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Market Testing

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 18 March, Official Report, columns 84-85, which trusts have market-tested each service, indicating in each case the outcome. [22484]

Mr. Horam: This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

NHS Training

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what data his Department collects on expenditure on NHS training and education and its distribution. [22168]

Mr. Malone: Expenditure on education and training is not identified separately in regional health authority nor health authority statutory annual accounts or financial returns nor trust annual summarisation schedules. Information on expenditure on education and training is collected separately from regional health authorities who currently have responsibility for commissioning non-medical education and training and medical and dental postgraduate education and training.

From 1 April, training activities not funded directly by health authorities and trusts will be funded via levies on health authorities: one each for NMET, PGMDE and SIFT--the service increment to support the costs to the NHS of undergraduate teaching. National information on

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these levies for 1996-97 was published in the Health authority interim cash limit exposition booklet, copies of which are available in the Library.

Consultancy Service Index

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 18 March, Official Report, column 86, on the consultancy service index, how many names have been on it and how many checks have been sought in each of the last five years. [22171]

Mr. Horam: The information is not readily available in precisely the form requested. There are currently 7,316 names on the index. The number of checks sought in each of the last five years is as follows:

1991: 53,685
1992: 54,480
1993: 62,389
1994: 46,307
1995: 51,375.

Public Bodies

Dr. Wright: To ask the Secretary of State for Health which of the advisory non-departmental public bodies sponsored by his Department (a) hold public meetings, (b) conduct public consultation exercises, (c) conduct consultation exercises with outside commercial interests, (d) publish a register of members' interests, (e) publish agendas for meetings and (f) publish the minutes of meetings (i) under a statutory requirement and (ii) voluntarily. [20115]

Mr. Horam [holding answer 12 March 1996]: The advisory non-departmental public bodies that

Hold open meetings;
(i) under a statutory requirement:
are none;
(ii) voluntarily:
are none;
that conduct public consultation exercises;
(i) under a statutory requirement:
are none;
(ii) voluntarily:
The British Pharmacopoeia Commission;
and the Physical Activity Task Force;
that conduct consultation exercises with outside commercial interests:
(i) under a statutory requirement:
are none;
(ii) voluntarily:
are British Pharmacopoeia Commission;
the Physical Activity Task Force;
and the Standing Committee on Pharmacy Postgraduate Education;
that publish a register of members' interests:
(i) under a statutory requirement:
are none;
(ii) voluntarily:
are the Advisory Board on the Registration of Homoeopathic Products;
The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food;

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the Committee on Safety of Medicines;
The Committee on the Carcinogenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment;
the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition policy;
the committee on the Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment;
the Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment;
and the Medicines Commission;
that publish agendas for meetings:
(i) under a statutory requirement:
are none;
(ii) voluntarily:
are none;
and publish the minutes of meetings:
(i) under a statutory requirement:
are none;
(ii) voluntarily:
Is the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Nutrition Policy.

Residential Care and Nursing Homes

Mr. Dunn: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list by local authority, the average weekly cost of providing a place in (a) residential care homes and (b) nursing homes administered by social services departments. [21401]

Mr. Bowis [holding answer 20 March 1996]: The readily available information about residential care homes is not in the form requested. It is possible to construct gross weekly figures of expenditure on residential care placements of elderly people in local authority homes, from information supplied by local authorities, but these do not consistently reflect the full weekly average cost because of variations between local authorities in the method of including indirect costs and overheads. A table of figures will be placed in the Library. There are no nursing homes administered by social services departments.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many questions were tabled to his Department in each Session since 1987-88; how many were not answered on the ground of disproportionate cost; what percentage of the total number of questions this represented; how many were not answered on the ground that the information was not centrally available; and what percentage of the total number of questions this represented. [21142]

Mr. Hanley: The information is as follows:

Session	Number of questions tabled
1987-88	3,690
1988-89	3,036
1989-90	3,733
1990-91	2,700
1991-92	1,170
1992-93	4,438
1993-94	3,558
1994-95	3,413
1995-96 (to date)	1,045

The rest of the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

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Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the average cost of answering an (a) oral and (b) written parliamentary question from (i) Opposition and (ii) Conservative hon. Members in each Session since 1989-90. [21786]

Mr. Hanley: We do not collect the information in the form requested.

South Georgia

Sir Michael Shersby: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the policy of Her Majesty's Government towards fishing in the waters surrounding South Georgia; and if he will make a statement. [21989]

Sir Nicholas Bonsor: Her Majesty's Government and the Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich islands are determined to protect the South Georgia fishery. The waters around South Georgia fall within the area of the convention for the conservation of Antarctic marine living resources. The CCAMLR commission regulates fishing in the area by means of conservation measures. In order to enforce these measures more effectively, because of serious concern about fishing in the area in recent years in violation of the conservation measures, the Commissioner for South Georgia introduced legislation in 1993 establishing a maritime zone around South Georgia. This requires operators of fishing vessels to acquire licences in order to fish and provides for enforcement measures such as arrest of vessels and prosecution for unlicensed fishing. The legislation and the enforcement of it is in full conformity with international law and CCAMLR convention.

I am writing to my hon. Friend in more detail about this issue and will place a copy of my letter in the Libraries of the House.

Gibraltar

Sir Mark Lennox-Boyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a further statement on pensions in Gibraltar. [22839]

Mr. David Davis: The British and Gibraltar Governments have reached an agreement under which Gibraltarian and other eligible pensioners, irrespective of nationality or residence, will receive fixed payments representing their full entitlement under the Gibraltar social insurance fund which was wound up at the end of December 1993. To help meet this commitment, the British Government will provide assistance to the Government of Gibraltar at about £9 million for the first year, reducing progressively thereafter. A new pensions scheme, backdated to 1 January 1994, will be set up in Gibraltar on the basis of non-discrimination and full compliance with EC regulations. Funds for 1996-97 will be sought through a supplementary estimate. Funds will

22 Mar 1996 : Column: 387

be additional to the planned overseas aid budget announced on 28 November 1995. A minute will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

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