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Capital Spending Projects

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list those capital spending projects being negotiated in the NHS where the lead on building and management involves an overseas firm or organisation. [19298]

Mr. Hutton: Detailed negotiation information is only held centrally on private finance initiative projects with a capital value of £25 million and over. No information is held centrally regarding the country in which the bidders are either registered or owned. Information is therefore supplied for all trusts which have shortlisted or preferred bidders, ie: the stage at which negotiations begin. These are listed in the table.

NHS trust	Consortia name	Builder	Facilities management
Southern Derbyshire Acute Hospitals	1. Concept Healthcare	1. Kier	1. Building and Property
	2. Healthcare Projects	2. Skanska	2. Medirest
Havering Hospitals	1. Byhave Ltd.	1. Bouygues	1. Ecovert
	2. Catalyst	2. Bovis	2. Sodexho
Gloucestershire Royal	Gloucester Healthcare Partnerships	Balfinger and Berger	M and W Zander
University Hospitals Warwickshire and Coventry	Skanska Innisfree	Skanska	ISS Mediclean
Central Manchester Healthcare	1. Catalyst Healthcare	1. Bovis	1. Sodexho
	2. Mowlem Health Solutions	2. Mowlem	2. Aqumen
	3. New Hospitals	3. Taylor Woodrow	3. Medirest
Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Healthcare	Balfour Beatty Charterhouse	Balfour Beatty	Haden

North Bristol NHS Trust

Mr. Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if hospital improvement plans submitted by the North Bristol NHS Trust are among the proposals by trusts that he has prioritised for capital investment under his 10 year plan. [19193]

Ms Blears: No detailed proposals for a major redevelopment of hospital services have yet been submitted to the Department by the North Bristol National Health Service Trust.

29 Nov 2001 : Column: 1117W

SCOTLAND

Section 28 (Local Government Act)

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland (1) what assessment she has made of the effect of the repeal of section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 in Scotland; [11851]

(2) what representations she has received about the repeal of section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 in Scotland. [11850]

Mrs. Liddell: I have received no representations about—and made no assessment of the effect of—the repeal of section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 in Scotland.

TREASURY

Special Purpose Vehicles

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Treasury (a) monitors and (b) offers advice to other Government Departments on special purpose vehicles. [18222]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The Treasury does not monitor special purpose vehicles (SPVs). Where it is directly involved in individual public-private partnerships, the Treasury will take a close interest in the performance of the contractual counterparties, including where these are SPVs. Its role in agreeing broad strategies and approaches to the use of SPVs will not involve it in advising Departments in special cases.

As part of its operational and business guidance for Departments, the Office of Government Commerce published in October guidance on the financial appraisal of suppliers, which includes advice on assessing bidders' financial and economic standing, whether they are SPVs or single companies.

29 Nov 2001 : Column: 1118W

Vocational Training Relief

Mr. Syms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what will replace the vocational training relief. [17989]

Dawn Primarolo: In his pre-Budget statement the Chancellor of the Exchequer outlined the Government's new approach to training and to tackling the intermediate skills deficit in the UK work force.

HIPC Initiative

Mr. Reed: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the HIPC initiative on the debt levels of the HIPC nations; and if he will make a statement. [18489]

Ruth Kelly: The UK believes that the enhanced HIPC initiative is working and already 24 countries have qualified for debt relief. According to World bank and IMF estimates these countries will, on average, have their debts reduced by two-thirds, this will bring their debt service ratios to below the developing country average. The World bank and IMF also estimate that HIPC is delivering US$2.4 billion annually to those countries that have reached Decision Point, and that these countries are allocating about 75 per cent. of their debt relief to social services, such as education and health. Of these, four countries have exited the process and have benefited from irrevocable debt cancellation. The UK continues to work hard to ensure that the HIPC initiative is a success, and to ensure it delivers a sustainable exit from debt for the poorest countries. The UK continues to push for other countries to adopt its policies of offering 100 per cent. interim relief, and holding payment in trust for those countries that have to yet benefit from interim relief.

Arundel and South Downs

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people received (a) tax credits and (b) means- tested benefits in the constituency of Arundel and South Downs in each year since April 1997. [18313]

Dawn Primarolo: The available information for Arundel and South Downs is in the table:

Recipients of (a) tax credits and (b) certain income related benefits in the Arundel and South Downs constituency

	Working families tax credit (WFTC)/family credit (FC)	Disabled persons tax credit/disability working allowance (DWA)	Income support (IS)	Jobseeker's allowance (income based) (JSA)	Total
May 1997	700	10	3,500	600	4,800
May 1998	500	17	3,100	200	3,800
May 1999	600	20	3,000	300	3,900
May 2000	700	20	2,900	200	3,069
May 2001	900	17	3,200	100	3,324

Notes:

1. Apart from DPTC and DWA, the figures are based on a 5 per cent. sample. They are subject to sampling error and therefore shown to the nearest hundred.

2. Recipients of WFTC/FC or DPTC/DWA who also receive IS or JSA are included only in the first two columns. This eliminates double counting in the total.

3. WFTC and DPTC replaced FC and DA from October 1999.

4. DPTC and DWA figures are for April.

Sources:

Income Support Quarterly Statistical Enquiries May 1997-May 2001

Jobseeker's Allowance Quarterly Statistical Enquiries May 1997-May 2001

Working Families' Tax Credit/Family Credit Quarterly Statistical Enquiries May 1997-May 2001

Disabled Person's Tax Credit/Disability Working Allowance Quarterly Statistical Enquiries April 1997-April 2001

29 Nov 2001 : Column: 1119W

Housing benefit and council tax benefit figures are not available for the Arundel and South Downs constituency. The table shows figures for the local authorities overlapping the constituency:

Total housing benefit and council tax benefit case load for local authorities overlapping the Arundel and South Downs constituency, May 1997-May 2001

	Total:
Local authority/period	Housing benefit	Council tax benefit
Arun
May 1997	7,820	10,900
May 1998	7,310	10,120
May 1999	7,420	10,190
May 2000	6,640	9,200
May 2001	6,330	8,840
Chichester
May 1997	5,450	6,620
May 1998	5,160	6,270
May 1999	5,130	6,310
May 2000	4,570	5,510
May 2001	4,460	5,580
Horsham
May 1997	4,780	5,680
May 1998	4,580	5,370
May 1999	4,320	4,990
May 2000	4,050	4,680
May 2001	4,030	4,700
Mid Sussex
May 1997	4,700	5,660
May 1998	4,270	5,020
May 1999	4,080	4,770
May 2000	3,670	4,310
May 2001	3,960	4,500

Notes:

1. The data refer to benefit units, which may be a single person or a couple.

2. The figures have been rounded to the nearest 10 cases.

3. If the local authority failed to respond, figures for the missing data will have been estimated.

Source:

Housing Benefit and Council and Council Tax Benefit Management Information System Quarterly 100 per cent. case load stock-count taken each May from 1997 to 2001.

Euro

Adam Price: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if it is his policy to seek revision of the framework set down by the Stability and Growth Pact as part of the preparations for UK euro entry. [18518]

Ruth Kelly: The Government have said that they will only recommend joining a successful single currency if it is in our national economic interest to do so, and if the economic case for joining is clear and unambiguous. The five tests will define whether a clear and unambiguous case can be made.

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