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Public Service Pensions
Mr. Harvey : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes he proposes to make in the basis upon which the pensions of former public servants who retired between 1976 and 1979 are paid.
Mr. Portillo : I have no proposals for any such changes.
EC Statutes
Mr. Burns : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps have been taken to consult interested parties on the proposed EC statutes for a European co-operative society, a European Mutual society and a European association and the accompanying directives regarding the involvement of employees.
Mr. Nelson : The Treasury has today issued a consultative document on these statutes. I have arranged for copies to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
TRANSPORT
Helicopters
Ms. Hoey : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish the list of sites for helicopter landing and taking off facilities in London which has been drawn up for the Department's working group on heliports in the capital.
Mr. Norris : It is the task of the working group carrying out the London heliport study to identify possible sites for a heliport to serve central London. The Government will publish the working group's report on such sites when they have been identified and evaluated.
Mr. Harvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) what plans he has to change the laws relating to helicopter landing sites in gardens ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) what conclusions he has reached on how noise from helicopters using temporary landing sites should be controlled ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Norris : In August 1991, as part of the consultation paper, "Control of Aircraft Noise", the Government
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requested views on possible legislation to control noise from helicopters taking off and landing at temporary sites (including private gardens). Responses to this paper are currently being carefully considered and the Government's conclusions will be announced in due course.Equal Opportunities
Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many and what percentage of officers in grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 respectively and overall in his Department are women.
Mr. Norris : The numbers and percentages of women employed in the Department as at 23 June 1992 are :
Women
Grade |Number |Percentage
--------------------------------------------
1 |0 |0.0
2 |0 |0.0
3 |1 |4.3
4 |1 |5.8
5 |8 |7.4
6 |6 |4.0
7 |70 |9.5
All grades |7,218 |46.0
The figures relate to all permanent staff and are calculated on a head count basis, i.e. part-timers count as one. Non-industrial equivalent grades and staff in the Departments' Agencies are included.
Bus Deregulation
Mr. Harvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what conclusions have been reached by the working group set up to discuss ways of deregulating buses in London ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Norris : The consultative forum had an introductory meeting in May to discuss a work programme. The second meeting has been fixed for July. The purpose of the forum is not to reach conclusions about deregulation, but to provide the Government with a variety of views, which we can take into account in formulating detailed plans for the introduction of deregulation.
Nuclear Fuel (Transport)
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many nuclear fuel rods have been transported to Dounreay by helicopter from overseas in each year since 1979.
Mr. Norris : This information is not available from the Department of Transport.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the current safety regulations concerning the air transport into or from Scotland of (a) unirradiated and (b) irradiated nuclear fuel.
Mr. Norris : I refer the hon. Member to the written answer on 22 June 1992, Official Report , column 31 .
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EMPLOYMENT
Unemployment
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if she will list for each travel-to-work area the proportion of total unemployed who had been unemployed for more than 12 months in (a) April 1984, (b) November 1984, (c) April 1990, (d) April 1992 and (e) May 1992 respectively ;
(2) if she will list the proportion of the work force by the narrow definition for each travel-to-work area who had been unemployed for more than 12 months in (a) April 1984, (b) November 1984, (c) April 1990, (d) April 1992 and (e) May 1992 respectively ; (3) if she will list for each travel-to-work area the proportion of the work force by the broad definition who had been unemployed for more than 12 months in (a) April 1984, (b) November 1984, (c) April 1990, (d) April 1992 and (e) May 1992 respectively.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Claimant unemployment figures by duration are available only on a quarterly basis, for January, April, July and October of each year. The information available can be obtained from the NOMIS database in the Library.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Public Information
Mr. Cann : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will now release his Department's files relating to the Shingle street incident in 1940 into the public domain.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I have been in correspondence and discussion with my right hon. Friend the Member for Suffolk, Coastal (Mr. Gummer), in whose constituency Shingle street is, on this matter. As a result of those discussions, I am reviewing the files held in the Department dealing with the evacuation of the civilian population from several villages on the east coast, including Shingle street, during the second world war with a view to opening them to the public.
International Agreements
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list all the bilateral and multilateral agreements directly or indirectly negotiated by his Department or a body acting on behalf of his Department with (a) Switzerland and (b) Liechtenstein.
Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on 24 June, Official Report, columns 208-11.
Lorrain Osman
Mr. Peter Bottomley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what account he took in his decision on the extradition of Lorrain Osman of (a) the jailing of the prosecutor who collected the original evidence, (b) the doubts on the credibility of the principal witness, (c) the motives of the Malaysian authorities in seeking a prosecution and (d) the loss of defence documents.
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Mr. Jack : The Home Secretary's decision is the subject of legal challenge and the matter is therefore sub judice.Roy Meads
Mr. Geoffrey Robinson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to make a decision on a review of the case of Roy William Meads, currently serving a prison sentence.
Mr. Jack : My right hon. and learned Friend hopes to reach a decision on this case shortly. I will write to the hon. Member as soon as a decision has been reached.
Maxwell Brothers
Mr. Ashton : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will call for a report from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis into the circumstances surrounding the televising of the arrest of the Maxwell brothers to find out who gave the time and place of the arrest to the media.
Mr. Charles Wardle : The Maxwell investigation is being undertaken by the Serious Fraud Office in conjunction with the City of London police. It is the policy of both the Serious Fraud Office and the City of London police that no information about impending arrests and searches should be provided to the media. The policy was followed prior to the arrest of Kevin and Ian Maxwell on 18 June.
Neither the commissioner of the City of London police nor the director of the Serious Fraud Office has any evidence to suggest that unauthorised briefing occurred. Any person having such evidence should make it available to them so that it may be investigated.
Crime Statistics
Miss Emma Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will publish the next bulletin of statistics on recorded crime.
Mr. Jack : Home Office Statistical Bulletin 14/92, published on 24 June, contained the figures of notifiable offences recorded by the police in the period April 1991 to March 1992. We expect to publish a bulletin with the figures for the period July 1991 to June 1992 in September.
Programme Development Visit Grants
Sir John Wheeler : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he is yet able to announce the successful applicants for Home Office programme development visit grants for local projects dealing with crime and criminal justice.
Mr. Jack : I am pleased to announce that £1.8 million over three years has been awarded to 12 projects around the country under a scheme designed to stimulate innovative new local responses to crime problems.
The successful projects selected for funding by the Home Office programme development unit in 1992-93 (budgets subject to final confirmation) are :
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|£
------------------------------------------------------------------
Domestic Violence Crisis Intervention Pilot
(Islington Safer Cities/Metropolitan Police) |100,000
Mediation and Employment Project
(Community Justice Centre, Cardiff: South
Glamorgan Social Services) |100,000
Women and Violence
(Leeds Inter-agency Project) |90,000
Healthy Alliance for Dorset
(School-based multi-agency project:
Bournemouth, Poole) |70,000
Young Children First
(High/Scope UK: Lewisham, Liverpool, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne, Manchester) |58,000
Preventing Criminality
(Multi-agency: Sheffield) |55,000
Education, Advice and Counselling for Black Young
Men
(Lewisham Youth Aid) |55,000
Mobile Advice and Support Service for Families
(Welsh Womens Aid: North Wales) |38,000
Asian Women, Domestic Violence and Mental Health
(Southall Black Sisters) |34,000
Peer Education Nottingham |30,000
Support and Advice for Vulnerable Elders
(Lewisham Social Services) |30,000
Youth Education Programme
(Keighley Domestic Violence Forum) |10,000
I should like to congratulate the successful applicants and recognise the energy, commitment and high quality that was such a striking feature across the 750 proposals received from all parts of the country. The aim of the programme development unit is to respond to and encourage the excellent ideas that are generated at local level.
We shall be looking very carefully at the progress of these projects so that good ideas whose value is proved can be widely disseminated.
DUCHY OF LANCASTER
International Agreements
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list all the bilateral and multilateral agreements directly or indirectly negotiated by his Department or a body acting on behalf of his Department with (a) Switzerland and (b) Liechtenstein.
Mr. Waldegrave : My Department has no bilateral or multilateral agreements with Liechtenstein. The current agreements to which Swiss organisations are also party are as follows :
i. Participation in International Organisations
European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN)
European Co-ordination Centre for Research and Documentation in Social Sciences ( The Vienna Centre')
European Molecular Biology Conference and Laboratories (EMBC/EMBL) European Science Foundation (ESF)
European Space Agency (ESA)
European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF)
Human Frontier Science Programme (HFSP)
Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL)
International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
ii. Other Multilaterial Programmes and Studies
Council of Academies of Engineering and Technological Sciences (CAETS)
DNA Repair and Cancer programme (under the EC Medical and Health Research Programme)
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Effects of atmospheric pollutants (European Top Chamber Project) European Geograverse (EGT)European Palaeoclimate (ESF Programme)
Greenland Ice Core Programme (GRIP) (ESF Programme)
Ocean Drilling Programme (ODP) (ESF European Consortium) Polar North Atlantic Margin (PONAM) (ESF Programme)
Royal Society's European Science Exchange Programme (ESEP) Studies on myeloid leukaemia and osteosarcoma (under the EC Readiation Protection Programme)
Study of hypoxic cell radiosensitiser RO-03-8799 in the radiotherapy of advanced cervical carcinoma
Western European Geological Surveys (WEGS)
iii. Bilaterial Collaborations
Memorandum of Understanding with the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (ISAR)
Mesozoic climate change : effects and causes (ETH, Zurich ) Microbiological studies in Jordan to simulate the effects of alkaline groundwater on waste repositories as net analogues of cement (NAGRA, Wettingen)
Study of the ecology and epizootiology of Lyme disease (University of Neuchatel)
iv. Collaborations with Commercial Organisations
Analysis of SHT receptor systems in dementia (Sandoz Foundation for Gerontological Research)
Biotechnology (Ciba-Giegy)
Biotechnology (Sandoz)
LINK SPG selective drug delivery and targeting (Ciba-Giegy) HIV Clinical Trials (Roche)
Central Office of Information
Mr. Paice : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what targets have been set for the Central Office of Information in 1992-93.
Mr. Waldegrave : The Central Office of Information has four targets for the 1992-93 financial year. They are :
(i) to break even in current cost terms after covering all costs, including interest on borrowings ;
(ii) To achieve a 1 per cent reduction in unit cost of output in real terms, while maintaining suitable levels of quality ; (iii) to deliver all work in accordance with client specification ; and
(iv) to deliver all work on time.
SOCIAL SECURITY
War Disability Pensions
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will state the cost of (a) raising the disregard on war disability pension from £10 to £15 and (b) abolishing the disregard on war disability pension.
Mr. Burt : The cost of raising the disregard on war disability pension from £10 to £15 across the income-related benefits is estimated to be around £5 million a year. Abolishing the disregard on war disability pension would save around £15 million a year. Note : Modelled using data drawn from the 1987-88-89 Family Expenditure Surveys and the 1990 Annual Statistical Enquiry. Figures are rounded to the nearest £5 million.
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will make a statement on war disability pension and the disregard amount.
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Mr. Burt : The £10 statutory disregard of war disablement pensions applies across the income-related benefits. Local authorities also have a discretionary power to enhance this disregard at their own expense in calculating entitlement to housing benefit and community charge benefit. We have no plans to change these arrangements.
Equal Opportunities
Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many and what percentage of officers in grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 respectively and overall in his Department are women.
Mr. Burt : The information for the Department at15 April 1992 is in the table.
Grade |Total |Women |Percentage
-------------------------------------------------------
1 |1 |0 |0
2 |4 |0 |0
3 |13 |4 |31
4 |10 |<1>3 |30
5 |99 |22 |22
6 |285 |66 |23
7 |522 |97 |19
Others |81,254 |55,566 |68
Total |82,188 |55,758 |68
Notes:
1.For each grade, all non-industrial staff in
equivalent grades are included.
2.Staff of the Departments executive agencies are
included.
3.All figures refer to staff in post.
<1>Includes the chief executives of the Contributions
Agency and the Child Support Unit.
Disabled People (Legislation)
Mr. Alfred Morris : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list all the advisory and enforcement agencies, referred to in the letter of 5 June from the Minister for Social Security and Disabled People to the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe, which oversee the implementation of legislation governing provisions for disabled people ; if he will state the terms of reference of each agency ; if he will specify the achievements of each agency in the past 10 years ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Scott : The principal bodies are in the table. Their terms of reference are publicly available. Ministers may also seek the advice of other bodies including local authorities and other service providers.
A comprehensive list of the achievements of all these bodies in the last 10 years could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Many of their reports are in the Library.
Social Security
Disability Living Allowance Advisory Board. Reports to the Secretary of State. Established September 1991--Reports will be placed in the Library
Social Security Advisory Committee--Reports of SSAC's work are placed in the Library
Industrial Injuries Advisory Committee--Reports of the IIAC's are placed in the Library
War Pensions Committee--Annual reports are placed in the Library Employment
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National Advisory Council on Employment of People with Disabilities--Annual reports are placed in the LibraryCommittees for the Employment of People with Disabilities (60 district advisory committees)
Health and Safety Commission and Executive
Disablement Advisory Service
The Sheltered Employment Advisory Group
Training and Enterprise Councils
Industrial Tribunals
Disablement Resettlement Service
Employment Rehabilitation Service
Education
Her Majesty's Inspectorate--The Senior Chief Inspector's reports are in the Library
Health
Mental Health Review Tribunals
Mental Health Act Commission--Reports are placed in the Library Advisory Group on Rehabilitation
Transport
The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee--Reports are placed in the Library
Sport
The Sports Council--Reports are placed in the Library
Access and Environment
Building Regulations Advisory Committee
British Standards Institution--Produces Codes of Practice to complement Approved Documents which accompany Building Regulations Northern Ireland
Mental Health Commission
Mental Health review tribunal
Disability Action Access Committee
Northern Ireland Transport Advisory Committee
Committees for the Employment of Disabled People
Northern Ireland Building Advisory Committee
Scotland
The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland
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