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Mr. Redwood : None as far as I am aware.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to abolish the audit requirements for two- shareholder small family-owned limited companies.
Financial Reporting Review Panel
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many cases he has referred to the financial reporting review panel.
Auditing Practices Board
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) if he will make it his policy to place in the Library a copy of all documents obtained by his representative on the Auditing Practices Board ;
(2) whether he will propose legislation under which it will be an offence for the Auditing Standards Board not to provide information to a Member of the House which it provides to auditing firms.
Mr. Redwood : No doubt the Auditing Practices Board will bear in mind the hon. Member's interest when deciding its policy on access to its papers.
European Single Market
Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information he has as to the number of directives aimed at the creation of a single market within the European Community which have been enacted in the national legislatures of each member state and subsequently implemented ; and what percentage of the total number of directives this represents in each case.
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Mr. Sainsbury : The Commission's sixth report to the Council and European Parliament was presented to the Internal Market Council on 18 June. The report shows that out of 126 measures due in force on 31 May 1991 member states have the following record :Column 451
|1 |2 |3 |4 |5
|Measures not |Measures |Derogations |Not applicable|Percentage
|implemented |implemented |implemented<1>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Denmark |12 |107 |0 |7 |90
France |18 |103 |0 |5 |86
United Kingdom |20 |99 |1 |6 |84
Portugal |25 |96 |3 |2 |80
Germany |25 |95 |0 |6 |80
Greece |29 |87 |5 |5 |77
Belgium |31 |89 |0 |6 |75
Netherlands |34 |86 |0 |6 |73
Luxembourg |37 |81 |0 |8 |71
Spain |38 |83 |2 |3 |70
Ireland |44 |74 |1 |7 |65
Italy |69 |52 |0 |5 |45
<1> Includes columns 3 and 4.
Burma
Sir David Steel : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether Burma currently receives export credit guarantees.
Mr. Sainsbury : Guarantees for medium and long-term credits in connection with exports from the United Kingdom to Burma have not been available from ECGD since September 1988. Guarantees are, however, available for short-term credits normally secured by irrevocable letters of credit.
Co-operatives
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what United Kingdom organisations his Department has consulted on the proposal for a European statute on co-operatives, mutuals and voluntary organisations.
Mr. Redwood : The European statute proposed by the European Commission on co-operatives, mutuals and voluntary organisations is still at draft stage. However, a large number of organisations in the United Kingdom are already aware of it. Should a formal proposal emerge from the Commission, the Government will consult widely among interested organisations, as is the normal practice.
PRIME MINISTER
Engagements
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 25 June.
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 25 June.
The Prime Minister : This morning I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House I shall be having further meetings later today. This evening I hope to have an audience of Her Majesty the Queen.
East Timor
Mrs. Mahon : To ask the Prime Minister if, at his recent meeting with Indonesia's Minister for Research, J B Habibie, the question of the illegal occupation of East Timor was discussed ; and if he will make a statement.
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The Prime Minister : East Timor was not discussed. The Indonesian authorities are aware of our views on East Timor.
Injured Grenadiers
Mr. John Browne : To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his oral answer of 4 June, Official Report, column 151, when he expects to complete his examination of the case for making an ex gratia payment to the guardsmen injured at the Batus range on 7 July 1989.
The Prime Minister : As I have already indicated the proper grounds for paying compensation is on the basis of legal liability.
Mr. Winnick : To ask the Prime Minister if he will receive a deputation of hon. Members to discuss the case of Guardsmen Sean Povey, Adrian Hicks and John Ray.
The Prime Minister [holding answer 17 June 1991] : No. I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Browne) earlier today.
Oil Seed Rape
Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Prime Minister if he will establish an inter-departmental review of the public health implications of planting crops of oil seed rape near central populations.
The Prime Minister : My hon. Friend the Minister of State, Scottish Office announced in the House on 8 February 1990 at columns 1125-32 that financial support had been offered for a project based at Aberdeen university examining the possible effects on public health which might be associated with oil seed rape. I see no reason for further action at this stage.
Co-operatives
Mr. Michael : To ask the Prime Minister what arrangements he has made to co-ordinate Department's views on the proposed European statute on co-operatives, mutuals and voluntary organisations.
The Prime Minister : The European statute proposed by the European Commission on co-operatives, mutuals and voluntary organisations is still at draft stage. Given the wide coverage of the statute, a number of Departments have an interest. There are continuing inter departmental contracts at official level to co-ordinate views as necessary.
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Council of Europe
Mr. Ward : To ask the Prime Minister if he has made any changes to the composition of the United Kingdom delegation to the 43rd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
The Prime Minister [pursuant to his reply, 20 June 1991, c. 235] : The changes I have made will take effect from Friday 28 June.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
City Technology Colleges
8. Mr. Holt : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has to increase the total number of city technology colleges ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : In addition to the seven CTCs already running, a further six will be opening in September this year. I recently announced that CTCs will also be built in Bristol and Derby. These will bring the total number to 15. I am considering the prospects of getting plans for further CTCs under way and I am looking at a number of other interesting ways in which the benefits of CTCs might be spread through the education service.
24. Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his latest estimate of the total cost to public funds of his city technology college policy.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : To 31 March 1991, the total cost to public funds of the city technology college programme was £103.9 million, including some £12 million in recurrent costs. Current public expenditure plans provide for a total of £250.7 million to be spent on the programme to the end of financial year 1993-94, including both capital and recurrent costs. These figures are net of the private sector contribution, which will represent at least 20 per cent. of the capital cost of the programme.
Truancy
11. Mr. Ashton : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is his estimate of the current daily level of truancy among schoolchildren.
Mr. Fallon : It is clear from evidence collected by Her Majesty's inspectorate of schools and others that truancy constitutes a major problem in some schools. Our proposals on school attendance will stimulate all schools to give a higher priority to attendance and require figures to be published.
Standard Assessment Tasks
15. Mr. Harris : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what recent representations he has received on changes to standard assessment tasks.
16. Mr. Nellist : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what representations he has received on standard assessment tasks and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Eggar : My right hon. and learned Friend and I continue to receive and welcome the views of a wide range
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of people involved in the recent testing of seven-year-olds. All such representations feed directly into the wider evaluation now under way, and help to inform the development of the tests to be used in 1992.School Transport
17. Mr. Gill : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what representations he has received regarding amendments to existing legislation affecting school transport.
Mr. Fallon : My right hon. and learned Friend regularly receives representations suggesting various interpretations and amendments to the law on school transport.
Schools Amalgamation, Wandsworth
18. Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will seek a report of the views of parents of children attending schools in Wandsworth that Wandsworth council is seeking to amalgamate, before deciding on the council's proposals.
Mr. Eggar : If the council wishes to amalgamate some of its schools, it is required to publish proposals under section 12 of the 1980 Act. Parents of children attending schools affected by such proposals will have the opportunity to make their views known during the two-month objection period following publication. My right hon. and learned Friend will take those objections into account in making his decisions on proposals which come before him.
Sixth-form Colleges
19. Mr. Latham : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will make a statement on the response to his proposals for the future of sixth-form colleges.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : The initial response has been encouraging. Many college principals have indicated that they welcome the opportunity to exercise greater control over their own affairs.
Secondary Schools
20. Sir Teddy Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he has any plans to change secondary school organisation.
Mr. Fallon : The organisation of secondary schools is dealt with in the Education Acts 1980 and 1988. My right hon. and learned Friend has already announced the Government's plans to restructure provision for the 16 to 19 age range, including sixth-form colleges. These are set out in the White Paper "Education and Training for the 21st Century". We shall keep the need for other changes under review.
Teacher Appraisal
21. Mr. McCartney : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has to ensure teacher appraisal is introduced throughout the school system ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : My right hon. and learned Friend intends to introduce regulations later this summer to require local
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education authorities and the governing bodies of grant-maintained schools to arrange for the appraisal of all teachers starting in September 1991.Reading (Teacher Training)
22. Mr. Favell : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he will establish an inquiry into the way teachers are trained to teach reading ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Colne Valley (Mr. Riddick) on 23 April 1991, Official Report, columns 891-92.
Local Education Authorities
23. Mr. Eastham : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proposals he is considering on the role of local education authorities ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proposals he is considering regarding the role of the local education authorities ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I have announced proposals for transferring further education colleges and sixth-form colleges out of local authority control. I have also made it clear that I expect grant-maintained status to become over time the natural organisational model for most schools. These changes will have a significant impact on the role of education authorities, transferring responsibility for day-to-day management to individual schools and colleges.
Grant-maintained Schools
25. Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many schools have now opted for grant-maintained status.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : A total of 200 schools have now voted in favour of seeking grant-maintained status. Of these, 155 schools have so far published proposals for grant-maintained status. We have approved 88, rejected 13 and have yet to decide the remaining 54.
26. Mrs. Ann Winterton : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the aims of the policy relating to grant-maintained schools.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : Grant-maintained schools policy aims to increase parental choice, to make schools more responsive to local needs, to enable resources to be more effectively used for the benefit of pupils and to foster higher educational standards.
Expenditure Statistics
27. Mr. John Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was the average expenditure per pupil at primary and secondary level in 1979 ; and what is the latest available figure.
Mr. Fallon : In 1978-79, net institutional expenditure per pupil was £365 in nursery and primary schools and
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£530 in secondary schools. At 1988-89 prices this represents some £805 and £1,165 respectively. In 1988 -89, the latest year for which information is available, the equivalent figures are £1,100 per nursery and primary pupil and £1,695 per secondary pupil.Special Educational Needs
Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what plans he has to encourage schools to purchase private services to deal with special educational needs ; and if this includes purchase of the hospital psychologist service for educational psychology.
Mr. Fallon : Where schools have delegated budgets under local management of schools they are free to purchase services from anywhere and will be looking to ensure that the services they receive provide value for money and are effective.
Nuclear Physics
Mr. Butler : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the nuclear physics section of the laboratories in the 1990s, recently published by the Science and Engineering Research Council.
Mr. Alan Howarth : The recently published report "The Laboratories in the 1990s" was prepared for the SERC in July 1990. The section on nuclear physics describes the plans for support of the subject, as they then stood, by the council's nuclear physics board. These plans have, however, now been overtaken by SERC's major review of its forward commitments.
A-levels
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the future of (a) A-levels and (b) the proposed ordinary and advanced diplomas.
Mr. Eggar : The White Paper "Education and Training for the 21st century", published last month, makes clear the Government's commitment to maintaining A-levels and the standards they represent. Formal consultation will begin shortly on the new system of ordinary and advanced diplomas.
Women Teachers
Mr. Walden : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what the proportion of women in the teaching profession was for the years 1979, 1985 and 1990.
Mr. Fallon : Women teachers as a percentage of qualified teachers in maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England for the years requested are shownin the table.
|Per cent.
------------------------------
1979 |60
1985 |61
1990 |65
Inner London
Sir Michael McNair-Wilson : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take powers to enable himself to become involved in the problems of inner London education authorities if such a request is made to him by one third of the elected councillors.
Mr. Eggar : My right hon. and learned Friend already has powers to direct any local education authority to operate reasonably and to carry out its statutory responsibilities ; and in addition has the power to approve the management structure of, and staff appointments to, the inner London education authorities.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Waste Incineration
Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions he has had, when, and with whom regarding the incineration of toxic and hazardous wastes in Northern Ireland.
Mr. Needham : At a meeting of the Anglo-Irish conference on 31 January 1991, I exchanged views on this and other environmental issues with the Minister for the Environment in the Irish Republic, Mr. Flynn. I have also discussed with the management of Du Pont (UK) Ltd., their proposal for a hazardous waste incinerator and have visited the company's site at Maydown, County Londonderry.
Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether it is intended that plastic and throwaway paper items can be disposed of in the proposed incinerator at Maydown, County Londonderry.
Mr. Needham : The incinerator proposed by Du Pont (UK) Ltd. would not be intended for the incineration of general municipal waste. It would be a specialist facility designed to dispose of certain industrial wastes produced in the chemical and allied industries by a process known as high temperature incineration.
Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to monitor the stack emissions of the proposed incinerator at Maydown, County Londonderry.
Mr. Needham : The alkali and radiochemical inspectorate of the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland would be responsible for ensuring that the emissions from the stack of any such incinerator, once started, were monitored for compliance with the standards prescribed by the Department. In addition to its own direct monitoring of emissions, the inspectorate would audit the routine in-house monitoring undertaken by the operator.
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Health Service
Mr. A. Cecil Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (1) what is the perinatal mortality rate in each of the last 10 years at (a) Royal Victoria hospital, Belfast, (b) Belfast City hospital, (c) Mater hospital, Belfast and (d) Ulster hospital ;
(2) what was the mortality rate for women in each of the last 10 years in the obstetric units at (a) Royal Victoria hospital, Belfast, (b) Belfast City hospital, (c) Mater hospital, Belfast and (d) Ulster hospital.
Mr. Hanley : The information is not held centrally, but it should be noted that the perinatal mortality rate for the whole of Northern Ireland has fallen sharply over the past decade from a level of 15.6 in 1980--some 17 per cent. higher than in Great Britain--to 8.2 in 1989 when the rate for England and Wales was 8.3. Despite the improvements the rate still varies significantly within Northern Ireland between socio-economic classes and geographical areas.
Mr. A. Cecil Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many deliveries were recorded in each year since 1989 in the obstetric unit of the Ulster hospital.
Mr. Hanley : The deliveries, including live and still births, recorded were :
Year |Deliveries --------------------------------- 1989 |1923 1990 |1929
Radioactivity
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what estimate he has made of the time period it will take before the radioactive products from the Chernobyl accident will be reduced to a level to permit the full use of agricultural land in the province.
Mr. Hanley : There has been no change in the use of agricultural land as a consequence of the Chernobyl accident.
There is a slow fall in the levels of radioactivity in sheep from the restricted areas. Radiocaesium remains available for uptake by plants in the affected upland area due to the absence in the soil of minerals which would render the radiocaesium unavailable to plants. It is not possible to predict how long restrictions on movement and slaughter of sheep from these areas will remain in place. Monitoring of sheep continues and restrictions will continue to be lifted when the safety of the food chain can be assured.
Extradition
Mr. Trimble : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list the persons who have been extradited for terrorist offences since 1980 (a) from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland ; and (b) from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland, giving the year in which the extradition occured and indicating the outcome of the case.
Dr. Mawhinney : The information is as follows :
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Extradition from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland
Person |Year |Outcome
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dominic McGlinchey |1984 |Convictions quashed by Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.
James A. G. Shannon |1984 |Convictions quashed by Northern Ireland Court of Appeal.
John McFarland Fletcher |1987 |Convicted in 1988 for charges relating to possession of firearms.
Gerard M. Harte |1988 |Extradited in August 1988 and convicted for a series of offences
| in December 1988.
Robert P. Russell |1988 |Conviction for attempted murder quashed by Court of Appeal.
| Served sentence for convictions relating to escape from Her
| Majesty's Prison Maze.
Paul Anthony Kane |1989 |Extradited and convicted for offences relating to escape from Her
| Majesty's Prison Maze.
Note: These dates are the years on which they were physically extradited not the date on which their extradition was ordered.
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Extradition from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland Person |Year |Outcome ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dominic McGlinchey |1985 |Convicted of offences committed in the Republic of Ireland.
SCOTLAND
Local Government Finance
Mrs. Roe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the financial adjustment fixed by each charging local authority in Scotland for 1991-92 to be paid by each charge payer as a result of the failure, anticipated or actual, of all charge payers to pay charges lawfully demanded ; and what were the comparable figures for 1990-91.
Mr. Allan Stewart : The information requested is not held centrally. However, I understand that a number of authorities included an additional sum in their 1991-92 community charge to compensate for shortfall of income caused by non-collection in 1989-90 and 1990-91. These include Lothian (£48) and Strathclyde (£42). I am not aware of any comparable addition to the 1990-91 charges.
Mr. Maxton : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, pursuant to his answer of 7 May, Official Report, column 415 -16, what is the Scottish average rate of local income tax required to replace the budget income from the poll tax in 1991-92, including rebates and after receipt of community charge grant.
Mr. Allan Stewart : The rate is 6.0 pence in the pound.
Gross Domestic Product
Mr. Maxton : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish a table of Scotland's share of United Kingdom gross domestic product per head of population excluding the continental shelf for each year since 1961.
Mr. Allan Stewart : The table gives the information requested for each year since 1971, the earliest year for which this information is available on a consistent basis.
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