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Civil Service
4. Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what new proposals he has to increase the number of civil service jobs in Wales.[1859]
Mr. Gwilym Jones: The number of civil service jobs in Wales, as elsewhere in the United Kingdom, will be that necessary for the effective and efficient discharge of the relevant functions.
Mr. Flynn: Why do Welsh Office Ministers constantly chant the comforting mantra, "inward investment" but never mention the taboo words, "outward divestment of jobs", which is a daily threat to the 30,000 civil service jobs that are being market tested and contractorised at the moment? The Welsh Office does not even measure outward divestment of jobs. What sense is there in allowing jobs that cost tens of millions of pounds to be brought to Wales as a result of regional aid to be put up for grabs so that they can be exported to elsewhere in the United Kingdom, to Dusseldorf or to Taiwan, to make
cheese-paring savings? Will the Minister give a guarantee that the turmoil of market testing in the civil service will not result in the loss of a single job to Wales?
Mr. Jones: I just do not see why we should not be, as the hon. Gentleman suggests, proud of what we have achieved in securing inward investment for Wales. Year after year, we continue to punch above our weight--as my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Mr. Arnold) said--just as the United Kingdom outranks its competitors in Europe. I would take the hon. Gentleman's concerns on the subject more seriously if he did not so blindly adhere to job-destroying policies such as the European social chapter, to which he would quickly sign up.
Mr. Robert G. Hughes: Did my hon. Friend slightly mishear the question of the hon. Member for Newport, West (Mr. Flynn)? Was not the hon. Gentleman trying to say that he congratulates the Government on the 10 per cent. fall in unemployment in his constituency in the past year?
Mr. Jones: My hon. Friend is even more perceptive than I am. The hon. Gentleman was trying to point out that, in the past year, unemployment in the Newport travel-to-work area has fallen at a greater rate than it has the United Kingdom as a whole.
Mr. Donald Anderson: The de-concentration of Whitehall jobs, such as happened with the creation of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in my constituency, is one of the few instruments that the Government have at their direct disposal. Have we not reached the point where the privatisation proposals have as their only certain feature--as with Welsh Water and South Wales Electricity--the destruction of jobs, just as there has been a swathe of destruction through civil service jobs in Wales?
Mr. Jones: I stand by my comment earlier that I would take the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues rather more seriously if they were not such blind adherents to the European social chapter and to a Welsh Assembly that would impose extra taxation on the people of Wales and put up a no-entry sign to more welcome inward investment. How many present inward investors would start to change their minds about being in Wales because of those policies?
Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance
5. Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement about the proposed level of hill livestock compensatory allowance payments to farmers in Wales.[1860]
Mr. Gwilym Jones: Against the background of the need to restrain public expenditure, which is of course paid for by the taxpayer, our decision to maintain the HLCA payments at their present rates demonstrates very firmly the Government's dedication to and support for the continuation of extensive farming in the hills and uplands of Wales.
Mr. Llwyd: I thank the Minister for that--I suppose it was an answer. Does not the Minister realise that there was an 18 per cent. cut last year in the HLCA payments? Bearing in mind the dramatic increase in fodder prices and wintering, does he not realise that, on the
Government's own methodology, there is a clear case for an increase in this financial year? Will the Government reconsider the matter and, more importantly, stop treating the people of rural Wales with such contempt?
Mr. Jones: I could point out to the hon. Gentleman that it is agreed that net farm income is expected to increase by 13 per cent. in the less-favoured areas during the current financial year. The issue that he will never have to face is the fact that, if one increases spending in any other area, one has to put up taxes or cut spending elsewhere. Which taxes would he increase and which services would he cut--the health service or other services?
Mr. Alex Carlile: Bearing in mind the depth of disappointment over the reduction in real terms in HLCAs and also the concern about the future of livestock quotas, will the Minister remind the House of the most recent initiative taken by the Welsh Office specifically to assist the industry in hill farming areas?
Mr. Jones: Perhaps I should remind the hon. and learned Gentleman about my right hon. Friend's decision to publish a rural White Paper about which we have been consulting extensively in Wales. We hope to come forward shortly with something that the hon. and learned Gentleman will welcome.
Neath Hospital
6. Mr. Hain: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has about obstetric services at Neath hospital.[1861]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. Rod Richards): In addition to the meeting he and his right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Aberavon( Mr. Morris) had with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and myself, eight.
Mr. Hain: Is the Minister aware that people in Neath are desperately worried and angry about the way in which our hospital is being run down? We have lost the accident and emergency department, and now maternity is under threat. Can he reassure us all by giving a public commitment that he will back the health authority's recent decision to maintain fully fledged maternity and obstetric facilities at Neath? Why should mothers who, for generations, have been able to have their babies in Neath be forced to travel--in some cases over 20 miles--to Singleton hospital, itself at bursting point, as are all the hospitals in south-west Wales?
Mr. Richards: I understand that no decision has yet been made on the development of maternity services at Neath general hospital. The hon. Gentleman is quite wrong in what he said about the hospital being run down. Very recently, seven new consultants have been appointed, five of whom are anaesthetists.
Unemployment
7. Mr. Roy Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the figure for male unemployment in Wales at the latest available date; and what is this figure expressed in percentage terms.[1862]
Mr. Hague: In October 1995, the seasonally adjusted number of males on the claimant unemployment count in Wales was 82,700; or 11.1 per cent. of the male work force.
Mr. Hughes: Do the Government recognise the damage that their policies are doing to Newport and
Gwent? For instance, the Secretary of State has recently vetoed the Newport barrage scheme, which could have done so much good for Newport and the surrounding area. At the same time as he has the audacity to talk about accountability, I understand that he is mindful to grant a licence to the obnoxious Browning Ferris waste disposal plant. If he did, he would be flying in the face of the wishes of the people of Newport. That is not accountability at all; it is totalitarianism.
Mr. Hague: Unemployment in the hon. Gentleman's constituency has decreased by 12.7 per cent. in the past year; unemployment in Gwent has decreased by 2,000, or 11 per cent., in the past year and unemployment in Wales has decreased by 7,300, or 6.6 per cent., in the past year. I would therefore differ from the hon. Gentleman in his belief that policies that the Government have pursued are destroying jobs.
Mr. John Marshall: Does my right hon. Friend agree that the level of unemployment in Wales is affected by the level of inward investment? Does he believe that the level of inward investment would be encouraged by a tax-raising Welsh assembly or by the adoption of a national minimum wage?
Mr. Hague: No, I do not. We have succeeded in reducing unemployment in recent years because we have encouraged investment, because we have had lower taxes on employment than other countries in Europe and because we have had no truck with job-destroying measures such as a minimum wage or the social chapter.
Mr. Rowlands: Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that his predecessor volunteered a specific initiative on male unemployment, especially in view of the serious amount of male economic inactivity? The initiative never came into being. Does the right hon. Gentleman intend to make a specific set of proposals to cope with that very serious problem in our communities?
Mr. Hague: My predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Wokingham (Mr. Redwood), initiated the programme for the valleys, which has been followed by substantial reductions in unemployment in the valleys area. I am always very willing to discuss additional initiatives that might reduce unemployment, provided that they fit the overall framework that has been so successful in reducing unemployment recently.
Mr. Dafis: Has the Secretary of State considered what the effect would be on unemployment in Wales if the rumours that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury proposes to close certain Welsh quangos and merge them with English ones were ever to come to fruition? Does he accept that, if there were any such proposals in relation to Tai Cymru, the Higher and Further Education Funding Council for Wales or the Countryside Council for Wales, there would be a furious reaction in Wales? Will he give us an assurance that he will ensure that any such move is blocked?
Mr. Hague: I have no proposals to make at the moment about the future of any of the organisations that the hon. Gentleman mentioned, and I am not aware of any intentions on the part of my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary.
Mr. Morgan: Has the Secretary of State read the Press Association report of this morning's press conference by
Welsh Water, following its takeover of Swalec, that 1,000 jobs are at risk from the merger? Will the Secretary of State therefore give the House an assurance that, in order to pay back the £700 million cash that Welsh Water will borrow to finance the takeover of Swalec, it will not resort to mass sackings of 1,000 of its own staff and electricity staff, or rape the Welsh environment by cutting its capital expenditure on new sewerage works or on meeting its legal statutory requirements to give Wales 50 European blue flag beaches by 2000, as previously agreed? Will the Secretary of State agree to ask the President of the Board of Trade to refer that bid to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission?
Mr. Hague: As the hon. Gentleman knows, the Director General of Fair Trading will consider that matter with the Director General of Electricity Supply and the Director General of Water Services, and will then give advice to my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade as to whether the bid should be referred to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. I shall ensure that all the opinions that are given to me are passed on to the Director General of Fair Trading.
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