To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many representations he has received (a) in favour of and (b) against student loans.

Representations have expressed a variety of views on different aspects of the proposals. Many support the underlying principle that students in higher education should contribute to their living costs.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what arrangements exist between the Medical Research Council and Celltech on the exploitation of research results.

The Medical Research Council and Celltech Ltd signed a memorandum of understanding for a period of five years on 2 November 1988.The main feature of the memorandum of understanding is provision for regular dialogue between the council and Celltech. The understanding does not oblige the council to give preferential treatment in respect of new technologies.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement about the numbers of pupils remaining in full-time education after 16 years.

In 1988–89, 345,000 16-year-olds were participating in full-time education in England. The details are as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will reply to the letter of 19 September from the hon. Member for Oxford, East on the future of the Workers Educational Association.

I have replied to the hon. Member today.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will reply to the letter of 19 July from the hon. Member for Oxford, East on the points indicated in his letter of 17 October.

I did not think that the hon. Member's letter required a reply.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) when the next annual report of Her Majesty's senior chief inspector will be published on the state of schools;(2) whether he intends to edit or amend the annual report of Her Majesty's senior chief inspector on the state of schools before it is published.

I expect to receive the annual report from the senior chief inspector early in the new year. When I do so I intend to publish it without editing or amendment.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science which city technology colleges have signed agreements with his Department; and what areas these agreements cover.

My right hon. Friend will shortly be concluding funding agreements with all city technology colleges on the lines of the model agreement placed in the Library of the House earlier this year. Pending the conclusion of these agreements, there have been exchanges of letters with principal sponsors setting out their commitment and the conditions on which the Secretary of State accepted their sponsorship.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much money, to date, Dixons has paid towards capital and revenue expenditure at Bradford city technology college; what is the total financial commitment of Dixons to the capital and revenue expenditure of Bradford city technology college to date; by what dates Dixons is required to pay additional amounts; and whether any of these commitments are conditional on Dixons remaining free from takeover.

The total financial commitment of the Dixons Group plc to the capital development of the Bradford city technology college is £1.1 million. This is being paid by a deed of covenant over five years in five equal payments of £220,000. The first payment was made in March 1989, the next being due in March 1990. Our agreement with Dixons is based on the understanding that the covenant by Dixons is such that it would have to be taken over by any successor of the Dixons Group plc.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list (a) the 1986–87 and 1987–88 grant-related expenditure assessments for 16 to 19-year-olds' education provision by local education authority and (b) the actual level of expenditure for 1986–87 and 1987–88.

Table 1 shows the grant-related expenditure assessments (GREA) by local authority for the years 1986–87 and 1987–88 for provision relating to 16 to 19-year-olds. The assessments shown are the GRE for school pupils aged over 16 (OSLA) and for non-advanced further education (NAFE) and the pooling GRE for advanced further education. The NAFE GRE includes further education provision for students aged over 19 and is distributed on the numbers of NAFE home students in full-time, part-time day release and block-release and youth training scheme (YTS) courses. The pooling GRE covers also provision for a wider age range.

To ask the Attorney-General what is the present waiting period for appeals against refusals of applications for legal aid in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the operations of the legal aid service in Northern Ireland.

The present average waiting period for appeals against refusals for civil legal aid in Northern Ireland is four months.The Law Society of Northern Ireland produces an annual report on the operation of both civil and criminal legal aid which incorporates a report by the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee on legal aid in Northern Ireland. The report for 1987–88 was laid before Parliament on 20 October 1989.

To ask the Attorney-General if he will list those cases taken over by any Government officer other than the Director of Public Prosecutions since 1980 and the reason for the takeover in each case.

The power to take over the conduct of criminal proceedings contained in section 6(2) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 extends only to the Director of Public Prosecutions but that power may be exercised by a Crown prosecutor acting under his direction. Prior to the implementation of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 the corresponding legislation was the Prosecution of Offences Act 1979 which conferred a similar power on the Director of Public Prosecutions. That power was exercisable by an assistant Director of Public Prosecutions. A similar power is conferred on the director of the Serious Fraud Office by section 1(5)(b) of the Criminal Justice Act 1987 but has not been exercised. On the establishment of the Serious Fraud Office the conduct of a number of current cases passed by agreement from the Crown prosecution service to the Serious Fraud Office. I shall write to the hon. Member listing those cases. It is to be noted that neither the Director of Public Prosecutions nor the director of the Serious Fraud Office is correctly described as a Government officer.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade arid Industry what arrangements will apply in future in Great Britain for measuring spirits for consumption on licensed premises; and if he will make a statement.

Having considered the responses to my department's consultation paper, I have concluded that the present range of imperial quantities of 1/6, 1/5 and ¼ gill for serving whisky, gin rum and vodka should be replaced by a single round metric quantity of 25ml.A single metric measure throughout Great Britain would have the advantage of enabling consumers to compare prices and monitor their alcohol consumption more easily. It would also allow instrument manufacturers to make economies of scale. Licensees should find the new quantity more convenient since it is an exact fraction of the bottle.I therefore intend to lay in draft an order which would permit the four major spirits to be served in this new metric quantity from the middle of next year and would prohibit the use of the imperial quantities for this purpose from 1 January 1995.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will publish the minute of the meeting of 4 July with British Aerospace at which tax benefits were discussed.

The agreed way of recording this meeting was an exchange of letters between the advisers of British Aerospace and the Inland Revenue; copies of these letters dated 8 July have already been sent to the hon. Gentleman.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will place in the Library correspondence between his predecessor and British Aerospace on 6, 12 July and 13 July.

I have already done so, together with other letters between my predecessor and the British Aerospace chairman dated 14 July 1988 relating to the terms and conditions of the sale of Her Majesty's Government's shareholding in Rover Group to British Aerospace.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the raising of the ring fence for capital losses includes capital gains in property companies acquired by British Aerospace.

Following the lifting of the contractual ring fence on capital losses which had been a part of the March 1988 conditional agreement for the sale of Rover, British Aerospace has the right to use Rover Group capital losses to set against gains to the same extent and subject to the same statutory conditions as any other group in equivalent circumstances.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information was provided to the European Commission of the tax benefits for British Aerospace of the Rover deal.

The Commission was informed that the benefit of using Rover Group's carried forward pre-acquisition trading tax losses was effectively limited to £500 million by the conditional and the final agreement with BAe: that the March 1988 conditional agreement ring fenced the capital losses and disclaimed capital allowances so they could only be utilised by Rover Group; and that as part of the final agreement these would be unringfenced so that BAe would have the same freedom as that available under tax law to any other group. The Commission was made aware of the difficulty of estimating the value of restoring that freedom.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry who paid the fees for (a) Rover's and (b) British Aerospace's advisers as part of the final contract with British Aerospace.

As I explained in my statement of 30 November the Government paid Rover Group £1·5 million for its privatisation costs. BAe paid its own advisers' fees.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) on what date he was informed that a plate finishing mill was being stored at British Steel, Lackenby; whether he was consulted by British Steel before the company issued a denial of any knowledge of such a plant; whether he was consulted by British Steel before the company confirmed that a plate mill had been stored in Lackenby for several months; and if he will make a statement;(2) whether he regards British Steel plc's admission that it has been supportive of the Davy Corporation's acquisition of a second-hand Japanese plate finishing mill as likely to affect guarantees given by his Department relating to the future of the Scottish steel industry;(3) whether the Government would intervene to stop British Steel plc going ahead with any closure proposals which relate to the Scottish plants covered by the guarantees issued by his Department on 3 December 1987.

[holding answer 12 December 1989]: The acquisition and disposition of items of plant are matters for British Steel. Ministers have not been, and do not expect to be, informed or consulted by the company on such matters. There are no current Government guarantees in relation to the future of any of British Steel's works, the last such guarantee having expired at the end of August 1988.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of assets in bankruptcy in the last available year were absorbed by the cost of the proceedings as opposed to distribution among creditors.

[holding answer 12 December 1989]: The last year for which the information was maintained in the form requested was 1984. In that year out of every £1 of net assets realised in bankruptcy cases where the official receiver was trustee 64·5p was spent on administration expenses, 15p was paid to the preferential creditors and 20·5p was distributed among the unsecured creditors. The comparative figures for cases where a non-official trustee was appointed were 52·9p, 17·9p and 29·9p. Such information for the years after 1984 could not be obtained other than at disproportionate cost.Since the Insolvency Act 1986 came into force on 29 December 1986 official receivers have been able to ensure that nearly all bankruptcies with sufficient assets to produce a distribution to creditors are administered by private sector insolvency practitioners. Those bankruptcies which remain to be administered by the official receiver as trustee are therefore unlikely to produce such a distribution, any assets realised in such cases being absorbed in payment of the costs of the proceedings.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what is the outcome of the investigation by the Office of Fair Trading into cross-media ownership; what action he intends to take; and if he will make a statement.(2) when the Director General for Fair Trading is going to announce the conclusion of his investigations into cross-media ownership.

[pursuant to the reply, 15 November 1989, c. 281–82]: How media companies promote their interests in media services and products raises questions of standards of behaviour which go wider than those which can be addressed by the Director General of Fair Trading using competition legislation. I have therefore agreed with my right hon. and learned Friend the Home Secretary that there should be an independent inquiry, to be undertaken by John Sadler CBE, which will start work as soon as possible. In view of this the DGFT has decided not to pursue his investigations.The terms of reference are as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimate he has formed of the rainfall levels required in England and Wales during the coming winter if drought conditions next summer are to be avoided.

Recent information suggests that average rainfall over the next five months would restore water resources to near-normal levels for the late spring in most areas of England and Wales. However, the National Rivers Authority estimates that the amount of rainfall required in parts of Yorkshire, the south-east and East Anglia might have to be as much as 50, 40 and 10 per cent. above average respectively. Where necessary, water undertakers are considering contingency measures.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many water supplies in the north-east contain aluminium in excess of the terms of the European drinking water directive.

Eighteen supply zones in the north-east have been notified to the Commission as being subject to a derogation under article 9(1)(a) of the EC drinking water directive in respect of the aluminium standard and hence comply with its requirements. We expect to notify the Commission shortly of a derogation for one further supply zone.Improvement works are planned to treatment works to remedy failures of the aluminium standard in a further 24 supply zones. Improvements are also being carried out to the distribution system to remove residual aluminium deposits.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many contracts over £92,500 have been let by his Department in the 1988–89 financial year and the current financial year to date; and how many of these were (a) automatically renewed and (b) open to competition by advertisement throughout the European Community.

My Department includes the Property Services Agency and the Crown Suppliers. In 1988, a total of 175 contracts were let which were covered by the European Communities (EC) supplies directive, for which the current threshold is £92,000. Of these, 128 were awarded following advertisement in the EC official journal and 47 were considered to be exempt from advertising and may have been awarded to the previous supplier. For 1989 no comprehensive figures are yet available.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many outside accountancy firms are employed by his Department; whether such employment is subject to any guidelines; and whether he takes steps before employing an accountancy firm to discover whether that firm has been censured by Department of Trade and Industry inspectors in their inquiries under the Companies Act.

The latest readily available information covers 1988–89 when a total of seven accountancy firms were engaged by my Department. Accountancy firms are invited to tender for the provision of advisory services to Departments on the basis of their suitability to provide the relevant advice. In making such appointments consultations are carried out as necessary, and where appropriate in the light of advice given by Treasury on consultancy appointments.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made in setting up salaries and terms of negotiating machinery for manual, white collar and senior staff in the nine months since the creation of the National Rivers Authority.

The National Rivers Authority's arrangements for pay negotiation with its employees are entirely a matter for the management of the authority, as an independent body.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many times the chairman of the National Rivers Authority has met the recognised trade unions since the National Rivers Authority came into formal existence; and what information he has on the chairman's plans for any future meetings with the trade unions.

[holding answer 12 December 1989]: Negotiations with staff—including dealings with trade unions—are a matter for the management of the National Rivers Authority, as an independent body.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the expenditure per capita of population on social services in each shire county in England and Wales for the last financial year for which figures are available.

The information for English counties is as follows.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those members of the Nature Conservancy Council or members of its advisory committees whose periods of office expire or are to be reviewed at the end of the present financial year.

The members of the Nature Conservancy Council, or its advisory committees, whose periods of office expire on 31 March 1990 are as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many staff will be employed by the European Environment Agency; and how many will be (a) seconded staff and (b) new recruits.

About 20 professional staff, some of whom will be transferred from the Commission, together with a limited number of support staff will be employed by the European Environment Agency. The precise total numbers, secondments and new recruits have yet to be determined.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the cost of establishing and running the European Environment Agency will be additional spending by the European Commission.

The cost of establishing and running the European Environment Agency in its first year is estimated at 5·5 million ecu, equivalent to about £3·8 million. It is likely that part of this expenditure will be met through transfer of expenditure on existing Community programmes.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether the European Environment Agency will have powers to obtain information from companies and individuals.

The European Environment Agency will not have powers to require companies and individuals to provide information.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his estimate of the number of homeless people in London currently sleeping rough; and what is his estimate for each year since 1979.

There are no regular and reliable counts or estimates. The most recent study undertaken for the Salvation Army found 753 people sleeping rough on the streets of 17 London boroughs on one night in April this year. We have no other reliable estimate.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make representations to the management of F. W. Woolworth plc in respect of their product lines Christmas Snow and Silly String, in view of their ozone-depleting properties; if he will take steps to ban the use of ozone-depleting chemicals in non-essential products; and if he will make a statement.

I understand that it is the intention of the British aerosol industry that by the end of this year at least 90 per cent. of their products will be CFC free. It is the policy of the Government to phase out all CFC consumption by the end of the century.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he intends to publish his Department's research on very sheltered housing; and if he will make a statement.

With the expected increase of three quarters of a million people over the age of 75 in the next 20 years I am today publishing this report which shows the contribution that can be made by very sheltered housing schemes to the care of frail elderly people in the community.The report based on research by my Department showed that the vast majority of elderly people liked living in very sheltered schemes which are an enhanced form of sheltered housing with extra wardens, provision of meals and help for residents with domestic and care tasks, and which are currently provided by about one in three local authorities and one in four housing associations.Caring for an elderly person in very sheltered housing was less expensive than a place in a local authority old people's home and much less expensive than equivalent care in hospital. Very sheltered housing schemes were, however, more costly than comparable care provided in an elderly person's own home and about one in four of those interviewed would have preferred this cheaper option. The schemes also varied considerably in the frailty of the people they catered for, some schemes containing a high proportion of relatively fit elderly people.The report recommends that future schemes adopt a slightly more flexible approach to caring for residents by making use of visiting care support services provided by social services departments and district health authorities rather than relying entirely on permanent in-house staff. It also suggests that the preferred model for development is for self-contained rather than shared accommodation, with additional communal facilities and with meals available.Overall, the report concludes that, whilst very sheltered housing can be an attractive alternative to hospital and residential care for most elderly people, it is an expensive resource which should be provided only after careful appraisal of all the factors involved including the wishes of elderly people, stress on carers, and costs. It should also be provided only where there is an adequate level of care and consultation with all the relevant agencies in assessing nominations for places. However, enabling frail elderly people to remain at home must continue to be the first option for those who need and want it.The Government's White Paper on care in the community, published last month, recognises that suitable housing is an important component of community care, and that social services authorities will need to work closely with providers of housing of all types in developing plans for a full and flexible range of accommodation. Very sheltered housing will form part of the spectrum of care provision which local authorities will be able to call on as they plan services in their areas to cater for a variety of individual needs.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will place in the Library a copy of the guidance he has given to local authorities relating to exemptions from the community charge.

Yes. Arrangements have been put in hand to do so. A copy of practice note No. 19 "Exemptions from the Personal Community Charge (2)" has already been placed in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he is taking to achieve reductions in United Kingdom levels of emissions of sulphur dioxide.

My Department issued a consultation paper on 31 August this year explaining in detail our proposals for implementing the large combustion plants directive. Such plants are responsible for 85 per cent. of United Kingdom emissions of sulphur dioxide. A copy of the paper is in the Library of the House.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish in the Official Report the letter written to the hon. Member for Carmarthen on 5 December by the Minister for the Environment and Countryside, the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Mr. Trippier).