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WALES

Executive Agencies

Dr. Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if answers sent to hon. Members in reply to parliamentary questions by the head of executive agencies in his Department are (a) seen, (b) approved and (c) amended by him before they are sent; and if he will identify any such letters to which amendments by him have been made in 1994-95. [7829]

Mr. Hague: For Cadw, Welsh Historic Monuments, parliamentary questions are passed to the chief executive for reply when the matter is one delegated to him under the agency's framework document. Ministers see a copy of the reply before it is sent, but would not normally intervene in operational matters. No letters were amended by Ministers in 1994-95.

Nursery Voucher Scheme

Mr. Dafis: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many representations he has received to date regarding the proposed nursery voucher scheme; how many of these representations voiced support for the scheme; and if he will make a statement. [8059]

Mr. Richards: Some 1,100 separate representations have been received to date, including some petitions and a large number of printed pro-forma letters organised by some primary schools. There has been general support for the Government's objective of making nursery education available for all four-year-olds, although no declared support amongst the representations for the proposed voucher scheme as the most appropriate means to achieve that objective. Many of the representations have clearly been generated by a misunderstanding of some basic elements of the scheme and the greater choice it will give parents in the type of provision they can have for their children, and by an unsubstantiated concern that it will inevitably reduce the current level of maintained sector provision. If local education authorities provide what parents want, there is nothing in the proposed voucher scheme to threaten their current levels of provision.

Urban Development Programme

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales, pursuant to clause 3.4 of the urban development guidelines of April 1992, if he will place in the Library a copy of the criteria for selection and forms of partnership for each of the Welsh Development Agency's joint ventures with local authorities as contained in the agency's urban development programme. [8221]

Mr. Hague: Paragraph 3.4 of the April 1992 guidelines required the WDA, in its programme submissions, to describe the criteria it used to select and prioritise the locations in which it would undertake urban development programme activities, and to describe the forms of partnership in terms of where, and with whom, the agency would work with other organisations to implement the programme.

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Approved programmes covering 1992-93 and 1993-94, including broad criteria, details of locations and partnership arrangements, are summarised in publications by the agency, copies of which have been placed in the Library of the House.

Agricultural Support

Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what was the estimated amount of financial support received by the agricultural industry from (a) the European Union, (b) the United Kingdom Government

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and (c) in total in each year since 1990 at constant prices indicating each figure as a percentage of the corresponding total. [8088]

Mr. Gwilym Jones: Details of financial support for agriculture in Wales are published in figure 2.01 of the Welsh Office departmental report and are broken down between Common agricultural policy commodity and domestic agricultural support.

These figures, together with their respective shares of the total, are shown in the table in constant 1990 prices for the financial years 1990-91 to 1994-95.

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Financial support received by the agricultural industry in WalesConstant prices (1990-91=100) £ million (per cent. of total)

	1990-91	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95
CAP expenditure	58 (52)	85 (57)	99 (64)	146 (77)	156 (73)
Domestic expenditure	54 (48)	63 (43)	55 (36)	44 (23)	57 (27)
Total	112 (100)	148 (100)	154 (100)	190 (100)	213 (100)

1. Expenditure on domestic schemes include an element which is subsequently refunded by the EU. However, as refunds do not necessarily take place in the year in which the expenditure is incurred the annual figures are shown gross of refunds.

2. Expenditure figures for Wales are only available in respect of direct support. The figures therefore exclude variable premium payments and intervention support for which separate Welsh figures are unavailable. The variable premium scheme ended in January 1992 and intervention support has been reduced as a result of the 1992 CAP reforms. Thus in the early years of the series, total expenditure is understated and the proportion represented by domestic support expenditure is overstated.

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Mostyn Docks

Mr. Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will announce the outcome of the public inquiry relating to the expansion of Mostyn docks, Mostyn, Clwyd. [8579]

Mr. Gwilym Jones: The application is being dealt with jointly by the Secretaries of State for Wales and for Transport. The inquiry dealt with a number of complex issues which are still under consideration and a decision will be issued as soon as possible.

Standard Spending Assessment

Mr. Michael: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is for each police authority in Wales the proposed standard spending assessment for 1996-97 and the standard spending assessment set for 1995-96 and each of the previous five years. [8577]

Mr. Gwilym Jones: My right hon. Friend announced on 30 November provisional standard spending assessment for 1996-97 for police authorities in Wales as shown as follows. The figures reflect changes in police authority boundaries from 1 April 1996.

Provisional SSA 1996-97

	£ million
Dyfed-Powys	24.3
Gwent	31.4
North Wales	34.7
South Wales	75.8

The SSAs for police authorities for 1995-96 are as follows:

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SSA 1995-96

	£ million
Dyfed-Powys	23.4
Gwent	25.3
North Wales	33.3
South Wales	77.7

Prior to 1995-96, there were no SSAs for police authorities in Wales. County council SSAs included provision for the police.

Child Abuse

Dr. Marek: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if Miss Nicola Davies QC, in her examination of papers relating to child abuse in north Wales, asked for sight of any papers held by (a) the North Wales police and (b) the Crown Prosecution Service. [9203]

Mr. Richards: All of the agencies that were asked by the examining team to provide access to their papers did so. These were the North Wales police, and the county councils of Gwynedd and Clwyd.

Schools (Selection)

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list the schools in Wales which select pupils, giving the percentage selected in each school, and the criteria and procedures under which selection by each school is made. [9479]

Mr. Richards: In the maintained sector, admission arrangements, including the criteria by which decisions are to be made if a school is oversubscribed, must be published annually in the school's prospectus. I am not aware of any grant-maintained school that selects pupils on the basis of ability or aptitude. Information about local education authority maintained schools is not held centrally.

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Housing Associations

Sir Wyn Roberts: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the results of the Welsh consultation exercise undertaken on the Government's proposals for purchase grants for tenants of housing associations. [9720]

Mr. Hague: Following the publication of the housing White Paper "Our Future Homes", more than 160 copies of the consultation paper on purchase grants for housing association tenants were sent out to interested parties, and 28 responses were received.

I have also taken into consideration responses received to my consultation on the rural White Paper where these referred to the purchase grant.

I have carefully considered the views of many housing associations that future housing association grant-funded properties should not be subject to the new right to buy, but the Government continue to believe that tenants ought to have this new right, and provision for this will appear in the forthcoming Housing Bill.

I have, however, decided to make a number of changes to the scheme as originally proposed in the light of the responses received. These changes are: the exemption from the scheme of properties in certain rural areas, on which I propose to consult in due course; replacement properties need not be new build, but could be either rehabilitated or bought on the open market if this represents better value for money; in the statutory scheme, associations and other independent social landlords will not be required to sell properties where the outstanding private sector debt is greater than the market value; associations will be allowed to offer tenants other properties from their stock for which purchase grant will be available; housing association grant repayment may be waived on all receipts from sales to tenants on condition that they go into a ring-fenced fund to provide replacement properties; any future large scale voluntary transfer associations will be treated in the same way as other associations--they will not have to bear the burden of grant themselves, as originally proposed; in the voluntary scheme, participating associations will not be required to sell where the property was built entirely by private donation or funds, where properties are subject to restrictive legal covenants or agreements or where the costs of acquisition and improvement, but not repair, or the outstanding private loan debt on the property, are greater than the market value.

I have deposited a list of responses to the consultation paper in the Libraries of both Houses, and copies of individual responses are available through them.

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