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Enterprise Zones (Easington)

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the timetable for the transfer of the non-operational land designated enterprise zones at Dowdon and Fox Cover situated in the Easington district to English Partnerships: and if he will make a statement. [41222]

Sir Paul Beresford: I hope that an announcement can be made shortly.

Special Areas of Conservation

Mr. David Martin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will be sending further candidate special areas of conservation to the European Commission under the EC habitats directive. [41277]

Mr. Gummer: I indicated in my written reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) on 9 January 1996, Official Report, column 7, that further candidate special areas of conservation would be sent to the European Commission once points raised in public consultation had been considered and satisfactorily resolved. A further list of 44 sites was sent to the Commission on 14 October.

Consideration continues to be given to the remaining sites considered.

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1072

The list of sites sent to the Commission is as follows:

	Country
Achmore Bog	Scotland
Beinn Dearg	Scotland
Beinn a'Ghlo	Scotland
Beinn Iadain and Beinn na h' Uamha	Scotland
Ben Alder and Aonach Beag	Scotland
Ben Heasgarnich	Scotland
Ben Lawers	Scotland
Ben Lui	Scotland
Berwickshire and North Northumberland Coast	England/Scotland
Border Mires, Kielder-Butterburn	England
Chesil and the Fleet	England
Claish Moss and Kentra Moss	Scotland
Coalburn Moss	Scotland
Creag Meagaidh	Scotland
Durness	Scotland
Essex Estuaries	England
Fal and Helford	England
Flanders Mosses	Scotland
Loch Eport Lagoons	Scotland
Loch Maddy	Scotland
Loch of Stenness	Scotland
Loch Roag Lagoons	Scotland
Loch Sunart Woodlands	Scotland
Meall na Samnha	Scotland
Moidach More	Scotland
Monach Islands	Scotland
Moray Firth (marine)	Scotland
Morecambe Bay	England
Mousa	Scotland
North Harris	Scotland
North Rona	Scotland
North Uist Machair	Scotland
Papa Stour	Scotland
Plymouth Sound and Estuaries	England
Solent and Isle of Wight Lagoons	England
Solway Firth	England/Scotland
Solway Mosses (part)	England
Sound of Arisaig	Scotland
South Uist Machair	Scotland
St. Kilda	Scotland
Thanet Coast	England
The Vadills	Scotland
The Wash and North Norfolk Coast	England
Usk Bat Sites/Safleoedd Ystlumod Wysg	Wales

Central Heating

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his latest estimate of the percentage of dwellings with central heating for each constituency in the United Kingdom. [41283]

Mr. Clappison: Information is not available in this precise form. The 1991 census parliamentary constituency monitors provide figures for the number of households with and without central heating and copies are held in the Library.

Combined Heat and Power

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what capacity of electricity used in his Department's buildings is generated in a combined heat and power plant; and what plans he has to increase that capacity. [41320]

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1073

Mr. Clappison: This Government are committed to CHP and has recently published a national strategy which has been well received.

My Department's new headquarters buildings will both have CHP systems each with a capacity of 480 kW. In addition, the Whitehall district heating scheme, which covers a wide range of government buildings, will have a new CHP system from next autumn with a capacity of 4,500kW.

Hedgerows

Mr. David Martin: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will publish draft regulations for the protection of important hedgerows; and if he will make a statement. [41278]

Mr. Gummer: The Government will issue for consultation on 21 October draft regulations for the protection of important hedgerows in England and Wales, under section 97 of the Environment Act 1995. The regulations are to be introduced jointly by the Secretary of State for the Environment, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretary of State for Wales.

The Government are keen, during this consultation, to hear from a wide range of people and organisations that may be affected by, or have an interest in, these proposals--before the detailed arrangements are finalised.

The criteria for determining whether a hedgerow is important are based on a study undertaken by ADAS to develop a hedgerow evaluation system. The report will be published at the same time as the draft regulations.

Copies of the draft regulations and ADAS report will be placed in the House Library.

Health and Safety Prosecutions

Mr. Ian McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many cases, where companies were found guilty under health and safety law following the serious injury at work of an employee, resulted in fines of (a) less than £5,000, (b) £5,000 to £10,000, (c) £10,000 to £50,000 and (d) more than £50,000. [41135]

Sir Paul Beresford: The information requested is available only at disproportionate cost.

Homelessness

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many (a) households, (b) pensioners and (c) families with children (i) presented and (ii) were accepted as homeless in (1) Doncaster, (2) Mexborough and (3) South Yorkshire in each year since 1979. [40963]

Mr. Clappison: The available data on households dealt with under the homelessness provisions of the Housing (Homeless Persons) Act 1977 and the Housing Act 1985 are set out in the tables. The figures for acceptances of households with children or a vulnerable household member could be provided only at disproportionate cost for South Yorkshire for the years before 1991, other than those given for Doncaster. Separate figures for Mexborough are not available.

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1074

Households accepted for re-housingDoncaster

		Of which households with:
Year	Applications/ enquiries(39)	Total	vulnerable member due to old age	Children
1979	n/a	366	n/a	n/a
1980	n/a	294	n/a	n/a
1981	n/a	326	n/a	n/a
1982	(40)747	438	(40)19	204
1983	1,008	321	28	202
1984	1,245	312	22	169
1985	1,023	320	24	183
1986	939	295	21	163
1987	711	285	15	133
1988	1,472	368	46	155
1989	1,581	554	32	369
1990	2,012	1,386	58	676
1991	2,111	425	24	219
1992	1,707	534	(40)11	(40)164
1993	2,142	692	28	489
1994	1,743	449	35	235
1995	1,803	336	21	159

(39) The data collected from authorities has, since April 1991, included a request for the number of applications or enquiries first recorded during the quarter. The data provided is not reported on a consistent basis across authorities as it reflects differing local administrative practices and cannot, therefore, be used to produce national or regional totals of applications/enquiries. The available figures prior to April 1991 are not comparable with later data as they have a narrower coverage--they cover only the number of cases in which enquiries carried out by the authority were completed during the year.

(40) Data for 2 quarters only.

Households accepted for re-housingSouth Yorkshire(41)

		Of which households with:
Year	Total	vulnerable member due to old age	Children
1979	810	--	--
1980	840	--	--
1981	940	--	--
1982	1,720	--	--
1983	1,130	--	--
1984	830	--	--
1985	n/a	--	--
1986	n/a	--	--
1987	n/a	--	--
1988	2,800	--	--
1989	3,400	--	--
1990	4,010	--	--
1991	3,040	80	1,720
1992	2,900	70	1,660
1993	3,090	80	2,040
1994	2,340	70	1,460
1995	2,070	60	1,270

(41) The data collected from authorities has, since April 1991, included a request for the number of applications or enquiries first recorded during the quarter. The data provided is not reported on a consistent basis across authorities as it reflects differing local administrative practices and cannot, therefore, be used to produce national or regional totals of applications/enquiries. The available figures prior to April 1991 are not comparable with later data as they have a narrower coverage--they cover only the number of cases in which enquiries carried out by the authority were completed during the year.

(42) Data for 2 quarters only.

16 Oct 1996 : Column: 1075

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