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Youth Unemployment
Mr. Callaghan : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in the borough of Rochdale have been unemployed for more than a year.
Miss Widdecombe : Information on claimant unemployment by duration is available quarterly and on the unadjusted basis only.
In April 1993, in the Rochdale local authority district, there were 3,586 claimants who had been unemployed for more than one year.
Mr. Callaghan : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the measures taken to reduce unemployment in the 18 to 25 years age group.
Miss Widdecombe : All unemployed people in the 18 to 25 years age group are eligible, subject to qualifying
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criteria, for the full range of employment, enterprise and training measures available through the employment service, training and enterprise councils and local enterprise companies. This is in addition to the advice and placement help which the employment service offers all unemployed people through its job centre network.Fishing Companies
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many fishing companies went into liquidation from 1975 and passed their obligation to pay redundancy to his Department ; and how many fishermen were paid redundancy in each case.
Miss Widdecombe : The information is not available in the form requested.
Unemployment, Barnsley
Mr. Clapham : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list for each of the three Barnsley constituencies the latest figures for (a) unemployment, (b) those who have been unemployed for one year, (c) those who have been out of work for at least five years and (d) those on training courses.
Miss Widdecombe : Information on claimant unemployment by duration is available quarterly, for the months of January, April, July and October, and on the unadjusted basis. The information requested is given in the table.
Information on the numbers of people on training courses is collected at training and enterprise council (TEC) level and shows that in March 1993 there were 6,300 people on employment training and youth training courses in the Barnsley and Doncaster TEC area.
Non-seasonally-adjusted claimant unemployment
by duration-April 1993
|Total |Unemployed over one |Unemployed over five
|year |years
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Barnsley Central |4,329 |1,746 |233
Barnsley East |3,892 |1,478 |242
Barnsley West |4,016 |1,437 |205
and Penistone
Redundancies
Mr. Janner : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will now publish the Government's case to the European Court of Justice concerning employee representation under the EC Collective Redundancies Directive 1975.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : I refer the hon. Member to the reply that I gave him on 14 June at column 451.
Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many redundancies were notified in the latest year for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of the total work force in (a) the United Kingdom, (b) the north-west and (c) the travel-to-work areas of Accrington and Rossendale, Blackburn, Burnley and Pendle in east Lancashire.
Miss Widdecombe : Data on redundancies are obtained from the quarterly Labour Force Survey which provides figures for Great Britain only. Estimates of the numbers of
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redundancies, in the three months prior to each survey, are shown in the table. Information for travel-to-work areas is not available.Column 105
|Great Britain|Percentage of|North West |Percentage of
|employees |employees
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Spring 1992 |322,000 |1.5 |32,000 |1.4
Summer 1992 |278,000 |1.3 |35,000 |1.5
Autumn 1992 |310,000 |1.4 |29,000 |1.2
Winter 1992 |344,000 |1.6 |45,000 |1.9
Disabled People
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what action has been undertaken to date by his Department to implement the recommendations of the EC Council of Ministers in 1986 on the subject of disabled people and employment within the United Kingdom.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Many of the issues covered by the EC Council of Ministers' recommendations had already been addressed by the United Kingdom prior to 1986. Since then we have :
carried out a thorough review of all our employment and training provision for people with disabilities ;
undertaken wide-ranging consultations on proposals to improve the effectiveness of that provision ;
improved the local specialist disability services for employers and individuals by introducing placing assessment and counselling teams ;
ensured that equal opportunities principles apply to the delivery of training provision through training and enterprise councils and local enterprise councils ;
made delivery of employment rehabilitation more accessible locally through contracts with the voluntary sector ;
introduced a disability symbol so that employers who are committed to employing people with disabilities can communicate this publicly. The symbol was strengthened from 1 June 1993 so that employers who use the symbol now have to agree to five specific commitments to action relating to good employment practices ;
taken positive action to ensure that people with disabilities have priority for a place on each of the Department's main employment and training programmes for which they are suitable and eligible ; announced improvements to our special schemes, which through the introduction of access to work next year, will increase both the range of help available to disabled people to overcome barriers to work and the number of disabled people who can be helped ; reviewed the funding arrangements for our sheltered employment and will shortly be issuing a consultative document with proposals to improve their effectiveness.
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make it his policy to issue guidelines to employers outlining what constitutes reasonable cause for the dismissal of a registered disabled person.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : It is a question of fact for the court to decide whether there is reasonable cause under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 for a particular dismissal. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is not given any statutory power to lay down guidelines of the kind suggested.
Guidance to employers on their obligations under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 is given in a leaflet "Employers Obligations--Notes for Guidance" which is issued by the employment service.
Advice to employers on employing disabled people, whether or not they are registered, is contained in the code
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of practice on the employment of disabled people available from the employment service. This is a voluntary code and there is no legal obligation on employers to observe it. We would expect that if an employer acted in accordance with the guidance and spirit of the code it would be most unlikely that a court would hold him or her to have acted unreasonably.Hazardous Substances
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement on the effectiveness of the implementation of paragraphs 77 and 78 of the approved code of practice in regard to the survey conducted under the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1988.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The impact of paragraphs 77 and 78 (regarding the monitoring of exposure to hazardous substances at the workplace) was covered in a two-part survey on the regulations, carried out by inspectors from the Health and Safety Executive and local authorities.
The full report of the evaluation will be published in July and I will arrange for a copy to be placed in the Library.
Manufacturing Jobs
Mr. Milburn : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what information he has about the number of manufacturing jobs in each European Community region in each year since 1980 ; and what proportion of the regional total number of jobs they represented.
Miss Widdecombe : Statistics on employment by European Community region are published by the EC Statistical office in a series of reports entitled "Regional Statistics". Published reports covering years up to 1985 are available in the Library. Reports covering later years are in preparation but no publication date has yet been announced.
Maternity Provisions
Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what plans he has to implement the new maternity provisions set out in the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Bill before October 1994.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : All the provisions of the EC Pregnant Workers Directive will be implemented in United Kingdom law by October 1994, as the directive requires.
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Job Losses, Stoke on Trent
Ms Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what meetings he, or officers in his Department or agencies or consultancies under his Department, have organised to discuss the effect of job losses in Stoke on Trent.
Miss Widdecombe : Meetings are held when appropriate by officials of the Employment Department, the employment service and the Staffordshire training and enterprise council to discuss the effect of job losses in Stoke on Trent. The most recent meeting was held on 6 May 1993 and another is planned for 28 July.
DEFENCE
Gulf War (Depleted Uranium)
13. Ms Eagle : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the use of depleted uranium during Operation Desert Storm.
Mr. Hanley : Depleted uranium was used by coalition forces in tank armour and ammunition. British use in the conflict was confined to a small number of rounds of tank ammunition.
Royal Naval Engineering College, Manadon
14. Mr. Spellar : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects the consultation on the proposals to close the Royal Naval Engineering college at Manadon to be completed.
Mr. Hanley : Comments on the consultative document which outlines our proposals for the future of the Royal Navy first degree engineer officer training and the Royal Naval Engineering college, Manadon, a copy of which is in the Library of the House have been requested by 1 July 1993. In response to a request from the trades unions however I am happy to announce an extension of 10 working days.
Service Accommodation (Cyprus)
15. Mr. William O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the capital expenditure used in the provision of new and renovated accommodation for (a) families and (b) single service personnel in Cyprus for the past five years.
Mr. Hanley : In the five financial years ending on 31 March 1993, capital expenditure on service families' accommodation in Cyprus has been £13,191,000, all of which was for new accommodation. Capital expenditure on accommodation for single service personnel has been £8,897,000 of which £7,384,000 was for new accommodation and £1,513,000 for renovation.
International Commitments
16. Mr. Salmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent representations he has received about the ability of existing regiments and battalions to meet all current international commitments ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Hanley : I have received a number of representations from hon. Members and their constituents. The
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Government's position is set out in its response to the Defence Committee's Second Report, Session 1992-93, on "Britain's Army for the 90s", which the Committee published on 16 June.Exports
17. Mr. Duncan Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will assess the share of the world market achieved by British defence exports in 1992 and so far in 1993.
Mr. Aitken : In 1992, Britain's share of the world defence export market (in terms of new contracts let) was 20 per cent.--putting us in second place only to the United States of America. Based on our achievements so far this year we believe that we are on course to retain this market share.
Overseas Service
18. Sir Michael Neubert : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many armed forces personnel are currently serving on duty outside the United Kingdom ; and in which principal locations.
Mr. Hanley : On 1 April 1993, the number of United Kingdom regular forces serving overseas was 70,436. The main locations were : Continental Europe (including former Yugoslavia)
Cyprus
Elsewhere in the Mediterranean, near east and Gulf
Hong Kong
Elsewhere in the far east
and Gibraltar.
Bosnia
19. Mr. Burden : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to meet other EC Defence Ministers to discuss the deployment of troops in Bosnia.
Mr. Rifkind : I met a number of my European colleagues at a meeting of NATO's Defence Planning Committee in Brussels on 25 May. Our discussions covered a wide range of issues, including the deployment of forces in the former Yugoslavia. I keep in regular contact with other European Defence Ministers on such matters, which remain under continuous review.
Job Opportunities (North Yorkshire)
20. Mr. John Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a further statement about Ministry of Defence job opportunities in North Yorkshire.
Mr. Aitken : Plans that will result in the reduction, rationalisation and transfer-out of posts in North Yorkshire have already been announced, and work is continuing to ensure that a cost-effective balance is achieved between our front-line forces and supporting infrastructure, but I can assure the hon. Member that there will continue to be a large MOD presence in the county.
Royal Naval Reserve
21. Ms Hoey : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he expects to make an announcement on the future of the Royal Naval Reserve.
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Mr. Hanley : I refer the hon. Member to the announcement made by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Defence on 17 June at columns 1009-12.
United Nations Peacekeeping
22. Mr. Colvin : To ask the Secretary ofley : As at early June the numbers of British service personnel serving with United Nations operations was as follows :
|Number
-------------------------------------------
Former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR) |2,446
Cyprus (UNFICYP) |592
Cambodia (UNTAC) |122
Western Sahara (MINURSO) |15
Iraq-Kuwait (UNIKOM) |15
Hydrographic Department
23. Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the planned work of the Hydrographic Department.
Mr. Hanley : The Ministry of Defence Hydrographic Department will continue to provide specialist input to defence programmes and plans and specialist advice to other Government Departments.
Departmental Residential Property
24. Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his policy on empty residential property owned by his Department.
Mr. Hanley : Empty residential properties which are surplus to long term requirements are sold wherever possible. Empty properties which are required in the long term but for which there is no immediate need are wherever possible leased to local authorities and over 900 properties are currently on lease in this way. Not all empty properties are surplus to requirements however as some are undergoing major maintenance or refurbishment and others are earmarked for incoming families and future deployments.
Exports
25. Mr. French : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what steps his Department is taking to assist United Kingdom defence industries to increase the proportion of their output supplied to overseas markets.
Mr. Aitken : Within my Department, the Defence Export Services Organisation assists United Kingdom defence industry market and sells its products and services overseas. We provide a wide range of advice and services including the promotion of exhibitions, the compilation of market surveys, help with foreign contacts and the offer of training and advice to customer countries.
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Yugoslavia
26. Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many British troops are in former Yugoslavia ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Hanley : On 15 June there were 2,608 British forces personnel on the ground in the former Yugoslavia.
Eurofighter
27. Mr. Mans : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list the meetings he has held with his European colleagues about the progress of theEurofighter 2000 so far in 1993.
Mr. Aitken : My right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State has not discussed Eurofighter 2000 with his German, Italian and Spanish counterparts this year. I met the State Secretaries of the partner nations on 5 April in Bonn to review progress on the project and I have discussed this matter with my German counterpart, Herr Scho"nbohm, on two further occasions.
29. Mrs. Lait : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he next plans to meet his European colleagues to discuss the Eurofighter 2000.
Mr. Aitken : My right hon. and learned Friend has no plans at present to meet his German, Italian and Spanish counterparts to discuss Eurofighter 2000.
Belize
28. Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a further statement on the timetable for withdrawal of the British garrison from Belize.
Mr. Hanley : I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to the hon. Member for South Shields (Dr. Clark) on 14 June at col. 475 and the answer that my right hon. Friend the Member for Watford gave my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (Mr. Tredinnick) on 13 May at cols 561-62.
Market Testing
Ms Mowlam : To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list all the market tests that have taken place in his Department since November 1992 and indicate, in each case, whether the result was the maintenance of in-house provision, or whether the service was contracted out.
Mr. Aitken : The information requested is as follows :
Activity |Result
|In
|house/Contractorised
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flight checking services 115 Squadron-RAF |Contractorised
Benson
Domestic services Gateway house-RAF |Retained in house
Brize Norton
Engineering and Supply/Multi-activity |Contractorised
contract RAF Scampton
Elementary flying training RAF Topcliffe |Contractorised
Catering-A and AEE Boscombe Down |Contractorised
Grounds maintenance Royal Marine |Retained in house
Establishments
Domestic and administration services |Contractorised
Wethersfield
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HEALTH
Mental Hospitals
Ms Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many mental hospitals there were in each region and nationally in each of the last 15 years.
Mr. Bowis : The available information is shown in the table.
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Number of psychiatric hospitals<1>1978 to 1990-91
All psychiatric |1978 |1979 |1980 |1981 |1982 |1983 |1984 |1985 |1986 |1987-88 |1988-89 |1989-90 |1990-91
hospitals
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern |19 |17 |17 |18 |18 |18 |18 |21 |23 |19 |17 |16 |16
Yorkshire |36 |36 |36 |37 |36 |34 |35 |37 |38 |33 |35 |36 |40
Trent |64 |63 |64 |64 |65 |65 |67 |62 |61 |53 |58 |53 |49
East Anglian |22 |22 |23 |25 |24 |25 |26 |24 |24 |25 |25 |21 |23
North West Thames |18 |19 |19 |18 |18 |18 |18 |21 |24 |21 |22 |22 |20
North East Thames |20 |20 |20 |21 |21 |21 |21 |22 |23 |25 |28 |28 |31
South East Thames |29 |29 |29 |29 |31 |31 |31 |31 |32 |33 |29 |35 |36
South West Thames<2> |34 |35 |35 |34 |35 |37 |35 |35 |34 |40 |46 |40 |35
Wessex |38 |42 |42 |43 |47 |54 |64 |79 |88 |29 |41 |39 |37
Oxford |19 |21 |20 |20 |20 |21 |24 |24 |30 |21 |24 |25 |17
South Western |56 |57 |55 |59 |60 |61 |63 |68 |73 |54 |58 |53 |60
West Midlands |36 |37 |37 |38 |41 |41 |43 |55 |57 |37 |39 |40 |36
Mersey |15 |15 |14 |13 |13 |12 |11 |11 |14 |15 |16 |15 |16
North Western |14 |13 |13 |17 |17 |19 |21 |22 |22 |16 |16 |16 |20
Special Health Authorities |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1 |1
England |421 |427 |425 |437 |447 |458 |478 |<3>513 |<3>544 |422 |455 |440 |437
<1> A hospital where 90 per cent. or more of the available beds are allocated to the psychiatric (mental illness and mental handicap) specialities. For years 1987-88 to 1990-91 mental handicap community units have been excluded. These units can
generally be defined as facilities staffed by the NHS and managed separately from any hospital, which is located in the community, and provides not more than 24 residential places for people with learning disabilities.
<2> Number for 1987-88 estimated.
<3> These totals may be inflated by the inclusion of Mental Handicap Community Units.
Sources: SH3 (Hospital Classification) 1978 to 1986.
KH03 (4th Quarter) 1987-88 to 1990-91.
Neonatal Units
Ms Primarolo : To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many neonatal units there were in each of the last five years ; and how many of these units had a named consultant in charge.
Mr. Sackville : The information available on the number of neonatal units in the last five years is shown in the table. Every baby in a neonatal intensive care cot will have a consultant paediatrician who is responsible for that baby's care.
Number of hospital
units recording beds
available for
neonatal
intensive care
|Number
----------------------
1987-88 |<1>221
1988-89 |211
1989-90 |210
1990-91 |208
1991-92 |<2>-
Source: KHO3.
<1> Includes an
estimated figure for
South West Thames.
<2> Data are being
collected in a
different form with
effect from 1991-92
due to redesignation
after the National
Health Service
reforms were
introduced.
Dioxins
Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps she has taken to calculate the effect of dioxins on humans.
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Mr. Sackville : The expert Advisory Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment has reviewed the toxicology of dioxins on a number of occasions. It has set a tolerable daily intake (TDI) for dioxins of 10 picograms per kilogram body weight per day. Provided that individual intakes of dioxins do not exceed this level no risk to health is anticipated.
Hospital Services, London
Mr. Gale : To ask the Secretary of State for Health when she plans to publish the reports of the six reviews of specialties in London ; and what role their advice will play in decisions about the future of hospital services in London.
Mrs. Virginia Bottomley : The specialty reviews will be published in full tomorrow and copies will be placed in the Library and Vote Office at 10.30 am. The chairmen of the review teams will hold a press conference to coincide with the publication.
The Government set out their proposals for improving the National Health Service in London in "Making London Better", published on 16 February, copies of which are available in the Library. The specialty reviews were announced then, in response to a recommendation in Sir Bernard Tomlinson's report. The independent review teams were established to address the extensive duplication and fragmentation of services in six specialties (cancer ; cardiac ; neurosciences ; renal ; plastic surgery and children's specialist services) and make recommendations
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on their future disposition. Their reports are independent advice to Ministers and the NHS, not statements of Government policy. Work on developing the proposals set out in "Making London Better" has progressed well since February. The recommendations of the specialty reviews represent a further necessary stage in that process, but not its conclusion. The review recommendations will form part of a complex jigsaw of factors informing decisions about the future pattern of services in London. The recommendations will be fed into the local process- -already well under way--of developing sensible and sustainable proposals which meet the Government's objectives of improved patient care, support for excellence in teaching and research and value for money. Academic interests must be taken into account. Above all, proposals must be supported by NHS purchasers, reflecting patient preferences through the internal health market. No decisions are being taken to close any hospital, or make major service changes, on the basis of the specialty reviews alone. "Making London Better" set out a timetable for long-term change. Clearly, some issues will be resolved more quickly than others. We anticipate that the main proposals for the future configuration of services will be put forward in the autumn. Proposals for major changes to services would, of course, be subject to full statutory public consultation, according to established procedures.Persistent Vegetative State
Mr. Alton : To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment she has made of the implications of the case of Anthony Bland for the funding by the national health service of the care of patients who have been in PVS for more than one year in cases where the patient's family wish treatment to continue.
Mr. Sackville : None. Decisions on the care of patients in persistent vegetative state (PVS) are made by doctors in consultation with the care team and the patient's relatives/friends. Treatment of PVS patients, in common with all chronically ill long-stay patients, is funded from national health service resources.
WALES
Pensions
Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many (a) members and (b) dependants are currently in receipt of (a) civil service pensions, (b) NHS pensions, (c) teachers' pensions, (d) armed forces pensions and (e) local government pensions in Wales ; and what is the average amount of pension for (i) members and (ii) dependants in each category.
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