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NORTHERN IRELAND

School Meals

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what action he has taken following the survey conducted by the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association on the dietary content of school meals. [2676]

Mr. Ancram: The Department of Education has consulted the Department of Health and Social Services, the education and library boards and other agencies about the issues raised in the survey conducted by the Northern Ireland Chest, Heart and Stroke Association and in particular the application of recommendations made by the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy about nutrition. The Department will review the existing guidelines for school meals in light of these consultations.

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment he has made of the dietary value of school meals. [2677]

Mr. Ancram: The Department of Education has issued nutritional guidelines for school meals in nursery, primary and special schools.

The Department and the education and library boards school meals service regularly assess the nutritional value of meals offered to pupils.

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what has been the expenditure permitted on school meals per pupil in real and constant price terms in each school board area in each year since 1990. [2678]

Mr. Ancram: This information requested is in the table.

	Belfast board	Western board	North-eastern board	South-eastern Board	Southern board
	£	£	£	£	£
1990-91--actual	206.54	216.35	234.89	232.53	229.04
at 1994-95 prices	239.36	250.73	272.22	269.48	265.44
1991-92--actual	233.31	230.30	255.30	239.85	236.53
at 1994-95 prices	254.40	251.12	278.38	261.53	257.91
1992-93--actual	214.58	240.93	254.54	225.20	238.97
at 1994-95 prices	225.02	252.65	266.92	236.15	250.59
1993-94--actual	233.93	247.59	248.71	226.51	245.58
at 1994-95 prices	238.02	262.10	253.06	230.47	249.88
1994-95--actual	227.40	247.81	260.46	239.03	248.53

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4 Dec 1995 : Column: 99

Roads (Belfast)

Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what low-cost anti-accident measures have been considered as an alternative to the current enlargement scheme for the Balmoral avenue-Malone road junction in Belfast. [2510]

Mr. Moss: A number of low-cost options based largely on modified traffic signal arrangements were considered but none was found to be suitable. The proposed scheme is the most appropriate means of dealing with the major problems identified at the junction, a view confirmed by the independent inspectors who conducted two separate public inquiries.

Mr. McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if the Balmoral avenue junction scheme in Belfast is part of a wider road enlargement scheme being considered in that area; and how much extra traffic it is expected to generate. [2511]

Mr. Moss: The proposed scheme at the Balmoral avenue-Malone road junction does not form part of any other scheme and is not expected to generate additional traffic.

Road Safety Education Officers

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many road safety education officers have been employed in Northern Ireland in each of the past five years; and how many are planned to be employed in the next financial year. [2717]

Mr. Moss: The information requested is as follows:

Year	Road safety education officers
1991-92	(18)16
1992-93	15
1993-94	15
1994-95	13
1995-96	13

(18) Reducing to 15.

It is anticipated that the complement will be 11 road safety education officers with effect from 1 April 1996.

Social Fund

Rev. Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much receipts under the European social fund for Northern Ireland in each financial year to date were earned by (a) the private sector, (b) non-central

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Government public sector bodies, and (c) central Government. [2487]

Sir John Wheeler: The information is as follows:

£ million

	(a)	(b)	(c)
Year	Private/Voluntary sector	Non-central Government public bodies	Central Government
1973-74	--	--	--
1974-75	0.41	0.31	2.68
1975-76	--	--	--
1976-77	0.77	0.58	5.05
1977-78	0.90	0.68	5.92
1978-79	1.80	1.35	11.85
1979-80	1.80	1.35	11.85
1980-81	2.76	2.07	18.17
1981-82	3.00	2.25	19.75
1982-83	4.22	3.17	27.81
1983-84	4.56	3.42	30.02
1984-85	4.56	3.42	30.02
1985-86	3.00	2.25	19.75
1986-87	6.39	4.80	42.11
1987-88	6.77	5.08	44.55
1988-89	4.33	3.25	28.52
1989-90	4.17	5.57	36.66
1900-91	4.57	6.08	40.05
1991-92	4.75	6.32	41.63
1992-93	3.77	5.03	33.10
1993-94	3.16	4.21	27.73
1994-95	6.36	8.47	55.77
	72.05	69.66	532.99

Rev. Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much money Northern Ireland has received in each financial year to date; how much each year represented a cash addition to the Northern Ireland economy; and how much was used to offset Government expenditure on Northern Ireland. [2484]

Sir John Wheeler: The following amounts were received from the European social fund:

Financial year	Total £ million
1973-74	--
1974-75	3.4
1975-76	0.0
1976-77	6.4
1977-78	7.5
1978-79	15.0
1979-80	15.0
1980-81	23.0
1981-82	25.0
1982-83	35.2
1983-84	38.0
1984-85	38.0
1985-86	25.0
1986-87	53.3
1987-88	56.4
1988-89	36.1
1989-90	46.4
1990-91	50.7
1991-92	52.7
1992-93	41.9
1993-94	35.1
1994-95	70.6
Total	674.7

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Receipts earned by the private sector and by non-central Government public sector bodies are paid to the claimant. The receipts represent cash additions to the

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recipients. Receipts earned by central Government are paid into the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund. All ESF receipts are subject to EC audit arrangements and normal government accounting requirements.

The overall level of receipts is taken in account in the Government's decisions on public expenditure allocations, and their availability enables public expenditure to be maintained at a higher level than would otherwise be feasible.

Education and Library Boards

Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what has been the budget in (a) real, and (b) constant price terms, of each education and library board in each year since 1988. [2537]

Mr. Ancram: The information requested is as follows:

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Recurrent financial allocations to Education and Library Boards £000

Financial year	Belfast	North Eastern	South Eastern	Southern	Western	Total
1988-89
Actual	47,959	55,284	44,927	54,083	47,841	250,094
Current prices	66,152	76,256	61,969	74,599	65,990	344,966
1989-90
Actual	53,017	62,309	51,246	60,528	53,914	281,014
Current prices	68,354	80,334	66,071	78,038	69,511	362,308
1990-91
Actual	58,888	70,036	59,590	68,820	61,371	318,705
Current prices	70,291	83,598	71,130	82,147	73,256	380,422
1991-92
Actual	141,136	169,298	144,105	167,182	146,637	768,358
Current prices	158,506	190,135	161,841	187,758	164,684	862,924
1992-93
Actual	156,957	189,915	159,702	185,858	161,017	853,449
Current prices	169,524	205,121	172,489	200,739	173,909	921,782
1993-94
Actual	161,214	195,910	166,957	193,438	170,183	887,702
Current prices	168,952	205,314	174,971	202,723	178,352	930,312

Note: As from 1991-92, under the terms of the Education Reform (Northern Ireland) Order 1989, the Education and Library Boards became responsible for teachers' and lecturers' salary costs.

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Mr. Worthington: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what resources were made available to each of the education and library boards in connection with the amalgamation of further education colleges in 1993-94 and 1994-95. [2494]

Mr. Ancram: The information is as follows:

	1993-94 £	1994-95 £
North Eastern education and library board	52,000	258,000
Southern education and library board	17,000	89,000
South Eastern education and library board	17,000	93,000

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