House of Commons Hansard Debates for 19 Jun 1995

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Crown Immunity

Mr. Foulkes: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list all areas within (a) his Department, (b) agencies under his Department's control and (c) organisations for which he has ministerial responsibility to which Crown immunity applies; what consideration he has given to removing this; and if he will make a statement. [28649]

Sir Paul Beresford [holding answer 15 June 1995]: An Act of Parliament is presumed not to bind the Crown unless the contrary intention is clearly stated, or there is a necessary implication that the Crown is to be bound. Ministers and civil servants will not necessarily share the Crown's immunity from criminal prosecution. The Government's policy on Crown immunity as set out in Cm 1599--"The Citizen's Charter--Raising the Standard" is that Crown immunity is being progressively reduced, as legislative opportunities arise. In the meantime, Crown bodies are expected to behave as though they were bound by regulations.

In accordance with this policy, we have announced our intention to introduce legislation to place on a statutory footing the requirement for the Crown to observe town and country planning controls.

Construction Industry

Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a regional breakdown of the number of public housing and housing association construction orders in the first quarter of 1995, together with a regional breakdown for the corresponding figures for 1994. [29197]

Mr. Robert B. Jones: The information is published in table 4 of the information bulletin No. 224, "Orders for New Construction: March 1995", a copy of which is in the Library.

Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a regional breakdown of the figures for output and employment in the construction industry in the first quarter of 1995, in the Department of Environment information bulletin 276, together with a regional breakdown for the corresponding figures for 1994. [29196]

Mr. Robert B. Jones: Provisional contractor's output figures for 1994 are published by region in table 2.5 of the quarterly "Housing and Construction Statistics: Part 2: December quarter 1994", a copy of which is in the Library. Corresponding figures for the first quarter of 1995 will be published in the next issue. Regional figures for output by direct labour organisation and for total employment in the construction industry are not available.

MINIS Return

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary for the Environment when he plans to publish his Department's annual MINIS return. [29154]

Sir Paul Beresford: It is planned that the MINIS returns for my Department will be published during July.

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Planning Policy Review

Mr. Alfred Morris: To ask the Secretary of State or the Environment what representations he has received regarding his review of planning policy; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Paul Beresford: I have received a number of representations about PPG6, to which I assume that the hon. Member is referring. A consultation draft of the revised planning policy guidance will be issued before the summer recess.

Lower Severn Estuary

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his current estimate of the completion date of the classification of the lower Severn estuary special protection area pursuant to article 4 of directive 79/409/EEC. [29234]

Mr. Atkins: I hope to be able to make an announcement shortly.

Unitary Authorities

Mr. Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if it is his policy that chief executive posts in unitary authorities established under the Local Government Act 1992 should be filled by open competition. [29097]

Mr. Robert B. Jones: Under the Local Government Changes for England (Staff) Regulations 1995, appointments to chief officer posts in unitary authorities established under the Local Government Act 1992 must be made by open competition.

Mr. Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) when he last met the chairman of the Local Government

Commission; [29098]

(2) whether he will call for a report from the Local Government Staff Commission on the steps being taken by shadow unitary authorities to appoint their chief executives. [29099]

Mr. Robert B. Jones: Following my last meeting with the staff commission on 23 may 1995, I am satisfied that there is no need at present for fuller investigation of the appointment of chief executives by shadow unitary authorities.

Mr. Steen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what assessment he has made of the impact of his Department's new draft guidance to the Local Government Commission, on the application of the South Hams district council for unitary status; and if he will make a statement. [29021]

Mr. Curry: There is none. The guidance will apply to the reviews of those districts which are selected for review, but it does not have any bearing on the selection process.

Civil Service Retirement

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 2 May, Official Report , column 126 , if he will provide comparable details on civil service early retirement packages on grounds of inefficiency. [29296]

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Sir Paul Beresford: Inefficiency is a ground for dismissal. An immediate lump sum payment of up to two years' salary may be made where a Department judges payment of compensation to be appropriate. Where compensation is agreed and the person dismissed is over age 55, this may be forgone in favour of immediate payment of the accrued superannuation benefits which would otherwise be preserved for payment at retiring age. There have been six departures on inefficiency grounds in the past five financial years. Details are as follows:


Lump sum compensation 

payment               

Year    |£            

----------------------

1990-91 |None         

1991-92 |None         

1992-93 |17,468       

1993-94 |None         

1994-95 |33,354

National Park Authorities

Mr. Tipping: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will place in the Library copies of the representations he has received about the composition of new national park

authorities. [29101]

Mr. Atkins: Yes, provided that the respondents have no objections.

Water Companies (Windfall Profits)

Mr. Tyler: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy on the conclusion of the Director of Water Services on who should decide whether windfall profits should be distributed in the form of rebates to customers. [29353]

Mr. Atkins: This is a matter for the Director General of Water Services, who has published his views.

EU Urban Initiative

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has selected the areas to be included in the urban community initiative of the European structural funds.

Mr. Curry: Further to my right hon. Friend's answer of 29 March to the hon. Member for Hertfordshire, North (Mr. Heald), Official Report , columns 645 46 , announcing the six non-objective 1 areas in England to participate in the urban community initiative, I have now selected the three areas from Merseyside--Liverpool Central, North Huyton--Knowsley--and Netherton--Sefton--which will be considered by the European Commission for funding the Urban initiative.

Originally, five areas put themselves forward, but the Commission requirements meant that only three could be included on the final list, which I chose after consultations with the local authorities and careful consideration of all the evidence.

The urban community initiative will bring an additional 80 million ecus-- approximately £64 million--of European funding to Britain of which £13.5 million will go to the three Merseyside areas. The money will be used for new urban regeneration projects carried out by local partnerships, which will complement existing

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programmes such as the single regeneration budget and the structural funds objectives 1 and 2.

My announcement today means the programme of nine British non-objective 1 areas, three Merseyside objective 1 areas and the objective 1 area in Northern Ireland is now complete, and the first projects should start this summer.

Council House Sales

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he plans to implement measures to assist leaseholders of former council flats who are facing difficulties with high service charges and resale. [29857]

Mr. Curry: Recent research has shown that while nine out of 10 people who bought their flats under the right to buy were satisfied with their purchase, a small proportion was in particular difficulties with service charges, and an even smaller proportion has had difficulty in reselling because prospective buyers could not obtain a mortgage.

Following public consultation, I am introducing three measures to assist local authority leaseholders:

first, a wide-ranging good practice guide, to help councils improve their management of service charges in flats which they have sold. This will help to avoid leaseholders being presented with unexpectedly or unreasonably high bills;

second, a more flexible form of mortgage indemnity agreement, which councils can use to guarantee commercial mortgages, including lending on ex -council flats. Mortgage indemnities can enhance councils' housing policies and encourage lending in areas where a resale market is not yet fully established;

third, an exchange sale scheme, to help leaseholders who need to move from flats bought under the right to buy but cannot resell on the open market because of mortgageability problems. The scheme will help the authority to buy back the flat at the right-to-buy price, and to sell the leaseholder another property at a discount of up to 40 per cent.

These measures, the first two of which are available now, will help local authorities to assist those leaseholders who face particular difficulty. The third measure requires regulations which I have laid before Parliament today. Subject to its views, the exchange sale scheme will come into effect on 10 July.

We are issuing advice to local authorities today on these measures and how to use them to boost the local housing market in general, and help owners of former council flats in particular.

North Sea Conference

Sir Kenneth Carlisle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what were the main achievements of the recent North sea conference.

Mr. Gummer: The fourth international conference for the protection of the North sea was held in Esbjerg, Denmark on 8 to 9 June 1995. Ministers and senior officials from Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, together with the members of the European Commission responsible for the environment, took part, under the chairmanship of the Danish Environment and Energy Minister, Mr. Svend Auken. I represented the United Kingdom.

Since so much progress has been made since the third North sea conference, in 1990, in converting policy

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commitments into binding international agreements and European legislation, the nature of the conference was different from its predecessors. It was more a question of reviewing progress and fine-tuning than of breaking new ground.

The progress report for the conference showed how difficult it is to compare what is happening in the different states because of different methods of measuring or estimating the basic data. We therefore agreed to put emphasis in future on getting transparent, reliable and comparable reports on what is actually happening, making the fullest possible use of work in other international bodies. The most important problem facing the North sea that was identified by the recent quality status report was the impact of over-fishing. We achieved a commitment to the development and strict enforcement of a system of controls for fish stocks of all kinds, including the industrial fisheries, to keep exploitation rates within safe biological limits. Measures will now be brought forward in the appropriate forums to implement this commitment. We also agreed that North sea Fisheries and Environment Ministers will meet before the end of 1996 to review the progress of these measures.

We also agreed to ask the Oslo and Paris Commission for the Protection of North East Atlantic to assess what measures are needed to improve the protection of wildlife in the areas beyond territorial waters--territorial waters being already covered by the EC birds and habitats directives--and to work out how best to harmonise such measures by the different North sea states.

Since the 1990 North sea conference, the European Community has adopted measures which provide a comprehensive framework for controlling hazardous substance. At Esbjerg, we agreed on various actions within that framework to give priority to certain specific problems connected with hazardous substances. We also discussed the setting of a target for the cessation of all inputs of hazardous substances to the North sea within one generation-- that is, 25 years. It made clear that the United Kingdom shares the ideal of such aims but does not consider them currently practicable.

We confirmed support for the adoption and implementation by OSPAR of a strategy to combat and prevent eutrophication of the sea. Some North sea states wanted to see the whole of the North sea treated as a sensitive area for the purposes of the EC urban waste water treatment directive and its catchment as a vulnerable zone for the purposes of the EC nitrates directive, which would imply additional investment in sewage treatment to remove nutrients, and additional restrictions on agriculture. France and the United Kingdom took the view that the implementation of the Directives as they stand will address the problems that exist and that the suggested blanket approach would waste resources by installing plant and imposing restrictions that would have no practical effect on eutrophication problems.

We reached agreement on how to proceed on the creation of a special area in the North sea under the Marpol convention to control discharges of oil from shipping; on completing the work on tightening the Marpol annex on air pollution from shipping to the problems of sulphur oxides in the North sea.

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To reduce the impact of the offshore oil and gas industry, we agreed to ask OSPAR to revise its guidance on the management of produced water, to limit the use of oil-based muds to cases where this is necessary for geological or safety reasons and to get OSPAR to adopt a harmonised mandatory control system for the use and discharge of chemicals offshore. Some North sea states expressed their concern about the decision to permit the disposal of the Brent Spar at sea. I explained the reasons why we considered this the best practicable environmental option and reminded them that we were following the procedure agreed by all North sea states in 1992. France, Norway and the United Kingdom recorded their reasons for rejecting a commitment to dispose of all disused offshore installations on land; the other North sea states, which who do not have to consider the disposal of deep-sea installations, recorded their commitments to land disposal of all offshore installations. We confirmed our commitment to the safety fundamentals for the management of radioactive waste adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency in March and agreed to support the IAEA work to seek agreement for a global convention on this subject.

Finally, we agreed that Norway should host the fifth North sea conference in 2000 to 2002, but that this should be much more closely integrated with OSPAR ministerial meetings.

Local Government Ombudsman

Mr. David Nicholson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has for reviewing the local government ombudsman service; and if he will make a statement. [29855]

Mr. Robert B. Jones: We have today appointed Sir Geoffrey Chipperfield to carry out a fundamental review of the Commission for Local Administration in England. The review, which is part of a programme of reviews of bodies sponsored by the Department, will be conducted in two stages. During the first stage, Sir Geoffrey will consider fundamental questions about the necessity for the Commission and the functions it undertakes. Depending on the results of that stage, Sir Geoffrey will then look in more detail at the commission's internal organisation and procedures. Sir Geoffrey will report his findings to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and to the commission; he has been asked to do this for stage one by the end of November 1995.

To assist Sir Geoffrey, we are establishing an advisory group on which we are inviting representatives of the local authority associations and citizens advice bureaux to serve; departmental officials and the chairman and secretary of the commission will also serve on the group. In addition, Sir Geoffrey will be seeking comments from a wide range of interested parties, and would welcome written representations from anyone who has views on the Commission and its work.

The local government ombudsman service was established in 1974 to provide independent and impartial investigation of complaints by members of the public who felt that they had suffered injustice because their local council had done something wrong. After 20 years, it is now timely to review the ombudsman's role and the effectiveness of the service provided.

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