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Training Providers
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether it is his policy that training and enterprise councils in Wales shall pass on to training providers the cash to pay allowances to trainees in advance of the relevant pay day or within seven days of those costs falling on the training providers.
Sir Wyn Roberts : Training and enterprise councils (TECs) are responsible for the funding arrangements which they have with their providers. It is for these two parties to agree such arrangements.
Students (Accommodation)
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will amend the regulations to enable housing associations to let accommodation to students more easily ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The Government have already taken steps to maintain and encourage turnover in student lettings through the Assured and Protected Tenancies (Lettings to Students) Regulations 1988, as amended, which added all registered housing associations to the list of bodies able to offer non-assured tenancies to students in Wales and England.
Land Liming
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what proposals he has to increase subsidies to encourage liming the land near rivers and streams in Wales ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. David Hunt : I have no plans to extend grant aid for routine applications of lime. Farmers with improvement plans under the Farm and Conservation Grant
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Regulations can obtain grant assistance towards the cost of liming land where this is part of a programme of reseeding and regeneration. In the less favoured areas, lime treatment alone is eligible for grant where it can be demonstrated to be genuine restoration and not routine treatment.Broadleaf Trees
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what proposals he has to increase subsidies to encourage the growing of broadleaf trees in Wales ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Wyn Roberts : The Government have no plans to increase the subsidies which are already available to encourage the planting of broadleaved trees. Higher rates of grant are paid under the woodland grant scheme for the establishment and management of broadleaved woodlands, and these have been successful in encouraging an increased amount of broadleaved planting in Wales.
River Acidification
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what proposals he has to combat river acidification in Wales ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The Welsh Office is currently considering river acidification as part of its wider work and research on acid deposition in Wales.
Health Authorities
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales in which circumstances a senior officer of a health authority in Wales might fulfil both purchaser and provider roles at the same time.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave him on 7 December at column 509.
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether it is his policy that the purchaser and provider funding shall be clearly defined and separated within a health authority in Wales.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : District health authorities in Wales are funded to purchase health care for their resident populations. They are expected to plan and monitor this expenditure and at the same time take into account --both in their overall financial plans and their in-year financial management--the provider income and expenditure of their directly-managed units. The outturn income and expenditure of both the purchaser and provider functions are recorded in the health authority's annual accounts.
Hospital Beds
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list for every district health authority in Wales (a) the number of acute beds and (b) the total number of hospital beds at 31 March 1991.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The requested information is given in the table.
|c|Staffed beds allocated as at 31 March
1991|c|
|Acute<1>|Total
-------------------------------------------
Clwyd |1,276 |2,335
East Dyfed |680 |1,568
Gwent |1,400 |3,044
Gwynedd |656 |1,534
Mid Glamorgan |1,840 |4,081
Pembrokeshire |258 |461
Powys |196 |900
South Glamorgan |1,665 |3,234
West Glamorgan |1,310 |2,377
<1> Excluding geriatrics, obstetrics, GP
maternity and psychiatric specialties.
Examination Results
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) when he intends to collate and publish the examination results of (a) grant- maintained and (b) independent schools in Wales ; (2) when he will publish the examination results and league tables for schools in Wales.
Mr. David Hunt : School performance data relating to examination achievements of secondary schools will be published very soon. The data will include all LEA and grant-maintained schools and those independent schools which have agreed to participate.
Tourism
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the amount of revenue from tourism to Wales in 1980, 1990 and 1991 ; what proposals he has to facilitate increased tourism in 1992-93 : and if he will make a statement.
Sir Wyn Roberts [pursuant to his answer, 11 November 1992, c. 820] : Unfortunately an incorrect figure was given, the correct answer ias follows :
Estimates of expenditure by overnight visitors to Wales are given in the following table. Since 1989, information on United Kingdom visitors to Wales has been obtained from the United Kingdom tourism survey. It is not possible to make a direct comparison between the results of this and earlier surveys. Information on overseas visitors is not available prior to 1981.
Estimates of expenditure by day visitors are available only for the financial year ending on 31 March 1989 when an estimated £229 million was spent in Wales.
|c|Expenditure by overnight visitors to Wales<1>|c|
£ million
Year |United Kingdom |Overseas visitors
|visitors
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1980 |<2>- |<3>-
1981 |<2>- |50
1990 |900 |130
1991 |900 |130
Sources: United Kingdom Travel Survey, International Passenger Survey.
<1> These estimates, derived from sample surveys and thus subject to
potential random sampling errors, have been rounded to the nearest £5
million.
<2> Not available on a comparable basis.
<3> Not available prior to 1981.
In order further to promote tourism in Wales, the Government uplifted support for the Wales tourist board by 20 per cent. in 1992-93 to a record £13.529 million.
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DEFENCE
Civil Servants
Mr. Raymond S. Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civil servants from his Department have been relocated from London to other parts of the United Kingdom (a) in the last five years and (b) in the last 10 years ; and to where they were relocated.
Mr. Aitken : Over the last five years the MOD, under the Government's relocation initiative, has relocated 836 posts from London to other parts of the United Kingdom. Details are as follows :
Location Posts
Bath 196
Yeovilton 54
Swindon 210
Sutton Coldfield 250
Cranwell 9
Harrogate 65
Llangennech 32
Andover 10
Portsmouth 10
Total-- 836
In the preceding five years, 743 posts were moved from London to Glasgow under the central dispersal programme, with a final tranche of 23 posts moving to Glasgow in 1989.
The MOD is already a well-dispersed Department, with 60 per cent. of its civilian staff already based outside London and the south east. As a result of moves already planned and reductions in staff numbers, only about 30 per cent. of Ministry of Defence civilians will be left in London by the mid- 1990s.
Weir Group plc
Mr. Home Robertson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 25 November to the hon. Member for Gloucester (Mr. French), Official Report, column 700, if he will identify the principal equipment projects concerned in the payments of over £250 million to the Weir Group plc in the financial year 1990-91, as recorded in table 1.17 of "1992 Defence Statistics".
Mr. Aitken : Payments shown against the Weir Group in table 1.17 of the "1992 Defence Statistics" include those to Devonport Management Ltd. by virtue of the fact that Weir Group was by a narrow margin the largest shareholder in the DML consortium. Some 97 per cent. of payments relate to DML's activity as the term contract holder for managing the Devonport dockyard licensed area and associated refitting and defect rectification of ships, submarines and other vessels, and other work required by the authority. Contracts placed with companies in the Weir Group, mainly for pumps, compressors and ancillary equipment, account for the remaining 3 per cent. of payments.
For clarity of presentation, DML will be shown separately in the "1993 Defence Statistics".
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Royal Ordnance, Radway Green
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will meet workers' representatives from British Aerospace Defence--Royal Ordnance, Radway Green to discuss procurement policy.
Mr. Aitken : If the hon. Member would like to lead such a delegation, I would be willing to meet it.
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps he is taking to negotiate a successor agreement to the explosives, propellants and related products agreement with Royal Ordnance, Radway Green ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Aitken : We do not intend to negotiate a successor agreement to the explosives, propellants and related products agreement which expires in March 1993. This was always intended to be an interim arrangement. Our defence procurement policy is to seek the best long-term value for money through the use of competition wherever possible.
Channel Islands (War Records)
Mr. Winnick : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what documents his Department holds relating to the wartime Nazi crimes in the camps on Alderney in the Channel islands ; and which such records have been given to the former Soviet authorities.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : The Ministry of Defence does not hold any relevant papers. Detailed records of the British investigations into world war 2 war crimes in the Channel islands are available for public examination at the Public Record Office.
Copies of records relating to the investigations into the incidents on Alderney and Jersey were passed to the former Soviet authorities in October 1945.
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 1 December, Official Report, column 166 , what consultations there are between Bosnian military commanders and (a) United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (b) Bosnia-Herzegovina command and (c) the national contingents of the United Nations protection force prior to the departure of each convoy ; and if he will make a statements.
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Consultation between Bosnian military commanders and United Nations agencies to ensure that humanitarian aid convoys are able to proceed to their destination takes place in a workingg group, chaired by Major General Morillon, Commander Bosnia-Herzegovina Command. Additionally, negotiations between the United Nations convoy commanders and local Bosnian military commanders, to take account of specific local conditions, take place if required as the convoy proceeds towards its destination.
Boards of Inquiry
Mrs. Angela Knight : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to release military board of inquiry reports to next of kin.
Column 612
Mr. Archie Hamilton : Service board of inquiry reports are internal documents relating to inquiries held in private. Their content is often technical and complex, and is likely to include specific description of the conduct of named service personnel in the incident under investigation including that of the deceased where the board of inquiry investigates a fatal accident.
In view of our obligations to the deceased and to their families, it would not be appropriate to make such documents widely available. We do, however, recognise the special position of next of kin and in future there will be a general presumption that, subject to the essential minimum of security requirements, such reports will be made available to them wherever possible, should they so request. This change of practice is in line with the Government's general policy towards greater openness. It also reflects our genuine concern to ensure that next of kin are treated in as sympathetic and helpful a manner as possible.
EMPLOYMENT
Deaths (Building Sites)
Dr. Spink : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the average fine imposed on negligent employers in respect of deaths occurring on building sites over the last five years for which records have been maintained.
Mr. McLoughlin : The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Dr. Spink : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many deaths have occurred on building and construction sites over the last five years ; and how many custodial sentences have been given to negligent employers in respect of these deaths.
Mr. McLoughlin : The available information for Great Britain is provided in the table. Data for the latest year commencing 1 April 1991 is not yet available.
|c|Table: Fatal injuries in the construction industry reported to|c|
|c|enforcement authorities 1986-87-1990-91<1>|c|
Year |Employees |Self-employed |Members of public|Total
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1986-87 |99 |26 |14 |139
1987-88 |103 |40 |15 |158
1988-89 |101 |36 |14 |151
1989-90 |100 |54 |11 |165
1990-91 |96 |28 |9 |133
|------- |------- |------- |-------
Total |499 |184 |63 |746
<1> Years commencing 1 April.
The courts can impose a custodial sentence for a range of offences under the Health and Safety at Work, etc. Act 1974. The offence need not have resulted in a fatality or injury ; the penalty of imprisonment is available regardless of the outcome. However, only one custodial sentence has been given within the last five years. It was not connected with the construction industry.
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Health and Safety Executive
Mr. Galbraith : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will list the number of (a) factory inspectors, (b) agricultural inspectors, (c) doctors and (d) nurses in the Health and Safety Executive area offices in (i) the Wales and south-west region and (ii) the home counties region in each year since 1978.
Mr. McLoughlin : (a) The number of Health and Safety (HSE) factory inspectors employed in Wales and the south-west region and home counties region in each year since 1978 was as follows :
|(i) Wales and |(ii) Home Counties
|South-West
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978 |61 |70.0
1979 |67 |79.0
1980 |65 |80.5
1981 |61 |74.5
1982 |57 |74.0
1983 |50 |72.0
1984 |49 |73.0
1985 |49 |72.5
1986 |50 |75.5
1987 |53 |73.5
1988 |50 |66.5
1989 |50 |67.0
1990 |57 |69.5
1991 |58 |70.5
1992 |65 |83.5
(b) The information available for the number of agricultural inspectors employed by HSE is as follows :
|(i) Wales and |(ii) Home Counties
|South-West region |region
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1985 |33 |31.0
1986 |30 |34.0
1987 |30 |29.0
1988 |28 |27.0
1989 |28 |27.0
1990 |28 |27.0
1991 |28 |28.5
1992 |29 |33.0
Note: Comparable figures are not available by these regions for earlier
years because of changes in the basis of compiling staffing statistics for
the occupational group.
(c) The information available for the number of doctors employed by HSE is as follows :
|(i) Wales and |(ii) Home Counties
|South-West region |region
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1985 |8.5 |5.0
1986 |10.0 |4.5
1987 |9.5 |5.5
1988 |8.5 |5.0
1989 |7.0 |6.0
1990 |7.0 |6.5
1991 |6.0 |8.0
1992 |6.0 |6.5
Note: Comparable figures are not available for earlier years by these
regions because of changes in the basis of compiling staffing statistics
for the occupational group.
(d) The information available for the number of nurses employed by HSE is as follows :
Column 614
|(i) Wales and |(ii) Home Counties
|South-west region |region
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1985 |5.5 |4.0
1986 |6.0 |4.0
1987 |5.0 |2.0
1988 |6.0 |4.0
1989 |6.0 |4.0
1990 |8.0 |2.5
1991 |7.0 |3.5
1992 |7.0 |4.0
Notes:
Comparable figures are not available for earlier years by these regions
because of changes in the basis of compiling staffing statistics for the
occupational group.
Figures are for 1 April each year and show full-time equivalent staff.
Radiological Emergencies
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if she will provide regular updated information using non-technical language to the general public on the hazards of a potential radiological emergency in the United Kingdom ;
(2) if she will target information on the hazards of a potential radiological emergency to (a) pregnant women and (b) emergency service personnel.
Mr. McLoughlin : The "Public Information for Radiation Emergencies Regulations", which transpose the requirements of EC directive 89/618/Euratom into national legislation, was laid before the House on 8 December 1992. These regulations will require employers who conduct undertakings from which a radiation emergency is reasonably forseeable to provide prescribed items of information to members of the public likely to be affected by any such emergency. This information needs to cover the likely emergencies that could arise, their consequencies and the planned health protection measures for members of the public. The information also needs to be made publicly available and regularly updated.
The Health and Safety Executive is producing guidance on the regulations, particularly aimed at assisting those with duties under them. In additon to this, the Health and Safety Executive produced guidance in 1991 which gave advice to emergency services personnel on the control of radiation exposure in the event of a radiation emergency.
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will make it her policy to promote a standard national warning system to be operated during peacetime radiological emergencies.
Mr. McLoughlin : No. In the event of an accident at a civil licenced nuclear site having potential radiological effects off-site, the emergency plan prepared by the site's operator and approved by the Health and Safety Executive requires the operator to alert and inform the police. They will inform people in the vicinity of the site. Others at a greater distance from the site will be kept informed by special announcements on local radio and television.
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will make it her policy to extend the detailed planning arrangements for reference accidents for the different stages of the nuclear fuel cycle to cover larger accidents.
Mr. Eggar : I have been asked to reply.
Column 615
No. I consider that the present arrangements are adequate. At each major installation, detailed emergency planning is based on the worst nuclear accident that is reasonably foreseeable, known as the reference accident. These plans form the basis for an extended response in the very unlikely event that a more severe accident should occur.Labour Statistics
Mr. Garnier : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people were employed in the textile industry, the clothing industry and the mining industry in the east midlands in each year since 1980.
Mr. McLoughlin : The available information on regional employment for the industries requested is from the censuses of employment taken in 1981, 1984, 1987 and 1989. Data for the east midlands can be obtained from the NOMIS database in the Library, subject to the confidentiality restrictions of the Statistics of Trade Act 1947.
Mr. Alison : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will list the highest level of unemployment recorded in each of the three travel-to-work areas covered by the Selby district for each year since 1986.
Mr. McLoughlin : The information requested can be obtained from the NOMIS database in the Library.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to her answer of 1 December, Official Report, column 173, how many people aged 16 and 17 years in the Carlisle travel-to-work area are not in employment, not on a youth training scheme and not in full-time education.
Mr. McLoughlin : In October 1992, there were 18 unemployed claimants aged 16 and 17 years in Carlisle travel-to-work area. Changes to the benefit regulations in September 1988 coincided with the extension of a guaranteed youth training scheme (now youth training) place to all those aged under 18 not in full-time education or employment, which meant that those who declined an offer of a YTS place were no longer entitled to benefit. However, there are still a small number of under 18-year-olds entitled to benefit due to special circumstances, such as severe hardship or by virtue of their being orphans.
Training
Ms. Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the latest information she has about the operating surplus which has been accumulated for each training and enterprise council for each region and for Great Britain as a whole on (a) youth training including training credits, (b) employment training, (c) employment action, and (d) business support and business start up ; and if she will make a statement.
Mr. McLoughlin : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is unable to respond on behalf of my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales who now have responsibility for the delivery of programmes through local enterprise councils in Scotland and training and enterprise councils in Wales.
Column 616
Training and enterprise councils in England are required, under the terms of the training and enterprise council operating agreement, to produce audited accounts within four months of the end of the financial year.These accounts reveal the total operating surplus as at the end of the financial year and on a cumulative basis ; however, this information is not published by programme block.
The accounts for the financial year ending 31 March 1992 are now in the public domain and available from individual training and enterprise councils.
Mr. Michael : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment whether it is her policy that training and enterprise councils shall pass on to training providers the cash to pay allowances to trainees in advance of the relevant pay day or within seven days of those costs falling on the training providers.
Mr. McLoughlin : Training and enterprise councils (TECs) are responsible for the funding arrangements which they have with their providers. It is for these two parties to agree such arrangements.
Disabled Trainees
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if she will make it her policy to allow training and enterprise councils to utilise a wider range of performance indicators for disabled trainees than those currently suggested within the output-relating funding arrangements.
Mr. McLoughlin : Training and enterprise councils already have the flexibility to recognise in their contracts with providers outputs additional to those for which they receive funding from the Department.
Wages Councils
Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to her answer of 1 December to the hon. Member for Birmingham, Ladywood (Ms. Short), Official Report, column 172 , if she will list those organisations or individuals whose representations she has received supporting abolition of the wages councils, and those who oppose the proposal.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : No. Representations are treated on the basis that they have been offered "in confidence".
Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what estimates her Department has made of changes in wage levels in industries covered by wages councils as a result of their abolition.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The abolition of the wages councils will allow wages to reflect labour market conditions and the ability of companies to pay. Since 1986, when young people were removed from the minimum rates set by wages councils, their average earnings have continued to rise in real terms.
Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment, pursuant to her answer of 30 November, Official Report, column 54, if she will list the wages councils in whose areas of competence a prosecution was brought for each of the lowest levels of payment in each region in each year since 1986.
Column 617
Mr Michael Forsyth : The information is listed in the table.
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