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Ministerial Visits
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement about his recent visit to India and the Maldives. [78413]
Mr. Prescott: I visited India from 4 to 12 March, at the invitation of the Indian Environment Minister, and the Maldives from 12-15 March, as a guest of the Maldives Government.
In India, I had meetings with the Prime Minister, the Ministers for External Affairs, Urban Affairs and Employment, Power, Civil Aviation, Surface Transport and the Environment and Forests, the Chief Minister and Minister of Public Works of Maharashtra, the Mayor and Municipal Corporation in Bombay and the Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation. In most of these meetings I was accompanied by a group of senior business men with interests in India, and a trades unionist. I also addressed the Millennium Tiger Conference, where I announced that the UK would join the Global Tiger Forum and provide further financial support for India's efforts to protect tigers; visited the Ranthambore nature reserve to see at first hand the efforts which the authorities are making to conserve tigers and the rich biodiversity of the Indian sub-continent; visited the Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI); attended a seminar on environment and transport issues organised by TERI; spoke at events organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Delhi, and the British Business Group and the CII in Bombay; and visited a compressed natural gas station in Bombay, with the Minister for Transport of the Government of Maharashrta. I also witnessed the signature of Memoranda of Understanding between the CII and the Joint Environmental Markets Unit of my Department and the Department of Trade & Industry, and between the CII and Asia House.
En route to the Maldives, I met the Sri Lankan Minister of Foreign Affairs, and a number of other Ministers and business leaders, in Colombo. In the Maldives I had meetings with the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Home
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Affairs, Housing and the Environment, Tourism, and Construction and Public Works, and with the Director General of Fisheries Research and Development; visited the VSO office in Male, the Islamic Centre and the Maldivian Telecommunications Company; and also visited a sewage works and a desalination plant and various environmental projects. I was also able to see at first hand the coral reef damage resulting from climate change, pollution and other human activities, and to announce an extension of DfID funding for the South Asia region of the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network.
Shona McIsaac:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will list each offer of financial assistance made by English Partnerships to Glandford Council in respect of the Water's Edge site in Barton upon Humber and the dates upon which they were made. [77089]
Mr. Meale
[holding answer 16 March 1999]: Funding for this project was first approved by the former Department of the Environment in 1991 under the Derelict Land Grant (DLG) scheme. When English Partnerships was established in April 1994, it took on responsibility for the DLG scheme including this project. In addition to administering previously approved aspects of this project, the agency approved grant totalling £162,370 on 28 September 1995, of which £154,252 was paid in the financial year 1997-98.
Mr. Rowe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions how many UK citizens of 65 years or over hold current driving licences. [77458]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
The total number of driving licence holder records for people aged 65 or over in Great Britain is 4.40 million. In Northern Ireland (where driver licensing is the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland) the figure is 64,400.
The number of actual licence holders may be smaller than the number of records because of failure to notify death or emigration.
Mr. Gardiner:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will list the flight number, date, time and place of departure and destination, class travelled, cost and purpose of each flight by senior civil servants in his Department in the course of their duties, including attendance at foreign conferences, symposiums and other meetings, between 1 May 1998 and the present; and what were the total costs of flights of each of the three senior civil servants whose flights cost the most between 1 May 1998 and the present. [75509]
Mr. Kilfoyle:
The information is not held in the form requested. Most travel arrangements for Cabinet Office staff are made through a contractor. Between May and October 1998, senior civil servants in the Cabinet Office
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made 106 flights booked through the contractor at an average cost of £824.62. During this period, the three most expensive flights were £4,900.70, £4,413.60 and £3,345.90. All travel complied with the requirements of the civil service management code.
Mr. Tyrie:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many civil servants in his Department have been invited to waive the Working Time Directive requirement to work less than 48 hours a week on 17 consecutive weeks; how many civil servants in his Department have refused to waive the requirement; and what is the total cost of compliance with the Directive. [76813]
Mr. Kilfoyle:
491 staff in the Cabinet Office and its agencies have signed an agreement to dis-apply the 48 hour limit.
The standard terms and conditions of service for staff employed by the Cabinet Office and its agencies are well within the limits set by the Working Time Regulations. The Regulations do not require employers to keep records of the number of workers who refuse to sign an opt-out agreement and no central records are kept by this Department. Compliance costs are not kept centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Woodward:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants saw the European Scrutiny Committee questions brief in advance of the appearance of the Parliamentary Secretary before the committee on 2 December. [77850]
Mr. Kilfoyle
[holding answer on 19 March 1999]: It has been a common but not universal practice over a long period for Committees to indicate the broad areas they intend to cover at a hearing, to ensure that the evidence session is as effective and productive as possible. I was informed of likely questions in advance of the Committee hearing on 2 December 1998.
Mr. Yeo:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he has discussed with representatives of the biotechnology industry the introduction of a voluntary three-year halt in the planting of herbicide-tolerant genetically modified crops. [77682]
Dr. Jack Cunningham
[holding answer on 19 March 1999]: No.
Mr. Tyrie:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many civil servants in his Department have been invited to waive the Working Time Directive requirement to work less than 48 hours a week on 17 consecutive weeks; how many civil servants in his Department have refused to waive the requirement; and what is the total cost of compliance with the Directive. [76797]
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Mr. Hain:
No staff have yet been invited to waive the Working Time Directive. It is anticipated that a small proportion, less than 2 per cent., may be invited to waive the requirements of the Directive in due course.
The standard terms and conditions of service for staff employed in my Department are well within the limits set by the Working Time Regulations. These Regulations do not require employers to keep records of the number of workers who refuse to sign an opt-out agreement and, therefore, no central record will be kept by my Department. The same applies to compliance costs which could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Swayne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many patients in each health authority area had been waiting for NHS treatment in December 1996 for (a) six months and under, (b) six to 12 months, (c) 12 to 18 months and (d) over 18 months. [77461]
Mr. Jon Owen Jones:
Information on waiting times is not collected in the form requested.
| Health authority | Outpatients waiting over 6 months | In/Daycase waiting over 12 months | In/Daycase waiting over 18 months | In/Daycase waiting over 2 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North Wales | 512 | 390 | 54 | 1 |
| Bro Taf | 2,906 | 1,669 | 331 | 0 |
| Dyfed Powys | 1,167 | 1,225 | 146 | 0 |
| Morgannwg | 3,773 | 671 | 190 | 0 |
| Gwent | 1,747 | 1,703 | 493 | 3 |
Following the transfer of functions, in future this issue will be a matter for the National Assembly.
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