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Workshops Land Reclamation, Tredegar
Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to ensure that sufficient funds are available during the remainder of the current financial year to enable the Tredegar workshops land reclamation scheme to continue. [36114]
Mr. Hague: These are operational matters for the Welsh development agency. I will arrange for the chief executive of the agency to write to the hon. Member and for a copy of his letter to be placed in the Library of the House.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list, for each private finance initiative scheme advertised in the contracts supplement to the Official Journal, the adviser selected and named to assist potential contractors indicating how each was selected. [35891]
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Mr. Hague: It is for each bidder for a private finance initiative project to appoint its own advisers. Public sector sponsors of projects may appoint their own advisers, following normal competitive tendering procedures for which guidance is available. Information on such appointments is not held centrally.
Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish the list of advisers currently approved to assist potential contractors seeking clarification in relation to private finance initiative schemes advertised in the contracts supplement to the Official Journal of the European Commission; if he will list the arrangements by which such advisers are allowed to collect fees in exchange for supplying pre-qualification documents to contractors; and if he will make a statement. [35888]
Mr. Hague: The Welsh Office does not maintain an approved list of advisers for private finance initiative projects, and has not appointed any advisers to assist potential contractors for such projects. It is for the project sponsors to decide whether to make a charge for pre-qualification documents.
A48 Slip Road
Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what consultations he has had with (a) Hill Samuel and (b) Charterhouse Finance concerning their participation in the consortium to build the multi-storey car park and A48 Eastern avenue slip road at the University Hospital of Wales, Neath, Cardiff; and if he will make a statement. [35890]
ENVIRONMENT
Biotechnology
Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action he has taken since his letter G/CC/P50/19364/95 of 11 September 1995 to the hon. Member for Linlithgow on playing a pro-active role in developing and implementing interactive mechanisms for safety in biotechnology; and if he will make a statement. [34635]
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Mr. Clappison: My Department continues strongly to support a twin track approach to the development of an international framework on biosafety based on the promotion of the United Nations environment programme--UNEP--international technical guidelines for safety in biotechnology and the development of a biosafety protocol to the convention on biological diversity. I am pleased to be able to report that considerable progress has been made.
We welcome the adoption of the UNEP international technical guidelines for safety in biotechnology, first developed by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, in Cairo in December 1995 and are now actively promoting their use. As a first step, in September 1995, the UK entered a bilateral arrangement with Argentina to apply the then draft guidelines.
The UK fully supported the decision of the second conference of the parties to the convention on biological diversity, held in Jakarta in November 1995, to develop a biosafety protocol. The protocol will focus on the transboundary movement of living modified organisms resulting from modern biotechnology that may have adverse effects on the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity. A draft protocol is to be prepared by the open-ended ad hoc working group established by the conference of the parties. The first meeting will be in Denmark on 22 to 26 July 1996, when I look forward to the UK playing an active and constructive role.
Mr. Dalyell:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his letter to the hon. Member for Linlithgow G/P50/10981/96, what consideration he has accorded to the work of the Max Plank institute in Mainz and Professor Paul Crutzen in relation to trace gases, the troposphere and climate change. [34636]
Mr. Clappison:
The Department is advised by the Hadley centre scientists on matters relating to trace gases, the troposphere and climate change. They are fully aware of, and draw on, the work of Professor Crutzen and his colleagues. Both the Hadley centre and the Max Plank institute contributed to the second assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, which provides the most comprehensive and authoritative assessment of the science of climate change.
Mr. Pickthall:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what data is collated by his Department on the prevalence of car boot sales. [35679]
Sir Paul Beresford:
No statistics are kept by the Department on the number of car boot sales.
Mr. Pickthall:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has for controlling commercial traders at car boot sales. [35680]
Sir Paul Beresford:
The planning system controls the development, including use, of land. Part 4 of schedule 2 to the Town and Country Planning (General Development) Order 1995 already restricts the temporary use of land for a car boot sale to 14 days a year. It is not the function of the planning system to preserve existing commercial interests or to inhibit competition between
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retailers or between methods of retailing, and the planning legislation therefore applies to commercial and non-commercial traders alike. The Government have no plans to introduce a distinction in this matter.
Mr.Parry:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the housing action trusts in England and Wales at the latest available date; and if he will make a statement. [35726]
Sir Paul Beresford:
There are six housing action trusts--HATs--in England--at North Hull, Liverpool, Waltham Forest, Castle Vale (Birmingham), Tower Hamlets and Stonebridge (Brent). There are no HATs in Wales. HATs provide a comprehensive approach to the regeneration of former local authority estates. They are responsible for the management, repair, refurbishment and redevelopment of their housing accommodation; giving tenants a range of options for future home ownership and tenure; and undertaking environmental, economic and social initiatives to help local communities sustain the improvements achieved by public and private investment once the trusts themselves have completed their work.
Mr. Parry:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many housing units the Liverpool housing action trust operates at the most recent available date; and what plans there are for expansion. [35727]
Sir Paul Beresford:
The Liverpool housing action trust has 4,934 housing units. It has no plans for expansion; like all housing action trusts, it was set up as a fixed life organisation to manage and improve housing stock transferred from the local authority.
Mr. Parry:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if (a) the Waterloo Dock and (b) the Wapping Dock companies allow their tenants to lease their apartments; and if he will make a statement; [35729]
Sir Paul Beresford:
The terms of these leases are a matter between the tenants and the companies concerned.
Ms Roseanna Cunningham:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the Government's current target for reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. [35900]
Mr. Clappison:
The United Kingdom is committed under the framework convention on climate change to return emissions of all greenhouses gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. We are on course to meet these commitments and expect emissions of carbon dioxide to be 4 to 8 per cent. below 1990 levels by 2000.
At the June meeting of the Environment Council, European Environment Ministers agreed to call on all developed countries to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in the period after 2000. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for the
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Environment has called for developed countries to agree to reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions to between 5 and 10 per cent. below 1990 levels by 2010.
Mr. Parry:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much was paid to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company for the Albert dock in 1982; and if he will make a statement. [35733]
Sir Paul Beresford:
Merseyside Development Corporation paid £100,000 to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company for the Albert dock.
(2) what is the extent of the claw-back in the leases of the Wapping Dock and Waterloo Dock companies when the owner sells an apartment; and if he will make a statement. [35732]
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