To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will take steps to ensure that pupils registered at the five north Lewisham sixth form consortium schools, who begin the study of any of their A-level courses at the Haberdashers' Aske's school in September, will be able to complete the second year of those courses without interruption or disruption due to the conversion of the Aske's schools to a city technology college in September 1991.

The Haberdashers' Company has repeatedly stated its wish that the Haberdashers' Aske's city technology college, once established, should remain within the north Lewisham sixth form consortium. How this is achieved will be a matter for the governing body of the CTC and for the London borough of Lewisham.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when he expects to be able to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Beverley of 19 September 1989 regarding local education authority representatives on school governing bodies in Humberside.

I wrote to my hon. Friend on 22 January explaining the current position.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the title and numbers of all his Department's circulars issued since June 1979; and what action has been taken to ensure that they have been implemented.

Following is a list of the titles and numbers of all circulars issued since June 1979. Circulars give guidance on the implementation of Government policy on education matters and progress is kept under review in a number of ways.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on proposals to restore negotiation rights to the National Union of Teachers.

My right hon. Friend held a series of meetings with the teacher unions, including the National Union of Teachers, in October and November last year to discuss new pay determination arrangements. He is considering carefully the points made to him then. Further meetings will take place in due course.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will make a statement on the representations he has received concerning collective worship in schools.

My right hon. Friend has received various representations concerning collective worship in schools.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the cost to the Exchequer of implementing the national curriculum.

The cost of delivering the national curriculum will be met largely by the redirection of existing resources. However, we are giving local education authorities specific grant support to help with implementation. In this financial year, some £70 million will be available from the Exchequer through education support grants and LEA training grants to support some £100 million LEA expenditure for this purpose. This is in addition to general rate support grant which local authorities may use to implement the national curriculum.Some £20 million of Exchequer funds will additionally be deployed on central expenditure on the national curriculum, including the running costs of the National Curriculum Council and the School Examinations and Assessment Council and the costs of developing standard assessment tasks.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what submissions the committee examining the education of the under-fives has received; and if he will place copies in the Library.

The organisations and individuals listed in the table have submitted written evidence to the committee. Most organisations have made their submissions public, but the committee does not feel free to make the views of individuals more widely available. In these circumstances it does not propose to place copies of the evidence in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what conclusion he has reached on the proposals for the future for the computer board for the universities and research councils, issued for consultation on 15 September 1989; and if he will make a statement.

The computer board is, like the former University Grants Committee, a non-statutory and strictly advisory body. The consultation proposals were for re-establishment of the board's functions with a new executive character within the Universities Funding Council (UFC); and for the relocation of the board's secretariat from London to Bristol, alongside the two higher education funding councils in 1991.In the light of responses to the consultation exercise, particularly from the board and the UFC, I now confirm these proposals. Detailed arrangements will now be made to secure the change of status as soon as is practicable and, in any case, by not later than the date of the move to Bristol. As part of these arrangements, lead responsibility for supercomputing matters will, as recommended by the Advisory Board for the Research Councils, be transferred to the research councils.I pay tribute to the achievements of the board to date in relation to not only universities but the wider academic and research community. These proposals recognise that success and, against the background of changes in computing generally and the development of university funding arrangements under the Education Reform Act 1988, pave the way for this to be carried forward into the 1990s.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science when letters will be sent to grant-maintained schools setting out their capital allocations for the financial year 1990–91

:Letters are being sent today to existing grant-maintained schools and those approved as grant-maintained schools from April 1990 setting out allocations of capital grant totalling £6·6 million for the financial year 1990-91. A further sum of up to £1·9 million is available to meet commitments and contingencies, including the needs of schools coming into the sector after 1 April 1990.Following bids from the schools, £5·8 million of the £6·6 million is allocated to named projects and £0·3 million is for committed expenditure resulting from projects in progress before the schools became grant-maintained.The remaining £0·5 million is being allocated through a small formula-based capital allocation for each grant-maintained school. Governing bodies will be able to use this allocation for items of capital equipment and small capital works which, because of their relatively small size, were outside the scope of the capital bidding system adopted for grant-maintained schools.Priority in the allocations has been given to schools' most pressing needs, including projects related to the health and safety of pupils. The allocations will also help with the introduction of the national curriculum.The following is a list of the allocations:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what consultations he had with the users and clients of the overseas development natural resources unit, Chatham, prior to his decision to turn it into a statutory agency; if he will summarise any responses; and if he will state the effects on payments to and the nature of services profferred arising out of the change of status.

The decision to accord agency status to the Overseas Development Natural Resources Institute (ODNRI) on 1 April 1990 was based on careful study of the needs of ODA customer departments, which are the institute's main source of income, and of the likely demand for its services from other aid donors. The broad conclusion was that ODNRI had a continuing and important role to play in the sustainable development of natural resources across the developing world.ODNRI's principal objectives as an agency will be to maintain its international reputation and comparative advantage as a source of multidisciplinary, problem-solving expertise; to reflect in its work the particular needs of the British aid programme; to undertake work for other aid donors; and to extend and strengthen links with scientific institutions and universities in Britain and overseas.ODNRI will remain part of the ODA. Payments for its services will be based on the full economic costs of providing them. The institute's skill base and the services that it offers will depend, as now, on the demands of its customers, acting on behalf of the ultimate beneficiaries of its work in developing countries. The institute will be free to expand if demand for its expertise justifies this.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on how many occasions, for each year since 1980, applications for planning permission were refused by the Department of the Environment town and country planning division on the grounds of unsuitable road access; and if he will give details for each district council area.

[holding answer 19 January 1990]: This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Prime Minister if she will make a statement on her recent meeting with Dame Lydia Dunn and Mr. Allen Lee concerning the future of Hong Kong.

I had a useful meeting with Dame Lydia Dunn and Mr. Allen Lee, the two Senior Members of the Office of the Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, on 23 January. I listened very carefully to what they had to say about Hong Kong's constitutional development. I assured them that we would take their views into account in taking our decisions about this important matter.

To ask the Prime Minister if, pursuant to the answers given to the hon. Member for Christchurch (Mr. Adley) in the Official Report, 27 November 1989, column 92, and to the hon. Member for Gordon (Mr. Bruce) in the Official Report, 1 December 1989, column 446, she will list those occasions since 1 January 1987 when she has travelled on official business on a British Rail train.

I have nothing further to add to the reply I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Christchurch (Mr. Adley) on 27 November at column 92.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy on how many occasions since May 1979 he or Ministers of his Department stated (a) in Parliament and (b) outside Parliament that nuclear-generated power is cheaper than coal-generated power.

Such statements are not recorded centrally, and the information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, I draw the right hon. Member's attention to my statement to the House on 9 November 1989, when I stated that

"The Government have for some time recognised that our nuclear power is more costly than power from fossil-fuelled generating stations".—[Official Report, 9 November 1989; Vol. 159, c. 1175.]

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether any changes will be made to his Department's cash limits or running costs limits for 1989–90.

Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimates, the following changes will be made.The cash limit for class VI, vote 3 will be increased by £1,210,000 from £37,889,000 to £39,099,000. The increase is sought because of higher than forecast costs of staff, including some additional staff, and certain supporting services, partially offset by savings and increased appropriations in aid. For the same reasons, the limit on the Department's running costs in the vote is also increased by £1,225,000 from £38,122,000 to £39,347,000.The increase in cash limit for class VI, vote 3 will be fully offset by a reduction of £2,100,000 in the cash limit for class VI, vote 2 from £289,488,000 to 287,388,000 and will not, therefore, add to the planned total of public expenditure.

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy whether any changes will be made to the Office of Electricity Regulation's (OFFER) cash limit or running costs limit for 1989–90.

I understand that a Supplementary Estimate will be submitted by the Director General of the Office of Electricity Regulation, who is accountable for the vote. The following changes will be made.The cash limit for class VI, vote 7 relating to expenditure by the Office of Electricity Regulation has been reduced by £1,499,000 from £7,796,000 to £6,297,000. The running costs limit has been reduced by £2,653,000 from £6,320,000 to £3,667,000.

To ask the Attorney-General when he expects the review of the law of defamation to be completed.

Good progress has been made with the review and my noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor hopes that it will be completed fairly soon.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the accountancy firms which act as auditors to public bodies sponsored by his Department.

The following accountancy firms audit nationalised industries and executive non-departmental public bodies for which my Department is responsible:

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many of Britain's top 100 companies are audited by accountancy firms criticised by his Department's inspectors.

This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether any of the individuals prosecuted in 1988 and 1989 in connection with insider dealings are accountants; and if he will make a statement.

Three of the individuals who were tried for insider dealing offences in 1988 and 1989 are known to have a professional accountancy qualification. In one other case where a prosecution was begun in 1989 the defendant has an accountancy qualification.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Redcar of 16 January, Official Report, column 187, how many of the 113 successful prosecutions completed since 1 January 1979 were commenced before that date.

It is not possible to provide the information requested by the hon. Member within the time limit imposed on costs. The figure given includes prosecutions carried out not only by my Department but by other prosecution authorities, for example, the Direct or of Public Prosecutions, the Serious Fraud Office and the police and full records for these are not maintained within the Department.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he expects to receive the Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on the supply of petrol.

The Monopolies and Mergers Commission report on the supply of petrol was received on 20 December 1989. It will be published as soon as possible.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he proposes to make any changes to the running costs limit for the Office of Telecommunications for 1989—90.

The running costs limit will be reduced by £37,000 from £4,196,000 to £4,159,000 to compensate for an overspend in 1988-89.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he proposes to commence any provisions of the Companies Act 1989.

Parts of section 75 of the Companies Act 1989 came into force on 25 January 1990. These provisions extend the purposes for which information which is restricted information for the purposes of section 179 of the Financial Services Act 1986 may be disclosed.

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry why export credit guarantee cover has not generally been available for contracts with Vietnam since 1982.

[holding answer 22 January 1990]: ECGD's assessment of individual markets is based upon economic considerations. It is not departmental policy to publish the full details of these assessments, but in the case of Vietnam, I can say that cover for medium and long-term business was withdrawn following defaults on repayment. Vietnam is currently in breach of its financial obligations to the International Monetary Fund and its major creditor countries.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement on the ambulance dispute in Wales.

This is an unnecessary and damaging dispute. The offer made by the management side is fair and constructive and is the most the NHS can reasonably afford without cutting into patient services. It should be accepted and normal working resumed.The industrial action being taken by ambulance staff has not so far affected accident and emergency services in any part of Wales. Non-urgent and outpatient services are however being disrupted to varying degrees. Day patients, particularly the elderly and infirm, are suffering as a direct result of this action.We hope that the dispute can be settled quickly to avoid any further hardship to patients.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many complaints about the pay arrangements for supply teachers he has received; and to which local education authority they referred.

Two. The local education authorities to which they referred were West Glamorgan and Gwent.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will detail the total assistance given to the fishing industry (a) in Wales and (b) for vessels registered for the port of Milford Haven in each year since 1974.

[holding answer 19 January 1990]: Details of total assistance given to the fishing industry in Wales for each year since 1974 are contained in the published "Appropriation Accounts" covering the period; copies are available in the Library of the House. These publications contain details of EC grant aid for the construction and modification of fishing vessels and for marketing, processing and infrastructure projects associated with the fishing industry, as well as Government expenditure on harbour grants, grants for the decommissioning of fishing vessels and costs incurred on fisheries protection operations.Assistance was given to Milford Haven registered vessels in two of the years since 1974, as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list by grade those posts in his Department for which a knowledge of Welsh is essential.

[holding answer 23 January 1990]: The information is as follows:

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list by grade those staff, excluding Her Majesty's inspectorate, in his Department's education division, whose duties involve the Government's proposals for the introduction of Welsh in the national curriculum who are able to conduct the full range of their responsibilities through the medium of Welsh.

[holding answer 23 January 1990]: No such criterion is used, but the following information relates to numbers of Welsh speakers whose duties include the proposals for the introduction of Welsh in the national curriculum:

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how he proposes to consult disability organisations on his plans for disability benefits outlined in "The Way Ahead: Benefits for Disabled People."

We have sent a copy of our proposals to a wide range of disability organisations and other interested bodies, including the Disability Benefits Consortium which represents over 250 organisations of and for disabled people. We shall take account of comments made during the course of our detailed work on the major changes we have announced, in particular the new disability allowance and the disability employment credit.

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security on what basis the Government estimate that 50,000 people might be entitled to disability employment credit.

The estimate of 50,000 potential disability employment credit (DEC) recipients is a tentative one, derived by examining the OPCS disability survey data to identify two main eligible groups:

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what assumptions are made about the level of disability employment credit in suggesting in paragraph 5.17 of "The Way Ahead" that the gross cost of the new benefit will be £80 million.

It is assumed that applicable amounts for the disability employment credit will broadly follow those for family credit, but precise details of the credit are still to be considered.

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what his Department estimates to be the average costs arising from disability, other than those associated with mobility or attendance needs.

The surveys of disability carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) found that average extra costs arising from disability ranged from £3·20 for the least severely disabled adults to £11·70 for the most severely disabled adults. The majority of disabled people have more than one disability, and OPCS found that it was not possible to produce reliable estimates of the extra costs attributable to each type of disability.

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security whether the proposed age-related additions to severe disablement allowance will take account of recipients of NCIP and HNCIP transferred to SDA.

Yes. Our intention is that people who have transferred from NCIP and HNCIP will have the addition related to their age when incapacity for work began for the purposes of these benefits.

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security if he will give (i) the extra expenditure and (ii) any savings for each year up to 2000 as a result of each of the main measures on disability benefits which he announced on 10 January; and if he will make further projections for (a) extra costs and (b) savings for each of these measures between the years 2000 and 2025 where these can be estimated in broad orders of magnitude.

The available information is given in the table. It is not possible to provide reliable estimates for each measure in every year, particularly in the longer term, since the costs and savings depend on a large number of factors which cannot be accurately forecast. The table therefore gives estimates for the next four financial years, together with projections of the likely effects in 2000-01 and 2025-26 The figures for 2000-01 and, in particular, those for 2025-26 are subject to considerable margins of uncertainty.

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what steps his Department is taking to extend cold weather payments to include senior citizens, the sick and disabled who do not receive income support.

We are satisfied that the social fund cold weather payments scheme concentrates the help available on those most at risk from the cold and who are most in need of help to pay for extra heating.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether he will make a statement as to progress by his Department's fraud squad on its inquiries into fraud on construction projects at the Atomic Weapons Establishment at Aldermaston.

I have nothing to add to the answer which I gave to the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Mr. Davies) on 9 January at column 804.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many men and women were recruited to the Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force in 1985, 1986, 1987 and 1988; how many left each of the services prematurely; and what the average length of service was for each.

Information on premature wastage is not readily available for calendar years but is available for financial years. The total intakes to the United Kingdom regular forces in financial years 1985-86 to 1988-89 are detailed in table 1. The total numbers of exits from the services under premature wastage outflow categories during the same period are detailed in table 2. The categories included in the outflow numbers are those listed in table 4.18 of volume 2 of the "Statement on the Defence Estimates" with the exception of "Time and age expiries or exercise of rights at option point" and for service women only "By exercise of right to give 18 months notice". Details of average length of service could not be produced without disproportionate cost.