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Slaughterhouses

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the total cost of work required to be done by slaughterhouses operating under temporary derogations from the Fresh Meat (Hygiene Inspection) Regulations 1992 to enable them to meet the standards designated by the regulations. [27857]

Mrs. Browning: This information is not available. The cost of bringing slaughterhouses up to the structural standards laid down in the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and

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Inspection) Regulations 1995, which replaced the 1992 regulations, is a matter for the individual plant operator. It will depend on the nature and extent of the structural work required at each premises and the way in which each operator whose premises is operating at present under a temporarily derogated licence decides to meet the required standards.

General information on the likely costs of meeting the standards laid down is however, contained in the compliance cost assessment on the Fresh Meat (Hygiene and Inspection) Regulations. This was placed in the Library of the House when these regulations were laid before the Parliament on 9 March 1995.

Grants and Loans

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the grants and loans provided by his Department to businesses, together with the criteria they have to meet in order to obtain the subsidy. [28184]

Mr. Boswell: There is a range of grant and loan schemes provided by the Ministry for businesses and individuals. These are summarised, with guidance to applicants, in the Department's publication, "At the Farmers' Service", a copy of which I will send to the hon. Member. This booklet sets out also the main common agricultural policy support schemes and their eligibility criteria.

Hares

Ms Walley: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what plans he has to (a) protect the brown hare and (b) ban hare coursing. [27503]

Mr. Clappison: I have been asked to reply.

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The Joint Nature Conservation Committee, the Government's statutory scientific conservation advisors, commissioned a survey of brown hares between 1991 and 1993. The survey found that while there had been a decline in hare numbers since the 1960s it was not clear if numbers were continuing to decline. The survey concluded that hare coursing had affected only a small proportion of populations and did not pose a threat to national populations.

The biodiversity steering group, chaired by my Department, was set up to advise Government on costed targets for the UK's most threatened and declining species and habitats. The group published its findings on 13 December 1995. "Biodiversity: The UK Steering Group Report" includes a costed action plan for the brown hare. The plan proposes a number of actions to maintain and expand existing populations, with the aim of doubling spring numbers in Britain by 2010.

The Government will publish their response to the report shortly.

SOCIAL SECURITY

Invalid Care Allowance

Mr. Steinberg: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security when the upper earnings limit was last increased for claimants of invalid care allowance. [27384]

Mr. Burt: The earnings limit increased from £40 to £50 with effect from 12 April 1993.

Means Testing

Mr. McAvoy: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what proportion of the cash value of all benefits paid out were means tested, in each of the last five years. [27443]

Mr. Burt: The information is set out in the table.

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£ million

	1991-92	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96
(a) Total Social Security benefit expenditure	66,382	75,336	82,427	84,866	88,787
(b) Total means tested benefit expenditure	20,328	25,518	28,707	30,308	31,625
"b" expressed as a percentage of "a"	31 per cent.	34 per cent.	35 per cent.	36 per cent.	36 per cent.

Note:

1. Estimated outturn figures are given for 1995-96.

Source:

Departmental Report March 1996 (Tables 1 and 3).

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War Pensioners

Mrs. Wise: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many war pensioners have had their allowance for lowered standard of occupation cancelled as a result of his recent changed of practice. [27543]

Mr. Heald: To date, a total of 1,285 awards have been withdrawn.

Child Support Agency

Mr. John Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what was the cost of setting up an EDS computer system for the Child Support Agency; and what have been its monthly running costs since April 1993. [27406]

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Mr. Andrew Mitchell: The information is not available in the format requested. However, the contracts and agreements currently held with EDS for the Child Support Agency computer system are as follows:

	Start date	End date
CSA Operational Accounting System	7 March 1992	31 March 2002
CSA Maintenance Assessment	8 July 1992	31 March 2002
CSA Software Support Services	7 March 1992	31 March 2002
CSA Technical Services	1 May 1992	31 March 1997

The monthly running costs, and the value of individual contracts and agreements is commercial in confidence. The total value of the above projects is estimated as £23 million.

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On 1 June 1995, EDS was awarded a 10-year contract for the provision of Data Centre Services for the whole of the DSS--including CSA. This contract is volume/output based. The value depends on future levels of business.

Employees' Rights

Ms Jowell: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what provision is available to employees of executive agencies under the control of his Department for (a) maternity leave, (b) maternity pay, (c) paternity leave, (d) parental leave, (e) flexible working hours, (f) part-time work, (g) job sharing, (h) leave to care for sick children, (i) home-working, (j) term-time contracts, (k) annual hours contracts, (l) workplace nurseries, (m) child care allowances, (n) carers' leave and (o) career break schemes; and what criteria are used to judge eligibility in each case; [27601]

(2) what provision is available to employees of his Department for (a) maternity leave, (b) maternity pay, (c) paternity leave, (d) parental leave, (e) flexible working hours, (f) part-time work, (g) job sharing, (h) leave to care for sick children, (i) home-working, (j) term-time contracts, (k) annual hours contracts, (l) workplace nurseries, (m) child care allowances, (n) carers' leave and (o) career break schemes; and what criteria are used to judge eligibility in each case. [27600]

Mr. Burt: A woman employed on a permanent appointment, or a fixed-term appointment of two years or more, with at least one year's paid service and who contracts to return to work after her childbirth is entitled to three months and one week paid maternity leave and a maximum of 52 weeks continuous paid and unpaid maternity leave. Fathers are allowed a minimum of two days paternity leave, except in the Contributions Agency, where a minimum of five days is allowed.

In all parts of the Department, staff may apply for career breaks to care for children under 16 or elderly relatives, for special leave to (among other things) care for sick children, to work part time, either on a term-time basis or any other pattern, to job share or to work from home. For all these provisions staff apply to their line managers who deal with applications sympathetically, having regards to the needs of the member of staff, the merits of each case and the needs of the business. In addition, flexible working hours are available to most staff in the Department. Business units are free to appoint staff on annual hours contracts or to work part time or to work from home if that meets their business needs.

Workplace nurseries are provided at various locations throughout the Department where an acceptable business case has been made, funds exist and the facilities provide value for money. Staff may claim family care expenses for any reasonable and unavoidable extra family care expenses where they are required to be away from home on official business outside their normal working hours.

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Research Projects

Mr. Etherington: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will list (a) internal and (b) external research projects funded or part-funded by his Department which assess the impact of claimants representation at (a) social security appeal tribunals and (b) medical appeal tribunals; and if he will make a statement. [27778]

Mr. Burt: We are not funding or part-funding any such research projects. Details of the research programme are published annually in the research yearbook a copy of which is in the Library.

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