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Vibration White Finger

Mr. Clapham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will state (a) what has been the cost to date, including the legal costs, of devising a compensation scheme for miners suffering from vibration white finger, (b) when he expects a scheme to be operative and (c) what is the number of cases currently informally lodged with solicitors. [64699]

Mr. Battle [holding answer 11 January 1999]: (a) Since the judgment was handed down in September 1997 some £1.1 million has been incurred by Departmental advisers, including principally Counsel, external solicitors and medical experts. The costs of DTI staff and of staff working for IRISC, the Department's claim handler, on this work cannot be separately identified.

(b) Significant progress has been made in the last few weeks in negotiating a scheme for compensating ex-miners with Vibration White Finger. I am optimistic

13 Jan 1999 : Column: 205

that an agreement will be reached shortly. We began piloting the single medical assessment process at our testing centre in Sheffield on 1 December and, once final agreement is reached, would hope to extend it nationally by the spring.

(c) As at 1 January some 31,000 claims have been received by IRISC, the Department's claim handlers. We do not know how many further claims may be lodged with claimants' solicitors.

Assisted Areas

Mr. Love: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will consult with local authorities on revising UK assisted areas. [65164]

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Mr. Wills: During the public consultation period on the review of Assisted Areas, my Department consulted with local authorities, and other key bodies. We are currently considering their responses.

Scientific Research

Mr. Nigel Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of Government expenditure in each EU country has been on scientific research for each year since 1986-87. [64842]

Mr. Battle: Separating out the cost of scientific research from the overall research and development figure is not possible. However, the percentage of central government expenditure used to support research and development in each EU country over the period 1986 to 1996, derived from OECD data, is as follows:

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	1986	1987	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996
Austria	2.22	2.21	2.30	2.38	2.34	2.56	2.58	2.70	2.86	2.77	2.71
Belgium	2.48	2.54	2.55	3.44	3.28	3.23	3.20	3.33	3.25	3.30	3.56
Denmark	2.09	2.14	2.64	2.54	2.46	2.47	2.14	2.08	2.15	2.44	2.42
Finland	2.66	2.70	2.83	2.96	2.99	3.08	3.28	3.69	3.65	3.63	3.51
France	5.84	5.78	5.80	5.92	6.23	5.92	5.37	5.10	4.97	4.69	4.46
Germany	4.56	4.52	4.38	4.58	4.59	4.24	4.08	4.01	3.80	3.76	3.83
Greece	1.12	1.18	1.14	1.44	1.22	1.27	1.14	1.27	1.40	1.91	n/a
Ireland	1.66	1.75	1.76	1.79	1.62	1.64	1.70	1.74	1.57	2.02	n/a
Italy	3.14	3.30	3.54	3.27	3.23	3.30	3.57	3.09	2.93	2.92	n/a
Luxembourg	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
Netherlands	4.59	4.85	4.69	4.82	5.17	4.23	4.14	4.06	4.14	4.39	4.31
Portugal	1.32	1.58	1.45	1.54	1.78	1.93	1.93	2.38	n/a	n/a	n/a
Spain	1.54	1.78	1.98	2.28	2.40	2.39	2.29	2.13	2.15	2.29	2.36
Sweden	3.40	3.65	3.70	3.50	3.44	3.60	3.53	3.50	3.38	3.49	n/a
United Kingdom	4.60	4.36	4.13	3.95	3.74	3.53	3.35	3.44	3.18	3.37	3.35

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DEFENCE

Military Survey Defence Agency

Mrs. Gilroy: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what key targets have been set for the Chief Executive of the Military Survey Defence Agency for 1998-99. [65252]

Mr. Spellar: The role of the Military Survey Defence Agency is to ensure the provision of geographic support to defence operations, planning and training. The Key Targets for the Agency for the 12 months from April 1998 are:

Key Target 1:

To satisfy 100 per cent. of requirement for geographic support to current operations within the timescales agreed between the Agency and its customers.

Key Target 2:

To agree with the Joint Customer Group, by March 1999, a process for measuring the degree of customer satisfaction with the service provided.

Key Target 3:

To complete the agreed annual production programme on time and to cost.

Key Target 4:

To establish by March 1999 a process for measuring the degree of satisfaction the Library service provides.

Key Target 5:

To maintain the readiness state of the required Field Support elements of the Agency as required by the Department.

Key Target 6:

To achieve a 2.5 per cent. improvement in efficiency.

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Iraq

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what were the circumstances in which missiles landed on the Hail Adel residential district of Baghdad during the recent raids on Iraq. [65382]

Mr. George Robertson: No missiles were fired by UK forces in the course of Operation Desert Fox. Questions relating to the circumstances of individual missile attacks are therefore a matter for the US authorities. Throughout Desert Fox the greatest care was taken to avoid any collateral damage and I am confident that any that did occur was limited.

However, the US authorities believe that a US cruise missile may have been shot down on the night of 16-17 December and landed in the Al Karradah area of Baghdad, which is immediately adjacent to the Hail Adel district. They assess that it did not cause any significant damage. The missile was not targeted on a residential area.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Montserrat

Ms Oona King: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what progress has been made in concluding the Country Policy Plan for Montserrat. [66004]

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Clare Short: The Country Policy Plan (CPP) negotiations took place on Montserrat between 16-20 November between a joint DFID/FCO team and the Government of Montserrat (GoM). My hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State has today in Montserrat formally signed the agreement with Chief Minister Brandt.

The CPP sets out (a) GoM's commitment to open and transparent goverment and to key democratic principles and (b) the general principles guiding HMG's relations with its Overseas Territories and specific commitments to Montserrat including the £75m available through DFID's bilateral programme for the period 1998-99 to 2000-01.

The CPP contains a series of policy matrices which set out objectives and timebound actions for each sector. These include both the commitment to implement existing policies and to take decisions on outstanding policy issues. The most important include:

Social Sectors: implementation of a social welfare review to improve the targeting and delivery of support to the neediest, and reivew of the case for restoration of post-secondary and vocational education on the basis of the population on-island;

Public Administration: a job evaluation exercise and review of terms and conditions of service for completion by early 2000 to improve recruitment and retention of staff with marketable skills;

Public Finance: a review of the tax incentive regime in 1999 to ensure an appropriate balance between providing incentives for private sector activity and maintaining an adequate revenue base;

Infrastructure: agreement on provision of a fixed wing airlink facility in 1999;

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Productive Sectors: a business opportunity survey to improve the information available to potential investors.

All policy matrices are consistent with the HMG/GoM Sustainable Development Plan (SDP) and with the Public Sector Investment Programme (PSIP) which forms part of the CPP and sets out ongoing and possible new projects for the period 1998-2000.

The draft PSIP is costed at EC$372m (£85m). After deduction of other donor funded projects, the total of projects earmarked for DFID is £82m. This is consistent with the £75m resource envelope as a degree of over- planning is necessary to ensure full use of the resources. The draft PSIP does not yet take account of all of the EDF resources that will become available in 1999 which will be subject to separate negotiations later this year.

A copy of the CPP will be placed in the Libary of the House.

SCOTLAND

New Deal

Mr. Gorrie: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people have been found placements under the New Deal scheme in each constituency in Scotland. [63428]

Mr. Dewar [holding answer 15 December 1998]: The information is not available for Parliamentary Constituencies; information for units of delivery, based on local enterprise company areas, is set out in the table.

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New Deal 18-24: placements made to end September 1998

						Thousand
	Total starts(3)	Unsubsidised jobs	Subsidised employment	Education and training	Voluntary sector	Environment task force
Tayside	2.17	0.25	0.25	0.27	0.09	0.11
Ayrshire	1.69	0.19	0.16	0.11	0.07	0.00
Borders	0.27	0.04	0.03	0.03	0.01	0.01
Dumfries and Galloway	0.43	0.04	0.06	0.06	0.02	0.01
Dunbarton	0.82	0.11	0.02	0.06	0.02	0.06
Edinburgh	1.26	0.17	0.10	0.13	0.03	0.01
Fife	1.36	0.15	0.08	0.19	0.02	0.04
Forth Valley	0.90	0.12	0.05	0.09	0.04	0.02
Glasgow	3.18	0.33	0.14	0.32	0.15	0.07
Grampian	0.60	0.07	0.02	0.02	0.00	0.00
Moray	0.19	0.05	0.02	0.01	0.00	0.01
Lanarkshire	2.52	0.29	0.14	0.18	0.05	0.05
Renfrewshire	1.10	0.18	0.03	0.05	0.05	0.00
West Lothian	0.42	0.07	0.02	0.03	0.01	0.01
Argyll and Islands	0.21	0.03	0.02	0.01	0.01	(4)--
Caithness and Sutherland	0.08	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.01
Inverness and Nairn	0.17	0.04	0.02	0.01	0.00	(4)--
Lochaber	0.05	0.01	0.01	0.00	(4)--	(4)--
Western Isles	0.09	0.01	0.01	0.01	0.00	(4)--
Orkney	0.93	0.01	0.00	(4)--	(4)--	(4)--
Ross and Cromarty	0.14	0.03	0.01	0.01	0.00	0.00
Shetland	0.03	0.01	0.00	0.00	(4)--	(4)--
Skye and Lochalsh	0.03	0.01	0.01	(4)--	(4)--	(4)--
Scotland	17.70	2.30	1.21	1.62	0.56	0.40

(3) In addition to those identified as having found placements, the total includes those who are on the Gateway or Follow Through stages and those who have left the programme.

(4) Indicates that there are no young people in the category in question; cells where 0.00 appears indicate that there are between 1 and 4 young people in the category.

13 Jan 1999 : Column: 209

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