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Engagements
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 22 October.
Sir Peter Tapsell : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 22 October.
The Prime Minister : This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.
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EMPLOYMENT
Disabled People
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current percentage of disabled people in employment.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Figures covering all disabled people are not readily available ; however, we do have information for disabled people of working age.
Research commissioned by the Department and published in 1990 found that 78 per cent. of people in Great Britain who were occupationally handicapped, economically active and of working age, were in work. The labour force survey for the spring quarter of 1992 found that 80 per cent. of people in Great Britain who had a health problem or disability which limited the kind of work they could do, were economically active and were of working age, were in work. Direct comparison between these findings is difficult, because they do not always use the same definitions, in particular the definition of disablility.
Youth Training
Mr. Leighton : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the expenditure on youth training in the London East training and enterprise council area in 1991 ; and what it is in the current year.
Mr. McLoughlin : Expenditure on youth training in the London East TEC area in the period 1 April 1991 to 31 March 1992 was £10,051,191. Figures from 1 April 1992 are not yet available. The budget for expenditure for YT in the LETEC area for the current financial year is £13,056,731.
DEFENCE
Festival Sites
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the disused sites owned by his Department which might be available for free festivals following the request to his Department for suitable sites to be identified ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : There are no plans to make available MOD sites for free festivals.
SCOTLAND
Water and Sewerage
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will estimate the replacement costs of the assets of each Scottish water authority ; if he will estimate for each authority what percentage of the population are supplied with (a) mains water and (b) sewerage by that authority ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : Details of the assets of each Scottish water authority are not held centrally. The percentages of population receiving public mains water and public sewerage are given in the table.
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Authority |Proportion of population receiving mains water Per cent.|Proportion of population receiving sewerage Per cent.
Regional Councils
Borders |86.4 |81.5
Central |98.7 |96.7
Dumfries and Galloway |89.8 |85.0
Fife |98.9 |98.0
Grampian |93.0 |87.5
Highland |97.5 |80.4
Lothian |100.0 |98.0
Strathclyde |99.8 |98.4
Tayside |97.1 |92.9
Islands Councils
Orkney |98.0 |47.3
Shetland |99.0 |65.0
Western Isles |98.0 |75.0
|--- |---
Scotland (weighted average) |98.1 |94.8
Source: The UK Water Industry-Water Services and Costs 1990/91, published by the Centre for the Study of Regulated Industries.
Deregulation
Mr. Sproat : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what financial provisions, and how much, he has made within his Department in order to look at the potential for deregulation of each of the regulatory measures for which he has responsibility.
Mr. Allan Stewart : All Departments within the Scottish Office have an ongoing responsibility to identify potential areas for deregulation and any Department proposing new legislation or regulations which are likely to impose a burden on business must carry out an assessment of the cost to business of compliance. No separate financial provision has been made within the operating costs of the Scottish Office departments for those purposes.
Bellwin Formula
Mr. Wallace : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland which local authorities claimed assistance under the Bellwin formula, following the storm damage of December 1991 and new year's day 1992 ; and how much was (a) claimed by and (b) paid to each authority under the scheme.
Mr. Allan Stewart : I announced the triggering of the Bellwin scheme on 10 January. On that occasion, the triggering applied to the Shetland, Orkney, and Western Isles islands council areas, and Highland and Central regions. Only Shetland islands council has submitted a claim for financial assistance this totals £83,000. Payment will be made once the council has provided some outstanding information to establish the eligibility of the expenditure incurred.
Water Industry
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the representations received regarding the future arrangements for the organisation of the water industry in Scotland.
Sir Hector Monro : Some 1,400 representations have been received to date.
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Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the meetings or discussions held between his Department and (a) English water companies and (b) French water companies in the last two months.
Sir Hector Monro : One meeting has been held with an English water company, at its request, to discuss matters of mutual interest.
Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when the consultants' report on the future of the water industry in Scotland will be published.
Sir Hector Monro : A consultation document setting out a range of options for the future structure of the water and sewerage service in Scotland will be published shortly. The consultants' report itself will not be published.
Hampden Park
Mr. Gallie : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) if he will publish a list of tenderers for the upgrading of Hampden park ; (2) by what date tenders are to be submitted for the upgrading of Hampden park ;
(3) if he will ensure that at least one independent construction company with its administrative base in Scotland is included on the list of tenderers for the upgrading of Hampden park ;
(4) how much the Scottish Office has invested in the joint venture with the Scottish Football Association and the Football Trust for the upgrading of Hampden park.
Sir Hector Monro : The Government are providing £3.5 million as a cash-limited contribution towards a £12 million project being undertaken by the national stadium committee to make Hampden park all- seated, in line with Taylor report requirements. The national stadium committee, set up by Queen's Park FC, the Scottish Football Association and the Scottish Football League to respond to Scotland's national football stadium needs, is solely responsible for all matters relating to the contracts for work to make Hampden all-seated.
National Council for Vocational Qualifications
Mr. Barry Porter : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the progress of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications programme and its implementation.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 19 October 1992] : The remit of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications does not extend to Scotland. The equivalent body, which is responsible for the accreditation and award of vocational qualifications in Scotland, is the Scottish Vocational Education Council.
The Scottish programme is designed to make available vocational qualifications which are broadly compatible with those being developed by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications. Scottish vocational qualifications--SVQs--embrace industry-determined standards to meet the needs of specific occupations. The target set by the Government was to have these qualifications in place for 80 per cent. of the Scottish work force by December 1992. The Scottish Vocational Education Council is well on course towards meeting this target, 288 individual SVQs having been accredited to date.
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Dounreay
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what information he has received on the cause and cost of the technical problem that resulted in the shut-down for an indefinite period of the prototype fast reactor at Dounreay ; and when is it expected to re-open.
Mr. Eggar : I have been asked to reply.
We receive regular reports from the Atomic Energy Authority on the performance of the prototype fast reactor. It has been shut down since 29 June 1991 when a leak of oil into the primary sodium cooling circuit was discovered. The major cost has been the loss of electricity revenue. The amount involved is commercially confidential. I understand from the AEA that it hopes to restart the reactor by the end of January.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Collapsed Holiday Firms
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations he has received seeking increased powers to deal with holiday firms which have collapsed without bonding and assistance to those people who have lost money or their holiday.
Mr. Leigh : I have had a number of such representations. I shall shortly be laying before Parliament regulations which will require all organisers of packages, including package holidays, to have security for prepayments in the event of insolvency.
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many people were affected by the collapse of Land Travel.
Mr. Leigh : The exact number of people affected by the collapse of Land Travel is not known since claims are still being received by the liquidator. In the region of 40,000 claims have been submitted so far but many of these are for multiple bookings.
Nuclear Reprocessing
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out the implications for United Kingdom civil nuclear reprocessing at Sellafield and Dounreay of the provisions of articles 107a to 107c on the amendments concerning Euratom in the treaty on European Union (Cm 1934).
Mr. Eggar : There are none. These articles bring the Euratom treaty into line with the treaty of Rome, as amended by the treaty of European union.
Export Licences
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 6 July, Official Report, column 28, if he has now received a response from The Independent newspaper in regard to export licences.
Wave Energy
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade when he expects to receive the report on wave energy by Tom Thorpe commissioned by his predecessor in April 1989.
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Mr. Eggar : The report on the wave energy review is in preparation, and I expect to receive a copy by the end of the year.
Radioactive Materials
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will investigate the discovery of radioactive materials on 11 October at an unlicensed site in Cranbrook, Kent, in regard to the application of safeguards to the materials.
Mr. Eggar : A small radioactive source was discovered at an address in Cranbrook, Kent on 11 October and was taken to Dungeness power station for analysis. If the substance is confirmed to be subject to safeguards legislation it will be declared to Euratom.
Municipal Mutual Insurance
Mr. Vaz : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what meetings and discussions he has had concerning Municipal Mutual Insurance.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : My Department has been in constant contact with Municipal and Mutual Insurance Limited since the company informed the Department in March 1992 that it might have failed to maintain its required minimum solvency margin.
Displays (Safety)
Mr. Spearing : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what information he has concerning consultations in preparation for, or draft of, a regulation of the European Economic Community prohibiting the inclusion of artificial or real grapes in floral or similar displays, on the grounds of child or other safety considerations.
Mr. Leigh [holding answer 19 October 1992] : I am not aware of any consultations at present concerning any EC regulations prohibiting the inclusion of artificial or real grapes in the products mentioned.
HOUSE OF COMMONS
Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Winnick : To ask the Lord President of the Council when he expects to reply to the recommendations of the Third Report of the Procedure Committee, Session 1990-91 on Parliamentary Questions.
Mr. Tony Newton : I am considering the report and will reply in due course.
NATIONAL FINANCE
Monetary Co-operation
Mr. Cash : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which states at present qualify for co-operation under the terms of the declaration on monetary co-operation with non-Community countries.
Mr. Nelson : Whether or not the Community would consider that a particular country qualified for monetary co-operation is a matter for the Council of Ministers. It is therefore not possible to provide a definitive list.
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Bank of Credit and Commerce International
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to publish the Bingham report into BCCI in full.
Mr. Nelson : My right hon. Friend has concluded that the balance of public interest lies in favour of publishing not only Lord Justice Bingham's recommendations and conclusions, but the report in full.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the cost to the Exchequer of the Bingham inquiry into BCCI.
Mr. Nelson : The total direct costs of Lord Justice Bingham and his inquiry team to date are some £595,000. These costs are shared equally between the Treasury and the Bank of England. The overall cost to the taxpayer also includes the administration and legal costs of the Government Departments concerned. To provide an estimate of these costs would involve disproportionate cost.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many claims have been paid by the deposit protection board to former depositors with BCCI by (a) number and (b) value.
Mr. Nelson : I understand that at 19 October 1992 some 9,500 claims had been processed involving payments of some £51.7 million.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with the Governor of the Bank of England concerning the Bingham report into BCCI since he received a copy of the report.
Mr. Nelson : My right hon. Friend meets the Governor of the Bank of England frequently and they discuss a wide range of issues.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he intends to publish the Bingham report into BCCI.
Mr. Watts : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he intends to publish the Bingham report on the failure of BCCI.
Mr. Nelson : The report of Lord Justice Bingham's inquiry into the supervision of BCCI has been published today, in response to an unopposed motion for the return of papers.
Bank of England
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he intends to announce the name of the next Governor of the Bank of England.
Mr. Nelson : The Governor of the Bank of England is appointed by Her Majesty the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. The present Governor's term of office expires on 30 June 1993. The name of the next Governor will be announced in due course.
Exchange Rate Mechanism
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effects on inflation of the withdrawal from the ERM.
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Mr. Nelson : The easing of monetary policy which has occurrred since sterling's withdrawal from the ERM is consistent with keeping downward pressure on inflation. I shall be publishing a revised forecast of prospects for inflation in the autumn statement, in the usual way.
Civil Servants
Mr. Burn : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes have been made in the rules on travel, subsistence and relocation expenses for civil servants.
Mr. Dorrell : As part of our ongoing programme for delegating to departments and agencies greater responsibility for managing personnel management policies, departments and agencies have been given the freedom to determine within defined limits their own rules and rates for subsistence and the use of private cars on official business.
The rates for subsistence will continue to reflect the principle of reimbursement of necessary additional costs. The rates for motor mileage allowance may go beyond reimbursement of motoring costs and provide an incentive for staff to use their cars on official business but only where it is cost effective for the department to do so. We will also be extending the range of measures available to departments and agencies to meet motoring costs incurred on official business by giving departments and agencies the freedom to offer eligible staff an interest free loan towards the purchase of a car needed for official business.
Such loans may be made only in circumstances where this is the most cost effective approach for departments. The package of measures for new recruits has been extended to provide for refund of relocation expenses on the same basis as existing staff, provided it is limited to shortage and hard-to-fill posts.
The use of these additional measures is at the discretion of departments and agencies, and they must be contained within existing resources.
Economic and Finance Council
Mr. Burns : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the latest meeting of the European Community's Economic and Finance Council.
Sir John Cope : The Economic and Finance Council of the European Community met in Luxembourg under my presidency on 19 October. The Council discussed three issues related to the current review of the Community's future financing : overseas loan guarantees ; aspects of the cohesion fund agreed at Maastricht ; and the
inter-institutional agreement on budgetary discipline and improvement of the budgetary procedure, between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament. On loan guarantees, the Council agreed in principle to establish a self-standing fund, to make provision against liabilities on loans to third countries guaranteed by the Community. Payments into the fund would be set as a proportion of the value of new loans, and would be financed by a reserve in the financial perspective and the Community budget.
Of the cohesion fund the Council discussed the rules of eligibility and allocation criteria for the fund, and how the provisions of the Maastricht cohesion protocol on macroeconomic conditionality should be applied. All member states agreed that the criterion laid down in article
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104c of the Maastricht treaty, on excessive budget deficits, should be the basis of the macroeconomic test ; on other aspects no conclusions were reached.The Council also had the opportunity to give first reactions to the Commission's proposal for a new inter-institutional agreement. The Council agreed that the Commission draft formed a good basis for discussion, and that the Presidency should report member states' initial reactions to the European Parliament.
The Council discussed the need for improved offers of market access for financial services from a number of countries in the GATT round and agreed that the presidency and the Commission should lobby those countries accordingly on behalf of the Community and its member states.
The call for a review of recent economic and financial events in the conclusions of the special European Council was remitted to the Committee of Central Bank Governors and the Monetary Committee for further work.
The Council agreed to the release of the remainder of Russia's share of the Community's 1.25 becu loan to the former Soviet Union for food and medical aid. The Council also adopted a balance of payments loan to Bulgaria but the first tranche will not be released until Bulgaria has reached satisfactory rescheduling agreements with its creditors in the Paris Club. A request from Poland for a structural adjustment loan was remitted to the Monetary Committee for further consideration.
The Council discussed future relations with Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia with Mr. Attali, the President of the EBRD in preparation for the presidency's meeting with those countries on 28 October. The Council also agreed in principle to continue to provide technical assistance funding from the PHARE and TACIS programmes to be administered by the EBRD.
Following the resolution of outstanding problems, the Council adopted the package of eight indirect tax proposals on the structures and rates for VAT and excise duties provisionally agreed at the 27 July meeting of Finance Ministers. This was a key objective for the United Kingdom presidency as agreement was necessary for the introduction of the single market on 1 January 1992.
The agreement includes an undertaking from the United Kingdom that we will progressively reduce the duty differential, between intermediate products (fortified wines) exceeding 15 per cent. alcohol by volume (abv) and those intermediate products up to 15 per cent. abv, to 25 per cent. by the end of 1995. The undertaking also provides for the use of the names "British Sherry", "Irish Sherry" and "Cyprus Sherry" to end by 1 January 1996. In return Spain will discontinue their present action against the United Kingdom in the European Court of Justice.
There was no substantive discussion of the 7th VAT Directive on second-hand goods, including works of art. The Commission explained why such a directive was necessary and it was agreed that the proposal should be remitted to working groups for further discussion.
Research Contracts
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list all the contracts the Treasury has placed with non-governmental advisory bodies on research and forecasting matters, together with information on the value of all contracts for the last 15 years.
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Mr. Portillo [holding answer 21 October 1992] : Details of project expenditure from the Treasury's macroeconomic research budget for 1983-84 to 1991-92, and of planned expenditure for 1992-93 have been placed in the Library of the House. Corresponding information for the microeconomic research budget is also provided. Information could not be obtained for earlier years.
SOCIAL SECURITY
Income Support
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps he has taken to carry out the recommendations of the Social Security Advisory Committee that the DSS reviews the procedures for young people claiming income support.
Mr. Burt : Social security administration is subject to continuous review. Procedures for young people are part of this process.
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what consideration he has given to the recommendation of the Social Security Advisory Committee in its sixth, seventh and eighth reports that the full rate of income support should be restored for young people under 25 years of age living away from home ; and what was his conclusion.
Mr. Burt : We have studied these reports by the Social Security Advisory Committee. We have no plans to change the level of income support personal allowances paid to people aged under 25 years.
Children
Mr. Wicks : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will publish the latest figures showing how many (a) families with children and (b) children are living on income support.
Mr. Burt : There are 1.3 million claims which include one or more children under 16. The total number of children in families receiving income support is 2.4 million.
Source : Income support annual statistical inquiry, May 1991.
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