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Drainage Area Plan (Bingley)
Mr. Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will arrange for the full drainage area plan for the Eldwick/Gilstead area of Bingley, West Yorkshire to be (a) published, (b) placed in the Library and (c) made available to the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council Planning Authority. [30617]
Mr. Meacher: The information requested is not available centrally.
Under section 199 of the Water Industry Act 1991, sewerage companies are required to keep records of the location of every sewer vested in the company. Section 200 of the 1991 Act places a duty on sewerage companies
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to provide local authorities with copies of those records and any modifications to them. They are also required to make sewer records available for public inspection free of charge.
Highway drainage records are kept by the relevant Highway Authorities and can be inspected at the local offices during normal working hours. With regard to the A650 trunk road which passes through Bingley, highway drainage records can be inspected at the City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council offices in Keighley, West Yorkshire.
The Environment Agency collects information on the risk of flooding from rivers or the sea under the provisions of Section 105(2) of the Water Resources Act 1991. Information on design flood levels can be obtained from the Agency's regional office. Such flood plain surveys are principally to provide guidance on flood risk to inform decisions by the local planning authority on development in flood plains. Internal Drainage Boards may hold similar information about their districts, and this would normally be made available on request.
Mr. Leslie:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many planning applications were considered by the Environment Agency in their role as statutory consultee in the last full year for which records are available; and on how many occasions the Environment Agency registered formal advice to local planning authorities to reject applications on the grounds of potential watercourse pollution. [30795]
Mr. Raynsford:
In 1996-97, the Environment Agency was consulted on 104,847 planning applications by English and Welsh local planning authorities on both a statutory and non-statutory basis. The Agency advised local planning authorities to reject the application on the grounds of potential watercourse pollution in an estimated 250 cases. The Agency does not collect separate figures on statutory as opposed to non-statutory consultations nor are applications affecting watercourses always recorded separately.
Mr. Stringer:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions when his Department's headquarters at Marsham Street are to be (a) vacated and (b) demolished. [31259]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
My Department plans to vacate 2 Marsham Street by the end of May 1998. It will be handed back to Property Advisers to the Civil Estate, who will decide its future.
Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many Inland Revenue SA330 forms were issued between 1 and 19 February. [31097]
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Dawn Primarolo
[holding answer 24 February 1998]: SA330 forms were sent to around 150,000 tax agents in respect of around 4 million taxpayers. The forms provided summary details of whether taxpayers had settled their 1996-97 tax liability for agents to check against clients' records.
Mr. MacShane:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many taxpayers are currently entitled to (a) the basic personal allowance, (b) the married couple's allowance, (c) the non-aged married couple's allowance and (d) the additional personal allowance. [31248]
Dawn Primarolo
[holding answer 24 February 1998]: It is estimated that, in 1998-99, some 26.2 million income taxpayers will receive the personal allowance. In addition to this, many more individuals will be kept out of tax by their personal allowance. Around 10.8 million individual taxpayers will benefit from the married couple's allowance, of which 9.6 million people will get the non-aged married couple's allowance. About 840,000 will receive the additional personal allowance.
Sir Sydney Chapman:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about the Government's policy on tackling the debts of the poorest nations. [29632]
Mrs. Liddell:
The Government are firmly committed to supporting debt relief for the poorest countries, including the relief offered under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. In the IMF and World Bank Executive Boards, we have actively supported granting HIPC relief to Uganda, Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Guyana. We have also pressed for movement on other potential beneficiaries, including Mozambique. We have offered to provide up to $10 million to help Mozambique achieve debt sustainability on top of debt relief and assistance the UK has already committed.
Last September, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his Mauritius Mandate statement, called on the international community to commit itself to dealing with the problem of unsustainable debt burdens faced by some poor countries once and for all. This represents a challenge for both creditors and debtors. Creditors should ensure that relief mechanisms are sufficiently flexible to deal with all cases. Debtors should show a commitment to sound economic policies, with a focus on productive expenditures such as basic healthcare and primary education, and demonstrate transparent and accountable decisionmaking. Debt relief is necessary to allow such countries to continue to implement such policies, which are aimed at increasing the pro-poor economic growth that is needed for lasting poverty reduction.
Mr. Wilshire:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list those visits made within the United Kingdom since 1 May on which (a) he and (b) other Ministers within his Department have been accompanied under Rule 83 of the Ministerial Code indicating (i) those persons accompanying and (ii) the cost to public funds. [23752]
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Mr. Gordon Brown
[holding answer 19 February 1998]: None.
Mr. Malcolm Bruce:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the expenditure of his (a) Department, (b) agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies on external consultants in (i) 1995-96, (ii) 1996-97, (iii) 1997-98 to date and (iv) 1997-98 full year; and if he will also estimate the cost savings resulting from the employment of such consultants for each of the above years. [26572]
Mrs. Liddell
[holding answer 5 February 1998]: Figures for expenditure are as in the table:
| £000 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995-96 | 1996-97 | 1997-98 (to date) | 1997-98 (full year) | |
| Customs & Excise | 18,700 | 18,200 | 13,200 | 17,500 |
| Inland Revenue | 29,500 | 6,655 | 3,585 | 5,100 |
| National Savings | 858 | 1,564 | 2,700 | 4,200 |
| Office for National Statistics | n/a | 2,100 | 1,200 | 2,300 |
| Treasury | 611 | 924 | 997 | 1,100 |
The Office for National Statistics was created on 1 April 1996. The Royal Mint has spent a total of £0.3 million on external consultants over 1995-98.
Consultants are employed not only to reduce costs but also to increase Departments' effectiveness; or to carry out specialised tasks for which Departments neither have nor need the staff to carry them out themselves. They have therefore contributed in several ways to Departments' output; and to the cash reductions in the spending of the Chancellor's Departments in recent years.
Mr. Malcolm Bruce:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his current estimate of the expenditure of his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies on hospitality since 1 May 1997. [27730]
Mrs. Liddell
[holding answer 5 February 1998]: The current estimate of expenditure on hospitality is:
| £000 | |
|---|---|
| Inland Revenue (including Valuation Office Agency) | 198 |
| Customs & Excise | 298 |
| HM Treasury | 94 |
| National Savings | 11 |
| Office for National Statistics | 58 |
| Royal Mint | 33 |
Empty Properties
Mr. Malcolm Bruce:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the (a) annual cost and (b) total value of the empty properties owned by (i) his Department, (ii) his agencies and (iii) other public bodies for which he has responsibility, in (A) 1995-96, (B) 1996-97, (C) 1997-98 to date and (D) 1997-98 full year. [26574]
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Mr. Geoffrey Robinson
[holding answer 5 February 1998]: Empty properties has been taken to mean fully vacant buildings.
| £ million | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995-96(1) | 1996-97 | 1996-97 | 1997-98(2) | 1997-98(2) | |
| Department | Annual cost | Total value | Annual cost | Total value | |
| Inland Revenue | -- | 0.2 | 1.0 | 1.9 | 2.0 |
| Customs and Excise | -- | 0.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 0.9 |
(1) Prior to 1.4.96 responsibility for the disposal of vacant space fell to Property Holdings for the Common User Estate.
(2) No distinction has been made between the current year to date and the full year.
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