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Column 233
Written Answer to Questions
Friday 6th December 1991
TRANSPORT
Rail Services
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much grant he proposes to pay local authorities in west Yorkshire in the coming year for supporting rail services ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : Assistance to local authority programmes is given through revenue support grant paid by the Department of the Environment. For 1992-93, £105 million has been set aside within the All Other Services block for distribution to the six English metropolitan county areas in view of their responsibility for supporting local rail services. The amount for west Yorkshire is £18, 917,910.
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will ensure that any costs arising from leasing required by him for rolling stock for use in the west Yorkshire rail electrification scheme are fully covered by grant paid by him to local authorities in west Yorkshire.
Mr. Freeman : The costs of operating leases for this rolling-stock will be one of the factors taken into account in future years in calculating the standard spending assessments of the west Yorkshire metropolitan district councils in respect of local rail services.
Docklands Light Railway
Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will now set up a full public inquiry into the problems associated with the docklands light railway.
Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how much the London Docklands development corporation will pay for the acquisition of the docklands light railway and its assets.
Mr. Freeman : The transfer would be arranged for a nominal amount.
Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if it is his intention that the London Regional Transport Act 1984 should continue to apply to the docklands light railway once its transference to the London Docklands development corporation is completed.
Mr. Freeman : No. The Act applies in respect of railway services provided by London Regional Transport, or by a subsidiary company of theirs, or by another person in pursuance of an agreement with London Regional Transport under section 3 of the Act.
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Thameslink
Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what requests he has received from British Rail for permission to deposit a Bill to expand the Thameslink services ; what response he has made ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : British Rail sought consent recently to deposit a Bill for works in south London to enhance Thameslink. Although the scheme has a number of very attractive features, the Government concluded that the Bill was premature. My right hon. Friend has told the chairman that the best way forward is to consider the project alongside other priorities in the context of British Rail's next corporate plan.
ENVIRONMENT
Revenue Support Grant, Sunderland
Mr. Mullin : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give the value of revenue support grant for the borough of Sunderland at current prices for each year from 1979.
Mr. Key : The information is as follows :
1991-92 prices
|£ million
---------------------------------
Rate support grant
1979-80 |152.6
1980-18 |<1>151.5
1981-82 |<2>114.3
1982-83 |108.3
1983-84 |104.4
1984-85 |99.9
1985-86 |<3>96.8
1986-87 |99.7
1987-88 |103.5
1988-89 |108.0
1989-90 |100.6
Revenue support grant
1990-91 |<4><5>88.8
1991-92 |73.6
Note: The information given is
not available on a comparable
basis for all years, i.e.:
<1>In 1979-80 and 1980-81 no
rate support grant (RSG)
payments were made to
metropolitan county councils and
Sunderland's rate support grant
was correspondingly higher in
those years.
<2>In 1981-82 to 1985-86
inclusive, rate support grant
payments were made to
metropolitan counties (and other
upper tier authorities) and
Sunderland's rate support grant
was correspondingly lower.
<3>In April 1986, the
metropolitan county councils
were abolished and arrangements
for paying grant changed
accordingly.
<4>In April 1990, the new local
authority finance system was
introduced and revenue support
grant replaced rate support
grant as the main central
Government grant to local
authorities. They are not
directly comparable. The 1990-91
figure includes £11.25 million (
at 1991-92 prices) which
Sunderland received under the
area safety net.
<5>Under the local government
finance system introduced in
1990 the level of revenue
support grant is affected, inter
alia, by the amount of
non-domestic rates distributed
from the national pool. In
1990-91 Sunderland's receipts (
at 1991-92 prices) from the pool
were £62.7 million and in
1991-92 they will be £75.8
million. For comparison, in
1989-90 the authority's
non-domestic rate income was
£38.0 million (again at 1991-92
prices).
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Council House Sales
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the capital receipts for the sale of council houses by Wandsworth council, received by the council since the introduction of the right to buy.
Mr. Yeo : The total discounted values of all sales of houses and flats for each year from 1980-81, as reported by the London borough of Wandsworth, are listed in the table. Actual cash receipts in any year will depend on the extent to which the sales were financed by loans from the authority.
Wandsworth Discounted value of all sales (£000) Year |Value --------------------- 80-81 |10,903 81-82 |24,023 83-84 |21,647 84-85 |30,703 85-86 |37,411 86-87 |32,494 87-88 |49,354 88-89 |67,616 89-90 |72,806 90-91 |n/a
Council Tax
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many representations he has had about the proposed council tax.
Mr. Key : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend, the Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities on Wednesday 4 December 1991 to my hon. Friend the Member for Ryedale (Mr. Greenway) at column 252.
Mr. Ralph Howell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will deposit in the Library an analysis of the estimated distributional impact using the Treasury's
inter-departmental group on tax-benefit modelling's tax-benefit model of the proposed council tax in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales using the illustrative bills published by the responsible Departments, which is, as far as possible, comparable with appendix 7 of HC 289 of Session 1990-91 and the answer of 22 May 1991, Official Report, column 471 ;
(2) if he will publish a list of those parliamentary answers on the impact of (a) the council tax and (b) other local government tax options which have been based, in part or in whole, upon evidence derived from the Treasury's interdepartmental group on tax-benefit modelling's tax-benefit model.
Mr. Key : Information to indicate the distribution of households with one, two, and three or more adults by region has been provided. No answers have been given on the impact of the council tax using this model.
Since 1988 the Department of the Environment has made extensive use of the inter-departmental group on tax-benefit modelling's tax-benefit model to illustrate the distributional impact of the community charge, and the effect of the transitional relief and community charge reduction schemes. A large number of parliamentary answers have been provided which are reliant to some
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degree on information from the model. We do not however, intend to publish any analysis of the impact of the council tax derived from the model.Environmental Protection Agency
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the organisations with which he has consulted regarding the establishment of an environmental protection agency.
Mr. Baldry : Copies of the consultation paper on the Environment Agency have been sent to the chief executives of all local authorities in England and Wales, and to some 800 other organisations and individuals. A list of these has been placed in the Library. Requests for the paper are still being received.
Non-domestic Ratepayers
Mr. Spearing : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will state the total to date of tribunal awards to non-domestic ratepayers in respect of rates they deem overpaid and over which range of years they relate ; what authorities are being debited such sums in excess of £1 million ; if he will name the relevant sums for each ; and what consideration he has given to excluding such sums from the totals of his current standard spending assessments for the years 1992-93.
Mr. Key : This information is not available.
Loan Guarantees
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will instruct his officials to discuss with building societies and other financial institutions the guarantees they require to advance loans for the repurchase of homes by residents of Hanover square, Bradford.
Mr. Yeo : The Government do not have a statutory power to direct mortgage lenders to provide mortgages to particular types of borrowers. It is up to the lender to decide what conditions should be met for lending prudently ; building societies in particular have to safeguard the position of investors.
City Challenge
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 26 November, Official Report, column 473, what proportion of funding for inner-city programmes will be topsliced for city challenge schemes from 1993 onwards ; and what conclusions his Department has reached with regard to the implications for the urban programme budget and individual urban programme initiatives as a result of topslicing for city challenge schemes.
Mr. Portillo : No decision has yet been made on the amount of funds that will be available for 1993 onwards.
Docklands Light Railway
Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out what the role, responsibilities and duties of the London Docklands development corporation will be with regard to the operation and investment strategy of the docklands light railway ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Portillo : The London Docklands development corporation will exercise a strategic role in respect of the Docklands Light Railway. Day to day management will continue to be the responsibility of DLR Ltd.Ms. Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what budget will be made available to the London Docklands development corporation to (a) acquire the docklands light railway and (b) operate and manage the docklands light railway.
Mr. Portillo : The transfer of the Docklands Light Railway from London Regional Transport to London Docklands development corporation will be for a nominal sum. There will be an accompanying transfer of the resources required to operate and manage the railway.
Environmental Protection Act
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he intends to introduce those sections of part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 which prevent the surrender of a disposal licence until a certificate of completion has been issued by the relevant authority.
Mr. Baldry : Disposal licences are issued under section 5 of the Control of Pollution Act 1974, and there is no provision in that Act to prevent their surrender. Disposal licences will be replaced by waste management licences granted under section 36 of the Environmental Protection Act. The provisions of section 39, including the issue of certificates of completion, will govern the surrender of those waste management licences that are site licences.
Under the target timetable for the implementation of part II of the Act, announced on 25 June 1991 by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment and Countryside, these waste management licensing provisions of the Act are due to come into effect in April 1993. The consultation paper "Improving environmental quality--the Government's proposals for a new, independent Environment Agency" issued on 3 October 1991, stated that the timing of these provisions will need to be reviewed in the light of the emerging timetable for the agency.
Travelling Showpeople
Mrs. Roe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he plans to issue fresh guidance about travelling showpeople.
Mr. Yeo : A circular is being published today. It offers guidance to local planning authorities about making provision for travelling showpeople in their developments plans, gives advice on the handling of planning applications and breaches of planning control, and encourages showpeople and local planning authorities to work together to reduce the risk of conflict.
Showpeople need a permanent, secure base from which to operate, establish their homes, and store and test their fairground equipment. Although they cannot expect preferential treatment, showpeople are entitled to look to local authorities to take account of their needs when determining planning policies.
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River Ribble
Mr. Carr : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he is taking to improve pollution monitoring of the River Ribble ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Baldry [holding answer 4 December 1991] : Monitoring of river quality is a matter for the National Rivers Authority (NRA). Discharge consents issued by the NRA and the results of its monitoring of the River Ribble are entered on public registers held by the NRA's north west region.
Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution (HMIP) is initiating a monitoring programme for processes it regulates through integrated pollution control under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the results of which will be placed on public registers held by HMIP.
North Tyneside
Mr. Gould : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will detail ministerial visits from his Department to North Tyneside in (a) 1990 and (b) 1991 ; and give details of meetings with representatives from the local authority which occurred during these visits ;
(2) if he will detail the year-on-year changes in housing improvement programme allocations to North Tyneside council from 1978 to 1991 at current prices ;
(3) if he will detail the year-on-year changes in block allocations of Government grant to North Tyneside council from 1978 to 1991 at current prices.
Mr. Heseltine [holding answer 5 December 1991] : I will write to the hon. Member.
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
School Meals
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proposals he has to reinstate nutritional guidelines for school meals ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : It is for local education authorities to decide on the nutritional balance of the school meals they offer.
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will bring forward proposals to require local education authorities to ensure that drinking water is available at lunch times to pupils eating school meals or packed lunches ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Fallon : It is for local education authorities to decide what milk, meals or other refreshment to offer to its pupils.
School Governors
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many places on school governing bodies there are ; and how many are currently unfilled.
Mr. Fallon : There are approximately 300,000 places on school governing bodies in England and Wales. A survey
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published by the National Foundation for Educational Research in November 1990 indicated a vacancy rate of just under 4 per cent.Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much money has been spent on training parents to be school governors ; how many parents have been trained ; and how many will be ineligible to remain school governors as a result of his proposals to prevent teachers being governors at the school attended by their own children.
Mr. Fallon : Funds for the support and training of school governors are available through the grants for education support and training (GEST) programme. In the current financial year £7.1 million of LEA expenditure is being supported, and this is planned to increase to£10 million next year. No information is collected centrally about the proportion of this sum spent on parent governors, nor about the number of teachers who are parent governors.
Teacher Qualifications
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science, further to his answer of 27 November, Official Report, column 535- 36, if he will calculate the costs of educating and training a student for (a) the postgraduate certificate of education and (b) the articled teacher scheme with the average cost of a first degree included, so that the totals are comparable with the figure for the bachelor of education.
Mr. Fallon : The average cost of training a student for the postgraduate certificate of education is about £27,000 and for the articled teacher scheme about £40,500, inclusive of the average cost of a first degree. As in my previous answer these costs take into account institutional funding and student support, and, in the case of articled teachers, the additional expenditure incurred by participating local education authorities and supported through the GEST programme. The bursary for articled teachers, which is the main item covered by the GEST programme, is the equivalent of about a year of a student grant and a first year of a teacher's salary.
Higher and Further Education
Mr. Bowis : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what arrangements he has made to prescribe expenditure under section 133 of the Education Reform Act 1988.
Mr. Alan Howarth : Section 133 of the Education Reform Act empowers the Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council (PCFC) to make payments to any local education authority and the governing body of any institution designated under section 129 of the Act in respect of persons employed or formerly employed in the provision of further or higher education. These are payments to meet certain compensation and premature retirement liabilities. The terms of section 133, taken together with section 114 of the Education Act 1944, mean that regulations made by the Secretary of State need to be made to prescribe the classes or descriptions of such payments.
Payments totalling some £60 million, all for the purposes specified in section 133, were made by the PCFC
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between April 1989 and September 1991 without appropriate regulations being in place. In order to provide for future payments, SI 1991/2307 was brought into force on 19 October 1991. Clause 63 of the Further and Higher Education Bill would regularise past payments.The Government will also propose an amendment to the Bill during its passage through Parliament to regularise payments made by the PCFC to certain bodies other than local education authorities and governing bodies, and to provide for the proposed Higher Education Funding Council (England) to make similar payments.
HMI (French Visit)
Ms. Armstrong : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish the report from Her Majesty's inspectors following their visit to France.
Mr. Eggar [pursuant to his reply, 14 November 1991, column 625] : The HMI report on aspects of primary education in France will be published today, 6 December 1991.
EMPLOYMENT
Training and Enterprise Councils
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will take action to deal with the discrepancy between the Wakefield TEC and the Leeds TEC in their treatment of special needs training.
Mr. Forth : TECs and local enterprise companies are required to provide appropriate facilities and support for trainees who have special training needs. My right hon. and learned Friend is satisfied that adequate provision is available in the Wakefield and Leeds TEC areas.
The Wakefield TEC policy is to integrate trainees with special needs into mainstream provision designed to meet individual requirements. On the other hand, Leeds TEC has chosen to contract with several providers who cater specifically for trainees with special needs.
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what advice has been given to training and enterprise councils by his Department's solicitors concerning the legality of running employment action under TECs existing memoranda of association ; what powers TECs have to revise their articles ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forth : TECs were advised to consider whether their powers were wide enough to deliver employment action, and to amend their memorandum of association if they considered it necessary to do so. TECs are private companies and it is for them to decide if such changes are needed and, under the terms of their contract with us, to seek our agreement.
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will, as a matter of urgency, meet representatives of the Wakefield TEC to discuss the circumstances of the 400 16 to 18-year-olds within the Wakefield district who currently have no training placement and are ineligible for DSS benefits ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forth : The Department's officials are already in contact with Wakefield training and enterprise council
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which is co-operating with the local careers service and has advised that it will be able to meet demand for youth training places in its area.Column 242
Business Statistics
Mr. Oppenheim : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the change in the number of businesses in (a) Amber Valley, (b) Derbyshire, (c) nationally and (d) the east midlands between 1979 and the latest year for which figures are available.
Mr. Forth : The information requested, based on VAT registration data, is as follows :
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Estimated revenue Estimated numbers of
yield people affected
|First year|Full year |Men |Women
|£ billion |£ billion |million |million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991-92
(employees plus self-employed |2.4 |2.9 |3.0 |0.4
(employees only) |2.2 |2.5 |2.6 |0.4
1992-92
(employees plus self-employed) |2.6 |3.2 |3.2 |0.4
(employees only) |2.4 |2.7 |2.8 |0.4
Working Hours
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average number of hours worked (a) excluding overtime and (b) including overtime, of each decile income group of earners, and of each percentile within the lowest 20 per cent.
Mr. Forth : Figures of hours worked by decile and percentile income groups are not readily available and would incur disproportionate cost to compile.
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SOCIAL SECURITY
National Insurance
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be (a) the first year and (b) the full year revenue yield from abolishing the national insurance upper earnings limit in Great Britain in (i) 1991-92, (ii) 1992-93, for (1) both employees and the self-employed and (2) only employees, and giving figures separately for the number of men and women who would be affected in each case.
Mr. Jack : The information requested is set out in the table :
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Estimated revenue Estimated numbers of
yield people affected
|First year|Full year |Men |Women
|£ billion |£ billion |million |million
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1991-92
(employees plus self-employed |2.4 |2.9 |3.0 |0.4
(employees only) |2.2 |2.5 |2.6 |0.4
1992-92
(employees plus self-employed) |2.6 |3.2 |3.2 |0.4
(employees only) |2.4 |2.7 |2.8 |0.4
Unemployment Benefit
Mr. Allen : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on the reasons for the withdrawal of the proposal to change the definition of full-time work for unemployment benefit purposes from 24 hours to 16 hours.
Mr. Jack : The Government proposed that the definition of employment in unemployment benefit regulations should be 16 hours per week in line with the change from April 1992 in the definition of remunerative work for income support and family credit purposes. We received a report from the Social Security Advisory Committee and other representations about the effect of the proposed change to the regulations. Whilst the total number of disqualifications arising from the proposal would have been very small, a few people ineligible for family credit would have faced a difficult choice had disqualification been imposed for declining an offer of between 16 and 24 hours employment. Consequently we decided not to pursue the alignment of hours of work in this area.
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Cold Weather
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what percentage of people of pensionable age qualify for help under the cold weather payments scheme.
Mr. Scott : We estimate that 1.5 million people of pensionable age are eligible to receive a cold weather payment, representing 14.7 per cent. of the total number of people of pensionable age. Every income support recipient over 60 years of age, not just those of pensionable age, qualifies for help under the cold weather payments scheme as well as recipients who have a child under five in the household or are entitled to the disability premium.
Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what advice his Department gives to pensioners regarding keeping warm.
Mr. Scott : For the fifth year running, the Department is a major participant in the Government's "Keep Warm Keep Well" campaign, a joint venture with other Government Departments and the voluntary sector. The aim of the campaign is to advise elderly people and other
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vulnerable groups about how best to cope with cold weather and where help is available, including details of the social security cold weather payments scheme.Mr. Foulkes : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what representations his Department has received regarding the problems faced by older people on low incomes in the winter months.
Mr. Scott : We have received many representations on this issue and on 14 June I announced important improvements to the cold weather payments scheme.
Interest on Capital
Mr. Higgins : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what notional rate of interest is assumed to be received by those with capital above the present social security limits when assessing entitlement to social security benefits and relief from the community charge.
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