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European Council

Mr. Mitchell: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what documents Her Majesty's Government intends to place before the European Council due to meet in Luxembourg on 21 to 22 November to discuss employment in the European Community; and if he will place in the Library any such submission at least 10 days before that event. [13386]

Mr. Andrew Smith: In the context of the remit established at the Amsterdam European Council, the Government has submitted two papers: "Employment Policies and Initiatives in the UK", July 1997, and "United Kingdom Employment Action Plan", October 1997. Copies of both these papers are in the Library.

WALES

Beta Interferon

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimate he has made of the cost of prescribing beta interferon in each year since 1995 for each health authority. [13476]

Mr. Win Griffiths: The expenditure on Beta Interferon across the NHS in Wales since 1995 is £8,764. This figure excludes clinical trials for which there is no data available. There is a risk that to provide a more detailed breakdown of this figure might breach patient confidentiality.

Schools (Funding)

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what estimate he has made of the amount of extra funding which will be available for Welsh school education in 1997 as a result of the windfall tax. [14175]

Mr. Hain: £5,025 million capital funding is available this financial year for repair, refurbishment,improvements to school buildings; improvements to school security; and improvements to information technology facilities.

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Dental Services

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what are the latest figures (a) in total and (b) by county for the number of dental practitioners in practice in Wales offering treatment on the national health service; and if he will make a statement. [14082]

Mr. Win Griffiths: The information is given in the following table. The information is collected on a health authority basis.

General dental practitioners who treat at least some NHS patients at 30 June 1997

Health authority	Number
North Wales	198
Dyfed Powys	142
Morgannwg	173
Bro Taf	221
Gwent	173
Wales	907

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) how many dental practitioners were in practice in Wales in (a) 1995, (b) 1996 and (c) at the latest available date; and if he will make a statement; [14086]

(2) how many dental practitioners offering treatment under the national health service there were in practice in Wales in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement. [14090]

Mr. Win Griffiths: Information on the number of general practitioners who treat at least some NHS patients is given in the following table. Information on the number of practitioners only treating patients privately is not collected centrally.

General dental practitioners who treat at least some NHS patients

	Number
September 1992	831
September 1993	843
September 1994	849
September 1995	876
September 1996	900
June 1997	907

Inward Investment

Mr. Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many jobs were created or secured by inward investment in each North Wales county in each of the last five years. [14211]

Mr. Hain: The following statistics relate to companies' intentions at the time of the decision to invest and do not take account of any subsequent changes. The employment figures--safeguarded and new combined--are forecasts, not actual, and relate to inward investment from elsewhere in the United Kingdom as well as from overseas.

Year	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97
Clwyd	2,414	3,072	1,256	752	1,337
Gwynedd	1,009	885	654	89	231

Information on a unitary authority basis is not yet available; the statistics are for the areas covered by the former counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd.

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Computers (Century Date Change)

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales which (a) Minister and (b) civil servant has overall responsibility for ensuring millennium computer compliance in his Department and its associated public bodies. [13626]

Mr. Ron Davis: As Secretary of State I have overall responsibility for ensuring compliance in my Department. The civil servant responsible for Millennium issues within the Department is Dr. A. G. Thornton. In the case of public bodies it is the responsibility of the relevant chief executive.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if he will make a statement on what funding provision has been made to accommodate the expenditure needed to resolve the computer millennium problem; and if he expects to have sufficient funding to pay for the work necessary to achieve complete millennium compliance by 1 January 2000; [13624]

(2) what is his latest estimate of the total cost of resolving the computer millennium problem in (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) other public bodies for which he is responsible; if he will state in each case (i) expenditure incurred to date, (ii) expenditure planned for 1997-98, (iii) expenditure planned for 1998-99 and (iv) expenditure planned for 1999-2000; and if he will make a statement. [13623]

Mr. Ron Davies: My Department has made an assessment of the effect of the millennium date change. I do not expect there to be any major costs involved in ensuring that my Department's computer systems can cater for the year 2000. Cost of future preventative and remedial action on year 2000 will be met from existing PES provision.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will publish the action plan, due by 1 October 1997, for resolving the computer millennium problem in his Department, its agencies and other public bodies for which he is responsible; if such was fully completed on time; and if he will make a statement. [13622]

Mr. Ron Davies: The costed action plans for all Departments will be analysed by officials in the central IT unit at the Cabinet Office and the CCTA and the conclusions reported to the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster who will then inform Parliament. The plans will be exempted from disclosure under the open government code of practice on access to government information which permits non-disclosure prior to an announcement. However, once the announcement has been made the plans will be available to the public.

Mr. Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when his Department, its agencies and other public bodies for which he is responsible completed the millennium computer compliance audits of systems; and if he will make a statement. [13625]

Mr. Ron Davies: The central IT unit at the Cabinet Office and its agent the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency set a model timetable for

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Departments to follow. The Welsh Office has followed this timetable and completed by January 1997 a full survey of the work which needed to be done.

AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD

Food and Drink Industry

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the impact on United Kingdom food and drink producers of (a) a national minimum wage, (b) the Government's welfare-to-work proposals and (c) economic and monetary union. [13379]

Mr. Morley: We are aware of some early assessments of policies within the responsibility of other Departments and where many decisions both of principle and of detail remain to be taken. Although we have not at this stage undertaken separate studies of the impact of such policies specifically on United Kingdom food and drink producers, we carefully consider the likely implications for all the sectors for which the Department is responsible.

Bananas

Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list in respect of imports of bananas into (a) the European Economic Community and (b) the United Kingdom (i) the Community quotas in percentage, approximate tonnage, and value of imports of each of category A, B and C of imports, together with the principal producers in each category, (ii) the approximate difference between the production and selling price to consumers of dollar, category A, and African, Caribbean and Pacific country, category B, African, Caribbean and Pacific country, bananas and (iii) the tonnage and value of banana exports from each Commonwealth source exported to the United Kingdom in the year before and each year since the introduction of the 1993 banana regime. [13388]

Mr. Morley: (i) Twelve African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries which traditionally supplied bananas to the EU have individual export allocations under the EU regime. These total 857,700 tonnes of bananas. The countries are Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Jamaica, Belize, Suriname, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Somalia, Cape Verde and Madagascar.

Other imports of bananas enter the EU within an annual tariff quota; since the enlargement of the EU in 1995 this has been set at 2.553 million tonnes. This figure includes a small allocation for ACP imports outside the traditional quotas. There are three types of licences for importing bananas within the tariff quota: Category A licences (66.5 per cent. of the tariff quota) are allocated on the basis of past trade in third country and non-traditional ACP bananas; Category B licences (30 per cent. of the tariff quota) are allocated on the basis of past trade in EU or traditional ACP bananas; Category C licences (3.5 per cent.) are allocated to traders who do not have a record of trade in bananas before 1993. The tariff quota licences can be used freely to import third-country or non-traditional ACP bananas, i.e. their use is not linked to imports from a particular supplying country. The principal

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suppliers of bananas within the tariff quota are Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama.

The table shows imports from ACP and third country sources into the EU and UK between 1992 and 1996:

UK and EU(7) imports of ACP and non ACP(8) fresh bananasValue (in thousands of ECU(9)) and volume (in tonnes)

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
ACP imports
UK
Value	224,921	232,142	216.610	216,987	239,559
Volume	363,274	377,734	348,488	381,315	411,857
EU
Value	407,970	437,728	439,612	417,394	437,442
Volume	680,185	748,109	728,064	765,489	802,055
Non ACP imports(8)
UK
Value(10)	37,901	33,034	45,899	46,880	47,653
Volume	92,524	77,113	93,241	100,769	88,347
EU
Value(10)	973,392	902,595	1,088,005	1,279,786	1,390,653
Volume	2,367,348	2,220,521	2,122,999	2,399,162	2,689,041

Notes:

The above figures were extracted from the EUROSTAT Comext database on 30 October 1997 and may be subject to future amendment.

(7) Up to 1994 figures are for the EU12, thereafter the EU15.

(8) Not including the Canary Islands, Guadeloupe and Martinique, which are part of the EU.

(9) Animal ECU/£ exchange rates are as follows: 1992: 0.7376; 1993: 0.7800; 1994: 0.7736; 1995: 0.8290; 1996: 0.8108;

(10) Values do not include import tariffs.

Source:

European Commission.

(ii) Information on production prices of bananas for ACP suppliers or dollar suppliers is not available. Average UK retail prices for bananas from all sources since 1992 were as follows:

	Pence per pound
1992	47.99
1993	45.56
1994	45.15
1995	41.48
1996	42.17

I regret that no information is available on the average price paid by EU consumers.

(iii) Volumes and values of imports from Commonwealth countries into the United Kingdom since 1992 are set out in the table below:

UK imports of fresh bananas from Commonwealth countriesValue (in thousands of ECU(11)) and volume (in tonnes(12))

	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Dominica
Value	28,926	28,336	22,761	17,577	21,633
Volume	44,658	46,498	37,819	31,773	39,307
St. Lucia
Value	70,810	65,878	51,062	53,758	61,982
Volume	111,348	106,224	85,741	99,599	106,670
St. Vincent
Value	35,746	32,538	17,455	25,593	25,476
Volume	56,233	53,380	28,236	46,852	44,175
Grenada
Value	3,850	4,039	3,265	2,394	1,133
Volume	6,011	6,720	5,325	4,556	2,007
Jamaica
Value	46,625	46,932	52,424	49,699	52,594
Volume	74,775	77,057	76,401	83,824	89,496
Belize
Value	15,064	23,643	28,172	24,215	25,402
Volume	28,323	38,366	46,980	42,033	52,130
Cameroon
Value	5,127	5,999	13,184	13,217	19,473
Volume	6,702	10,847	25,046	20,457	25,008
Ghana
Value	118	255	166	50	233
Volume	91	181	139	51	189
Total value	206,806	207,618	188,490	186,502	207,926
Total volume	328,140	339,273	305,686	329,146	358,982

Notes:

The above figures were extracted from the EUROSTAT Comext database on 30 October 1997 and may be subject to future amendment.

(11) Annual ECU/£ exchange rates are as follows: 1992: 0.7376; 1993: 0.7800; 1994: 0.7736; 1995: 0.8290; 1996: 0.8108.

(12) Volumes released into free circulation in the UK.

Source:

European Commission.

4 Nov 1997 : Column: 133

Mr. Corbyn: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action he is taking to protect the Caribbean banana producers market in the United Kingdom and Europe; and if he will make a statement. [13664]

Mr. Morley [holding answer 3 November 1997]: The Government are considering the World Trade Organisation (WTO) findings on the EU banana regime in liaison with the Commission in Brussels, who have the principal responsibility for the Community's response.

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We are disappointed by the WTO ruling but we accept that the Community must now set about revising the EU arrangements to bring them into conformity with WTO rules.

The UK's commitment to banana production in the Caribbean is a long-standing one. This Government are in no doubt about the vital importance of the banana industry to the Caribbean and will continue to ensure that the interests of the Caribbean banana growers are fully recognised in the negotiations on the new WTO-consistent arrangements. The Caribbean must be given the opportunity to prove that it can sustain a viable industry committed to providing a good quality product at a competitive price to the European consumer.

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