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Column 347
(d Price Waterhouse(i 1991 : Privatisation of trust ports--value £886,233
1992 : DVOIT privatisation--three contracts, total value 86,127 1992 : Privatisation of London Buses--value £551,000
1993 : VI privatisation feasibility study--value £72,500 1993 : Advice to TRL on privatisation--value £9,230
(iv 1992 : Consultancy advice to DVLA--value £162,000
(vi 1992 : Taxation/company car advice--value £5,850
(e Arthur Andersen Nil
(f Touche Ross
(ii 1993 : Advice to DVLA on market testing--value £139,000 (vi 1990 : The impact of price-fixing agreements-- value £5,000 1990 : Future of Greater Manchester Buses--value £53,120 1992 : Accommodation management information system--value £87,799
(g Grant Thornton Nil
(h Robson Rhodes Nil
(i Pannell Kerr Forster Nil
Marine Pollution
Mr. Devlin : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what plans he has to request MARPOL--the marine pollution convention--to give special area status against oil pollution for the North sea.
Mr. Norris : I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, North (Mr. Walley) on 10 February 1994, Official Report, column 471.
Mrs. Dunwoody : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list for the last financial year the total salary costs plus bonuses for each of his agency chief executives and his Permanent Secretary.
Mr. Norris : Information on agency chief executives' salaries was set out in the answer I gave the hon. Lady on 21 March, Official Report, column 103. Details of chief executives' total remuneration including bonuses in 1993-94 will be published in the annual report for each agency. The salary of the Permanent Secretary was £90,148 per annum with effect from 1 April 1993.
Road Accidents
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what evidence he has of changes in the severity of road accident injuries resulting from the use of bull bars on road vehicles.
Mr. Key : We have no direct evidence. Impact tests using an instrumented child-size headform on a bull bar have shown that the severity of an impact on a bull bar appears significantly more than on a flexible bonnet. We
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have, therefore, taken steps to identify accidents where a pedestrian has been struck by a vehicle fitted with a bull bar with a view to determining whether bull bars are, in fact, causing increased injuries.Mr. George Howarth : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the numbers of road traffic accidents in each year since 1983 involving at least one motor vehicle driver who had been previously advised by a medical practitioner that they were not medically fit to drive ; and how many involved (a) serious injuries and (b) fatalities.
Mr. Key : This information is not available.
Channel Tunnel Rail Link
Mr. Jacques Arnold : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) when he intends to issue the safeguarding direction for the route of the new channel tunnel rail link at Pepper Hill in the borough of Gravesham ;
(2) when he intends to issue the safeguarding directions for the route of the new channel tunnel rail link at Ashford in Kent.
Mr. Freeman : Safeguarding directions for the route of the new channel tunnel rail link at both Pepper Hill and Ashford were issued yesterday and will come into force today. Copies are being placed in the Library.
Marine Pollution
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list those ports which have facilities to accept chemical contaminated waste.
Mr. Norris [holding answer 23 June 1994] : The Marine Safety Agency is currently undertaking a comprehensive survey of the provision of reception facilities in United Kingdom ports. The results of the survey will be published when they have been evaluated.
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will take steps to improve the monitoring of non-accidental discharges in United Kingdom territorial waters.
Mr. Norris [holding answer 23 June 1994] : All United Kingdom registered ships, aircraft and offshore installations are asked to report any incidents or sightings of oil to the United Kingdom Coastguard who passes the information to the marine pollution control unit. The MPCU carries out 500 hours of aerial surveillance per annum, using aircraft fitted with specialised electronic equipment for detecting oil slicks on the surface of the sea. This is targeted on the main shipping lanes where non-accidental discharges are known to occur most often.
These measures are considered adequate for the purposes of monitoring non- accidental discharges, and there are no plans to change or increase them.
Mr. Maclennan : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will ratify annex IV of the marine pollution convention ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Norris [holding answer 23 June 1994] : The Government will consider ratification of annex IV of MARPOL when the findings of a comprehensive survey of United Kingdom reception facilities, including those for sewage, are available later in the year.
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ENVIRONMENT
Brixton City Challenge
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what indication he has given to Brixton city challenge that its grant is to be curtailed.
Mr. Baldry : Following a ministerial annual review of Brixton challenge, officials wrote to the chairman of the company on 10 March, indicating that it was not possible to approve the 1994-95 action plan at that time. Since then, the Minister for Housing, Inner Cities and Construction has met representatives of the three parties on Lambeth council, and the chairman of Brixton challenge. Satisfactory assurances have been given with regard to the implementation of the Brixton challenge 1994-95 action plan, and the Minister therefore wrote to the party leaders and chairman on 22 June confirming the continuation of funding.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on Brixton city challenge.
Mr. Baldry : It was not possible to approve a second year of operation for Brixton challenge before the start of the current financial year because of their poor performance in 1993-94. However, assurances have now been given by the three party leaders at Lambeth that they will fully support Brixton challenge in the future, and the 1994-95 action plan has been revised by the company to make up for outputs lost last year. In these circumstances, the Minister for Housing, Inner Cities and Construction wrote to the Brixton challenge chairman and the Lambeth party leaders on 22 June informing them that he is now willing to approve a continuation of funding.
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many representations he has received concerning Brixton city challenge.
Mr. Baldry : The Department has recently received three representations concerning Brixton city challenge.
Disabled People
Mr. McMaster : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what percentage of England's housing stock is constructed or adapted to meet the needs of physically disabled people at the latest date for which information is available ; if he will break this information down into categories of housing tenure ; what plans he has to enhance the availability of such housing stock ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir George Young : The Department collects information for England on building starts and completions of specialised housing for the chronically sick and disabled, and on conversions or improvements for disabled persons, but not on the stock of such dwellings for physically disabled people.
The available figures of housebuilding starts and completions by housing associations and local authorities for the chronically sick and disabled are shown in "Housing and Construction Statistics". Provisional data for 1993-94 in England are to be published shortly in the March quarter 1993 issue, part 1, and these are given in the table.
Column 350
A
New housebuilding completions for the chronically sick and
disabled
England: 1993-94
|Housing |Local |Totals
|associations|authorities
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Wheelchair |136 |7 |143
Mobility |810 |59 |869
All |946 |66 |1,012
The numbers of dwellings converted or improved for disabled persons are published in "Housing and Construction Statistics". The latest available financial year figures are for 1992-93 and are on tables 2.19 and 2.20 of the December quarter 1993 issue, part 2. All new housing association dwellings are required to be built to mobility standards. Allocations and priorities for local authority dwellings are determined by the individual authorities. The Department is considering whether to extend part M of the Building Regulations to cover all new buildings.
Housebuilding
Mr. Pike : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give figures for the last 15 years, in respect of the number of permanent dwellings (a) started, (b) under construction and (c) completed ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir George Young : Estimates of housebuilding starts and completions, and dwellings under construction in England are shown in the quarterly and annual publication "Housing and Construction Statistics".
Figures for 1991 and 1992, with provisional figures for 1993, are in the December quarter 1993 edition, part 1, table 1.2 (a) ; and those for each year from 1982 to 1990 are in table 6.1 (a) of the 1982 to 1992 annual edition. Figures for 1979 to 1981 are in the same table of the editions for earlier years : 1980 and 1981 figures are in the 1980-1990 edition, and 1979 figures are in the 1979-1989 edition.
Copies of these publications are in the Library.
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Building Defects
Mr. Ian Bruce : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what representations his Department has received (a) about the amount of award given to plaintiffs who have successfully sued professional advisers who have been negligent in reporting defects in a building that the plaintiff has purchased and (b) about cases where the cost to the plaintiff of repairing the building is very much higher than the award given by the court because the award given by the court reflects what the value of the property would have been if the purchaser had known about the defect but was still willing to purchase but at a lower price ; and if he will make proposals to enable courts to award the full reinstatement cost.
Mr. John M. Taylor : There has been correspondence between the Lord Chancellor's Department and my hon. Friend about the principles which apply in these cases. We do not propose to change those principles.
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Community Charge Offences
Ms Corston : To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many cases involving community charge offences have been taken to the High Court for judicial review, or are awaiting a date for a judicial review.
Mr. John M. Taylor : Schedule 4 to the Local Government Act 1988 provides for certain types of offence. The number of convictions and acquittals under these provisions referred for judicial review cannot be assertained except at disproportionate cost. For the same reason, it is not possible to provide the number of judicial review cases involving the enforcement of community charge ; there are, however, currently 169 such cases awaiting a hearing date.
PRIME MINISTER
Intergovernmental Conference
Mr. Allen : To ask the Prime Minister what proposals he has in respect of the 1996 IGC relating to a written European constitution.
Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply. None.
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Mahogany
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Attorney-General what action he intends to take in respect of imports of stolen Brazilian mahogany into the United Kingdom.
The Attorney-General : I understand that there are no restrictions on the import of Brazilian mahogany into the United Kingdom. The procedures for the investigation of criminal offences allegedly committed in relation to Brazilian mahogany are no different from those applicable to any other criminal offence, and the proper course, if it is believed that a criminal offence has been committed within the jurisdiction, is for the facts to be reported to the police.
WALES
Medical Consultants (Merit Awards)
Mr. Gareth Wardell : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much money has been paid by his Department as merit awards to medical consultants in each of the last 10 years.
Mr. Gwilym Jones : The information requested is as follows :
Payment of distinction awards
to consultants
|£
------------------------------
1983-84 |1,841,988
1984-85 |1,974,672
1985-86 |2,273,522
1986-87 |2,617,765
1987-88 |2,698,790
1988-89 |3,272,598
1989-90 |3,753,583
1990-91 |4,104,603
1991-92 |3,701,500
1992-93 |3,340,347
Source: Health authorities
annual accounts/financial
returns Pembrokeshire NHS
trust annual accounts-1992-93
only.
Notes:
1. Includes medical and
dental consultants, NHS staff
and honorary contract
holders.
2. 1992-93 figures are latest
available.
Agriculture
Mr. Tipping : To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what are the counties served, the number of hectares and the number of farmers in each of his Department's divisional offices for agriculture ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Redwood : The information requested is shown in the table.
Coverage of Welsh Office Divisional Offices<1>
Divisional Office |Hectares of |Farmers,
and Counties
|served |agricultural
|land<2> |directors<3>
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Llandrindod Wells
Powys; South, Mid and West
Glamorgan; Gwent |559,635 |11,835
Carmarthen
Dyfed |453,589 |12,099
Caernarfon
Gwynedd; Clwyd |479,798 |9,545
Source: June 1993 agricultural census.
<1> The figures shown are for the main holdings and therefore exclude the
estimated 6,800 minor holdings in Wales which account for 18,700 hectares of
land. Minor holdings data are not available at below national level.
<2> Excludes common rough grazing land.
<3> Farmers, partners and directors working whole-time or part-time on farm
holdings on 1 June 1993. Excludes wives/husbands of farmers, partners and
directors, even if the wives/husbands themselves may be partners or directors.
EMPLOYMENT
Railway Signalmen
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the increase in real earnings of railway signalmen and white collar workers in the private sector since 1979 ; and what were the corresponding increases in productivity.
Mr. Michael Forsyth : The available occupational information from the new earnings survey in 1979 closest to that requested is for full-time railway signalmen and shunters and in 1993 for railway signal operatives, crossing keepers, shunters and points operatives. When adjusted for the increase in the retail prices index at April, the earnings of this group increased by 47.3 per cent. during the period.
The corresponding increase for private sector full-time non-manual employees was 51.6 per cent.
The information requested for productivity is not available.
Column 353
University Graduates
Mr. Llwyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what percentage of graduates left university and took up careers in industry in (a) 1990, (b) 1991, (c) 1992 and (d) 1993 ; and if he will make a statement.
Miss Widdecombe : The table shows the number of first degree graduates who were in permanent employment in industry at the end of the calendar year in which they graduated. The figures are expressed as a percentage of all first degree graduates from United Kingdom universities and as a percentage of all those in permanent employment in the United Kingdom. They are derived from surveys published by the "Universities' Statistical Record" and exclude graduates from the former polytechnics and central institutions which received university status from 1992 onwards.
|Per cent. of all|Per cent. of
|graduates |those in
|permanent
|employment
--------------------------------------------------------------------
1990 |12.3 |28.2
1991 |9.4 |25.2
1992 |8.1 |22.9
1993 |7.8 |21.3
Note: Industry is defined as including agriculture, the extractive
industries, utilities, construction, transport and manufacturing.
Barnsley/Doncaster Training and Enterprise Council
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how much of the Barnsley/Doncaster training and enterprise council's budget for (a) 1993-94 and (b) 1994-95 was devoted to the development of (i) self-employed businesses and (ii) new businesses.
Miss Widdecombe : In 1993-94, of the total training and enterprise council budget for Barnsley and Doncaster, business start-up accounted for 14.1 per cent. of expenditure. The planned expenditure for 1994-95 is 10.9 per cent. of the total TEC budget.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the information he receives from the Barnsley/Doncaster TEC about the operation of local enterprise companies ; and what plans he has to increase the information available to him.
Miss Widdecombe : Training and enterprise councils do not provide information about the operation of local enterprise companies.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many of his Department's staff who were seconded to the Barnsley/Doncaster TEC have taken advantage of the voluntary early retirement scheme while remaining in employment with the TEC ; and at what cost to the voluntary early retirement scheme.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many overseas persons are currently being trained under the auspices of the Barnsley/Doncaster TEC.
Column 354
Miss Widdecombe : The training and enterprise council operating agreement precludes TECs from training overseas nationals who are subject to employment restrictions or to a time limit in their stay in Great Britain or both--other than refugees or asylum seekers.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what instructions he has given to the Barnsley/Doncaster TEC in respect of when local enterprise companies may take steps to provide serviced sites.
Miss Widdecombe : Training and enterprise councils are not responsible for local enterprise companies.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what estimate he has made to the cost to public funds of the applicants of voluntary early retirement schemes to secondees from his Department to the Barnsley/Doncaster TEC, combined with the absence of a clawback mechanism for the former civil servants benefiting from the early retirement scheme but continuing in full-time employment with the TEC ; and if he will make a statement.
Miss Widdecombe : There is no cost to public funds as I know of no such cases.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the companies used by the Barnsley/Doncaster TEC which are members of the Confederation of British Industry.
Miss Widdecombe : This information is not available.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list for each of the last five financial years the date on which the Barnsley/Doncaster training and enterprise council was notified of its yearly budget ; when it actually received its funding ; and if he will make a statement.
Miss Widdecombe : Training and enterprise councils are notified of their budgets after the public expenditure survey announcement each year. TECs are funded monthly in arrears in accordance with their agreed contract.
Training and Enterprise Councils
Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will give the number of women members of each TEC ; and if he will make a statement.
Miss Widdecombe : The number of women on training and enterprise council boards is set out in the table. TECs are private companies and are responsible for the composition of their boards.
TEC Name |Number of
|female
|directors
----------------------------------------------------------------
Avon TEC |3
AZTEC |3
Barnsley/Doncaster TEC |1
Bedfordshire TEC |2
Birmingham TEC |2
Bolton Bury TEC |1
Bradford and District TEC |2
Calderdale/Kirklees TEC |1
CAMBSTEC (Central and South Cambridgeshire) |1
Central England TEC |2
CENTEC (Central London) |3
CEWTEC (Chester, Ellesmere Port, Wirral) |2
CILNTEC (City and Inner London North) |2
County Durham |2
Coventry and Warwickshire TEC |1
Cumbria TEC |2
Devon and Cornwall TEC |2
Dorset TEC |2
Dudley TEC |1
ELTEC (East Lancashire) |2
Essex TEC |3
Gloucestershire TEC |2
Greater Nottingham TEC |1
Greater Peterborough TEC |1
Hampshire TEC |2
HAWTEC (Hereford and Worcester) |3
Heart of England (Oxfordshire) TEC |3
Hertfordshire TEC |2
Humberside TEC |2
Kent TEC |2
Leeds TEC |1
Leicester TEC |1
Lincolnshire TEC |1
London East TEC |2
Manchester TEC |2
Merseyside TEC |2
Mid Glamorgan TEC |2
Norfolk and Waveney TEC |3
NORMIDTEC (North and Mid Cheshire) |1
North Derbyshire TEC |3
North London TEC |1
North Nottinghamshire TEC |2
North West London TEC |2
North Yorkshire TEC |3
Northamptonshire TEC |2
Northumberland TEC |1
Oldham TEC |2
Powys TEC |2
QUALITEC (St. Helens) Ltd. |2
Rochdale TEC |4
Rotherham TEC |1
Sheffield TEC |2
Shropshire TEC |1
SOLOTEC |2
South and East Cheshire TEC |2
South Thames TEC |3
Southern Derbyshire TEC |3
Stockport/High Peak TEC |2
Suffolk TEC |2
Surrey TEC |2
Sussex TEC |2
TARGED North West Wales TEC |1
Teesside TEC |1
Thames Valley Enterprise |1
Tyneside TEC |2
Wakefield TEC |2
Walsall TEC |2
Wearside TEC |2
West London TEC |2
West Wales TEC |1
Wight Training and Enterprise |1
Wiltshire TEC |2
Wolverhampton TEC |1
Total |137
Astra Training Ltd.
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list the properties transferred to Astra Training Services Ltd. in 1990 as part of the privatisation of the skills training agency, and their market value at that time ; what is the total sum received by the
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Government in respect of the sales of any of those properties since 1990 ; and what details have been supplied to him of the current ownership of each of the properties and the current status of the agreement made with Astra Training Services Ltd. regarding the clawback of any profit on the sales of the properties following the company's collapse.Miss Widdecombe : The following 33 properties were transferred to Astra Training Services Ltd. in 1990 as part of the privatisation of the Skills Training Agency :
Barking
Basildon
Bellshill
Billingham
Birmingham
Bradford
Bristol
Cheshire
Dundee
Durham
Enfield
Gloucester
Gwent
Hillingdon
Hull
Irvine
Manchester
Medway
Milton Keynes
North Staffs
Norwich
Peterborough
Plymouth
Preston
Redruth
Rochdale
Sheffield
Southampton
Tyneside
West Glamorgan
West Sussex
Wigan
Wrexham
The market value of the properties at the time of the privatisation is a matter of commercial confidentiality. The Government have received no sum in respect of the sale of any of the above properties since 1990 and full details of the current owners of each of the properties have been supplied to the Department, along with confirmation that, in all but one case, the clawback conditions continue to apply to new owners.
None of the sales to date has triggered an actual clawback payment, due mainly to the low values generated in the depressed property market which has prevailed since privatisation.
In the one case where clawback no longer applies, Hillington, the Government accepted a settlement payment--£50,000--to remove the clawback provisions. This was on the advice of the Department's professional advisers, who saw no prospect of any actual clawback payment in a similar amount being triggered within the remaining clawback period.
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