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NHS Administration
Mr. Jon Owen Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what percentage of South Glamorgan health authority's budget is spent on administrative costs not directly related to the provision of health care ;
(2) what percentage of national health service Wales' overall budget is spent on administrative costs not directly related to the provision of health care.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : All NHS expenditure in Wales is related to the provision of health and personal social services. The information necessary to identify administrative costs across all fields of health and social care is not available centrally. However, provisional annual accounts data for 1991-92 does yield for district health authorities the proportion of the authority's own revenue expenditure on administrative costs not directly related to the provision of health care during the last financial year. This figure for South Glamorgan is 3.3 per cent. and is taken to be that covering authority administration and purchasing expenses and expenditure on administering "other services"--for example, emergency bed service, registration and inspection of nursing homes, and joint finance expenditure, care in the community and grants to voluntary bodies. It excludes any further administrative expenditure accounted for within the small surplus on trading attributable to the non-ambulance services of the South Glamorgan health authority's common services units which cannot be allocated centrally between the various clients of those units.
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Agencies
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list those agencies in his Department which are being considered for privatisation or contractorisation.
Mr. David Hunt : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply given to my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, South-East (Mr. Paice) by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Office of Public Service and Science on 17 November, at column 104 .
Appointments
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer of 30 October, Official Report, columns 866-908, if he will list the number of days per week that each appointee is expected, or contracted, to serve in respect of his or her appointment.
Mr. David Hunt : As the information requested is some 30 pages in length, I have arranged for a copy to be placed in the Library of the House.
Wages Councils
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received concerning Government proposals to abolish wages councils.
Mr. David Hunt : I have received around a dozen representations, from members of the public who are not in favour of the proposal.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many men and how many women are in employment in each wages council industry in Wales.
Mr. David Hunt : The information is not available in the format requested.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the estimated net effect on unemployment in Wales of the proposed abolition of wages councils.
Mr. David Hunt : By reducing barriers to employment, as well as reducing unnecessary bureaucracy, the abolition of wages councils will improve job prospects in Wales.
Agricultural Wages Board
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the estimated net effect on employment in agriculture in Wales of abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board.
Mr. David Hunt : There is no proposal to abolish this board.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received on abolishing the Agricultural Wages Board.
Mr. David Hunt : I have received no such representations.
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Recycling
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the local authorities in Wales that plan to (a) fulfill and (b) exceed Government targets for local authority recycling of 25 per cent. of all household waste by 2000.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : This information will not be available until local authorities have finalised their waste recycling plans.
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will establish a cash-incentive scheme for local authorities in Wales to (a) invest in recycling collections, (b) raise the costs of landfill and (c) build up the markets for recycled materials.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The Government are investigating the possible use of economic instruments to provide incentives to increase, re-use, recycle or minimum waste. Our White Paper, "This Common Inheritance--The Second Year Report" commits us to announcing conclusions about the use of economic instruments early in the new year.
Landfill Gas Explosions
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many properties have been destroyed by explosions caused by landfill gas in Wales ; and how many people have been killed or injured in such explosions in each year.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : Local authorities are responsible for controlling landfill sites under planning and waste management legislation. Information relating to landfill gas should be available from the relevant local authority.
Shellfish
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list all shellfish fisheries in Wales, indicating the type and number of shellfish collected in the latest year for which figures are available ; and if he will indicate which shellfish fisheries are classified in categories A, B, C and D.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : Data on fish catches are compiled by port of landing. The 1991 figures for cockles and mussels are as follows :
(tonnes) Port |Cockles|Mussels ------------------------------------------ Conwy |- |100 Penclawdd |816 |- Llanelli |1,798 |15 Three Rivers area |- |10 Bangor |- |1,071
The oyster catch amounted to less than one tonne in total. The preliminary classifications of shellfish waters in Wales under the terms of the EC directives are as follows :
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Area |Bed name |Species |Classification
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Porthcawl |Native oysters ) |Further data
| ) |being obtained
Swansea |Swansea and Nash Banks |Native oysters )
Burry Inlet |North |Cockles |C/D
|South |Cockles |B
|Machynys |Cockles |C/D
|Whiteford Point |Mussels |A
|Pwll |Mussels |D
|Burry Port |Mussels |C
Three Rivers |Wharley Point, St. Ishmaels and |Cockles and mussels |B
| Gwendraeth
|Ginst Point |Cockles |B/C
Milford Haven |Above Woodhouse Spit |Mussels, Native oysters, |D
| Cockles
|Woodhouse Spit to Garron Pill |Mussels, Native oysters, |B
| Cockles
|Garron Pill to Neyland (excluding |Mussels, Native oysters, |C
| Ferny Pits and Carew) | Cockles
|Ferny Pits |Mussels, Native oysters, |B
| Cockles
|Carew |Pacific oysters |B/C
|Below Neyland |Cockles and Mussels |B
Fishguard |Goodwick |Mussels |B
Dovey |Aberdyfi and Coed y Gofer |Mussels and Cockles |C
|Dovey/Leri |Mussels |B
Mawddach |Mawddach Crescent |Mussels |C
|All other areas |Mussels and Cockles |B
Menai Strait-West |Abermenai, Barras, Traeth, Melynog |Mussels and Cockles |B
| and Llanidan
Menai Strait-East |Bangor sites 5/6/7 (area 1) and |Mussels and Cockles |C
| Lavan Sands
|Gallows Point, Gannet and Wilsons |Mussels |B
| (area 4)
|Bangor sites 9/10/11/12 (areas 2 and 5)|Mussels |B
Malreath Bay |All areas |Mussels and Cockles |B
Inland Sea |Holyhead (area 1) |Pacific oysters |A
|Cymyran (area 3) |Pacific oysters |B
Red Wharf Bay |All areas |Cockles |C
Conwy |All estuary areas |Mussels |C
|Llandudno |Mussels |B
Colwyn Bay |Rhos and Llanddulas |Mussels |C
Dee |All areas |Cockles |C
Conservation Sites
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many special protection areas and Ramsar sites there are in Wales ; and what assessment he has made of the number of such sites which are threatened by developments associated with (a) industry, (b) recreation, (c) tourism, (d) roads, (e) minerals and (f) agricultural reclamation and flood prevention.
Sir Wyn Roberts : In Wales there are eight special protection areas- -SPAs--designated under the EC birds directive and six sites designated under the convention on wetlands of international importance, the Ramsar
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convention. These figures include two sites which are both SPAs and Ramsar sites, one of which is also a cross-border site with England. I am not aware of any developments which would be in danger of destroying the value of any of these sites.Public Record Office
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Don Valley (Mr. Redmond), Official Report, 13 November, columns 990-91, if he will set out in the Official Report why each document was withdrawn from the Public Record Office.
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Mr. David Hunt : The documents concerned are required for routine administrative purposes.
Teachers
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the local education authorities in Wales who currently run disability awareness training programmes for their teachers.
Sir Wyn Roberts : The information is not available. However, all local education authorities in Wales receive support from the Welsh Office under the grants for educational support and training programme for the training of teachers of the deaf, the blind, children with severe learning difficulties and designated special needs teachers in ordinary schools.
Farm Buildings
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many successful applications have been made to convert farm buildings into second homes in each local authority area of Wales in each of the last 10 years.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The information requested is not available centrally.
Small Schools
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how future standard spending assessments will affect small schools currently enjoying protection under the formula ; what steps are being taken to base the formula on an objective and professional assessment of Wales's needs ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. David Hunt : Standard spending assessments for Welsh authorities are not hypothecated to individual services. The distribution formulae for county authority SSAs take into account the effect of population sparsity in the provision of primary and secondary education. The formulae are reviewed annually with the local authority associations and ratified by the Welsh Consultative Council on Local Government Finance.
Caesium-137
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what inquiries have been made by his Department into the loss of a Caesium-137 source by British Coal from the Marine colliery.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The loss of a caesium-137 source from Marine colliery came to light during an investigation by Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution in the second half of 1991, into British Coal's registered holdings of radioactive materials at their sites in Wales. HMIP required the company to comply with a condition in their certificate of registration under the Radioactive Substances Act 1960, to take all reasonably practicable measures to recover the source, but it was not found. British Coal was subsequently fined a total of £20,000.
NATIONAL FINANCE
Agencies
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list those agencies in his Departments which are being considered for privatisation or contractorisation.
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Mr. Nelson : I refer the hon. Member to the answer which my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Secretary, Office of Public Service and Science gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Cambridgeshire, South-East (Mr. Paice) on 17 November, at column 104. The procedure outlined in that reply will, of course, apply to the three executive agencies for which I am responsible--the Royal Mint, launched 2 April 1990, the Valuation Office, launched 30 September 1991, and the Central Statistical Office, launched 19 November 1991. An announcement about the future status of each agency will be made at the appropriate time.
Officials (Resignations)
Mr. Bennett : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many officials at principal level and above have resigned from the Treasury in the last two years who have joined the private sector financial services sector.
Mr. Nelson : Since November 1990, there have been four officials at grade 7 level and above who have resigned from the Treasury and have informed the Department that they would be joining the private sector financial services sector.
Small Firms (Loans)
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the amount of money lent by clearing banks to small firms at interest rates linked to a base rate subject to a minimum level independent of base rate ; and how many small firms currently have loans of this type.
Mr. Nelson : I have not made any such estimate. But it is one fact of bank practice which the Bank of England will cover in the study I have asked it to carry out.
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will meet the chairmen of the clearing banks to urge them to amend their loan agreements so that small firms receive the full benefit of a reduction in the official base rate.
Mr. Nelson : As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer told the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee at its hearing on 16 November, he plans to meet the bank chairmen when he has the total opportunity. In the meantime, as the hon. Member will be aware, National Westminster bank reduced its minimum interest rate for commercial customers from 8 to 6 per cent. on 11 November. Barclays bank reduced its floor from 7 to 6 per cent. on 13 November.
Autumn Statement
Mr. Jack Straw : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assumptions and calculations underlie the projection used in the Autumn Statement for capital receipts from the sale of local authorities' assets (a) in aggregate and (b) for each local authority ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Portillo : The projection in paragraph 2.36 of the Autumn Statement is on a United Kingdom basis. It was based as usual on information about local authorities' recent asset sales and forecast outturn in the current year, taking account of the expected effect of the receipts
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measure announced in the Autumn Statement and of past experience in forecasting receipts. The Government have made no projections of asset sales at the level of individual local authorities.Royal Family (Taxation)
Mr. Alan Williams : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the members of the royal family who are not liable to personal taxation ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lamont : Her Majesty the Queen, though the Prince of Wales's income from the Duchy of Cornwall is also exempt.
EC Budget Council
Mr. Peter Ainsworth : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the recent meeting of the European Community's Budget Council.
Sir John Cope : The Budget Council met in Brussels on 16 November. As President of the Council, I chaired the meeting. The Council rejected most of the European Parliament's amendments and modifications to its first reading draft budget, establishing a second reading draft budget for 1993 totalling 65,863 mecu--£53,735 million --in commitment appropriations, compared with the total after the first reading of 65,704 mecu-- £53,605 million. This represents an increase over 1992 of 3.06 per cent. against a Commission bid of 8.4 per cent. and the Parliament's proposed 9.8 per cent. Payment appropriations represent 1.08 per cent. of Community GNP, compared to a ceiling of 1.2 per cent. in the own resources decisions, leaving a cash margin of around 6.735 billion ecu--£5.5 billion.
The negotiations on the 1993 budget will continue and the Council has confirmed its intention to agree a complete budget on time in December. The budget will, therefore, need to give budgetary effect to decisions to be taken at the Edinburgh European Council on the Delors II proposals ; and, in particular, to fulfil the political commitment to set up a cohesion fund early in 1993.
The European Parliament will consider the draft budget at its plenary session in December. The Parliament is expected to vote on the 1993 budget on 17 December, which if accepted would be formally adopted later in the month to take effect from 1 January.
Converted at the rate of £1=1.2257 ecu, the rate notified in the Official Journal as prevailing on the last working day of last month (30 October).
Privatised Companies
Mr. Burns : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the outcome of the auction of part of the Government's holding of privatised companies' debt and loan stock.
Mr. Dorrell : I am pleased to report that the auction was successfully completed on 20 November when the Treasury accepted bids totalling £1.337 billion for the redemption or sale of the following series of electricity and BT bonds :
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|£ million|per cent.|series
----------------------------------------------------------------
BT |150 |12.25 |2000
BT |170 |12.25 |2002
BT |180 |12.25 |2003
PowerGen |150 |11.869 |2005
Scottish Hydro-Electric |116 |11.457 |2001
Scottish Power |142 |11.856 |2005
BT |229 |12.25 |2006
Payment, with accrued interest, will be made to the Exchequer on 15 December 1992. The costs of the auction are expected to amount to some £0.5 million or less than 0.04 per cent. of proceeds. The proceeds will contribute towards the target of £8 billion privatisation proceeds for 1992-93 announced first in the 1991 autumn statement.
I am satisfied that the auction has secured good value for the taxpayer.
Aggregates (Definitions)
Mr. Betts : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to alter the definition of public expenditure and Government borrowing as currently used by the Treasury.
Mr. Portillo [holding answer 18 November 1992] : I have no plans to change from the present definitions of these aggregates.
DEFENCE
Private Detectives
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for defence what use his Department has made of private detectives in each of the last five years ; at what cost ; and if he will list the firms involved.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : I am not aware of any.
Mr. Denham : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence on how many occasions since 1979 his Department has engaged private detective agencies to investigate the activities of British citizens ; and if he will list the date and purpose of each investigation.
Mr. Archie Hamilton [holding answer 19 November 1992] : I am not aware of any.
Weapons, Norway
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what communications he has had with his Norwegian counterpart on preventing the supply of weapons from Norway to terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on Government policy on (a) monitoring and (b) preventing the supply of weapons from Norway to terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The Government are committed to combating terrorism in all its forms throughout the United Kingdom. This includes seeking to prevent the supply of weapons to terrorist organisations from whatever source.
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Iraq
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will now make it his policy to release information on all of the meetings that considered the export of defence equipment to Iraq at any part of their proceedings, including details of the persons present ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Aitken : It is not our policy to release the names of those officials involved, nor to release details of the proceedings of such meetings.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what communications he has had with his NATO counterparts relating to the exports of British defence equipment to Iraq.
Mr. Aitken : There have been general discussions between my Department and the defence departments of some NATO allies on the question of Iraqi military procurement.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all the (a) meetings with representatives of the Iraqi Government and (b) visits to Iraq by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials from his Department since 1985, giving the date, location and names of individuals involved, and subjects discussed ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Aitken : This information is not held centrally. I will write to the hon. Member.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what weight was given in assessing the acceptability, in relation to his Ministry's responsibilities, of applications for export of goods to Iraq of that country's use of chemical weapons.
Mr. Aitken : This was one of the factors taken into account in the application of the guidelines governing exports to Iraq.
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what precautions were taken by his Ministry to ensure that British military secrets were not revealed to the Iraqi Government as a result of the export of British goods that could be used to manufacture munitions or other types of military equipment.
Mr. Aitken : Equipment and technologies with a security classification are invariably subject to particularly close assessment before their export is permitted.
Gulf War
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all the weapons and equipment that were confiscated by allied forces during the Gulf war ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Aitken : No comprehensive record was kept of the large quantities of Iraqi equipment captured by the allies during the Gulf conflict.
Mr. Spellar : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what was the estimated cost to the United Kingdom of the Gulf war.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The current estimate of the cost of military involvement in the Gulf conflict, spread over
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several years, is around £2.5 billion. The bulk of the costs are offset by generous cash contributions from other Governments totalling some £2 billion.Iran
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all the (a) meetings with representatives of the Iranian Government and (b) visits to Iran by (i) Ministers and (ii) officials from his Department since 1985 giving the date, location, subjects discussed and names of individuals involved ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Aitken : This information is not held centrally. I will write to the hon. Member.
Pay Statistics
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what amount of money was spent on the pay of (a) civilians in his Department, (b) armed forces personnel covered by the pay review body and (c) armed forces personnel covered by the Top Salaries Review Body in 1991-92 ; and what are the corresponding estimates for 1992-93 and 1993-94.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The information requested for 1991-92 and 1992 -93 is :
£ million
|1991-92 |1992-93
---------------------------------------------------------------------
(a) Civilian pay<1> |2,708 |<2>2,776
(b)Armed forces personnel covered by
the pay review body |5,208 |5,317
(c) Armed forces personnel covered by the
top salaries review body |11 |12
<1> Figures for 1991-92 and 1992-93 include £409 million and £349
million respectively for locally employed civilians overseas.
<2> Excludes 1992-93 redundancy costs which are borne on civilian
pay sub-heads.
Plans for 1993-94 are still under consideration. Detailed figures will be available when the 1993-94 Supply Estimates are published.
Service Personnel
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will give the figures for the proportion of service personnel leaving by premature voluntary release for the different categories of personnel for each year since 1989-90, and also the most recent figures available for 1992-93 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The proportions of officers and non- commissioned personnel (male and female) in each of the three services leaving by premature voluntary release in each of the years since 1989-90 are as follows :
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