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Industrial Tribunals

Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many nominations were submitted in each region by the Trades Union Congress and Confederation of British Industry for lay membership of industrial tribunals during the past five years; and how many in each case he has rejected. [6474]

Mr. John M. Taylor: During the period nominations were submitted in 1992 and 1995. The information requested is set out in the tables.

Table 1: Nominations by the Trades Union Congress

	1992 Appointment exercise		1995 Appointment exercise
Regional office	Nominated	Not appointed	Nominated	Not appointed
Bedford	57	40	65	50
Birmingham	54	33	44	34
Bristol	69	41	47	24
Cardiff	42	25	61	28
Leeds	88	66	85	63
London North	118	(11)89	141	110
London South	81	58	128	85
Manchester	91	71	88	59
Newcastle	59	29	41	34
Nottingham	60	43	55	48
Southampton	73	22	53	53
Scotland	53	18	75	21
Totals	845	535	883	609

(11) Of the 118 CBI and TUC nominees not appointed in 1992,

51 nominated by the TUC and 18 nominated by the CBI (who satisfied the basic criteria for selection) were appointed for 11 months only in 1994. This was to meet the need for additional lay members for a new Office of Industrial Tribunals in the London north region.

18 Dec 1995 : Column: 870

Table 2: Nominations by the Confederation of British Industry

	1992 Appointment exercise		1995 Appointment exercise
Regional office	Nominated	Not appointed	Nominated	Not appointed
Bedford	51	40	23	18
Birmingham	47	26	35	31
Bristol	60	47	27	16
Cardiff	33	8	30	18
Leeds	38	(12)29	34	21
London North	42	29	45	26
London South	63	51	44	26
Manchester	61	44	27	15
Newcastle	41	10	18	16
Nottingham	28	19	23	21
Southampton	60	28	23	23
Scotland	41	19	22	5
Totals	565	350	351	236

(12) Of the 118 CBI and TUC nominees not appointed in 1992,

51 nominated by the TUC and 18 nominated by the CBI (who satisfied the basic criteria for selection) were appointed for 11 months only in 1994. This was to meet the need for additional lay members for a new Office of Industrial Tribunals in the London north region.

Mr. McCartney: To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many lay members of the industrial tribunals in each region have not been reappointed in the last (a) 15, (b) 10 and (c) five years, giving the nominating organisation in each case. [6475]

Mr. Taylor: Information on the number of non-reappointments to the lay membership of the industrial tribunals in 1989, 1992 and 1995 is given in the following tables. Details for 1983 and 1986 are no longer available.

Region	Non- reappointments	Nominating body
1989
Birmingham	3	TUC
Bristol	1	CBI
Cardiff	1	CBI
Leeds	4	CBI(1); TUC(3)
London (North)	14	CBI(8); TUC(6)
London (South)	21	CBI(11); TUC(10)
Newcastle	10	CBI(5); TUC(5)
Nottingham	3	CBI(2); TUC(1)
Southampton	18	CBI(13); TUC(5)
Scotland	1	CBI
1992
Bedford	1	CBI
Birmingham	9	CBI(4); TUC(5)
Bristol	3	TUC
Cardiff	2	TUC
Leeds	6	FSB(1); LGMB(1); TUC(4)
London (North)	24	BRC(1); CBI(5);LGMB(2); TUC(16)
London South	9	BRC(1); CBI(4); TUC(4)
Manchester	6	BRC(1) ;CBI(3); TUC(2)
Newcastle	1	TUC
Southampton	5	CBI(1); TUC(4)
Scotland	10	CBI(2); TUC(8)
1995
Bedford	3	ABCC(1); TUC(2)
Birmingham	2	CBI
Bristol	3	TUC
London (North)	1	TUC
London (South)	9	ABCC(1); CBI(5);IOD(1); TUC(2)
Manchester	2	CBI(1); TUC(1)
Newcastle	1	TUC
Southampton	6	CBI(4); TUC(2)
Scotland	5	COMPS(1); TUC(4)

Note: The nominating bodies referred to in the above tables are: Association of British Chambers of Commerce (ABCC); British Retail Consortium (BRC); Confederation of British Industry (CBI); Council of Managerial and Professional Staffs (COMPS); Federation of Small Businesses (FSB); Institute of Directors (IOD); Local Government Management Board (LGMB); Trades Union Congress (TUC).

18 Dec 1995 : Column: 871

In addition, in a special exercise to supply additional lay members to the London (north) regional office of industrial tribunals in advance of the main 1995 recruitment, 85 lay members who satisfied the basic criteria but were not selected for appointment in 1992 were appointed for 11 months in November 1994. These appointments were made on the basis that they would be reconsidered with new applications received in 1995. Sixty of the one year appointees were not reappointed.

Mr. McCartney: To ask the President of the Board of Trade who has access to information contained within personal files held on lay members of industrial tribunals. [6473]

Mr. Taylor: Information provided by lay members which is needed for allocating lay members to hearings and for monitoring purposes--for example, ethnic origin--is prepared and held on computer records centrally and made available to regional secretaries and listing officers in regional and other offices of industrial tribunals. Any other information relevant to the appointment or reappointment of lay members is held centrally within my Department and is accessed by seven members of staff involved in the process of appointments to industrial tribunals. The views of the judiciary may be sought on reappointments and where views are submitted copies may be held by the following people and their personal secretaries: the secretary to the industrial tribunals in Scotland, the regional chairmen in England and Wales and the two presidents of industrial tribunals.

Mr. McCartney: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish details of the procedures used by his Department in determining the appointments and re-appointments of lay members of the industrial tribunals in England and Wales. [6472]

Mr. Taylor: The procedures for appointing lay members to industrial tribunals were publicised in a press notice issued by the former Employment Department on 30 December 1994. A copy of which is available from the Library of the House. Lay members are normally reappointed at the end of a three-yearly term of office unless their performance or attendance has been unsatisfactory. Decisions on reappointments are taken by the Secretary of State after consulting the industrial tribunal judiciary.

18 Dec 1995 : Column: 872

Gas and Oil

Mr. David Porter: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the prospects for the gas and oil industry on and offshore in Suffolk and Norfolk, in 1996 and beyond. [6200]

Mr. Page: The offshore area to the north and north-east of Norfolk contains the main gas basin of the United Kingdom continental shelf--the southern basin. The interest shown in this area in recent rounds of offshore oil and gas licensing demonstrate that the area's prospectivity is still considered to be good by the oil and gas industry. Sixteen blocks were licensed in the southern basin in the 15th round and eight blocks were licensed on the margins of the southern basin in the 16th round. Exploration activity in relation to these licences will continue into 1996. It is too early to forecast prospects for the oil and gas industry as a result of this activity.

There have, however, been a number of discoveries in the basin as a whole which are likely to be developed over the next 20 years. I have also offered for licence five blocks offshore to the east of Norfolk and Suffolk in the recently announced 17th round. Applications for this round are due on 27 November 1996.

There are currently no onshore oil and gas licences in Suffolk and Norfolk, nor were any applications received for this area in the recent 7th round of onshore licensing.

Mr. Wigley: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate his Department has made of the quantities of (a) oil and (b) natural gas likely to be extracted from the sea area adjacent to the north Wales coast, indicating the likely value of such products for each of the next 10 years; and if he will make a statement. [5431]

Mr. Eggar: Exploration of the sea area immediately adjacent to the north Wales coast has not progressed sufficiently to allow future hydrocarbon recovery to be estimated.

The operator's estimates of overall recovery from the nearby Hamilton, Hamilton N, Lennox and Douglas fields are published each spring in the "Energy Report" and stand at some 32 billion cubic metres of gas and 19 million tonnes of oil. For reasons of commercial confidentiality my Department does not publish forecasts of oil and gas production for individual fields.

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