Written Answers
Wednesday, 16th February 2000.
Building Maintenance And Repairs: Vat
asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 22 June 1999 (
WA 82), what progress has been made on the European Union's offer of a reduction of VAT on building maintenance and repairs. [HL954]
Council Directive 1999/85/EC which provides for an optional, experimental, reduced VAT rate on a narrow range of labour-intensive services was adopted on 22 October 1999. The list includes the renovation and repairing of private dwellings, excluding materials which form a significant part of the value of the supply.
Agriculture: Employment Figures
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will publish in the
Official Report a table showing the number of persons employed in agriculture in the United Kingdom in each of the last 12 years, showing separately the numbers for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. [HL978]
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the Director of Social Statistics, Mr John Pallinger, dated 16 February 2000.
The Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on the number of people employed in agriculture. I am replying in Dr Holt's absence.
The attached table gives estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS), the main source of labour market data on individuals. It gives the number of people in employment in the agriculture, hunting and forestry industries in the UK and England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The data are for spring (March to May) quarters from 1988 to 1999 and are not seasonally adjusted.
People aged 16 or over are classed as in employment by the LFS if they have done at least one hour of paid work (as an employee or self-employed) in the week prior to their LFS interview or if they have a job that they are temporarily away from. People who do unpaid work in a family business and people on government-supported training and employment programmes are also included according to the International Labour Organisation convention.
People in employment in agriculture, hunting and forestry industries1 1988 to 1999 (not seasonally adjusted)
| |||||
Thousands
| |||||
United Kingdom
| England
| Wales
| Scotland
| Northern Ireland
| |
| Spring 1988 | 581 | 446 | 39 | 69 | 28 |
| Spring 1989 | 570 | 413 | 54 | 72 | 32 |
| Spring 1990 | 554 | 426 | 34 | 62 | 32 |
| Spring 1991 | 574 | 454 | 37 | 57 | 26 |
| Spring 1992 | 544 | 399 | 46 | 67 | 31 |
| Spring 19932 | 501 | 369 | 42 | 63 | 27 |
| Spring 19942 | 515 | 370 | 49 | 66 | 31 |
| Spring 1995 | 520 | 389 | 43 | 53 | 35 |
| Spring 1996 | 498 | 376 | 37 | 54 | 31 |
| Spring 1997 | 478 | 352 | 40 | 53 | 33 |
| Spring 1998 | 445 | 321 | 46 | 44 | 33 |
| Spring 1999 | 407 | 303 | 32 | 39 | 33 |
1 Based on the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC). | |||||
2SIC 92 replaced SIC 80 in winter 1993–94. For dates prior to winter 1993–94 the SIC 80 codes have been converted to SIC 92 codes to give reasonable comparisons not exact conversions. Because the conversions are not exact, there is a discontinuity in the table between spring 1993 and spring 1994. | |||||
Source:
Labour Force Survey.
Individual Asylum Applications, Debates In Parliament
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will list in the
Official Report all those occasions in the past 10 years in which individual asylum applications have been discussed in the House of Commons and in the House of Lords. [HL908]
I regret that this information is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Police Numbers
asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the recommended establishment by chief constables for policing their areas of responsibility; and what is the shortfall in each area. [HL942]
Ministers have no direct control over police numbers. Under legislation passed by the previous government in 1994 it is for individual chief constables to determine the number of police officers in their force within the resources that are available. At the end of September 1999 there were 125,464 police officers in England and Wales. The table sets out the numbers of officers in each force as at 30 September 1999.My right honourable Friend the Home Secretary announced on 9 February (House of Commons
Official Report, cols. 172–74W) the allocation of funding under the Crime Fighting Fund for the recruitment of 5,000 extra police officers over and above the number that would otherwise have been recruited over the next three years.
Police Numbers—Change between March 1999 and September 1999
| ||
Force
| Strength as at 30 September 1999
| Change since 31 March 1999
|
| Avon & Somerset | 2,988.7 | -11 |
| Bedfordshire | 1,048.4 | +7 |
| Cambridgeshire | 1,272.2 | -2 |
| Cheshire | 2,043.6 | -27 |
| City of London | 744.6 | -33 |
| Cleveland | 1,372.6 | -43 |
| Cumbria | 1,092.9 | -33 |
| Derbyshire | 1,763.6 | +5 |
| Devon & Cornwall | 2,861.1 | -26 |
| Dorset | 1,276.1 | -3 |
| Durham | 1,554.6 | -13 |
| Dyfed-Powys | 1,048.6 | +22 |
| Essex | 2,834.7 | -56 |
| Gloucestershire | 1,098 | -6 |
| Greater Manchester | 6,810.3 | No change |
| Gwent | 1,261.3 | +14 |
| Hampshire | 3,410.8 | -63 |
| Hertfordshire | 1,760 | +36 |
| Humberside | 1,926.2 | -48 |
| Kent | 3,256.7 | +56 |
| Lancashire | 3,221.4 | -23 |
| Leicestershire | 1,997.5 | +4 |
| Lincolnshire | 1,110.8 | -29 |
| Merseyside | 4,070.8 | -140 |
| Metropolitan Police | 25,884.5 | -188 |
| Norfolk | 1,381.5 | No change |
| Northamptonshire | 1,130 | -7 |
| Northumbria | 3,800.1 | -40 |
| North Wales | 1,399 | +8 |
| North Yorkshire | 1,293.7 | -43 |
| Nottinghamshire | 2,227 | +2 |
| South Wales | 2,983 | +2 |
| South Yorkshire | 3,165 | -3 |
| Staffordshire | 2,206 | -32 |
| Suffolk | 1,160 | -30 |
| Surrey | 1,721.1 | +59 |
| Sussex | 2,909.3 | +63 |
| Thames Valley | 3,749.5 | +1 |
| Warwickshire | 915.7 | +8 |
| West Mercia | 1,979.4 | -45 |
| West Midlands | 7,296.4 | -24 |
| West Yorkshire | 4,873 | -109 |
| Wiltshire | 1,150.2 | -1 |
| Force total strength | 123,050 | -791 |
| Seconded police officers | 2,414 | +159 |
| Total police service strength | 125,464 | -632 |
1Includes officers seconded to NCS, NCIS and central services such as National Police Training. | ||
Martin Mcgartland: Police Protection
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether it is their intention to remove police protection from Martin McGartland. [HL943]
Individual protection arrangements are a matter for the chief constable of the police force concerned and are not discussed for security reasons.
Mike Tyson: Criminal Record Of Member Of Entourage
asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Lord Bassam of Brighton on 2 February (
WA 36), what is the nature of the criminal record of the member of Mr Mike Tyson's entourage to which that reply referred. [HL948]
The member of Mr Tyson's entourage referred to in my reply of 2 February (Official Report, col. WA 36) had been convicted in 1989 of voluntary manslaughter, kidnapping and assault with a deadly weapon. for which he received a sentence of eight years' imprisonment. He was released on parole in 1991.
Gambling Review Body: Appointment Of Chairman
asked Her Majesty's Government:When they plan to announce the appointment of the Chairman of the Gambling Review Body and the body's terms of reference. [HL1105]
Further to the reply of my right honourable friend the Home Secretary in another place (House of Commons Official Report, col. 534W on 8 December), he has today appointed Sir Alan Budd as chairman of the Gambling Review Body. Sir Alan is Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford, and a former Chief Economic Adviser to the Treasury. The position is unpaid.We will make a further announcement on the membership of the review body in the next few weeks. We hope it will start work shortly after Easter, to report by the summer, 2001.The terms of reference for the gambling review are as follows:
- Consider the current state of the gambling industry and the ways in which it might change over the next 10 years in the light of economic pressures, the growth of e-commerce, technological developments and wider leisure industry and international trends.
- Consider the social impact of gambling and the costs and benefits.
- Consider, and make recommendations for the kind and extent of regulation appropriate for gambling activities in Great Britain, having regard to:
- their wider social impact;
- the need to protect the young and vulnerable from exploitation and to protect all gamblers from unfair practices;
- the importance of preventing gambling from being carried out in a way which allows crime and disorder or public nuisance;
- the need to keep the industry free from infiltration by organised and other serious crime and from money laundering risks;
- the desirability of creating an environment in which the commercial opportunities for gambling, including its international competitiveness, maximise the United Kingdom's economic welfare; and
- the implications for the current system of taxation, and the scope for its further development.
Consider the need for, and if necessary recommend, new machinery appropriate for carrying out that regulation which achieves a more consistent and streamlined approach than is now possible and which is financed by the gambling industry itself.
Consider the availability and effectiveness of treatment programmes for problem gamblers and make recommendations for their future provision, potential costings and funding.
In conducting this review, the body should not consider changes to the National Lottery, but it will need to look at the impact on the lottery of any proposed changes, including an assessment of the potential effect on the income to good causes.
Eurostar: South-West Regional Services
asked Her Majesty's Government:What was the outcome of the review of the options for Eurostar regional services with regard to the south-west of England. [HL918]
The consultants report on regional Eurostar services will be published shortly.
Elections: Free Postal Deliveries
asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the largest number of electors who have been asked to elect a candidate without the opportunity of receiving free postal deliveries from those competing for election. [HL895]
There are no free postal deliveries for candidates for local government elections. I understand the elections to the Greater London Council were classified as local government elections. Prior to 1973 the election of councillors to the GLC was based on multi-member electoral areas, the largest of which was Croydon in 1970, with an electorate of some 240,000 electing four candidates.
Sheep Scab Control
asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answers by Earl Howe on 18 January 1995 (
WA 42) and Lord Lucas on 8 February 1996 ( WA 577), what progress is being made with the three research and development projects being funded by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food into alternative treatments for sheep scab, including immunological and non-chemical control, and what has been the cost of these projects to date. [HL966]
The Government have funded work since 1996 to explore non-chemical methods as alternative approaches to sheep scab control. This programme is based on findings from earlier published work funded by MAFF at the Royal Veterinary College. The earlier results showed evidence for an immune response in the blood of sheep affected with sheep scab mites. To determine the significance of this finding and to investigate the various biological process involved, funding was provided for a four-year collaborative research programme at £350,000 to £400,000 per annum. The results of these studies in 1999 show that the approach to the immunological control of sheep scab is complex and requires an understanding of a number of key elements if a vaccine is to be developed. A new three-year programme with funding continuing at £350,000 to £400,000 per annum has been approved which will focus on these key elements.The overall sheep scab research programme since 1996 has included studies on the factors influencing the spread of sheep scab, factors associated with infestation and those involved in the development of clincial disease. A report on the studies dated August 1999 is available from MAFF Chief Scientist's Group. This work has also shown that there may be some potential for the control of sheep scab by the use of a natural fungus that infects the mites. Further work to investigate the potential of this approach is built into the new three-year programme.The total funding spent on sheep scab research by my department in recent years is as follows:
| Financial Year | £ |
| 1996–97 | 458,563 |
| 1997–98 | 550,454 |
| 1998–99 | 572,130 |
| 1999–2000 | 489,863 |
| 2000–01 | 442,009 |
Organophospate Sheep Dips: Endotoxins
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether any studies were conducted by the Health and Safety Directorate into the effects of bacteriological contamination and of combination with disinfectants in organophospate sheep dips between 1989 and 1993; and, if so, what were the results of these studies. [HL967]
The Health and Safety Executive sponsored a study by the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM) in 1993 which considered levels of endotoxins in dipping baths before and after dipping and airborne concentrations of endtoxin to which workers dipping sheep were exposed This was a pilot study to identify whether further research was needed. The results indicated that there was potential for worker exposure to endotoxin during sheep dipping but the airborne concentrations were lower than those reported in other industries such as wool processing. The report has been publised by the IOM.
Sheep: Withholding Period Between Dipping And Shearing
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether it is now a requirement of the British Wool Marketing Board that sheep owners who send fleeces to British Wool Marketing Board depots must guarantee that their sheep have not been dipped in organophosphate sheep dips within six months of shearing. [HL970]
We understand that the British Wool Marketing Board is supporting recommendations made by the Environment Agency in asking wool producers to observe a three-month withholding period between dipping and shearing in respect of the wool clip for the year 2000. The adequacy of the three-month withholding period will be reviewed during the course of the 2000 marketing year.
Organophosphate Sheep Dips
asked Her Majesty's Government:Further to the Written Answer by Baroness Hayman on 1 February (
WA 22), whether the evaluations of the purity of the active ingredients and solvents in organophosphate sheep dips conducted by the Veterinary Products Committee were based on peer-reviewed and published scientific evidence; if so, in which publications the results were published; and, if not, what was the source of the scientific evidence upon which the Veterinary Products Committee made its findings. [HL1003]
No. Evaluations of the purity of the ingredients of veterinary medicinal products are based on information provided by applicants for marketing authorisations.
Old Palace Yard Refurbishment
asked the Chairman of Committees:Further to his Written Answer on 2 February (
WA 45), whether in the light of their expressed support he will approach the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Royal Parks Agency and the Traffic Director for London for a financial contribution to the £2.44 million Old Palace Yard refurbishment project. [HL972]
No. The House has already considered this matter and decided how it wishes to proceed.