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Written Answers

Volume 445: debated on Monday 5 December 1983

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Written Answers

Firearms: Working Party

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish the names of the members of the working party on the administration of the Firearms Act, when they expect to receive the report, and whether it will be published.

The report is expected early in the New Year. Its findings, including the names of the working party members, will be published in due course but it has yet to be decided how this will be done.

Prison Remission

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, following the decision of the divisional court in the cases of

Tarrant and Leyland that the board of visitors should have considered whether or not to grant them legal representation, they will remit all awards of loss of remission handed down to serving prisoners by boards of visitors, where the requirement of the divisional court was not observed.

Mesothelioma: Applications For Benefit

asked Her Majesty's Government:How many applications for industrial injury benefit on the ground of disablement caused by mesothelioma were made during the years 1981–82, 1982–83 and 1983 to the most recent convenient date for computation.

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Security
(Lord Glenarthur)

Information in the form requested is not available centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. The following table relates to the number of awards of industrial death benefit for mesothelioma under the industrial injuries scheme.

Year of deathNo. of awards
1981173
1982154
1983 (latest figure available)30

Mesothelioma: Disablement Benefit

asked Her Majesty's Government:What payments are made for total and partial disablement in cases of mesothelioma, and how these are calculated.

The Pneumoconiosis, Byssinosis and Miscellaneous Diseases Benefit Scheme provides for the payment of allowances out of the National Insurance Fund for total and partial disablement caused by certain diseases, including mesothelioma, contracted as a result of employment before 5th July 1948. There are two rates of benefit: the higher one at £55.60 a week is the same as the 100 per cent. Industrial Injury Disablement Benefit and is paid when the beneficiary is totally disabled. The lower rate is £20.45 per week, recognising that the beneficiary is not totally disabled by the disease but is suffering from it to such a degree that his general physical capacity for employment is impaired.

Mesothelioma: Benefit Refusals

asked Her Majesty's Government:In how many cases of industrial disease has an application for benefit for mesothelioma been rejected and a grant for asbestosis been substituted and at what rates.

The information is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Mesothelioma And Asbestosis Disablement Benefit: Comparative Figures

asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the number of cases of disablement by asbestosis and mesothelioma now accepted for payment of disablement benefit and whether in appropriate cases provisions exist for redemption by a lump sum payment.

At December 1982, the latest date for which figures are available, 1,278 claimants were in receipt of disablement benefit for asbestosis under the industrial injuries scheme. Comparable information about the number of cases of mesothelioma is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. No provisions exist for commutation of weekly benefit to a lump sum payment.

Retirement Provision: Special Inquiry

asked Her Majesty's Government:What are the full terms of reference, and membership, of the special inquiry into provision for retirement, announced by the Secretary of State for the DHSS on 23rd November 1983.

The terms of reference of the inquiry are:

"To study the future development, adequacy and costs of state, occupational and private provision for retirement in the United Kingdom, including the portability of pension rights, and to consider possible changes in those arrangements, taking account of the recommendations of the Select Committee on Social Services in their report on retirement age".
The membership of the inquiry has yet to be finalised but it will include, as well as ministerial and departmental representatives and Mr. Edward Johnston, the Government Actuary, the following people:—Professor Alan Peacock, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Buckingham;Mr. Stewart Lyon, President of the Institute of Actuaries;Mr. Marshall Field, Chairman of the Joint Working Group of the main occupational pensions organisations.The full membership of the inquiry will be published in due course.

Optician Services: Competition

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will be able to make their views known concerning the dispensing of spectacles before the Christmas Recess.

The Government's views on this matter were set out in my Statement to the House on 28th November.—[Official Report, Vol. 445, cols. 450–451.]

Dioxin: Regulations

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether arising out of the findings of guilt in the Seveso case they are ready to introduce legislation to diminish the risk of an exothermic explosion of a type liable to produce a release of dioxin.

The Minister of State, Privy Council Office, and Minister for the Arts
(The Earl of Gowrie)

Regulations will be laid before Parliament in the new year implementing the EC Directive on the Major Accident Hazards of Certain Industrial Activities. This directive is concerned with the protection from major accidents of persons at work and others likely to be affected, and with the protection of the environment. The regulations will cover the type of process likely to produce dioxin.

Hazardous Waste Disposal

asked Her Majesty's Government:Why they have still not taken a decision on the recommendation of the Select Committee on Science and Technology, in para. 170 of their report on Hazardous Waste Disposal, published in 1981, that there should be recurring charges for licences at sites accepting hazardous wastes in order to cover the cost of monitoring and licence enforcement.

Introduction of charges will depend on prior enactment of enabling legislation which will be introduced as soon as there is an opportunity for this. However, before any scheme is introduced there will be consultations on the details with the local authority associations and other interested bodies.

Birds: Licensed Killing

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they follow in full the advice given to them by the Nature Conservancy Council (NCC) when issuing licences in Scotland to allow the killing of (a) herons, (b) cormorants, (c) shags, (d) goosanders and mergansers; if not, whether they will specify in each case in what respects they have not followed such advice; and whether, in respect of each of these cases, they will state what scientific investigations they have conducted to justify ignoring the NCC's advice.

I refer the noble Lord to the replies I gave him on 23rd November. Our licensing policy is in accord with the advice given by the Nature Conservancy Council except in one limited respect. We decided that, for reasons of practicality, it would be inappropriate to refer to the NCC the individual applications from certain parts of Scotland in respect of goosanders and mergansers.—[Official Report, Vol. 445, cols. 234–235.]

Cyprus: Constitutional Requirements

asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they agree that the present regime in Cyprus has for more than 15 years not respected the following requirements of the Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus:

  • (a) Basic Article 1: a Vice-President to be elected by the Turkish Community
  • (b) Basic Article 46: a Council of Ministers, three of whom are to be Turkish Cypriots, of whom one must hold either the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Defence or the Ministry of Finance
  • (c)Basic Article 62(2): a House of Representatives 30 per cent. of whom are to be elected by the Turkish Community
  • (d) Basic Article 123: a Public Service 30 per cent. of whom are to be Turkish Cypriots
  • (e) Basic Article 133: a Supreme Constitutional Court composed of a Greek Cypriot, a Turkish Cypriot and a neutral judge;
  • and, if so, how they can justify their continued recognition of the régime; and

    Why they continue to recognise the regime which now governs Cyprus in view of the fact that it (and its predecessors) have substantially altered the Basic Articles of the 1960 Constitution in contravention of Article 182(1) thereof, and bearing in mind that under the Treaty of Guarantee they guarantee, "the state of affairs established by the Basic Articles" of that Constitution.

    Since the Republic of Cyprus became independent in 1960 both the Cyprus Government and the Turkish Cypriot community have failed to respect various aspects of the Constitution. We made our views on this known at the time.Before 1980 the question of recognition of Governments was not dependent on the degree to which the Constitution of the state concerned was being or was capable of being implemented. Since the change of British Government policy on recognition announced in this House on 28th April 1980 the question of dealings with Governments has similarly not been dependent on such considerations.

    Deer: Slaughtering

    asked Her Majesty's Government:How many deer have been slaughtered in commercial slaughterhouses in England and Wales, and in Scotland, since 1st January 1981.

    Deer are not normally slaughtered in commercial slaughterhouses in England and Wales. There have been limited trials in one slaughterhouse in Scotland in 1982 and 1983 in the course of which 229 deer have been slaughtered to date.

    Grass Sickness In Horses

    asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware that the incidence of grass sickness in horses and ponies is now nearly as prevalent in England as in Scotland, and whether they are satisfied that research on the present scale is being conducted with an urgency commensurate with the distress caused by this disease.

    Grass sickness is not a notifiable disease of horses and precise details about its incidence in England and Scotland are not available. Research work into the disease has been carried out at the Animal Diseases Research Association's Moredun Institute in Scotland and is currently being undertaken at the Royal Veterinary School in London funded by the Wellcome Trust.

    Most research work on horses is performed at the Equine Research Station at Newmarket which is funded by the Animal Health Trust. Ministry funds are not available for additional work on this problem, but the effort applied appears to be commensurate with what is required.

    Agricultural Arbitrators: Appointment Procedure

    asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have received representations from the professional bodies representing agricultural valuers and surveyors in respect of their proposal to transfer the appointment of agricultural arbitrators from the Minister of Agriculture to the president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and whether any such representations have supported the proposal.

    The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has received representations from the Incorporated Society of Valuers and Auctioneers and the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers about the proposal to transfer to the president of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors his and the Secretary of State for Wales's responsibilities for the appointment of agricultural arbitrators. Neither organisation was in favor of the proposal.