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Car Parking
Mr. Burns : To ask the Chairman of the Administration Committee what consideration is being given to proposals to increase the amount of car parking available to hon. Members.
Mr. Michael J. Martin : The Administration Committee is currently examining existing and future car parking requirements of this House and their regulation by the Serjeant at Arms. This inquiry will be able to consider the issue raised by the hon. Member.
Payroll and Personnel System
Mr. Steen : To ask the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed, as representing the House of Commons Commission if he will make a statement on the reasons for the introduction, and the budgeted and actual cost, of the new payroll and personnel system for House of Commons staff ; and what savings he expects to be made in each of the next two years.
Mr. Beith : The new payroll and personnel system is being introduced to replace two separate systems, one of
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which was introduced in 1984, and the other in 1988. The new system will provide additional personnel information and improved payroll analyses to facilitate the introduction of financial management systems within the House. It will also provide the facility for payroll and personnel records functions for the staff of the Parliamentary Works Directorate.Outline provision for hardware and software costs was made in the estimates for £130,000, excluding training costs and VAT, for the new system. The actual cost is expected to be slightly less than this figure. No direct staff savings are expected, but the new system will allow for an increase in the workload of some 15 per cent. as a result of the transfer to the House of the staff of the Parliamentary Works Directorate.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Package Travel Industry
Mr. David Shaw : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement regarding his decision on the possible reference to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission of the Airtours plc bid for Owners Abroad plc.
Mr. Heseltine : I shall take a decision on whether to refer this proposed acquisition to the MMC in due course, following advice from the Director General of Fair Trading. When taking that decision, I shall take into account all relevant factors.
Mr. Waterson : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is his policy regarding the concentration of ownership within the package travel industry ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Heseltine : The main, but not exclusive, consideration when assessing mergers in the travel industry, as in any other industry, is the likely impact of the merger on competition in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Clapham : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) if he will refer the Airtours bid for Owners Abroad to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) what assessment he has made of the effect of a successful bid by Airtours for Owners Abroad on consumer choice, value for money and employment within the United Kingdom travel industry ; and if he will make a statement ;
(3) what percentage of the market share Airtours would hold in the event of its bid for Owners Abroad being successful.
Mr. Heseltine : I shall take a decision on whether to refer this proposed acquisition to the MMC in due course. When taking that decision, I shall take into account all relevant factors. Details of current market share figures for the relevant markets in this case have been provided by a number of sources. Section 133(1) of the Fair Trading Act 1973 requires that information with respect to any particular business and obtained in this way should not be disclosed without the consent of the parties.
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Land Mine Exports
Mr. Mullin : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on United Kingdom policy on the export of land mines.
Mr. Needham : My right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office wrote to the hon. Gentleman on 22 January setting out the Government's views on this matter. I have nothing further to add.
Mr. Mullin : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many licences have been granted for the export of land mines for each year since 1988.
Mr. Needham : Separate statistics are not maintained for land mines and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. Land mines fall within heading ML4a of the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1992, which prohibits the export without a licence of a wide range of bombs, torpedoes, rockets, missiles and similar weapons.
Mr. Mullin : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what discussions he has had regarding the United States Government's embargo on the export of land mines.
Export Credits Guarantee Department
Mr. Morgan : To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 8 December 1992, Official Report, column 593, on ECGD, what response he has received to the offer of voluntary redundancy ; how many staff have chosen (a) early retirement, (b) redundancy, (c) transfer to other divisions of his Department and (d) to other departments in south Wales ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Needham : The ECGD has issued a questionnaire to all its staff asking them to indicate their preferred options for location and continuity of employment. The objective is to establish the framework for an orderly run down in staff numbers over the next 12 months. The definitive position is unlikely to emerge for some months, but the early indications are that the desired run down will be achieved by wholly voluntary means.
Publicity
Mr. Morgan : To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 2 June 1992 to the hon. Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson), Official Report, columns 496-97, (a) what is his Department's (i) current estimate for publicity expenditure for 1992-93 and (ii) budgeted publicity expenditure for 1993-94, exclusive of energy and (b) what is his Department's energy-related expenditure, as to (1) current estimate for publicity expenditure for 1992-93 and (2) budgeted publicity expenditure for 1993-94.
Mr. Eggar : Estimated expenditure on publicity in 1992-93 is :
|£ million
-----------------------------------
Energy-related |1.2
Other |7.0
<1> Central publicity budget.
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Allocations for 1993-94 will be made according to need during the year.Political Risk Insurance
Ms. Harman : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what short- term insurance or reinsurance is offered by the Export Credits Guarantee Department to United Kingdom exporters to non-OECD countries to cover political risk ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Needham : Since December 1991, the privatised successor of the insurance services group of the ECGD has assumed responsibility for the provision to United Kingdom exporters of short term export credit insurance previously provided by the ECGD.
The new company currently sources over 90 per cent. of its reinsurance needs, for both commercial and political risk worldwide, from the private market. The ECGD participates in the company's reinsurance treaties so as to supplement the cover available from the market, thereby ensuring that the company's full needs are met. This transitional support will be available up to December 1994 in order to give time for the new company to arrange to source its full reinsurance requirements from the private market.
Quite separately, the ECGD provides the new company with 100 per cent. reinsurance of the risks, largely political, arising on certain high risk markets for which no capacity is being made available by the private market. This facility is not time limited and, subject to satisfactory financial performance, it will continue for as long as the Government consider it essential to meet the reasonable needs of United Kingdom exporters.
These arrangements are intended to ensure that United Kingdom exporters do not suffer any reduction in export credit insurance facilities as a result of the privatisation.
EC Funds
Mr. Alton : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations he has made to have Merseyside included in objective 1 status by the European Community ; what estimates he has made of assistance towards infrastructure, industrial development and training that such status would confer on Merseyside ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Sainsbury : I refer the hon. Member to my answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Falmouth and Camborne (Mr. Coe) on 17 February 1993, Official Report, column 269. It is too early to estimate the amount of financial assistance which objective 1 status would confer on Merseyside. This would depend on the Council's decisions on the extent of objective 1 regions elsewhere and on the criteria for the distribution of the funds between objective 1 regions. The Council will not decide which areas will become eligible for several months.
Nuclear Reprocessing
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a breakdown of the daily financial effect on British Nuclear Fuels of the delay in the commissioning of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
Mr. Eggar : This is a matter for the company.
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Office of Telecommunications
Mr. Alexander : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about the successor to Sir Bryan Carsberg as director general of Oftel.
Mr. Heseltine : I have today appointed Mr. Don Cruickshank as Director General of Telecommunications from 1 April.
Mr. Cruickshank has had a varied and successful career in business. He was managing Director of Virgin Group plc from 1984-89 and before that, Commercial Director at Times Newspapers from 1977-80 and a Director of the Information and Entertainment Division of Pearson plc from 1980-84. Since 1989 he has been Chief executive of the national health service in Scotland, where he has done excellent work. Since the privatisation of BT in 1984 the telecommunications industry has changed substantially and since the further liberalisation set in train by the Duopoly review in 1991, there has been an increasing number of operators entering the market in competition with BT. I wished to appoint someone to this important post who had direct experience of competition as a businessman. Mr. Cruickshank fulfils that criterion admirably and will, I am sure, do a very good job.
Since Sir Bryan Carsberg became Director General of Fair Trading in June 1992, Bill Wigglesworth, the then deputy director general of Oftel, has been acting as Director General and I would like to pay tribute to the sterling way in which he has carried out his duties. He will return to his position as deputy director from 1 April.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Prisons
Mr. A. Cecil Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was the manning level of prison officers in (a) Crumlin Road, (b) the Maze, (c) Maghaberry and (d) Magilligan, for each year since 1990.
Mr. Mates : The table shows the manning levels of prison officers at these prisons since 1990 :
Average staff in post Prison |1990 |1991 |1992 --------------------------------------- Belfast |667 |683 |716 Maze |1,148 |1,107 |1,037 Maghaberry |583 |596 |620 Magilligan |495 |492 |495
National Vocational Qualifications
Mr. McGrady : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans there are to introduce the national vocational qualifications into Northern Ireland ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Atkins : Northern Ireland has been involved in the development of national vocational qualifications--NVQs--from their inception in 1986. NVQs have been available in Northern Ireland since that date as in the rest of the United Kingdom, as they have been developed by the awarding and validating bodies.
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Prison Education
Mr. Peter Robinson : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much has been spent on education in each of the prisons in Northern Ireland in each of the last five years.
Mr. Mates : The table shows a breakdown, prison by prison, of the expenditure on education, including staff costs, over the last five years :
|Belfast |Maze |Maghaberry |Magilligan |YOC Hydebank
|£ |£ |£ |£ |£
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1988-89 |117,000 |259,000 |110,000 |93,000 |137,000
1989-90 |118,500 |274,500 |144,000 |91,500 |134,000
1990-91 |117,000 |267,500 |235,000 |111,000 |189,500
1991-92 |153,000 |290,000 |215,000 |140,000 |232,000
1992-93 |127,000 |345,000 |202,000 |118,000 |216,000
All figures are to the nearest £500.
Claimants, Newry and Armagh
Mr. Mallon : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what was the number of claimants in each ward within the constituency of Newry and Armagh, or such relevant statistics as are available, who are in receipt of (a) unemployment benefit, (b) income support, (c) family credit, (d) disability living allowance and (e) child benefit.
Mr. Hanley : Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Social Security Agency under its chief executive Mr. Alec Wylie. I have asked him for a reply to be given.
Letter from Alec Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 19 February 1993 :
As I am responsible for Social Security operational matters your recent Parliamentary Question on the number of claimants in each ward within the constituency of Newry and Armagh who are in receipt of Unemployment Benefit, Income Support, Family Credit, Disability Living Allowance and Child Benefit has been passed to me for reply. I regret that the information is not available in the format requested and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Some information however, is available on Unemployment Benefit and Income Support for the Newry and Armagh Social Security Office areas and this is set out below.
Date of most recent |Benefit claimed or |Total number of |Total number of
information |received |customers claiming |customers claiming
|each benefit in |each benefit in
|Newry Social |Armagh Social
|Security Office |Security Office
|area |area
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|Unemployment
14 January 1993 |Benefit |5,396 |2,717
30 November |Income
1992 |Support |10,894 |5,612
I hope you find this information helpful. A copy of this reply will appear in the Official Rreport and copies will be placed in the Library.
Bus and Goods Vehicle Licences
Mr. William O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on his review of the conditions of the issuing of operators licences for buses and goods vehicles in Northern Ireland.
Mr. Atkins : Because of the increasing differences between the operator licensing regimes in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the Department of the Environment undertook a review of the Northern Ireland licensing system. Consultation with all interested parties was carried out in 1992 and the main recommendations of the review report were generally welcomed. Implementation of these recommendations would have significant resource implications and I am considering the way forward.
Buses
Mr. William O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many new buses have been purchased for public use in Northern Ireland over the past three years.
Mr. Atkins : I am advised by the managing director of Ulsterbus Ltd./Citybus Ltd. that the companies purchased 246 new buses over the past three years. None of the other operators of stage carriage services in Northern Ireland purchased any new buses in that period.
Mr. William O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many public service buses have been found unroadworthy following inspection carried out by the Department of the Environment in Northern Ireland over the past 12 months ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Atkins : The information requested has been recorded only since September 1992, since when 114 buses have been examined of which 15 were found to be unroadworthy.
Fair Employment
Rev. Martin Smyth : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a statistical breakdown of employment in the various sectors of the Belfast education and library board in keeping with the 1991 census of the Belfast area as they reflect the percentages of Protestants and Roman Catholics employed.
Mr. Hanley [holding answer 19 February 1993] : The information is as follows :
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Belfast education and library board staff (January 1992)
Section Total number ofProtestant Roman Catholic Non determined
staff 1
|Number |Per cent. of 1|Number |Per cent. of 1|Number |Per cent. of 1
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Administration |45 |26 |57.78 |16 |35.56 |3 |6.66
Architects |40 |19 |47.50 |18 |45.00 |3 |7.50
Education |106 |58 |54.72 |41 |38.68 |7 |6.60
Finance |97 |52 |53.61 |37 |38.14 |8 |8.29
Library-HQ (includes Administration and Technical staff) |112 |62 |55.36 |42 |37.50 |8 |7.14
-Branches |88 |41 |46.59 |39 |44.32 |8 |9.09
School Based (Non Teaching) |2,552 |1,224 |47.96 |1,130 |44.28 |198 |7.76
FE (Non Teaching) |360 |223 |61.94 |109 |30.28 |28 |7.78
FE (Teaching-Permanent) |594 |321 |54.04 |198 |33.33 |75 |12.63
|------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |------- |-------
|3,994 |2,026 |50.73 |1,630 |40.81 |338 |8.46
Source:-Belfast Education and Library Board's Fair Employment Review
The 1991 labour force survey revealed that in the Belfast education and library board area 53.2 per cent. of the economically active population was Protestant, and 46.8 per cent. was Roman Catholic.
SCOTLAND
General Practitioners
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what services are made available to GPs who are (a) non-fund holding and (b) fund holders.
Mr. Stewart : The range of services made available by national health service provider units to general practitioners does not vary according to whether or not they are fund holders. Rather than relying on the health board's purchasing arrangements, GP fund holders are able to use their funds to purchase the following hospital and community health services directly from providers : --a specified range of elective surgical procedures ;
--most out-patient treatments and diagnostic tests ;
--certain specified direct access services ;
and from 1 April 1993 :
--certain community nursing services ;
--additional direct access services ;
--most out patient mental health treatments.
In respect of these services GP fund holders are required to work within their overall fund as approved by the health board, but are otherwise not constrained by any limitation on the funds available to a health board for referrals for these services.
In addition from 1 April 1993 as announced by my noble Friend, the Minister of State on 26 January, GP fund holders, where appropriate and qualified and with the prior approval of the health board, will be able to be reimbursed from their fund for providing certain specific diagnostic and minor surgical procedures for their patients.
Nimmo Smith/Friel Report
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will place in the Library a copy and a transcript of a tape involving the Sun newspaper and a lawyer submitted as evidence to the Nimmo Smith/Friel inquiry and copies of letters to the Lord Advocate of 4 and 12 February relating to the Nimmo Smith/Friel report and the replies.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : No.
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OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION
World Summit for Children
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to increase resource allocations for the areas of clean water and sanitation and basic education, in the light of agreements made at the world summit for children.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : I refer the hon. Member to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister's reply of 15 February 1993 at columns 43-44.
United Kingdom Food Support
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people in (a) Somalia and (b) Eritrea are now estimated to be receiving daily food support from the United Kingdom ; at what cost ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : Since January 1992, we have pledged 48,100 tonnes of bilateral food aid worth £7,798,000 to Somalia and 17,596 tonnes worth £3,829,000 to Eritrea. It has all been delivered. Bilateral food aid is channelled through the World Food Programme, the International Committee of the Red Cross and British non-governmental organisations who distribute it according to need : actual numbers of those receiving food financed by the United Kingdom are not readily available.
Kenya
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the recent visit to Kenya of the Minister for Overseas Development.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd [holding answer 19 February 1993] : During her visit to Kenya my noble Friend the Minister for Overseas Development met President Moi and other Kenyan leaders for discussions on a range of political and economic issues, including aid. She also visited a drought- affected district in the north-east to see relief and rehabilitation work, and pledged a further £750,000 to help drought victims in the Turkana region.
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Yugoslavia
Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many convoys carrying humanitarian aid to Sarajevo and other towns in Bosnia Herzegovina by road have had as their point of departure (a) Belgrade and (b) Split ; what have been the total quantities of supplies transported in each case ; how many air-relief flights have delivered such aid ; and what has been the quantity transported.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd [holding answer 9 February 1993] : Exact figures for the number of road convoys which have travelled into Bosnia Herzegovina are not available. However, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees who is co-ordinating the international community's response to this crisis estimates that over 57,000 tonnes of relief supplies have been delivered by road to Bosnia Herzegovina since July 1992. This consists approximately of 22,000 tonnes delivered from Split and Zagreb ; 3,550 tonnes from Belgrade ; and 31,900 tonnes from Metkovic (which is now used as the principal depot for convoys into Bosnia from the south, and which is supplied from Split and Ploce).
In addition a total of 2,646 relief flights have been made, delivering 29,098 tonnes of humanitarian relief ; all of these were to Sarajevo.
Croatia
Mr. Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what avenues are in use for sending humanitarian aid in postal packages to United Nations-protected zones in Croatia, including the routes employed ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd [holding answer 12 February 1993] : We are not aware of any suitable avenues for delivering humanitarian aid to United Nations protected zones in Croatia by post. We have recommended that people wishing to assist should do so through established charities operating in the former Yugoslavia.
NATIONAL HERITAGE
ading Rugby League 17. Mr. Enright : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what proposals he has made to remove restrictions placed on Rugby League players ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Brooke : As the hon. Member will be aware, sports organisations in this country are independent bodies which are free to lay down their own rules and regulations. I therefore have no plans to intervene in this matter. However I welcome the recent introduction of the "free gangway" system which allows rugby players to play both codes at amateur level and for clubs to share facilities, and hope that rugby authorities will do their utmost to ensure its effective implementation.
BBC (Funding)
18. Mrs. Gorman : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what arrangements he has made to consult representatives of elderly people on the future funding of the BBC.
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Mr. Brooke : We have sent a copy of the consultation document about the future of the BBC, which asks questions about future funding, to four organisations representing elderly people, and have asked for their views. We welcome views from other organisations representing the elderly, as well as from interested individual viewers and listeners.
Government Art Collection
19. Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will ensure that art treasures in the charge of Her Majesty's Government will be retained.
Mr. Brooke : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave earlier today to the question from the hon. Member for Hackney, North and Stoke Newington (Ms. Abbott).
Tourism
20. Mr. Dunnachie : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when he intends to meet the chairman of the British Tourist Authority to discuss the future of tourism in Great Britain.
25. Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when he next intends to meet the chairman of the British Tourist Authority to discuss the future of tourism in Great Britain.
Mr. Key : My right hon. Friend and I have regular meetings with the chairman of the British Tourist Authority. I expect to discuss the authority's corporate plan with the chairman when it is submitted in the spring.
North West Tourist Board
21. Mr. Bryan Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage when he intends to meet the chairperson of the North West tourist board to discuss funding for that body.
Mr. Key : My right hon. Friend plans to visit the North West tourist board within the next few months. The allocation of Government funds to the regional tourist boards is a matter for the English tourist board.
Windsor Castle (Fire)
22. Mr. Skinner : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage whether he is now in a position to announce the cost of the Windsor fire ; and to which budgets the cost will fall.
Mr. Brooke : A very broad initial estimate of the costs of restoration suggests a figure in the range £30 to £40 million depending on the form of restoration chosen. More precise figures will not be available until decisions have been taken on the form of restoration.
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