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Mr. Forman : Information on "available" and "unfilled" places in engineering is not collected centrally.
The Government are taking a number of initiatives to encourage the study of engineering. In schools the introduction of the national curriculum has made the teaching of technology, science and mathematics compulsory for all pupils from five to 16. Schools are also being encouraged to offer a range of vocational courses, both alongside the national curriculum and also for over-16s, particularly the new general national vocational qualifications. Currently, one in five entrants to engineering degrees enter on the basis of vocational qualifications. In addition initiatives such as the higher introductory technology and engineering conversion courses have encouraged those previously without a science background to study engineering.
Mr. Pawsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what action he takes to ensure that the advanced education sector promotes engineering degrees.
Mr. Forman : The planning and funding of the United Kingdom higher education system is essentially demand led. Higher education institutions are autonomous and
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recruit according to student demand. However, institutions do receive a higher publicly funded fee for students studying laboratory and workshop courses. This should encourage them to promote courses like engineering.Adult Students
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what funding arrangements his Department proposes to put in place to enable adult returner students to take up courses and learning programmes in further education colleges.
Mr. Forman : The Further and Higher Education Act 1992 places a duty upon the Further Education Funding Council to secure the provision of further education for adults of a type set out in schedule 2 to the Act ; and upon local education authorities to secure provision of all other kinds of further education for adults. These duties may be carried out in further education colleges or other institutions providing for adults. The funding of the Council and of LEAs will take account of these statutory duties.
LEAs have the power to make discretionary awards to those on further education courses. Access funds have also been made available to allow FE colleges to provide financial help to full-time students aged 19 or over.
Refugees
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many (a) refugees and (b) those applying for refugee status with temporary leave to remain in the United Kingdom are known to be currently attending courses at further education colleges ; and from which countries they have come.
Mr. Forman : This information is not collected centrally.
School Dinners
Ms. Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what was the total number of schoolchildren who had school dinners in each year since 1989.
Mr. Forth : Information about school meal take up in maintained nursery, primary, secondary and special schools in England in January of each year is shown in the table.
Thousands
|Nursery/Primary|Secondary |Special |All maintained
|schools
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
<1>1989 |1,836 |1,105 |66 |3,007
<2>1990 |1,845 |1.088 |59 |2,992
<2>1991 |1,808 |1,111 |57 |2,976
<3>1992 |1,820 |1,160 |59 |3,039
<1> Includes boarding pupils.
<2> Day pupils only.
<3> Provisional.
Unemployed Students
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps are being taken by his Department to assist further education colleges in inner London to
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recruit more students, and in particular unemployed students ; and if he will take steps to reduce the financial disincentives which currently apply where colleges enrol a high proportion of unemployed students.Mr. Forman : Access funds have been made available to further education colleges to enable them to assist full-time and sandwich home students aged 19 or over who might otherwise be unable to participate in further education because of financial difficulties. The determination of college budgets, including the account taken of any fee remission schemes for students such as those who are unemployed, is currently a matter for the maintaining local education authority. From 1 April 1993, colleges will be transferred to a new further education sector and funded direct by the Further Education Funding Council. They will have a financial incentive to increase participation and respond flexibly and quickly to demand from all members of the community.
Harris City Technology College, Upper Norwood
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what is the current level of annual expenditure per child at Harris city technology college, Upper Norwood.
Mr. Forth : The level of recurrent grant notified to Harris city technology college for the current academic year, 1992-93, is £3.327 million for 830 pupils under the school-leaving age and 98 pupils over school-leaving age. This includes provision for diseconomies of scale during the college's build-up to full capacity and for services provided centrally by local education authorities to their schools.
Secondary Education
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what is the average spending per child for secondary education in an inner London borough.
Mr. Forth : The latest year for which actual spending information is available is 1990-91. In that year, average funding in secondary schools in inner London boroughs was some £2,470 per pupil. This figure includes unspent balances held by schools at the year end under local management schemes. It does not include the cost of services provided centrally by local education authorities such as home to school transport, school meals, LEA central administration, and financing costs of capital expenditure.
Special Educational Needs
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make it his policy to provide ring-fenced funding to grant-maintained schools to cover the cost of educating children with special educational needs who have not received statements from their local education authority.
Mr. Forth : The Education Reform Act places a duty on the governors of every grant-maintained school to use their best endeavours to secure the special educational provision that any individual pupil might require. It is for the governors to decide how to allocate the funds available to them in order to fufil this duty.
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Examination Results
Mr. Andrew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what information he is collecting on the money spent by local education authorities to publicise GCSE and A-level examination results.
Mr. Forth : Local education authorities have been required to publish information about their schools' examination results in school prospectuses since 1981. No information is collected about the cost to them of so doing. My right hon. Friend is himself responsible for the compilation and publication of the comparative tables of school examination results which will be issued later this month.
Grant-maintained Schools
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will name those schools which have received grant-maintained status with an admissions' policy approved by him which allows for places to be allocated on the basis of ability or aptitude.
Mr. Forth : My right hon. Friend has approved the following schools for grant-maintained status with the selective admission arrangements under which they operated as local education authority-maintained schools.
School |Authority
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Adams' Grammar School |Shropshire
Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School |Lancashire
Beaconsfield High School |Buckinghamshire
Bournemouth School |Dorset
Bournemouth School for Girls |Dorset
Caistor Grammar School |Lincolnshire
Carre's Grammar School |Lincolnshire
Chatham Grammar School for Girls |Kent
Chelmsford County High School for Girls |Essex
Clitheroe Royal Grammar School |Lancashire
Colyton Grammar School |Devon
Cranbrook School |Kent
Dartford Grammar School |Kent
Dartford Grammar School for Girls |Kent
Handsworth Grammar School for Boys |Birmingham
Heckmondwike Grammar School |Kirklees
Herschel Grammar School |Berkshire
King Edward VI Grammar School (GM) |Essex
King Edward VI School |Lincolnshire
Lancaster Girls Grammar School |Lancashire
Lancaster Royal Grammar School |Lancashire
Langley Grammar School |Berkshire
London Oratory School |Hammersmith
Marling School |Gloucestershire
Newstead Wood School for Girls (GM) |Bromley
Nonsuch High School for Girls |Sutton
Oakwood Park Grammar School |Kent
Parkstone Grammar School |Dorset
Pate's Grant Maintained Grammar School |Gloucestershire
Queen Elizabeth Upper Atherstone GM School |Warwickshire
Queen Elizabeth's GM Grammar School |Lincolnshire
Queen Elizabeth's GM Grammar School |Lincolnshire
Rainham Mark Grammar School |Kent
Reading School |Berkshire
Ribston Hall High School |Gloucestershire
Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys |Kent
Sir Roger Manwood's School |Kent
Skegness Grammar School |Lincolnshire
St. George's Grant-Maintained School |Lincolnshire
Stroud High School |Gloucestershire
Sutton Grammar School for Boys |Sutton
The Crossley Heath School |Calderdale
The Crypt School |Gloucestershire
The Gartree Grant Maintained School |Lincolnshire
The Grammar School for Girls Wilmington |Kent
The Kings School Grantham |Lincolnshire
The North Halifax High School |Calderdale
The Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells |Kent
Westcliff High School for Boys |Essex
Wilmington Grammar School for Boys |Kent
Wilsons School |Sutton
Wolverhampton Girls High School |Wolverhampton
Local Education Authorities
Mr. Don Foster : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list each of the responses to the White Paper on the future role of local authorities, referred to in his answer to the hon. Member for Plymouth, Devonport (Mr. Jamieson) on 20 October 1992, Official Report, column 266.
Mr. Forth : Responses to the White Paper are treated as private communications from their authors. It would not be appropriate to make them public. There is nothing to prevent respondents from making their comments more widely available if they wish to do so.
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Student Loans Company
Mr. Pawsey : To ask the Secretary of State for Education when the Student Loans Company will publish its annual report ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forman : The Student Loans Company is publishing today its report for the academic year 1991-92. It includes the company's accounts for the financial year 1991-92. I have placed a copy of the report in the Library. The report describes a very solid year of achievement on the part of the company, and is a tribute to its board, management and staff.
ENVIRONMENT
Contaminated Land
Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what plans he has to introduce a mechanism for appeal against inclusion on the contaminated land register ;
(2) what plans he has to introduce mechanisms for ensuring removal from the contaminated land register of land which has been cleaned up and is no longer contaminated ;
(3) what plans he has to support the investigation and clean up of land included on the contaminated land register ; and what funding arrangements will be available, with particular reference to cases where the polluter is no longer in existence ;
(4) what guidance he proposes to issue on the relationship between parts A and B of the contaminated land register ; and how they are to be cross referenced for ease of inspection ;
(5) what steps he is taking to ensure that unlicensed and unrecorded contaminated land users are identified in the contaminated land register.
Mr. Maclean : Under our current proposals, on which we completed a period of consultation in early October, local authorities would be required under section 143 of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to compile public registers of land which is, or has been, subject to contaminative uses. The proposals include prior notification of owners and occupiers of sites which are to be registered, with arrangements for them to challenge factual errors before registration takes place.
As it is proposed that registers should record the facts of past or present contaminative uses of sites rather than actual contamination, it would not be consistent to remove sites from registers after contamination had been treated. Complete decontamination is in any case rare, and there can, in some circumstances, be continuing effects on water or adjacent land.
Financial assistance is available to local authorities in the form of supplementary credit approvals for the costs of investigation of contamination and of any necessary remedial measures where it is not practicable to recover the costs of treatment from those responsible. Local authorities can still bid for approvals for 1992-93. Both parts of the registers would record only sites subject to contaminative uses which would be listed in regulations. Part B would record those registered sites which had been investigated or treated. The regulations defining the particulars to be included in registers would set out the criteria for inclusion in parts A and B.
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Guidance to be published on information requirements for registers would recommend a method of cross-referencing between the two parts. The registers would contain sufficient information to identify each site and its contaminative use or uses. The past or current identity, licensing or authorisation of any particular site user would occur, if at all, only incidentally to the purposes of the register. Licensing authorities might well refer to registers and make inquiries about the status of any current use or user of a site. I am grateful to the more than 400 organisations and individuals who have responded to our current proposals. We are fully considering the various representations we have received, and will decide in the light of them our next steps in relation to the powers in section 143.Ozone Depletion
Mr. Chris Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out the expected annual consumption of
ozone-destroying substances by the buildings evaluated earlier this year as possible new headquarters for his Department ; and what quantitative method was used to incorporate the consumption of ozone-destroying chemicals in the evaluation of buildings considered as possible new headquarters for his Department.
Mr. Maclean : Consultants have carried out a preliminary environmental assessment of the buildings in question. That included identification of likely ozone-depleting substances. However, the assessment was not sufficiently detailed to quantify fully the various environmental effects.
Mortgage Payments
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much average new mortgage repayments per month were in (a) May 1988 and (b) April 1992.
Mr. Baldry : The average new mortgage repayment on a building society loan is estimated as £250.45 per month in the second quarter of 1988 and £346.10 per month in the second quarter of 1992, based on the average advance and average mortgage interest rate in each period and an assumed mortgage length of 25 years.
Motor Vehicles (Pollution)
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much (a) carbon monoxide, (b) nitrogen oxides and (c) carbon dioxide pollution from motor vehicles there was in (a) 1979 and (b) 1992.
Mr. Maclean : Our most recent estimate of emissions of air pollutants from road transport in 1979 is as follows :
(a) carbon monoxide--3.84 million tonnes ;
(b) nitrogen oxide--772 thousand tonnes, and
(c) carbon dioxide--21.2 million tonnes.
The equivalent figures for 1992 are not yet available.
Press Releases
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make available to hon. Members on request press releases issued by his Department on the day of release.
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Mr. Howard : Copies of press releases issued by my Department are delivered on the day of issue to the press notice desk of the reference division of the House of Commons Library where they are available to hon. Members.
Council Housing (Tendering)
Ms. Eagle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will consult the views and wishes of tenants in implementing compulsory competitive tendering for local authority housing stock.
Mr. Baldry : More than 100 tenants' organisations responded to the Government's consultation paper, "Competing for Quality in Housing". The Housing and Urban Development Bill now before the House provides for effective tenant involvement in the drawing up and monitoring of contracts for the management of local authority housing, and tenant organisations will be consulted on the necessary subordinate legislation in due course.
Waste
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will review the inconsistencies in the definition of waste by different local authorities and the interpretation of regulations as they relate to the transport of materials classified by some authorities as waste.
Mr. Maclean : Whether or not a substance is waste within the meaning of section 75(2) and (3) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 depends on the facts of each case ; and interpretation of the law is a matter for the courts. General guidance on the definition of waste has been given to local authorities in DOE circular 14/92--paragraphs 4 to 18. The Department's guidance draws attention to judgments on this issue by the European Court of Justice and by English courts.
Local Government Boundary Commission
Mr. Paice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the cost of the recent review by the Local Government Boundary Commission of the Cambridgeshire-Suffolk boundary around Newmarket.
Mr. Robin Squire : It is not possible to separate the costs of an individual review from the total costs of the Local Government Boundary Commission.
Crown Leases
Mr. David Evans : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement about the enfranchisement of residential long leases held from the Crown.
Sir George Young : The various Crown authorities will, in most cases, agree to the voluntary enfranchisement or extension of long leases, under the same qualifications and terms as will apply under statute--the Leasehold Reform Act 1967 and the Housing and Urban Development Bill if enacted--to leaseholders whose landlord is not the Crown.
Enfranchisement of property which would otherwise qualify will however be refused where the land is inalienable or in certain circumstances specific to the Crown. These circumstances are : (
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(i) where the property or the area in which it is situated has a long, historic or particular association with the Crown (including parts of the Isles of Scilly and central Dartmoor) ;(ii) were the property is within (or intimately connected with) the historic Royal Palaces and Parks (including properties adjacent to Regents Park) ; or
(iii) where there are special security considerations.
When enfranchisement is refused on these grounds, the Crown will be prepared to negotiate new leases.
Additionally the Crown will be eligible to apply for and operate schemes of estate management, and will be prepared to be bound by arbitration on disputes over the terms of (a) enfranchisement, or (b) the grant of new leases by analogy with the statutes. This undertaking supersedes that given by my right hon. Friend the then Minister for Housing on 31 May 1967, at column 42.
Pit Closures
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will provide increased funding to the National Rivers Authority to cope with the pollution consequences of pit closures.
Mr. Maclean [holding answer 30 October 1992] : The cost of the National Rivers Authority's work relating to the regulation of discharges or overflows from mines is taken into account as necessary in determining the financial needs of the authority from year to year.
Business Rates
Mr. Straw : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish his estimate of the actual total yield from the national non- domestic rate for (a) 1990-91, (b) 1991-92 and (c) the current financial year.
Mr. Howard [holding answer 29 October] : Estimated yield from non-domestic rates in England :
|£ billion
------------------------------
1990-91 |10.7
1991-92 |12.0
1992-93 |11.6
These estimates include the yield from the City of London's locally determined rate. They take into account the provisions of the Non-Domestic Rate Act 1992 which had the effect of reducing the rates paid by occupiers or owners of properties benefiting from the transitional arrangements. The estimates are on an accruals basis--that is, they represent the aggregate rate liability for each year rather than the cash actually collected during the year--except that adjustments to liability, for instance following appeals, have been attributed to the year in which they occurred rather than to each year for which liability was reduced.
Radioactive Waste (Sewers)
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he plans to review definitions for low-level standards of radioactive materials discharged into sewers ;
(2) if he has plans to review current arrangements for authorising and monitoring discharges of low-level radioactive waste into sewers ;
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(3) what action he is taking to monitor potentially dangerous levels of radioactivity, resulting from authorised discharges of low-level, radioactive waste into sewers, accessible to water workers and consumers ;(4) what measures are available to ensure that both water workers and consumers are not exposed to potentially dangerous levels of radioactivity resulting from authorised discharges of low-level radioactive waste into sewers ;
(5) if he will improve public access to information dealing with the discharge of low-level radioactive waste into sewers ; (6) what definition he uses for low-level radioactivity and safe levels of radioactive waste, for substances currently discharged into sewerage systems ;
(7) what projected long-term environmental impact is expected if current level discharges of low-level, radioactive waste into sewers continue ; and how this is monitored ;
(8) if he will take steps to ensure regular checks are made on water workers to establish personal contamination levels resulting from the disposal of radioactive materials into sewers.
Mr. Maclean [holding answer 28 October 1992] : Discharges of low-level radioactive waste to the public sewerage system are strictly regulated by means of authorisations issued under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960--RSA60--by her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution-- HMIP. Authorisations are issued only after a careful radiological assessment, and impose strict conditions and activity limits which ensure proper protection from such disposals for all members of the public, including sewer workers. I am satisfied that the current arrangements, which are kept under constant review, provide a fully satisfactory regime for regulating radioactive waste disposals and I have no plans to make changes at present. Since 1 January 1991 the public have had the right of access to information on applications and authorisations issued under RSA60. These documents are held at local authority offices and at the three principal HMIP offices in Bedford, Leeds and Bristol.
Results of a research study conducted on behalf of HMIP by the National Radiological Protection board into the exposure of sewer workers associated with radioactive discharges from hospitals was published in June 1991. It found that doses of radiation to those sewer workers with long exposure near to hospital discharge points are approximately one hundredth that of natural background levels. Further research conducted on behalf of HMIP by St. Bartholomew's medical college into the levels of Iodine 125 in drinking water show that actual radiation exposure to the public is less than one hundredth that of natural background levels. I-125 is a principal component of discharges from hospitals. I am arranging for copies of both of these reports--DOE/HMIP/RR/91/030 and 031--to be placed in the Library of the House. The studies form part of an HMIP-commissioned programme of research into the environmental behaviour of radionuclides. These studies demonstrate that the dose levels are so low that no further precautions need to be taken either by sewer workers or other members of the public. A programme for monitoring radioactivity in public water supplies in England and Wales has operated for many years. Results from this programme are published in the
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Department's "Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics", a copy of which is in the Library. Results to date show levels below the World Health Organisation guideline values. This confirms that the water is potable on radiological grounds and thus there is no hazard to the public. Selective monitoring of private water supplies is also undertaken under contract to this Department.Fish Farming
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to promote the banning of EC funding of fish farming in sensitive wetland habitats during the United Kingdom's presidency of the EC.
Mr. Curry : I have been asked to reply.
A framework for protecting sensitive wetland habitats within the Community is already provided by the EC birds
directive--79/409/EEC--and the new EC habitats directive--92/43/EEC. In the United Kingdom, the Fisheries Ministers have a duty under the Sea Fisheries (Wildlife Conservation) Act 1992 to consider nature conservation in the exercise of their functions and to strike a reasonable balance. The Fisheries Departments do not encourage projects in sensitive areas.
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Maastricht Treaty
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether the principle of subsidiarity in article 3(b) proposed by the Maastricht treaty can be used retrospectively.
Mr. Garel-Jones : Although as a matter of law, article 3(b) applies prospectively, there is nothing to prevent the application of the principle in that article to a review of existing Community measures. The Birmingham declaration notes that the first results of such a review will be examined at the Edinburgh European Council.
Visas
Mr. Parry : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when charges for visas for applicants wishing to rejoin their families in the United Kingdom came into operation ; and what is the charge per person.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : Charges for visas for aliens were introduced in 1825 by the Act relating to the salaries and fees of consular officers. No distinction was made relating to applicants wishing to rejoin their families.
Charges for visas for Commonwealth citizens, including charges for those wishing to join their families in the United Kingdom were introduced on 1 January 1985 by the Consular Fees (Amendment) Order 1986.
Charges for visas for applicants wishing to rejoin their families in the United Kingdom were last revised on 14 January 1991. Current fees per person are :
|£
-----------------------------------------------------------
(a) Husband, wife, child or other dependant
relative |80
(b) Certificate of Entitlement to the right of abode |80
(c) Returning resident |20
Consultants
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all of the reports his Department has commissioned from external consultants in each of the past three years ; for each of the past three years, how many reports from external consultants to his Department led to further consultancy
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work being commissioned, stating for each of these who were the original and subsequent consultants and briefly describing the subject matter of the consultancy work ; and if he will make a statement.Mr. Goodlad : Consultancies are awarded, after a competitive tendering exercise, to the company considered best able to provide value for money in terms of quality of work and price. The information requested is set out in the table.
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Year |Report commissioned |Consultants |Further consultancy
|work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1989 |Car pool operations |ASO Management |None
1989 |Organisation and work of Personnel Operations|Coopers & Lybrand |Michael Armstrong Associates-Assessment
| Department
1990 |Travel Centre Quality Control Audit |Cleverdon Steer |None
1990 |Review of Non-financial Management |Coopers & Lybrand |None
| Information
1991 |Management Information Systems Preliminary |JM Consulting |Full study also by JM Consulting
| Study
1991 |Heavy Baggage Contract |Ernst & Young |None
1992 |Introduction of Quality Management Systems |Neville Clarke Ltd. |None
1992 |Office Accommodation-Advantages of new |Symonds |None
| buildings over old
1992 |Activities suitable for Market Testing |Coopers & Lybrand |Capita management Consultancy-Market
| Testing Methodology and Training
1992 |Installation of Secure Communications Systems|BT Tallis |None
1992 |Long Hours: Attitude Survey |Coopers & Lybrand |Follow-on work by same consultants
1992 |Organisation and Implementation of Top and |McNeil Robertson |None
| Senior Management Courses
Cyprus
Mr. Parry : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the recent meeting at the United Nations concerning the Cyprus problem.
Mr. Garel-Jones : Talks on Cyprus reconvened on 26 October in New York, and moved to face to face discussion between President Vassiliou and Mr. Denktash on 28 October. Limited ground has as yet been covered, but both sides appear to be taking a constructive approach. We continue to give full backing to the efforts of the UN Secretary-General.
Western Sahara
Mr. Fraser : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the kingdom of Morocco about the holding of a referendum on the future of western Sahara.
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