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Gas Engineers
Mrs. Helen Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what further steps he is taking to ensure that only Confederation of Registered Gas Installers--approved gas engineers carry out work on gas appliances. [7924]
Sir Paul Beresford: The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1994 require that gas installation businesses carrying out gas work in domestic or commercial premises must be registered with a body approved by the Health and Safety Executive. Currently, the approved body for this purpose is the Council for Registered Gas Installers. This legal requirement is being reinforced in the HSE's current national publicity campaign about the dangers of gas-related carbon monoxide poisoning.
On 1 December 1995, the HSE published new criteria against which it will consider and approve organisations to operate a statutory registration scheme for gas installation businesses. These criteria introduce a specific requirement on bodies so approved to publicise regularly the need for the public to use only registered installation businesses to undertake gas work. An approved body must operate within criteria prescribed by the HSE.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what will be the effect of the change in the estimated level of Government financial support for 1996-97, on (a) local government expenditure and (b) local government taxation. [8891]
Sir Paul Beresford: The overall level of aggregate external finance--that is the total central Government support for English local authorities--will increase by £960 million--2.8 per cent.--in 1996-97. This increase in AEF is to support the Government's view of the appropriate level of revenue spending for local authorities in England--total standard spending, which is £44.9 billion in 1996-97; an increase of 3.3 per cent.
Local authorities are however, subject to capping, free to set their budgets at the level they consider appropriate. The actual level of local authority expenditure will therefore depend on local decisions. If English local authorities increase their spending in line with the
17 Jan 1996 : Column: 601
increase in TSS, average council taxes in England would increase by between 5 and 6 per cent. in 1996-97. The pessimistic view of local authority behaviour taken in my right hon. and learned Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer's "Financial Statement and Budget Report", imply that council tax levels will rise by 8 per cent. on average next year.
Local authority funding in Wales is a matter for my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Mr. Tony Banks:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many licences he has issued for the sale of elephant ivory since 17 October 1990. [8897]
Mr. Clappison:
Since 17 October 1990, my Department has issued 138 individual licences allowing the sale of items made from, or containing, ivory, in accordance with the EC convention on international trade in endangered species.
Mrs. Roche:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment which TECs included funding for business start-up (a) grants and (b) training in their last single regeneration budget bid; and which of these bids were successful. [9195]
Sir Paul Beresford:
Information in the form requested is not available. The kind of support provided for business start-up activity in SRB challenge fund bids is determined by local partnerships to reflect the needs of their localities. Challenge fund grant is made available by the Government to help meet the costs of these locally determined initiatives.
In rounds 1 and 2 of the challenge fund, a total of 25 training and enterprise councils took the lead in 39 successful bids that included funding for business start-up. Over their lifetime, these schemes are expected to provide 36,000 new business starts and to receive £140 million in challenge fund support. The TECs concerned are:
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Mr. Flynn:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) what value he places on the number of butterflies as an indicator group of the state of biodiversity of species; [9297]
(3) his Department will respond to the biodiversity steering group's recent published report; [9299]
(4) what proposals he has to honour the United Kingdom's commitments made at the Rio de Janeiro earth summit in regard to butterfly and moth conservation. [9300]
Mr. Clappison:
The United Kingdom was one of the first countries to produce a national biodiversity plan when "Biodiversity: The UK Action Plan" was published in January 1994.
The biodiversity steering group, chaired by my Department, with members drawn from all sectors, published its findings on 13 December 1995. "Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report", identifies 25 butterfly and 122 moth species whose populations should be monitored where practicable. The report includes costed action plans for seven of the butterflies and three of the moths and recommends that costed action plans for a further three butterflies and 50 moths be produced within three years. The Government expect to publish their response to the report in the spring of 1996.
On 8 January, two further candidate special areas of conservation for the conservation of the marsh fritillary butterfly were submitted to the European Commission. In all six candidate SACs for this species have been notified to the European Commission. Butterflies will be one of the groups of species used in the preliminary package of UK indicators of sustainable development which my Department will publish in the early spring of 1996.
Mr. Pickthall:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what recent discussions he has had with local authorities about more effective planning controls for car boot sales. [9622]
Sir Paul Beresford:
There is a general planning permission to use land for car boot sales for up to 14 occasions in any period of 12 months. If there is a real and specific threat to amenity or the environment however, a local planning authority may withdraw this right and require a planning application for such use. We have no plans to change this position and have not recently discussed the issue with local authorities.
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Mr. Rowe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the future of tenants' choice. [10524]
Mr. Curry:
Part IV of the Housing Act 1988 introduced the tenants' choice scheme in 1989. The scheme has been overtaken by other more effective initiatives which meet its objectives of improving housing management performance and providing local authority
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tenants with opportunities to change their landlords. Better services and more tenant control are being delivered through right to manage and tenant consultation on housing management compulsory competitive tendering. Change of landlord can be achieved through large-scale voluntary transfers, and the new estates renewal challenge fund.
The tenants' choice scheme no longer serves a useful purpose and the forthcoming Housing Bill will include provisions to repeal the legislation in England and Wales.
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17 Jan 1996 : Column: 605
Mr. Bayley:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the full year yield of restricting income tax relief available at the 40 per cent. marginal rate to (a) £2,000, (b) £3,000, (c) £4,000, (d) £6,000 and (e) £8,000, (i) including and (ii) excluding profit-related pay, giving in each case the number of people affected. [7064]
Mr. Jack:
The full-year yield of restricting income tax reliefs, but not personal allowances, for higher rate taxpayers only and the number of people affected at 1996-97 income levels are given in the table. Detailed information is not available to provide estimates taking account of profit-related pay.
Merseyside
Greater Nottingham
Hereford and Worcester
South London
London East
Central London
City and Inner London
North West London
North London
West London
AZTEC
Gloucestershire
Cheshire, Ellesmere Port and Wirral
St Helens
South and East Cheshire
Greater Peterborogh
Herts
Norfolk and Waveney
Shropshire
Lancashire Area West and East Lancashire
Teesside
Tyneside
A further 199 challenge fund schemes are expected to produce an additional 44,000 business start-ups over their lifetime. Although not led by TECs, most of these schemes involve TECs as members of partnerships.
Northumberland
Heart of England
North Yorkshire.
(2) what proposals he has to monitor the number of rare and common butterflies; and what new proposals he has to establish new butterfly conservation areas; [9298]
| Upper limit for total allowances(1) | Yield in full year | Number of higher rate taxpayers |
|---|---|---|
| £ | £ million | thousands |
| 2,000 | 1,100 | 890 |
| 3,000 | 830 | 490 |
| 4,000 | 680 | 310 |
| 6,000 | 500 | 160 |
| 8,000 | 400 | 100 |
(1) Including only reliefs available at 40 per cent. marginal rates and excluding profit related pay.
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