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Mr. Burt : People in sheltered housing may be entitled to receive any of the wide range of social security benefits that are available, subject to individual circumstances.
Column 631
Details of the extra help in respect of VAT on domestic fuel were given in reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough and Horncastle (Mr. Leigh) on 30 November 1993 at columns 437- 38.Mrs. Bridget Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many residents in sheltered housing units with communal facilities will be eligible for extra financial assistance from the Government to help meet increased costs resulting from the imposition of VAT on domestic fuel (a) in London and (b) in Lewisham ; and how many such residents there are in total (i) in London and (ii) in Lewisham.
Mr. Burt : The information is not available.
Invalidity Benefit
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what estimate he has made of the number of existing recipients of invalidity benefit in the Doncaster area who will be disqualified under the new capacity test.
Mr. Scott : Numbers cannot be reliably estimated at this stage, but our current estimate is that around 200,000 of the people who will initially transfer to incapacity benefit from invalidity benefit may fail to satisfy the test within the first two years. The estimate cannot be broken down by district.
War Pensions
Mr. Mills : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if, following consultation, he has reached a decision on the proposals to exclude death or disablement caused by a smoking or alcohol-related disease from the scope of the war pensions scheme.
Mr. Hague : Following consultation, we have decided to go ahead with the change but with a significant easement. We originally proposed to except from the exclusion any individual who suffered from a service- related mental disablement that was assessed at 80 per cent. or more and therefore caused him to smoke or drink. We have decided to set the minimum level of mental disablement that will be considered at 50 per cent. Individual claims will still be subject to the further test that, whatever the assessed level of disablement, it must also cause the individual to smoke, or prevent him from giving up.
An amending order will be laid shortly.
Unemployed People (Voluntary Organisations)
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will review the rules allowing the unemployed to work for voluntary organisations which engage in political activities.
Mr. Hague : The rules governing benefits for unemployment allow unemployed people to undertake voluntary work for voluntary bodies without losing benefit, provided that they remain available for and actively seeking work. The Social Security (Unemployment, Sickness and Invalidity Benefit) Amendment Regulations 1993 define a voluntary body as
"a body the activities of which are carried out otherwise than for the purpose of profit".
We have no plans to review these rules.
Column 632
Public Interest Immunity Certificates
Mr. Darling : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many public interest immunity certificates he has signed in each year since 1990.
Mr. Hague : No Secretary of State for Social Security has signed a public interest immunity certificate since 1990.
WALES
Hospital Waiting Lists
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many people were not on waiting lists for treatment but waiting to see a specialist in the NHS on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October of each year since 1 January 1990.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The following table gives the number of people waiting for a first out-patient attendance at Welsh hospitals for each available date since 31 March 1990. Such information is collected centrally for 31 March and 30 September only.
Number of people waiting for a first out-patient attendance
|Number
31 March 1990 |83,151
30 September 1990 |91,403
31 March 1991 |86,653
30 September 1991 |96,078
31 March 1992 |97,109
30 September 1992 |113,044
31 March 1993 |118,853
30 September 1993 |127,802
Work of Equal Value
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is his estimate of the past and current number of equal value cases in Wales ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Redwood : Information is not available in the form requested. However, the table shows the numbers of all equal pay cases--which included equal value cases--dealt with by the Cardiff regional office of the industrial tribunals in the period April 1985 to 31 March 1993.
|Applications
|registered
---------------------------------------
1985-86 |6
1986-87 |7
1987-88 |96
1988-89 |12
1989-90 |12
1990-91 |36
1991-92 |17
1992-93 |60
The Cardiff region of the industrial tribunals currently serves the whole of Wales, together with parts of Shropshire and Herefordshire. Prior to January 1986, the Birmingham office included part of the current Cardiff region in its catchment area. In addition, prior to 1987, the former regional office at Liverpool served the north Wales area.
Column 633
Minimum Wages Protection
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on minimum wages protection in Wales.
Mr. Redwood : Statutory minimum wage fixing, in Wales or elsewhere, distorts the operation of the labour market and destroys jobs.
Tourism
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he had with the chairman of the Welsh tourist board over the choice of the Welsh celebrities chosen to feature on the posters and other advertising literature used to attract visitors to Wales.
Forestry
Mr. Ron Davies : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he will be seeking public consultation on the options presented to him by the forestry review group.
Mr. Redwood : We are now considering the forestry review group's report ; the form and timing of consultation will depend on the conclusions which we draw from it.
Outdoor Education Centres
Mr. Jamieson : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the names, location and county of each of the outdoor education centres in Wales.
Mr. Redwood : The information is not available in the form requested.
Surplus School Places
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) what assessment he has as to the number of surplus school places ; and if he will make a statement ;
(2) if he will publish for each education authority in Wales and for Wales as a whole, his Department's assessment of surplus school places in (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools for the latest available year.
Sir Wyn Roberts : The Department's estimate of the number of surplus school places as at January 1993 is as follows :
Local education |Primary |Secondary
authority
----------------------------------------------------------------
Clwyd |7,676 |2,110
Dyfed |8,827 |1,147
Gwent |7,453 |9,133
Gwynedd |4,435 |4,355
Mid Glamorgan |13,027 |5,952
Powys |3,173 |1,581
South Glamorgan |8,491 |6,363
West Glamorgan |11,318 |6,321
|---- |----
Wales |64,400 |36,962
Local authorities will recognise that removal of unwanted surplus school places would release significant resources for redeployment in other areas of the education service.
Column 634
Public Bodies
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will place a copy in the Library of the efficiency scrutiny of the monitoring arrangements for sponsoring non-departmental public bodies in Wales carried out during 1993 by the Prime Minister's efficiency unit.
Mr. Redwood : When I have considered the report's recommendations and what action is needed, I will place a copy, together with my plans for implementing them, in the Library of the House.
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list those non-departmental public bodies which have not had a financial management and policy review for more than five years.
Mr. Redwood : All executive NDPBs are subject to financial management and policy reviews at five-year intervals. The reviews due by or in the current financial year have been completed or are in the process of being carried out, with the exception of the Curriculum Council for Wales and the Welsh National Board for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting. The Curriculum Council for Wales is to be replaced from 1 April this year by the new Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales. The review of the Welsh national board has been postponed pending decisions on reviews on the analogous English, Scottish and Northern Irish boards.
NHS Accounting Officer
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales who will be the accounting officer for the expenditure on the national health service in Wales subsequent to the planned merger between the national health service directorate in Wales and his Department's health policy division ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Redwood : Mr. Peter Gregory.
NHS Trusts
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the initial external financial limit for each of the existing and new national health service trusts in Wales for the year commencing April 1994 ; and if he will give the level of capital spending agreed for each trust for the same financial year.
Mr. Redwood : I shall be issuing details of the provisional 1994-95 external financing limits for each of the existing and new NHS trusts in Wales shortly.
Conflicts of Interest (Advice)
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to his answer of 28 February, Official Report, column 596, if he will specify the date on which he will place in the Library the relevant advice and guidance on conflicts of interest.
Mr. Redwood : A copy of the relevant guidance was placed in the Library of the House on 14 March.
Public Interest Immunity Certificates
Mr. Darling : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many public interest immunity certificates he has signed in each year since 1990.
Column 635
Industrial Business Allowances
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list those projects in Wales that have received industrial business allowances.
Mr. Dorrell : I have been asked to reply.
This information is not collected centrally. In any case, normal taxpayer confidentiality rules would rule out publication.
EMPLOYMENT
Unemployment
14. Ms Hoey : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many people in Lambeth have been unemployed for more than two years.
Miss Widdecombe : For the Lambeth local authority district, 5,907 on the unadjusted claimant count basis in January 1994.
27. Mrs. Jane Kennedy : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what are the latest figures for unemployed men in the Liverpool travel-to-work area ; and what proportion of these have never worked at all.
Miss Widdecombe : The figure was 55,846 on the unadjusted basis in January 1994. The claimant unemployment count does not record details of previous employment history.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is the current level of youth unemployment in the Doncaster area and the level 12 months ago.
Miss Widdecombe : In the Doncaster travel-to-work area unadjusted claimant unemployment among 18 to 24-year-olds has fallen by 15 per cent. in the past year, from 5,065 in January 1993 to 4,301 in January 1994.
24. Mr. Worthington : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the number of people who are unemployed but who do not appear in his Department's claimant count of unemployed people for January.
Miss Widdecombe : The claimant measure and the International Labour Organisation recommended measure both show falling unemployment in the United Kingdom, at about 2.8 million.
Trade Unions
15. Mr. Hawkins : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received from individual members of trade unions arguing that the trade union legislation since 1979 should be repealed.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Hardly any.
Redundant Miners
16. Mr. Hoon : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will make a statement about the employment prospects of miners made redundant as the result of recent colliery closures.
Column 636
Miss Widdecombe : British Coal Enterprise is very active in resettling ex-mineworkers, with success rates of 85 per cent. 12 months since pits have closed.
BCE is continuing its valuable and successful resettlement efforts for all ex-mineworkers.
North Norfolk Action
17. Sir Ralph Howell : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give a progress report on North Norfolk Action.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Early indications are that North Norfolk Action is successfully achieving its aim of helping unemployed people back into work or into further training.
Astra Training Agency
18. Ms Eagle : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if his Department will make a statement on the implications for training provision and the losses to the public purse of the privatisation and subsequent bankruptcy of the Astra training agency.
Miss Widdecombe : The receivership of Astra Training Services has had no implications for training provision, as training and enterprise councils have found alternative training for those affected. Astra was losing £30 million a year before privatisation. The Department is now a creditor of Astra for the statutory payments made by the redundancy payments service to those employees made redundant. It is therefore too early to say what the net cost will be.
Health and Safety
19. Mrs. Helen Jackson : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment which health and safety at work regulations he considers to be a burden on business.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : This is among the questions that I have put to the Health and Safety Commission and I am awaiting its advice.
Confederation of British Industry
20. Mrs. Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment when he last met representatives of the CBI to discuss problems in the labour market.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State met Howard Davies on 18 February.
ABB Transportation Ltd.
21. Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps his Department has taken to ensure that the workers made redundant last year by ABB Transportation Ltd. in York received the unemployment benefits to which they are entitled.
Miss Widdecombe : So far as I am aware, there are no outstanding cases of clients not having received unemployment benefit to which they are entitled.
Maximum Working Week
22. Mrs. Gillan : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what representations he has received in support of a statutory maximum working week of 35 hours.
Column 637
Mr. Michael Forsyth : None. Statutory controls of this type serve only to destroy jobs and the prosperity of workers.
Labour Statistics
Miss Widdecombe : In September 1993 there were 17,427,000 full-time workers in Great Britain. December 1993 figures will be published tomorrow.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the proportions of full-time adult manual workers, full-time adult non-manual workers, and all full-time adult workers with earnings, including overtime, of less than (a) £100, (b) £120, (c) £140, (d) £160, (e) £180, (f) £200 and (g) £220 per week in the Doncaster area ; and if he will provide separate figures for males and females.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The information available from the new earnings survey is for South Yorkshire and is as follows :
Full-time employees on adult rates in the county
of South Yorkshire-
pay unaffected by absence:proportion with gross
weekly earnings
(including overtime) below the following amounts:
at April 1993
Amount |Male |Female|All
-------------------------------------------------
Manual employees
£100 |0.5 |4.5 |1.1
£120 |1.7 |19.2 |4.5
£140 |4.7 |37.2 |9.8
£160 |9.0 |48.7 |15.3
£180 |13.2 |62.8 |21.1
£200 |21.8 |79.5 |30.9
£220 |29.7 |86.5 |38.7
Non-manual employees
£100 |0.5 |1.6 |1.0
£120 |1.4 |5.1 |3.1
£140 |3.3 |11.2 |6.9
£160 |6.2 |20.6 |12.7
£180 |8.5 |29.3 |17.9
£200 |12.8 |39.7 |25.0
£220 |17.5 |50.2 |32.3
All employees
£100 |0.5 |2.1 |1.0
£120 |1.6 |7.9 |3.6
£140 |4.0 |16.2 |8.1
£160 |7.6 |26.1 |13.8
£180 |10.9 |35.8 |19.2
£200 |17.4 |47.4 |27.4
£220 |23.8 |57.3 |34.9
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the average wage of (a) males and (b) females in part-time employment in the Doncaster area for each year since 1979, and this year to date.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The information available from the new earnings survey for part-time female employees in the county of South Yorkshire is shown in the following table. There were too few part-time male employees in the new earnings survey samples for reliable figures to be produced.
Average gross weekly earnings for part-time
females in the county of
South Yorkshire for the years 1979 to 1993
inclusive
Year |Average gross
|weekly
|earnings part-
|time female
|£
---------------------------------------------
1979 |25.2
1980 |32.5
1981 |35.1
1982 |38.3
1983 |41.5
1984 |44.1
1985 |47.3
1986 |49.8
1987 |52.7
1988 |56.0
1989 |64.9
1990 |72.6
1991 |78.5
1992 |88.2
1993 |89.4
Job Creation
25. Mr. Duncan Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made of differences in levels of job creation in the USA since 1980 and job creation in the European Community over the same period, in both the private and public sectors.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : Between 1980 and 1991 the USA created over 17.5 million jobs, mostly in the private sector, while the EC created 6.5 million jobs, mostly in the public sector.
Mountain Search and Rescue
26. Mr. Bill Walker : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what plans he has to improve the employment and training prospects of people engaged in mountain search and rescue-related activity.
Miss Widdecombe : I very much welcome the role volunteers play in a wide range of activities, including mountain rescue, and would encourage employers to recognise the value of volunteering not just to the community but to their own business.
Local Government Reform
28. Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made in changes in patterns of employment as a result of local government reform.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : It is for local authorities to decide their own staffing structures.
Training
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total amount spent by his Department for training in England in each year since 1989-90, the expected outturn in 1993-94, and plans for 1994-95 in 1993-94 prices and cash terms.
Miss Widdecombe : The information requested is given in the following table :
Column 639
Training expenditure 1989-90 to
1993-94 and plans for 1994-95
at 1993-94 prices, England<1><2>
|£ million
--------------------------------------
1989-90
Cash |2,240
Real terms |2,760
1990-91
Cash |2,053
Real terms |2,340
1991-92
Cash |1,906
Real terms |2,043
1992-93
Cash |1,869
Real terms |1,930
1993-94
Estimated outturn |1,938
1994-95
(Plans)<3>
Cash |1,892
Real terms |1,819
<1>Excludes European social fund.
<2>Excludes administration/running
costs.
<3>Excludes programmes transferring
to the single regeneration budget.
Since 1989-90, approaching 1 million young people have entered youth training. An estimated 133,000 have been helped in 1993-94 ; plans for 1994 -95 are for 147,000 young people to enter the programme. YT funding for 1994-95 will be £692 million, which is £50 million more than the training and enterprise councils are forecast to spend this year. Further increases are planned for future years. Training for work and its predecessors have helped almost 1.5 million unemployed people since 1989- 90. Expenditure on TFW in England in 1994-95 will be £705 million : 115,000 places will be provided and 273,000 long-term unemployed people will be helped, compared with 240,000 in 1993-94.
In addition, this of course excludes money raised by TECs themselves, and the estimated £20 billion spent by employers on training each year.
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what was the total amount spent by his Department for training in Great Britain in each year since 1989-90, the expected outturn in 1993-94 and plans for 1994-95 in 1993-94 prices and cash terms.
Miss Widdecombe : The information requested is given in the table. The figures include training programme expenditure and administrative running costs.
Training expenditure 1989-90 to 1993-94
and plans for 1994-95 at 1993-94
prices-Great Britain
|£ million
----------------------------------------
1989-90
Cash |2,940
Real terms |3,622
1990-91
Cash |2,802
Real terms |3,194
1991-92
Cash |2,694
Real terms |2,888
1992-93
Cash |2,693
Real terms |2,781
1993-94
Estimated outturn |2,828
Total planned expenditure for 1994-95 is available for England only. Planned expenditure for Wales and Scotland is the responsibility of my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Wales.
Wages Councils
Mr. Barry Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what is his estimate of the number of females in Wales affected by the abolition of the wages councils.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : It was estimated that in 1992 there were some 120,000 workers, men and women aged 21 or over, in Wales covered by the wages councils. Estimates of the number of women formerly covered by the councils in the constituent parts of Great Britain are not available.
Public Bodies
Mr. Kilfoyle : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment who are the members currently appointed to the Central Arbitration Committee.
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