Order Book Part 1

House of Commons

Session 1999-2000
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The Order Book

Part 1: Written Questions for Answer on Wednesday 3 May 2000

Here you can browse the Written Questions for answer on Wednesday 3 May, of which previous notice has been given in the Notices of Questions paper. They are arranged in alphabetical order of answering Department.

Notes:
* Indicates a Question for Oral Answer.
+ Indicates a Question not included in the random selection process but accepted because the quota for that day had not been filled.
[N] Indicates a Question for Written Answer on a named day, i.e. the Member has indicated under S.O. No. 22(4) the day on which he wishes the Question to be answered.
[R] Indicates that a relevant interest has been declared.

WEDNESDAY 3rd MAY

1
N   Mr Colin Breed (South East Cornwall):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what models for restructuring regional offices he has considered; and if he will make a statement.

(120403)

2
N   Mr Colin Breed (South East Cornwall):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what plans he has to restructure his Department's regional offices; and if he will make a statement.

(120404)

3
N   Mr Colin Breed (South East Cornwall):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what recent representations he has received regarding the proposed restructuring of his Department's regional offices; and from which organisations.

(120405)

4
N   Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will place a copy of the specification for the BRIGHT research project, carried out by NIAB and funded by his Department, together with any interim results in the Library.

(120718)

5
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the countries from which live cattle were imported to the United Kingdom in each of the last five years and the number of live cattle imported from each of those countries in each of those years.

(120567)

6
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what proportion of the budget allocated to the Farm Waste Grant Scheme was taken up in each year of its operation; and what his policy is on the use of underspend.

(120571)

7
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what the level of regional development agencies spending on agricultural programmes is in (a) the current financial year and (b) the next financial year.

(120574)

8
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what the level of Government funding for voluntary bodies dealing with stress among people living in rural areas was in each of the last three years and in the current year; and what plans he has to increase this level of support in the next year.

(120578)

9
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the level of funding for the Farm Waste Grant Scheme in each of the last three years, the current year and each of the next three years.

(120562)

10
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what estimate he has made of the costs incurred by farmers as a result of the recent changes in the regional distribution of over thirty month scheme abattoir contracts.

(120559)

11
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his Answer of 17th April, Official Report, column 333W, what proportion of the sum attributed to the introduction of a single charge for authorisation for the disposal of used sheep dip will accrue to (a) sheep farmers, (b) other farmers and (c) non-farmers.

(120638)

12
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, how much funding for the European Centre for Organic Fruit and Nursery Stock is paid for out of his Department's research and development budget.

(120581)

13
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what assessment he has made of the cost of the proposed level of IPPC charges to farmers in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) each of the other member states of the European Union.

(120583)

14
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if the agri-monetary compensation in the dairy sector will be paid to the lessee where quota is leased.

(120600)

15
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what estimate he has made of the cost to hill farmers of complying with the new conditions being attached to hill farm support payments.

(120558)

16
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the level of funding from the Government for (a) farm business advice and (b) information technology in agriculture in each of the last three years, the current year and each of the next three years.

(120565)

17
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, how planning advice for existing diversification schemes is (a) provided to farmers and (b) funded.

(120572)

18
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if the explanatory booklet pursuant to his Oral statement of 7th December, Official Report, column 706, concerning the England Rural Development Plan has been published.

(120639)

19
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will estimate the cost of extending the Calf Processing Aid Scheme beyond 1st August 1999 to the latest possible date allowed under European Union rules.

(120601)

20
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, pursuant to his Answer of 17th April, Official Report, column 333W, which years the four year period for the introduction of a single charge for the disposal of sheep dip applies to.

(120637)

21
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what estimate he has made of the savings to be gained as a result of the electronic provision of his Ministry's forms.

(120566)

22
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the level of UK Government expenditure on BSE eradication measures in each of the last three years, the current year and the next three years.

(120570)

23
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the applications made to date by his Department to the Capital Modernisation Fund giving the (a) purpose of the application, (b) intended recipients, (c) financial value and (d) outcome of each application.

(120636)

24
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the level of funding from the Government Agricultural Development Scheme and its successor schemes in each of the last three years, the current year and in each of the next three years.

(120564)

25
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the level of funding provided by the Government for the National Training Organisation for the Landbased Sector in each of the last three years, the current year and each of the next three years.

(120568)

26
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will list the countries (a) from which greyhounds were imported to and (b) to which greyhounds were exported from the United Kingdom in each of the last five years and the number of greyhounds imported and exported in each case from each of those countries in each of those years.

(120584)

27
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will make a statement on the role of the European Centre for organic fruit and nursery stock.

(120579)

28
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he has visited the Millennium Dome at Greenwich in an official capacity; and what plans he has to do so.

(120585)

29
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what financial aid the Government has provided for pig farmers in each of the last three years.

(120599)

30
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will publish the budget for the European Centre for Organic Fruit and Nursery Stock for each of the next three years.

(120580)

31
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if he will publish the budget for his Department's research and development in each of (a) the last three and (b) the next three years.

(120582)

32
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, .what estimate he has made of the cost to British farmers of implementing (a) the Nitrates Directive and (b) the Waste Framework Directive.

(120561)

33
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, if the delay in the implementation of the Krebs trials has resulted in a reduction in projected Government expenditure on the trials.

(120602)

34
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, how much the free consultancy service to be made available to farmers seeking approval from the planning authorities for a diversification project under the England Rural Development Plan will cost; and how it will be funded.

(120560)

35
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, how much funding for knowledge transfer is provided from his Department's research budgets in each of the last three years; and how much will be provided in the current year and each of the next three years.

(120569)

36
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what estimate he has made of the cost to farmers of the decision that uninhabitable properties will be liable for council tax.

(120576)

37
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, what plans the Government has to reduce funding for hill livestock compensation allowance payments and its successor schemes after 2000-01.

(120557)

38
N   Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford):    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when she expects to announce the new chair of the Agriculture and Environment Biotechnology Commission; and what role this body will fulfil with regard to the GM farm scale trials.

(120717)

39
N   Mr Anthony Steen (Totnes):    To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, in how many cases the recommendations of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration were not implemented by the relevant Government departments in each of the last five years.

(120346)

40
   Mr Crispin Blunt (Reigate):    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 10th April, Official Report, column 19W, on Iraq, what role tanks play in the Iraqi Integrated Air Defence System.

(120804)

41
N   Mr Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford):    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the lowest operational attitude at which the C130J aircraft is cleared to fly in the RAF.

(120410)

42
N   Mr Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford):    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the divorce rates for serving military personnel in (a) the Army, (b) the Royal Navy and (c) the Royal Air Force for the last 12 month period for which figures are available.

(120408)

43
N   Mr Quentin Davies (Grantham and Stamford):    To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, if he will list the front line combat aircraft operated by the RAF; what is the complement of trained pilots required to operate each type; and how many trained pilots are available to fly each type.

(120409)

44
N   Mr Richard Allan (Sheffield, Hallam):    To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, what (i) amount and (ii) percentage of the proceeds of the windfall tax allocated in the 1999 Budget to (a) the New Deal for 18 to 24 year olds, (b) the New Deal for the long-term unemployed, (c) the New Deal for lone parents and (d) the New Deal for the sick and disabled, for expenditure during the 1999-2000 financial year were (1) spent during that year and (2) carried forward for future years, indicating the reasons for any underspend.

(120411)

45
N   Mr Shaun Woodward (Witney):    To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, on how many occasions in the past 10 years the Secretary of State for Education and Employment has used his powers to give directions under sections (a) 496 and (b) 497 of the Education Act 1996 (i) in relation to individual complaints of racial discrimination in education referred under section 57(5) of the Race Relations Act 1976, (ii) following findings of unlawful discrimination in a formal investigation by the Commission for Racial Equality and (iii) to enforce the general duty under section 19(1) of the Race Relations Act 1976.

(120640)

46
N   Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, when he intends to publish the first results, including interim data, from the farm-scale evaluations of GM crops under way in the UK.

(120719)

47
N   Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, when ACRE will publish the criteria against which changes in biodiversity will be measured in the GM crop trials.

(120715)

48
N   Joan Ruddock (Lewisham, Deptford):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, if yield data will be published from the GM crop trials designed to monitor environmental impact.

(120716)

49
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, what estimate he has made of the amount that British farmers have paid in groundwater charges in each of the years since the charge was introduced; and what his forecast is of the figures for the current year and each of the next three years.

(120563)

50
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, what assessment he has made of the effect on farmers of planning restrictions on mobile telephone masts.

(120577)

51
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, what proportion of the increase in the Redundant Building Grant Programme will be dedicated to farm-based enterprise.

(120575)

52
N   Mr Tim Yeo (South Suffolk):    To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, how the extension of rate relief to farm-based horse enterprises will be funded; and what effect such an extension of rate relief will have on central Government funding.

(120573)

53
N   Mr Matthew Taylor (Truro and St Austell):    To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will list the recent studies (a) undertaken, (b) commissioned and (c) reviewed by his Department that assess the elasticity of demand of domestic users of energy with respect to the price they pay; and if he will make a statement.

(120413)

54
N   Mr Andrew George (St Ives):    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent assessment he has made of the incidence of financial hardship among student nurses; and if he will make a statement.

(120412)

55
N   Mr Andrew George (St Ives):    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what recent representations he has received regarding financial support for student nurses; and if he will make a statement.

(120407)

56
N   Mr Andrew George (St Ives):    To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what representations he has received about the proposal to award employee status to student nurses; and if he will make a statement.

(120406)

57
N   Mr Eric Martlew (Carlisle):    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what progress has been made on the change in status of the Commonwealth Development Corporation.

(119369)

58
N   Mr Stephen O'Brien (Eddisbury):    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make a statement on the future of the aid programme to the Government of Zimbabwe.

(119358)

59
N   The Reverend Martin Smyth (Belfast South):    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what representations she has received from non-governmental organisations working in Burma and Thailand about her Department's policies towards those countries.

(119350)

60
N   Dr Phyllis Starkey (Milton Keynes South West):    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make a statement on UK development aid to the Palestinian Authority.

(119361)

61
N   Mr Kevin McNamara (Kingston upon Hull North):    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if, when he publishes his Implementation Plan for the Patten proposals he will list those items on which the Chief Constable has already started out.

(120648)

62
N   Mr Kevin McNamara (Kingston upon Hull North):    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if, when he publishes his implementation plan for the Patten proposals he will indicate those proposals which have Human Rights and Equality implications that have been referred to the Human Rights and Equality Commissions and their replies in each case.

(120649)

63
N   Mr Kevin McNamara (Kingston upon Hull North):    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if on the date he publishes the proposed legislation to implement the Patten Report and the Implementation Plan he will name the Oversight Commissioner and the Commissioner's assistants.

(120644)

64
N   Mr Kevin McNamara (Kingston upon Hull North):    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, if he will promote a competition between the schools and colleges of Northern Ireland to design a politically neutral new badge and insignia for the Police Services of Northern Ireland.

(120650)

65
   Mr John D. Taylor (Strangford):    To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, whether a Union Flag has been provided at the Roads Service Maintenance Depot, Ballinahone, Armagh City; who has been made responsible for hoisting the Union Flag at these premises on the designated dates; whether St. Patrick's Day and Easter Day were recognised by the flying of the Union Flag at these premises; and if he will make a statement about the arrangements to fly the Union Flag at this Depot.

(120796)

66
N   Mr Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):    To ask the Prime Minister, what exemptions have been made to the sanctions against Serbia for humanitarian reasons, with particular reference to equipment needed for (a) de-mining and (b) dealing with depleted uranium.

(119349)

67
N   Mr Tam Dalyell (Linlithgow):    To ask the Prime Minister, pursuant to his Answer of 12th April, Official Report, column 200W, on the use by NATO of depleted uranium against Yugoslavia, what steps he will recommend that NATO takes to monitor (a) Serbian civilians, (b) ethnic Albanian civilians, (c) the environment of Western Kosovo and (d) the environment of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia for the effects of the use of depleted uranium.

(119503)

68
N   Mr Eric Martlew (Carlisle):    To ask the Prime Minister, if he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 3rd May.

(119396)

69
N   Sir Peter Tapsell (Louth and Horncastle):    To ask the Prime Minister, if he will list his official engagements for Wednesday 3rd May.

(120345)

70
   Mrs Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby):    To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, how many post offices were closed in each year from 1992 to 1999; and how many were opened.

(120797)

71
   Mr Alasdair Morgan (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale):    To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, if he will list the locations of the medical assessment centres in Scotland being used for conducting (a) spirometry and (b) other tests required in connection with the payment of compensation for respiratory diseases.

(120793)

72
   Mr Alasdair Morgan (Galloway and Upper Nithsdale):    To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what the annual costs were of the medical assessment centres in Scotland used to provide medical tests to compensation claimants suffering respiratory diseases in each of the last three years.

(120794)

73
N   Mr Ben Chapman (Wirral South):    To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what proportion of her Department's budget was spent in the world's poorest countries in the last financial year.

[Question Unstarred] (119359)

74
   Mrs Claire Curtis-Thomas (Crosby):    To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security, how many people chose to have child benefit and pensions paid by automatic transfer into bank accounts in each year since 1992.

[Transferred] (120803)