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Mr. Wakeham : The Government welcome the opportunity which privatisation of the electricity supply industry provides for employees to become shareholders in the new companies.
Employees will be offered free shares to a fully paid value of about £140, plus shares at a fully paid value of about £2 for every year of continuous service in the electricity supply industry up to a date close to flotation.
Employees will also be offered two free fully paid shares for every share bought at the offer price on a matching basis up to a maximum fully paid value of about £440 worth of free shares. Under this element of the package, if an employee bought shares with a fully paid value of £220, he would receive free shares to a fully paid value of £440.
Employees will be able to buy shares up to a maximum fully paid value of about £1,250 of additional shares at a discount of 20 per cent. from the offer price.
Employees applying for shares will be treated on a priority basis, over the general public, up to an individual fully paid limit of shares worth about £15,000. This may be subject to scaling down if the number of shares in any one company applied for by employees and pensioners exceeds a prescribed proportion of the total number of shares on offer.
The free and matching shares will be available to employees who satisfy certain minimum qualification periods on length of employment and hours worked per week. The discount and priority shares will be available to each person employed in the electricity industry at a date close to the flotation date.
We have also decided that pensioners of the companies should be able to apply on a priority basis, over the general public, for shares up to a fully paid limit of about £15,000, subject to any necessary scaling down.
We have also made special arrangements for employees of the National Grid Company, the Electricity Association and Nuclear Electric which will not be floated on the stock exchange. National Grid Company employees and Electricity Association employees will receive offers on terms similar to those of the RECs' employees, but in all 12 of the regional electricity companies ; Nuclear Electric employees will receive offers for shares in National Power, also on similar terms.
I announced yesterday, in my statement on PowerGen, that in the event of a trade sale arrangements would also be made for PowerGen employees to receive benefits broadly comparable in financial terms. Further details of the share offer arrangements will be made available to employees and pensioners in due course, including those resulting from Inland Revenue, stock exchange and other requirements applying to these offers.
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Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list those companies which have approached him regarding a trade sale of any part or subsidiary of any of the electricity generating or distribution companies.
Mr. Baldry : I refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend's statement yesterday, Official Report, columns 39-51.
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what consultations he has had with the quotations committee of the international stock exchange regarding exemptions for each or any of the electricity supply industry companies from the minimum three-year profit and loss account track record before flotation.
Mr. Baldry : No such exemptions have been sought.
Small Businesses
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on the achievements of (a) his policies and (b) his Department in helping small businesses over the last 12 months as against the previous 12 months ; and if he will publish the performance indicators by which his Department monitors those achievements and the statistical results of such monitoring.
Mr. Wakeham : The Government have continued to place a high priority on helping small businesses, through improvements to the business climate, through deregulation and other measures, and through specific programmes of support and assistance. The success of their policies is demonstrated by the latest statistics which show a record increase in the number of businesses registered for VAT, of 1, 700 a week during 1989. Over the decade the overall increase has been 373,000.
In developing and implementing my Department's policies, full account is taken of the needs of small businesses. They have benefited from measures to encourage competition and stimulate energy efficiency.
The Coal Industry Act 1990 provides a modest, but significant, measure of liberalisation for the United Kingdom coal market by raising the tonnage limit on licensed--non-British Coal--opencast sites and the manpower limit on licensed deep mines. The Government have continued to make available funding for British Coal Enterprise Ltd. resulting in a cumulative total of 61,000 job opportunities, many of which are in small businesses, in 2,865 individual projects--this compares with 41,041 and 2,600 respectively in 1989.
The new regime for the electricity supply industry will have the effect of opening up the supply of electricity to competition, will give small businesses a choice of electricity supplier and put downward pressure on the prices they pay.
Officials are encouraged to use small firms for departmental purchases of goods and services where this is consistent with obtaining value for money. About 43 per cent. of purchases have been from them in 1989-90 compared with 38 per cent. in 1988-89. A booklet "Selling to the Department of Energy--a guide to firms wishing to supply the Department with goods and services" has recently been produced and should be of particular benefit to small firms.
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Electricity Sales
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what consultations he has had with the director general of the Office of Electricity Regulation about the upper limit on direct sales by the generating companies to above 1 MW customers.
Mr. Baldry : My officials are in regular contact with the office of the Director General of Electricity Supply on regulatory matters. Before announcing his recent decision on the direct sales limits at the end of May the director wrote to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State informing him of his conclusions.
Combined Heat and Power
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list those proposed independent electricity generation projects which incorporate combined heat and power technology.
Mr. Moynihan : The proposed projects that incorporate combined heat and power technology and that have been made public are as follows :
/ Company |Location ----------------------------------------------- South East London CHP |London Forth Energy Ltd. |Newcastle Sheffield Heat and Power |Sheffield Shell |Shellhaven Mobil Oil Co. Ltd. |Coryton ICI/Enron |Teeside British Nuclear Fuels |Calderhall Texaco/Mission Energy |Pembroke
Electricity Generation
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will list the number of independent electricity generation projects which (a) include electricity distribution companies in the owning consortium and (b) do not include any such companies.
Mr. Baldry : My right hon. Friend is aware of the regional electricity companies' interest in a number of independent electricity generation projects. Participation in such schemes is a commercial matter and it is for the companies themselves to decide whether they wish to hold an equity interest in any particular project.
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what representations he has received regarding the participation of the electricity distribution companies in electricity generating consortia.
Mr. Baldry : Decisions to invest in independent generation projects are matters for the company concerned.
HEALTH
Iodine 125
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the incidence of iodine 125 in thyroid glands in the London area.
Mr. Dorrell : The Department has recently received a draft report of research funded by the Department of the
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Environment entitled "Iodine 125--its distribution in the United Kingdom from measurements and biological monitoring, and absorbed doses (individual and collective) derived from measured activities in human thyroids". In accordance with normal practice, the Department has referred the draft report for peer-review. However, I am advised by the Department of the Environment that levels of radioactivity in the River Thames are extremely low and that the levels in drinking water are well below the guideline values recommended by the World Health Organisation and the International Commission on Radiological Protection.Dedicated Clinics
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to provide additional dedicated clinics for family planning and the menopause.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The level of provision of menopause and family planning clinic services is a matter for individual health authorities to determine in the light of local needs and priorities. Guidance issued by the Department asks health authorities to strike a proper balance between services provided by specialist clinics and those provided by GPs, bearing in mind matters such as clinics' wider health role.
Self-governing Hospitals
Mr. Canavan : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many expressions of interest have been received for self-governing hospitals and other units ; and how many formal applications have been submitted.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : So far, 200 units have expressed an interest in becoming self-governing. A total of 59 formal applications have been received to date.
NHS Reforms
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the effect of the proposed national health service reforms on national health service efficiency.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The national health service reforms will introduce NHS contracts--or service agreements--between health authorities and GP fund holders on one side, and hospitals and other units on the other. These agreements will specify the cost, volume and quality of services to be provided. This specification of services in contracts will provide an incentive to ensure that resources go more directly to the hospitals or units which provide the best quality and best value care. This will be an important stimulus in making the national health service more efficient.
AIDS
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is his assessment of the proportion of people with HIV infection who will go on to develop full-blown AIDS.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The latest estimate on the proportion of people infected with HIV who will progress to AIDS from the San Francisco city clinic cohort study of 489 homosexual men is 53 per cent. at 11.1 years. By 1990, of those known to have been infected between 1977 and
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1980, 61 per cent. had developed AIDS and a further 18 per cent. had AIDS-related complex. Only 14 per cent. of those infected with HIV for 10 years or longer did not show physiological markers of damage to the immune system. Data from studies of other groups of people infected with HIV including injecting drug misusers show similar rates of progression.Since 1987 the use of zidovudine has been reducing the rate at which people with early HIV disease progress to AIDS. It is probable that zidovudine only temporarily halts the progress of the disease. Current information suggests that at least 75 per cent. of people infected with HIV will develop AIDS and this figure may eventually rise to over 90 per cent.
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what communications he has had with Dr. Perutz and his colleagues concerning the dissemination of information about AIDS since 12 June ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We have not been in communication with Dr. Perutz, but the Department contacted a number of Dr. Perutz's medical and scientific colleagues about the content of the Channel 4 programme "Despatches". The issues raised in the programme, which appeared to be based on a misunderstanding of the nature of AIDS, have subsequently been the subject of correspondence in the medical and scientific press and in newspapers. Dr. Anthony Pinching appeared on television with the producer of the programme and refuted many of its claims. We are grateful to Dr. Perutz for his action in writing to the press drawing attention to the erroneous information contained in the programme.
Programmes of this kind underline the importance of public education initiatives which have already begun to reduce the spread of HIV infection in the United Kingdom, and point to the need for a continuing programme of education to sustain public awareness and knowledge, and influence behaviour.
Community Care
Mr. Tredinnick : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received concerning his plans for care in the community.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : We receive many representations in correspondence and at regular meetings with organisations concerned with our plans for community care.
Free Prescriptions
Mrs. Wise : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will add pernicious anaemia to the list of chronic illnesses for which free prescriptions are available.
Eye Tests
Ms. Abbott : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the estimated saving to the Exchequer from the abolition of free eye tests in financial year 1989-90 ; and what is the estimate for 1990-91.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The estimated saving for 1989-90, in England, is £70 million, and for 1990-91, is £90 million.
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Mentally Ill People
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what specific areas of possible need for social care will be included in local authority assessments of mentally ill people in hospital, under the care programme approach ; and whether authorities will receive guidance from his Department about this.
Mr. Dorrell : For each person suffering from a serious mental illness, adequate arrangements need to be made for that individual's accommodation and meals. In addition, it may be necessary to provide social care services such as the home help service. It is for health and social services professional staff to judge what health and social care services are necessary in each case.
The Department intends to issue a circular shortly, setting out the requirement to introduce the care programme approach from 1 April 1991, and giving some guidance.
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list for each regional secure unit, the number of patients detained under the Mental Health Act 1983 ; and how many were informal patients for the latest available date.
Mr. Dorrell : This information is not currently available centrally.
Bethlem and Maudsley Health Authority
Mr. Sims : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representation he has received about the plan by the Bethlem and Maudsley special health authority to reduce the range of services it offers, and the closure of Hilda Lewis house ; if he will make additional funds available to the authority ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : There are no plans to close Hilda Lewis house, nor are there any plans to reduce permanently the range of services offered by the special health authority (SHA). Earlier this year we received nine representations about the authority's plans to implement a number of temporary measures designed to make the most efficient use of its valuable clinical resources. We have now received a further three representations about Hilda Lewis house. The changes taking place within Hilda Lewis house are part of a movement towards short-stay and outreach services within the community. This reflects a changing pattern of need and is in line with long-term objectives for the configuration of psychiatric care. Child and adolescent services make a heavy demand on resources and the SHA is aiming to continue to provide these very important services in the most effective and efficient way.
The SHA received a revenue allocation of £27.1 million in 1990-91. It benefited from the national average growth in resources which represents a cash increase of almost £2 million over 1989-90. It is for the health authority to decide how best to allocate these resources in providing the services required to support its national teaching and research role.
Dental Checks
Ms. Abbott : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what is the estimated saving to the Exchequer from the abolition of free dental check- ups in financial year 1989-90 ; and what is the estimate for 1990-91.
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Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The estimated income from dental examination charges in England in 1989-90 was £50 million. We anticipate revenue of some £55 million in 1990-91.Psychiatric Hospitals
Mr. Ashley : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many psychiatric patients have been discharged from psychiatric hospitals in the last year for which records are conveniently available ; and how many have been traced to local authority care.
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Mr. Dorrell : The information available centrally is shown in the table. The number of finished district spells is not equivalent to the number of patients discharged as some patients may be admitted more than once during the year.
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Finished district spells for NHS hospitals in 1987-88
(a) Duration of stay (b) Intended destination on discharge
Clinical speciality |Total |Less than 12 |12 months or |Usual residence |Local authority |Elsewhere
|months |more |residential
|accommodation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mental illness |181,400 |177,500 |3,900 |163,100 |3,900 |14,400
Mental handicap |35,000 |32,500 |2,500 |32,800 |700 |1,500
|-------- |-------- |-------- |-------- |-------- |--------
Total |216,400 |210,000 |6,400 |195,900 |4,600 |15,900
Small Businesses
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the achievements of (a) his policies and (b) his Department in helping small businesses over the last 12 months as against the previous 12 months ; and if he will publish the performance indicators by which his Department monitors those achievements and the statistical results of such monitoring.
Mr. Dorrell : The Government have continued to place a high priority on helping small businesses, through improvements to the business climate, through deregulation and other measures, and through specific programmes of support and assistance. It is the policy of the Department and the NHS to provide equal opportunity to all potential suppliers, of whatever size, to trade on a value-for-money basis. This policy continues to underpin all NHS and departmental contracts with external suppliers. To help small businesses a guide on how to do business with the NHS has been published and is currently being reviewed. Two joint CBI/NHS seminars have been held in the past year where it has been emphasised that quality counts more than size of business. In addition, the NHS procurement directorate and NHS supplies departments respond to a large number of individual requests for advice and guidance from small businesses that wish to enter the NHS market or have other trading problems they wish to resolve. The NHS deals with several thousand suppliers through over 3,000 delivery points. It is not practicable to monitor centrally the precise extent to which the NHS draws on small businesses but it is estimated that some 80 per cent. of suppliers fall into the small to medium-size category.
GP Budgets
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the cash-limited budget for general practitioner ancillary staff in the current financial year ;
(2) what is the general practitioner premises cash- limited budget for the current financial year.
Mr. Dorrell : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply the then Under- Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Mr. Knapman) on 1 May at column
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519. We expect shortly to announce a further substantial increase in resources for final alloctions to FPCs to meet in full the actual level of commitments for practice staff reimbursement and premises improvements as at 31 March 1990.Waiting Lists
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the date from which health service managers base success in reducing waiting lists will be calculated ;
(2) what factors will be taken into consideration in determining whether health service managers' remuneration should be reduced for failing to reduce waiting lists ;
(3) which health service managers will have their remuneration linked to the reduction of waiting lists.
Mr. Dorrell : The national health service managers eligible for performance-related pay are regional, district and unit general managers, and those senior managers below general manager level who have accepted a performance-linked contract.
Awards of performance-related pay depend on the manager's achievement of objectives set each year under the individual performance review system. The objectives for regional general managers are set by regional chairmen in consultation with the chief executive of the national health service management executive and this process is repeated at succeeding management levels. In setting an individual manager's objectives we consider the existing standard of the services for which he or she is responsible and deficiencies which need to be remedied. Thus a regional general manager in whose region there are unacceptably long waiting times will be required as part of his or her objectives to secure their reduction by an agreed margin. Regional chairmen and general managers will in turn be responsible for ensuring that suitable objectives are set for the managers reporting to them. The management executive will be agreeing with regional health authorities in the autumn reviews specific targets for the reduction in the number of patients waiting over one year for treatment in the period to March 1992.
Performance is assessed each year against all the objectives set for a manager.
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Health Conference, London
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Health who was invited to the special health conference in London on 17 July.
Mr. Dorrell : Invitations were issued to chairmen and general managers of regional and district health authorities, family practitioner committees, and the special health authorities for the London postgraduate teaching hospital and also to members of the national health service management executive and the national health service policy board.
Prescribing
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list and place in the Library a copy of any guidelines or advice his Department has offered to family practitioner committees in respect of the responsibility assumed by them in April for giving advice to general practitioners on prescribing.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 23 July.
Allergy
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information he has in respect of the number of people affected by pollen in (a) 1990, (b) 1985 and (c) 1980 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : This information is not collected centrally.
Epoxy Resin
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he has identified any possible public health implications resulting from the use of epoxy resin to line water mains ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : The Department of Health Committee on the Medical Aspects of the Contamination of Air, Soil and Water has reviewed reports of laboratory and field tests to determine concentrations of leached chemicals and toxicological tests on the major components of one formulation of epoxy resin. They advised that the epoxy resin could be approved for relining water mains in situ. This was taken into account by the Department of the Environment's Committee on Chemicals and Materials of Construction for Use in Public Water Supplies and Swimming Pools, which approved this formulation of epoxy resin in March 1989 for use for in situ relining of water mains.
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Health, further to his answer of 6 February, Official Report, column 570, to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras, what was the total claim against Cusdin, Burden and Howitt, R. T. James and Partners and McLaughlin and Harvey Ltd., respectively ; and what was the final settlement in each case.
Mr. Dorrell [holding answer 23 July 1990] : The total cost of remedial works for the cardiac wing at Great
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Ormond Street hospital amounted to some £21 million. In accordance with advice from leading counsel, an out-of -court settlement was reached with each of the parties involved. In this settlement the health authority received £425,000 from Cusdin, Burden and Howitt and £8 million from R. T. James and Partners. On withdrawal of its counter-claim against the health authority, McLaughlin and Harvey Ltd. received £90,000.ENVIRONMENT
Local Government Finance
Mr. Allason : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will end the liability of people who live over their shops to pay both business rates and community charge.
Mr. Nicholls : It would be inappropriate to change the fundamental liability for either the community charge or the business rate of people who live on their business premises, because adults generally have to pay a personal charge irrespective of where they live, and rates are paid on all non-domestic property. However, we recognise that the occupiers of composite hereditaments with lower rateable values may need a longer period to adapt to the higher bills which they face under the new system. I refer my hon. Friend to the statement made on 19 July by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment, Official Report, columns 1185-89.
Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give the community charge liability of a single householder who leaves his only house furnished but not occupied in order to do voluntary service overseas for a period of (a) three months, (b) six months and (c) nine months in a community charge year.
Mr. Nicholls : The community charge registration officer for an area determines the residence of an individual taking account whether a move abroad is temporary or permanent. Where the move is permanent, no personal community charge is payable, but a standard charge may arise on any furnished property remaining which is no one's main home. The amount of standard charge will depend in a particular case on whether a maximum multiplier has been prescribed by the Secretary of State or, if it has not, whether the local authority has used its discretion to specify classes of circumstances where a multiplier of less than the maximum may apply.
Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will take steps to end the entitlement of the mature student spouse of a top income tax rate payer to pay the reduced rate of 20 per cent. community charge.
Mr. Nicholls : A very small proportion of full-time students have employment-related or private income which attracts income tax at the higher rate. The administrative cost of screening about 500,000 students, the overwhelming majority of whom have incomes which would qualify for maximum community charge benefit, would greatly exceed the increased charge revenue collected from such a small group, to the disadvantage of all charge payers and taxpayers.
Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received about
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the liability of housebuilders for standard community charge on new houses which they have not sold ; and if he will make a statement.Mr. Nicholls : I have received a number of representations from the housebuilding industry. We have provided for no standard charge to be payable on properties whose construction is not complete and for six months thereafter unless the property becomes occupied before that date. Local authorities have the discretion to extend that period of time, and may wish to take into account the prevailing state of the housing market.
Mr. Allen McKay : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions he has had with those local authorities that have been charge-capped on the problems of raising community charge income over a reduced period ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Mahon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what discussions he has had with those local authorities that have been charge- capped about the problems of raising the community charge income over a reduced period ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nicholls : Of the 17 authorities which put forward alternatives to the caps I originally proposed, a number
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