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Child Care

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proportion of the (a) women who are mothers and (b) men who are fathers who are employed by his Department have received assistance from the Department with child care. [1279]

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Sir Paul Beresford: My Department and its executive agencies do not keep records of the number of staff who are parents but child care assistance is available to staff in the form of workplace nursery and holiday play scheme places. In the last 12 months, 40 female staff and 20 male staff were assisted with a nursery place and 72 female staff and 39 male staff with a play scheme place.

In addition, staff are entitled to the reimbursement of any additional child care costs incurred when the normal working routine is broken, for example, to attend a training course. Comprehensive records of the number of claims are not held centrally.

Female Staff

Mrs. Roche: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many women are currently employed by his Department; and what proportion this is of the total. [1245]

Sir Paul Beresford: My Department and its executive agencies, the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, the Planning Inspectorate and the Building Research Establishment currently employ 1,936 women. This represents 42 per cent. of the total employees.

SSSIs (Hampshire)

Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the sites of special scientific interest which have been destroyed beyond repair in Hampshire in each of the last five years. [1970]

Mr. Clappison: None.

Public Houses

Mr. Nicholas Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many recent representations he has received from (a) right hon. and hon. Members and (b) others about changes in the names of public houses.[1883]

Sir Paul Beresford: The Department received seven letters on this subject from hon. Members or their constituents.

Mr. Winterton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to bring forward legislation to include within planning law the names of public houses; and if he will make a statement. [1884]

Sir Paul Beresford: I believe that it would introduce unnecessary and excessive regulation to introduce planning controls over the naming or renaming of public houses. Owners of licensed premises should retain their right to trade under the name of their choice, just as their customers have a freedom to drink where they choose.

However, members of the public do make their views known and this can have a considerable influence on owners' decisions, generally against change.

Rents (Hampshire)

Mr. Denham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the average rent paid by (a) council

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tenants and (b) housing association trust tenants in (i) Southampton and (ii) Hampshire in each of the last five years. [1967]

Mr. Clappison: Average weekly rents for council and housing association tenants in Southampton and Hampshire are set out as follows:

	Council tenants(11)		Housing association tenants(12)
	Southampton	Hampshire	Southampton	Hampshire
	£	£	£	£
1991	28.17	30.66	n/a	n/a
1992	31.50	33.89	34.49	31.95
1993	33.97	37.31	37.30	37.42
1994	37.08	40.62	43.61	43.26
1995	39.46	42.93	44.50	46.72

Notes:

(11) At 1 April.

(12) At 31 March.

The following local authorities transferred their stock to housing associations in the period: Havant (31 January 1994), Hart (9 March 1994), Basingstoke and Deane (20 March 1995).

Source:

Housing subsidy claim forms (council rents), Housing Corporation HAR 10/1 return (housing associations).

Local Government Reorganisation

Mr. Congdon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what resources he has made available to authorities that have been or are to be reorganised on 1 April 1995, 1996, 1997 or 1998 for reorganisation costs incurred by them in 1996-97; and if he will make a statement. [2046]

Mr. Curry: On 19 July I invited authorities that have been or are to be reorganised on or before 1 April 1998 to submit estimates of the amount of expenditure they expect to incur on transitional costs of reorganisation in 1996-97. On the basis, inter alia, of the information provided by the authorities, I have decided the maximum amounts that it would be appropriate to allocate towards such costs in 1996-97. In the initial round I gave priority to authorities that were reorganised on or before 1 April 1996. I have carefully considered the bids from these authorities and have decided that none has established a sufficiently exceptional case to justify an increase in their allocation for 1996-97. In this round I have given priority to authorities that are to be reorganised in 1997, especially their costs in respect of non-discretionary redundancy and other compensation payments to staff. The amounts are as follows:

Maximum amounts: £000 rounded

Authority	1996-97
Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight Council	500
Cleveland
Hartlepool Borough Council	2,150
Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council	3,400
Middlesbrough Borough Council	2,750
Stockton on Tees Borough Council	3,250
Avon
Bristol City Council	3,500
North Somerset District Council	3,000
Bath and North-east Somerset Council	4,000
South Gloucestershire Council	3,500
Humberside
Hull City Council	3,000
East Riding of Yorkshire Council	7,000
North Lincolnshire Council	3,500
North-east Lincolnshire Council	4,000
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire County Council	400
Selby District Council	90
York Unitary	3,200
Total	47,240
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire County Council	1,800
Luton Borough Council	3,500
Buckinghamshire
Milton Keynes Borough Council	2,800
Derbyshire
Derbyshire County Council	1,900
Derby City Council	2,700
Dorset
Dorset County Council	450
Bournemouth Borough Council	2,850
Poole Borough Council	2,800
Durham
Durham County Council	500
Darlington Borough Council	3,850
East Sussex
East Sussex County Council	1,750
Brighton Borough Council	680
Hove Borough Council	950
Brighton and Hove Council	(13)1,250
Hampshire
Hampshire County Council	2,100
Portsmouth City Council	2,850
Southampton City Council	2,950
Leicestershire
Leicestershire County Council	1,500
Leicester City Council	3,100
Rutland District Council	750
Staffordshire
Staffordshire County Council	1,800
Stoke on Trent City Council	2,800
Wiltshire
Wiltshire County Council	1,300
Thamesdown Borough Council	2,800
Total	50,730
Combined total allocations	97,970

(13) (SCA) + 1,000 SCA previously issued.

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I have also considered carefully the bids submitted by authorities that are to be reorganised in 1998, but, in my view, none of the bids established a sufficiently strong case to justify an allocation of SCA for 1996-97. I have, however, announced that I am prepared to issue capitalisation directions for the net eligible revenue expenditure incurred.

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A reserve of £2.03 million has been retained to meet any unanticipated, exceptional costs incurred, with priority being given to the shadow authority of Brighton and Hove.

Nuclear Wastes

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on current progress in negotiations between the European Union and the World Trade Organisation over implementation of the Basel convention on transfrontier movements of nuclear wastes; and if he will list the areas where agreement has not yet been reached. [2330]

Mr. Clappison: The Basel convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal does not apply to wastes which, as a result of being radioactive, are subject to other international control systems, including international instruments, applying specifically to radioactive materials.

Transfrontier movements of radioactive waste are covered by the International Atomic Energy Agency's code of practice on the international transboundary movement of radioactive waste. In addition, provisions on the transboundary movement of radioactive waste are likely to be included in the international convention on the safety of radioactive waste management, currently being negotiated under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

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