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Mr. Wakeham : I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave earlier to the hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron).
Mr. Lofthouse : Has the chairman of British Coal ever expressed concern about the strong rumours that the retrofit flue gas desulphurisation plants at Ferrybridge may be transferred to the Isle of Grain? That could have a major effect on the Yorkshire coalfield. Are those rumours true?
Mr. Wakeham : The position about the retrofits was clearly set out in the prospectus for the sale of the shares in the generating companies. Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution has authority in these matters and I do not envisage any changes to what was set out in the prospectus.
Combined Heat and Power
19. Mr. Page : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy how many combined heat and power schemes are in operation throughout the United Kingdom.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : My Department's current estimate is that there are more than 500 sites in the United Kingdom using combined heat and power technology.
Mr. Page : Is it not true that combined heat and power is more efficient and produces less carbon dioxide, which is important in terms of minimising the greenhouse effect? What are the Government doing to ensure that within their own Departments, including the Ministry of Defence, such energy-saving methods are introduced for the benefit of the whole country?
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : My hon. Friend is right to say that the combined use of heat and power at appropriate sites is a good way to reduce the output of greenhouse
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gases. My Energy Efficiency Office operates a vigorous programme to educate and inform potential users about that technology.Oil Industry (Safety)
20. Mr. Tredinnick : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what is his estimate of the amount spent on safety measures by the oil industry since 6 July 1988.
Mr. Moynihan : We do not have comprehensive estimates of oil industry expenditure on safety measures. I understand, however, that since 6 July 1988 the industry has spent or committed approximately £900 million on fitting pipeline emergency shutdown valves and sub-sea isolation systems.
Mr. Tredinnick : Given the British oil industry's safety experience, what steps has my hon. Friend's Department taken to help overcome the Gulf oil crisis? Are British companies playing their part in sending equipment and resources to assist in that devasting oil disaster?
Mr. Moynihan : Yes, we have offered support and our offer has been taken up and is being co-ordinated by my colleagues in the Department of the Environment.
DUCHY OF LANCASTER
Visits
24. Sir Michael Neubert : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when he last visited the county Palatine.
29. Mr. Pike : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what visits he has made to the county of Lancashire in the last three months.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (Mr. Chris Patten) : I have made five visits to Lancashire in the past three months. My last visit was two days ago.
Sir Michael Neubert : Is it true, as Frank Johnson claimed in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, that my right hon. Friend would "prefer to pop down to the social market rather than Romford Market" ?
Are not Esssex man and Essex woman just as keen as Lancastrians on greater choice in housing and education ? Will my right hon. Friend take time off from his duties in the north-west to visit my constituency and hear the views of my constituents for himself ?
Mr. Patten : I certainly did not agree with everything that Frank Johnson wrote. He suggested, for example, that my idea of Essex man is probably Constable. However, my hon. Friend is entirely right to point out that we have extended the choice available to parents, children, patients, and council house tenants over the past few years. We have plenty more still to do in extending choice, but I fear that all our proposals will be resisted by Labour.
Mr. Pike : The right hon. Gentleman's visit to Ribble Valley and to Southport last week will have caused him to rethink the answer that he gave me on 11 February. Does he now acknowledge the serious concern that exists about many of the Government's policies ? When shall we see further changes and U-turns in a vain attempt to defend themselves ?
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Mr. Patten : I have little doubt that we shall win back Ribble Valley at the next election. Apparently, those who live in Ribble Valley do not have much doubt about that, either. We shall win the next election, whenever it comes, on our policies. I suspect that a large number of Liberal Democrat Members also believe that we shall win the next election.Dame Elaine Kellett-Bowman : I was delighted to hear from my right hon. Friend's office this morning that he is to visit us in Bilsbrorrow in October, as he promised several years ago. Is he aware that my constituents are delighted at today's trade figures, which are the best since February 1987 and will increase Britain's prosperity still further?
Mr. Patten : I have been looking forward to visiting my hon. Friend's constituency for many years. It promises to be the highlight of my autumn. My hon. Friend is right to point to the substantial improvement in the trade figures. It is yet a further indication of the sense and effectiveness of the Government's economic policy.
Official Duties
25. Mr. Winnick : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much time he has spent in the past month on official business.
31. Mr. Burns : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what official duties he has carried out in the past month.
Mr. Chris Patten : I have spent up to a quarter of my time carrying out official duties in the past month. These include signing instruments authorising the appointment, transfer and removal of magistrates, placing a list of future high sheriffs before Her Majesty the Queen and carrying out day-to-day responsibilities as a Government Minister.
Mr. Winnick : That is all very interesting, but would it not be the wish of many Conservative Members that the right hon. Gentleman should spend more time on official business, considering the right mess that the Conservative party is in at present? I well understand and entirely appreciate the right hon. Gentleman's apparent wish for the election to be postponed as the smell of death is all over the Government.
Mr. Patten : We all know that a large number of Opposition Members spend their evenings, and certainly supper once a week, wondering what to do with the Leader of the Opposition after he has lost another general election, so that remark is pretty ripe coming from the hon. Gentleman. We shall spend the next months and perhaps even a year and a half continuing to govern the country extremely effectively and developing policies to implement during our next period in government.
Mr. Burns : During the carrying out of his official duties in the past month, has my right hon. Friend had time to ruminate? If so, will he confirm that the Government will not be bamboozled by the press into an early election simply to make a story for the media? Mr. Patten rose --
Mr. Speaker : Order. These are questions about the Duchy of Lancaster.
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Mr. Patten : I am not sure that I ruminate as much as I should, but I am sure that if I ruminated as my hon. Friend has suggested I would agree that it is unwise to be bandwaggoned by the media into taking any decisions, let alone decisions about the timing of the next general election. As I said earlier, however, whenever the election comes I am absolutely convinced that we shall win it and I believe that a number of Opposition Members also think that we shall win it.
Dr. Cunningham : When the Chancellor next goes to the north-west, will he find time to visit Barrow and talk to the people there about the disaster that will hit the town as a result of the projected redundancies at VSEL? Will he consider the repercussions that that will have throughout the engineering industry in the north-west, including many companies that operate in the Duchy? It is a devastating blow to an isolated community when our economy is sliding ever deeper into the second recession this decade. What hope, from the Budget or from any other aspect of Government policy, can the Chancellor offer the people in Barrow and further afield in the north-west who are to lose their jobs?
Mr. Patten : I will, of course, draw the hon. Gentleman's question to the attention of my right hon. Friends who will be concerned about job training and other measures that the Government will be anxious to implement in Barrow and elsewhere. Given the Labour party's policies on defence spending and procurement in the past few years, anyone with any job in engineering or the defence industries would have a great deal to fear in the albeit distant prospect of a Labour Government being elected. The hon. Gentleman knows that perfectly well. We can look forward to a period of resumed economic growth, on the back of low inflation, provided that we stick to the policies on which we are currently set.
Property
26. Mr. Cohen : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many properties for which he is responsible are mortgaged.
Mr. Cohen : Are not the Minister and his colleagues working a stroke here? Is that not what the odd 0.5 per cent. cut in interest rates amounts to when building societies do not reduce the mortgage rate? Presumably there will be a reduction just before the general election, but if by some horror the Conservative party were to remain in power, interest rates-- including mortgage rates--would immediately go up again. Does the Minister agree that that would be to the disadvantage of every mortgage payer in the Duchy of Lancaster and throughout the country?
Mr. Patten : There is much in the hon. Gentleman's question with which I disagree. It will be in the interests of home owners in the future, as it has been in the past, to have a Conservative Government. Thanks to the fact that the country has had a Conservative Government for the past decade, there are more than 3 million additional home owners. All those who have purchased council houses will recognise that if the Labour party had been in power they would not have been able to do so. I am sure that all home owners are very pleased with the 2.5 per cent. reduction in
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interest rates since we joined the exchange rate mechanism and look forward to seeing that reduction feed through to their mortgages.Visits
27. Mr. Shersby : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when he next intends to visit the Duchy.
30. Mr. Bowis : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he has any plans to visit the Duchy in the immediate future.
Mr. Chris Patten : I plan to visit Lancashire on 12, 22 and 23 April.
Mr. Shersby : When my right hon. Friend next visits the Duchy will he make a particular point of calling at Preston and at Fulwood, where I had the good fortune recently to spend a very interesting day calling on Conservative voters? Will he reassure people there that the crippling community charge imposed by Preston council and by Lancashire county council will be greatly abated by the introduction of the new measures announced last week by the Secretary of State for the Environment, my right hon. Friend the Member for Henley (Mr. Heseltine)?
Mr. Patten : I am sure that the measures announced last week will be good for people in Preston, and also for people elsewhere in the county Palatine. Voters in Preston should take note of the number of Preston Labour councillors who have refused to pay their community charge but continue to draw their allowances.
Mr. Bowis : When my right hon. Friend visits the county Palatine he will see that the Government's resolute support for the measures in the prevention of terrorism Acts receive a widespread welcome there and that there is widespread puzzlement at the Labour party's opposition to that legislation and its desire to deny people protection.
Mr. Patten : It is a matter of genuine regret that the Labour party has recently proved so feeble in its resistance to terrorism. It has slipped away from the line that was pursued, for instance, by the noble Lord Mason when he was Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Research Assistants
32. Mr. John Marshall : To ask the Lord President of the Council how many research assistants are currently employed in the House.
The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. John MacGregor) : The total number of research assistants holding photo-identity passes for the House at 12 March 1991 was 465.
Mr. Marshall : I thank my right hon. Friend for his reply. I suspect that there has been a significant reduction in the number of research assistants since the new limit was introduced. Is there any means of checking the quality of work of those assistants? Clearly, the Labour party's figures do not add up.
Mr. MacGregor : There has been a reduction in the number of research assistants, although the limit recommended by the Services Committee relates to
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photo-identity passes for all staff and not just for research assistants. When that limit was introduced, the number was over 600. It is now 465. Beyond what hon. Members do, there is no check, as such, on the quality of work of research assistants. In response to my hon. Friend's final point, I confirm that many questions could be asked about various aspects of Labour party policy.Mr. Foulkes : Is the leader of the House aware that some of us are becoming rather fed up with the continued gratuitous attacks on people who do a good job of work ? It is about time that we had more politics in this place instead of the commercial entertaining that is done by Conservative Members. The flummery of this place, with swords and all the other paraphernalia, is so outdated. The sooner that this is a working Parliament, the better it will be for the people of Britain.
Mr. MacGregor : I am not quite clear what the hon. Gentleman's supplementary question has to do with the original question. It seems that the hon. Gentleman, uncharacteristically, is being a little sensitive especially about the quality of some of the work that is going into Labour party policy, which was the point made by my hon. Friend the member for Hendon, South (Mr. Marshall).
Mr. Simon Hughes : As a serious proposition has been put forward by the London School of Economics for the use of county hall as a library for this House and the other place, and as the Chairman of the Accommodation and Administration Sub-Committee of the Services Committee has canvassed with some support the idea of Members' accommodation being found in county hall--and bearing in mind that the consortium bidding for county hall has gone bust,--will the Leader of the House seriously consider using that building to accommodate research assistants, other support staff and even Members of this House and the other place ?
Mr. MacGregor : I think that it would be right to continue with the completion, which is very near, of phase 1 of Bridge street, which will improve facilities for Members and their secretaries considerably, and then to move on to phase 2, which will again add considerably to facilities.
Stationery
33. Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Lord President of the Council whether he has any plans to change the glue on envelopes which are not of the self-seal variety ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. MacGregor : I have no plans to do so.
Mr. Greenway : I represent my secretary's misgivings about the glue on envelopes not of the self-seal variety. Will my right hon. Friend take some action to change the obnoxious glue currently used on envelopes to something decent such as peppermint or
strawberry-flavoured glue ?
Mr. MacGregor : I will ensure that my hon. Friend's complaint is drawn to the attention of the Serjeant at Arms, who can deal with such matters. In view of the question that my hon. Friend asked previously, I am not sure whether rice pudding-flavoured glue would be appropriate for envelopes.
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Procedures of the House
34. Mr. Skinner : To ask the Lord President of the Council whether he is now in a position to announce the review of the hours and procedures of the House ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. MacGregor : With regard to procedures, I shall continue to look at the scope for improvement and to liaise with the Procedure Committee at its work. As for the hours the House sits, I am considering the variety of opinions that have been expressed to me.
Mr. Skinner : Will the Leader of the House confirm that he has received many representations from all quarters, including some Members, about changing the hours and procedures of this place? Will he confirm also that no Member has asked him to include Sunday sittings? Does that mean that those Members who want to change the hours of work of people outside this place so that they work on Sundays are not altogether keen to work here--I use the word "work" loosely--in Parliament on Sundays? In other words, they wish to keep Sunday special for Parliament.
Mr. MacGregor : I can confirm that I have had a variety of opinions expressed to me about changing working hours. The difficulty is that they are often contradictory. I am considering what might be done in considering these matters. If we make any moves which go beyond the work that the Procedure Committee undertakes, it is important that they are made with some measure of agreement. I can confirm that no request has been made to have the House sitting on Sundays. The hon. Gentleman will know, however, that many Members do a great deal of work on Sundays.
Mr. Dykes : As the job of a Member of this place is definitely a full-time one now, apart from a small minority of thoroughly idle Members whose names he may be able to guess, does my right hon. Friend accept that, as well as making improvements which will modernise the hours and procedures of the House, it is essential to provide the mechanical and physical tools to enable Members to do their job more effectively? Does not that include the ability to make official telephone calls to other Community institutions?
Mr. MacGregor : I hope that my hon. Friend is not suggesting that Members who have some outside interests are idle, as I can assure him that that is not so. Indeed, many of them work very long hours in this place. I am always seeking to improve facilities. I am glad to be able to tell my hon. Friend that the Services Committee has recently agreed that steps should be taken to ensure that very soon it will be possible to make telephone calls as he requests.
Dr. Cunningham : Does the Leader of the House reca:ll the suggestion that he should commission a comparative study on the way in which Parliaments in other democratic countries work and place that study in the Library? What progress has been made on that?
Mr. MacGregor : It is one of the suggestions that may be worth pursuing in relation to looking at other aspects of the way in which the House works. As the hon. Gentleman knows, such comparative studies of other countries' legislature take a long time, and I have to bear
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that in mind. It is also relevant to bear in mind the different traditions and practices of other legislatures. However, I see the purpose of the hon. Gentleman's suggestion.Mesopotamia
35. Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Lord President of the Council if he will bring forward proposals to set up a Select Committee to consider health problems in Mesopotamia.
Mr. Dalyell : As waterborne diseases are silent assassins and millions of people with whom we are told that we have no quarrel have to drink water from a river awash with human faeces, and as a horrendous civil war has developed since my question was tabled, is it satisfactory that the House will not discuss those matters for at least another 21 days and has not done so, other than in private Members' or minority party time, since January?
Mr. MacGregor : That does not relate to the hon. Gentleman's question. As I have told the hon. Gentleman on other occasions, I do not believe that a Select Committee is an appropriate place to consider that issue. It is always open to departmental Select Committees to study aspects of problems germane to their specific subjects if they so wish, but any discussions must relate to the subject that concerns them.
On the situation in Mesopotamia, a multi-agency United Nations mission recently returned from Iraq, where it was assessing humanitarian needs. It has yet to report to the United Nations. The Government have already contributed a considerable sum to emergency relief supplies.
Parliamentary Medical Services
36. Mr. Butler : To ask the Lord President of the Council what information he has on the on-site medical provision for members of other EC Parliaments including the European Parliament.
Mr. MacGregor : Meaningful information about medical facilities in the Parliaments of the European Community is not readily available.
Mr. Butler : Will my right hon. Friend undertake a survey to gather such meaningful information to ensure that we are not the poor relation in that respect?
Mr. MacGregor : I know that my hon. Friend has much interest in those matters, but I do not think that a survey would add greatly to the knowledge which led the Services Committee, the authorities of the House and qualified and professional medical opinion to conclude that a general practitioner service would be inappropriate for the House. All those bodies came to the conclusion that such a service could not operate in accordance with criteria set down by the family practitioner committee, would not operate in the best interests of Members and their relationship with their regular GPs, and would be detrimental to agreed emergency procedures. I assure my hon. Friend that a number of people have studied the matter with considerable care. Having studied it carefully myself, I believe that the right conclusion has been reached.
Mr. Tony Banks : Does the Leader of the House agree that the bulk of Parliament's work is carried on the backs
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of a relatively small number of assiduous Members of Parliament who rightly complain about the lack of resources and facilities? Will he undertake a comparative study of the facilities available--Mr. Speaker : Order. Does the question relate to medical facilities?
Mr. Banks : --medical facilities, secretarial facilities, research facilities and other facilities, to see how we compare with other Parliaments in Europe?
Mr. MacGregor : I have already said that I am trying to improve facilities wherever possible. The building in Bridge street will soon be an important additional step. I disagree with the hon. Gentleman's assumption that only a small number of Members carry a heavy load in the House. The vast majority of Members work extremely long hours. Moreover, I do not see how the hon. Gentleman's question relates to on-site medical provision in other Parliaments.
Mr. Winnick : On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. My hon. Friend the Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell), who takes a different view from mine on the Gulf war, mentioned that the House will not be sitting for two weeks. I should like to seek your advice, Mr. Speaker, because there have been persistent reports that the Saddam
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Hussein regime is using napalm weapons against the forces fighting in the present civil war. That appears to be in clear breach of international conventions and United Nations resolutions on the Gulf. Would it be right and proper for the House to break up without a statement from the Foreign Secretary? Many of us believe that the allies should give a clear warning to the Saddam Hussein regime that, should such action persist, the allies will have to consider what action to take.Mr. Speaker : It is not for me to advise the hon. Gentleman on tactics, but if he was here last Thursday he would have heard me say that subjects for the Adjournment debate should be in my office by 10 o'clock this evening. The subject that he mentioned seems an admirable one to raise if he is fortunate in the ballot.
BILL PRESENTED
Hospital Schools in London
Ms. Harriet Harman, supported by Ms. Joan Ruddock, Mr. Tom Cox, Miss Kate Hoey, Mr. John Fraser, Ms. Diane Abbott and Mr. Clive Soley, presented a Bill to make arrangements for the education of children in hospitals in London : And the same was read the First time ; and ordered to be read a Second time on 19 April and to be printed. [Bill 119.]
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