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Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 2 February 1989
EDUCATION AND SCIENCE
Veterinary Medicine (Graduates)
Mrs. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he will list in the Official Report the total number of women graduates in veterinary
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medicine in each British college in each of the past five years, showing this figure also as a percentage of the total number of graduates ;(2) if he will list in the Official Report the total number of graduates in veterinary medicine at each veterinary college in Britain in each of the past five years.
Mr. Jackson : The available information is shown in the following table. Information prior to 1986 is not readily available.
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Women graduates in veterinary medicine in institutions in the United Kingdom
1986 1987
|Total |Women |Women as a percentage of|Total |Women |Women as a percentage of
|total |total
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bristol |46 |21 |45.7 |40 |24 |60.0
Cambridge |53 |29 |54.7 |56 |23 |41.1
Liverpool |47 |14 |29.8 |47 |12 |24.5
London |57 |26 |45.6 |65 |29 |44.6
Edinburgh |51 |29 |56.9 |51 |23 |45.1
Glasgow |58 |29 |50.0 |52 |27 |51.9
Belfast |1 |1 |100.0 |2 |1 |50.0
|--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |---
Total |313 |149 |47.6 |313 |139 |44.4
Mr. Margaret Ewing : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list in the Official Report the total number of British-domiciled graduates in
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veterinary medicine who (a) found employment in Britain and (b) found employment outwith Britain in each of the past five years.Mr. Jackson : The available information is as follows :
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Destinations of first degree graduates in veterinary medicine (United Kingdom<1>) ---------------------------- 1982-83 |222|6 |228|321 1983-84 |207|4 |211|319 1984-85 |210|5 |215|334 1985-86 |229|7 |236|313 1986-87 |227|4 |231|313 <1> Includes a small number of students at university in Northern Ireland and a small number of non-United Kingdom domiciled students.
Children (Medical Conditions)
Mr. Fatchett : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the statutory provision made for children of normal ability whose academic progress is impeded by irregular school attendance caused by the crises of chronic medical conditions such as a sickle cell anaemia or asthma.
Mr. Butcher : It is the responsibility of local education authorities to make suitable education available for all children in their area. Such provision can be made either in schools or "otherwise than in schools"--for example, home tuition or hospital education. It is for each authority to determine what provision is appropriate for each child, after having taken account of individual circumstances, such as any particular medical condition.
Teachers' Superannuation Scheme
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science whether he proposes to introduce
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additional facilities for additional voluntary contributions within the teachers' superannuation scheme ; and if he will make a statement.Mrs. Rumbold : The prudential pension fund services have been appointed to provide a new additional voluntary contributions (AVC) scheme for teachers who are members of the teachers' superannuation scheme for England and Wales. They have also been appointed to provide these facilities for members of the teachers' scheme in Scotland.
The AVC scheme will offer a flexible, money-purchase alternative to the existing provision for buying-in added years. Members will be able to choose to invest their contributions in a with-profits or a unit-linked fund, or on cash deposit at building society rates of interest, or to apply them to the purchase of additional life insurance cover, or in any combination of these investments. Members will also be free to vary their contributions, and their allocation between investments, at any time.
We intend to lay regulations before Parliament shortly to give effect to the new scheme, and to seek approval for
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it under section 592 of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 so that teachers' contributions are allowable as a deduction from income before assessment to tax. Subject to these requirements, the scheme will come into operation on 1 April 1989, enabling members to secure tax relief on single premium payments in the 1988-89 tax year.OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT
Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference
Miss Lestor : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what new initiatives he will propose at the coming meeting of the Southern Africa Development co-ordination conference in Angola.
Mrs. Chalker [pursuant to her answer, 1 February 1989] : My hon. Friend the Minister for Overseas Development has today told the annual donors meeting of the Southern African development co-ordination conference (SADCC) that commitments of British aid for SADCC projects now stand at £60 million. This follows his approval of a £15 million project to finance the second phase of the rehabilitation of the Limpopo railway linking Zimbabwe to Maputo. He has announced that Britain will contribute £500,000 to the programme co-ordinated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to repatriate Namibian refugees from Angola and Zambia ; and that we are ready when appropriate to provide technical assistance to help reopen the Benguela railway in Angola. He has also announced an additional £250,000 to help finance UNHCR's programme for Mozambican refugees in Malawi, bringing total British aid for this purpose to £3.328 million.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Manufacturing Output
Mr. Dykes : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what is the most recently available index figure for output in manufacturing industry ; and what was the figure for the same month in 1973, 1979, 1983 and 1986.
Mr. Atkins : The figures are as follows :
|Manufacturing Output
|(1985=100)
---------------------------------------------------------------
November 1973 |111.2
November 1979 |106.6
November 1983 |94.9
November 1986 |104.1
November 1988 |116.4
Credit
Sir Anthony Grant : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what information he has as to what efforts are being made by the credit card companies and associated banks to assist those borrowers with problems of excessive personal indebtedness.
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Mr. Maude : The clearing banks through the banking information service provide information on credit and debt, through educational visits, videos and literature. Some 20 financial organisations, of which seven are banks, are providing £750,000 over a period of three years for money advice.
Sir Anthony Grant : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what information he has as to the average merchant service charge paid by retailers accepting (a) Visa, (b) Access, (c) American Express and (d) Diners Club for each year since 1984.
Mr. Maude : Merchant service charges paid by retailers accepting credit cards are a matter for commercial negotiation between the retailer and card company, and information about these charges is not held by my Department.
Sir Anthony Grant : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what information he has as to what range of interest rates are available to personal borrowers in the following categories : (a) bank credit cards, (b) store credit cards, (c) mortgages, (d) bank loans and (e) other forms of credit.
Mr. Maude : Detailed information on ranges of interest rates available to personal borrowers is not centrally available. The Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit) Regulations 1980 (SI 1980/51) prescribe the items to be included in and the method of calculating the annual percentage rate of charge (APR) so that consumers can compare the various rates on offer.
Sir Anthony Grant : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what information he has as to what proportion of credit card applicants have been rejected by the credit card companies in each of the past 10 years.
Mr. Maude : The information requested is not available. Whether to accept or reject a credit card application is a commercial decision for the card company concerned. However, a major credit card company recently announced that it rejects about one in three applications.
Sir Anthony Grant : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (1) what information he has as to what proportion of borrowers in each of the following categories pay interest at the full annual percentage rate ; and what is the average percentage paid in each category (a) bank credit cards, (b) store credit cards, (c) bank loans and (d) other forms of credit ;
(2) what information he has as to the annual increases in borrowing on which interest is paid for (a) bank credit cards, (b) unsecured personal loans, (c) secured personal loans and (d) loans from retailers for each year since 1984.
Mr. Maude : Credit business statistics published by the Department (there is no earlier comparable data) show that the amounts outstanding to lenders from borrowers were :
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£ million
|Bank credit cards |Retailers |Bank loans (on personal|Finance houses etc.
|accounts)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1986 |838 |95 |1,452
1987 |889 |357 |1,711 |2,619
<1>1988 |449 |70 |940 |1,500
<1> First half.
However, the statistics do not distinguish the proportion of borrowers who pay interest on the credit available from those who only borrow for a free credit period.
Sir Anthony Grant : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what information he has as to what weighting is given, when calculating annual percentage rates, of the effect of the free credit period which holders of bank credit cards receive from the day of their purchase to their statement date.
Mr. Maude : Items to be included in the annual percentage rate of charge and the way it is calculated are set out in the Consumer Credit (Total Charge for Credit)
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Regulations 1980 (SI 1980/51). Any period of interest-free credit is not taken into account in the calculation of the annual percentage rate of charge.Energy Saving Schemes
Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much has been spent by his Department in each of the last five years on the development and encouragement of energy saving schemes in the public and private sector.
Mr. Forth [holding answer 26 January 1989] : Payments made over the past six years by my Department to the private sector under schemes explicitly designed to encourage and develop energy savings are itemised in the table.
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