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in the Argyll and Clyde health board area on 15 August 1990. Several districts have been completed and screening will begin in Oban on 22 April 1991, with the mobile unit subsequently moving to Mull and Lochgilphead. The opportunity will be available to women from nearby islands to be screened at that time.Screening is expected to take place in the Western Isles during autumn 1992.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what progress has been made in supplying a mobile breast cancer screening unit in Inverness to cover the Highland health board area ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The mobile unit will operate from the static screening and assessment centre at Raigmore, Inverness and is currently undergoing final maintenance and equipment checks. The intention is for the static and mobile screening service to begin screening in early summer.
Mrs. Ray Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many women on average are screened at a mobile breast cancer screening unit in one year ; and what is the cost of running one such unit and the number of units currently operational, by health board area in Scotland.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : There are six mobile breast cancer screening units currently operating in Scotland. The information on costs and numbers screened is not available as the service is not yet fully operational.
Industrial Sites
Mr. Worthington : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what information he has on trends in the supply of fully serviced industrial sites in the past two years.
Mr. Allan Stewart [holding answer 28 January 1991] : The information is not available in the form requested. The nearest equivalent information, available from the industrial sites register (the joint annual register of industrial land) is on sites which are immediately available or could be made available within one year. The data for 1985 to 1989 are as follows :
|1985 |1986 |1987 |1988 |1989
----------------------------------------------------
Area (hectares) |2,567|2,814|3,337|2,743|2,821
Number of sites |535 |534 |549 |567 |629
The 1989 survey is still being analysed, and figures may be liable to adjustment. The 1990 survey is under way.
Mr. Worthington : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much provision of fully serviced industrial sites has been made available by (i) Scottish new towns,(ii) Scottish Development Agency, (iii) Highland and Islands Development Board and (iv) Scottish local authorities, in each of the past 10 years.
Mr. Allan Stewart [holding answer 28 January 1991] : The information is not available in the form requested, but the following table may be helpful :
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Provision for industrial sites in Scotland
|1980-81 |1981-82 |1982-83 |1983-84 |1984-85 |1985-86 |1986-87 |1987-88 |1988-89 |1989-90
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New town development £'000s -------Not available------- 3,300 2,400 3,300 3,500 3,400 4,400
corporations<1> Land owned<3> 569 540 540 538 557 NYA
SDA<2> £'000s -------Not available------- 2,677 2,044 1,969 3,796 4,802
Site numbers 29 18 21 19 14
|Land owned<3> |410 |397 |366 |463 |483 |NYA
HIDB |£'000s |4,600 |4,800 |7,200 |5,300 |6,300 |4,200 |2,800 |4,100 |6,600 |7,400
|Site numbers |6 |9 |8 |4 |7 |8 |6 |6 |7 |8
Land owned<3> 39 35 36 44 57 NYA
Local authorities<2> |£'000s |8,225 |9,243 |11,511 |9,887 |13,077 |15,437 |15,488 |17,091 |17,738 |17,415
Land owned<3> 1,741 1,988 2,046 <4>1,305 1,803 NYA
<1>These figures relate to site development work only.
<2>These figures relate to total expenditure on factory building and industrial sites. Returns do not allow for site only information to be supplied.
<3>These figures (in hectares) are for land owned by the agencies and bodies shown and identified for industrial purposes. It includes both fully serviced and unserviced sites. The data is
as published in the Industrial Sites Register. The data is as at 31 March for the year concerned, thus the 1,741 hectares shown for local authorities in the 1984-85 column shows the
picture at 31 March 1985.
<4>The drop in the local authority entry for 1988 is explained by the introduction of new marketability criteria, as detailed in the published Commentary on the Industrial Sites Register
1988.
NYA-Not yet available.
High-technology Premises
Mr. Worthington : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what high-technology premises are being planned or supplied for Scotland and by when.
Mr. Allan Stewart [holding answer 28 January 1991] : The supply of premises for high-technology companies is not monitored. The industrial sites register does not specifically record sites suitable for high-technology companies, and it would not be feasible to do so. Existing premises may often be sufficient to meet the needs of many such companies.
ENVIRONMENT
Audit Commission
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment who is responsible for auditing the work of the Audit Commission.
Mr. Key : Paragraph 12 of schedule 3 to the Local Government Finance Act 1982 requires the Commission to keep proper accounts and other records ; to prepare a statement of account in respect of each financial year in the form directed by the Secretary of State ; and submit the statement to him by the date he directs. The Secretary of State is required, on or before 30 November in each year, to transmit the statement of account to the Comptroller and Auditor-General who is required to examine and certify the statement of account and lay copies before Parliament with his report on it.
Leisure Centres
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has plans to ensure that local authorities who run leisure and entertainment complexes shall be required to publish at one and the same time capital and revenue accounts for each undertaking.
Mr. Key : My right hon. Friend has no such plans.
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Local Authorities (Tendering)
Mr. Michael Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what safeguards there are in the local authority competitive tendering process to ensure that the terms and conditions of the tender are not subsequently varied by mutual consent.
Mr. Key : Under part I of the Local Government Act 1988, local authorities must comply with a number of tendering requirements if they wish to use their own work-forces to carry out defined activities after dates set out in subordinate legislation. One of these requirements is that, in carrying out the work, they must comply with the detailed specification which was prepared as the basis for competitive tendering, although this will normally provide limited scope for some variation in the work to be done. The Secretary of State has sanction powers under the 1988 Act which he may use if he considers that an authority has failed to comply with the statutory requirements.
Urban Programme
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list for the city of Sheffield the number of projects which were not given approval for 1991-92 under the urban programme, indicating the nature of the projects rejected and giving a percentage figure, and a cash value figure, which related to the ethnic minority community ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Portillo : The Sheffield urban programme for 1991-92 includes 105 new projects, of which 83 were approved on 1 March. The 22 projects which could not be approved have a total value of £1,035,000 and include five projects relating to the ethnic minority community costing £530,000.
My Department met Sheffield city council on 20 March and the council is now working up information on most of the 22 rejected projects in order to resubmit them. Any attempt to assess the number of projects finally rejected would therefore be premature.
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Industrial Waste
Mr. Bendall : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he intends to make available to the public information concerning the nature of industrial waste being dumped in any given local authority area.
Mr. Baldry : Waste disposal plans drawn up and published by waste disposal authorities should give a picture of the industrial waste arising and where it goes for disposal within each authority's area. The deposit of industrial waste is illegal unless authorised by a licence from the waste disposal authority under part I of the Control of Pollution Act 1974. Waste disposal authorities must keep registers of all such licences open to the public. Each licence shows the types of waste permitted at each site. Under section 64 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the information to be kept on public registers will be greatly expanded. The extent of this information will be prescribed in regulations on which my Department will be consulting publicly before the implementation of section 64. Individual records are kept of the transport and disposal of the most difficult and harmful wastes, designated as special waste under the Control of Pollution Act 1974. These records are copied to waste disposal authorities. In a consultation paper ("Control of Pollution Act 1974, the Special Waste Regulations 1980, a Consultation Paper, Special Waste and the Control of its Disposal") issued by my Department and the Welsh Office last year, the Government proposed that registers of special waste records should be open for public inspection.
Climate Convention
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is Her Majesty's Government's policy towards the inclusion of a commitment to the precautionary principle in the climate convention currently under inter-governmental negotiation.
Mr. Baldry : Negotiations for a framework convention on climate change are taking place under an inter-governmental negotiating committee established by the United Nations General Assembly. The United Kingdom is playing an active role in the negotiations and we hope that the convention will include an expression of the need for precautionary action in the face of serious or irreversible threats of environmental degradation.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Trotter : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the specific grant received by each local authority in respect of (a) community charge rebate and (b) transitional relief for the year 1990-91.
Mr. Key : I am arranging for the available information for 1990-91 to be placed in the Library of the House. I shall be in a position to publish a final figure for the amount of transitional relief given when local authorities submit their final grant claims later this year.
Water Pollution
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those rivers in England where prosecutions have been undertaken because of pollution ;
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who were the polluters ; what fines were levied ; and what remedial measures were ordered in each case to prevent a recurrence of the pollution.Mr. Baldry : This information is not held centrally. The National Rivers Authority is responsible for enforcing water pollution controls, and is empowered to carry out operations to prevent or remedy pollution where appropriate.
I understand that the authority brought a total of 370 prosecutions for water pollution offences in England and Wales during its first year of operation to 31 August 1990.
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy towards control of the dumping of rubbish and other pollutants from private boats in estuaries and inshore waters.
Mr. Baldry : Under the provisions of the 1989 Water Act it is an offence to cause or knowingly permit the entry of polluting or solid waste matter to "controlled waters", (which include estuaries and inshore waters), although the discharge of trade or sewage effluent from a vessel is excluded from these controls. The Merchant Shipping (Prevention of Pollution by Garbage) Regulations 1988, which extend to private boats, impose restrictions on the disposal of garbage, defined as all kinds of victual, domestic and operational waste, into the sea. The Merchant Shipping (Reception Facilities for Garbage) Regulations 1988 require every harbour authority in the United Kingdom to provide facilities for receiving garbage from ships.
The Gulf (Birds)
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what consideration he is giving to the International Council for Bird Preservation and RSPB reports on the Gulf birds.
Mr. Baldry [holding answer 21 March 1991] : As I indicated to the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell) on 15 March at column 1392, I very much welcome the initiative taken by the International Council for Bird Preservation (ICBP) in sending two experts to the Gulf earlier this month.
The ICBP has now prepared a proposal for further work to survey the spring migration in the Gulf in April and May. We have been interested to see this and will consider it carefully and I understand that ICBP has discussed the proposal with the National Commission for Wildlife Conservation and Development in Saudi Arabia.
Oil-skimming Equipment, Bahrain
Mr. Barry Field : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment who supplied and manufactured the oil skimming equipment handed over by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in Bahrain last week.
Mr. Baldry [holding answer 22 March 1991] : The equipment was supplied by DESMI Ltd. from its factory in Newcastle, Staffordshire. These particular items were manufactured in Denmark by DESMI's parent company, A/S De Smithske, and use major United Kingdom components, particularly engines made by Lister Diesels, hydraulic equipment from Hamworthy Ltd. of Poole, Dorset, and valves manufactured by Chalwyn Valves Ltd.
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Recycling Credits
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the progress in the introduction of recycling credits.
Mr. Baldry [pursuant to the answer, 30 January 1991, c. 537] : The Touche Ross report on recycling credits
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commissioned by my Department has been published today. Copies have been placed in the Library. We will publish draft regulations and guidance on the calculation and payment of recycling credits for consultation with local authorities in due course, taking account of the advice we have received.
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