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Written Answers to Questions
Friday 3 December 1993
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Immigration Appeals Office
Mr. Madden : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the establishment of the immigration appeals office in London and (a) in each of the past five years and (b) in the current year ; what plans there are to increase the staff establishment and the number of adjudicators in (i) London and (ii) Leeds.
Mr. John M. Taylor : Staff establishment levels in past years at the immigration appellate authorities--IAA--are available only for the IAA as a whole and not for individual centres. The figures in each of the past five years were as follows :
|Numbers
------------------------
1989-90 |77
1990-91 |94"
1991-92 |97
1992-93 |95"
1993-94 |117
The number of staff
allocated to the centre
at Thanet house in
London for the year
1993-94 is 63.
There are currently no plans to increase either the staff establishment or the number of adjudicators at either Thanet house in London or in Leeds, although these will be kept under review in light of the current and projected workloads.
Mr. Madden : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what is the total number of appeals awaiting processing by the immigration appeals office in London ; what is the average time taken between the receipt of papers from British overseas posts and the listing of appeals before adjudictors, in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) Leeds : what action he is taking to expedite the hearing of appeals ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. John M. Taylor : As of 31 October 1993 there were 19,074 appeals outstanding before the adjudicators within the IAA as a whole. As of 26 November 1993, there were 324 appeals which had been received at Thanet house in London and had not yet been processed. Figures are not available for the average time taken between the receipt of papers from British overseas posts and the listing of appeals before adjudicators. However, upon receipt of the explanatory statement and notice of appeal from the post overseas, the IAA normally dispatches copies of the case papers to to the parties' representatives in the country within five days. The parties must then prepare the case for the hearing. The current average time between the IAA receiving a certificate of readiness from a party to the date of the hearing for (a) the United Kingdom and (b) Leeds is as follows :
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Short appointment |Long appointment ------------------------------------------------------ (a) 12 weeks |13"weeks (b) 9 weeks |12 weeks
Where an earlier hearing date is available at a different IAA centre, appellants are offered a hearing at that centre.
Departmental Files
Mr. Byers : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many files marked "not for National Audit Office eyes" are held by his Department.
Mr. John M. Taylor : There are 45 files in the Lord Chancellor's Department--out of a total of 90,974 files--marked "not for NAO eyes". These refer to individual file parts. For each NAO study a number of divisions may be involved and each may possess a file with a number of parts.
The marking "not for NAO eyes" is used in accordance with an agreement between the Treasury and the National Audit Office under which documents relating to the handling of relations between Departments and the NAO and Public Accounts Committee are not automatically available to the NAO while they are current.
EDUCATION
Advertising
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much his Department spends annually on (a) television advertising, (b) radio advertising and (c) press advertising ; and what were the corresponding figures for 1985 and 1979.
Mr. Forth : The latest estimate of expenditure on advertising in the current financial year and the corresponding figures for 1985-86 and 1979- 80 are as follows :
|£000s |£000s |£000s
|1993-94 (estimated)|1985-86 |1979-80
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Television advertising |0 |0 |0
Radio advertising |29.2 |0 |0
Press advertising |1,105.8 |14.8 |91.6
Press and Publicity Officers
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many press and publicity officers are currently employed in his Department ; and how many were employed in (a) 1985 and (b) 1979.
Mr. Forth : The Department currently employs 27 permanent press and publicity officers. The comparable figures for 1985-86 and 1979-80 are 23 and 22.
Information Security
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Education whether he has incorporated the code of practice for information security management, published by the British Standards Institution, into relevant contracts with information technology suppliers.
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Mr. Forth : The code of practice for information security management was developed by and established for use by commercial organisations and does not specifically address the requirements for the protection of official information. The security requirements for IT systems and services used by central Government Departments are stated in the Government's IT security policy document. The IT security policy is supported by use of the CCTA risk analysis and management method--CRAMM-- and baseline security for IT
systems--BSITS--risk analysis methods and by supporting advice and guidance published by the Government IT security authorities. These are regularly reviewed to ensure best practice, have been developed specifically for use within government and have been in operation for some time.
The Department for Education's IS security policy is in line with the Government's IT security policy and all major contracts with information technology suppliers follow the guidelines in Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency--CCTA--model agreements.
Teachers (Dress)
Lady Olga Maitland : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what guidelines he plans to offer to teachers about their form of dress.
Mr. Robin Squire : My right hon. Friend expects teachers to set a good example to their pupils in everything they do. How best to achieve that is for local determination. He has no plans to issue national guidelines.
School Meals Service
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will make a statement on the future of the school meals service.
Mr. Forth : Local education authorities and, where appropriate, governing bodies of self-governing--grant-maintained--schools have responsibility for providing school meals, and determine the appropriate level of service in the light of local priorities.
Departmental Files
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many files marked "not for National Audit Office eyes" are held by his Department.
Mr. Forth : The Department has 39 files--out of a total of over 500, 000--marked "not for NAO eyes".
This marking is used in accordance with the agreement between the Treasury and the National Audit Office under which documents relating to the handling of relations between Departments and the NAO and Public Accounts Committee are not automatically available to the NAO while they remain current.
Fitzherbert School, Brighton
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what has been the total cost of providing security at the former Fitzherbert school site in Brighton during the period it was in the ownership of the City Technology Colleges Trust and the Michael Faraday Trust.
Mr. Robin Squire : The cost of providing security at the former Fitzherbert school site in Brighton during the said period was some £233,000.
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Student Loans Company
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for Education what was the cost of acquiring the Student Loans Company from its previous owners.
Mr. Forth : The Government acquired the Student Loans Company in December 1989 at a cost of £10.
City Technology Colleges
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for Education for each city technology college, what is the amount of Government grant received each year since establishment, the pupil roll for each year and the amount of private sector sponsorship received each year.
Mr. Robin Squire : Grants approved for payment by the Department to each city technology college for recurrent funding purposes in the current academic year are shown in the table, together with the numbers of funded pupils.
Amounts of grant include provision for diseconomies of scale during the build up of colleges to full capacity and for services provided by local education authorities to their schools.
As for all other schools, any additional funding by private sector sponsors for recurrent expenditure purposes is a matter for the schools and sponsors concerned.
1993-94
College |Recurrent grant £|Funded numbers
|million
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1 Kingshurst |3,604 |1,250
2 Djanogly |2,565 |844
3 Macmillan |2,826 |912
4 Emmanuel |1,929 |600
5 Dixons |2,456 |730
6 Leigh |3,361 |1,140
7 Harris |3,187 |1,000
8 Britschool |2,914 |686
9 Bacons |3,926 |1,050
10 Haberdashers |4,806 |1,150
11 Thomas Telford |2,485 |664
12 Brooke Weston |2,448 |735
13 ADT |2,770 |600
14 Landau Forte |1,958 |450
15 John Cabot |1,292 |150
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Incitement to Racial Hatred
Mr. Shore : To ask the Attorney-General how many cases of incitement to racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986 were referred to him by the Crown Prosecution Service in each year since 1987 ; how many were not proceeded with (a) through insufficient evidence, (b) because prosecution was judged not to be in the public interest and (c) for other reasons.
The Solicitor-General : I am causing inquiries to be made into the matters raised by the right hon. Member and I will reply as soon as possible.
Serious Fraud Office
Mr. Mates : To ask the Attorney-General if he has anything to add to his statement to the House on 30 June concerning the Serious Fraud Office.
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The Attorney-General : Shortly after my statement to the House about the Serious Fraud Office on 30 June 1993 at column 965, Mr. Asil Nadir's former solicitor, Mr. Peter Knight of Vizards, wrote in response to a general invitation from the director of the Serious Fraud Office that those concerned about the working of the office should bring specific anxieties to his attention. Mr. Knight wanted the Serious Fraud Office to give further consideration, among other things, to its handling of privileged papers during the preparation of its case against Mr. Nadir.
The director has therefore looked into this matter again, in great detail, and has now written to Mr. Knight. I am placing the exchange of letters in the Library. The director's findings show that my statement, responding to the personal statement by my hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire (Mr. Mates) on 29 June at column 823, was incomplete on the issue of privileged papers and therefore misleading. I am taking the earliest opportunity to correct this. In April 1991 the Serious Fraud Office acknowledged to Mr. Nadir's solicitors that two sealed bags of documents subject to a claim for privilege had been opened in January and February in breach of an undertaking given to the solicitors on 5 December 1990. Documents, which the Serious Fraud Office understood and still believes were not privileged, had been copied to the administrators of Polly Peck International Plc--PPI. This breach of the Serious Fraud Office's undertaking, which it regretted, was acknowledged in my statement and in my predecessor's letter to my hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire dated 20 October 1991 which is already in the Library. However, it now appears that copies of privileged documents were circulated to the prosecution team on two occasions. The first occasion was on 26 November 1990, before the giving of the undertaking but after a general claim for privilege had been made by Mr. Nadir's solicitors. In error, copies of these privileged documents formed a small part of a very large distribution of documents routinely copied and circulated to the prosecution team after the search at PPI. The administrators of the company were entitled to access to the vast majority of these documents and were therefore given access to the circulated copy documents, including--apparently because the mistake was not then
recognised--access to and copies of certain privileged material. The second occasion was on 10 January 1991 when copies of documents seized from Mr. Nadir on his arrest were circulated to the prosecution team in the apparent belief that the documents in question could not from their description be privileged, despite the fact that a claim had been made by Mr. Nadir's solicitors. I regret that the fact that copies of privileged documents had been circulated was not acknowledged by the then case controller to Mr. Nadir's solicitors, and that no decisive attempt was made to retrieve them until December 1991, despite Vizards' frequently expressed concern about the matter and the fact that the then case controller appears to have recognised at least by January 1991 that copies of potentially privileged documents had been circulated. The reason is being pursued further by the director of the Serious Fraud Office. It is, however, right to say that the director of the Serious Fraud Office is not aware of any attempt to use the documents in conscious breach of privilege when preparing the prosecution case, although on two occasions privileged documents were used, apparently inadvertently.
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A thorough check has been made of files of the prosecution team to seek to ensure that all copies of the privileged documents have now been retrieved. Remaining copy documents found on two master files have been secured. However, by reason of the system agreed between the parties, only Mr. Nadir's former solicitors knew precisely which documents had been adjudged by independent counsel to be privileged. Mr. Nadir's former solicitors are therefore being invited, at the Crown's expense, to provide full details to an independent counsel of all privileged documents taken from PPI and Mr. Nadir. The counsel will then be given full access to papers under the Serious Fraud Office's control to ensure that no privileged documents have been overlooked. The administrators will also be asked to co-operate in giving access to their documents.Should Mr. Nadir believe that he has suffered prejudice as a result of what has occurred, he can raise this with the trial judge at the appropriate time. The prosecution would in any event bring the matter to the judge's attention.
Since my statement no futher evidence has come to light to substantiate any of the other allegations which have been made about the Serious Fraud Office's handling of Mr. Nadir's prosecution. I do not believe that the facts disclosed today, although regrettable, justify the independent investigation called for by my hon. Friend the Member for East Hampshire last June. Moreover, as I said in response to his personal statement there is no precedent for an independent inquiry in parallel to a trial. Mr. Nadir has already made the handling of his case by the authorities an issue in the case and the trial process itself is designed to deal with this. The right course remains for Mr. Nadir to return to this country to face trial ; and, should he wish to make any complaints about the prosecution's handling of his case, to raise them with the trial judge.
TRANSPORT
Ashford International Station
Sir Keith Speed : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the up-to-date funding position for Ashford international station.
Mr. Freeman : The position remains that we have made provision for expenditure by British Rail to cover the track, signalling, platform and other railway works which were inaugurated by the hon. Member on 20 October. The station buildings, car parking and other facilities will be provided by the private sector ; British Rail has received bids and is now evaluating these. It hopes to make a statement shortly.
Public Sector Projects
Sir Keith Speed : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the public sector transport projects where he is looking to private sector funding in whole or part and their estimated cost.
Mr. Norris : My right hon. Friend has announced that the following projects are being considered for private sector funding in whole or in part. Private sector funding has already been secured for a number of major transport projects.
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|Estimated cost
Project |£ million
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Channel Tunnel Rail Link |3,000
Crossrail |3,000
Upgrading of west coast main line |400-600
Birmingham western orbital route |500
Croydon Tramlink |135
Midland Metro Line One |130
New Tamar crossing |100
Lower Thames crossing |<1>-
Mersey crossing |100
New Scottish air traffic control centre |200
<1> No estimate available.
Seat Belts (Buses)
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many representations he has received on fitting compulsory seat belts in buses ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Key : The Department has received more than 200 letters from hon. Members and members of the public in the last three months calling for seat belts to be fitted in buses, coaches and minibuses. The Department is currently reviewing the full technical and cost implications of the compulsory fitment of seat belts in minibuses and coaches. It would not be right to take any decisions before we have considered the full reports of the recent tragic accidents and this work has been completed.
Coaches
Sir Dudley Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations he has received on the effects of the 17-tonne gross vehicle weight limit on passenger coach manufacturers and operators in the United Kingdom ; and when he plans to raise coach limit to 18 tonnes to conform with that of other EU countries.
Mr. Key : I have received a number of representations requesting an increase to the maximum permitted weight for coaches to 18 tonnes. Unfortunately, it is not practical to increase the gross weight without allowing for a higher weight on the drive axle. The Department is at present engaged on an exercise to assess and upgrade all the bridges in the United Kingdom to accept a heavier axle load. When this assessment is complete I shall be in a position to consider such an increase.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what proposals (a) he and (b) the EC has to introduce seat belts in all new coaches as a legal requirement ; what is his estimate of when such a new law is likely to be applied ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Key : The Department is currently reviewing the full technical and cost implications of the compulsory fitment of seat belts in new coaches. Until this work has been completed and we have considered the full reports of the recent accidents we do not feel that it would be right to take any decisions on this question.
To date, there has not been the support necessary from member states for the EC to make seat belt fitment on all seats a mandatory requirement.
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Spofforth Bypass
Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether tenders have been submitted for the construction of the Spofforth bypass, near Harrogate ; and when he expects the work to commence.
Mr. Key : These are matters for the highway authority concerned-- North Yorkshire county council.
Port of London Authority
Mr. Dunn : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what arrangements he has made for the financial reconstruction of the Port of London authority following the privatisation of the port of Tilbury.
Mr. MacGregor : I have concluded with the Port of London authority-- PLA--an agreement under which the PLA has paid my Department £1.851 million from its capital reserve. PLA will in addition make further payments to my Department, at the end of each financial year ending on 31 December, of sums representing both the profits of the PLA's property management company, Port of London Properties Ltd.--POLP--and the net proceeds from their disposal of specified properties owned by the PLA and its subsidiaries. These properties were valued at some £35 million at December 1992. A sum of £951,000 has been paid to my Department in respect of the year ending 31 December 1992.
These payments will be taken in payment of the repayable grants totalling some £147 million made to the PLA under the Ports (Financial Assistance) Acts of 1980 and 1981. The PLA's outstanding liability in respect of these repayable grants will be progressively reduced as these payments are made to my Department. When all of the specified properties have been disposed of, POLP will be wound up and the Department will relinquish its rights to any remaining repayable grants.
This agreement has advantages for both parties over the previous arrangements for the repayment of the repayable grants. For the Government, it has provided a more certain prospect of substantial receipts than under the time-limited conditions attached to those arrangements. For the PLA, it has removed a substantial contingent liability, which was a disincentive to sound financial management of the business.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Family Credit
Mr. Mallon : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the extent of the delays currently affecting applications for family credit ; and if he will take steps to ensure that all outstanding claims can be dealt with and completed before Christmas.
Mr. Ancram : 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 to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from Mr. A. Wylie to Mr. Seamus Mallon, dated 30 November 1993 :
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The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Parliamentary Question about delays affecting Family Credit claims and if the outstanding claims can be cleared before Christmas. From April 1993 to October 1993 some 34,000 claims to Family Credit were received of which 89 were successful. The number of claims represents an increase of 21 over the same period last year. At the same time a new computer system for processing claims was introduced which brings a certain amount of disruption to the work and inevitably causes a slowdown in output during the first few months. A recovery programme has been introduced to deal with the outstanding claims and I am confident that by 31 January 1994 we will have brought the situation back to normal.I hope this explains the position for you and I am sorry for any inconvenience that has been caused to our customers.
Prison Officers
Mr. Beggs : To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to review the employment status of prison officers in Northern Ireland.
Sir John Wheeler : I have reviewed the employment status of prison officers in Northern Ireland in the light of the temporary injunction granted to the Home Secretary against the calling of industrial action in the Prison Service in England and Wales. I have concluded that the employment status of prison officers in Northern Ireland should match that in England and Wales.
Legislation will therefore be introduced this Session confirming that it is unlawful for organisations representing prison officers in Northern Ireland to call for industrial action. This will also apply to organisations representing prison officers in the rest of the United Kingdom. At the same time the legislation will extend normal trade union status to organisations representing prison officers in Northern Ireland. It will also extend to prison officers the appropriate elements of employment protection legislation, including access to industrial tribunals, on a basis comparable to that for other workers. There will also be provision for regulations to be made to establish procedures for settling the remuneration of the staff concerned.
My officials will be in discussion with representatives of prison officers in Northern Ireland about these provisions.
NATIONAL HERITAGE
Departmental Files
Mr. Byers : To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many files marked "not for National Audit Office eyes" are held by his Department.
Mr. Sproat : My Department, which was established in April 1992, has not yet reviewed the full range of files inherited from former parent Departments and it is not possible to give a figure for those bearing a marking "not for NAO eyes". Since April 1992 DNH has opened a very small number of new files with this marking.
The marking "not for NAO eyes" is used in accordance with an agreement between the Treasury and the National Audit Office under which documents relating to the handling of relations between Departments and the NAO and Public Accounts Committee are not automatically available to the NAO while they are current.
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WALES
Government Car Service
Mr. Alan Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the annual cost to the Department of the car service for Ministers ; and how many vehicles are involved.
Mr. Redwood : The estimated cost of providing a car service for Ministers during the 1993-94 financial year is £161,000. There are four official cars, including two based in Cardiff.
Coal Industry
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish a table showing for each year since 1979 the number of operating deep-mine coal pits, the annual output of mined coal, and the amount of coal exported from and imported into Wales ; and if he will estimate the total value to the Welsh economy of the coal mined from deep pits over the period since 1979.
Mr. Redwood : The number of deep-mine coal pits and their annual output for each year since 1979 is shown in the following table. The remainder of the information is not readily available.
Year (to 31 March) |Number of deep mines|Output (thousand
|in Wales |tonnes)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |39 |8,415
1980 |38 |8,304
1981 |36 |8,356
1982 |35 |8,240
1983 |35 |7,625
1984 |30 |7,237
1985 |30 |628
1986 |19 |7,310
1987 |15 |7,062
1988 |12 |5,460
1989 |10 |5,530
1990 |6 |4,040
1991 |5 |3,740
1992 |4 |2,300
1993 |2 |n/a
Public Appointments
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many of the persons currently serving on non-departmental public bodies in Wales as appointed by him had not been included in the register held by the Welsh Office for public appointments.
Mr. Redwood : The information is not collected centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Direct Service/Labour Organisations
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many contracts awarded to Welsh local authority direct service/labour organisations have not been subject to the issuing of a section 13 or 14 notice, alleging anti-
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Mr. Gwilym Jones : Information on the total number of contracts awarded is not held centrally. Only one authority has received a section 13 notice and section 14 direction. One other authority has received a section 13 notice.Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) how many local authority direct service/labour organisations operating contracts in Wales under the terms of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 have achieved the required rate of return since 1988 ;
(2) if he will list, by authority, the surplus achieved since 1988 on trading accounts for (a) refuse collection, (b) street cleaning, (c) building cleaning, (d) schools and welfare catering, (e) other catering, (f) vehicle mainten-ance, (g) grounds maintenance and (h) sports and leisure management services delivered by direct service/labour organisations, under the terms of the Local Government Act 1988 ;
(3) if he will list, by authority, the surplus achieved since 1988 on trading accounts for (a) general highways work, (b) construction and maintenance of sewers, (c) works of new construction and (d) maintenance work delivered by direct service/labour organisations in Wales under the terms of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 ;
(4) if he will list by authority and service area, as defined by the Local Government Act 1988, the surpluses achieved by local authority direct service/labour organisations in Wales ;
(5) if he will list by authoity and service area, as defined by the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980, the surpluses achieved by local authority direct service/labour organisations in Wales since 1988 ;
(6) how many local authority direct service/labour organisations, operating contracts in Wales under the terms of the Local Government Act 1988, have achieved the required rate of return since 1988.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : I shall write to the hon. Gentleman and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many contracts awarded to Welsh local authority direct service/labour organisations have not been subject to the issuing of a section 19A or 19B notice, alleging anti-competitive behaviour under the terms of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 ; and on how many occasions such actions were taken.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : Information on the total number of contracts awarded is not held centrally. Only one authority has received a section 19A notice and section 19B direction.
Local Government Administration
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the authorities that have been challenged by his Department, in relation to their internal arrangements for establishing client-contractor splits in order to meet the requirements of the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980 and the Local Government Act 1988.
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Surcharged Councillors
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) how many councillors in Wales have been surcharged or prosecuted as a consequence of taking decisions in relation to the Local Government Act 1988 ;
(2) how many councillors in Wales have been surcharged or prosecuted as a consequence of taking decisions in relation to the Local Government, Planning and Land Act 1980.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : None to my knowledge.
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