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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 3 February 1992
ENVIRONMENT
Enterprise Zone, Whitehaven
Dr. Cunningham : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he has yet received the consultants' report into the effects of an enterprise zone in Whitehaven ;
(2) when he intends to publish the findings of the report into the effects of an enterprise zone for Whitehaven ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Portillo : We expect to receive the final draft of the consultants' report on enterprise zone status for Barrow and Whitehaven shortly. It is not the Department's practice to publish these reports. There is a statutory consultation procedure before any zones can be designated.
Part-ownership Schemes
Mr. Soley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what has been the total cost to date of setting up, publicising and administering the flexi-ownership or rents into mortgage schemes piloted in (a) Basildon and (b) Milton Keynes ; and how many tenants have so far acquired part-ownership of their homes under this scheme.
Sir George Young : I refer the hon. Member to my answer to him on 9 December 1991, Official Report, column 314. Since then, three more sales have been completed in Basildon where the pilot scheme is still in operation, bringing the total sales to 98.
Personal Allowances and Housing Premiums
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how (a) personal allowances and (b) housing premiums are established within applicable amounts calculated against net weekly income, for the purposes of renovation grant applications ; and what account of regional cost variations is made in this process.
Mr. Yeo : The personal allowances and premiums used to calculate the applicable amount in the test of resources for house renovation grants are based on those used for housing benefit. They cover the essential weekly living expenses of the individual grant applicant and the applicant's family and are uprated annually in line with changes to housing benefit. The universal grant premium of £22 per week awarded to all grant applicants is intended to cover other household outgoings, including housing costs. It is also uprated annually in line with inflation. No account is taken of regional cost variations.
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how (a) housing premiums and (b) personal allowances take account of individual circumstances ; and what influence mortgage rates or rent variations have upon assessments.
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Mr. Yeo : The test of resources for house renovation grants largely follows housing benefit rules in taking account of the individual circumstances of grant applicants. Each applicant and relevant person associated with an application is awarded personal allowances to reflect their particular needs. A variety of premiums may also be awarded in respect of special needs such as lone parenthood, old age or disability. These are added together to provide an overall assessment of individual needs. The £22 grant premium which all grant applicants receive to cover other household expenses, including housing costs, is then added to the total. Changes in interest rates are reflected in the calculation of the national loan a grant applicant is deemed able to afford. No account is taken of rent variations.
House Condition Survey
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he expects the English housing condition survey to be published.
Mr. Yeo : The results will be published in 1993.
Housing Renovation
Mr. Hinchliffe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how he encourages local authorities to identify housing in severe need of renovation ; what resources are targeted towards such housing ; and what was the total renovation grant awarded in the last year in which figures are available for households without elderly and disabled persons.
Mr. Yeo : Local authorities are required to consider housing conditions in their area at least once a year to identify unfit properties and the best way to deal with them. Each authority receives an allowance for specified capital grant, as part of its annual housing investment programme allocation, for expenditure on private sector renewal including house renovation grants and slum clearance. Information on approved renovation grant expenditure on households without elderly and disabled persons is not available.
Local Government Finance
Mr. Harry Barnes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list in descending order the 1992-93 standard spending assessments per head for designated poll tax contributions in each district council area in England and also show in each case figures per head per poll tax payer for (a) enhanced population, (b) density, (c) sparsity and (d) all-ages social index, in each case multiplied by the appropriate scaling factor.
Mr. Portillo : A table showing the requested information has been placed in the Library.
Mr. Channon : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he proposes to bring forward legislation to implement his draft circular on local authorities' assets in companies.
Mr. Portillo : The Government propose to implement part V of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989--local authorities' interests in companies--in due course when the drafting of the necessary secondary legislation has been completed.
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Nitrogen Dioxide
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on United Kingdom compliance with the EC directive on nitrogen dioxide.
Mr. Baldry : The United Kingdom has complied in full with the EC directive on nitrogen dioxide. Except for a purely technical breach at the west London monitoring site in London in 1989, of which the Commission was informed as required by the directive, no breach of the directive's air quality limit values has occurred.
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will give details of the criteria used in choosing site locations for nitrogen dioxide monitoring stations.
Mr. Baldry : For the purposes of monitoring compliance with EC directive 85/203/EEC, sites have been chosen in accordance with the criteria set out in annex III of the directive. In summary, sites must include examples of areas predominately affected by motor pollution and of areas where discharges from fixed sources also make a significant contribution to pollution. They should be chosen as far as possible from sites where the risk of public exposure is greatest.
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Urban Air Pollution
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what advice he has received from Environmental Resources Ltd. in respect of extending the urban air pollution monitoring network.
Mr. Baldry : Advice from Environmental Resources Ltd. is contained in its report to the Department of the Environment--"Extended Urban Monitoring--a Feasibility Study 1991"--a copy of which has been placed in the Library of the House. The first phase of an extension of the network, on the lines recommended, came into operation on 23 January this year.
Pollution (Prosecutions)
Mrs. Ann Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 28 January, Official Report, column 478, if he will name the companies successfully prosecuted by Her Majesty's inspectorate of pollution since 30 November 1990, the locations of the incidents and the type of pollution caused.
Mr. Trippier : The information requested is as follows :
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Company |Location |Offence |Pollution caused
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George M. Watson |Denholme, Bradford |Operation of mineral crushing |No pollution
(Construction) Ltd. |and screening plant without
| registration
Cotswold Stone Quarries |Swellwold Quarry, |Operation of mineral works with- |No pollution
| Stow on the Wold | out registration
North West Aggregates Ltd. |Huyton, Merseyside |Operation of road stone coating |No pollution
| plant without registration
Hickson and Welch |Castleford, Yorkshire |Operation of a chemical process |No pollution
| without registration
Atomic Energy Authority |Harwell, Oxon |Breach of conditions of authorisa-|No material
| tion in relation to discharge of|pollution:
|radioactive tritium gas |no hazard to
|environment or
|health
British Nuclear Fuels plc |Springfields, Lancs |Breach of conditions of authorisa-|No material
| tion in relation to disposal of |pollution:
| low level solid radioactive |no hazard to
| waste |environment or
|health
Air Quality
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on his action plan for dealing with breaches of World Health Organisation and EC air quality standards on reduction of pollutants.
Mr. Baldry : The World Health Organisation does not set air quality standards, but rather guidelines intended to provide background information and guidance to Governments. The environment White Paper "This Common Inheritance" and the anniversary report published last September contain the Government's action plan for reducing air pollution, including measures to ensure that the few remaining areas where a risk of breaching the limit values for smoke and sulphur dioxide in EC directive 80/779/EEC remains will comply fully when their derogations from the directive expire in April 1993.
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Rent Arrears
Mr. Arbuthnot : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment which 20 local authorities have the highest level of rent arrears.
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment which 20 local authorities have the highest rent arrears as a percentage of the total rent roll.
Sir George Young : I have today arranged for information on rent arrears in all English local authorities, as at 1 April 1991, to be placed in the library.
On this date total rent arrears owing to housing authorities in England amounted to some £430 million, representing 8.5 per cent. of the total rent collectable in 1990-91. This is an increase of £70 million--18 per cent.--compared with 1 April 1990. The 20 authorities with the poorest performance, in terms of arrears as a percentage of their rent roll, account for 50 per cent. of the total. Of
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these, 10 account for £156 million--37 per cent.--of the national total and all have arrears of over 20 per cent. of the rent collectable, the highest--Southwark--having estimated rent arrears of 38.5 per cent. London accounts for £200 million--46 per cent. of the total--and has eight of the 10 and 12 of the 20 poorest performing authorities.These figures show that the position in far too many authorities has worsened since 1989-90. Authorities with similar holdings of stock and rent levels, and subject to similar economic pressures, turn in widely different levels of performance. The explanation for this lies in the quality of their management. The annual reports which most authorities have now supplied to their tenants, and to my Department, show considerable variation in management standards. Efficiency at collecting rent is the most fundamental of these standards. Authorities cannot hope to deliver effective services to their tenants if they do not collect the rent which pays for those services.
It is particularly disappointing that there was no overall change in the position in London at March last year, though some authorities have taken vigorous action to improve their performance.
All councils have a duty to look after the interests of all their tenants. Better performance in collecting rents will increase resources available for housing and reduce pressure for rent increases.
Area Protection Grant
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any local authorities to add to the list, given in his answer of 23 January, Official Report, column 276, of those which will lose area protection grant in 1992-93.
Mr. Portillo [holding answer 31 January 1992] : I regret that the table given in my answer of 23 January was incomplete. The correct information is shown in the following table.
Reduction in area protection grant between 1991-92 and 1992-93
Local authority |(£ million) |(£ adult)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Greenwich |-4.1 |-25
Hammersmith and Fulham |-3.0 |-25
Lambeth |-0.4 |-2
Lewisham |-4.2 |-25
Southwark |-3.7 |-25
Tower Hamlets |-3.3 |-25
Wandsworth |-5.6 |-25
Barking and Dagenham |-2.8 |-25
Hillingdon |-3.0 |-17
Rochdale |-3.8 |-25
Tameside |-4.0 |-25
Wigan |-5.7 |-25
Barnsley |-4.3 |-25
Doncaster |-5.6 |-25
Rotherham |-4.9 |-25
Sheffield |-10.1 |-25
Gateshead |-4.2 |-25
North Tyneside |-2.4 |-16
South Tyneside |-3.0 |-25
Sunderland |-5.5 |-25
Bradford |-8.1 |-25
Calderdale |-3.7 |-25
Kirkless |-7.3 |-25
Wakefield |-5.9 |-25
Hartlepool |-1.7 |-25
Langbaurgh-on-Tees |-0.8 |-7
Middlesbrough |-1.5 |-15
Allerdale |-1.8 |-25
Barrow-in-Furness |-1.5 |-25
Carlisle |-1.5 |-19
Copeland |-1.4 |-25
Eden |-0.9 |-25
Amber Valley |-2.2 |-25
Bolsover |-1.4 |-25
Chesterfield |-1.9 |-25
Erewash |-2.1 |-25
High Peak |-1.6 |-25
North East Derbyshire |-1.9 |-25
Torridge |-1.0 |-25
Chester-le-Street |-0.7 |-18
Derwentside |-1.6 |-25
Durham |-0.5 |-7
Easington |-1.9 |-25
Sedgefield |-1.7 |-25
Teesdale |-0.5 |-25
Wear Valley |-1.3 |-25
Boothferry |-1.2 |-25
Cleethorpes |-1.1 |-21
East Yorkshire |-1.6 |-25
Great Grimsby |-1.4 |-21
Holderness |-0.3 |-8
Kingston upon Hull |-5.1 |-25
Scunthorpe |-1.2 |-25
Blackburn |-2.5 |-25
Blackpool |-1.1 |-10
Burnley |-1.7 |-25
Hyndburn |-1.5 |-25
Pendle |-1.7 |-25
Rossendale |-1.2 |-25
Alnwick |-0.5 |-23
Berwick-upon-Tweed |-0.5 |-25
Blyth Valley |-1.5 |-25
Wansbeck |-1.2 |-25
Craven |-1.0 |-25
Ryedale |-0.3 |-5
Scarborough |-2.1 |-25
Selby |-0.4 |-7
York |-2.0 |-25
Ashfield |-2.1 |-25
Mansfield |-1.7 |-23
Stoke-on-Trent |-1.5 |-8
HOME DEPARTMENT
Criminal Injuries Compensation
Mr. Sheerman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many victims received compensation of between £750 and £1,000 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board for the last year for which figures are available ; and what percentage this was of the total number of victims who received compensation.
Mr. John Patten : Details of awards made by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board within various bands are given in the board's published annual reports. Copies are held in the Library. The precise number of awards between £750 and £1,000 is not available, but the estimated figure for 1990-91 is 5,760, which represents 16.4 per cent. of all awards made.
Vehicle Excise Duty
Sir Gerard Vaughan : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what checks are made to ensure that all vehicles on the road have valid vehicle excise duty licences ;
(2) what procedures are followed if a vehicle is found on the road without a valid current vehicle excise duty licence.
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Mr. Peter Lloyd : Police officers and traffic wardens support regular enforcement campaigns run by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. Police officers and traffic wardens also routinely report the details of parked vehicles displaying either invalid vehicle excise duty--VED--licences or none at all to the DVLA which checks whether VED offences have been committed and takes any enforcement action required. Where other motoring offences have also been detected all offences are generally processed by the police.Sir Gerard Vaughan : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what penalties are applicable to a person convicted of owning or keeping a motor vehicle on the road without a valid motor vehicle excise duty licence.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : A person convicted under section 8 of the Vehicles (Excise) Act 1971 of the offence of using or keeping on a public road a motor vehicle without a valid excise duty licence is liable to a maximum penalty of a fine of up to £400 or five times the annual duty chargeable for the vehicle, whichever is greater. In addition the payment of any back duty which is owing is recoverable by court order at the same time. The maximum fine for the offence is to be increased to £1,000 later this year.
Prisons
Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he has the power to terminate contracts with privately run prisons in the event of either a breach of contract or change of Government policy.
Wolds Prison
Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Wolds prison will be covered by crown immunity.
Mrs. Rumbold : I will write to the hon. Member.
Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what procedure will be followed immediately after the admission of an inmate to Wolds prison.
Mrs. Rumbold : The requirements for the reception and induction procedures at Wolds are set out in section C and D of the operational specification, a copy of which was placed in the Library of the House on 2 May 1991.
Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether extra costs in the event of prisoner disorder at Wolds prison involving the use of the emergency services or crown employees will be met by the contractors or from public funds.
Mrs. Rumbold : Any such costs would be met from public funds unless the disorder were attributable to the contractor's failure to carry out his duties under the contract properly.
Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department in what circumstances he will direct prison service employees into Wolds prison.
Mrs. Rumbold : Prison service staff may be required to go into Wolds prison as part of their normal duties in a variety of circumstances, ranging from the in-house
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presence of the controller to attendance in the event of a Crown servant being appointed as governor under section 88 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.Mr. Meale : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether the director of Wolds prison has the power to refuse entry to any prisoner who has been duly remanded to it by the courts.
Mrs. Rumbold : The contract with Group 4 Remand Services Limited is for the management of a 320-place remand prison for category B prisoners. Subject to those limits on the number and category of prisoners to be held there, it will not be open to the director of the prison to refuse entry to any prisoner who has been duly remanded in custody by the courts.
Club Membership
Mr. Marlow : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will propose amendments to the relevant legislation so as to exclude from the remit of the Commission for Racial Equality matters associated with club membership.
Mrs. Rumbold : We have no plans to amend the legislation in this way.
Citizenship
Mr. Madden : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will review that part of the British Nationality Act 1981 which removed the automatic right to British citizenship to any person born in the United Kingdom.
Charities
Mr. Fatchett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list those charities which are (a) exempt charities and (b) excepted charities.
Mr. John Patten [holding answer 31 January 1992] : Exempt charities are those listed in the second schedule of the Charities Act 1960, as amended. They are :
The Universities of Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Reading, Nottingham, Southampton, Hull, Exeter and Leicester ;
The Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Durham, the colleges and halls in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham and the Colleges of Winchester and Eton ;
The University of Newcastle Upon Tyne ;
The Universities of Keele, Sussex, Wales, East Anglia, Essex, Kent, Lancaster, Warwick, York, Bradford, Surrey, Aston and Salford, Loughborough University of Technology, the City University, Brunel University, the Open University, Bath University of Technology and the University Colleges of Wales, Aberystwyth, North Wales, South Wales Monmouthshire and Swansea and St. David's College, Lampeter ; The University of London including Bedford College for Women, Birkbeck College, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London School of Economics and Political Science, Queen Elizabeth College, Queen Mary College, Royal Holloway College, Royal Veterinary College, School or Oriental and African Studies, School of Pharmacy University of London, Westfield College London, College of St. Gregory and St. Martin at Wye, Chelsea College of Science and Technology, University College London and the Institute of Education ;
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Charing Cross Hospital Medical School, Guy's Hospital Medical School, King's College Medical School, London Hospital Medical College, Middlesex Hospital Medical School, Royal Dental Hospital of London School of Dental Surgery, Royal Free Hospital Medical School, Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital in the City of London, St George's Hospital Medical School, St Mary's Hospital Medical School, St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, United Medical Schools Guy's and St Thomas's Hospitals, University College Medical School and Westminister Medical School ;British Postgraduate Federation, Postgraduate Medical School of London, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Institutes of Cancer Research : Royal Cancer Hospital, Cardiology, Child Health, Dental Surgery, Dermatology, Diseases of the Chest Laryngology and Ontology, Neurology (Queen Square), Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics, Psychiatry, Urology ; Welsh National School of Medicine and University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology ;
The Boards of Trustees of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum, the Armouries and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew ; The British Museum which includes the British Museum of Natural History ;
The Imperial War Museum and the National Maritime Museum ; The representative body of the Welsh Church ;
property within the Church Lands Investment Measure 1958 ; The Church Commissioners and any institution which is administered by them ;
The board and Governors of the Museum of London ;
The British Library ; and
Grant-maintained schools and any institution administered by or on behalf of such schools. Higher Education Corporations and Institutions administered by or on behalf of them, for example, polytechnics and colleges of higher education, but only if so designated by the Secretary of State.
Charities excepted by order or regulations under section 4(4)(b) of the Charities Act 1960 are :
All voluntary schools, being charites and having no permanent endowment other than the premises of, or connected with, the school ;
Charities comprising funds, not being permanent endowments, belonging to units, or to trustees for units, of the Boy Scouts Association or the Girl Guides Association ;
Any property, other than land, held and applicable for the general purposes of bodies established wholly or mainly for religious purposes, whether or not of the Christian religion, provided that the annual income from such property is not more than £100 ;
Any charity for the advancement of religion where the application of its income in a particular manner is conditional upon a grave, tomb or personal monument being kept in good order provided that the annual income of the charity is not more than £50 ;
A charity wholly or mainly concerned with the advancement of religion, being a charity--in respect of which accounts are sent annually to the Methodist Conference or other Committee or department appointed or established by the Methodist Conference or for which the Baptist and Congregational Trust Corporations is trustee or custodian trustee ;
Any charity wholly or mainly concerned with the advancement of religion in respect of property for the time being held by one of 51 Church of England Trust Corporations either as a duly constituted trustee or a custodian trustee or by virtue of the property having been vested in the body by or in pursuance of any Church of England Measure ;
Any charity wholly or mainly concerned with the promotion of the efficiency of any of the armed forces of the Crown, not being : a charity having any land in
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England and Wales for any estate or any interest greater than a tenancy from year to year ; a charity whose objects extend to the relief or assistance of any person not being a serving member of those forces ; or a charity for the exhibition or preservation of articles of historical interest ;every university which is not an exempt charity ;
Certain charities of which the Moravian Union Incorporated is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which the New Church is a trustee ; Certain charities of which St. David's Diocesan Board of Finance is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which Liverpool Roman Catholic Archdiocesan Trustees Incorporated is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which the St. Asaph Diocesan Board of Finance is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which the Trustees of the Menevia Diocesan Trust are the trustees ;
Certain charities of which Swansea and Brecon Diocesan Trust (Incorporated) is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which Clifton Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered is the trustee ;
Certain charities of which the Trustees of Middlesbrough Diocesan Trust are the trustees ;
Certain charities of which Nottingham Roman Catholic Diocesan Trustees Registered is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which Plymouth Roman Catholic Trustees Registered is a trustee ;
Certain charities of which United Synagogue Trustees Ltd. is a trustee ;
Benevolent funds in connection with specified branches of United Commercial Travellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland Incorporated ; and
Registered places of worship.
Section 4(4)(c) of the 1960 Act excepts charities which have neither any permanent endowment, nor any income from property amounting to more than £15 a year, nor the use and occupation of any land.
There is no central record of charities excepted under section s.4(4)(c) of the 1960 Act, and the information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
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