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Disability Discrimination Act 1995
Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on the implications for owners and occupiers of listed buildings used for trading purposes of the decision to implement fully the Disability Discrimination Act 1995; what the total cost to business will be and over what timescale; and if he will make a statement. [84426]
Ms Hodge: When fully implemented, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will require service providers to make adjustments, where reasonable, so that their services are accessible to disabled people. These requirements are being introduced in two phases. They will apply to service providers in listed buildings.
From 1 October, service providers will have to take reasonable steps to change practices, policies or procedures which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service; to provide auxiliary aids or services which would make it easier for, or enable, disabled people to use a service; and to provide the service by a reasonable alternative method where a physical feature makes it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use the service. From 2004, service providers will have to take reasonable steps to
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remove, alter, or provide reasonable means of avoiding physical features that make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service.
Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG 15) issued by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions makes it clear that
The Disability Discrimination Act, in common with the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Race Relations Act 1976, cannot require anything to be done that would contravene another piece of legislation. Where a service provider must get statutory consent to a particular alteration, including listed building or scheduled monument consent, and that consent is not given, the Disability Discrimination Act will not have been contravened. However, a service provider would still need to take whatever other steps under the Act were reasonable to provide the service.
At the end of June, we shall be publishing a new Code of Practice which explains the duties coming into force in October as well as the current rights under the Disability Discrimination Act, and which gives examples of good practice. In due course, a public consultation exercise will be held in respect of a revised Code explaining the duties which are due to come into force in 2004.
The Government's assessment of the costs, and benefits, of implementing the later rights in Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act are contained in the Regulatory Impact Assessment, copies of which are in the Library. It is also available on the disability website: www.disability.gov.uk.
Mr. Stringer:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will make a statement on co-ordinating initiatives on drugs in schools. [83651]
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Mr. Charles Clarke:
The Department is committed to delivering the education strands of the Government's 10 year UK anti-drugs strategy, and has issued guidance to schools and the youth service on the effective delivery of drug education. In particular, it offers teachers and headteachers advice on some key areas in the delivery of drug education, encouraging them to take note of best practice and develop their own detailed programmes and policies of drug education which take account of their own pupils' needs and of local circumstances. A copy of the guidance, entitled "Protecting Young People; Good practice in drug education in schools and the youth service" is in the Library.
The DfEE is making support for drug education available to local education authorities, to assist primary and secondary schools and the youth service to deliver effective drug education. Support is available, through the Standards Fund programme, for the next three years, starting in 1999-2000. £7.5 million is available each year, following the Comprehensive Spending Review.
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the work he has done to secure (a) Korean and (b) Japanese inward investment into the United Kingdom. [81101]
Dr. Reid
[holding answer 16 April 1999]: Locate in Scotland promotes Scotland's advantages as a business location, working in partnership with the Local Enterprise Companies, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and other bodies in both the public and private sectors. Scotland has attracted strong flows of inward investment in recent years, and inward investment projects from Korea and Japan over the last 5 years have involved 30 projects with planned investment of over £3.2 billion and over 5,000 new/safeguarded jobs.
As from 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr. Wallace:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the amounts the Government have spent on (a) opinion polling, (b) focus groups and (c) advertising in Scotland or related to Scottish Office responsibilities since it came to office. [80051]
Dr. Reid
[holding answer 13 April 1999]: The details are:
Mr. Swinney:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the current level of assessed parental income above which a student becomes eligible for (i) full and (ii) part payment of tuition fees; what plans he has to increase these threshold levels in line with inflation; what estimate he has of the number of students who will
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become eligible for paying in full or in part their tuition fee if the threshold is not increased in line with inflation; and if he will make a statement. [82656]
Dr. Reid
[holding answer 29 April 1999]: For academic session 1998-99 parents with a residual income (gross income less certain allowable deductions) greater than £27,000 are expected to contribute the full amount towards their children's tuition fees. Parents whose residual income is between £16,945 and £27,000 are expected to make some contribution towards tuition fees, based on a sliding scale. Parents with a residual income of less than £16,944 make no contribution.
In line with previous practice relating to maintenance grants, the income threshold levels have been increased for academic session 1999-2000 by reference to the Retail Prices Index. The increase of 2.5 per cent. was announced on 15 February 1999, Official Report, column 464.
As from 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr. Peter Atkinson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what the current level of per capita funding for students is in the Borders Region (a) in primary schools, (b) in secondary schools up to the age of 16 years and (c) for those aged between 16 and 18 years. [84174]
Mr. Macdonald:
Per pupil expenditure by Scottish Borders Council in 1996-97, the latest financial year for which information is available, was £1,896 in primary schools, and £3,039 in secondary schools. The figures, which are derived from local authority financial returns, do not include the cost of home to school transport, school meals, education authority central administration costs and loan charges. The returns do not identify expenditure according to the age of pupils.
From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr. John M. Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland which of the decennial population returns for Scotland have been closed to public inspection for (a) 100 years, (b) 80 years or (c) permanently. [84495]
Mr. Macdonald:
The 1841-91 census returns are open to the public. The 1901 and later census returns are closed for 100 years. No census returns are kept closed for 80 years, nor are any closed permanently.
From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr. John M. Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list (a) the linear metres of storage space occupied by each of the pre-1992 decennial census returns for Scotland, (b) the actual costs, at current prices, of microfilming each of the pre-1901 census returns and (c) the average microfilm cost per linear metre, at current prices. [84496]
Mr. Macdonald:
The 1841-91 census returns for Scotland which are open to the public occupy approximately the following amounts of shelving in accommodation belonging to the Registrar General for
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Scotland. For more details of the storage space occupied by the 1901 and later censuses, I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the right hon. Member for North-West Cambridgeshire (Sir B. Mawhinney) on 13 May 1999, Official Report, column 191.
"it is important in principle that disabled people should have dignified easy access to and within historic buildings",
and that with a proper approach
"it should normally be possible to plan suitable access for disabled people without compromising a building's special interest".
English Heritage's booklet "Easy Access to Historic Properties" is designed to help those who own, manage, or are professionally concerned with historic properties to strike a balance between conservation and access.
(a) Nil
(b) £145,000
(c) £6,074,600.
| Linear metres | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1841 Census | (7)278 | 47 |
| 1851 Census | (8)176 | 26.9 |
| 1861 Census | (8)1,328 | 35.9 |
| 1871 Census | (8)1,392 | 26.9 |
| 1881 Census | (8)1,080 | 26.9 |
| 1891 Census | (8)1,480 | 39.2 |
| All open censuses | -- | 202.8 |
| All closed censuses | -- | 6,025.8 |
| All censuses | -- | 6,228.6 |
(7) Boxes
(8) Volumes
The open censuses have all been microfilmed and there are no plans to refilm. Information on the actual costs of filming--which took place over a period of years starting in the 1950s--cannot now be assembled.
As a very approximate guide, the estimated cost at 1999 prices of microfilming paper volumes of census returns such as would take up one linear metre of shelving might be of the order of £400 to £500.
From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
Mr. John M. Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish the text of the (a) non-statutory assurances of confidentiality and (b) 100-year extended closure given by the Registrar General on the householders' forms for the 20th century censuses of population for Scotland. [84497]
Mr. Macdonald:
(a) The text appearing on the various census returns is as follows:
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From 1 July 1999, this will be a matter for the Scottish Parliament.
1901
The Return is required for carrying out the provisions of the Census Act. The contents of the Schedules will be treated as confidential; they will be published in General Abstracts only, and strict care will be taken that the Returns are not used for the gratification of curiosity, or for other purposes than those of the Census.
1911
The contents of the Schedule will be treated as strictly confidential.
1921
Strictly Confidential (marked at top of Householder's Schedule).
1931
Strictly Confidential (marked at top of Householder's Schedule).
1951
The contents of the schedule are strictly confidential.
1961
The contents of the schedule are strictly confidential.
1966
The information you give on the form will be treated as confidential and used only for compiling statistics. No information about named individuals will be passed by the Census Office to any other Government Department or any other authority. If anyone employed on the census improperly discloses information you provide, he will be liable to prosecution.
Where information is supplied to you--for example by a visitor or anyone not belonging to the family--you must not disclose or use it for any purpose other than filling in this form. (If you do, you will be liable to a fine of up to £10. There is also a penalty of up to £10 for refusing to fill in the form or refusing to give you information to enable you to fill it in, or for giving false information).
1971
The information you give on the form will be treated as Confidential and used only for compiling statistics. No information about named individuals will be passed by the Census Office to any other Government Department or any other authority or person. If anyone employed in taking the census improperly discloses information you provide, he will be liable to prosecution. Similarly you must not disclose information which anyone (for example, a visitor or boarder) gives you to enable you to complete the form.
1981
The form is used only for compiling statistics and when you have completed it in accordance with the instructions it will be treated as Confidential and no information about named individuals will be passed by the Census Office to any other Government Department or any other authority or person. If anyone employed in taking the census improperly discloses information you provide, he will be liable to prosecution. Similarly you must not disclose information which anyone (for example, a visitor or boarder) gives you to enable you to complete the form.
1991
Your answers will be treated in strict confidence and used only to produce statistics. Names and addresses will not be put into the computer; only the postcode will be entered. The forms will be kept securely within my Office and treated as confidential for 100 years.
Anyone using or disclosing Census information improperly will be liable to prosecution. For example, it would be improper for you to pass on to someone else information which you had been given in confidence by a visitor to enable you to complete the Census form.
(b) The interpretation of strict confidentiality as requiring lengthy closure of the census returns was not printed on the census forms themselves before 1991, but is part of the Registrar General's policy agreed in 1974 by the then Secretary of State for Scotland and announced in Parliament (Hansard, Official Report Vol 874, no. 46, Written Answer cols 272-3). This confirmed that Scottish census returns for 1901 or later years would not be made available until 100 years after the census to which they relate, and that only in exceptional circumstances could closed census returns be accessed. These public access provisions were affirmed by the present Government in the White Paper "The 2001 Census of Population" (Cm. 4253), published on 4 March 1999. The closure period is intended to safeguard the confidentiality of the personal information collected in the census, and successive Governments have honoured an undertaking that the information would remain confidential. Protection of the credibility of the undertaking is crucial to maintaining the quality of the information collected.
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