many reported payments were actually made under the Vaccine Damage Payment Act, for the past five years up until the latest year for which figures are available.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The figures are in the table.
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Year |Payments --------------------------- 1985 |26 1986 |25 1987 |9 1988 |4 1989 |4 Note: Payment is often made in a different year to that in which the award decision is made because of the need to set up a trust fund.
Mr. Anthony Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the total cost of running the vaccine damage payment scheme for the last three years up until the latest year for which figures are available.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The information is in the table.
Year |£ --------------------------------- 1987 |<1>310,000 1988 |<1>155,000 1989 |<1>105,000 <1> Figures contain both administrative costs and payments made under the Act.
Mr. Anthony Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many applications his Department received last year for payments under the Vaccine Damage Payment Act; and what were the figures for each year from 1985.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The information is in the table.
Year |Number of
|applications
---------------------------------------
1985 |79
1986 |79
1987 |65
1988 |39
1989 |53
Income Support
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, further to his reply to the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher), Official Report, 21 June, column 707, if he will give, for the latest date available, a list of the offices with the number of cases with a poll tax deduction in place.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The latest count, completed in May 1990, showed that 22 offices in Scotland had income support cases with a deduction to clear community charge arrears. Up to this date no deductions had been taken in England and Wales. The table records the offices and the number of such deductions in each office.
Local Office |Number of
|cases
-----------------------------------------------
Airdrie |1
Ayr |145
Bathgate |19
Bellshill |28
Clydebank |7
Cumbernauld |1
Dumbarton |37
East Kilbride |49
Falkirk |746
Galashiels |264
Glasgow (Anniesland) |20
Glasgow (Bridgetown) |36
Glasgow (Maryhill) |20
Glasgow (Parkhead) |17
Glasgow (Partick) |123
Glasgow (Provan) |154
Glasgow (Springburn) |73
Hamilton |2
Johnstone |16
Motherwell |3
Stirling |672
Stranraer |1
DEFENCE
Air Traffic Control
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the results of the recent survey in which military and civilian air traffic controllers were required to report all infringements of rule 21 and rule 36 airspace.
Mr. Neubert : This is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport. I understand, however, that the results of this survey, which was completed on 30 June, have not yet been analysed.
HMS Centurion
Mr. Rogers : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence why the new security blockhouse/gatehouse at HMS Centurion cannot be used.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The installation will not be in use until ancillary works and some external roadworks have been completed.
Regency Net and Cemetery Net Systems
Mr. Rogers : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) at which Royal Air Force, Royal Air Force/United States Air Force and United States Air Force bases in the United Kingdom there are facilities of the regency net and cemetery net systems ;
(2) what is the purpose of the regency net antenna being erected at RAF St. Mawgan.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Cemetery net is a command and control system for United States Commander in Chief Europe. There are cemetery net facilities currently located at RAF Mildenhall and RAF Greenham Common. Regency net is intended as a successor to cemetery net. Details of the regency net configuration are classified, although I can confirm that a facility is currently being planned for RAF St. Mawgan.
Regiments
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, further to his reply of 14 June, Official Report, columns 326-27 concerning regiments, if he will give the total annual cost of each regiment listed.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : I regret that the information is not available in the form requested.
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Low Flying
Dr. Thomas : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to produce a new edition of his Department's booklet entitled "Defence and the Environment"; and if he will include information on low-flying training, and the measures taken to reduce its environmental impact.
Mr. Neubert : There are no plans at present to produce a new edition of this booklet. However, the actions taken by the Department to protect the environment, and to minimise the adverse effects of its essential activities, were recently summarised on pages 51-52 of the 1990 "Statement on the Defence Estimates" (Cm. 1022-I). This included information on measures taken to reduce the environmental impact of low-flying training.
Atlantis
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether his Department is participating in the United States space shuttle Atlantis ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Alan Clark : The Ministry of Defence has no plans to participate in the United States space shuttle Atlantis.
Training and Consultancy Services
Mrs. Rosie Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department and the armed forces have taken to contract out training and consultancy services to small companies ; what contracts on what subjects have been let in the last two years ; what value these contracts were for ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Neubert : We continue to review and market test support activities including training and consultancy services and to award contracts where it is demonstrated that they will provide the best value for money. The choice of contractor will depend entirely upon the proposals received following normal competitive tender action. Small firms are encouraged to participate in this process whenever possible through the Ministry of Defence's successful small firms initiative, and by the new suppliers service of MOD.
Complete figures on training and consultancy services are not held centrally but it has been possible to identify a number of contracts let over the past two years in the following areas :
Year |Number of
|contracts |(£)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Driver training
1988-89 |16 |305,680
1989-90 |19 |168,000
Technical support services
1988-89 |2 |593,486
1989-90 |6 |524,020
Academic services
1988-89 |Nil
1989-90 |2 |2,048,870
In addition, details of management and computer consultancy contracts for the last two years were given to my hon. Friend the Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Smith) by my hon. Friends the Minister of State and the then
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Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement on 28 March 1990 at column 236 and 4 April 1989 at column 130.Stornoway Airport
Mr. Macdonald : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what date the prohibition of practice approaches by military aircraft at Stornoway airport took effect.
Mr. Neubert : The prohibition of non-essential overshoots by Tornado F3 aircraft based at RAF Stornoway when it is active came into effect for the latest activation, from 25 to 29 June. The prohibition will be extended to visiting aircraft in time for the next activation in September.
RAF Shackleton Crash
Mr. Macdonald : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the progress of the investigation into the RAF Shackleton crash on Harris on 30 April.
Mr. Neubert : A military aircraft accident summary will be published once the report of the board of inquiry has been completed.
St. David's Airfield, Pembrokeshire
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what (a) navigational lights and (b) security lights will be provided on the proposed over-the-horizon radar at St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire ; and at what height and distance they will be visible.
Mr. Alan Clark : There are no plans to include navigational lights on the proposed over-the-horizon radar at St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire. The whole question of lighting will, however, be fully addressed in the environmental impact assessment.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether any non-Ministry of Defence sites were included in the 166 sites examined for the over-the-horizon radar proposed for St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire.
Mr. Alan Clark : No. All the 166 sites considered for the installation of either the transmitter or the receiver for the proposed trial of the over-the-horizon radar in the United Kingdom were already in Ministry of Defence use.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give details of the proposed landscaping of the over-the-horizon radar site at St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire.
Mr. Alan Clark : Proposals for landscaping of the over-the-horizon radar site at St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire, will be addressed in the environmental impact assessment.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what changes in current flight patterns, including take-offs and landings, will be necessary at RAF Brawdy if the proposed over-the-horizon radar installation is constructed on the St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire.
Mr. Alan Clark : If the proposed over-the-horizon radar is built at St. David's airfield, minor adjustments in the
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radar pattern and westerly departure routes from RAF Brawdy may be necessary. There will be no impact on safety or operations at RAF Brawdy.Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what alternative arrangements are proposed to provide RAF Brawdy with an emergency landing strip if the present one at St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire, is used for the proposed over-the-horizon radar installation.
Mr. Alan Clark : St. David's airfield is not normally designated as an emergency landing strip for RAF Brawdy. A number of airfields will remain available to aircraft on training flights from RAF Brawdy in an emergency. Which is used would depend on where the training flight took place, and weather conditions.
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his reply of 19 June, Official Report, column 782, if he will make a statement on other means by which radar cover could be provided similar to that proposed as a result of the installation of over-the- horizon radar at St. David's airfield, Pembrokeshire.
Mr. Alan Clark : At present, radar coverage of the United Kingdom air defence region to the north of the United Kingdom is provided principally by airborne early warning (AEW) aircraft, supplemented by shipborne radars, ground-based microwave radars in the United Kingdom, and allied ground-based systems in Iceland and Norway. Studies have concluded that a northward-looking over-the-horizon radar (OTHR) located in this country could make a particular contribution to the air defence of the United Kingdom by providing wide area coverage of a considerable proportion of the Norwegian sea. This would allow greater flexibility and efficiency in the use of scarce air defence assets that would otherwise have to fulfil this role ; it would also allow frequent coverage of areas where the regular use of AEW aircraft would be uneconomic.
Alternative methods of providing similar coverage to an OTHR, such as space -based radar or additonal AEW aircraft, would cost substantially more.
Documents
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what criteria he uses when deciding which documents to pass on to the Public Record Office.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The Department complies with the guidelines issued by the Public Record Office on the selection of documents for permanent preservation. Decisions on which documents are transferred to the Public Record Office for this purpose are taken in consultation with PRO inspecting officers.
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what percentage of and how many documents in 1989 he estimates were (a) passed on to the Public Record Office intact, (b) passed on to the Public Record Office in censored form, (c) retained by his Department in full, (d) retained by his Department in part, (e) destroyed, (f) otherwise disposed of and (g) otherwise unaccounted for.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : No document falls due for selection and transfer to the Public Record Office until it is at least 30 years old. A document's suitability for permanent preservation under the terms of the Public
Column 465
Records Act 1958 will be reviewed during that period. The Act does not require statistics to be kept in the form requested and to do so would inevitably incur disproportionate cost. However, in order to comply with their duties under the Act, Departments are obliged to ensure that all documentary records are properly preserved with a view to possible transfer to the Public Record Office and eventual release to the public. The general criteria under which the Department may retain documents over 30 years old are set out in section 3(4) of the Public Records Act.Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what system he employs to classify, log and otherwise record each document generated by his Department ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Documents in the Ministry of Defence are normally placed on departmental files and processed in accordance with departmental instructions and registry practices.
Dishonesty Offences
Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for Defen ce if he will list (a) the nature of the offence and (b) the sentence for each of the soldiers currently serving sentences for dishonesty at Colchester military corrective training centre.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under- Secretary of State for the Armed Forces will write to the hon. Member.
British Aerospace
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his reply of 26 June, on how many occasions in the last six months he has been in communication with British Aerospace regarding the future equipment requirements of the armed forces.
Mr. Alan Clark : The Ministry of Defence has regular contacts with British Aerospace on a wide range of procurement issues.
Service Personnel (Scotland)
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many service personnel are stationed in Scotland.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : As at 1 July 1989, the latest date for which figures are available, 20,035 service personnel were stationed in Scotland.
Catering Firms
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what information on Army training schedules is normally provided to private catering firms that have won Army contracts.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Catering firms that win Army contracts are given the information necessary to enable the company to provide the required service. Such information is given in the contract document. Contracts with firms providing catering facilities to summer camps have hitherto included the location and dates of the particular event, and the name of the unit attending camp. Instructions have been given that in future the name of the unit should not appear in the contract.
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Tornado
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he discussed with British Aerospace the possibility of not authorising work on the order for the eighth batch of Tornado aircraft.
Mr. Alan Clark : The Ministry of Defence maintains close and detailed discussions with all its main suppliers ; the timing and content of these discussions is commercially confidential between the Ministry of Defence and the suppliers.
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