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Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Prime Minister what arrangements Her Majesty's Government are making to respond to the report under the chairmanship of Professor Dame June Lloyd of the Nuffield council of bioethics relating to genetic testing ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
The Government welcome this authoritative and timely report. We will consider the conclusions and recommendations of the report and study the reaction of public and professional interests before deciding whether action by the Government is needed.
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement about ministerial responsibility and the accountability of Ministers for decisions taken by the Department.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
Guidance on ministerial responsibility and accountability is provided at paragraph 27 of "Questions of Procedure for Ministers", a copy of which is in the Library.
Mr. Grocott : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list each Minister who has left his Administration, with the reason for their departure in each case.
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Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
The names of resigning Ministers, and the reasons for their resigning, have been announced on each occasion.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy to advise all Ministers that marginal notes on documents circulated between themselves or departmental officials always are made directly on to the documents and not on detachable notes.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has no plans to issue such advice.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Prime Minister how many representations he has received in the form of coupons from the advertisement placed by the citizens of Hiroshima, Japan, in The Times of 20 December, setting out opposition to the THORP reprocessing plant at Sellafield.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has received numerous representations.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Southend, East (Sir T. Taylor) of 17 December 1993, Official Report, column 959, how the list of 17 EC directives which the European Council agreed should be repealed or withdrawn has been made available to the general public.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
The Commission's report on subsidiarity, which includes the annex to which my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister referred in his answer of 17 December to my hon. Friend, the Member for Southend, East, has been published by the Office for Official Publications of the European Communities. As is the practice for all official Community plublications, it is available to the general public through HMSO.
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Prime Minister what amount of new money is proposed to support the reformed (a) magistrates courts system and (b) the police authorities ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.
The costs of establishing the new administrative structure for the magistrates courts service will depend on local management decisions, but during the one to two year implementation period costs in the region of £5 million a year may be incurred. The Government have reflected the additional costs of the reforms in determining future grant provision for the service.
As regards the police, the overall effect of the changes in the Police and Magistrates' Courts Bill on ongoing expenditure from the Consolidated Fund and by local government will be broadly neutral. It is expected that additional expenditure by police forces on financial and personnel management will be offset by increases in efficiency.
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Some start-up costs are expected. These will arise from a period of parallel operation by the current police authorities and their successors to be established by the Bill. The new authorities will incur some costs for their own purposes and some for the purposes of the police force for whose maintenance they will become responsible from April 1995. The force may need to recruit and train new staff in areas such as personnel or finance or to purchase computer hardware. Taken together, the start-up costs of the reforms for police authorities and police forces are not expected to exceed £21 million. They will be met by central Government grant.Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Prime Minister how many press officers his Office has employed in each year since 1983.
Mr. Newton [holding answer 17 December 1993] : I have been asked to reply.
Detailed figures were not recorded separately prior to 1987-88. From then onwards the complement remained at six, until 1 April 1992, when it was increased to seven to enable the press office to continue to respond effectively to the growing number of press inquiries.
Ms Short : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many directors of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are (i) male and (ii) female ; how many are from ethnic minority backgrounds ; how many directors are from the private sector and which industrial sectors they come from ; how many non-private sector directors are from (a) local authorities, (b) local education authorities, (c) other educational organisations, (d) trade unions, (e) voluntary organisations, (f) ethnic minority organisations, (g) employers associations and (h) others.
Mr. Stewart : Directors of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise are senior executives, directly responsible to the chief executives of the enterprise bodies.
At board level there are in total 23 members of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, of whom 19 are male and four are female. No information is collected on their ethnic origin. The information requested on numbers of board members from the private and public sectors, set out in the table, relates to the principal activity of the member concerned. Many of Scottish Enterprise's and Highlands and Islands Enterprise's board members are currently active in more than one of these areas.
|Scottish |Highlands and |Enterprise |Islands Enterprise ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Private Sector Agriculture and Fisheries |- |2 Construction and Manufacturing |5 |4 Financial and other Services |3 |3 |------- |------- Total |8 |9 Public Sector (a) |1 |1 (b) |- |- (c) |1 |- (d) |1 |- (e) |- |1 (f) |- |- (g) |- |- (h) |1 |- |------- |------- Total |4 |2
Mr. Galbraith : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will consider giving advice to health boards concerning the re-employment on the same salary of staff who have been sacked by the health boards but who are threatening legal action.
Mr. Stewart : My right hon. Friend has, at present, no plans to issue such advice.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many hospital wards were closed at weekends in (a) 1979, (b) 1984, (c) 1989 and (d) the latest date for which figures are available.
Mr. Stewart : This information is not held centrally.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make it his policy to establish ratios of qualified nurses to patient numbers in all branches of in-patient hospital provision.
Mr. Stewart : No. All patients should be carefully assessed on admission to hospital and their combined needs for care and treatment will determine the number of qualified nursing staff required.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many women have died of lung cancer in each year since 1975 ; and how much he plans to spend on publicising these figures.
Mr. Stewart : The information is set out in the table :
Year |Numbers ------------------------ 1975 |735 1976 |806 1977 |890 1978 |1,017 1979 |1,010 1980 |990 1981 |1,117 1982 |1,199 1983 |1,187 1984 |1,272 1985 |1,336 1986 |1,284 1987 |1,377 1988 |1,372 1989 |1,426 1990 |1,453 1991 |1,503 1992 |1,547
The figures are published in the annual report of the Registrar General for Scotland. The policy statement "Scotland's Health : A Challenge to Us All" published in 1992 drew specific attention to the fact that Scottish women have the highest mortality rate from lung cancer in the developed world and this has influenced our policies on smoking and targets for reduction of cancer mortality.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much will be spent in Scotland in each year from 1993-94 to 1995-96 on (a) environmentally sensitive areas, identifying the amount allocated for the new access option, (b) new nitrate sensitive areas, (c) the moorland scheme, (d) the organic aid scheme and (e) the total amount of money being spent on the agri-environment scheme in Scotland ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : The forecast outturn expenditure on environmentally sensitive areas in Scotland for 1993-94 is £1.5 million. Subject to approval by Parliament and the EC Commission, the Government propose to introduce a heather moorland scheme, an organic aid scheme, a habitat
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scheme and a set-aside access scheme, which, together with the environmentally sensitive area scheme, will comprise the agri-environment programme for Scotland. There are no nitrate sensitive areas currently designated or proposed in Scotland. Planned expenditure on the Scottish agri-environment programme as a whole is expected to be in the region of £7 million for 1994-95 and £11 million for 1995-96.Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) how many holdings there are in each region of Scotland in 1992 and 1993 growing (a) cereals, (b) potatoes, (c) linseed, (d) sugar beet, (e) horticultural produce and (f) oilseeds ;
(2) how many hectares were taken up in each region of Scotland in 1992 and 1993 by (a) cereals, (b) potatoes, (c) linseed, (d) sugar beet, (e) horticultural produce and (f) oilseeds.
Sir Hector Monro : Final June agricultural census information for 1993 is not yet available. The figures for main holdings at June 1992 are as follows :
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Cereals Potatoes Region |Holdings |Area (ha)|Holdings |Area (ha) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Borders |865 |60,890 |163 |1,950 Central |375 |12,225 |69 |153 Dumfries and Galloway |885 |17,946 |115 |397 Fife |678 |42,162 |285 |2,961 Grampian |4,056 |137,040 |1,312 |6,042 Highland |1,292 |30,127 |715 |1,049 Lothian |631 |41,933 |149 |2,053 Strathclyde |1,353 |22,814 |391 |1,064 Tayside |1,813 |91,429 |1,142 |11,843 Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles |1,038 |3,962 |1,172 |365
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Linseed Horticultural Oilseeds Crops Region |Holdings |Area (ha)|Holdings |Area (ha)|Holdings |Area (ha) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Borders |37 |510 |106 |1,513 |217 |6,506 Central |6 |62 |31 |100 |67 |1,155 Dumfries and Galloway |0 |0 |43 |47 |17 |332 Fife |9 |105 |162 |3,062 |290 |6,470 Grampian |45 |730 |340 |2,233 |928 |20,844 Highland |<1>- |<1>- |111 |168 |150 |2,900 Lothian |7 |88 |118 |961 |195 |4,231 Strathclyde |<1>- |<1>- |166 |304 |16 |298 Tayside |62 |906 |528 |6,159 |695 |14,111 Orkney, Shetland, Western Isles |0 |0 |195 |57 |9 |13 <1>Less than 5 holdings.
Figures for sugar beet are not collected.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many general practitioner fundholders there are in each health board area.
Mr. Stewart : The latest information from health boards indicates the numbers of operational general practitioner fundholders as set out in the table.
Health Board |Current Number |of Fundholders ---------------------------------------------------- Argyll and Clyde |5 Ayrshire and Arran |3 Borders |1 Dumfries and Galloway |0 Fife |3 Forth Valley |2 Grampian |25 Greater Glasgow |4 Highland |1 Lanarkshire |8 Lothian |9 Orkney |0 Shetland |0 Tayside |8 Western Isles |0 |-- Total |69
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Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many landowners in Scotland are receiving annual payments under the arable area payments scheme (a) in each band of £25,000 up to £500,000 and (b) over £500,000 ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many holdings in each region of Scotland have taken up the arable area payments scheme.
Sir Hector Monro : The number of applications in Scotland under the arable area payments scheme in 1993 was as follows :
|Number ----------------------------------------------- Less-favoured area (LFA) |3,957 Non-less-favoured area (non-LFA) |4,892 Combined claimes |603
Combined claims are those which include both LFA and non-LFA land.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people have been made redundant in the past year in the building division of the national health service Common Services Agency, and for what reason ; and if the work formerly done by it will now be carried out by (a) direct labour or (b) private contractors.
Mr. Stewart : Thirty staff have been made redundant in the past year. It was necessary to restructure the organisation to reflect increased efficiency and change in the workload.
Building Division is fee earning and has to compete with private firms for its share of the advisory, design and consultancy work available at this time in relation to NHS building projects. Private firms have also had to make redundancies where they have not won contracts.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many sites of special scientific interest in Scotland have been damaged or destroyed in each year since 1982 ; whether each of these sites (a) was lost completely, (b) was partially lost, (c) suffered long term damage or (d) suffered short term damage ; whether the damage or destruction in each case was due to (i) agriculture, (ii) forestry, (iii) poor management, (iv) pollution, (v) third party activities, (vi) developments controlled through the planning system, (vii) road building or (viii) other activities ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : Details of damage to sites of special scientific interest in Scotland are published in the annual reports of the former Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and the Nature Conservancy Council, copies of which are in the Library of the House.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how much has been spent on management
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agreements in Scotland under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 for sites of special scientific interest in each year since the Act came into force ; if for each year he will give the number of agreements, the hectarages involved, and what the threats of damage were ; and if he will make a statement.Sir Hector Monro : Details of the annual expenditure on management agreements in Scotland and the area involved are published in the annual reports of the former Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and the Nature Conservancy Council, copies of which are in the Library of the House.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many sites of special scientific interest in Scotland have been denotified in each year since 1982 ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : The number of sites of special scientific interest which have been denotified in Scotland is published in the annual reports of the former Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and the Nature Conservancy Council, copies of which are in the Library of the House.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the occasions when his powers of compulsory purchase of land under section 17 of the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949 have been used in Scotland in each year since 1981 ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : Such powers of compulsory purchase are not available to my right hon. Friend ; they are exercisable by Scottish Natural Heritage, previously the Nature Conservancy Council for Scotland and the Nature Conservancy Council, but only with my right hon. Friend's authorisation. No use of these powers has been made.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the number of management agreements that have been entered into under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 in Scotland where payments have been in each band of £10,000 up to £60,000 or £60,000 and over ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir Hector Monro : Agreements may involve either annual or capital payments. An analysis of the information by both categories is set out in the following table.
------------------------------- No costs |94 |107 Up to £9,999 |200|131 £10,000 to £19,999 |13 |13 £20,000 to £29,999 |5 |15 £30,000 to £39,999 |1 |13 £40,000 to £49,999 |0 |8 £50,000 to £59,999 |2 |3 Over £60,000 |0 |25 |---|--- |315|315 Figures as at 31 March 1993.
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Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will place in the Library a copy of the report of the investigation into the dismissal of Mr. Laurence Peterken as general manager of Greater Glasgow health board when it is published ; and if he will list within the report those consulted in the course of the investigation.
Mr. Stewart : My right hon. Friend announced in the House on 8 December that the report would be published in due course.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what assessment he has made of Mr. W. S. Fyfe's chairmanship of Greater Glasgow health board before the dismissal of Mr. Laurence Peterken ; and what action he took.
Mr. Stewart : Mr. Fyfe brought to the chairmanship of Greater Glasgow health board in April 1993 the qualities of leadership he had displayed earlier over 12 years as chairman of Ayrshire and Arran health board. His actions in dismissing Mr. Peterken, however, led the non- executive members of the board to lose confidence in him.
Mrs. Fyfe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland on what date it was decided that the operation of the Common Services Agency needed review ; and whether a list of external management consultants was drawn up at any stage in the process with a view to inviting them to tender for this work.
Mr. Stewart : The chief executive decided that a review of the Common Services Agency was necessary soon after his appointment on 1 September. No list of external management consultants was drawn up with a view to inviting them to tender for this work.
Mr. Salmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many Scottish applicants there have been for the EC THERMIE programme ; how many of these applications were successful ; what level of funds were awarded ; and if he will make a statement.
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Mr. Eggar [holding answer 14 December 1993] : I have been asked to reply.
The THERMIE programme is administered by the Directorate General of Energy of the European Commission who keeps records of the number of applications from the United Kingdom, but only as a whole. Up to and including the 1993 round, there have been a total of 281 applications from the United Kingdom, of which 88 were successful. Although information on the number of Scottish applicants is not available, the Commission has advised my Department that 19 THERMIE projects located in Scotland have been approved and awarded a total of £11.46 million.
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many landowners in Wales are receiving annual payments under the arable area payments scheme (a) in each band of £25,000 up to £500,000 and (b) over £500,000 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Redwood : It is not possible to differentiate between landowners and tenants who claim aid. The number of claimants receiving payment is :
1. £25,000-£49,000 : 10
2. £50,000 and above : none
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many holdings there are in each county of Wales in 1992 and 1993 growing (a) cereals, (b) potatoes, (c) linseed, (d) sugar beet, (e) horticultural produce and (f) oilseeds.
Mr. Redwood : Data for 1992 are shown in the following table. The requested information is not yet available for 1993.
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Number of holdings as at June 1992 growing: |Cereals |Potatoes |Linseed |Sugar beet |Horticultural|Oilseeds |produce ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Clwyd |619 |163 |11 |<1>- |93 |12 Dyfed |1,577 |608 |38 |<1>- |208 |25 Gwent |303 |161 |6 |<1>- |76 |10 Gwynedd |491 |270 |0 |<1>- |58 |6 Mid Glamorgan |57 |27 |4 |0 |19 |5 Powys |664 |142 |9 |<1>- |47 |13 South Glamorgan |119 |30 |8 |0 |26 |9 West Glamorgan |118 |118 |0 |0 |75 |0 |--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |--- Wales |3,948 |1,519 |76 |19 |602 |80 Source: June Agricultural and Horticultural Census. Note: Figures exclude minor holdings. <1> Data withheld to avoid disclosure of information relating to any particular land or business.
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many hectares were taken up in each county of Wales in 1992 and 1993 by (a) cereals, (b) potatoes, (c) linseed, (d) sugar beet, (e) horticultural produce and (f) oilseeds.
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Mr. Redwood : The requested information for 1992 is shown in the following table along with the only available data so far for 1993 which are provisional figures at national level.
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Hectares at June 1992 taken up by: |Cereals |Potatoes |Linseed |Sugar beet |Horticultural|Oilseeds |produce ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Clwyd |8,188 |298 |152 |<1>- |371 |200 Dyfed |18,084 |2,211 |453 |<1>- |384 |308 Gwent |6,180 |452 |80 |<1>- |251 |181 Gwynedd |4,659 |293 |0 |<1>- |91 |81 Mid Glamorgan |1,809 |70 |112 |0 |71 |207 Powys |9,640 |310 |98 |<1>- |85 |230 South Glamorgan |3,647 |137 |79 |0 |61 |109 West Glamorgan |1,144 |302 |0 |0 |249 |0 Wales |53,350 |4,074 |974 |97 |1,564 |1,316 <2>Hectares at June 1993: Wales |47,879 |3,769 |1,738 |105 |1,548 |1,433 Source: June Agricultural and Horticultural Census. Note: Figures exclude minor holdings. <1>Data withheld to avoid disclosure of information relating to any particular land or business. <2>Provisional.
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much will be spent in Wales in each year from 1993-94 to 1995-96 on (a) environmentally sensitive areas, identifying the amount allocated for the new access option, (b) new nitrate sensitive areas, (c) the moorland scheme, (d) the new habitat scheme, (e) the new countryside access scheme, (f) the organic acid scheme and (g) the total amount of money being spent on the agri-environment scheme in Wales ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Redwood : Current provision is as follows :
-------------------------------------------------------------- i.Environmentally sensitive |5.037 |6.863 |7.015 areas ii.Public access in ESAs |- |0.051 |0.052 iii.The Moorland Scheme |- |1.090 |3.168 iv.The New Habitat Scheme |- |0.500 |0.700 v.The New Countryside Access |- |<3>- |<3>- Scheme vi.Organic Aid Scheme |0.050 |0.170 |0.310 |-------|-------|------- Total |5.087 |8.674 |11.245 <1> Figures to be confirmed in the 1994-95 Main Supply estimates. <2> Figures may be subject to change in the 1994 Public Expenditure Survey round. <3> Provision to be determined.
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I have no plans to designate any nitrate sensitive areas in Wales.Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if he will list the names of all former British representative members in the European Parliament who since 1979 have been appointed to quasi-autonomous non- governmental organisations, excluding appointments as justices of the peace, giving in each case the title of the post, any salary payable and the duration of the appointment ;
(2) if he will list the names of all former hon. Members who since 1979 have been appointed to quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations, excluding appointments as justices of the peace, giving in each case the title of the post, any salary payable and the duration of the appointment ;
(3) if he will list the names of all individuals who are or were members of the House of Lords who since 1979 have been appointed to any quasi- autonomous non-governmental organisations, excluding appointments as justices of the peace, giving in each case the title of the post, any salary payable and the duration of the appointment.
Mr. Redwood : Information is not available centrally in the form requested. The information in respect of current appointments that I make is as follows :
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Name/Post |Remuneration (£) |Appointment |Appointment |commenced |expires ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Former MPs Mr. Ian Grist |19,285 per annum |1 August 1992 |31 July 1996 Chairman South Glamorgan District Health Authority |(pro rata 3.5 days a week) Former MEPs Miss Beata Brookes |Nil |16 April 1991 |15 April 1994 Member Consumers Committees for Great Britain and for England and Wales<1> Members of the House of Lords Lord Brooks of Tremorfa (i)Deputy Chairman Cardiff Bay Development Corporation |18,050 per annum | 30 November 1992 |31 March 1996 |(pro rata 2 days a week) (ii)Chairman Sportsmatch Awards Panel | Nil The Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor |Nil |1 October 1971 |30 September 1995 Member Historic Buildings Council for Wales Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas |20,544 per annum |1 September 1993 |20 December 1996 Chairman Welsh Language Board |(pro rata 2 days a week) Lord John Moran |Nil |1 April 1990 |31 August 1994 Member NRA Advisory Committee for Wales The Earl of Selborne |24,045 per annum |24 November 1991 |31 March 1994 Chairman Joint Nature Conservation Committee<2> |(pro rata 2 days a week) Rt. Hon. The Lord Rees, QC |Nil |1 March 1987 |8 February 1994 Member National Museum of Wales Court and Council <1> Joint Appointment with the Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Scotland. <2> Joint Appointment with Secretaries of State for Environment and Scotland.
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