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EMPLOYMENT
Training
Sir John Farr : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he intends to take to achieve quality control with the minimum of administration in training and enterprise councils and in training providers.
Mr. Jackson : Training and enterprise councils agree with my Department a strategy for managing quality. This is an integral part of their corporate and business plans. These plans form the foundation of contractual arrangements between TECs and my Department. This quality strategy sets out the mechanisms the TEC will use to ensure improvements in value for money and relevance of their provision, and includes their arrangements to ensure the capability and efficiency of their training providers. I have taken steps to ensure that administrative procedures imposed upon TECs are kept to a minimum.
Mills (Denton and Reddish)
Mr. Andrew F. Bennett : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, if he will list all mills in Denton and Reddish for which improvement notices have been issued by the Health and Safety Executive in respect of removing asbestos ; when the notices were issued ; how many have been complied with ; and whether the Health and Safety Executive has satisfied itself that there is no possibility that asbestos remains a hazard in any mills in the Denton and Reddish constituency.
Mr. Forth : The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) issued an improvement notice in respect of the removal of asbestos at Vernon mill, Stockport on 23 February 1990. The notice was not complied with by the due date and HSE successfully prosecuted the managing agents of the mill on 19 November 1990.
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Asbestos will continue to present a potential hazard at the mill while remedial work is carried out to comply with the terms of HSE's improvement notice. This work is being monitored by HSE.Although responsibility for ensuring that asbestos is not a hazard to those employed or to members of the public rests with the owner or occupier of premises, HSE is not aware of a potential hazard from asbestos in any other mills in the Denton and Reddish constituency for which HSE is the enforcing authority for health and safety legislation.
Client Advisers
Mr. Allason : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how long the new client advisers who interview the recently unemployed are recommended to spend with them.
Mr. Jackson : Questions on operational matters in the Employment Service executive agency are the responsibility of Mike Fogden, the agency's chief executive, to whom I have referred this question for reply.
Lighting Industry
Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what discussions he has had with the Lighting Industry Federation about improvements in health and safety for workers at their workplaces in respect of lighting requirements.
Mr. Forth : I have had no such discussions.
Display Screens (Safety)
Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what legislation he intends to bring forward to enable the United Kingdom to meet the requirements of the European Community directive on the minimum safety and health requirements for work with display screen equipment.
Mr. Forth : The United Kingdom has no existing legislation specifically on health and safety of workers using display screen equipment. The Health and Safety Commission is currently discussing with the CBI and the TUC the most appropriate way to implement the directive.
Building Works
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish tables showing (a) the number of new buildings, (b) the amount spent on new buildings, (c) the amount spent on repairs and maintenance and (d) the amount spent on building renovation by his Department in each of the last five years.
Mr. Jackson [holding answer 5 December 1990] : The information requested is as follows. It has not been possible to separate the expenditure between new buildings and renovations.
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|1986-7 |1987-8 |1988-9 |1989-90|1990-1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No new buildings |5 |9 |18 |73 |131
Spend on new buildings and renovation (£ million) |7.549 |8.891 |17.041 |14.409 |34.745
Spend on repair and maintenance (£ million) |4.144 |4.338 |7.310 |7.321 |17.238
Earnings
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether he will publish in the Official Report a list showing for full-time male and female manual and non-manual workers respectively the two and three-digit SIC industries in which the percentage increase in weekly earnings, including overtime and excluding absence, was (a) less and (b) more than the rate of inflation in the year to April 1990.
Mr. Jackson : The available information on percentage increases in average gross weekly earnings in the year to April 1990, at 2 and 3 digit standard industrial classification (SIC) level, is published in part C of the 1990 new earnings survey report. Information on the percentage increase in the retail prices index (all items) in the year to April 1990 is published in table 6.5 of the latest Employment Gazette. Copies of the publications are in the Library.
Channel Tunnel
Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will arrange for a copy of the Health and Safety Executive's most recent study of the channel tunnel project, conducted by the accident fire prevention advisory unit, to be placed in the Library.
Mr. Forth : It is not HSE's policy to make reports by its accident prevention advisory unit (APAU) available, as they rely on information provided in confidence by employers.
THE ARTS
Arts Expenditure
Mr. Pendry : To ask the Minister for the Arts what has been the Government's total expenditure on the arts for each of the past five years and as a total over the same period.
Mr. Renton : Total central Government expenditure on the arts for each of the past five years has been as follows :
|£ million
------------------------------
1986-87 |343.3
1987-88 |368.3
1988-89 |413.9
1989-90 |446.3
1990-91 |494.2
|-------
|2,066.0
Arts Funding (Reforms)
Mr. Allen : To ask the Minister for the Arts what representations he has received on the structural reforms of arts funding from Nottinghamshire county council ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Renton : Nottinghamshire county council wrote to my predecessor, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor), on 24 October expressing its reservations about his proposals of 24 September to further strengthen the new regional arts boards.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Nuclear Non-proliferation
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he has any new plans to encourage Brazil and Argentina to sign the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty following the bilateral accord signed between the two countries on nuclear controls, at Foz de Iguau on 28 November.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : It is our policy to take every suitable opportunity to raise non-proliferation issues, and the
non-proliferation treaty in particular, with states that are not parties to the treaty.
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the implications for nuclear non-proliferation policy of the Foz de Iguau agreement signed between the Presidents of Argentina and Brazil on 28 November.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : We regard this statement as a positive step, although we are seeking clarification of some aspects.
We will continue our efforts to secure universal adherence to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, to achieve acceptance by all non-nuclear weapons states of full-scope International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards, and to ensure that national and multilateral nuclear export controls are appropriately devised and effectively implemented.
Football Spectators
Mr. Pendry : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the number of criminal proceedings currently in progress in Italy involving alleged offences by citizens of England and Wales which correspond to the offences contained in schedule 1 of the Football Spectators Act 1989 ; when is the likely date of completion of each of these proceedings ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : We understand that 36 England supporters were convicted during the 1990 world cup in Italy. Another eight were released pending trial and a further 23 detained did not have their arrests confirmed and were released. Under bilateral arrangements, the Italian Ministry of Justice informs the British police of any convictions involving such offences ; it does this after the legal processes have been completed and any appeals heard. No cases have yet been notified.
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The Italian authorities have been asked to provide the likely date of completion of proceedings in each of these cases, and I will write to the hon. Member in due course.Military Forces, Soviet Union
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he has made any request to the Soviet military authorities for information concerning recent developments in military forces east of the Urals.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary has asked his Soviet opposite number for assurances regarding their intention with regard to treaty limited equipment withdrawn east of the Urals. The Soviet Union has responded with partial information. We and our allies will continue to press for a full account and to monitor the situation carefully.
Confidence-building Measures
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what difficulties have so far been encountered in the implementation of the confidence-building measures agreement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : Implementation of the 1986 Stockholm document on confidence and security-building measures has generally been a success. It is particularly encouraging that the challenge on-site inspection regime has become a routine and regular part of its implementation.
ENERGY
Energy Efficiency
Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will introduce a single agreed national scale for the energy efficiency rating of (a) domestic dwellings and (b) commercial and industrial premises.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : There are two commercially available energy labelling schemes for the housing sector both based on the Building Research Establishment's domestic energy model (BREDEM). My Energy Efficiency Office (EEO) in co-operation with the Department of the Environment and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) is working with the National Energy Foundation and MVM-Starpoint, the two organisations providing energy labelling services, to find an acceptable means of making a reliable and simple comparison between the two rating systems.
So far as commercial and industrial buildings are concerned, there is no established labelling scheme at
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present. The EEO is in touch with developments at BRE and elsewhere and will keep the need for Government involvement under review.Nuclear Reprocessing
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Leyton (Mr. Cohen), Official Report, 15 November, column 192, he will set out those areas of detail in regard to the proposed reprocessing contracts to which reference is made, which his Department will require in order to fulfil international nuclear safeguards commitments.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : All material received by AEA Dounreay is subject to Euratom safeguards and to the terms of the UK/Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement.
Waste
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will obtain for his departmental library a copy of the report, "A Field Guide on the Reduction and Disposal of Waste From Oil Refineries and Market Installations", prepared by Concawe, the organisation of European oil companies for environmental protection.
Mr. Moynihan : My Department regularly receives reports from Concawe and a copy of the report in question is already in the departmental library.
Radiation Exposure
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will publish measured and estimated annual radiation dose equivalent uptakes in milliSieverts per annum by members of the public living near Bradwell and Dungeness nuclear power stations arising directly from radiation emitted from the structures of the power stations ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Wakeham : The external radiation doses to members of the public living near the nuclear power stations at Bradwell and Dungeness are assessed by measurements taken routinely by the operator and published in annual reports. The most recent annual figures are for 1989, which show a maximum external dose at these stations of 0.3 mSv for the year.
The measurements do not discriminate between external radiation arising from structures and from radiation associated with discharges. The dose assessment represents the total external dose to the most exposed local residents due to these stations.
These doses are more than 10 times lower than the statutory United Kingdom dose limit and are less than one third of the principal dose limit of 1 mSv currently recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).
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