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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 12 November 1990
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Fraud (Prosecution)
30. Mr. Teddy Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General if he will make a statement on the arrangements for prosecuting persons for fraud.
The Solicitor-General : The majority of fraud prosecutions in England and Wales are the responsibility of either the Serious Fraud Office or the Crown prosecution service. Both departments operate under my superintendence.
Judges
31. Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Attorney-General if he will make a statement on the appointment of judges.
The Solicitor-General : The Lord Chancellor seeks, for each judicial post, the candidate who appears to him to be the best qualified to fill it and perform its duties, regardless of sex, ethnic origin, political affiliation, or religion. Copies of a speech made by the Lord Chancellor on this subject, and copies of a booklet entitled "Judicial Appointments : The Lord Chancellor's Policies and Procedures" will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
Incitement to Violence
32. Mr. Madden : To ask the Attorney-General what representations he has received concerning laws against incitement to violence on personal, racial or religious grounds ; and if he will make a statement.
The Solicitor-General : Prosecutions for incitement to racial hatred require the consent of the Attorney-General and he frequently receives representations in relation to individual cases. Changes to the law are a matter for my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary.
NHS Infected Blood
Ms. Harman : To ask the Attorney-General how many legal aid certificates have been issued to people who have lodged claims for damages for contracting HIV through national health service infected blood or blood products ; and how much has already been paid out under those certificates.
The Solicitor-General : A total of 727 certificates have been issued, as at 8 November 1990. To date £708,088 has been paid under these certificates.
Serious Fraud Office
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General if the Serious Fraud Office gives advance notice to the press and media of a proposed search in premises of a company.
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Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General what information he has as to how many employees of the Serious Fraud Office are of Greek Cypriot origin.
The Attorney-General : One employee within the Serious Fraud Office has ethnic origins within the Greek Cypriot community. That employee is not involved in the investigation into the affairs of Polly Peck International plc.
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General whether the Serious Fraud Office gave notice to the press and media of its search of the premises of Polly Peck International at Berkeley square, London on Tuesday 30 October.
The Attorney-General : No prior notice was given. Since the fact of the investigation was already in the public domain and the matter was one of substantial public interest, a short factual press notice was issued after the event.
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General if the Serious Fraud Office normally requests the support of the police when it proposes to raid the offices of companies.
The Attorney-General : Section 2(5) of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 requires that a search warrant issued on the application of the Serious Fraud Office should be directed to the police who are then responsible for its execution. The police should be accompanied by a member of the Serious Fraud Office or other appropriate person in accordance with section 2(6) and (7) of the 1987 Act.
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General whether the Serious Fraud Office had the full co-operation of the administrators of Polly Peck International on Tuesday 30 October ; and why it requested the support of the Metropolitan police to carry out its raid of the company's office at Berkeley square on that date.
The Attorney-General : The Serious Fraud Office enjoys the co- operation of the administrators of Polly Peck International plc. The warrant in respect of the offices of Polly Peck International plc was directed to the Metropolitan police in accordance with the procedure set out in my earlier answer to the right hon. Gentleman.
Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Attorney-General how many persons are employed by the Serious Fraud Office.
The Attorney-General : A total of 132 people are currently employed by the Serious Fraud Office including temporary staff.
Public Transport Disasters
Mr. Adley : To ask the Attorney-General what recent discussions he has had concerning the administration of the existing laws relating to corporate and individual liability following the public transport disasters ; and if he will make a statement.
The Solicitor-General : My right hon. and learned Friend the Attorney-General and I have discussed questions relating to criminal liability with the Director of Public Prosecutions and others, in connection with the sinking of the Herald of Free Enterprise.
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NATIONAL FINANCE
MV Gur Mariner
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about his continuing inquiries into possible breaches of United Kingdom export licensing controls in relation to MV Gur Mariner and military-related exports to Iraq.
Mr. Ryder : An examination of cargo recently offloaded from the MV Gur Mariner at Vlissingen, Holland has been completed by the Dutch authorities. Nothing that would justify criminal proceedings in respect of export licensing restrictions in the United Kingdom has been established.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Sunday Trading
Mr. Moate : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what efforts have been made on the question of Sunday trading to reach possible grounds for compromise between the various factions involved ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Rumbold : The Government continue to meet interested parties and encourage the development of common ground. There remain wide differences of view and no proposal for reform of the law has yet emerged with widespread support from the differing interests.
Police Cells
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of (a) men and (b) women who were being held in police cells in England and Wales on 1 November.
Mrs. Rumbold : On 1 November there were 1,044 male and no female prisoners held in police cells in England and Wales.
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Category A Prisoners
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide a breakdown of the proportion of prisoners retained under high security category A, according to age, sex, all-crime, for each of the years since 1975.
Mrs. Rumbold : A full breakdown in the form requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The numbers of sentenced prisoners confirmed in category A at 30 September in each of the years requested are as follows :
Year |Adult male|Female |Young |Total
|offender
------------------------------------------------------------------
1975 |235 |3 |4 |242
1976 |238 |5 |2 |245
1977 |252 |5 |- |257
1978 |241 |5 |- |246
1979 |249 |6 |- |255
1980 |267 |7 |2 |276
1981 |257 |6 |2 |265
1982 |254 |4 |2 |260
1983 |269 |3 |4 |276
1984 |285 |3 |3 |291
1985 |309 |1 |4 |314
1986 |319 |4 |4 |327
1987 |356 |3 |11 |370
1988 |405 |3 |7 |415
1989 |413 |4 |4 |421
1990 |405 |2 |8 |415
Prisoners (European Appeals)
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will supply the number of appeals that have been received by the European Commission and Court of Human Rights from British prisoners for each year since 1979, the reason for them and the result of the appeal.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Of those cases which the Commission has decided to refer to the Government for observations, the following is the information available in respect of complaints about the prison system in England and Wales.
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Year |Cases of Complaints|Cases of Complaints|Findings of |Findings of
|about prison | about prison |the Commission |the committee |the court
|Conditions |Procedures |- |of Ministers |-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |1 |1 Violation
1980 |3 |1 Inadmissable |1 Violation
|1 Struck off
1981 |6 |1 Friendly
|settlement
|5 Inadmissable or
|struck off
1982 |3 |2 Inadmissable |1 Violation
1983 |3 |1 Friendly
|settlement
|2 struck off
1984 |1 |Inadmissable
1985 |4 |2 Inadmissable |1 Violation |1 Violation
1986 |5 |1 Withdrawn |1 Violation |2 Violations
|1 Friendly
|settlement
1987 |- |- |- |-
1988 |- |- |-
1989 |1 |7 |5 Pending
|1 Withdrawn
|1 Struck off
|1 Inadmissable
1990 |1 |Pending
Prisoners
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the current prison population as a proportion of adults imprisoned per 100,000 of the population in each European Community member state.
Mrs. Rumbold : The latest available information, for 1 September 1988, was published by the Council of Europe in table 1 of "Prison Information Bulletin No. 12", a copy of which is in the Library. The prison population per 100,000 inhabitants in England and Wales has subsequently fallen to 90 on 30 September 1990.
An article on "International comparisons of prison populations" by Collier and Tarling (Home Office Research Bulletin No. 23 pages 48 to 54) showed that the figures for different countries are unlikely to be strictly comparable, because the definitions of prisons and prisoners vary from one country to another, reflecting different legal and administrative systems. Examples of differences in the definitions are the inclusions or exclusions in a country's figures of juvenile offenders and mentally disordered offenders.
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Postal and Proxy Voting
Dr. Cunningham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much the Government have spent in the last year promoting the use of postal and proxy voting among (a) the sick and disabled and (b) those whose occupation means they are unable to vote in person.
Mrs. Rumbold : Advertising on postal and proxy voting is undertaken only in the period leading up to a general election.
Asylum
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications he has received from Ghanaians in each year since 1981 for political asylum and in each year how many have been (a) granted asylum, (b) refused and (c) are still pending.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Information on applications and decisions is given in the following table. An estimated 1,290 asylum applications by Ghanaian citizens were recorded as awaiting a decision on 30 September 1990 : however, this figure is a maximum which overstates the position because of under-recording of decisions made earlier.
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| Applications for asylum in the United Kingdom by Ghanaian citizens, and decisions
Decisions<1>
|Applications|Granted |Granted |Refused
|received |asylum |exceptional |asylum or
|leave |exceptional
|leave
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1981 |13 |5 |- |3
1982 |407 |- |12 |28
1983 |689 |199 |126 |199
1984 |337 |73 |59 |157
1985 |175 |89 |48 |252
1986 |220 |72 |49 |40
1987 |153 |47 |115 |107
1988 |170 |39 |113 |58
1989<2> |340 |45 |125 |25
1990<2> (1 January to 30 September) |800 |-<3> |-<3> |-<3>
<1> Decisions in a particular year do not necessarily relate to applications made in that year.
<2> Provisional figures.
<3> Reliable figures for 1990 are not yet available because of delays in recording.
Animal Procedures Committee
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many members of the Animal Procedures Committee (a) have in the past held and (b) currently hold licences to conduct animal experiments ; and if he will list them.
Mrs. Rumbold : Under section 19(3) of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, at least half the members of the Animal Procedures Committee are persons who neither hold, nor within the previous six years have held, any licence under the Act or under the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 and the current membership of the committee
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conforms with this requirement. For some time, following attacks against researchers and their families, it has been our practice not to reveal the names of individual licence holders.Animal Experiments
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he is taking to achieve a reduction in the number of experiments under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Rumbold : As figure 5 of the "Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals, Great Britain 1989" (Cm.
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1152)--a copy of which is in the Library-- shows, the number of experiments on living animals declined steadily for 10 years or more and has continued to do so since 1987, when the strict controls of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 came into force.Ethiopian Children
Mr. Shersby : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many minors from Ethiopia with no support accommodation in the United Kingdom have been refused entry at Heathrow and Gatwick airports, respectively, during the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : No Ethiopian children have been refused entry at either Heathrow or Gatwick airports during the year ending 30 September 1990.
Ticket Touts
Mr. Menzies Campbell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will introduce legislation to make ticket touting a criminal offence.
Mr. John Patten : We expect to make relevant announcements in relation to football very shortly.
Electoral Registration
Dr. Cunningham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those newspapers, magazines, and periodicals in which the Government have placed advertisements aimed at encouraging electoral registration among ethnic minorities in the last year.
Mrs. Rumbold : The Home Office electoral registration advertising campaign aimed at United Kingdom residents this year was a national poster site campaign ; no advertisements were placed in newspapers or periodicals.
Maintenance Arrears
Mr. Viggers : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to seek to increase the powers currently available to courts for the recovery of arrears of maintenance for wives and children.
Mr. John Patten : The Maintenance Enforcement Bill, which was published on 8 November, will improve the collection and enforcement of maintenance in the magistrates courts, the county courts and the High Court. The Bill gives the courts power to specify the method of payment when making, varying or enforcing a maintenance order. This should help to ensure that maintenance payments are paid regularly and reduce the number of enforcement actions.
Courts will have the power to order payment by standing order direct to the maintenance creditor or make
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an attachment of earnings order irrespective of whether the maintenace debtor has defaulted on his payments. In addition, the Bill allows a maintenance creditor to give a standing authority to the justices' clerk, when maintenance is paid to or through a magistrates court, authorising the clerk to take enforcement action.ENVIRONMENT
Local Government Finance
Mr. Nicholas Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the distribution of changes in the percentage of net income paid in (a) domestic rates in 1989-90 and (b) community charge in 1990-91.
Mr. Key : An analysis showing the distributional impact of the community charge was placed in the Library on 15 February. This showed that three out of five households would pay less with the community charge than they would have paid had rates continued.
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to compensate local authorities which use their discretionary powers to waive the standard community charge for people whose repossessed former home remains unsold while they are liable to the community charge at their new address.
Mr. Key : The method of distributing grant to local authorities does not take account of the potential for raising income through standard community charges. There is, therefore, no case for compensating local authorities if this income is reduced as a result of the proposed changes in the maximum level of the standard charge which can be levied in certain cases, or if local authorities exercise their discretion to waive charges for certain categories.
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to treat overnight visitors as the equivalent of ordinary residents when calculating the standard spending assessment.
Mr. Key : For 1991-92 standard spending assessments my right hon. Friend proposes to treat two overnight visitors as the equivalent of one ordinary resident, for the period of their stay.
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, following the reply to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett), 24 October, column 234, he will similarly list for each authority in the West Midlands county, and for Warwickshire, the numbers of people exempt from the poll tax.
Mr. Key : Available information returned by local authorities is as follows :
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Number of persons exempt from community charges at 1 June 1990
West Midlands |Coventry |Dudley |Solihull |Walsall
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Severely mentally |768 |517 |168 |436
impared
In hospital or home<1> |2,141 |1,689 |850 |n/a
Aged 18 or 19<2> |1,880 |1,190 |1,200 |771
Other<3> |29 |61 |19 |44
Warwickshire |Nuneaton and |Rugby |Stratford on Avon|Warwick
|Bedworth
Severely mentally |247 |131 |245 |186
impared
In hospital or home<1> |488 |632 |246 |991
Aged 18 or 19<2> |340 |252 |540 |960
Other<3> |15 |31 |23 |52
<1>Patients whose main residence is an NHS hospital or people whose sole or main residence is in a residential
care home, a nursing home, a mental nursing home, a private hospital, or a hostel providing a substantial level
of care, and who are also being treated or cared for in such an institution.
<2>Aged 18 who attach child benefit because they are still at school, or aged 18 or 19 and on a course of
further, but not higher, education.
<3>People in detention, members of visiting forces, international headquarters and defense organisations and
their dependents, including diplomats. Members of religious communities. Residential care workers employed at a
very low salary, and full-time students whose term time address is in Scotland or Northern Ireland. These
categories have been combined because of the small numbers involved.
n/a=Not available.
Mr. Maxwell-Hyslop : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether his proposal to increase (a) the proportion of community charge benefit paid by district councils by 60 per cent. and (b) the percentage paid by district councils in respect of rent relief for tenants with low incomes, is intended to increase the amount of community charge which district councils have to levy compared with what would be levied without those charges ; and what he estimates the effect of these measures will be, per community charge payer, in the following district council areas : Mid Devon district council, East Devon district council and Teignbridge district council.
Mr. Key : The reduction in the rate of subsidy for community charge benefit and some housing benefit cases from 97 to 95 per cent. was taken into account in the Government's proposals for the local authority finance settlement. The standard spending assessment for Mid Devon, East Devon, and Teignbridge district councils are provisionally estimated to rise by 28, 29 and 31 per cent. respectively to reflect, inter alia, the reduction in subsidy. There should therefore be virtually no impact on community charges.
Mr. Fearn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will list those local authorities in England which have sought an attachment of earnings for the recovery of the community charge before employing bailiffs to carry out the task ;
(2) if he will list those local authorities in England which have taken registered community charge payers to court for non-payment.
Mr. Key : The Department does not have this information.
Mr. Nicholas Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will update the answer given to the hon. Member for Norwich, North (Mr. Thompson) on 15 February, Official Report, column 404, using actual rather than projected figures for the community charge.
Mr. Key : The analyses already provided offer the most valid illustration of the distributional effects of the introduction of the community charge system. Use of actual community charges would not provide a proper comparison with 1989-90 rates, since increases in local authority spending mean that the community charge is raising 30 per cent. more revenue than was raised by domestic rates.
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Local Authority Allowances
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, with regard to members' allowances under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, what plans he has to consult the local authority associations and other interested parties, on the practical implementation of the scheme after it has been in operation for six months.
Mr. Portillo : As I told the hon. Member on 26 July 1990, I intend to arrange for a review of the new system of councillors' allowances when that system has been in operation for about a year. Since the system has not yet been brought into operation, it is premature now to plan the review.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when the Government propose to review councillors' travel and subsistence allowances under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989.
Mr. Portillo : Councillors' travelling and subsistence allowances are governed by the Local Government Act 1972. The amounts are in the discretion of the local authorities within maxima prescribed by the Government. These maxima were last increased with effect from1 January 1990. I shall shortly be carrying out a further review.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when the new system of members' allowances under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 will be introduced ; and whether the quantum available to local authorities will be uplifted to take account of current levels of inflation.
Mr. Portillo : The new system of members' allowances will be introduced when we have resolved the technical problem that has been discovered. The regulations limiting the maximum amounts payable will take account of all the relevant factors up to the date at which they are made.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, with regard to members' allowances under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, when the new scheme will be implemented.
Mr. Portillo : When we make the regulations under section 18 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, we shall take into account the representations from local authority associations that the new system of allowances should come into effect no earlier than 1 April 1991.
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Local Authorities (Complaints)
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will list those allegations of anti-competitive behaviour against local authorities under the Local Government Act 1988 which his Department has received, detailing the initial date of complaint, the originator of the complaint, the subject of the complaint, that is, which local authority, and the nature of the complaints, on which the Secretary of State is currently considering futher action ; (2) if he will list the number, and nature, of complaints made by private contractors, or others, to his Department with regard to alleged anti-competitive behaviour on the part of local authorities in the awarding of contracts ; and if he will list which authorities, and when, were the subjects of those complaints.
Mr. Portillo : These questions could be answered only at disproportionate expense.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the date, for each respective local authority, on which he received the initial complaint of alleged anti-competitive behaviour against the local authorities listed in his answer of 31 October, Official Report, columns 543-44.
Mr. Portillo : The information requested is as follows : Bristol city : 8 May 1989
London borough of Hillingdon : 12 May 1989
Metropolitan borough of Knowsley : 19 May 1989
Borough of Charnwood : 20 June 1989
Metropolitan borough of Wolverhampton : 11 May 1989
Braintree district : 13 April 1989
Eden district : 4 August 1989
East Lindsey district : 13 November 1989
Birmingham city : March 1989
York city : 3 August 1989
Liverpool city : 31 May 1989
Metropolitan borough of Bury : 18 December 1989
*Humberside county : 15 September 1989
*London borough of Camden : 2 October 1989
Borough of Woodspring : 21 December 1989
Leicester city : 27 February 1990
Metropolitan borough of Doncaster : 19 February 1990
Borough of Thurrock : 16 March 1990
In each case the date given is the date of the earliest complaint related to the matter which was the subject of the section 13 notice. In the two asterisked cases the complaint was not of anti-competitive behaviour but rather of financial failure under section 10 Humberside and Camden and a failure to comply with the detailed specification of the work under Section 7(8)--Camden--of the Local Government Act 1988.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether his Department, as a matter of procedure, notified those local authorities against which he has received complaints of anti-competitive behaviour under the Local Government Act 1988.
Mr. Portillo : The Department notifies the local authority concerned in all cases where my right hon. Friend investigates a complaint that a local authority has failed to comply with the requirements of part I of the Local Government Act 1988.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the number and nature of complaints made by private contractors or others to his Department with regard to alleged anti- competitive behaviour on the basis of a direct services organisation or
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