House of Commons Hansard Debates for 3 Mar 1993

Mr. Key : The London marathon is being asked to pay £15,000 for the use of the royal parks in 1993. This charge is based on the area utilised and the period of the event.

Mr. Austin-Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what is his Department's policy in relation to the Sports Council's policy of sport for all ; and how that policy is interpreted in relation to the London marathon.

Mr. Key : The Department supports the Sports Council's policy of sport for all. This is entirely consistent with charging a fee for use of the royal parks for the London marathon.

Greenwich Park

Mr. Austin-Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage on how many occasions in the past five years a cultural, sporting or entertainment event has been held in Greenwich park which has been organised by a private, voluntary or commercial organisation, Government Department or other statutory body, apart from letting of sports pitches ; what was the nature of the event in each case ; what were the estimated additional costs to the Department of the Environment or the Department of National Heritage for each letting ; what was the fee levied ; and what was the basis of the charge.

Mr. Key : Apart from the London marathon, only minor local events have been held in Greenwich park. These minor events involved the Department in no additional costs and no charge was levied. For that reason, no records have been kept of the individual events.

National Lottery

Sir John Hannam : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what steps he is taking to ensure that there will be equal opportunities for disabled people when employees are recruited for the national lottery.

Mr. Key : The organisation licensed to run the national lottery will be a company in the private sector, bound by the terms of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Acts 1944 and 1958.

The Office of the National Lottery, headed by the Director General, will like other regulatory bodies be a non-ministerial Government Department. Its staff will be civil servants or engaged on conditions analogous to those of civil servants. The civil service is an equal opportunity employer and all applications for employment are considered on their merits.

Tourist Boards

Mr. Tyler : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what the total funds were for the national tourist boards in England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland

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for the last five years ; what the projected funds are for the next three years ; if he will show those figures per head of adult resident population, in real terms at current prices ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Key [holding answer 1 March 1993] : The following table shows the funds provided to each of the national

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tourist boards over the last five years ; the estimated outturn for the current year ; planned totals for the next three years ; and the amount spent per head of adult resident population in each year at current prices. Allocations to the national tourist boards reflect the differing circumstances and priorities in each country ; direct comparisons are therefore misleading.

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Assistance to National Tourist Boards: Grant in Aid and Tourist Projects, Gross Expenditure                                                                                        

                          |1988-89 Outturn |1989-90 Outturn |1990-91 Outturn |1991-92 Outturn |1992-93 Estimate|1993-94 Plans   |1994-95 Plans   |1995-96 Plans                    

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English Tourist Board                                                                                                                                                              

Cash £ million terms      |25.80           |21.80           |17.20           |15.70           |16.10           |14.00           |10.80           |9.00                             

£ per head current prices |0.86            |0.68            |0.49            |0.42            |0.41            |0.35            |0.26            |0.21                             

                                                                                                                                                                                   

Scottish Tourist Board                                                                                                                                                             

Cash £ million terms      |9.90            |11.10           |12.10           |12.70           |13.60           |13.50           |13.90           |14.20                            

£ per head current prices |3.07            |3.23            |3.25            |3.20            |3.28            |3.17            |3.15            |3.14                             

                                                                                                                                                                                   

Wales Tourist Board                                                                                                                                                                

Cash £ million terms      |9.30            |9.90            |10.60           |11.30           |13.70           |13.80           |13.70           |13.80                            

£ per head current prices |5.15            |5.12            |5.06            |5.06            |5.87            |5.75            |5.52            |5.39                             

                                                                                                                                                                                   

Northern Ireland Tourist Board                                                                                                                                                     

Cash £ million terms      |5.40            |5.70            |7.40            |7.10            |11.70           |11.90           |11.30           |11.50                            

£ per head current prices |6.00            |5.90            |7.06            |6.26            |9.79            |9.59            |8.74            |8.60                             

Note: Population figures underlying per head calculations based on those aged 15 or over at mid-year for England, Scotland and Wales, and those aged 16 or over for Northern       

Ireland.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Chlor-alkali Manufacture

Mr. Elletson : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement about the effect of the reallocation of electricity costs, the new pool tariff, on chlor-alkali manufacture.

Mr. Eggar : The Government are in dialogue with large electricity users about electricity prices, and this issue is among those that are being considered by the coal review. Any proposals would need to benefit all customers with appropriate circumstances.

Coal Research Establishment

Mr. Chris Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has for future funding of the Coal Research Establishment.

Mr. Eggar : The future funding of clean coal technology and the role of Coal Research Establishment in developing this technology is under discussion as part of our work on the coal review.

Mr. Tipping : To ask the President of the Board of Trade when he last visited the Coal Research Establishment.

Mr. Eggar : I have not visited the Coal Research Establishment. However, my chief scientific adviser on science and technology visited the establishment on 29 January 1993.

Export Licences

Mrs. Lait : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans there are to harmonise the system of export licences across the European Community.

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Mr. Needham : On 31 August 1992 the Commission of the European Communities adopted a proposal for the Council regulation on the control of exports of certain dual-use goods and technologies and of certain nuclear products and technologies.

The proposed regulation aims to provide a framework for common export controls to be applied by member states to dual-use and nuclear goods leaving the territory of the European Community, and for the harmonisation of export licensing systems. Member states are continuing to discuss Commission proposals in a Council high level working group set up for this purpose.

Mrs. Lait : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will consider introducing a system of blanket export licences on the line of that operating in the Netherlands.

Mr. Needham : The United Kingdom already operates a system of open general export licences--OGELs--which are similar to the global export licences issued in the Netherlands. An open general export licence is a general authorisation permitting the export of a range of controlled goods to a range of destinations without the need for prior application to the Department of Trade and Industry. Its use is subject to compliance with the conditions of the licence. There are currently eight open general export licences in force.

Corporate Communications plc

Sir Keith Speed : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations he has received from the Public Relations Consultants Association about the collapse of Corporate Communications plc ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Neil Hamilton : A letter on this subject has been received from the Public Relations Consultants Association. My officials replied to that letter on 1 March 1993.

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EC Structural Funds

Mr. Fatchett : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what action his Department is taking to ensure that the United Kingdom complies with the additionality criteria for European Community structural funds ; and if he will make a statement ;

(2) what efforts his Department is making to account for European Community structural funds receipts transparently ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Sainsbury : Public expenditure arrangements take account of receipts from the structural funds when departmental programmes are set. My Department is responsible for providing public expenditure cover for forecast European regional development fund receipts for projects which fall within my Department's ambit. For the next financial year some £60 million of provision has been made, and in accordance with the agreement with the European Commission reached in February last year, this is reflected more transparently in the departmental report, which was laid in the House of Common's Library on 10 February 1993.

Pit Closures

Mr. Clapham : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will take steps to ensure that miners working at the 21 pits in the coal review will not be financially disadvantaged by remaining in employment until the House has completed consideration of the closure proposals.

Mr. Eggar [holding answer 2 March 1993] : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 26 February, Official Report, column 773.

Mineworkers (Redundancy)

Mr. Tipping : To ask the President of the Board of Trade when the present enhanced redundancy scheme for mineworkers ceases ; and what discussions he has had with the chairman of British Coal about extending it.

Mr. Eggar [holding answer 2 March 1993] : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Barnsley, West and Pennistone (Mr. Clapham) on 26 February, Official Report, column 773.

European Regional Development Fund

Mr. Morgan : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what arrangements he has made to provide expedited approval procedures for European regional development fund assistance for schemes to enable early approvals to be gained to provide an incentive for infrastructure schemes to be carried out by local authorities and other eligible infrastructure- providing bodies.

Mr. Sainsbury [holding answer 2 March 1993] : My right hon. Friend has made no such arrangements. The possibility of ERDF assistance should be incentive enough to local authorities and other bodies to seek early approval for schemes which may qualify for grant. Applications must be appraised to ensure that they give value for money.

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Mr. O'Neill : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what percentage of the United Kingdom's share of the European regional development fund for 1992-93 has been allocated.

Mr. Sainsbury [holding answer 2 March 1993] : It is not possible to derive figures for the allocation of only the 1992-93 part of the United Kingdom's share of the European regional development fund, many of the programmes span longer periods.

Approximately two thirds of the United Kingdom's share of the fund for the present period of the regulations from 1989-93 has been allocated.

Mr. Morgan : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the negotiations with the European Community Commissioner for Regional Affairs in relation to the achievement of (a) transparency, (b) additionality and (c) sequential causality in the approval procedures for assistance from the European regional development fund from United Kingdom local authorities and other eligible bodies.

Mr. Sainsbury [holding answer 2 March 1993] : In accordance with the appropriate Community regulations, receipts from the European regional development fund are taken into account in setting departmental expenditure programmes.

The Government will implement from the beginning of the next financial year new arrangements to improve the transparency of the public expenditure treatment of these receipts, as agreed with the Commission.

A number of meetings have taken place at official level to explain to the Commission progress on these new arrangements, which are at present being finalised.

Mr. Morgan : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what consultations he has had with local authorities and their associations and other eligible infrastructure-providing bodies in relation to the impact of the approval of areas of Britain for European regional development fund objective 1 status on the availability of funds for areas with objective 2 status.

Mr. Sainsbury [holding answer 2 March 1993] : None. it was only on 24 February that the Commission adopted a proposed list of objective 1 regions for the period 1994 to 1999 which included the Highlands and Islands and Merseyside, as well as Northern Ireland whose objective 1 status was confirmed by the European Council at Edinburgh. The final decisions on which regions will be eligible for objective 1 rests with the Council of Ministers in the context of the review of the structural fund regulations.

Carpet Trade

Mrs. Mahon : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the tariff levels of United Kingdom exports of carpets, headings 5702 and 5703, to (a) the United States of America, (b) South Africa, (c) Australia, (d) Turkey, including additional duties, (e) India, (f) Pakistan, (g) Thailand and (h) Malaysia together with any non- tariff barriers which apply and the tariff level for imports of that product from the same countries into the Community.

Mr. Needham [holding answer 23 February 1993] : The tariff information is as follows :

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United States of America

Import duty imposed on United Kingdom exports :

0 to 10 per cent.

Additional duties : None