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Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 20 November 1990
ENVIRONMENT
National Rivers Authority
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects to announce his Department's contribution to the National Rivers Authority budget for next year ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment and Countryside on 14 November to my hon. Friend the Member for Boothferry (Mr. Davis), Official Report, Vol. 180, column 156.
Toxic Waste
Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will estimate the number and location of toxic waste sites that are known to contain benzine.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : This information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
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Housing Action Trusts
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many housing action trusts have been accepted and how many are in being.
Mr. Key : No housing action trusts have so far been established. Discussions are proceeding with the council and tenants in the London borough of Waltham Forest and Hull city council is consulting tenants about the council's proposal for a housing action trust for the North Hull estate.
Mr. O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the cost of the consultants' fees for the Government's housing action trust programme to the end of October.
Mr. Key : At 31 October 1990 the following amounts had been spent on consultancies related to housing action trust proposals : Tower Hamlets, £182,000 ; Lambeth, £182,000 ; Southwark, £1,411,000 ; Sandwell, £191,000 ; Leeds, £161,000 ; Sunderland, £667,000 ; and Waltham Forest, £129,000.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if, pursuant to his answer to the honourable Member for Taunton (Mr. Nicholson), Official Report, 14 November, column 562, he will list for each authority in the west midlands the numbers of adults on the poll tax register and the percentage, at the latest available date, who (a) have begun paying the poll tax and (b) are now seriously in arrears.
Mr. Key : The available information obtained from returns to the Department is given in the table. No information is available on the numbers seriously in arrears.
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Authority |Number of people |Number of people |Percentage making
|who have made a |liable who have not |some payment
|payment in respect |made a payment in
|of a personal |respect of a personal
|community charge |community charge
|by 30 September |by 30 September
|1990 |1990
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Coventry |189,403 |41,693 |82.0
Dudley |208,161 |26,281 |88.8
Sandwell |189,119 |33,374 |85.0
Solihull |158,100 |16,315 |90.6
Walsall |168,842 |28,851 |85.4
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authorities levy the standard charge for the poll tax at (a) zero, (b) one half, (c) one, (d) one and a half and (e) two times the personal charge for the area.
Mr. Key : Local authorities have the discretion to levy different multiples of the personal charge on different classes of unoccupied property. Information on the highest multiplier set on any class of property in an authority's area has been derived from returns by local authorities and is as follows :
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Highest |Number of
multiplier set |charging
|authorities
---------------------------------------------
0 |16
0.5 |0
1 |33
1.5 |5
2 |300
<1>- |12
<1>Not known.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will publish tables for each charging authority in England in receipt of safety net grant, classified by political control and the amount to be withdrawn, in (a) 1991-92 and (b) 1992-93, expressed both in £ million and £ per head ;
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(2) if he will publish tables for each charging authority in England presently contributing to the safety net, classified by political control and the amount they will gain in grants in 1991-92, expressed both in £ million and £ per head.Mr. Portillo [holding answer 19 November 1990] : The revenue support grant transition report (England) sets out the adjustments made to the revenue support grant in 1990-91 as a result of the safety net. As announced in October 1989, there will be no contributions in 1991-92 when the safety net is replaced by area protection grant financed by the Exchequer.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has proposed that, in each charging authority, area protection grant in 1991-92 should be no more than £25 per adult less than the combined 1990-91 benefit of the safety net and low rateable value areas grant.
I have today placed in the Library a table showing, in £ million and £ per adult, 1990-91 safety net adjustments plus low rateable value areas grant and 1991-92 proposed levels of area protection grant. The table also indicates the political control of the charging authority as at May 1990. Most areas are served by more than one local authority and the political control of other authorities may not be the same as that of the charging authority.
The table shows among other things that charge payers in Conservative authorities are contributing £354 million to the safety net this year ; and that charge payers in Labour authorities will receive £409 million in 1991-92.
Under current proposals a further £25 per adult of 1991-92 area protection grant will be withdrawn in 1992-93--or the whole of the grant where this is less than £25. The amount withdrawn in £ millions will depend on the 1992-93 adult population.
United Nations Environment Fund
Mr. Ian Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the United Kingdom plans to increase its contribution to the United Nations Environment Programme's environment fund in 1991.
Mr. Chris Patten : The Department's spending plans for 1991-92 include provision for a contribution of £4 million to the environment fund of the United Nations Environment Programme, £1 million more than our contribution in 1990. This will be the second successive annual increase in the United Kingdom's contribution to the fund. These increased contributions reflect our commitment to the important work which UNEP is
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undertaking on global environmental issues, particularly in relation to the 1992 United Nations conference on environment and development.EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Educational Psychologists
Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish the amount of specific funds that have not been allocated to local education authorities for the training of educational psychologists out of the sum which was made available.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The local education authority training grants scheme--LEATGS--for 1990-91 included support for up to £2.8 million of expenditure on the initial training of educational psychologists. Local authorities have requested and been allocated support for spending of some £2.5 million on such training.
LEA Administration Costs
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average cost of administration per pupil in (a) the Essex local education authority, (b) all local education authorities and (c) those local education authorities which comprise the group of authorities which contains Essex.
Mr. Fallon : The average budgeted cost of central administration per pupil, as reported in its local management of schools annual budget statement for 1990-91, is £69 in Essex. This is calculated by dividing the figure on the statement by the number of pupils attending maintained schools in Essex on 18 January 1990. On the same basis, the average cost of central administration per pupil in the 36 shire counties for which a statement is available is £66. The coverage of the central administration figure in the statements differs between authorities. It is not possible to give a comparable national figure because authorities without schemes for the local management of schools are not obliged to publish this information.
Nursery Education
Sir Thomas Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the scope, extent and cost of nursery education in each of the boroughs of Greater Manchester.
Mr. Eggar : Information on the cost of this provision is not available centrally. The boroughs' provision for nursery education in January 1989 was as follows :
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Nursery Schools Nursery Classes
|Number |<1>Pupils |<2>Participation|<3>Number |<1>Pupils |<2>Participation
|rate per cent. |rate per cent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bolton |5 |485 |6.4 |44 |2,300 |30.3
Bury |2 |166 |3.6 |25 |1,079 |23.5
Manchester |7 |536 |4.1 |138 |6,618 |50.5
Oldham |- |- |- |46 |2,174 |34.0
Rochdale |8 |922 |14.6 |17 |928 |14.7
Salford |18 |851 |14.2 |71 |2,289 |38.2
Stockport |9 |796 |10.6 |10 |404 |5.4
Tameside |4 |332 |5.5 |41 |2,077 |34.6
Trafford |- |- |- |20 |1,078 |19.3
Wigan |2 |176 |2.1 |30 |1,962 |23.6
<1> Pupils under 5 at January 1989.
<2> Number of pupils under 5 expressed as a percentage of the estimated 3 and 4 year old population.
<3> Number of primary schools with designated nursery classes.
Information on the extent of participation in nursery education in each local education authority is published annually in a statistical bulletin ; the latest of which, No. 7/90, is available in the Library.
Course Fees
Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what his policy is towards institutions of further and higher education imposing fees for courses of study previously covered by grants.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The Government have no plans to change the present arrangements whereby standard tuition fees are met from public funds for students qualifying for a mandatory award. However, actual tuition fee levels are properly for individual institutions to set.
National Curriculum
Mr. Pendry : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will accept the recommendations of the National Curriculum Council that art, music and physical recreation should be retained as compulsory subjects in the national curriculum for pupils up to the age of 16 years ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : My right hon. Friend is considering the curriculum framework for 14 to 16-year-olds in the light of the National Curriculum Council's advice. He will make his views known as soon as possible.
Agricultural and Food Research Council
Mr. Hanley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he has received the annual report of the Agricultural and Food Research Council for 1989-90 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The annual report of the Agricultural and Food Research Council has been submitted to my right hon. and learned Friend under the requirements of the Science and Technology Act 1965, and a copy is being placed before the House today.
I was especially interested to read in the report about the success of Dr. Michael Berridge in winning the Albert Lasker medical research award for AFRC-sponsored work on molecular signalling ; about the establishment of the AFRC centre for genome research at the university of Edinburgh ; and about the work on anti-sense genes in fruit being funded at Nottingham university. I was pleased to read that the council has developed a £1.8 million research grants scheme to support younger research workers at an early stage of their career, and to learn of the council's success in attracting a total of £1.4 million from European Community funds for its work.
My right hon. and learned Friend and I congratulate the council on these and other achievements. We look forward to reading about further progress, under the council's new chairman, in next year's report.
Polytechnics
Mr. Pawsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on student numbers in polytechnics in 1990-91.
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Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Provisional figures for the 1990-91 academic year published today by the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council and the Committee of Directors of Polytechnics show a 10.6 per cent. increase in the numbers of full-time and sandwich students in polytechnics compared with last year, and a 3.6 per cent. increase in the number of part-time students.
I very much welcome this dramatic increase in the numbers of young people in higher education in polytechnics. I look forward to this success being repeated in the next few years. The Government's policy is aimed at ensuring that an even higher proportion of our young people should receive good-quality higher and further education. Polytechnics and colleges have clearly been encouraged in their recruitment decisions by the first stage of shift in the balance of public funding of higher education to tuition fees introduced by the Government for 1990-91. For every additional student enrolled beyond the plans announced last year, institutions will receive £1,675 compared with only £607 in 1989-90. In 1991-92, when differentiated fees are introduced, the average tuition fee in the sector will be nearly £2,200.
TRANSPORT
Roads (Stockport)
Sir Thomas Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the current cost of the road programme for which he is responsible within the Metropolitan borough of Stockport.
Mr. Chope : The figure is £112 million. This excludes that part of the proposed Manchester airport eastern link road within the borough for which costs are not yet available.
Bus Undertakings
Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the bus transport undertakings taken over by Stagecoach Ltd. under the deregulation provisions ; if he will list all bus services they have subsequently terminated ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. McLoughlin : There is no requirement on the bus industry to notify the Department of Transport of takeovers. The latest published information on undertakings held by Stagecoach Ltd. is contained in the Monopolies and Mergers Commission report into the acquisition of Portsmouth Citybus Ltd. The termination or commencement of bus services is primarily a matter for the industry and the information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what studies have been undertaken on mergers and transfers of bus undertakings since the deregulation provisions took effect ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. McLoughlin : The Transport and Road Research Laboratory is currently undertaking a study into the structure of the bus industry. This will include a general review of mergers and transfers of bus undertakings. The
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Monopolies and Mergers Commission has reported to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on a number of specific mergers.Dock Labour Scheme
Mr. McCartney : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the companies formerly operating within the national dock labour scheme that declared themselves insolvent after the abolition of the scheme ; how many companies are now trading under the same names as any of these companies ; and how many companies now trading have the same directors.
Mr. McLoughlin : The regulations made under the Dock Work Act 1989 ensure that no formerly registered dock worker loses out because his employer is unable to meet his 50 per cent. share of the compensation payment. The Department has paid the full amount to the employees, through the companies' liquidators, in 14 cases which are listed in the table. I am unable to answer the remainder of this question. However, the Department relied on the liquidator to confirm that the companies were no longer trading ; and in certain cases it asked the liquidator to undertake inquiries to establish that no transfer of undertaking had taken place.
Aberdeen Stevedores Ltd.
Anglosped Ltd. (Chatham)
Dundee Stevedores Ltd.
Fish Landing Temporary Employers (Aberdeen) Ltd.
Great Yarmouth Port Labour Co. Ltd.
Grimsby Port Services Ltd.
John Sutcliffe Consolidated Stevedores Ltd. (Grimsby)
Lindsey Dock Services Ltd. (Grimsby)
Liverpool Grain Storage and Transit Co.
Manisty Wharf Ltd. (Ellesmere Port)
Mersey Container Terminals Ltd.
Seahorn Marine Enterprises Ltd. (Liverpool)
West Langton Stevedores Ltd. (Liverpool)
Wisbech Stevedores Ltd.
Severn Bridge
Mr. Roy Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations he has received from solicitors acting for the bereaved concerning the design, installation and proper use of the gantry which plunged into the River Severn on 5 September involving two fatalities ; what reply he has sent ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Chope [holding answer Monday 19 November 1990] : I am not willing to disclose the contents of correspondence between the solicitors acting for the bereaved families and the Department's solicitors.
ABS Brakes
Mr. David Marshall : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he has any plans to make it mandatory for motor manufacturers to fit ABS brakes as standard equipment on all new vehicles.
Mr. Chope [holding answer Monday 19 November 1990] : Under regulations made in September anti-lock brakes will be mandatory on all vehicles in the following categories manufactured on or after 1 October 1990 :
Motor Vehicles over 16 tonnes authorised to tow trailers over 10 tonnes ;
Trailers over 10 tonnes ; and
Inter-urban coaches.
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Compulsory fitment of anti-lock brakes to other categories of vehicle depends on Community agreement. But we are encouraging the wider use of anti-lock braking, particularly on motorcycles.HOME DEPARTMENT
Fire Service College
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what level of funding will be provided for the Fire Service college in the next year ; and what steps are being taken where local councils fail to supply the funds necessary for their firefighters to attend the Fire Service college.
Mr. John Patten : The planned level of funding for the Fire Service college in respect of fire officers in England and Wales for 1991-92 is £9.2 million, made up from some £6 million by a block contribution from the revenue support grant and the balance from direct charges to fire brigades. The exercise of the fire authorities' duty to ensure that their fire brigade staff are effectively trained will continue to be monitored closely by Her Majesty's inspectorate of fire services.
Wandsworth Prison
Mr. Chris Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will state the reason for the removal of Dr. Adam Lawrence from his post as medical consultant to Her Majesty's prison, Wandsworth.
Mrs. Rumbold : Dr. Lawrence, a consultant physician specialising in genito-urinary medicine, was invited in April this year to visit Wandsworth prison once a week to advise on patient care within his specialty. This was a local arrangment instituted by the then senior medical officer. Dr. Lawrence recently took part in a television programme in which he disclosed clinical details relating to a former Wandsworth prisoner with whose treatment he himself had been concerned, and criticised clinical decisions by a medical colleage. The senior medical officer considered that these actions were not conducive to harmonious working relations within the health care team and informed Dr. Lawrence that he had decided to make other arrangements for the provision of specialist advice. The director of prison medical services fully supports the action taken.
Security Services Tribunal
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he has any plans to seek to amend the Security Service Act 1989 to allow the Security Services Tribunal to reveal to the individuals concerned the information that was held on them prior to 18 December 1989.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many applications for access to information the Security Services Tribunal has received since December 1989 ; in how many cases it has supplied the information requested ; in how many cases it has refused to provide the information ; and what were the reasons given.
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Mr. Waddington : The Security Service Tribunal is an independent body established by the Security Service Act 1989 ; I am not privy to its deliberations or to the number and nature of applications made to it. The tribunal is required to investigate complaints from any person who is aggrieved by anything which he believes that the Security Service has done in relation to him or to any property of his, if and so far as the complaint relates to anything done after the commencement of the Act, and to make a determination in accordance with schedule 1 to the Act. While paragraph 4(1) of schedule 2 to the Act enables the tribunal to gain access to such documents or information as it may require for the purpose of enabling it to carry out its functions under the Act, it is not empowered to seek on behalf of a complainant or any other person access to such documents or information. Indeed, paragraph 4(2) of schedule 2 to the Act requires the tribunal not to give any reasons for a determination notified by it, except in reports under paragraph 5(1)(b) of schedule 1.Animal Experiments
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will ban those animal procedures involving LD50 and Draize tests.
Mrs. Rumbold : My right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary is not one of the Ministers reponsible for the national and international regulations under which specific safety testing protocols are required ; nor is he a sponsoring Minister for biomedical research. His responsibility is for controlling the conduct of scientific procedures on living animals. We have no plans to refuse licences where my right hon. and learned Friend is satisfied that the work is justified under section 5 of the Animal (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986. The Government continue to play an active role in developing acceptable alternative methods of testing.
Mr. Julius Alexander/Mr. Shamusideen Oladehinde
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Her Majesty's Government are continuing with their appeal in the cases of Mr. Julius Alexander of Hackney and Mr. Shamusideen Oladehinde ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : In a judgment on 18 October, the House of Lords dismissed the appeals of Mr. Alexander and Mr. Oladehinde. My right hon. and learned Friend will be reviewing their cases in order to decide whether to enforce deportation.
Psychiatric Bail Hostels
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has as to the likely cost of setting up a system of psychiatric bail hostels ; and what estimate has been made of the present cost of keeping people who would benefit from such provision in prison.
Mr. John Patten : On the basis of discussions with probation areas and voluntary organisations, we calculate that the unit cost of any approved bail hostel places for mentally disordered defendants would approach twice that of conventional places at approved bail hostels which in 1989-90 stood at £10,000 per annum. It is not possible to separate out the cost of keeping a mentally disordered
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defendant in a local prison or remand centre withoutdisproportionate cost, but the average cost per inmate in 1989-90 was about £16,000 per annum.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether any decisions have been made with regard to setting up a system of psychiatric bail hostels ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John Patten : We are considering what part bail hostels can play in a strategy for dealing with people who are mentally disordered, and shall announce our conclusion as soon as possible. Although no final decisions have yet been taken, the Government are firmly of the view that mentally disordered offenders should be diverted from the criminal justice system wherever possible or receive appropriate placements and prompt psychiatric treatment where prosecution is necessary in the public interest. A Home Office circular providing details of the wide range of measures available for achieving this was issued to the courts and others on 3 September 1990. I have sent a copy to the hon. Gentleman.
Sentences
Mr. Chris Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people serving life sentences, discretionary or mandatory, have tariffs of more than 20 years.
Mrs. Rumbold : There are some 150 life sentence prisoners whose cases will be, or have been, reviewed by the Parole Board for the first time after 17 years in custody, because the period considered necessary to mark the seriousness of their offences is more than 20 years.
Overseas Electors
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information he has as to the number of overseas electors whose names were added to local electoral roles in each constituency ; how much was spent promoting overseas the new rules and regulations ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Rumbold : Information on the number of overseas electors who will be included in the 1991-92 electoral register will not become available until the publication of the draft register on 28 November. Approximately £425,000 has been or will be spent by the Home Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in publicising overseas the new provisions on voting by British citizens living abroad.
Magistrates Courts
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish tables showing the cost of expenditure in magistrates courts for each of the last 10 years ; and if he will set down in tabular form the percentage of these costs for each year met from local authority funds.
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