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Column 239
House of Commons
Wednesday 20 May 1992
The House met at half-past Two o'clock
PRAYERS
[Madam Speaker-- in the Chair ]
PRIVATE BUSINESS
Pittenweem Harbour Order Confirmation Bill
Read the Third time, and passed.
Oral Answers to Questions
SCOTLAND
Constitutional Reform
1. Mr. McAllion : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received about holding a referendum on the future government of Scotland.
17. Mr. McKelvey : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what representations he has received about the holding of a referendum on the future government of Scotland.
The Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Ian Lang) : Since 9 April 1992, I have received 24 letters about the holding of a referendum on the future government of Scotland, of which 18 were in favour. I have also received one small petition.
Mr. McAllion : Will the Secretary of State for Scotland come to Scotland United's next rally and march in Edinburgh on Saturday 6 June where he will see thousands upon thousands of Scots voicing their demand for a referendum? Perhaps he will take that opportunity to explain to them why the Government support democracy for small nations everywhere in the world except Scotland. Does he understand that we so-called Opposition Scottish Members actually represent the democratic majority in Scotland and that we have come south not to sell Scotland out but to wring from this undemocratic Westminster Parliament, by whatever means necessary in or out of this place, Scotland's democratic right to decide for itself how and by whom it is governed?
Mr. Lang : Perhaps the hon. Gentleman did not hear my original answer. I have had 18 letters in favour of a referendum. The hon. Gentleman talks about Scotland United. The football season is over and that team has been relegated.
Mr. McKelvey : Having listened carefully-- [Interruption.] -- and taken my hands out of my pockets ; I often listen to Conservative Members--may I ask the Secretary of State whether he recalls that, when questioned about Northern Ireland, the Prime Minister said that he
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would not only answer but would accede to the wishes of the people of Northern Ireland about how they wish to be governed? Will the Secretary of State display the same courage and graciousness by telling the people of Scotland that, whatever the findings of the investigation of the wishes of the people of Scotland on their future--a process which is unlike the undemocratic farce in Ayrshire when it was found that out of 256 written submissions on opting out only 11 were in favour but he rode roughshod over people's wishes--on this occasion the matter will at least be democratic?Mr. Lang : I say again that I have received 18 letters in favour of a referendum in Scotland. I have had an avalanche of letters supporting the maintenance of Scotland's place within the United Kingdom. In the general election we put that issue at the forefront of our campaign. The Labour party campaigned for devolution and it was defeated throughout the United Kingdom for election to a United Kingdom Parliament.
Mr. Raymond S. Robertson : Will my right hon. Friend take this opportunity to nail once and for all the lie that there is consensus throughout Scotland for constitutional change and will he remind the House that on 9 April, Aberdeen and the north-east of Scotland decisively rejected the devolution proposals of the opposition parties and that in so doing they served notice that they wanted no truck whatever with the black tee-shirt brigade from Glasgow and Dundee?
Mr. Lang : My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Indeed, 79 per cent. of the electorate in the general election voted against independence. I think that the vast majority of hon. Members believe that the United Kingdom should remain united.
Mr. John Marshall : Will my right hon. Friend confirm that in the referendum on 9 April the separatists were slaughtered? Will he further confirm that a tax-raising Scottish assembly would lead to higher personal taxes in Scotland, much less inward investment and, therefore, higher unemployment?
Mr. Lang : My hon. Friend is absolutely right on all points. It is hard to have respect for a party which in its policies of 8 April was prepared to oppose a referendum, when on 9 April it lost the election and on 10 April it came out in favour of a referendum. That was not a very credible posture.
Mr. Salmond : Is the Secretary of State prepared to concede that his position during the general election was that anyone who did not vote for the Conservative party was voting to endanger the Union? By that standard, 75 per cent. of the people of Scotland so voted. In the district elections the Conservative party was out-polled by the Scottish National party. That was only two weeks ago. Will he concede that the real reason why he will not hold a referendum is that he has no confidence that his position will carry the day? Is there no sense of shame and embarrassment about the fact that a Secretary of State can continue in office, enforcing his policies against the will of the Scottish people on a mandate that can only be described as shaky, if not fraudulent?
Mr. Lang : The hon. Gentleman speaks about the will of the Scottish people. He said during the general election that his party would win 37 seats and that that would be
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a mandate to negotiate independence. His party won three seats. He then told us that the district elections would be a supervote on the constitution of Scotland. His party won control of one district council by a majority of one ward, by a majority of one vote. It has since taken control of another district council on a cut of the cards. It seems that there were too many jokers in the pack.Mr. Dewar : Does the Secretary of State accept that those of us who believe that Scotland's place remains within the United Kingdom can argue, and have the support of Scotland in so doing, that the United Kingdom is not a static concept and that there is major room for improvement and for a shift in the balance of power towards Scots running their own affairs within this country? Does the right hon. Gentleman remember that he made it clear again and again during the general election that the election in Scotland was about the status quo and that his party received the support of just over one in four of the voters? Would it not be a service to democracy and a way of settling a problem that will not go away to put the status quo to the test in a referendum? Does the Secretary of State maintain that there is no demand for change? If he does, is not the position that he is frightened of the result? Does not that explain his refusal to organise a referendum?
Mr. Lang : The hon. Gentleman was against a referendum until his party lost the general election. I remind him that 61 per cent. of the electorate in Scotland voted against the Labour party. Labour cheerfully contemplated taking power in the United Kingdom and planned to impose a Scottish assembly on the strength of the Scottish Labour vote while it had only minority power in England. It planned to do that without a referendum. The hon. Gentleman's position is entirely unacceptable.
Mr. McAllion : On a point of order, Madam Speaker. Given the shameless response of the Secretary of State for Scotland, I intend to raise the matter on the Adjournment of the House.
Law Centres
2. Mr. Vaz : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has to increase the number of law centres in Scotland.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Lord James Douglas-Hamilton) : There are no plans at present to introduce additional law centres in Scotland from centrally provided funds.
Mr. Vaz : The Minister will recall that that is exactly the same answer as he gave when I asked a similar question on 6 February 1991, at column 276 in Hansard. Does he accept that there is an overwhelming case for an increase in the number of law centres in Scotland? He will realise that increasing numbers of people go to solicitors asking for help in relation to debts and social security and housing problems. Private firms of solicitors simply cannot provide the necessary advice because of the legal aid rules. Will he please ask his Department to prepare a paper to increase the number of Scottish law centres in line with the number of law centres in other parts of the United Kingdom?
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : We take the view that local authorities are in the best position to judge whether there is an unmet demand for legal services. They can
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either help to provide them from their own resources or put in a bid for urban aid. We shall certainly consider such bids sympathetically as and when they arise. Law centres have performed well where they exist in Glasgow. We have changed the law and removed the restriction on solicitors practising in law centres. If the hon. Gentleman can persuade any local authorities to take the matter forward, we shall consider seriously their bid for urban aid.Constitutional Reform
3. Mr. Galloway : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had about the future government of Scotland.
7. Mr. McMaster : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if the Government have any plans for constitutional change in Scotland.
Mr. Lang : The Government are currently considering whether there are ways to continue to make the government of Scotland responsive to Scotland's needs without undermining the unity of the United Kingdom. We shall report back to the House in due course.
Mr. Galloway : That answer and the previous one, and the smirking arrogance with which the Secretary of State delivered them--with the baying ranks of English Tory Members behind him--are the cause of the anger felt in his country, the country over which he exercises power without any legitimacy. Does he not understand the contradiction between that and the Prime Minister saying yesterday that he would respect the democratic wishes of the people of Northern Ireland, or the contradiction about to be displayed in the Maastricht debate where subsidiarity--the right of people to take decisions as locally as possible--is a touchstone of the British Tory Government's policy? Those contradictions leave the Scottish Tory rump in tatters. In Edinburgh on D-day, Saturday 6 June, the demonstration of thousands will more than make up the paucity of letters that the Secretary of State says that he has received. Why will he not give us a simple, democratic referendum so that the Scottish people can decide peacefully at the ballot box how they want to be governed?
Mr. Lang : The hon. Gentleman mentions Edinburgh. I have not sensed the same sensitivity by the Opposition to the question of who has authority to govern over the fact that Labour now controls Edinburgh district council with 29.5 per cent. of the vote. The hon. Gentleman calls for a multi- option referendum. Is is not the case that the real reason for that is to cover the confusion within the Labour party ranks? It has already abandoned the policy on which it fought the last general election and its spokesman on constitutional matters now favours federalism. Labour is now the multi- option party.
Mr. McMaster : Why will the Secretary of State not answer the question? If it was right yesterday for the Prime Minister to promise to respect the democratically expressed wishes of the people of Northern Ireland, surely it is right today for the Secretary of State to give the same commitment to the Scottish people. How can he deny that at the general election the people of Scotland overwhelmingly rejected his alien policies such as hospital opt-out, and voted overwhelmingly in favour of constitutional
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change? If the Secretary of State is a democrat, will he accept the verdict of the general election in Scotland, or will he give us a multi-option referendum?Mr. Lang : I have just answered the last question. The general election on 9 April was for this United Kingdom Parliament. The Labour party fought that election on devolution throughout the United Kingdom and it lost. The swing against Labour was heaviest in Scotland, where its policy was most clearly spelt out.
Mr. Gallie : My right hon. Friend is certainly looking after the interests of people in Scotland, 78 per cent. of whom voted to continue to maintain Scotland's place within the United Kingdom. That must be his priority. It is admitted on all sides that a halfway house would endanger that.
Mr. Lang : My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Labour's policies, like any policies based on self-interest rather than on principle, are falling apart.
Mr. Burns : Will my right hon. Friend remind Opposition Members that we are part of the United Kingdom and that this is the United Kingdom Parliament? As Scottish Members have every right to speak on English affairs, and do so, English Members have an equal right to speak on Scottish affairs. The overriding wish of the majority of people in this country and in Scotland is that Scotland should remain part of the United Kingdom.
Mr. Lang : I am most grateful to my hon. Friend who is absolutely right. Parliament makes provision for the needs of Scottish special circumstances, and that provision can be further changed as circumstances require. That is a matter to which attention is being given and my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has made it clear that we will in due course report on the matter to the House.
Sir David Steel : The Government shop has been open for six weeks since the election. How long will the stocktaking take? What consultations does the right hon. Gentleman intend to have with other political parties before he makes up his mind?
Mr. Lang : We shall take as long as is necessary to reach a conclusion. Conservatives consider the issues first and pronounce later. Sometimes it is the other way round with the Opposition, and that is part of their problem.
Mr. Rowe : Before my right hon. Friend is in any danger of being intimidated by the hon. Friends of the hon. Member for Glasgow, Hillhead (Mr. Galloway), who cannot write, but who can rant, will he note that in my constituency there was a considerable feeling of confidence because had Labour achieved what it sought to achieve, none of the damage to the health service and a whole range of other services in England, as threatened by the Labour party, could have taken place ? That was very reassuring.
Mr. Lang : I am most grateful to my hon. Friend and I understand his point entirely.
Mr. Canavan : In view of the Prime Minister's firm commitment to take stock of the position in Scotland and to report back to the House, why cannot the Secretary of State advise the Prime Minister that the best and most democratic way in which to take stock would be to consult the people of Scotland through a multi-option referendum ? The Government should let the people of Scotland
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decide, because ultimately the real sovereignty of those people is far superior to any phoney sovereignty claimed by this House.Mr. Lang : We consulted the people of the United Kingdom through the democratic process on 9 April. To have a multi-option referendum now on vague and unspecific philosophical concepts would prove nothing and achieve nothing other than disguise the confusion that reigns on the Opposition Benches as to what is their policy.
Local Government
4. Mr. Wallace : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many representations he has received in the last year on the future structure of local government in Scotland.
Mr. Lang : I have received a total of 465 responses to my first consultation paper on the future structure of local government in Scotland since its publication in June 1991.
Mr. Wallace : As there is no reference in the Gracious Speech to any legislation on this subject, will the Secretary of State now take the time that that absence offers to implement in Scotland the kind of commission that has been set up in England so that the views of the local communities can be ascertained on what the boundaries of the new authorities should be? Will he also acknowledge that the reform of local government is an opportunity, as recommended by the Montgomery committee, to consolidate, extend and develop the powers of the existing single-tier authorities in the islands?
Mr. Lang : We shall, of course, continue to consider what external advice should be sought on different aspects of the reform of local government. We have today commissioned a consultancy study by Touche Ross management consultants into the costs, transitional and running, of the kind of change to local government that we are contemplating. We also propose to set up, I hope with the agreement of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, a working party to study aspects of the internal management of local authorities. We are making progress with our plans on local government reform.
Mr. Bill Walker : When my right hon. Friend is considering the proposals for local government restructuring will he bear in mind the wishes of the people of north Tayside, who want local government to be nearer to them? The proposed closure of the bridge over the River Ericht between Blairgowrie and Rattray will disrupt the tourist trade up to Braemar and in other areas in northern Perthshire and the Grampians. That decision shows only too well how out of touch the regional authority at Dundee is with the problems faced by the rural economy, particularly the tourist economy.
Mr. Lang : I am sure that my hon. Friend will pursue that specific point as he knows well how to do. I certainly acknowledge the importance of making local government more local, coherent and accountable. That is part of our purpose in considering reform.
Mr. Maxton : Will the Secretary of State confirm that a large number of those who responded to his consultation paper on the future of local government in Scotland called for an independent inquiry into its future? Is it not obvious, even to him, that without such an inquiry, radical
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changes such as he is proposing to the structure and function of local government, will be seen by the Scottish people as undemocratic gerrymandering for the benefit of the Scottish Tory party? Why does he not announce such an inquiry today and so ensure that we have a proper structure of local government in Scotland in the future?Mr. Lang : When we publish the second consultation paper, which we hope to do in the autumn, we shall consult widely, just as we did on our initial consultation paper. I have already said in answer to the hon. Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Wallace) that we shall consider what external advice we may seek on different aspects of the reform as it proceeds.
Community Care
5. Sir Russell Johnston : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what plans he has for the future development of community care in the highlands.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Sir Hector Monro) : It is for Highland regional council, in conjunction with thhealth board, housing agencies, other service providers and users to determine the future pattern of community care services in the Highlands.
Sir Russell Johnston : May I first congratulate the Minister on his promotion? The fact that he is a decade older than I does not mean that he is so much wiser.
Will the Minister look at the calculations that Highland regional council has made on the proposal for a change in community care financing? It has worked out that that will result in a reduction of approximately 400 nursing and day care beds in the next three years. Will the Minister promise that, whatever change is made in community care financing, it will not lead to a reduction in that provision in the Highlands?
Sir Hector Monro : I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's kind remarks. Sometimes vintage wine takes a long time to mature. I cannot give the hon. Gentleman an absolute assurance on the number of places, but constructive talks are going on between my Department, Highland regional council and the health board. I am certain that, by the end of July when we announce the money for the transfers, and later in the autumn when we announce the money for local government, all will be well and the hon. Gentleman will be happy with the outcome.
Coal Privatisation
6. Mr. Eric Clarke : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what assessment he has made of the effect the planned privatisation of the coal industry will have on the Scottish economy and on employment in Scotland.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Allan Stewart) : Privatisation will give British Coal and its work force the opportunity to develop the productive efficiency of the mines to the full so that they can compete for the largest achievable share of the United Kingdom fuel market.
Mr. Clarke : Does the Minister support the idea that in the event of privatisation Scotland's coal assets should be sold off as a whole, rather than piecemeal ? In other words,
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opencast and deep mine should be sold together. Will the Secretary of State agree to a meeting on the future of Monktonhall colliery, about which I am extremely worried ?Mr. Stewart : Having listened to the two good speeches that the hon. Gentleman has already made on that subject--his maiden speech and his speech on Monday--I can tell the House that the hon. Gentleman is a member of an endangered species : a Scottish Labour Member who knows what he is talking about. Obviously, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State or I will meet the hon. Gentleman to discuss Monktonhall at the earliest opportunity.
Mr. Hood : British Coal recently robbed the mineworkers' pension scheme of more than £500 million by taking a contribution holiday. Will the Minister assure Scottish miners that the billions of pounds in the mineworkers' pension scheme will not be used as a carrot to privatise the coal industry ?
Mr. Stewart : I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman was not present for the winding-up speech on Monday, when my hon. Friend the Minister of State answered that point.
Investment
8. Mr. McLeish : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what steps he intends to take to increase investment in the Scottish economy and to reduce unemployment.
Mr. Lang : The first step needed to increase investment in the Scottish economy and to reduce unemployment was the re-election of a Conservative Government. This we have now secured. Returning confidence, low inflation and a stable economic environment will lead to increased investment and more jobs.
Mr. McLeish : That was a disgraceful and characteristically complacent response from the Secretary of State. At a time when 250, 000 Scots are unemployed, why can the Government provide only 3,000 temporary work places? When 10,000 young Scots have no income whatever and when only 500 vacancies exist in the careers offices and the youth guarantee scheme has fallen apart, why do they do nothing to assist? Scotland needs a Government committed to an industrial strategy in the 1990s. What does the Secretary of State intend to do about the crisis in Scotland, which the Government have failed to deal with in the past 13 years?
Mr. Lang : The hon. Gentleman fails to recognise that the last published figures of the number of people employed in Scotland showed that there were 2,294,000--the highest number of people in employment on record. In addition, for the first time on record, unemployment in Scotland is lower than in the rest of the United Kingdom. Therefore, it is clear that the Scottish economy is stronger, broader based, more modernised and readier to take advantage of the economic upturn when it comes than it has been for a long time. That reflects on the Conservative Government.
Sir Nicholas Fairbairn : I congratulate my right hon. Friend on emphasising the fact that never before have so many people been employed in Scotland.
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Mr. McLeish : That is not true.Sir Nicholas Fairbairn : Oh, yes, it is true. If the hon. Member for Fife, Central (Mr. McLeish) read The Courier, he would know that every week hundreds of job vacancies are advertised and every week only one is filled. How is it that so many people in Fife, Central and Perthshire are seeking jobs, yet nobody seems to want jobs?
Mr. Lang : My hon. and learned Friend makes a valid point. It was interesting that the job vacancy figures rose again last month, and have risen in successive months recently so that they now stand at a high level. A significant sign of returning confidence is that, since the general election, no fewer than five important inward investment decisions have been taken and announced, involving investment worth more than £50 million in Scotland and more than 900 jobs.
Mr. Worthington : The Secretary of State's claim that there are more people in employment now in Scotland than there were in 1979 is simply untrue, and I challenge him to produce the figures. Is it not true that, although anyone working more than 16 hours a week is now classified as being in full-time employment, there are more than 200, 000 fewer people employed in Scotland than in 1979?
Mr. Lang : The hon. Gentleman's figures must be incorrect as I have given the latest figure showing that 2,294,000 people are employed in Scotland at present. I wish that Labour Members would occasionally welcome good news and talk Scotland up for a change, instead of constantly talking it down.
Council House Sales
9. Mr. Kynoch : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many council houses have been sold in Scotland to their tenants since 1979.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : The total number of houses sold by public authorities since 1979 is nearly 248,000, of which nearly 240, 000 have been sold to sitting tenants. Nearly 178,000 of those sales to sitting tenants were made by local authorities.
Mr. Kynoch : Although I welcome the news about the number of sales of council houses to private individuals, what measures are being taken to ensure that there is an adequate stock of rented accommodation, particularly in fast-developing districts such as the environs of Aberdeen where housing prices are high?
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend on his outstanding victory in the general election. His constituency is typical of many constituencies in the north-east, and has problems associated with success. We are ensuring that Scottish Homes is sufficiently funded. It is committing £1.75 million to provide housing association budgets in Kincardine and Deeside for 60 housing units. An increasing population is one of the factors that we take into account when making allocations to housing authorities. We shall continue to do so and shall give further encouragement to the private rented sector.
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Mrs. Fyfe : While he is about it, would the Minister care to tell the House how many council houses in Scotland are unfit to live in? At the present permission-to-borrow rate given to local authorities, in which year next century does the Minister expect council tenants in Scotland to have decent houses in which to live? Is that too much to ask? Perhaps the Minister should come to Glasgow to look at the deplorable housing conditions of many people, instead of swanning around nice new developments and ignoring the problems of many of those people.
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : The hon. Lady talks of swanning around nice new developments, several of which in her constituency I much enjoyed seeing and am glad to support. We strongly support the policy of bringing empty houses back into use in Scotland. Total funding for the public sector this year will be about £897 million and for Scottish Homes it will be £364 million--a total of about £1.25 billion. Those figures represent substantial resources if properly applied. I recommend that the hon. Lady's authority co-operate with other organisations to find the best policy for empty houses in the constituency.
Mr. Dewar : I congratulate the hon. Member for Kincardine and Deeside (Mr. Kynoch) on speaking up and drawing attention to the lack of rented accommodation. That is a sign of independence among Scottish Tory Back Benchers, which I welcome.
Does the Minister accept that it is tragic at a time when the housing stock in the public sector in many areas is crumbling, when damp is a scourge destroying the quality of life for thousands and when rents have been artificially forced up, that the main exhibit in the Scottish Office's legislative programme is an adjustment to the rents-to-mortgages scheme which has so far attracted only 0.1 per cent. of eligible tenants? Is that not an abdication of responsibility, given the problems that we face and the desperate need for increased resources?
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : I have reason to believe that the cause of the low take-up in the rents-to-mortgages scheme by local authorities so far is that some appear to have been waiting to see who would win the general election. The hon. Gentleman and his colleagues are still in opposition and we are still in government. The amount spent on publicity was a drop in the ocean compared with the receipts of well in excess of £1 billion, which have been spent on public sector houses in Scotland for the right to buy generally. The rents-to-mortgages publicity had the effect of greatly increasing right-to-buy sales, and I have no doubt that when we introduce our Bill to extend tenants' rights far further than the Labour party ever did, this procedure will be speeded up and there will be many more sales throughout Scotland.
Local Government
10. Mr. McAvoy : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many people signed responses to the consultation paper the "Structure of Local Government in Scotland" calling for a local council for Cambuslang and Rutherglen.
Mr. Allan Stewart : We have received 2,364 individual letters and postcards as well as a 44-signature petition requesting a local council for Rutherglen and Cumbuslang.
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Mr. McAvoy : The Minister will be aware that each of those submissions carried more than one signature and that in addition there was full-scale support for a local council at public meetings at Halfway, Cambuslang and Rutherglen. Moreover, a parliamentary petition to that effect has been signed by 12,000 people. Does the Minister accept that the people of Halfway, Cambuslang and Rutherglen have made it clear that they want a local council and that if the Government mean what they say about listening to local communities, they will have to deliver what a former Tory Government took away in 1973--a local council for Halfway, Cambuslang and Rutherglen?
Mr. Stewart : The whole House will recognise that those are pretty impressive statistics. My right hon. Friend has emphasised that the reorganisation of local government in Scotland is to be people driven. We are consulting on these matters ; there may be a case for a local council in Rutherglen and Cambuslang more closely in line with the hon. Gentleman's constituency. But I cannot give the hon. Gentleman an absolute assurance-- not today anyway.
Brain Tumours
11. Mr. Donohoe : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many brain tumours have been detected in children between the ages of five and seven years in the Ayrshire and Arran health board area in the past two years.
Mr. Allan Stewart : In 1989 and 1990, the latest two years for which cancer registration data are available, no children in the age range five to seven in the Ayrshire and Arran health board area were registered with a malignant brain tumour.
Mr. Donohoe : Is the Minister aware that the figure for 1991-92 stands at eight? If that information is correct and if the figure is based on clusters, as I am informed it is, will he initiate an inquiry?
Mr. Stewart : I have received no such figure from my Department. I will, of course, look into the matter and write to the hon. Gentleman.
Mr. Foulkes : Is the Minister aware of the concern in south Ayrshire that the danger of an increased number of brain tumours and other cancers will increase if Scottish Power is allowed to go ahead with the proposed transmission line from Killoch to Ballantrae? May we have an assurance that the Secretary of State will take account of that when he eventually considers the application?
Mr. Stewart : No established link has been found between electromagnetic fields and adverse health effects. There has been extensive research on the issue in many countries since about 1970 and that research continues. The United Kingdom electricity industry is contributing to it. I do not regard this as a matter of party politics, and if the hon. Gentleman wants a full briefing from my Department, he may have one.
Electors
12. Mr. Dunn : To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will publish the average number of electors for Scottish constituencies ; and if he will make a statement.
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Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : The average electorate for Scotland, based on the current electoral register, is 54,570.
Mr. Dunn : Do not the figures suggest an imbalance in terms of equity in the number of electors that it takes to constitute a constituency in Scotland compared with the number in England? Does not my hon. Friend therefore agree that the options before his Department are to reduce the number of seats in Scotland or to increase the number of seats in England ; which would he prefer?
Lord James Douglas-Hamilton : My hon. Friend's case is that if the population in England is swelling, there may be a case for increasing the number of parliamentary seats south of the border ; but if he considers the history of the issue, he will see that since 1918 the number of Scottish constituencies has increased by one, whereas since 1948 the number of English seats has increased by 18 and the number of Welsh seats by two. The present settlement takes account of Scotland's status as a small nation and of large, sparsely populated and inaccessible areas. The issue has been considered three times since 1945 and on every occasion Parliament decided in favour of 71 seats for Scotland.
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