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District Health Authorities
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the new membership of the district health authorities will be announced.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Statutory responsibility for the appointment of non-executive members of district health authorities rests with the relevant regional health authority. We expect them to make announcements in due course.
Community Health Councils
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what restrictions apply on the eligibility for reappointment of CHC members of eight years' standing.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The restrictions on the eligibility for reappointment of CHC members of eight years' standing are set out in the Community Health Councils Regulations 1985, regulation 7(2).
Health Authorities
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health who was consulted over the new membership for each of the positions of (1) chairperson of regions, (2) membership of regions, (3) chairperson of district health authority, (4) membership of district health authority and (5) membership of family health service authority in the new health authorities.
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Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : There is no statutory requirement to consult on these appointments. However, when my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State appoints the chairmen of regional and district health authorities and the non-executive members of regional health authorities he welcomes recommendations and comments from all quarters, as do regional health authorities when making the appointments to district health authorities and family health services authorities.
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the new (a) membership and (b) chairpersons of the regional health authorities will be announced.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I have today placed in the Library a list of the non-executive members of regional health authorities appointed by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State. The general manager and the director of finance will be ex-officio executive members of the regional health authority. Other executives are appointed by the chairman, the non-executives and the general manager.
My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State made an announcement on regional chairmen's appointments in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Nuneaton (Mr. Stevens) on 24 May at column 337.
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when the new membership of the family health service authorities will be announced.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Appointments of members of family health services authorities is a matter for the appropriate regional health authority.
Remand Homes
Mr. Nicholas Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the number of spaces available in each juvenile remand home and other secure accommodation together with the number of vacancies currently available.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : Local authority social services departments provide a range of facilities and services, both residential and non-residential, which may be used by juveniles remanded to their care. This includes a national network of approved secure accommodation to which all local authorities have access. The number of places available in approved local authority secure units in England on 30 June 1990 was 294. Such accommodation is, however, available for children in care generally, some of whom will be alleged juvenile offenders. Details of the number of places provided in each secure unit are in the following table.
Occupancy figures are collected annually. Provisional figures for the year ending 31 March 1989 indicate that there were 282 approved secure places on that date, of which 224 were occupied (an occupancy rate of 79.4 per cent.). This figure is similar to the year-end occupancy rates of previous years.
Information relating to the provision of secure accommodation in Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
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Table: Places provided in local authority secure accommodation on 30 June 1990
Region |Name of Unit |Local Authority |Number of places
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern |Aycliffe (Royston House) |Durham |*14M
|Aycliffe Special Unit |Durham |36M
|Netherton Park |Northumberland |5M
Yorkshire and |Kepples View |Rotherham |4M
Humberside |East Moor |Leeds |27B
North Western |Red Sands |Cheshire |6M
|Derwent House |Liverpool |4G
|Red Bank (Vardy House) |Lancashire |4B
|Red Bank Special Unit |Lancashire |26B
|Blackbrook House (Labore House)|Liverpool SSVA |5G
|Briars Hey (Orchard House) |Lancashire |8G
|Dyson Hall |Liverpool |8B
|Barton Moss (Park House) |Salford |7B
West Midlands |Stoke House |Coventry |8M
|St. Johns |Birmingham |4M
East Midlands |Moorfield |Derby |2M
|Kesteven |Lincoln |4M
|Amberdale |Nottinghamshire |8M
|Greenacres |Derby |5M
Thames/Anglia |Salters |Cambridgeshire |6G
|Woodside Young People's Centre |Hertfordshire |2M
|Thornbury House |Oxfordshire |3B
|Brookside |Berkshire |4M
London |Middlesex Lodge |Hillingdon |9G
|Little Heath Lodge |Newham |6B
|Orchard Lodge |Southwark |8B
|Frant Court |Greenwich |3G
|Stamford House |Hammersmith |16B
Southern |Landsdowne |East Sussex |5M
|Beechfield |West Sussex |6M
|Fairfield |Hampshire |3G
|Glen House |Hampshire |8B
South Western |Atkinson Unit |Devon |12M
|Kingswood |Avon |20B
M = Mixed B = Boy G = Girl
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
High Court Judges
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Attorney-General what is the number and percentage of High Court judges, by rank, who are (a) ex-solicitors and (b) ex-barristers.
The Attorney-General : It is at present a statutory requirement that anyone appointed to the High Court bench must be a barrister of at least 10 years' standing (Supreme Court Act 1981, section 10(3)(c)). The Courts and Legal Services Bill, currently before Parliament, provides for a change in this requirement.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Attorney-General what information he has on the number and percentage of High Court judges, by rank, who are (a) public school educated, (b) university educated and (c) Oxbridge educated.
The Attorney-General : There are 83 High Court judges, of whom 64 (77.1 per cent.) went to schools which are today listed in the "Independent Schools Yearbook," 80 (96.4 per cent.) went to university, and 70 (84.3 per cent.) went to either Oxford or Cambridge.
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Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Attorney-General what is the number and percentage of High Court judges, by rank, who are (a) 70 years old and over and (b) 60 years old and over.
The Attorney-General : There are 83 High Court judges, of whom 23 (27.7 per cent.) are aged between 60 and 69, and 10 (12 per cent.) are aged between 70 and 75, giving a total of 33 (39.8 per cent.) who are aged 60 and over.
SCOTLAND
Maternity Services
Ms. Harman : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what research his Department has funded to assess the safety or the comparative costs of delivery in (a) district general hospitals, (b) general practitioner maternity units and (c) at home ; and if he will give the conclusions of each project funded.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 11 July 1990] : The Scottish Home and Health Department provides core funding for the health economics research unit and the social paediatric and obstetric research unit, which are based in Aberdeen university and Glasgow university respectively.
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In the late 1970s the health economics research unit published "An Analysis of the Costs and Functions of General Practitioner and Specialist Maternity Hospital Units" which showed that the cost per delivery and per occupied bed-day in general practitioner and consultant units was not dissimilar.Over the past 20 years the social paediatric and obstetric research unit's research programme has covered epidemiological studies of maternal and child care and the evaluation of the performance of aspects, including safety, of the Scottish maternity services. This recognises that in practice straightforward confinements can be handled at home but potentially more complex ones should be directed to specialist services at an early stage. The results of the studies have been widely publicised.
The Department is funding separately a study based at Dundee university of antenatal care in a random sample of Scottish hospitals.
Fishing Vessels
Mr. Morley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) what was the average number of days at sea per trip recorded in June by Scottish vessels landing into Peterhead and having declared fishing in area VII ;
(2) of the Scottish vessels landing into Peterhead in June having declared area VII catches, how many had radioed in ; and what percentages were physically summoned for inspection ;
(3) how many of the Scottish vessels landing in Peterhead in June having declared area VII catches failed to radio in ;
(4) whether vessels crossing the 4 deg. line have to declare in which International Council for the Exploration of the Seas area their catch was caught.
Mr. Lang : I have been asked to reply.
During June, 29 Scottish vessels landed fish into Peterhead which they recorded as having been caught in International Council for the Exploration of the Seas area VII. This involved 34 fishing trips, averaging eight days. None of the vessels radioed in on crossing the 4 deg. line and consequently none was summoned for inspection. There is no requirement for vessels which do radio in to report details of where catches were taken. This information is obtained from the log book.
These cases are being fully investigated and any evidence of misreporting will be submitted to the procurator fiscal. Urgent consideration is also being given as to how to limit future misreporting.
Local Authority Allowances
Mr. Dewar : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he plans to lay the Local Authorities (Members' Allowances) (Scotland) Regulations 1990 before Parliament.
Mr. Rifkind : I am grateful to all those who submitted comments on the draft regulations circulated by my Department on 15 June 1990. Points have since arisen which will result in a number of changes to the regulations. These changes will not affect the main essentials of the Government's proposals, including the banding proposals which I announced in my letter of 15 May 1990 to the president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities. I have nevertheless decided to defer implementation of the
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new scheme of councillors' allowances in Scotland until 1 November 1990. This will provide local authorities with time to decide whether they wish to make any detailed amendments to their schemes in the light of the revised regulations which will be issued as soon as possible.Local Government Finance
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he intends to introduce regulations to remove the need for charge payers to inform community charge registration officers of their new home address or a forwarding address whenever they move to a new charging authority area ; and whether he will make a statement.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : Under the terms of the Abolition of Domestic Rates Etc. (Scotland) Act 1987 there is no general duty placed upon community charge payers to inform the community charges registration officer for the area in which they are registered for any of the community charges of their intended address, if they are proposing to move outwith that registration officer's area. There is, of course, a requirement for a charge payer to register at his new address. Under section 18A of the 1987 Act a registration officer may require information of a person whom he reasonably believes is, has been, or is about to be resident in the residential area but only if that information is such as the registration officer may reasonably require for the purposes of the exercise of his functions under the Act and is in the possession or control of the person. Charge payers can, of course, provide forwarding addresses to registration officers if they wish to have the notification that their register entry has been deleted sent to their new address.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether he will introduce regulations to prevent the disclosure of information by charging authorities, whenever the information disclosed relates to community charge debts and the recipients of information are not acting as agents of the authority with respect to debt recovery ; and whether he will make a statement.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : My right hon. and learned Friend has no plans to introduce such regulations which he considers to be unnecessary.
Mr. Strang : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of domestic rates payable for 1988-89 was collected by local authorities ; and what percentage of personal poll tax payable for 1989-90 was collected by local authorities.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 19 July 1990] : The information requested relating to the collection of domestic rates is not held centrally. On the general level of collection of community charges I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 4 July. Final collection figures will not be known until local authorities have completed their recovery procedures, which may not be for some time.
Data Protection
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many subject access requests under the terms of the Data Protection Act his Department has received ; what was his estimate of the number of requests that would be
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received ; what consideration he is giving to the subject access fee charged by his Department as a result ; and whether he will make a statement.Mr. Rifkind : Forty-six valid applications have been received under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1984 ; 45 were received from Scottish Office staff and one was from a member of the general public. For forward planning there was a working assumption of 500 requests per annum. I do not propose to review the access fee. There have been no complaints or other evidence that the access fee accounts for the low level of public interest.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what plans he has for regulations concerning the disclosure of anonymous poll tax data ; what advice he intends to give to community charges registration officers on how to ensure that the identity of individuals is guaranteed ; and whether he will make a statement ; (2) whether he will introduce legislation to prevent charging authorities from using community charge information for purposes that are not directly relevant to the management or collection of the community charge ; and whether he will make a statement ; (3) whether he will introduce legislation to prevent a community charge registration officer or charging authority from disclosing community charge information for purposes that are not directly relevant to the management or collection of the community charge ; and whether he will make a statement.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him of 26 February 1990, Official Report, 26 February 1990, Vol. 168, column 76 ].
Rural Libraries
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to introduce a rural library incentive scheme ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lang : In line with the undertaking already given to the hon. Member and others, I am considering whether a rural public library incentive scheme should be introduced in Scotland. The report, which called for a rural public library incentive scheme, also urged rural library authorities to take action to improve services within their communities and I hope that rural authorities will consider this carefully.
A1
Mr. Beith : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland at which points the A1 in Scotland is expected to be reduced to one-way operation during the next six weeks ; and whether these restrictions will apply during the Scottish and English bank holiday weekends.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : One-way operations on the A1 in Scotland in the next six weeks will take place at the following locations :
Haddington Bypass--construction of a roundabout at the Aberlady (A6132) junction.
Haddington eastwards to Beanston--two separate moving single lane.
Beanston eastwards to East Linton--restrictions for laying a gas main.
Musselburgh Bypass--short contraflow or lane closures for bridge works.
Of these, the Haddington bypass restriction will be in force over the Scottish bank holiday weekend but will be
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lifted for the English holiday. British Gas will still be working on both holidays but will remove one-way working over the Scottish holiday weekend and it is hoped that it will manage to do likewise for the English weekend.Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what were the projected traffic flow figures for vehicles, by category, travelling on the A1 between Edinburgh and the border before the announcement of the upgrading programme south of Newcastle ;
(2) what are the projected traffic flow figures for vehicles, by category, travelling on the A1 between Edinburgh and the border following completion of the upgrading programme south of Newcastle.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 12 July 1990] : Traffic levels vary significantly on the A1 between Edinburgh and the border. At 1989 traffic levels, the average annual flow west of Haddington was 13,000 vehicles per day, reducing to approximately 5, 000 vehicles per day in Borders region. Heavy goods vehicles account for approximately 12 to 13 per cent. and 20 to 30 per cent. of the flows respectively. National forecasts predict an overall increase in road traffic of between 23 per cent. and 39 per cent. by the year 2000. However, the routes south of Edinburgh study concluded that improvements planned on other competing routes will affect the distribution of traffic and that traffic growth on the A1 through the Borders in Scotland will be less than might otherwise be expected. The study also considered the potential for a transfer of traffic to the route resulting from east coast road improvements. It is likely that the completion of a motorway link to Newcastle will result in an increase of fewer than 1,000 trips per day on the A1 in Scotland by the turn of the century.
These assessments will be monitored by the A1 steering group whose formation I announced recently.
Hazardous Waste Inspectorate
Mr. Andrew Welsh : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when the hazardous waste inspectorate will publish its fourth annual report for 1989 ; and if he will make a statement.
Lord-James Douglas-Hamilton : The hazardous waste inspectorate's (HWI) terms of reference required it to publish reports periodically rather than annually. The last report, published in June 1988, covered the whole of the United Kingdom.
In April 1987 the HWI in England and Wales became part of Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution (HMIP) whose report does not cover Scotland. The Scottish Development Department is preparing a separate Scottish HWI report which it intends to publish before the end of 1990.
Nitrogen Dioxide
Mr. Andrew Welsh : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what powers he intends to use to protect the health of people in Scottish cities from the effects of nitrogen dioxide.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : There is no evidence that the present levels of nitrogen dioxide pose a health hazard to people in Scottish cities.
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Measurements of nitrogen dioxide made at some 50 different locations in Scotland gave no cause for concern. The relevant EC directive on air quality standards for nitrogen dioxide specifies the limits and the results from the directive monitoring site in Glasgow have been below these limits.Powers to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide from motor vehicles rests with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport. His plans for the reduction of emissions are contained in the written answer given by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Transport on 8 June, Official Report, Vol. 173, column 722. My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland is responsible for emissions from prescribed industrial plant and for implementing the EC large combustion plants directive which requires, inter alia, that emissions of nitrogen dioxide be reduced overall by 15 per cent. and 30 per cent. by 1993 and 1988 respectively, taking 1980 as the base year.
Mr. Andrew Welsh : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what powers he has to reduce the volume of urban traffic in Scottish cities ; and whether he intends to take steps to reduce the concentrations of nitrogen dioxide in city centres.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland has no such powers. Responsibility for traffic management matters for local roads in Scotland rests with regional and islands councils as local roads authorities. Plans for the reduction of nitrogen dioxide emissions from motor vehicles are contained in the written answer given by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Transport on 8 June 1990, Official Report, Volume 173, column 722.
Mr. Andrew Welsh : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what powers he has to reduce emissions of nitrogen dioxide from industry where these contribute to a level in air which exceeds the limit laid down by the EC directive on nitrogen dioxide.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : Under the provisions of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, Her Majesty's industrial pollution inspectorate is responsible for ensuring that the best practicable means are taken by operators of prescribed classes of industrial premises to prevent the emission of substances such as nitrogen dioxide and to render such emissions as may occur harmless and inoffensive.
Autopsies
56. Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many autopsies were carried out in Scotland for the latest year for which information is available.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The number of autopsies performed in Scotland in the year ended 31 March 1989 was 9,721.
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Nurses (Grading Appeals)
Dr. Godman : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what deadline he has set for all clinical grading appeals by nurses which are currently outstanding.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 12 July 1990] : A majority of health boards have already completed their regrading appeal hearings. Initial reluctance on the part of the staff side to co-operate in arranging hearings led to considerable delays in the commencement of the appeal hearings programme. These difficulties have now been overcome and health boards have been asked to ensure that the backlog of hearings is cleared as quickly as practicable.
Bypass Operations
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the number of patients in each health board area currently awaiting coronary artery bypass operations.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 15 July 1990] : At March 1990 the numbers were :
Health board of residence |Number of
|patients
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Argyll and Clyde |50
Ayrshire and Arran |56
Borders |23
Dumfries and Galloway |23
Fife |45
Forth Valley |31
Grampian |114
Greater Glasgow |223
Highland |33
Lanarkshire |89
Lothian |105
Orkney |2
Shetland |2
Tayside |91
Western Isles |3
|---
Total |890
Youth Training
Mr. Wallace : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 4 July, Official Report, column 607, if he will give the equivalent figures for the reduction in funding under youth training for those with special training needs.
Mr. Lang [holding answer 18 July 1990] : In 1989-90, 26.5 per cent. of youth training expenditure in Orkney and 14.4 per cent. in Shetland related to special needs trainees. Information as regards the overall percentage of youth training expenditure in 1990-91 which relates to special needs trainees will not be available until total data for that financial year have been analysed.
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