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Nursing Homes
Mr. McCartney : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she has taken to ensure that all elderly residents in nursing homes are registered with a local general practitioner.
Mr. Yeo : Regulations under the Registered Homes Act 1984 require the person in charge of a nursing home to make adequate arrangements for residents, where necessary, to receive general medical and dental services.
Prescriptions
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many items available on a prescription only basis now cost less than the cost of the prescription itself ; and if she will make a statement.
Dr. Mawhinney : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield, Brightside (Mr. Blunkett) on 10 March at column 609.
Health Authority Personnel
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many candidates for appointment to chairmanship or non-executive directorships of health authorities or trusts were not appointed as a result of their refusal to accept emoluments.
Dr. Mawhinney : None, so far as is known centrally.
Helicopters
Ms Ruddock : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Lewisham, Deptford concerning the landing of the London helicopter emergency medical service on the playground of Monson primary school on 20 January.
Mr. Sackville : I wrote to the hon. Member on 26 February explaining that this matter was being thoroughly
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investigated and that I would write again once inquiries were complete. Officials are meeting the appropriate authorities on Monday 15 March. I will reply fully once the outcome of that meeting is known.Community Care
Mr. Bill Michie : To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on the present funding for care in the community.
Mr. Yeo : We have fully honoured our commitment to fund community care fairly. We have made available£565 million by way of a ring- fenced special transitional grant for English local authorities in 1993-94. This amount includes an additional 35 per cent. over and above the transfer of funds from social security for authorities' new community care responsibilities, and a further substantial sum for responsibilities for severely disabled people. Total resources for personal social services including community care for 1993-94 will be £5,585 million. This represents a 15 per cent. increase on 1992-93, and a real terms increase of more than 33 per cent. over the three year-period from 1990-91.
Maternity Services
Mrs. Wise : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans she has for publication of data from the maternity hospital episode system.
Mr. Sackville : Some data relating to key items connected with delivery episodes were published for the year 1989-90 in the evidence given to the House of Commons Health Committee, Session 1991-92. The 1990-91 data are still being examined for quality and completeness, but it is expected that at least the same number of data items will be published as for 1989- 90. Until this analysis is complete, it will not be possible to give a firm date for publication.
NATIONAL FINANCE
Contracting Out
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list all those services or functions that have been contracted out from the Inland Revenue since November 1991 without market testing an in-house bid against external competition, with, in each instance, the successful contractor and the reasons for the decision to exclude an in-house bid.
Mr. Dorrell : Where services have been contracted out since November 1991 by the Inland Revenue, there has been in each case an in-house bid or a full comparison with the cost of providing the service in-house ; in the case of the valuation banding of properties for council tax, work was contracted out because the Valuation Office Agency's available resources were limited.
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list all the market tests that have taken place in the Inland Revenue since November 1991 ; whether the result was the maintenance of in-house provision or whether the service was contracted out ; what was the name of the successful contractor where appropriate ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Dorrell : The information requested is set out in the following table. In the case of catering and estate management it includes market testing of work done by civil servants in other Departments.
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Market testing |Result |Name of contractor
activity
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Records management (off-site store at |Contracted out |Rockall Data Services Ltd.
Nottingham)
Valuation banding for council tax |Some work contracted out, some retained |Various private sector firms (337 in total)
| in-house
Bulk mailing (employers' budget pack) |Contracted out |Mailforce Ltd.
Bulk mailing (employers' annual pack) |Contracted out |Mailforce Ltd.,
|Mail Marketing,
|Character Mailing
|and Scotmail
Typing, secretarial and office support services |Contracted out |Blue Arrow Personnel Services Ltd.
(Nottingham)
Catering (St. Albans) |Contracted out |Sutcliffe Catering
Catering (South Wales group) |Retained in-house (forward)
Catering (Telford) |Contracted out |Gardner Merchant
Estate management (South Yorkshire and Retained in-house (PSA Building Management)
north regions)
Estate management (Greater Manchester, Retained in-house (PSA Building Management)
North West, Northern Ireland and
Telford)
Estate management (South East, Wales) |Contracted out |Symonds FM Plc
Estate management (Scotland) |Contracted out |Faithful and Gould
Estate management (West Midlands, East) |Contracted out |W. Torpy and Partners
Estate management (London and |Contracted out |Ferguson, Bucknall and Austin)
headquarters)
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff in the Inland Revenue are assigned to the market testing programme ; how much the programme has cost the Inland Revenue since November 1991 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : At present 40 staff are assigned to market testing in the Inland Revenue. The estimated cost of the programme since November 1991 is approximately £2.7 million.
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the firms of consultants used by the Inland Revenue as part of the market testing programme since November 1991 together with the total cost ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : The following firms have been used :
Allied Accountancy Services
Coopers and Lybrand
Ernst and Young
Lucidus Ltd.
P-E International
Theordore Goddard
Touche Ross
The total cost of the services of these firms to date is approximately £1.1 million.
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Pension Funds
Ms Estelle Morris : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to protect pension fund surpluses following privatisation.
Mr. Dorrell : The Government will make appropriate arrangements for pension funds in the particular circumstances of individual privatisations.
Bank Notes
Mr. Rowe : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to change the present arrangements for printing bank notes ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nelson : The printing of Bank of England bank notes is a responsibility of the Bank. There are no present plans to change the existing arrangements.
Inheritance Tax
Mr. Mike O'Brien : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many landowners nationally have been granted exemption from part of inheritance tax under agreements to allow access to land or other public benefits ; and what was the total cost of that concession.
Mr. Dorrell : There have been 126 designations of land for conditional exemption from inheritance tax or capital
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transfer tax in England and Wales and 26 designations in Scotland. In addition, there have been 109 designations of historic buildings in England and Wales and 37 designations in Scotland. Some of the designations of historic buildings will have extended to surrounding land. Some designations of historic buildings have been for the purposes of the tax exemptions for maintenance funds rather than for exemption of the buildings themselves.The annual average cost of inheritance tax conditional exemption for land and buildings is estimated to have been between £5 million and £10 million over the period 1983-84 to 1992-93.
Mr. Mike O'Brien : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many landowners in north Warwickshire have been granted exemption from portions of inheritance tax under agreements to allow access to land and other public benefits ; and what was the total value of that concession.
Mr. Dorrell : Figures are not available on a constituency basis, but, in Warwickshire, fewer than five properties benefited from exemption from inheritance tax or capital transfer tax. The normal rules of taxpayer confidentiality prevent me from giving more precise information.
The national estimates of the cost of conditional exemption represent a broad judgment of the overall cost and are subject to a large margin of error. Where exemption is given, it is not necessary to establish the value of individual properties and it is not possible to estimate the cost of the small number of exemptions in Warwickshire.
EC Tax Laws
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the tax laws in other EC states in force to reduce tax avoidance and evasion as to their applicability to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Dorrell : Officers of the Inland Revenue regularly meet their counterparts from other EC states to discuss tax compliance matters.
National Savings
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the fee payment structure for national savings transactions paid to post offices in each of the last three years ; and what was the total payment to post offices in the last two years, and projected for the current year.
Mr. Leigh : I have been asked to reply.
The information requested is covered by the Post Offices's contractual arrangements with Sub Postmasters and contractual agreement with the Department for National Savings, and is therefore commercially confidential.
TRANSPORT
Road Building and Management
Ms Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many full-time and part-time workers, giving each as a percentage of the total establishment of his Department are employed in matters relating to road building.
Mr. Kenneth Carlisle : There are 1,298 full-time and two part-time staff employed in directorates of the Department
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directly concerned with roads construction and highways policy--but excluding the management and maintenance of the motorway and trunk road network--on matters relating to road building. This is 8 per cent. of the Department's total staff of 16,027.Ms Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list each major trunk road scheme approved for each of the last five years, together with start date, estimated completion date and actual completion date giving details of how he arrived at (a) the justification for the road and (b) the environmental impact assessment carried out in each case ; and what alternatives to road building were considered by his Department.
Mr. Kenneth Carlisle : Schemes approved, constructed or under construction during the last five years are as listed.
Further information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, once approval has been given and funds are made available, schemes take about 18 months to two years to build on average. An environmental assessment was carried out for each scheme and the justification for each scheme is set out in the decision letter. Since 1988 where appropriate an environmental statement has been published. Copies of these documents are held by the relevant regional offices of the Department of Transport.
(a) Schemes completed 1987-88
A1 Baldersby Grade Separated Junction (GSJ)
A1 Clifton-Stannington
A2 Barham Crossroads GSJ
A2 Rochester Way Relief Road
A6 Chapel-En-Le-Frith Bypass
A10 Buntingford Bypass
A11 Wymondham-Cringleford
A12 Martlesham Bypass
A19 Ricall--Barley Bypass
A20 Sidcup Bypass
A30 Exeter--Okehampton Stage 3
A38 Belvedere Cross--Haldon Hill GSJ
A38 Belvedere Cross GSJ
A38 Hillards Cross GSJ
A39 Bideford Bypass
A43 Towcester Bypass
A43 Brackley Bypass
A47 Peterborough Longthorpe GSJ
A47 Postwick--Blofield Dualling
A47 Wardley Hill Improvement
A48 Chepstow Inn Relief Road
A64 Seamer--Crossgates Bypass
A69 Eighton Lodge Junction Improvement
A303 Furze Hedge GSJ
A406 South Woodford--Barking Relief Road
A422 Stratford North Bypass
A435 Evesham Bypass
A500 Bartholmley Link--M6
A595 Thursby
M63 Stage 3 Widening
Schemes completed 1988-89
A1 Wetherby Bypass
A10 Melbourn Bypass
A17 New Washway Road
A21 Pembury Bypass
A27 Fontwell Bypass
A27 Havant Bypass--Chichester Bypass
A30 Blackwater Bypass
A30 Okehampton Bypass
A34 Hanford Bypass
A34 Whitway Diversion
A35 Bridport Link Road
A35 Dorchester Bypass
A36 Steeple Langford Bypass
A36 Warminster Bypass
A38 Saltash Bypass
A47 Acle Bypass
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