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Radio Rights
Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what plans he has to prevent radio rights from being sold to non-radio broadcasters; and if he will make a statement; [16193]
- (2) what measures he is taking to safeguard local radio live sports coverage; and if he will make a statement. [16194]
Mr. Fisher: Radio coverage of major sports events is included in the voluntary code signed by sports rights holders under the umbrella of the Central Council for Physical Recreation. This code appears to be working well. The current review of listed sports events will, however, allow the question of live radio broadcast rights to be considered further.
Sports Coverage
Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if he will introduce a statutory code on news access to sports coverage; and if he will make a statement. [16192]
Mr. Fisher:
News access to major sports events is protected under the fair dealing provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A voluntary code of practice signed by a number of broadcasters also exists and this appears to be working well.
19 Nov 1997 : Column: 181
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport when the ITC review into bundling and competition in the pay television market will be completed. [16693]
Mr. Fisher
[holding answer 18 November 1997]: The closing date for responses to the Independent Television Commission's consultation document "Competition Investigation into Bundling in the Pay TV Market: Second Phase", was 30 September. I understand that the Commission are currently considering the responses and have not put any timescale on an announcement.
Health Service (Consultant Posts)
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many consultant posts in the Scottish Health Service are unfilled at present; where the unfilled posts are located; and what was the equivalent position 12 months ago. [16169]
Mr. Galbraith: The information requested is shown in the table.
19 Nov 1997 : Column: 183
Water Quality
Mr. Ernie Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on Scottish river and coastal water quality. [17260]
Mr. Dewar: The report on the Water Quality Survey of Scotland 1995 is being published today, and a copy has been placed in the House Library. I am pleased that the results confirm that the majority of Scottish rivers, lochs, estuaries and coastal waters are of a high quality.
However, I intend that progress will continue to improve further the Scottish water environment. For very large discharges (that is those serving more than 150,000 population equivalent), Article 8(5) of the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive allows for primary treatment only to be provided, where it can be demonstrated that there would be no environmental benefit from secondary treatment. I have decided that only in very exceptional circumstances will we allow waste water discharges from major conurbations into coastal waters to be provided with anything less than secondary treatment. Following advice from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency
19 Nov 1997 : Column: 184
(SEPA) it is clear that the discharge from the Aberdeen Waste Water Treatment Works, which discharges directly to the open North Sea via a 2.5km long outfall, is exceptional in that it far exceeds the criteria established to judge such cases. The North of Scotland Water Authority's plans to invest in primary treatment will significantly improve the discharge, but I have accepted SEPA's advice that providing secondary treatment would not lead to any additional environmental benefit. The Government therefore have proposed to the European Commission that Article 8(5) of the Directive should be applied to the Aberdeen case.
Having also carefully considered SEPA's recommendations following comprehensive studies at Edinburgh and Levenmouth, I have decided that secondary treatment should be provided at those two sites. I do not envisage that the Government will wish to put forward to the Commission any further cases for relaxations under Article 8(5) for discharges from large sewage works into other Scottish waters.
Mr. Ernie Ross:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the report commissioned from Mr. Roger Kent on safeguards for children living away from home. [17261]
Mr. Dewar:
In July last year, Roger Kent was invited to look at the measures in place for the protection of children living away from home and to assess their effectiveness. I have now received Mr. Kent's report. It identifies the risks that exist for this group of vulnerable children, the safeguards which apply at present and makes a number of recommendations--61 in total--on how those safeguards could be improved. The recommendations are wide-ranging, addressing the needs of children living in residential and foster care, children in boarding schools and children otherwise living away from home.
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