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Cattle Cull

Mr. Tyler: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is the current throughput of carcase remains from the over-30-month slaughter programme; and how many weeks it will take to clear the backlog at this rate. [7739]

Mr. Baldry: The slaughter rate of cattle under the over-30-month scheme progressively increased through the autumn to around 60,000 animals per week by the middle of November. This rate would have cleared the backlog declared by farmers as at 2 November under the Government's registration system by Christmas, but animals are not being presented for slaughter at levels consistent with the number registered.

Abattoirs have, therefore, been permitted to take both registered and unregistered OTMS animals provided priority is given to registered animals. In the week ending 8 December just over 40,000 OTMS animals were presented for slaughter against a disposal capacity of around 60,000 animals. Only half of these were registered as part of the backlog which is a good indicator that clearance has almost been achieved.

Certified Herds

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he last met the National Farmers Union to discuss certified herds; and when he expects to bring forward detailed proposals. [8213]

Mr. Baldry: My right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food meets the NFU regularly. These meetings cover a range of topics including certified herds. Detailed proposals are currently being drawn up. However, the progress of a certified herds scheme is dependant on whether it is decided to proceed with the selective cull.

Seafish Consumption (Seals)

Sir Cranley Onslow: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what is his latest estimate of the annual consumption of seafish by seals in United Kingdom waters, expressed as a proportion of the total catch by British fishing vessels in the same waters over the same period. [8178]

Mr. Baldry: The estimated number of grey seals associated with breeding sites in the United Kingdom waters in 1995 was 115,000. The Ministry does not have comparable figures of common seals, but the present population is estimated to be 28,000. Scientific work indicates that a seal can eat between 1.4 and 1.8 tonnes of fish each year. Current seal numbers may thus have accounted for between 200,000 and 260,000 tonnes of fish. It is not possible to draw a direct comparison with landings from the United Kingdom fleet, since seals mostly eat species which are not consumed by humans.

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TREASURY

Bank of England (Archive Material)

Mr. MacShane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to ensure that the Bank of England releases all of its archived papers and documents for the year 1966 before the end of the year. [8353]

Mrs. Angela Knight: Although the Bank of England is not subject to the Public Records Acts, it has as a matter of policy released archived papers after 30 years. Papers relating to 1996 will be made available on 1 January 1997.

Privatised Companies (Individual Shareholders)

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the percentage of shares held by individuals in privatised companies (a) on privatisation and (b) as at the most recent date for which figures are available. [8215]

Mr. Jack: The following table gives the information requested in part (a) for major primary sales. The present size of share registers is a matter for the companies themselves and their registrars and may be found in individual companies' annual reports.

Shares sold in the public offer (as a proportion of total shares sold in the offer)

Offer	Year	Actual proportion allocated (per cent.)
BT	1984	34
British Gas	1986	64
British Airways	1987	47
Rolls Royce	1987	42
BAA	1987	52
British Steel	1988	42
Water	1989	47
Regional Electricity Companies	1990	55
Generating Companies	1991	49
Scottish Electricity	1991	58
N. Ireland Electricity	1993	64
Railtrack	1996	(2)51
British Energy	1996	(2)52

(2) Includes Retail Tender.

Long-term Care Insurance

Mr. Hawkins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to consult on how to regulate the selling and marketing of long-term care insurance. [9135]

Mrs. Angela Knight: The Government's consultation document, "A new partnership for care in old age", published on 7 May, invited comments on a proposed partnership scheme to provide extra protection from the means test for residential care to people who took out a "partnership product" to meet some of the costs of long-term care. Views were also invited on whether the selling and marketing of partnership insurance products, and long-term care insurance more generally should be regulated under the Financial Services Act 1986.

I informed the House on 24 July 1996, Official Report, column 549, that the responses to the consultation suggested a consensus in favour of regulation under the FSA, covering the marketing and selling of all long-term

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care insurance products, but that before a decision was taken the Treasury would explore further the detailed question of how this should be achieved, and would issue a consultation document seeking the views of interested groups. The Treasury has today published a consultation document which fulfils that undertaking. Copies have been placed in the Libraries of the House.

The document explains the Treasury's detailed proposals to regulate the selling and marketing of long-term care insurance under the FSA, and includes a draft statutory instrument which would achieve this. Comments are invited from anyone interested. The end of the consultation period will be announced in the new year when the Government's policy statement on other aspects of its plans to take forward the proposals in "A new partnership for care in old age" is made.

Paymaster Agency

Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will report progress with the privatisation of the Paymaster agency. [9183]

Mr. Oppenheim: Initial bids have been received and three bidders have just been short-listed. These are the management and employee buy-out team in partnership with ITNet, Capita Managed Services, and EDS/Hogg Robinson Financial Services Ltd. Final bids are due in by mid-January.

European Union Budget

Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Council of Ministers has adopted the letter of amendment No. 2 to the preliminary draft general budget of the European Union for 1997. [9184]

Mr. Oppenheim: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 5 December, Official Report, columns 744-46. The Council adopted the letter of amendment No. 2 to the preliminary draft general budget of the European Union for 1997 at its meeting on 19 November. It has now been passed to the European Parliament as the letter of amendment No. 2 to the draft general budget of the European Union for 1997.

In agreeing this proposal I waived the United Kingdom's scrutiny reserve. I did so because the letter of amendment No. 2 formed an integral part of a package with which the Council aimed to secure the European Parliament's agreement to a budget for 1997 in which total payments would be frozen at 1996 levels in cash terms. Such an outcome would clearly be in the national interest.

Self-assessment

Mr. Milburn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the number of taxpayers who will face penalties for late return of self-assessment forms; and what is the expected annual yield from such penalties in each of the next three years. [8275]

Mr. Jack [holding answer 9 December 1996]: The Inland Revenue's current working assumption is that 15 per cent. of taxpayers will file their self-assessment tax return later in the first year of the new system, reducing to 10 per cent. in the third year. These figures are based on current taxpayer behaviour, and do not take into

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account the deterrent effect of late filing penalties or publicity around the filing dates. The automatic penalty for those who do not file by 31 January 1998 will be £100. No estimates have been made of the annual yield from late filing penalties.

Economic and Monetary Union

Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what criteria the United Kingdom will propose to govern the choice of the members of the board of the European Central Bank; and if he will take steps to ensure that the Nolan committee's recommendations relating to public appointment will apply to these appointments. [6807]

Mr. Kenneth Clarke: Article 11 of the Statute of the European System of Central Banks-ESCB--annexed to the EC treaty states that the executive board of the European Central Bank--ECB--shall comprise the president and vice-president of the ECB and four other members. It states that the "President, the Vice-President and the other members of the Executive Board shall be appointed from among persons of recognised standing and professional experience in monetary or banking matters", by common accord of Governments at the level of Heads of State or Government, on a recommendation from the Council after it has consulted the European Parliament and the Governing Council of the ECB. In accordance with article 43.3 of the statute and paragraph 8 of protocol No. 11, member states which do not participate in the single currency are not involved in this procedure and nationals of these countries may not be members of the executive board. Article 50 of the statute provides for some transitional procedural rules to govern the section of the executive board when it is established.

The second paragraph of article 11.1 of the statute states that members of the executive board shall "perform their duties on a full-time basis. No member shall engage in any occupation, whether gainful or not, unless exception is exceptionally granted by the Governing Council". Article 7 of the statute provides that no member of the executive board, as a decision-making body of the ECB, "shall seek or take instructions from the Community institutions or bodies, from any government of a Member State or from any other body". Article 11.4 of the statute states that "If a member of the executive board no longer fulfils the conditions required for the performance of his duties or if he has been guilty of serious misconduct, the [European] Court of Justice may, on application by the Governing Council or the Executive Board, compulsorily retire him".

If the United Kingdom were to participate in the single currency and were therefore involved in the selection of the executive board, the Government would want to be confident that members of the executive board would be able to meet the obligations imposed on them by the treaty, including the statute of the ESCB. The Nolan report relates to public life in the United Kingdom.

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