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National Insurance
Dr. Spink : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what would be the change in overall marginal tax rate, including national insurance, for each tax banding, if the national insurance upper earning limit were removed ; and how much income that would raise in a full year for the Exchequer.
Mr. Hague : If the upper earnings limit for national insurance contributions were removed, the effect on marginal tax rates would be as follows :
Marginal tas rate including national insurance
Annual income |With an upper |Without an upper
|earnings limit per|earnings limit per
|cent. |cent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
£3,445-£5,945 |29 |29
£5,946-£21,840 |34 |34
£21,841-£27,145 |25 |34
£27,146 and above |40 |49
Note:
1. Assumes single person's tax allowance of £3,445.
2. Assumes that earnings for NI purposes are spread evenly throughout the
year.
3. Annual upper earnings limit for the payment of NI contributions is £21,
840.
Removal of the limit would increase national insurance contribution yield by £2.7 billion in a full year.
Invalidity Benefits
Mrs. Ann Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people in the Dewsbury constituency are currently in receipt of invalidity payments ; and how many were in receipt of invalidity payments in June 1992.
Mr. Scott : I understand from Mr. Michael Bichard the chief executive of the Benefits Agency that the information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Prison Staff
Mr. Callaghan : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department which prisons are operating below their establishment for prison officers ; and what is the shortfall of staff in each of these prisons.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Jim Callaghan, dated 17 June 1993.
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about officer staffing levels in Prison Service establishments. The attached annex lists those establishments with fewer officers than their target staffing figures on 30 April. I should add that on 1 April we devolved to governors responsibility for recruiting prison officers and deciding the number and mix of staff within their running costs budgets.
Establishments where officer (including principal and
senior officers and specialists) staff in post was below
the target staffing figure on 30 April 1993.
Establishment<1> |Shortfall on target
|staffing figure
------------------------------------------------------------
Ashwell |2
Askham Grange |2
Belmarsh |11
Birmingham |11
Blantyre House |1
Brinsford |1
Canterbury |4
Cookham Wood |3
Dartmoor |1
Dover |3
Downview |2
Drake Hall |3
East Sutton Park |1
Elmley |4
Erestoke |3
Featherstone |1
Feltham |3
Full Sutton |11
Glen Parva |2
Grendon/Spring Hill |5
Guys Marsh |9
Haslar |2
Hewell Grange |3
Holloway |4
Kingston |1
Kirkham |3
Lancaster |5
Leicester |1
Lindholme |4
Littlehey |1
Liverpool |3
Manchester |11
Moorland |2
Morton Hall |1
North Sea Camp |1
Nottingham |1
Onley |3
Parkhurst |2
Pentonville |5
Portland |9
Preston |5
Reading |2
Send |1
Shrewsbury |6
Stafford |6
Standford Hill |1
Stocken |1
Stoke Heath |3
Swaleside |1
Swansea |6
Swinfen Hall |3
Wakefield |6
Wandsworth |7
Whitemoor |5
Winchester |2
Wormwood Scrubs |3
Wymott |3
<1> Excluding new establishments in the process of being
staffed and establishments with accommodation out of use
for change of role or for refurbishment: Durham, Eastwood
Park, High Down, Hollesley Bay, Lancaster Farms, Woodhill.
Criminal Records
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when his consultation paper on criminal records will be issued ; and what provision will be made in respect of article 13 of the EC data protection directive in connection with the provision to prohibit a demand by a third party on a person that he should exercise his right of access to data in order to communicate that data to the third party.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : I expect to publish a consultation document in the course of the summer which, amongst other things, will refer to article 13 of the draft EC directive.
Market Testing
Ms Mowlam : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list all the market tests that have taken place in his Department since November 1992
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and indicate, in each case, whether the result was the maintenance of in-house provision, or whether the service was contracted out.Mr. Charles Wardle : The Home Office functions which have been subject to market testing or contracting out since November 1992 is listed showing, in cases where the exercise has been completed, whether the result was the maintenance of in-house provision or whether the service was contracted out. The table also shows those market tests which have been discontinued. Except where an outcome is indicated, work is continuing.
Non-prison market testing
Hendon Data Centre
Forensic Science Service Estate Management
Internal Audit
Accountancy Advice
Passport Agency Records Office--discontinued
Design and Illustration Branch
Home Office Stationery Supplies
Computing Services (ED5)
Headquarters Catering Services
IND Catering Services
Library Service--discontinued
Central Training Branch
Typing Services
Record Management Services
Reprographic Services
Office Facilities Management (ED1)
Personnel Management Division Recruitment
Immigration Service Recruitment (IND PMU)
IND Statistics Security-Guard Service
Non-prison contracting out
Forensic Science Service Waste Disposal--contracted out
Passport Agency Stationery Supplies
Passport Agency Production of Blank Passports
Prison
Directorate of Works Headquarters Training
Dog Service
Prison Service College Facilities Management
Registries and Post Rooms
Prison Service Information Technology Group
Fleet Management
Superannuation Administration
Canteens (Prisoners' shops)
Warehouse and Distribution--retained in-house
Manchester Prison
Prison : contracting-out
Education
Court Escorts--contracted out
Blakenhurst Prison--contracted out
Contract awarded to HMSO.
Just over half has been completed.
Data Protection
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is his policy on the principle in article 13 of the EC data protection directive seeking to prohibit a demand by a third party on a person that he should exercise his right of access to data in order to communicate that data to the third party.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The Government are sympathetic towards the concern which has been expressed about what is known as enforced subject access, but have encountered problems both of principle and practice in devising means of preventing it.
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Bail Hostels
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the north Yorkshire bail hostel will be used for (a) people who would otherwise be remanded on bail in their own home, (b) people who would otherwise be remanded in custody, (c) ex-offenders not awaiting trial and (d) only for people from north Yorkshire.
Mr. Maclean : Bail hostels are solely for bailees who are deemed suitable by the court to reside in a hostel and who might otherwise have to be remanded in custody. They are unlikely to be used for people who could be bailed to their home address. Most of the residents will be local people, but hostels may accept referrals from other areas.
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what provision he has made for the payment of compensation to people living in the vicinity of Alexander hotel, York who have suffered financial loss as a result of plans to use the hotel as a bail hostel.
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the suitability of the Alexander hotel in Boroughbridge road in York for use as a bail hostel.
Mr. Maclean : The North Yorkshire probation service considered 16 possible sites for a bail hostel. A feasibility study indicated that the Alexander hotel was the best option in terms of operational needs and value for money.
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reasons the Home Office has decided to open a bail hostel in north Yorkshire.
Mr. Maclean : North Yorkshire is one of eight probation areas in England and Wales which does not have an approved bail or probation-bail hostel. Outline approval for a hostel was given in 1991 on the basis that there was a sufficient number of defendants dealt with by the courts in and around York to justify a hostel there, bearing in mind that, when the courts wished to grant bail with a condition of residence in an approved hostel, north Yorkshire probation service had to rely on hostel places in other areas.
Blakenhurst Prison
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what are the projected staffing levels for Blakenhurst prison by job title/function.
Mr. Peter Lloyd [holding answer 17 June 1993] : Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. John McAllion dated 17 June 1993 : HM Prison Blakenhurst--
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question on the projected staffing levels for Blakenhurst Prison by job title/function.
HM Prison Blakenhurst has a Senior Management Team of nine. It is envisaged that when Blakenhurst is operating at
Column 752
full capacity it will employ a total workforce of approximately 300 staff of whom 276 will be certificated Prison Custody Officers. To achieve optimum effectiveness and efficiency it is the contractor's intention to deploy staff imaginatively and flexibly by matching the requirements of the prison to the actual duties to be performed.TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Company Investigations
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if the companies investigations branch of his Department will obtain a copy of the book, details of which have been submitted to him.
Mr. Heseltine [holding answer 15 June 1993] : All evidence is carefully considered by the appropriate authorities where matters may lead to investigation by my Department.
French Security Services
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations he has made to his French counterpart in relation to activities by French intelligence agents in British aerospace and defence firms.
Mr. Heseltine : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on Monday 7 June, Official Report, column 12.
Matrix Churchill
Mr. Ainsworth : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what consideration is now being given to payment of compensation to employees of Matrix Churchill who suffered financial loss as a result of the collapse of that company.
Miss Widdecombe : I have been asked to reply.
The Employment Department made payments to former employees of Matrix Churchill last year totalling something over £950,000 covering redundancy payments, arrears of pay, and compensation for lack of statutory notice. The payments made were the normal statutory payments made to employees of insolvent companies under employment legislation.
NATIONAL HERITAGE
Departmental Expenditure
Sir Rhodes Boyson : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will publish the total amount of expenditure on provision within the responsibility of his Department in (a) England, (b) Greater London and (c) the south-east, excluding Greater London, for each year from 1982-83 distinguishing between current and capital expenditure, though excluding local authority credit approvals/capital allocations.
Mr. Brooke : The information is not available within my Department and could not be obtained without disproportionate cost. The great majority of this Department's expenditure goes to agencies and bodies sponsored by the Department of National Heritage. My Department seeks to ensure that the money is used in
Column 753
pursuit of the aims and objectives of the bodies concerned, but detailed spending decisions are the responsibility of these bodies. No systematic analysis of expenditure by geographical region is made.Correspondence
Mr. Thurnham : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if he will make a statement on the reasons behind current delays in his Department's correspondence.
Mr. Brooke : The volume of correspondence, concentrated in one or two areas of particular interest, has been such that there have been unacceptable delays in replies in some cases. But now that my Department is in two locations instead of seven, with the benefits this should bring in terms of information technology and greater ease of communication, I hope that it will be possible to avoid backlogs and quicken the pace at which my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and I reply to letters.
Column 754
SCOTLAND
School Meals
Mr. Wicks : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the average price of a school meal in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools in cash and real terms in each year since 1979.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : The average cost to pupils of school meals is not collected centrally. Pupils can obtain either a fixed meal at a set charge or a cafeteria style meal for which the charge will vary depending on the individual pupil's choice. The tables give details of the fixed price meal charge levied by each regional authority in each year since 1979 in cash and in real terms. The level of the charge made is at the discretion of the regional authority.
Column 753
Charge for a fixed price school meal at January census
in cash terms and real terms
Pence
Region or Island 19791980198119821983198419851986198719881989199019911992
authority
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Borders |30 |(84) |35(84) |35(71) |40(74) |42(72) |44(72) |46(72) |48(71) |50(72) |50(68) |50(64) |50(60) |55(61)
Central |30(84) |35(84) |35(71) |35(65) |40(69) |45(74) |45(70) |50(74) |55(79) |58(79) |60(76) |62(74) |68(75) |72(75)
and Galloway |<2>55(61)|<2>55(57)
Fife |30(84) |35(84) |35(71) |40(74) |45(77) |48(79) |50(78) |52(77) |55(79) |50(68) |50(64) |50(60) |50(55) |60(62)
Grampian 30(84) 35(84) 42(85) 42(77) 42(72) 45(74) 50(78) 55(82) 58(83) 60(82) 63(80) Not Not
<4>45(83) 45(77) 55(90) 60(94) 65(96) 68(98) 70(95) 73(93) available available
Highland |30(84) |35(84) |41(81) |50(92) |50(86) |50(82) |55(86) |55(82) |65(93) |65(89) |70(89) |74(88) |80(88) |85(88)
Lothian |30(84) |35(84) |35(71) |35(65) |45(77) |45(74) |50(78) |50(74) |50(72) |50(68) |55(70) |55(66) |60(66) |70(72)
|<4>85(86)|55(82) |55(79) |55(75) |60(76) |60(72) |65(72) |75(78)
Strathclyde 30(84) 35(84) 40(81) 45(83) 50(86) 53(87) 55(86) 58(86) 61(88) 63(86) 64(81) 67(80) 79(87) Not
|available
Tayside |30(84) |35(84) |40(81) |45(83) |50(86) |45(74) |50(78) |55(82) |60(86) |60(82) |65(83) |65(78) |65(72) |65(67)
|<4>50(82)
Orkney |30(84) |35(84) |35(71) |40(74) |50(86) |50(82) |50(78) |55(82) |60(86) |60(82) |60(76) |70(83) |70(77) |70(72)
|<4>75
Shetland |30(84) |35(84) |35(71) |35(65) |35(60) |45(74) |50(78) |50(74) |55(79) |60(82) |60(76) |65(78) |75(83) |75(78)
Western Isles |30(84) |35(84) |35(71) |40(74) |45(77) |60(99) |60(94) |65(96) |65(93) |65(89) |70(89) |70(83) |70(77) |75(78)
<1> Standard meal.
<2> Mini meal.
<3> Primary.
<4> Secondary.
Notes:
1. Except where indicated otherwise the same charge applied to both primary and secondary schools.
2. Prior to 1981 charges for a fixed price meal were set by statutory regulation on national basis.
3. Price in real terms at 1992-93 prices are shown in brackets.
Mr. Wicks : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the level of public expenditure on the school meal service in each year since 1979 in cash and real terms.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton [holding answer 17 June 1993] :
Column 754
The information is as follows :Column 755
Year |Cash (net |Adjusted to 1992-93
|expenditure) (£ |prices using the
|thousands) |GDP deflator (£
|thousands)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |34,057 |95,064
1979-80 |37,939 |90,761
1980-81 |38,495 |77,825
1981-82 |39,896 |73,553
1982-83 |40,234 |69,246
1983-84 |41,828 |68,803
1984-85 |41,859 |65,532
1985-86 |42,847 |63,606
1986-87 |44,638 |64,197
1987-88 |46,503 |63,393
1988-89 |46,046 |58,510
1989-90 |50,119 |59,760
1990-91 |50,615 |55,875
1991-92 |59,403 |61,482
Nursing Homes
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps are currently taken to ensure (a) proper inspection of nursing homes' care of elderly residents and (b) regular visits by general practitioners to monitor the health of residents and the carrying out of any necessary treatment, including removal to hospital.
Mr. Stewart : Under the Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938, as amended, health boards as registering authorities have a statutory requirement to visit and inspect all nursing homes in their area, including any register or records required, at least twice a year and to carry out spot checks at any reasonable time. The person registered must provide or make arrangements for the provision of medical services for any residents in the home and must ensure that arrangements for dealing with medical emergencies of residents are agreed with the health board. Residents are also entitled to receive visits from their own general practitioner on request.
Strathblane Hospital
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to intervene to prevent the closure of Strathblane hospital for respite care for mentally and severely handicapped children.
Mr. Stewart : The organisation of hospital and respite care for the Greater Glasgow area is a matter for the health board. No decisions have been made affecting Strathblane
Column 756
hospital, any such proposal would be subject to public consultation and thereafter referred to Ministers for final decision.Water Privatisation
Mr. McFall : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions his Department has been holding with Strathclyde regional council on water privatisation.
Sir Hector Monro [holding answer 16 June 1993] : There have been no such discussions.
Mr. McFall : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what information his departmental officials have given to the press concerning discussions between his Department and Strathclyde regional council on water privatisation.
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