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Column 290
cost. However, I can assure you that all our local offices have been instructed to display the name and address of the local area managers.I hope this is helpful.
Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what proportion of people attending jobcentres for advisory interviews in July 1993 saw the same person as they saw on their previous visit.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Hugh Bayley, dated 9 February 1994 :
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about what proportion of people attending advisory interviews in July 1993 were seen by the same person as they saw on their previous visit.
Unfortunately this information is not available in the form you request it. My local offices now deliver advisory interviews through teams of five or six people who focus their activities on particular sections of the unemployed register. This allows more continuity of contact to make sure the service we offer our clients is structured and co-ordinated.
When they attend for an interview, clients are seen by someone from the same team and, wherever possible, by the same person. We do not collect statistics about what proportion are seen by the same person. However, I can assure you that we do believe that the arrangements we have in place represent the best available levels of service and that we are continually looking for further improvements.
I hope this is helpful.
Earnings
Mrs. Wise : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many workers have earnings (a) above the national insurance contributions maximum payments ceiling and (b) below the lower earnings limit ; and how many of these are women.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : It is estimated that in April 1993 there were 2.9 million employees earning above the national insurance upper earnings limit and 3.2 million employees earning below the national insurance lower earnings limit. The corresponding numbers for women were 400,000 and 2.3 million respectively.
Sources : New earnings survey 1993--Employment Department. Survey of personal income--Inland Revenue.
Disabled People
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many disabled people are in employment classified by standard industrial category.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The labour force survey asks people of working age if they currently have any health problem or disability which limits the kind of paid work they can do. Estimates based on answers to this question will include people with short-term health problems and disabilities as well as those registered as disabled. The latest labour force survey estimates of the number of such people in employment by industry are given in the table :
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People with health problems or disabilities in employment
Great Britain
|Thousands
-------------------------------------------------------------
Agriculture, forestry and fishing |37
Energy and water supply |15
Manufacturing |296
Construction |94
Distribution, hotels and repairs |288
Transport and communication |97
Banking, financial and business services |131
Other services |428
|-------
Total all industry sectors<1> |1,406
<1>Total includes people with work place outside Great
Britain and those who did not state industry.
Source: Labour force survey, summer 1993-not seasonally
adjusted.
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many disabled people are employed in (a) companies with between 20 and 99 employees, (b) companies with between 100 and 999 employees and (c) companies with over 1,000 employees.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : This information is not available.
Brixham Jobcentre
Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many staff are employed by his Department in the Fish Quay office at Brixham, providing administrative support for the jobcentre ; and what assessment he has made of the cost to public funds of relocating them together with another jobcentre into a single location.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 9 February 1994 :
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the number of staff employed in the Brixham Jobcentre and the assessment of the cost of relocating them together with another Jobcentre to a single location.
Within the Fish Quay office, eight staff are providing administration support to the Jobcentre. The decision to rehouse them into a single site has been taken in principle only. Until all suitable options have been explored the costings cannot be determined.
I hope this is helpful.
Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what consideration was given to the future relocation of the Brixham jobcentre in Fore street before public funds were used on refurbishing it ; and how much was spent on the refurbishment in the last two years.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given. Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 9 February 1994 :
Column 292
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about the consideration given to the future relocation of Brixham Jobcentre prior to the public funds being spent on refurbishment, and how much was spent on refurbishment in the last two years. The refurbishment of the Brixham Jobcentre was completed in October 1991, as part of the National Employment Service Integration Programme. Subsequently, an increase in the number of people using the office has prevented a full service from being offered. It has been decided, in principle, to rehouse the Jobcentre in order to offer a better service to people, locally. No funds have been spent on refurbishment in the last two years.I hope this is helpful.
Public Bodies
Dr. Wright : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment which appointments since 1979 to public bodies or posts for which he is responsible have included candidates nominated by the Chief Whip's Office ; if any nominees by this source have been appointed ; and if he will give details.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 2 February, Official Report , column 725 .
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment who are the members currently appointed to the Health and Safety Executive.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The Health and Safety Executive has three members :
Director General :
J. D. Rimington CB
Appointed by the Health and Safety Commission with the approval of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.
Deputy Director Generals :
Miss J. H. Bacon and Mr. D. C. T. Eves
Appointed by the Health and Safety Commission with the approval of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and after consultation with the director general.
Docks and Ports (Deaths)
Ms Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many deaths have occurred in docks or ports in each year from 1989 ; and what was the name of the deceased and the date and place of death in each case.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The information is as follows :
Fatal injuries occurring
within the docks and harbours
industry (a)
Reported under the Reporting
of Injuries, Diseases and
Dangerous
Regulations, 1985 (RIDDOR),
1988-89-1992-93<1>
Year |Number of
|deaths
-------------------------------
1988-89 |10
1989-90 |11
1990-91 |2
1991-92 |7
<1>1992-93 |8
(a) As defined by (i) standard
industrial classification 1968
minimum list headings 705 and
706 for the year 1988-89, (ii)
standard industrial
classification 1980 class 74
and activity heading 7630 for
subsequent years.
<1>provisional.
It is not the policy of the Health and Safety Executive to disclose other information concerning fatalities without the knowledge and consent of the families concerned.
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Community Action Scheme
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish a table showing the distribution of expenditure and places under the community action scheme in each standard region ; and what are each region's figures as a percentage of the total.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Jim Cousins, dated 9 February 1994 :
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your question about Community Action.
It may help if I explain that in the current financial year, £31.5 million has been made available to the Employment Services in order to set up and run Community Action. Of this £8.5 million has been allocated for programme expenditure, i.e., the money paid to providers contracted to deliver the programme. The attached table shows the regional breakdown of resource and allocation of places. This has been allocated to the nine Employment Service regions in direct proportion to the percentage of 12 months plus long-term unemployed people within each region.
A further £19 million of the budget allocation is used to cover the allowance payments to participants. Each participant on Community Action receives an allowance equivalent to their benefit entitlement plus £10 each week. This budget is held centrally. The remaining £4 million has been set aside to cover the costs of the Employment Service of setting up and running Community Action, the majority of this budget has been allocated to Employment Service regions on the same basis as the programmes money. A small proportion has, though, been retained centrally to cover Head Office running costs and the costs of producing forms and national publicity materials. I hope this is helpful.
Table showing 1993-94 programme budget allocation and places for
community action by employment service region
Region |Programme |Number of |Per cent. of
|allocation |places |total
|£
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Northern |473,000 |1,120 |5.58
Yorkshire and Humberside |767,000 |1,810 |9.05
East Midlands and Eastern |761,000 |1,800 |8.98
London and South East |2,672,000 |6,310 |31.55
South West |613,000 |1,450 |7.24
Wales |400,000 |940 |4.72
West Midlands |929,000 |2,190 |10.97
North West |1,114,000 |2,630 |13.15
Scotland |742,000 |1,750 |8.76
|------- |------- |-------
Great Britain Total |8,470,000 |20,000 |100
Notes:
1. The average length of stay on community action is four months, therefore,
20,000 programme places would provide a total of 60,000 opportunities in a
full year.
2. Additional amounts of £19 million to cover allowance payments to
participants, and £4 million to cover ES running costs, are held centrally.
Correspondence
Mr. Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment when the hon. Member for Derbyshire, North-East will receive a reply to the letter he wrote on the Employment Service and enterprise councils on 28July 1993, which was followed up by a reminder on 1 November 1993.
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Mr. Michael Forsyth : Regrettably, no trace can be found of the hon. Member's letter of 28July, nor his reminder of 1 November. I have written to the hon. Member offering a meeting at his earliest convenience.
Working Conditions
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list all proposed EC/EU measures of the past 10 years regarding working conditions which Her Majesty's Government (a) opposed and (b) supported.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 3 February 1994] : Since 1983, the Council of Ministers, including the UK, has agreed to over 50 measures relating to working conditions--covering measures in the field of employment law, social security arrangements and health and safety at work. The UK plays a full and constructive part in all negotiations on social affairs matters, adopting an approach on particular proposals or on individual parts of them, based on the Government's view of their merits, the need to achieve a sensible balance between social protection, competitiveness and employment growth, and the question of whether action is best taken by the Community or by member states. The UK has not voted against a single legislative proposal in the current EC social action programme and has one of the best implementation records of any member state. Details of measures adopted by the Council are contained in the "Directory of Community Legislation in Force", published by the, Official Journal of the European Communities, the 22nd edition of which is available in the Library.
Health and Safety
Mr. Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list all current effective legislation affecting health and safety matters.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 4 February 1994] : I have arranged for a list to be placed in the Library and will send a personal copy to the hon. Member.
Paper Shredders
Mr. Rooney : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many paper shredding machines there are (a) in his private office and (b) in his Department.
Mr. Michael Forsyth [holding answer 7 February 1994] : There is one shredding machine in my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State's office. Information is not held centrally for the numbers in the Department as a whole.
ENVIRONMENT
Empty Housing
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing the proportion of residential housing stock owned by (a) local authorities, (b) housing associations, (c) private owners and (d) Government Departments, which were empty in each year from 1979.
Sir George Young : The numbers of their own dwellings reported by local authorities and housing associations in England as vacant on 1 April in each year from 1979 to 1993 were as follows :
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Local authorities<1> at 1 April
|Management |Other |Total |Total as a
|percentage
|vacants |vacants |vacants |of all LA dwellings
|(000s)<2> |(000s) |(000s)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |n/a |n/a |100 |2.2
1980 |n/a |n/a |100 |2.1
1981 |n/a |n/a |97 |2.0
1982 |n/a |n/a |100 |2.1
1983 |n/a |n/a |114 |2.4
1984 |n/a |n/a |113 |2.5
1985 |n/a |n/a |117 |2.6
1986 |n/a |n/a |113 |2.6
1987 |54 |59 |112 |2.5
1988 |51 |52 |103 |2.4
1989 |51 |50 |101 |2.4
1990 |51 |48 |99 |2.5
1991 |43 |40 |83 |2.1
1992 |40 |34 |74 |1.9
1993 |40 |31 |71 |1.9
<1> The figures for the years up to 1986 exclude vacant dwellings owned by authorities situated outside their own area.
<2> Available for letting immediately or after minor repairs.
Source: Annual HIP1 returns.
Housing associations<1> at 31 March:
|Management|Other |Total |Total as a
|vacants |vacants |vacants |percentage
|(000s)<2> |(000s) |(000s) |of all HA
|dwellings
------------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |n/a |n/a |n/a |n/a
1980 |n/a |n/a |n/a |n/a
1981 |n/a |n/a |28 |6.9
1982 |n/a |n/a |32 |7.7
1983 |n/a |n/a |31 |7.1
1984 |n/a |n/a |27 |5.5
1985 |n/a |n/a |26 |5.5
1986 |n/a |n/a |26 |5.2
1987 |n/a |n/a |24 |4.8
1988 |n/a |n/a |24 |4.7
1989 |8 |14 |22 |4.2
1990 |7 |13 |20 |3.5
1991 |7 |9 |16 |2.7
1992 |7 |9 |16 |2.5
1993<3> |7 |10 |17 |2.4
<1> The figures for 1981 to 1988 are for England and Wales.
<2> Available for letting immediately or after minor repairs.
<3> Excludes some 10,500 dwellings that were purchased under the
November 1992 Housing Market Package and were management vacants
on 31st March 1993
Source: Annual HAR10/1 returns.
n/a = not available.
In addition to providing information on those of their own dwellings that are vacant, local authorities in England are also asked to provide estimates of the numbers of private sector and other public sector vacant dwellings in their area on their annual housing investment programme returns. Estimates of the proportions of private sector dwellings that are vacant, based on these data and including estimates for those authorities which did not provide the information, are set out in the table. These proportions should be treated with care as there are doubts about the quality of some of the estimates provided by authorities.
Data on vacant Government Department-owned dwellings have been collected from Departments in recent years and the proportions reported as vacant are set out in the table. Corresponding figures for earlier years are not available. Most of the Government Departments' voids are Ministry of Defence properties. External consultants
Column 296
advised MOD that in order to meet the demand for married accommodation from entitled service personnel an overall 9 per cent. management margin of vacant properties, excluding those held vacant for major works or deployment, should be maintained. The task force on Government Departments' empty houses was set up to help bring this property back into use, and it is expected to present its final report to Ministers shortly.
|Private sector|Government
|(other than |Departments
|housing
|associations)
|percentage |percentage
------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |4.0 |n/a
1980 |4.1 |n/a
1981 |4.1 |n/a
1982 |4.3 |n/a
1983 |4.2 |n/a
1984 |4.2 |n/a
1985 |4.1 |n/a
1986 |4.1 |n/a
1987 |4.1 |n/a
1988 |4.1 |n/a
1989 |4.1 |18
1990 |4.0 |15
1991 |4.2 |13
1992 |4.6 |12
1993 |5.0 |15
Housing Co-operatives
Mr. McMaster : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he last met representatives of organisations representing housing co- operatives to discuss funding and strategy ; what is his policy regarding the development of housing co-operatives ; what criteria he applies when determining financial assistance to housing co-operatives ; what plans he has to encourage the development of housing co-operatives ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir George Young : Arrangements for the development and funding of housing association co-operatives in England are the responsibility of the Housing Corporation and are set out in the corporation's housing co- operative strategy, which was published in March 1993. I am arranging for a copy to be placed in the Library of the House. In the field of local authority housing, my Department is currently providing grant support for the development of 85 tenant management organisations including co- operatives. Details of the criteria for grants to such organisations will be made available in the near future, in the context of the new right-to- manage legislation.
Housing
Mr. Thurnham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to repeal any part of subsection (i) of section 2 of the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir George Young : I refer my hon. Friend to paragraph 12.1 of the consultation paper "Access to Local Authority and Housing Association Tenancies", which states that we have no plans to alter the categories of priority need.
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Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all the consultees to whom the consultation paper on access to local authority and housing association tenancies has been sent.
Sir George Young : Approximately 4,000 copies of the consultation paper have been sent out. Recipients include all English local housing authorities, the local authority associations, each hon. Member of this House with an English constituency, the Housing Corporation, the 200 largest housing associations operating in England, and a wide range of organisations with an interest in housing in the public, private and voluntary sectors.
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will estimate the number of (a) owner-occupiers, (b) council tenants, (c) housing association tenants and (d) private sector tenants, including (i) protected tenancies and (ii) other tenancies; and if he will make a statement.
Sir George Young : The most recent information on the main tenure breakdown is from the 1992 Labour Force Survey. It shows that in England in 1992 there were an estimated :
13,200,000 owner occupiers
3,800,000 council tenants
600,000 housing association tenants
1,800,000 private sector tenants
My reply to my hon. Friend on 18 January 1994, Official Report, column 578, gave a provisional estimate from the first half year of data collection from the new survey of English housing of about 350, 000 protected tenancies in England in 1993. This remains the current estimate. An equivalent figure for 1992 is not available.
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list for 1978-79 and each subsequent year for which data are available, the total number of dwellings let to new tenants by (a) local authorities and (b) housing associations, and of these, in each case, the number let to (i) homeless applicants and (ii) applicants from the waiting list, and the number which were first lettings of (iii) newly built and (iv) newly modernised buildings.
Sir George Young : The numbers of local authority lets to new tenants in England and the numbers of these lets which were to (a) households accepted under the homelessness provisions of the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 or the Housing Act 1985 and (b) applicants from the waiting list are given in the table. No information is collected centrally on lettings of newly built or newly modernised local authority dwellings.
Thousands
Local authority
lettings
|New lettings|Of which to |Of which to
|homeless |waiting list
|households |applicants
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |289 |38 |185
1979-80 |275 |41 |171
1980-81 |275 |44 |174
1981-82 |251 |45 |167
1982-83 |256 |49 |173
1983-84 |246 |49 |161
1984-85 |240 |54 |156
1985-86 |247 |63 |153
1986-87 |244 |67 |149
1987-88 |242 |74 |142
1988-89 |236 |73 |139
1989-90 |229 |80 |125
1990-91 |240 |97 |126
1991-92 |239 |109 |112
1992-93 |230 |104 |111
Source: HIP1 returns.
The available information on housing associations lettings to new tenants in England is set out in the table. The figures for new lettings in the years before 1989-90 are estimates.
Housing association lettings
(000s)
New Of which to First lettings to
new tenants
|lettings<1> |households |newly built |newly
|accepted as |rehabilitated
|homeless by
|local
|authorities
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |34 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1979-80 |37 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1980-81 |42 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1981-82 |43 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1982-83 |45 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1983-84 |47 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1984-85 |49 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1985-86 |51 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1986-87 |52 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1987-88 |54 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1988-89 |57 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1989-90 |60 |n/a |n/a |n/a
1990-91 |63 |9 |14 |3
1991-92 |71 |15 |20 |3
<2>1992-93 |91 |23 |29 |3
<1>Figures for the number of housing association new lets in years before 1989-90
are estimates based on the data for England and Wales available for these years.
<2>Information on the number of first lettings of newly built and newly
rehabilitated properties in 1992-93 that were to new tenants is provisional.
Sources: New lettings and new lettings to homeless applicants-Housing Corporation
HAR10/1.
First lettings of newly built/rehabilitated dwellings-National Federation of
Housing Associations CORE database.
Mr. Hendry : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what were the actual numbers of dwellings which were (a) privately-owned, (b) rented from local authorities, (c) rented from housing associations and (d) rented from the private sector for 1970, 1979 and the latest year for which figures are available.
Sir George Young : Estimates of the stock of dwellings in England by type of tenure appear in "Housing and Construction Statistics, Great Britain". Figures for December 1970 appear in the 1970-1980 annual edition, table 107, those for 1979 are in the 1979-1989 edition, in table 9.3 and those for 1992, with provisional June 1993 figures, are in part 2 of the June 1993 quarterly edition, table 2.23.
Copies of these publications are in the Library.
Column 299
Water Quality
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has reached agreement with the European Commission on changes to the requirements imposed on the United Kingdom by European Community laws on water quality ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Atkins : The European Council in December asked the Commission to bring forward as soon as possible four framework directives to replace parts of existing Community laws on water quality. We welcome this decision to make water legislation consistent with subsidiarity and up-to-date science. The Commission and the Council must now ensure that the new and revised directives meet these criteria and are confined to essential quality and health parameters. Existing directives will remain in place until the Commission has brought forward its proposals and substitute directives have been agreed by the Council after consultation with the European Parliament.
Landfill Sites
Mr. William O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the estimated reduction in waste sent to landfill sites in 1992-93 and 1993-94 because of the changes made by the packaging industry (a) throughout England and (b) in west Yorkshire.
Mr. Atkins : This information is not available. However, the producer responsibility group, in its report "Real Value, from Packaging Waste", presented to Ministers on 7 February, indicated that it would monitor this in future. A copy of the report is in the Library.
Mr. William O'Brien : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the estimated saving of waste to landfill sites because of recycling of waste materials and incineration by west Yorkshire for the period 1 April 1992 to 1 April 1993 to 1 April 1994.
Mr. Atkins : This information is not currently available. However, the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy produces an annual report on waste disposal statistics for local authorities and data for 1992-93 are due to be published by the end of this financial year. I have asked the institute to notify the hon. Member when the report is published. Provided the appropriate authorities reply to the institute's request for information, the information sought by the hon. Member should be provided by the report.
London : Making the Best Better"
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many responses his Department received to the consultation paper "London : Making the Best Better".
Sir George Young : Responses are still coming in, but a total of 10,000 completed questionnaires had been received by the end of January 1994.
Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he intends to (a) analyse and (b) publish the results of the consultation on his Department's publication "London : Making the Best Better".
Column 300
Sir George Young : Analysis of the responses to "London : Making the Best Better" is in progress and we aim to publish a digest of the results in March.
Benzene
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment his Department has made of which are the main sources of exposure to benzene vapour in the environment ; and if he will quantify the contribution made by each of those sources.
Mr. Atkins : The main sources of exposure to benzene vapour in the environment arise from the benzene content of ambient air and, in smokers, from cigarette smoke. Of the former, the greater proportion arises from the use, production and distribution of petrol. The recent report of the expert panel on air quality standards estimated that 78 per cent. of benzene emissions in the United Kingdom in 1991 arose from petrol engine exhausts. Cigarette smoke contains benzene and this may be the main source of exposure for a heavy smoker.
Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what response he has given to the letter from the president of the Nuclear Control Institute in regard to the economic viability of reprocessing at THORP ; and when he received the letter.
Mr. Atkins : The President of the Nuclear Control Institute's letter was received on 2 February. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment will be replying shortly.
North Yorkshire County Council
Mr. Robert Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many staff were employed by the education department of North Yorkshire county council in the year before the implementation of the local management of schools; and what is the current level of employment in the department.
Mr. Baldry : North Yorkshire county council education department employed 7,763 full-time and 9,617 part-time staff in June 1989 and 6,521 full-time and 8,685 part-time staff in June 1993. The figures for June 1993 exclude staff in institutions which transferred to the Further Education Funding Council in April 1993.
Local management of schools was introduced in April 1990. Staff in locally managed schools remain employees of the local authority.
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