House of Commons Hansard Debates for 2 May 1991

Mr. Hanley : Yes, if it becomes apparent that there is abuse of salbutamol. At present we are only aware of abuse of clenbuterol.

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Beta Agonist Drugs

Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many post-mortem tests are carried out each year on the eyeballs of bovines suspected of treatments with beta agonist drugs.

Mr. Hanley : Post-mortem tests concentrate on liver, as this is the edible tissue in which the highest levels of residue are found relative to the rest of the carcase. It also gives the most consistent results. The potential use of other tissue is being studied.

Mr. John D. Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in which part of an affected animal have residues of beta agonist drugs most frequently been found by official inspections in the past 12 months.

Mr. Hanley : Residues of beta agonists have been found most frequently in the liver.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Community Charge Rebates

Mr. Nicholas Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the cost of introducing a 100 per cent. rebate for community charge payers on income support and equivalent incomes in 1991-92.

Miss Widdecombe : A maximum community charge benefit of 100 per cent. of liability would affect all people receiving community charge benefit, including those on income support and equivalent incomes. The total cost in 1991-92 of 100 per cent. maximum community charge benefit would be some £380 million at current benefit levels. This estimate assumes that no reductions are made in the income-related benefit levels which were adjusted in April 1989 to include help towards the 20 per cent. contribution to the community charge at an estimated cost of £500 million.

Source : Modelled using data drawn from 1986/7/8 family expenditure surveys.

Child Benefit

Ms. Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) how much will be saved from the clawback of the increase in child benefit of £1 from parents' income support ;

(2) how many (a) single parents and (b) parents did not receive the child benefit increase of £1 because they are in receipt of income support and have had the increase deducted from their income support.

Miss Widdecombe : It is estimated that approximately (a) 850,000 single parents and (b) 400,000 other families on income support have received the £1 increase in child benefit for the only, eldest or elder child from April. The payment of this extra amount has been taken into account for income support purposes in the normal way. It is estimated that the extra cost of disregarding the increase in child benefit in income support would be £65 million a year. Income support rates were also increased from April, and it is estimated that over 99 per cent. of income support recipients will have seen an overall increase in their

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benefits. Families will receive a further increase in child benefit in October and, exceptionally, the family premium and child allowances will be increased at the same time so that those on income-related benefits gain the advantage of that increase. Source : 1989 ASE uprated to 1991-92 price and benefit levels.

Pensions

Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when is the appointed day for the imposition of new requirements for pension increases included in the Social Security Act 1990.

Miss Widdecombe: No final decision has yet been made.

Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the implementation of the provision in the Social Security Act 1990 which requires pension schemes to increase the deferred pensions of anyone leaving by 5 per cent. per annum for all of their pensionable service.

Miss Widdecombe : This provision came into force on 1 January 1991.

Benefits (Manchester)

Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people are receiving (a) income support, (b) family credit and (c) housing benefit ; and what percentage of the Manchester population this represents.

Miss Widdecombe : The administration of benefits is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available and copies will be placed in the Library and the public information office.

Bari Mustard Gas Disaster

Mr. Robert Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, pursuant to the answer, Official Report, 4February, column 63, if he will publish in the Official Report how many of the survivors of the Bari harbour mustard gas disaster in 1943 died of (a) lung cancer and (b) other forms of cancer.

Miss Widdecombe : The information requested is not available.

Income Support

Mr. Darling : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is his Department's target for clearing income support claims at each Edinburgh office (a) in 1991 and (b) in 1992 ; and what is the actual time taken to clear such claims at present.

Miss Widdecombe : The administration of income support is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member and copies will be placed in the Library and the public information office.

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Departmental Land (London)

Mr. Fisher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how much land his Department owns in London ; and how much of that land is unused.

Mr. Jack : The Department owns 1.05 hectares of land in London, of which 0.2 hectares is unused. Disposal of this recently vacated site is being actively pursued.

Pension Schemes

Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the total cost to the national insurance fund, in the financial year 1991-92 and in a full year, of allowing people to contract out of SERPs into a money purchase personal pension scheme giving figures separately for (a) people contracting out of SERPs in 1991-92 and (b) all schemes, giving figures also for Great Britain and the United Kingdom.

Miss Widdecombe [holding answer 30 April 1991] : The amount of revenue forgone by the national insurance fund is made up of the contracted-out rebate which was first introduced in April 1978, and the 2 per cent. incentive payment introduced in April 1988. The Government Actuary estimates that about 0.5 million people will receive payments towards personal pensions for the first time during 1991-92 and the estimated amount of revenue forgone by the national insurance fund in respect of those people will be £260 million for Great Britain, made up of £190 million rebate and £70 million incentive.

The estimated amount of revenue forgone in respect of the total of 4.5 million who will receive payments during 1991-92 will be £2,350 million for Great Britain, made up of £1,740 million rebate and £610 million incentive.

Information relating to Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will estimate the total cost to the national insurance fund in the financial year 1991-92 and in a full year of the 2 per cent. banded earnings offered as an incentive to opt out of SERPs, giving figures for Great Britain and the United Kingdom.

Miss Widdecombe [holding answer 30 April 1991]: In the year 1991-92 the Government Actuary estimates that the amount of revenue forgone by the national insurance fund as the result of the incentive payment will be £750 million for Great Britain. This is in respect of an estimated 4.5 million personal pension optants and 1 million members of contracted- out occupational pension schemes who are eligible for incentive payments.

The estimated amount of revenue forgone by offering the incentive in 1991- 92 amounts to about 2 per cent. of the total income of the national insurance fund.

It is also estimated that encouraging people to plan for their retirement in this way will result in a reduction in gross public expenditure of £2 billion a year in 2010 rising to £14 billion a year in 2035.

Information relating to Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.

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