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Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 11 July 1991
ENVIRONMENT
Local Government Finance
Mr. Dewar : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table otherwise comparable to that provided in his answer of 17 April, Official Report, columns 184-85, to the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field) showing reductions in payment per year in successive increments of £10 from £0 to £140 for (i) charge payers and (ii) pensioners.
Mr. Portillo The information requested is given in the table.
Reduction in |Charge payers|Pensioners payment |(millions) |(millions) per year Bottom of range (£) -------------------------------------------------------- 0 |1.1 |0.1 10 |2.5 |1.2 20 |4.7 |2.6 30 |1.0 |0.2 40 |0.9 |0.2 50 |1.1 |0.2 60 |1.7 |0.3 70 |1.6 |0.2 80 |1.4 |0.2 90 |1.5 |0.3 100 |1.2 |0.2 110 |1.0 |0.1 120 |0.8 |0.1 130 |0.8 |0.1 140 |14.2 |1.9
Waste Incineration
Mr. William Ross : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, further to his answer to the hon. Member for Londonderry, East of 2 July, how much of the special waste produced in the United Kingdom annually is disposed of by incineration.
Mr. Baldry : My Department's "Digest of Environmental Protection and Water Statistics No. l3" published by HMSO in 1991 included in figure 5.3 an estimate that about 5 per cent. of the special waste produced in the United Kingdom in 1988 was disposed of by incineration. This figure is probably typical for any 12-month period in recent years.
Parish Election Expenses
Mr. Bellotti : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he will issue regulations to effect the release of money held by district councils on account for parish councils to be used by them for parish election expenses.
Mr. Key : The treatment of any money held by district councils relating to balances on parish accounts is a matter for the authorities concerned.
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Planning Inquiries
Dr. Hampson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment on the lastest year's figures available for England and Wales what were the mean, median, longest and shortest lengths of time that were taken to make a decision about whether or not to issue a call-in notice under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, previously section 35 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, following an article 14 direction.
Mr. Yeo : Information in the form requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Planning Applications
Dr. Hampson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment on the latest year's figures available for England and Wales, how many planning applications were subject to an article 14 direction ; how many were subsequently the subject of a call-in under section 77 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, previously section 35 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1971, and what both these figures were as a percentage of the total number of planning applications submitted.
Mr. Yeo : In England in 190-91, a total of 182 article 14 directions were made ; 70 planning applications were called in following such directions ; a total of 532,000 planning applications were received by local planning authorities. In Wales in the same year, the corresponding figures were 13 ; 2 ; 39,000.
Planning applications which were the subject of article 14 directions or were called in by my right hon. Friends in 1990-91 were not necessarily received by local planning authorities in the same year.
Standard Spending Assessments
Sir Richard Luce : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 28 February, Official Report , column 587 , if he will set out in detail the formulae for the criteria which are required in assessing the standard spending assessment for a district council.
Mr. Portillo : The formulae for assessing the standard spending assessment for a district council are set out in paragraphs 3.33 to 3.36 and 3.48 to 3.58 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution Report (England) as amended by paragraph 9 of the Revenue Support Grant Distribution (Amendment) Report (England). Copies of these documents are available in the Library.
Venezuelan Environment Minister
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he held an official meeting with Snr. Enrique C. Finol, Minister for the Environment for Venezuela, during his recent visit to the United Kingdom.
Mr. Trippier : A meeting was planned, but did not take place owing to a change in the Venezuelan Minister's programme.
Commonhold Legislation
Mr. Lewis : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether it is his intention to include a right to buy the freehold for existing long leaseholders in the forthcoming commonhold legislation.
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Mr. Yeo : We hope to make a statement on commonhold very shortly.Housing, Tower Hamlets
Mr. Shore : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the average rent of local authority homes in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in 1978 and in each subsequent year.
Sir George Young : Information on average weekly unrebated rents in April of each year is published annually by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy in "Housing Rents Statistics" for those authorities which respond to their annual survey. Copies of this publication for 1978 to 1990 are in the Library.
Mr. Shore : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many new homes were started and completed in the London borough of Tower Hamlets in each year since 1974 ; and how many of these were local authority or housing association homes for rent.
Sir George Young : The London borough of Tower Hamlets has not sent the Department any statistical returns about housebuilding in the area since 1984. The available information as reported by the borough for 1980 onwards is shown in tables 1.1 to 1.5 of "Housebuilding in England by Local Authority Areas 1980 to 1989". Tables 3.1 to 3.6 show housebuilding in Tower Hamlets by the Greater London council. Figures for 1974 to 1979 are shown in tables 5 and 7 of the following issues of "Local Housing Statistics : England and Wales" : volume numbers 33, 37, 41, 45, 49 and 53, respectively. No completions have been reported of dwellings built specifically for sale by local authority or housing associations in Tower Hamlets.
Copies of the above publications are in the Library.
Planning Procedures
Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps are taken to ensure that planning inspectors with interests in property development and building firms do not hear appeals concerning major development proposals.
Mr. Yeo : Inspectors are not allocated cases where it is clear that they have a personal involvement or interest that might bring into question their impartiality. If an inspector is allocated a case where he has a personal interest that could conflict with his official duty, he is required to inform the Department. Another inspector will then be appointed in his place.
Mr. Steen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what register of interests exists for planning inspectors.
Mr. Yeo : The Department does not keep a register of inspectors' interests. It does however, maintain a list of areas in which inspectors will not be allocated work. This list normally includes the local authority area in which an inspector lives, or has been recently employed, and any other area where he has interests that could conflict with his official duties.
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Public Opinion Surveys
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the public opinion surveys carried out by his Department since his answer of 20 December, Official Report, columns 273-74.
Mr. Heseltine : The following surveys carried out by my Department since 20 December 1990, include questions to individuals about their opinions :
Survey of Single Homelessness.
Survey of Housing Association Tenants.
Study of Under-Occupation in the Social Rented Sector.
Evaluation of the Impact of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1987. Study of Conversions of Houses into Flats in London.
Evaluating the Impact of Block Action.
Appraisal of assisted Agency Services.
Polish Economic Adviser
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he held an official meeting with Dr. Tomasz Zylicz, economics adviser to the Polish Minister for the Environment during his recent visit to London.
United Nations Environment Programme
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he had an official meeting with Dr. Yusuf Ahmad of the United Nations environment programme executive directorate during his recent visit to London.
Mr. Trippier : Dr. Ahmad is a frequent visitor to the Department. My officials keep in touch with him on a number of international environmental issues on which he has much valued expertise.
International Biotechnology Workshop
Mrs. Roe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the international biotechnology workshop held at the Queen Elizabeth II conference centre on 17-19 June.
Mr. Baldry : Further to my reply of 14 May to the hon. Member for Linlithgow (Mr. Dalyell), the workshop was mounted under the auspices of the United Conference on Environment and Development--UNCED--and attended by some 50 senior international experts from about 30 countries. My Department contributed $80,000--£44,700--towards its cost.
Under the chairmanship of Dr. Nay Htun of the UNCED secretariat, the workshop considered a wide range of factors affecting the assessment and management of risks in biotechnology. The expert advice given will form the basis of proposals to be presented to the UNCED preparatory committee at its third session in Geneva next month.
The encouraging progress made at the workshop augurs well for the consideration of the environmentally sound management of biotechnology at the UNCED "Earth summit," to be held in Brazil in 1992. The United Kingdom will continue to work hard to prepare the ground for the agreement of a set of principles for risk assessment and management as a basis for the development of international guidelines on biotechnology safety.
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Thorne Moor
Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether Thorne moor has been designated under the Ramsar convention.
Mr. Baldry [holding answer 5 July 1991] : No. The former Nature Conservancy Council identified Thorne--and Hatfield--moor as a potential Ramsar site but the Government have not received any formal recommendations from English Nature.
Carbon Dioxide Emissions
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what proposals he is considering for the storage of compressed carbon dioxide waste gases from coal gasification in depleted gas fields, as part of the programme for reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide emissions.
Mr. Moynihan : I have been asked to reply.
The Department of Energy's Chief Scientist's Group at the Energy Technology Support Unit is evaluating, in collaboration with industry, a number of options for the recovery of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion and, inter alia, its disposal in disused natural gas fields. My Department is also seeking collaboration, under International Energy Agency auspices, with up to 14 other countries in an assessment of the feasibility of removing, utilising, transporting and disposing of carbon dioxide produced in fossil fuel power generation.
Voluntary Organisations
Mr. Bradley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table of the total grants given by each local authority social services department in England to voluntary organisations for the last year for which the information is available.
Mr. Dorrell [holding answer 5 July 1991] : I have been asked to reply.
The latest year for which information is available is 1988-89. The information is given in the table.
Local Authority Contributions to
Voluntary Organisations in 1988-89
|£000
-----------------------------------
Metropolitan Borough Councils
Bolton |80
Bury |166
Manchester |0
Oldham |177
Rochdale |407
Salford |85
Stockport |101
Tameside |133
Trafford |0
Wigan |196
Knowsley |415
Liverpool |924
St. Helens |0
Sefton |25
Wirral |366
Barnsley |10
Doncaster |214
Rotherham |27
Sheffield |1,460
Gateshead |371
Newcastle |1,503
North Tyneside |19
South Tyneside |31
Sunderland |0
Birmingham |4,564
Coventry |805
Dudley |248
Sandwell |91
Solihull |0
Walsall |120
Wolverhampton |1,014
Bradford |725
Calderdale |164
Kirklees |497
Leeds |1,281
Wakefield<1>
Inner London Boroughs
City of London |212
Camden |2,216
Greenwich<1>
Hackney<1>
Hammersmith<1>
Islington |3,278
Kensington |1,238
Lambeth<1>
Lewisham |1,466
Southwark |1,839
Tower Hamlets |0
Wandsworth |266
Westminster |2,560
Outer London Boroughs
Barking |0
Barnet |532
Bexley |310
Brent |2,244
Bromley |321
Croydon |0
Ealing |403
Enfield |72
Haringey<1>
Harrow |57
Havering |25
Hillingdon |300
Hounslow |0
Kingston |298
Merton |0
Newham |462
Redbridge |2
Richmond |0
Sutton |245
Waltham Forest |0
Shire Counties
Isles of Scilly |0
Bedfordshire |215
Berkshire |418
Buckinghamshire |1,510
Cambridgeshire |1,345
Cheshire |605
Cleveland |638
Cornwall |125
Cumbria |19
Derbyshire |945
Devon |924
Dorset |0
Durham |105
East Sussex |877
Essex |810
Gloucestershire |742
Hampshire |1,547
Hereford and Worcester |217
Hertfordshire |0
Humberside |0
Isle of Wight |48
Kent |1,268
Lancashire |490
Leicestershire |2,157
Lincolnshire |307
Norfolk |1,329
Northamptonshire |1,607
Northumberland |48
North Yorkshire |359
Nottinghamshire |1,889
Oxfordshire |555
Shropshire |74
Somerset<1> |-
Staffordshire |229
Suffolk |953
Surrey |55
Warwickshire |1,229
West Sussex |18
Wiltshire |1,311
Source: local authority revenue
outturn forms 1988-89
<1> Completed form not received by
1 August 1990
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
China
Mr. Bellingham : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations the Government have made to the Government of the People's Republic of China with regard to the detention of the Right Reverend Joseph Fan Zhongliang.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : We have made no specific representations about the detention of Bishop Fan Zhongliang.
Conventional Forces in Europe
Mr. O'Neill : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress has been made in clarifying technical disputes regarding the CFE treaty ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : At an extraordinary conference of the CFE signatories in Vienna on 14 June, the Soviet Union made a statement regarding the treatment of equipment in coastal defence, naval infantry and strategic rocket force units. The extraordinary conference concluded that a satisfactory basis existed for proceeding toward ratification and implementation of the CFE treaty. The agreement reached will ensure that the Soviet Union will in practice comply with the limits, including zonal and active unit sublimits, established by the treaty.
Public Opinion Surveys
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the public opinion surveys carried out by his Department since his answer of 17 December, Official Report, column 71 .
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : No further public opinion surveys have been carried out by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office since my answer of 17 December 1990.
Advertising Campaigns
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of1 July, Official Report, column 24, if he will list the commencement date and duration of the publicity campaign to which he refers.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : The publicity campaign aimed at British travellers abroad is a continuous one.
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Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the advertising, promotional or public relations companies employed by, or on behalf of, his Department who are involved in the campaigns given in his answer of 1 July, Official Report, column 24.
Mr. Lennox-Boyd : No such companies are employed or involved in these campaigns.
Iraq
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is his most recent assessment of the dangers faced by the refugee Shias in southern Iraq.
Mr. Douglas Hogg : We are very disturbed by recent United Nations evidence of renewed Iraqi action against those Iraqi Shia who have taken refuge in the marsh area of southern Iraq. We have made our concerns known to the head of the Iraqi interests section in London and to the Iraqi permanent representative at the United Nations and have urged the Iraqis to allow humanitarian relief into the area quickly.
CIVIL SERVICE
Executive Agencies
Mr. McAllion : To ask the Minister for the Civil Service what powers executive agencies have to change their financial regime without first amending their framework document.
Mr. Renton : Agency chief executives keep their financial and other management regimes under review, with the aim of developing the framework best suited to their business needs. Significant changes in an agency's financial regime would require the agreement of the responsible Minister and the Treasury. In many cases, there will be sufficient flexibility in the framework document to allow for changes, so no further amendment is required. But where such changes are not covered the framework document will need to be revised.
TRANSPORT
London Underground
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what is the agreed expenditure for investment on the Circle line of London Underground over the next three years ; and whether he has any plans to increase it.
Mr. Freeman : The Government do not set levels of investment for individual Underground lines. However, London Underground is in the process of refurbishing the entire fleet of Circle line trains. It is also looking at ways of improving the line's service reliability by combining its running with that of the Hammersmith and City line.
Severn Bridge
Mr. Roy Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he is having with the Health and Safety Executive in connection with each of the short and long-term recommendations listed in sections 7 and 8
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of the May 1991 independent report by consulting engineers on the gantry accident of 4 September 1990 on the Severn bridge.Mr. Chope : The recommendations are under discussion within the Department. The Health and Safety Executive will be consulted before final decisions are reached.
A6 Chapel Bypass
Mr. Tony Lloyd : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give details of the final price paid to the construction company involved in the A6 Chapel bypass as compared to the original contract price.
Mr. Chope : The original tender sum for the contract was £17.031 million. The total contractor's account was settled at £43.703 million.
M11 Link Road
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Leyton of 3 July, on the M11 link road, if he will list those standards established in the case of the M40, referred to by the hon. Member for Kettering (Mr. Freeman) in the debate on the New Roads and Street Works Bill in Standing Committee E on 14 March, Official Report, column 25, which can be applied to urban roads such as the M11 link road.
Mr. Chope : As is made clear in the answer to which the hon. Member refers, the measures taken to mitigate any evironmental impact of a new road depend on the individual nature of each project.
Maidstone Bypass
Mr. Speed : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to let a contract for the widening of the M20 Maidstone bypass ; and what completion date will be specified.
Mr. Chope : The contract for the widening of the Maidstone bypass section of the M20 between junctions 5 and 8 was let on 4 July to Balfour Beatty Ltd. Work will begin before the end of July for completion by the spring of 1993.
Public Opinion Surveys
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will list the public opinion surveys carried out by his Department since his answer of 17 December, Official Report , columns 59-60.
Mr. Rifkind : My Department regularly commissions surveys. A list of all surveys is maintained but it is not possible to identify easily from this list those surveys which have included questions of opinion. My hon. Friend's answer of 20 December 1990 referred to 370 surveys of all types reported in the years 1985 to 1989. A further 101 surveys were reported in 1990 and I am sending a list of these to the hon. Member.
British Rail (Safety)
Mr. Bowis : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if there are any plans to change British Rail's quality of service objectives to take account of the case for manning
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of rail stations in London by British Rail staff during the hours that such stations are timetabled to receive trains, and the provision at all stations of security cameras and emergency telephones.Mr. Freeman [holding answer 1 July 1991] : The staffing of stations is a matter for the BR board.
Mr. Bowis : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many assaults have taken place at unmanned British Rail stations in the past five years, and how many such stations had no security cameras and no emergency telephones.
Mr. Freeman [holding answer 1 July 1991] : In 1989 and 1990 four assaults, of which one was serious, occurred at unmanned stations in the Greater London area. Figures for previous years and other areas are not readily available.
ENERGY
Oil and Gas Exploration
Mrs. Ann Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy how many blocks of the United Kingdom continental shelf have been licensed for oil and gas exploration within the past 10 years despite sustained objections from the Nature Conservancy Council.
Mr. Moynihan : The Nature Conservancy Council has registered concerns about a number of blocks offered for oil and gas licensing in the past 10 years. These concerns have been met by applying conditions and restrictions to activity under the licences or by not offering the relevant blocks. In this period, the Nature Conservancy Council has objected to the offer for licensing of six blocks or pairs of blocks. Three of these were offered in the 10th round, but not subsequently licensed ; three were licensed in the 12th round of offshore licensing.
Radioactive Waste (Contamination)
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether radioactive wastes contaminated with plutonium arising from the reprocessing of foreign spent fuel at (a) Sellafield and (b) Dounreay are covered by existing nuclear safeguards agreements.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : All civil nuclear material is subject to Euratom safeguards and to the terms of the United
Kingdom-Euratom-International Atomic Energy Authority safeguards agreement. The UK-Euratom-IAEA safeguards agreement provides, however, that safeguards shall be terminated when the material has been diluted to the point at which it is practicably irrecoverable.
Nuclear Electric
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy for what reason he prevented Nuclear Electric from launching a publicity and advertising campaign in July.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The decision to postpone a proposed advertising campaign was taken by Nuclear Electric plc.
Mr. Dobson : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy (1) when he last discussed directors' pay with Nuclear Electric ;
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(2) whether it is his policy that the pay of the directors of Nuclear Electric should be comparable with that of directors of the privatised electricity companies ;(3) what criteria he uses when determining the pay of the directors of Nuclear Electric.
Mr. Wakeham : I last discussed pay with members of the board of Nuclear Electric on 4 June 1991. Our approach in respect of all publicly owned companies is to pay salaries sufficient to recruit, retain and motivate the manpower the company needs.
Electricity Privatisation
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy on how many occasions paper for the printing of share certificates for the flotation at the electricity distribution companies was returned to the paper suppliers ; whether any financial loss occurred to the Department as a result ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : None. All the paper ordered for the printing of interim share certificates required in the regional electricity companies share offers was either used, returned to the supplier at no cost, or sold to a third party without loss.
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