To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps he will take to ensure comparable education standards between maintained and Government schools.

Controlled and maintained schools are treated on a similar basis and this will continue to apply to the range of current and future initiatives aimed at improving standards.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the future generation of electricity in Northern Ireland.

In 1985 the Government identified the need for new generating capacity to be available in Northern Ireland from the mid-1990s. Tenders were invited from NIE and the private sector to find the most cost-effective way of meeting this requirement, taking account of the availability of indigenous lignite deposits.The main options were a public or private sector lignite-fired station or the installation of generating sets 3 and 4 at the Kilroot power station (known as Kilroot phase II) as dual coal/oil-fired units.In the event, the particular circumstances of the availability of spare plant already purchased but not yet installed, together with the lower levels of coal and oil prices that are now forecast, made the option of proceeding with Kilroot II the most economical outcome.The Government have therefore decided that the requirement for new generating capacity in Northern Ireland will be met by Kilroot phase II.There is strong evidence, however, that had the particular circumstance of the lower capital cost not existed, a lignite station would otherwise have had significant advantages and therefore the next power station in Northern Ireland is likely to be lignite-fired.This view is reinforced by the positive approach evident in the proposals submitted by the private sector for a lignite-fired power station, and in particular in that from the Antrim Power Company Limited, which emerged as much the strongest private sector group.The Government are determined that the benefits from private sector involvement in the electricity supply industry should be available to Northern Ireland consumers as they will be to those in the rest of the United Kingdom. They therefore propose to set in hand immediately consideration of ways of privatising the Northern Ireland electricity system.In the appraisal of these options the Government have been advised by Coopers and Lybrand Associates Limited (with Ewbank Preece Power and Water Limited) on economic and technical issues, N. M. Rothschild and Son Limited on financial matters, Denton Hall Burgin and Warrens, solicitors,on legal and contractural matters, and Dr. Otto Gold GMBH on lignite mining.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he will publish in the Official Report a list of those cases where members of security forces have been charged with offences causing (a) the death of or (b) injury to civilians for each year since 1969, indicating the branch of the service involved, such as Royal Ulster Constabulary, the Ulster Defence Regiment, the Army, the Royal Marines, and so on, the charge originally brought, the charge for which each person was tried, the verdict and, where appropriate, where the sentence was or is being served.

[holding answer 30 June 1988]: I will write to the hon. Member.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what recent representations he has received concerning maintaining the provision of religious education in state schools.

A large number of letters have been received about the place of religious education in the curriculum of maintained schools. The Government believe that the concerns expressed have been met by the provisions now contained in the Education Reform Bill.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make it his policy to provide additional resources to assist local education authorities to fulfil their duty to provide further education with regard to the needs of persons with special educational needs.

No. The Education Reform Bill, as amended, makes explicit, but does not extend, the responsibility of local education authorities to have regard to special educational needs in securing the provision of adequate facilities for further education. It will continue to be for local education authorities to decide their own spending priorities within existing planned provision.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he will be in a position to announce his decision regarding the future of the Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology, Gloucester; and if he will make a statement.

The applications from Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology and a number of other colleges to join the new Polytechnics and Colleges Funding Council sector raise very important issues both for the colleges concerned and for the future patterns of higher and further education provision nationally. My right hon. Friend is accordingly giving the applications careful consideration. He hopes to be able to make an announcement shortly.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the level of investment in new school buildings and the repair of existing school buildings in Cornwall.

In 1988–89 the schools element of the Cornwall authority's prescribed allocation for capital expenditure on county and voluntary controlled schools was £6·274 million. This allocation, which covered 78 per cent. of the authority's submitted plans, reflects the Government's awareness and appreciation of the authority's problems. In addition, Cornwall was allocated £145,000 in respect of work at voluntary aided schools.

To ask the Prime Minister if she proposes to support the five-point plan to protect the global atmosphere, set out in the address by the Norwegian Prime Minister before the world conference on the changing atmosphere: implications for global security.

I welcome Mrs. Brundtland's contribution, delivered to the Toronto conference. Several of her points were also stressed by my noble Friend the Minister for Environment, Countryside and Water in a written message to the conference, in particular the need for international co-operation in seeking solutions to the problems posed by climate change, in developing renewable energy resources and co-ordinating scientific research. The special problems of the poorest countries, stressed by Mrs. Brundtland, have already been recognised by the agreement we reached on debt relief at the Toronto economic summit. For the moment, however, it would be premature to place high priority on the proposal to establish a global convention on protection of the climate. The best immediate use of our resources lies in the difficult task of reducing uncertainty about the nature and consequences of atmospheric change.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will provide a detailed breakdown for the years 1982–83 to 1990–91, by nature of item and functional area of charge, of the receipts to his programme classified as charges for the purposes of the public expenditure survey.

[holding answer 7 July 1988]: The figures in the table relate to receipts in respect of programme expenditure; receipts in respect of running costs expenditure are not included. They do not take into account the changes in funding responsibility, for example, in the case of polytechnics, which will take place after the Education Reform Bill is enacted.

To ask the Prime Minister if, during her recent visit to Toronto, she discussed with the Canadian Prime Minister the sale of nuclear submarines to Canada.

Yes. As has been widely reported, the subject was discussed during my recent visit to Canada.

To ask the Prime Minister if she will make a statement on her meeting with Canadian Government Ministers in Ottawa on 22 June concerning the sale of British Trafalgar Class nuclear submarines to Canada.

No.

To ask the Prime Minister if, during her recent visit to Toronto, for the meeting of leading industrial nations, she discussed with the Japanese Prime -Minister the matter of commercial exports of plutonium from the United Kingdom to Japan with respect to economic benefits and safety.

No.

To ask the Prime Minister if, during her recent visit to Toronto for the economic summit, she discussed the French nuclear energy programme with the President of France.

No.

To ask the Prime Minister if, during her visit to Turkey in April, she had the opportunity to raise with the Turkish Government the matter of the economic effects on Turkish farmers of the Chernobyl radioactive fallout.

This subject was not raised during my visit to Turkey.

To ask the Prime Minister which Government Department or Departments are involved in agreeing (a) work permits and (b) visa applications for performing musicians from Cuba.

Work permits are a matter for the Department of Employment. Visa applications are dealt with by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Home Office.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what capital controls other European Economic Community countries operate.

The United Kingdom, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands all have full freedom of capital movements, while Belgium and Luxembourg have no controls apart from those needed to maintain a dual exchange rate system, under which they have an "official" foreign exchange market for current account transactions, and a "free" one for capital transactions. Only authorised banks may carry out exchange transactions permitted in the "official" market, although they may sell on the official market currencies acquired on the free market. French residents are still not generally permitted to hold bank accounts abroad or open foreign currency accounts in France and there are restrictions on the amounts that banks can lend to non-residents. Denmark retains some restrictions, for example, on the maturity of foreign loans taken up by non-financial enterprises, on financial credits and loans between residents and non-residents, on residents holding foreign bank deposits and on the size of non-residents' krone deposits in Danish banks. The Italians have committed themselves to liberalisation of all remaining restrictions in October 1988, except on residents' holdings of lire or foreign currency deposits abroad, the opening of lire or foreign currency lines of credit in favour of foreign countries and foreign exchange forward or option transactions with foreign counterparties. Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Spain maintain more extensive systems of exchange control covering, in particular, those areas such as short-term capital movements, the issuing of unlisted securities and non-commercial loans, where, until now, there has been no binding obligation to liberalise. Adoption of the European Community's capital liberalisation directive on 24 June extends liberalisation to all capital movements within the Community, in most cases by 1 July 1990 but with extensions for Spain, Ireland, Greece and Portugal.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects the 1986 European Community draft directive for small and medium-size enterprises to be implemented.

The President of the European Council has given no indication of the future timetable for consideration of this draft directive.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether new office building contracts entered into and completed before 1 April 1989 will be exempt from value added tax; and if he will make a statement.

In my statement of 21 June I made it clear that there would be no changes to the current value added tax arrangements before 1 April 1989. It follows that a contract for a completely new office building entered into and completed before that date will remain zero rated.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what announcements he has made concerning the receipt of comments by Her Majesty's Government relating to the mode and timing of incorporation of the recent ruling of the Court of the European Communities on value added tax; and if he will give the body or person and the address to which comments should be sent.

[holding answer 11 July 1988]: As I informed the House on 21 June, at columns 957–58, no changes to the VAT law to give effect to the judgment will take effect before 1 April 1989. A consultation document on issues affecting non-domestic construction was made available in the Vote Office and the Library on that day. A consultation paper on other aspects of the judgment was announced and placed in the Library on 30 June, a s announced in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Mr. Wood), at column 331.Copies of both documents are available from Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, New King's Beam House, 22 Upper Ground, London SE1 9PJ. Any person or body wishing to comment on these proposals should write to VAT Administration Directorate, Division F, Room 14 at the above address no later than 31 August, although consultation with those who comment by 31 August will continue after that date.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the 10 fastest growing economies in Europe in descending order and with their corresponding percentages of growth for each year since 1979.

[holding answer 14 July 1988]: Information on the growth rates of Western European countries for the years in question can be found in the June 1988 OECD Economic Outlook, table RI.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will take steps to encourage Her Majesty's Customs and Excise to reduce its demand for on-board customs and immigration facilities on Channel tunnel through trains due to serve places including Birmingham International and Birmingham New Street to a level more in line with the half-coach requirement of European operators of trans-national services.

[holding answer 11 July 1988]: Customs and Excise has asked for only 20 sq m of accommodation on the through services to points beyond London.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many consignments of coral have been impounded by customs officials since the coming into operation of appendix II of the conference on international trade in endangered species 1985.

[holding answer 8 July 1988]: Latest available records show that Customs has made eight seizures of coral sine 29 August 1985, when EC regulation No. 2384/5 came into force.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when was the last occasion on which a DROPS medium mobility vehicle overturned; what injuries were caused; and if he will make a statement.

One of the DROPS medium mobility vehicles currently undergoing pre-production validation trials was involved in a minor incident on 17 June in which it fell on its side when negotiating a bend on the RARDE rough road test track. The military crew of the vehicle suffered cuts and abrasions which required out-patient hospital treatment.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what representations he has received about a proposal to put an underground pipeline from Cwm Dyli power station in the event of its reopening; and if he will make a statement.

I have received a number of representations, from the Snowdonia National Park Society and others, objecting to the CEGB's replacement plans for the supply pipelines to its Cwm Dyli hydro-electric station.The CEGB and the local planning authority take the view that replacement is "permitted development" under the terms of the Town and Country Planning General Development Order 1977.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what information he has on research into the feasibility of laying an underground pipeline to serve Cwm Dyli power station.

I am not aware of any such research.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will meet councillors and representatives of residents in Ewloe concerning their objections to the Redrow development Ewloe, Deeside; and if he will make a statement.

No. Redrow Commercial Developments Ltd. has appealed to my right hon. Friend following the failure of Alyn and Deeside district council to determine within the prescribed period its application for planning permission for development of land at Ewloe, Clwyd. Arrangements are being made for a public inquiry to be held into the appeal and, in view of this, it would not be appropriate for my right hon. Friend to meet local representatives to discuss the proposed development.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many community mental handicap nurses are employed by each health authority in Wales.

[holding answer 14 July 1988]: Information, taken primarily from the NHS payroll, does not at present permit reliable estimates to be made of numbers of community mental handicap nurses. However, work is being carried out by the district health authorities in conjunction with Welsh Office officials to enable such information to be extracted in the longer term.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make available extra cash to local authorities to enable them to provide courses locally for the training of speech therapists; and if he will make a statement.

[holding answer 14 July 1988]: Funding for speech therapist courses in local authority maintained institutes is provided through the AFE pool. At present a four-year honours degree course for speech therapists is provided at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education, which recruits students from all parts of Wales. The initiative for proposing new higher education courses rests with the colleges and their maintaining authorities. Proposals for new courses are considered by the Wales Advisory Body and, if approved, would need to be funded from the AFE pool.

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list the levels of funding of the British Overseas Trade Board for 1988–89 and the last five financial years.

The British Overseas Trade Board guides and directs my Department's export promotion effort. The amounts of expenditure in each of the past five years and planned for the current year are as follows:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will make a statement on the future role of the recycling advisory unit at Warren Spring laboratory in relation to the reclamation and recycling industries.

The future role of the recycling advisory unit will be largely unchanged.

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he has any plans to make additional funds available to assist new initiatives at the European Economic Community joint research centres at Geel in Belgium, Petten in the Netherlands, Karlsruhe in the Federal Republic of Germany and Ispra in Italy.

A 1988–91 programme for the Joint Research Centre was agreed at the Research Council on 29 June. This provides 700 million ecu (£466 million) of Community funding for specific research programmes at the Joint Research Centre, and sets targets for a further 250 million ecu (£166 million) of work under contract to Commission directorates and external customers, both private and public. I regard this as a satisfactory settlement. The obligation on the Joint Research Centre to increase its earnings under contractual arrangements is part of a package of measures aimed to make the Joint Research Centre more efficient and its work more relevant to the Community's needs.United Kingdom Government Departments will be willing to consider contracting some of their research needs to the Joint Research Centre if they are persuaded that the appropriate expertise is available there at a competitive price.

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster if he will list the Government's achievements for the northern region on a basis comparable with the answer of the Secretary of State for Wales to the hon. Member for Cardiff, North (Mr. Jones) on 21 June, Official Report, columns 498–504.

[holding answer 11 July 1988]: I have outlined as follows the activities and achievements relevant to the work of the Department of Trade and Industry along with those appropriate to my wider inner cities brief.Seasonally adjusted unemployment in the north has fallen by 31,500 over the past 12 months and now stands at its lowest level since April 1981. The total of unemployed school leavers is down by 24 per cent. over the past year. Vacancies continue to rise, while redundancies were 44 per cent. less in 1987 than in the previous year. The CBI and chambers of commerce report good progress in the regional economy in a wide range of industries, with output, sales and investment all buoyant and auguring well for further progress in the future. The number of employees in employment has risen by 13,000 in 1987 and by almost 50,000 since 1983. Similarly, self-employment in the region has increased by 400,000 since 1979, representing more than 40 per cent. of the nationwide increase in self-employment.In the past year the north has attracted eight new inward investment projects from four countries. These projects involve fixed investment of £14 million and the creation of 1,173 jobs over three years. A further 11 overseas companies announced expansion plans in the region with investments totalling £327 million and creating 1,700 jobs as well as safeguarding a further 1,500 jobs over the next three years. Interest hn the region from overseas continues to show a dramatic increase, with inquiries in the year to June 1988 totalling 284, an increase of 83 per cent. on the previous year.The Northern Development Company was allocated a total of £1·165 million for 1988–89 for its inward investment promotional programme and for wider activities in support of the region's small business sector and wider regional regeneration. This is an increase of £47,000 on the previous year, with the NDC receiving over 40 per cent. of the total DTI support for English regional development organisations.In 1987–88, English Estates North completed over 659,000 sq ft of industrial work space at a cost of £19 million and let almost 1,500,000 sq ft of space.Companies are registering for VAT at a rate of around 6,000 a year, comfortably exceeding deregistrations, and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Employment informs me that the small firms centre in Newcastle dealt with nearly 9,800 inquiries in the six months to 30 June 1988, an increase of 11 per cent. on the: previous six months.Since June 1987 a total of over 5,500 applications for regional development grant have been received. There have been 329 applications for regional selective assistance during the same period, 34 per cent. higher than the previous year. If the potential of the projects associated with these applications is fully realised, it will increase investment in the north by over £2,000 million and create over 65,000 jobs in the next few years.Since the launch of the new enterprise initiative in January of this year the DTI has received 430 applications for consultancy assistance front the northern region, and since the launch of the regional enterprise grants in April over 500 inquiries have been received. Marketing of the new initiatives in the region to maximise take-up continues at high levels, and since January the DTI has participated in over 130 events, making direct contact with almost 4,000 representatives of local firms.