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NATIONAL FINANCE
Correspondence
Mr. Charles Kennedy : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to be able to respond to the letter of 18 November from the hon. Member for Ross, Cromarty and Skye concerning Mackay and Sons Ltd., Ross- shire ; and if he will make a statement.
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Sir John Cope : I will write to the hon. Member shortly in response to his letter of 18 November. I can tell him that Customs are prepared exceptionally to renegotiate payment in this case.
Regulatory Measures
Mr. Sproat : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the main measures increasing regulation in any area for which his Department has responsibility, which his Department has caused to be put into effect since 9 April.
Mr. Dorrell : No such measures have been taken.
Aero Technologies Ltd.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what investigations have been conducted by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise officers into the trading activities of Aero Technologies Ltd. with (a) Iran and (b) Iraq in military equipment.
Sir John Cope : It would not be appropriate for information relating to any particular investigation to be made public other than in the course of court proceedings.
Deregulation
Mr. Sproat : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the main measures of deregulation, or simplification of regulation, which his Departments have carried out, or caused to be carried out, since 9 April.
Mr. Dorrell : The Government have laid draft regulations under section 2(2) of the European Communities Act before Parliament on 17 November in order to implement the second banking co-ordination and consolidated supervision directives. Although these measures are long and complex, and amend a number of Acts, they implement two measures that are central to a single market in banking. This will allow EC credit institutions--broadly speaking, banks and building societies--to offer banking services throughout the Community on the basis of a single authorisation under the prudential supervision of a single supervisor.
Mr. Sproat : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which Minister in his Department is responsible for the oversight of deregulation of regulatory matters which fall within the responsibility of his Department.
Mr. Dorrell : I am responsible to the Chancellor for such matters.
Civil List
Mr. Wilson : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy to initiate a revision of the 10-year agreement concerning the civil list so as to include it within the 1.5 per cent. pay ceiling policy.
Mr. Lamont : No. The royal household committed itself on 12 November to apply the pay limitations for 1993.
Widows' Pensions
Mrs. Ewing : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his Department's most recent estimate of the loss to the Exchequer if widows' pensions were to be treated as non-taxable income.
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Mr. Dorrell : At 1992-93 levels, the revenue cost of exempting from tax widows' pensions, including widowed mothers' allowances, would be about £100 million.
Manufactured Goods
Mr. Fatchett : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the value of imports and exports and the trade balance in manufactured goods in current and real terms for each financial year since 1979-80.
Mr. Portillo : Information on imports, exports and the balance for manufactured goods is published regularly in the Central Statistical Office's "Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics" and is available on a quarterly basis on the Central Statistical Office databank which may be accessed through the Library of the House.
British Telecom
Mr. Burns : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he proposes to sell the Government's residual shareholding in British Telecommunications plc.
Mr. Dorrell : As my right hon. Friend announced in the debate on the autumn statement on 18 November, at column 303, the Government intend to sell all or part of their residual shareholding in BT next year. No decisions have been taken about the precise timing and the number of shares to be sold. We will shortly begin to appoint advisers to certain of the key roles and to incur preliminary sale costs.
Parliamentary approval to this new service will be sought in a spring supplementary estimate for Her Majesty's Treasury's sale of shares in British Telecommunications plc and sale or redemption of privatised companies' debt vote--class XVIII, vote 19. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure, not expected to exceed £2 million, will be met by repayable advances from the contingencies fund. Preliminary and main sale expenses incurred in 1993-94 in connection with the sale of shares will be met from receipts from the sale.
Iraq
Mr. Darling : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Treasury became aware that Bank of Credit and Commerce International accounts were being used to facilitate arms trade with Iraq ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nelson [holding answer 17 November 1992] : So far as can be ascertained, the Treasury has not had information that BCCI accounts have been used to facilitate arms trade with Iraq, although it has seen the material in Senator Kerry's report on this point.
Bank of Credit and Commerce International
Mr. Hain : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will now authorise publication of appendix 8 to the Bingham report on BCCI.
Mr. Nelson [holding answer 19 November 1992] : As my right hon. Friend the Chancellor has already made clear to the House, the balance of public interest weighs against publishing any of the appendices to the Bingham report.
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DUCHY OF LANCASTER
Charterline
Ms. Mowlam : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, pursuant to his answer of 13 November, Official Report, column 982, how many companies, other than Price Waterhouse, applied for the tender to pilot the charterline service.
Public Appointments
Ms. Mowlam : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will place the list of names on the central database within the public appointments unit within the Office of Public Service and Science in the Library.
Mr. Robert Jackson : No. Information about the 5,500 names on the public appointments unit's database is provided in confidence and, under the Data Protection Act 1984, publication of the names would be precluded. But the unit is always ready to receive details of those whom hon. Members consider suitable for consideration for public appointments, and individuals are free to nominate themselves on application forms available from the unit. At the present time there is a particular need for nominations of more women suitable for national level appointments and for names of members of the ethnic minorities.
Ms. Mowlam : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will publish a full list of public appointments, with the time period of appointment, stating whether part or full-time, and whether expenses, including child care, are payable in each case.
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Mr. Robert Jackson : "Public Bodies", published annually by the Cabinet Office, gives details of the bodies to which Ministers make appointments, and whether the appointments are part time or full time. A copy of the 1991 edition is in the Library of the House ; the 1992 edition is expected to be published at the end of the year. Responsibility for the period of an appointment rests with each appointing Minister. No information is kept centrally about such terms which vary in length but in most instances do not exceed five years. The Women's National Commission's "Handbook for Women's Organisations", also in the Library, includes some information about the normal terms of appointments to some bodies.
The authorisation of travelling and subsistence expenses is the responsibility of individual Departments, but such expenses are normally met. Child care expenses may also be reimbursed where this help secures the appointment of someone who might otherwise have to decline, or to avoid the risk of non attendance.
Market Testing
Mr. Deva : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will publish figures showing the year on year increase in the amount of central Government market testing ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Waldegrave [pursuant to his reply, 23 November 1992, column 606- 7.] : The details of the market testing plans of main Departments were published yesterday in the citizens charter White Paper. The breakdown of the market testing plans for other Departments and agencies is as follows.
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|c|Market testing plans for completion by 30 September 1993|c|
Department |Approximate value of |Approximate number
|activities to be |of staff involved
|tested £ million |in this work
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Charity Commission |1.2 |50
Crown Prosecution Service |5.8 |461
Export Credit Guarantee Department |1.0 |52
Forestry Commission |7.8 |500
Intervention Board |4.3 |126
Land Registry |4.2 |100
Office of Fair Trading |0.4 |13
OPCS |2.1 |85
Ordnance Survey |14.5 |360
Treasury Solicitors |2.1 |42
Central Office of Information |6.3 |84
Central Statistical Office |1.0 |2
Department of National Savings |11.7 |477
HMSO |17.6 |542
Paymaster General |1.1 |69
Others |1.5 |-
Total |82.6 |2,963
EDUCATION
East Gate School, Nottinghamshire
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will give the address of the East Gate school, Nottinghamshire, listed in his Department's table of school examination results.
Mr. Forth : The address of the school referred to--the William Crane School--is East Gate, Minver crescent, Aspley, Nottingham, NG8 5PN.
Students (Overseas Placements)
Mrs. Ann Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many students are currently on placements abroad as an integral part of their first degree courses.
Mr. Forman : Information on total numbers of students on placements abroad is not available within the Department. Figures are however available for students studying abroad under the ERASMUS and LINGUA programmes, which by definition require placements abroad to be integrated in the home course. For 1991-92 about 6,500 United Kingdom students undertook periods of study abroad on this basis.
Mrs. Ann Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what steps he has taken to ensure that students currently on placements abroad as an integral part of their first degree courses have had their grants adjusted to take account of the devaluation of sterling.
Mr. Forman : There are special rates of grant for students studying at overseas institutions for at least one term as a necessary part of their courses. They are fixed for the current academic year by the Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1992--SI 1992 No. 1270--which came into force on 1 September 1992. The rates represent only a contribution towards costs faced abroad, and are not normally revised during the year on account of currency or other fluctuations. My right hon. Friend will review the rates in due course when he makes the new regulations to come into force on 1 September 1993.
Interim Funding, London
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what plans he has to end his Department's post-Inner London education authority interim funding ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Forth : The Government are providing £250 million in inner London education grant over the first five years in which the inner London boroughs have responsibility for education. This is transitional support to protect local tax payers while the boroughs bring the education spending they inherited from the Inner London education authority under control, and will end in March 1995. The Department has also provided grant totalling £1.5 million over the three years 1990-91 to 1992-93 in order to enable 29 Londonwide educational voluntary organisations to make new funding arrangements with the London boroughs and charitable trusts. Over the same three year period the Department has provided pump-priming funding to the Foundation for Young Musicians--FYM--totalling £336,000.
There is no commitment to extending the scheme of grants to the Londonwide educational voluntary organisations or FYM grants beyond 31 March 1993 although an application from the FYM is under consideration.
Grant-maintained Schools
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what research his Department has commissioned into the effect of the acquisition of grant-maintained status on school effectiveness ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Forth : It is not necessary to commission special research into the effect of the acquisition of grant-maintained status on school effectiveness. The publication of school performance tables under the parents charter, in which each school's type is clearly stated, will help all concerned to judge the relative effectiveness of different types of school. Her Majesty's inspectorate's observation of GM schools has already attested to their effectiveness. The Office for Standards in Education will undertake some full inspections of GM schools over the coming year as part of its programme for training registered inspectors.
Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will list those local education authorities in which at least 15 per cent. of primary or secondary schools will be grant-maintained by January 1993, and those local education authorities in which at least 10 per cent. either of primary or secondary pupils will be educated in grant-maintained schools in January 1993.
Mr. Forth : On the basis of proposals approved to date, in the following LEAs at least 15 per cent. of secondary schools will be GM by January 1993 :
Berkshire
Bromley
Dorset
Ealing
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EssexGloucestershire
Hillingdon
Kensington
Kent
Lincolnshire
Northamptonshire
Surrey
Sutton
Wandsworth
Warwickshire
There are no LEAs in which 15 per cent. of primary schools will be GM by January 1993.
On the basis of schools already operating as GM or approved for incorporation up to and including April 1993, and using latest available pupil numbers, we estimate that in the following LEAs at least 10 per cent. of secondary pupils will be educated in GM schools by April 1993. In the time available it is not possible to calculate figures for January 1993.
Barnet
Berkshire
Birmingham
Brent
Bromley
Buckinghamshire
Calderdale
Croydon
Cumbria
Dorset
Ealing
Essex
Gloucestershire
Hammersmith
Hillingdon
Kensington
Kent
Kingston-on-Thames
Lincolnshire
Norfolk
Northamptonshire
Surrey
Sutton
Walsall
Wandsworth
Warwickshire
Wolverhampton
There are no LEAs at present where we estimate that 10 per cent. of primary pupils will be educated in GM schools by April 1993. Pupil numbers are based on January 1991 form 7 returns in respect of LEAs and numbers given in proposals for GM status submitted by schools in the case of schools operating or approved for GM status.
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LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Visa Appeals
Mr. Madden : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what are his estimates of the savings resulting from the provisions contained in the Asylum and Immigration Bill to abolish a right of appeal for those refused a visa to visit the United Kingdom ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John M. Taylor : The appeals to which the hon. Member refers are normally dealt with on the papers only and so make fewer demands on resources than cases where hearings take place. It is difficult, therefore, to estimate precisely what savings may result. However, these provisions will enable us to use resources to tackle priorities more effectively.
Mr. Madden : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many appeals against refusal to grant visas to visit the United Kingdom have been lodged, to date, in each of the last three years, on the basis of nationality ; how many such appeals were (a) upheld, (b) refused, (c) withdrawn and (d) awaiting determination at the latest available date.
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