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Thousands
|Manufac- |Energy/ |Services |Other
|turing |water |industries
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March 1979 |604 |71 |1,190 |199
1980 |578 |74 |1,220 |202
1981 |519 |73 |1,217 |189
1982 |486 |72 |1,204 |170
1983 |450 |70 |1,189 |171
1984 |432 |66 |1,210 |172
1985 |432 |65 |1,227 |166
1986 |421 |61 |1,229 |157
1987 |405 |55 |1,236 |157
1988 |406 |57 |1,280 |154
1989 |412 |57 |1,326 |152
1990 |397 |59 |1,337 |162
1991 |388 |61 |1,355 |152
Registers of Scotland
Sir Hector Monro : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when the annual report of the Registers of Scotland executive agency will be published.
Mr. Lang : Copies of the annual report have today been placed in the Library.
Adult Education
Mr. Bill Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement about his plans for the future of adult education.
Mr. Lang : The White Paper "Access and Opportunity" sets out proposals designed to encourage greater participation by people in education and training throughout their working lives.
I welcome the expansion of adult provision over recent years. This has been encouraged by programmes such as the Scottish wider access programme and by the reform of vocational qualifications. Further education colleges have played an important part in this process and will continue to do so.
Subject to the passage of legislation, I will take over from 1 April 1993 the duty of education authorities under Section 1 of the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 to secure adequate and efficient provision of further education in the following areas :
(a) Courses leading to vocational qualifications ;
(b) Courses leading to any Scottish Examination Board qualifications or GCE ;
(c) Courses to meet special educational needs ;
(d) Courses for speakers of languages other than the English language to gain proficiency in the English language ;
(e) Courses preparing for access to higher education institutions or advanced vocational qualifications ; and
(f) Courses and activities designed to facilitate adult participation in education and training.
Education authorities will also be given a power to secure provision of further education in these areas.
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Education authorities will retain a duty to secure adequate and efficient provision of other areas of further education. This will include community education which encompasses social and recreational education.Colleges of further education will, therefore, provide a wide range of education for adults and education authorities will retain their responsibility for community education. Provision for that can continue to be made in a wide range of facilities, including schools and colleges.
Electricity
Sir Hector Monro : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland whether the Scottish electricity companies have produced statements on the preservation of amenity in accordance with schedule 9 to the Electricity Act 1989.
Mr. Lang : Statements setting out the manner in which the licensees propose to perform their duties under schedule 9 to the Electricity Act 1989, and which constitute the environmental guidelines the licence holders intend to follow, have been produced by Scottish Power plc, Scottish Hydro- Electric plc and Scottish Nuclear Ltd. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.
Drinking Water
Mr. Graham : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many companies in Scotland are bottling and selling drinking water ; and if he will list them and the water source.
Mr. Allan Stewart [holding answer 22 July 1991] : Information on the number of companies bottling and selling such water is not held centrally.
Railways
Mr. Graham : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will meet Strathclyde regional council to discuss the provision of additional funding to ensure that the railway tunnel at Port Matilda, Gourock, Renfrewshire, remains open ; and if he will make a statement.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 22 July 1991] : My right hon. Friend has received no request from Strathclyde regional council to discuss the provision of additional funding in connection with the railway tunnel at Fort Matilda. The Scottish Office were however represented at the site meeting on 2 July arranged by the Strathclyde passenger transport executive. The Government are aware of the problems concerning the condition of the tunnel, but this is a matter for Strathclyde regional council and British Rail in the first instance.
Mr. Graham : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what grants his Department intends to make available for the renovation of the Wemyss Bay railway station.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 22 July 1991] : No application for historic buildings repair grant assistance for repairs to Wemyss Bay railway station has been received by Historic Scotland and until such an application is received and processed, it is impossible to say what, if any, grant may be offered.
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Homelessness
Mr. Graham : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many homeless people there are in Scotland ; and if he will give the numbers by districts and where the statistics are gathered from.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 22 July 1991] : Information is collected by the Scottish Office of the numbers of households who apply to local authorities under the homeless persons legislation. Returns are submitted quarterly by the 56 district and islands councils. The latest figures at present available are for 1989-90. An analysis of the numbers of these applicants who were assessed by the local authorities in each area as homeless was given in table 17 of Statistical Bulletin HSG/1991/4. Copies were sent to all Members representing Scottish constituencies and are available in the House Library.
Since the publication of the bulletin, a small number of late returns have been received. Revised figures for the authorities concerned are given below.
Applicant households under the
homeless persons legislation,
who
were assessed as homeless in
1989-90
|Number
--------------------------------
Stirling |311
Stewartry |20
Ross and Cromarty |48
Dumbarton |434
Eastwood |11
Glasgow |1,852
Kyle and Carrick |285
Motherwell |180
Renfrew |396
Shetland |74
The revised total for Scotland as a whole was 11,203. Some authorities have failed to submit complete returns.
Youth Training
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list (a) the number of youth training places in his Department and (b) the number of places occupied in May for each of the years 1989, 1990 and the current year.
Mr. Allan Stewart [holding answer 18 July 1991] : The number of youth training places available and occupied were :
|May 1989|May 1990|May 1991
-----------------------------------------------------
Places available |21 |15 |6
Places occupied |14 |7 |4
The figures include places in government funded research institutions and the Forestry Commission in Edinburgh which were covered by the Scottish Office youth training scheme.
ENVIRONMENT
Housing Statistics
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in tabular form for each local authority in England and Wales (a) the resident population, (b) the number of local authority, the
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Commission for New Towns and housing association dwellings and (c) the numbers of people on the waiting list for local authority dwellings.Mr. Yeo : A table listing the latest available information has been placed in the Library. For information about Welsh authorities I refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Standard Spending Assessments
Ms. Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will place in the Library the proposals referred to him by Beverley district council, which the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State referred to in the debate on 11 June, Official Report, column 824, regarding an alternative method of calculating standard spending assessments.
Mr. Key : A copy of the report titled "Distributing the Revenue Support Grant" has been placed in the Library.
Local Government Finance
Ms. Gordon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the standard spending assessments for (a) education, (b) personal social services, (c) highway maintenance, (d) police, (e) fire and civil defence, (f) other services and (g) capital financing in each London borough for each year since 1979.
Mr. Key : Standard spending assessments--SSAs--were first introduced for the settlement year 1990-91 as a replacement for grant-related expenditure assessments. The SSAs for each London borough, split according to the requested service heads, are shown in table 2 of the SSA handbooks for 1990-91 and 1991-92, both of which are in the Library.
Mr. Janman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the figure for the percentage of non-payers of (a) community charge bills in 1990-91 and (b) domestic rate bills in 1989-90 for each local authority in Essex.
Mr. Key : Information reported to the Department on the number of people who have not made a payment by 31 March 1991 as a percentage of the people who are liable in respect of a personal community charge, for authorities in Essex, is as follows :
Percentage of personal community
charge payers who had not made
a payment by 31 March 1991
|Per cent.
------------------------------------
Basildon |9.4
Braintree |5.0
Brentwood |2.2
Castle Point |6.0
Chelmsford |3.0
Colchester |n/a
Epping Forest |5.5
Harlow |10.6
Maldon |1.2
Rochford |3.6
Southend-on-Sea |11.7
Tendring |8.3
Thurrock |6.2
Uttlesford |4.0
n/a=not available.
No information is held centrally on the number of non-payers of domestic rate bills.
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Radioactive Pollution (Soviet Union)
Mr. Cryer : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what technical assistance the United Kingdom has offered to the Soviet Union to clean up radioactive pollution.
Mr. Baldry : The Government are participating in the programmes of international agencies, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency, to provide technical expertise and resources to assist the Soviet Union to handle the effects of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl. Also, United Kingdom companies are competing for contracts to clean up and redevelop the areas affected by radioactive pollution from Chernobyl.
Home Improvement Grants
Ms. Gordon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many home improvement grants have been given to households in Tower Hamlets for each year since 1979.
Mr. Yeo : The numbers of grants for improvement and renovation paid to private owners and to tenants, as reported by the London borough of Tower Hamlets in the annual housing investment programme returns, are in the table.
|Number
----------------------
1978-79 |44
1979-80 |49
1980-81 |40
1981-82 |84
1982-83 |81
1983-84 |120
1984-85 |165
1985-86 |87
1986-87 |232
1987-88 |162
1988-89 |100
1989-90 |167
Recycling
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the amount of (a) glass, (b) paper and board, (c) ferrous metal, (d) tin, (e) zinc, (f) lead, (g) copper and (h) aluminium recycled as a percentage of consumption for each waste disposal authority in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Baldry : This information is not available. However, my Department is currently conducting a review of waste statistics, one of whose objectives is to ensure that information of this nature is available in future.
Private Sector Schools
Mr. George Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the amounts of city grant allocated on programmes to build for sale schools in the private sector for the years 1988-89 and to 1992-93.
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Disabled Facilities Grants
Mr. Thurnham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many applications have been received for disabled facilities grants in the value ranges (a) under £1,000, (b) £1,000 to £5,000, (c) £5,000 to £10,000 and (d) over £10,000 ;
(2) what percentage of applications for disabled facilities grants have been paid in full ; what percentage have received half of the sum applied for ; what percentage have received less than half the sum applied for ; and what percentage have been refused any payment ;
(3) how many applications have been received for disabled facilities grants ; what is the average value of applications made under the scheme ; and what is the average value of the grants made.
Mr. Yeo : Returns made by local authorities in England show that the average value of disabled facilities grants, paid in 1990-91, was £2,214. No other information, based on the returns of all local authorities, is available. However extrapolation from a study of sample of 35 local authorities suggests that, in 1990-91, approximately 5,000 applications for disabled facilities grants were received, 1,850 with a value below £1,000, 2,500 in the range £1,000 to £5,000, 350 in the range £5,000 to £10,000 and 300 over £10,000, and that the average value of applications made was £3,440. The same study suggests that, in 1990-91, 4 per cent. of the applications received for disabled facilities grants were refused any payment. No information on the percentages of applications which were paid in full, or received half or less than half the sum applied for, is available.
Housing
Mr. George Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the amounts allocated on programmes to the Housing Corporation for renewing grants under section 87 of the Housing Act 1985 for each of the years 1985-86 to 1992-93.
Mr. Yeo : I assume that the hon. Gentleman is referring to the programme of promotional and advisory grants administered by the Housing Corporation under, principally, section 87 of the Housing Associations Act 1985. The level of the corporation's programme, financed by grant-in-aid from my Department, has been as follows for the years in question.
|£ 000's
---------------------------
1985-86 |342.1
1986-87 |509.7
1987-88 |472.3
1988-89 |586.3
1989-90 |1,109.0
1990-91 |2,699.5
1991-92 |3,702.0
Decisions on the level of the programme for 1992-93 have not yet been taken.
Mr. George Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the amounts allocated on programmes to urban development corporations for housing purposes or supporting infrastructures in the form of grants or subsidies for each of the years 1985-86 to 1992- 93.
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Mr. Yeo : Expenditure on the corporation's housing for sale programme, which supports low cost home ownership, was as follows :
|£ million
------------------------------------
1988-89 |94.7
1989-90 |108.8
1990-91 |64.9
A total of £105 million has been allocated for 1991-92, and a provisional allocation of £110 million has been made for 1992-93.
City Grant
Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many applications have been received for city grant projects ; what percentage have been successful ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Key : To date, 387 applications have been made to the Department for city grant. Grant has been approved for 53 per cent. of these with decisions pending 44 applications.
Cruden Houses
Mr. Salmond : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many Cruden houses there are in England and Wales ; how many have been built in the last 30 years ; and if he will break these figures down by year and between England and Wales.
Mr. Yeo : There are no Cruden houses in England and Wales.
European Community Environment Directives
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when the European Council or Commission directives or decisions of 88/347/EEC of 16 June 1988, 88/609/EEC of 24 November 1988 and 89/429/EEC of 29 June 1989 on environmental affairs were implemented ; and if he will make a statement in each case on the reason for the time taken in implementing the directive in United Kingdom legislation.
Mr. Baldry : Directive 88/347/EEC on dangerous substances in water was implemented through Department of the Environment circular 7/89 of 30 March 1989. It was taken into national law by the Surface Waters (Dangerous Substances) (Classification) Regulations 1989 ; and by a notice and direction to the National Rivers Authority under the Water Act 1989, which took effect in January 1990.
The United Kingdom programme and plan for achieving major cuts in emissions of sulphur dioxide and oxides of nitrogen from existing large combustion plants, as required by directive 88/609, was published in December 1990 in good time for the directive's deadline. The Environmental Protection Act 1990--EPA--and equivalent legislation in Northern Ireland provide the legal framework for implementing the plan. The whole range of implementing measures under the EPA relating to England and Wales have now come into force and will be followed in April 1992 by measures relating to Scotland, and to Northern Ireland as soon as the appropriate Order in Council for the introduction of equivalent procedures
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there can be made. Special interim implementing measures are being introduced with respect to Scotland and Northern Ireland. A direction under the EPA relating to directive 89/429/EEC on municipal waste incineration--existing plant--is currently being prepared. Pending formal implementation of the directive through this direction, the United Kingdom authorities are applying conditions to existing municipal waste incinerators which are consistent with the operating conditions set down in the directive.In each of these cases, measures were taken in good time to ensure practical implementation of the directive before the due date. In each case, however, some delay in giving formal legal effect to the directive was caused by the need to enact new primary legislation.
Atmospheric Pollution
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list by county area how many tonnes of (a) sulphur dioxide, (b) nitrogen oxides and (c) particulate carbon were discharged into the atmosphere in England during the latest year for which figures are available.
Mr. Baldry : No figures are available on a county basis of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides or particulate carbon emissions for the United Kingdom. However, emissions of sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in tonnes have been compiled on a much finer spatial scale, 20km by 20km, for England, Wales and Scotland. These maps for 1987 were published by the review group on acid rain and the photochemical oxidants review group, respectively, in October 1990. Copies of these reports have been deposited in the Library of the House.
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps have been taken to keep up to date his departmental helpline on atmospheric pollution.
Mr. Baldry : I refer to the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health to the hon. Member for Meirionnydd Nant Conwy (Dr. Thomas) on 8 May, Official Report, column 495.
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the total number of air pollution monitoring sites for each of (a) ozone, (b) carbon monoxide, (c) nitrogen oxides, (d) acid deposition, (e) atmospheric hydrocarbon, (f) trace germs, (g) smoke and sulphur dioxide and (h) lead in (i) the United Kingdom and (ii) each of the other European Community countries.
Mr. Baldry : The Department of the Environment is currently operating the following number of air pollution monitoring sites :
(
|Number
----------------------------------------
Ozone |18
Carbon monoxide |6
Nitrogen |12
Acid deposition |32
Atmospheric hydrocarbons |4
Trace gases |3
Smoke and sulphur dioxide |258
Lead |17
No comprehensive central records are kept by my Department of the number of monitoring sites in other
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European Community countries. As regards sites monitoring nitrogen oxides, however, I would refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 22 April.Fire Retardants
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the product groups on sale in the EC where there is wide use of Tetrabromobisphenyl A as a fire retardant ; and what information he has on which product groups currently using Polybromobiphenyl ethers as a fire retardant would not be suitable for treatment with Terabromobisphenol A.
Mr. Baldry : The exact extent of use of TBBA--terabromobisphenol A-- is commercially sensitive information and difficult to obtain. However, I understand that TBBA is used in
acrylonitrile-butadiene-stryrene copolymers, polycarbonates and in epoxide and phenolic resins.
Detailed information on product groups which are unsuitable for treatment with TBBA is not available. The United Kingdom has stringent fire safety standards which are based on performance criteria not on the use or otherwise of specific fire retardants. Furnishing textiles and other materials treated with
polybromobiphenyl ethers meet these standards. It is not known to what extent the same materials treated TBBA would meet these standards.
National Parks
Mr. Ian Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has received the recommendation of the Countryside Commission on the national parks review report ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Trippier : Yes. My right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for the Environment and Wales wish to congratulate the Countryside Commission on setting up this most timely review to mark the 40th anniversary of the legislation to establish the national parks of England and Wales and to thank Professor Ron Edwards and his team for their comprehensive and balanced report. Our national parks have played and continue to play a vital part in conserving and enhancing some of our most treasured landscapes and enabling the public to enjoy access to them.
The Government welcome the general thrust of the Edwards report and the recommendations based on it put to us by the Countryside Commission and the Countryside Council for Wales. We shall now address in detail their particular recommendations and hope to publish a considered response later in the year.
MINIS 12
Mr. Patrick Thompson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will publish his Department's MINIS 12 documents.
Mr. Heseltine : I am today publishing the MINIS 12 documents and a set has been placed in the Library.
Crown Suppliers
Mr. Andy Stewart : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if any financial liability has been taken on through premises to provide support to the consultants advising the management team who sought buy-out of the Crown Suppliers' transport business.
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Mr. Yeo : As stated in my reply to the hon. Member for Workington (Mr. Campbell-Savours) on 24 January 1991, Official Report column 271, Government support of £36,000 for advisers' fees has been paid to the management buy-out team who were seeking to acquire the Crown Suppliers' transport business. Towards the end of the sale competition they applied for additional support. Provisional agreement was reached with the teams' advisers that, subject to certain conditions, the Government would be prepared to pay 60 per cent. of the advisers' fees incurred, based on a maximum estimate of £185,000--£111,000. However, the sale of the business was aborted towards the close of March 1991 before the conditions had been fully met. Thus, although most, if not all, of the proposed additional expenditure had been incurred by the management buy-out team, no further payment was made by the Department.
With the agreement of the Treasury, Property Holdings wrote on 26 March to the management buy-out team members, and to the firms that advised them, to say that the Department did not accept any liability for the costs incurred. Nevertheless, the letter indicated that the Department would not rule out all payments if any of the parties wished to pursue the matter and was prepared to give the Government detailed information on the expenditure incurred.
It was not recognised at the time that the possibility of payment held out by this letter meant that it constituted a form of "letter of comfort" and that therefore a contingent liability of up to £111, 000 had been incurred. I regret not bringing this matter to the attention of the House before the letter of comfort was sent. In accordance with Government accounting rules, I have now arranged for a copy of the letter to be laid before the House and for copies to be placed in the Library.
Council House Sales
Mr. Jacques Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many dwellings each local authority has sold under the right-to-buy legislation or voluntarily since April 1979 ; and what percentage of the total local authority stock they represent.
Mr. Yeo : I have placed in the Library a table giving available information on local authority sales up to March 1991. It shows year by year information for each authority since 1985-86 together with cumulative figures since April 1979 and the proportion of their stock sold since April 1979.
Detergents
Mr. Knapman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what comments he has received on the report of the study he commissioned into the problems that may be caused by pollutants in detergents ; and what steps he now proposes to take.
Mr. Trippier : We invited 37 organisations to comment on this report and received detailed replies from 14. They reported that the use of phosphorus in detergents declined by 20 per cent. between the first quarter of 1990 and first quarter of 1991, largely as a result of the introduction of phosphate free compact detergents. There was no consensus, however, on whether further substitution of phosphorus by other substances would have a net beneficial environmental effect.
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On other chemicals sometimes used in detergents, the main concern reported was the need to limit the use of NTA- -nitrilo triacetic acid--and EDTA--ethylene diamine tetracetic acid. In the light of these comments, I have decided :(a) the use of phosphate in detergents and the environmental effects should be closely monitored, but there should be no ban on its use ;
(b) the existing voluntary agreements with industry on use of EDTA and NTA in detergents should be strengthened, and research should be undertaken into other sources of inputs of these substances to the aquatic environment ; and
(c) to invite English Nature and the Marine Conservation Society to be members of the Technical Committee on Detergents and the Environment and to give this Committee the following revised terms of reference :
"To monitor trends in the usage of chemicals in detergents and cleaning products.
"To keep under review the effects of detergent and cleaning products on natural waters, water supply and the treatability and safe disposal of sewage and sludge.
"To identify and review potential problems and recommend, as necessary, any research required to investigate these.
"To comment as necessary on environmental developments within the European Community and other international bodies affecting the UK soap and detergent industry.
"To report to the Department of the Environment of these matters at intervals of at least every two years."
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