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Power Stations
Mr. Barry Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will issue planning guidance to future applicants to build power stations to take account of (a) vapour clouds and (b) dust particles. [15147]
Mr. Gwilym Jones: The Government's planning policies are set out in Wales, in "Planning Guidance (Wales) Planning Policy" and in a series of technical advice notes currently in preparation.
Under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, the control of emissions from power stations is the responsibility of the Environment Agency. The system of integrated pollution control introduced by the Act requires prior authorisation by the agency. Authorisation will not be granted unless the agency is satisfied that the process in question will not have a harmful effect on the environment. The authorisation process is backed up by a system of regular monitoring.
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Mr. Barry Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many councils have spent above the capping limit; and if he will make a statement. [15142]
Mr. Gwilym Jones:
Legally no local authority can set a budget above its cap. However, an authority can set a budget above the level of its provisional cap. Only one authority has done this. Aberconwy borough council set a budget for 1993-94 above its provisional cap, but because of the exceptional expenditure arising from the flooding in Llandudno in June 1993, it was designated at the level of the budget it had set. An authority's budget for capping purposes excludes some types of spending.
Mr. Morgan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many deaths from (a) influenza, (b) pneumonia and (c) bronchitis occurred during January 1997; and what were the equivalent figures for January (i) 1994, (ii) 1995 and (iii) 1996. [15214]
Mr. Hague:
Figures from the Office for National Statistics of the number of deaths among residents of Wales where the underlying cause was influenza, pneumonia or bronchitis are shown in the following table:
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| ICD 9 | 1997(2) | 1996(2) | 1995 | 1994 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 487 | Influenza | 23 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| 480-486 | Pneumonia | 747 | 459 | 397 | 338 |
| 466, 491 | Bronchitis | 40 | 38 | 38 | 33 |
(2) Provisional. Figures for 1997 are the latest available. They will be incomplete due to some January deaths waiting to be registered and added to the ONS database.
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Mr. Martyn Jones:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the (a) availability and (b) distribution of child care facilities in Wales. [15065]
Mr. Gwilym Jones:
Summaries of the data for Wales and for old county councils on facilities for full day care, including childminding, and for sessional day care are
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published in the latest in the series of Welsh Office statistical publication, "Activities of Social Services Departments", for the year ended 31 March 1994.
Information on child care facilities in Wales is contained in the Chwarae Teg 1996 audit of child care.
The child care database, compiled by Chwarae Teg and the Wales information network, provide comprehensive information on availability and distribution of childcare
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facilities in Wales. It can be accessed at a number of sources, including Chwarae Teg, public libraries and jobcentres.
Mr. Sweeney:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what decisions he has reached following the financial management and policy review of the Wales Youth Agency. [16399]
Mr. Jonathan Evans:
As recommended by the review, we have taken the decision to change the status of the Wales Youth Agency from an executive non-departmental public body to a grant-aided organisation.
The agency will continue to be funded by the Welsh Office for its important work in helping to raise and maintain standards in youth work in Wales. From 1 April 1997 this will include the disbursement of grant to national voluntary youth organisations, amounting to £361,000 in 1997-98.
Mr. Hargreaves:
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will list the new measures in sport which (a) her Department, (b) her Department in conjunction with other Government Departments, (c) sports councils and (d) other relevant bodies have instigated since the last general election. [6894]
Mr. Sproat:
Since the last general election, the Government have developed a radical strategy of profound changes in policy for the way in which the Government, and Government-sponsored agencies, deal with sport in this country. It is not too much to say that these new policies amount to a revolution in sport.
The main elements of this radical strategy stretch across a very wide range of sporting areas: from putting sport back at the heart of weekly school life--with a particular, but not exclusive, emphasis on traditional, competitive, team games--through constructing much closer links between local schools and local sports clubs, to setting up, for elite athletes, a British academy of sport, a network of regional institutes of sport, academies of individual sports, and a multi-million pound sports scholarship scheme for thousands of individual elite athletes.
In support of this radical strategy, the Government have first, completely reorganised the sports council structure, abolishing the old Great Britain Sports Council, and the old regional councils for sports and recreation, and setting
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up an English Sports Council and a United Kingdom Sport Council, in addition to the existing Sports Councils for Wales and for Northern Ireland.
Secondly, the Government set up the sports councils as distributors of lottery funds to inject an unprecedented amount of money into sport in this country. Since the lottery was introduced two years ago, the sports councils have awarded over £439 million to over 2,568 sports projects, involving 59 different sports.
The main details of this radical new strategy for sport are set out in a 103-point paper, which I have today placed in the Libraries of the House. These measures cover the whole range of the sporting spectrum, and fall into 11 main categories:
Mr. Frank Cook:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport under what statutory authority powers the two United Kingdom assessors into the loss of the MV Derbyshire were appointed; and by whom. [15566]
Mr. Bowis:
No statutory powers were required for the appointment of the technical assessors.
Mr. Austin-Walker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list (a) the annual percentage change and (b) the increase in fares on (i) London Buses, (ii) London Underground, (iii) all London Transport, (iv) Network SouthEast and (v) British Rail in each year since 1984-85, taking 1984-85 as the base, showing the increase in both actual and real terms; and what was the annual rate of inflation for each of those years. [15940]
Mr. Bowis:
Available information is shown in the tables.
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(i) sport in schools;
(ii) sport in further and higher education;
(iii) the role of governing bodies;
(iv) the role of local authorities;
(v) the role of local sports clubs;
(vi) restructuring of the Sports Council;
(vii) sport and safety;
(viii) the National Lottery;
(ix) other funding;
(x) support for elite athletes; and
(xi) UK sport in the wider world.
1. Fares data for Network South East are no longer available.
2. BR data supplied by British Rail.
3. All other data are supplied by London Transport.
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14 Feb 1997 : Column: 335
Mr. Austin-Walker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list (a) the annual percentage change and (b) the increase in child fares on London Transport in each year since 1984-85, taking 1984-85 as the base, showing the increase in both actual and real terms. [15941]
Mr. Bowis:
Available data from London Transport are as follows:
| Actual | Real | |
|---|---|---|
| 1985-86 | 5.0 | -0.8 |
| 1986-87 | 0.8 | -2.4 |
| 1987-88 | 8.0 | 3.8 |
| 1988-89 | 19.5 | 12.8 |
| 1989-90 | 18.7 | 10.1 |
| 1990-91 | 9.2 | -0.4 |
| 1991-92 | 16.4 | 11.1 |
| 1992-93 | 9.8 | 6.5 |
| 1993-94 | 3.8 | 2.1 |
| 1994-95 | 2.3 | -0.4 |
| 1995-96 | 0.1 | -3.1 |
(3) Ordinary tickets only. Information on travelcards and season tickets is not available.
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