To ask the Attorney-General whether a union flag has been supplied to the courthouse in Newtownards in the constituency of Strangford; why the union flag was not flown on Her Majesty's official birthday; what arrangements have been made to fly the union flag at this courthouse on the designated days; and if he will make a statement.

A union flag has been supplied to the courthouse in Newtownards but was not flown on Her Majesty's official birthday through oversight. The courthouse is in possession of standing instructions for the flying of flags on all appropriate dates.

To ask the Attorney-General for what reasons the Lord Chancellor has decided not to approve the implementation of the scheme proposed by the Legal Aid Board to provide legal advice for defendants in housing possession proceedings.

My noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor has yet to take any decision on these proposals which will be issued by the Legal Aid Board for consultation in the autumn.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many representations he has received about local education authorities adjusting their budgets in a way that reduces the value represented by the 16 per cent. allocated for administrative and advisory purposes and therefore the amount available to grant-maintained schools.

I am aware of general concerns on this issue, and have had one specific representation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science if students for the newly validated diploma in social work by the University of Wales will be entitled to a mandatory grant from local education authorities.

The Education Act 1962 restricts mandatory awards to certain categories of course. The diploma in social work course which is provided by the Cardiff Institute of Higher Education and validated by the University of Wales does not fall into any of these categories. I understand that the Cardiff institute has now applied to the university for validation of this course leading instead to a diploma of higher education. Eligible students enrolled on Dip HE courses at publicly funded institutions are entitled to mandatory awards under the 1962 Act and regulations.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what extra resources have been made available to fund the new history curriculum.

Resources have not been specifically earmarked for the history curriculum. The implementation of the national curriculum is being supported by the Government via specific grants to local education authorities. These grants totalled some £100 million in 1989–90; some £120 million in 1990–91; and in 1991–92 they will support LEA expenditure of around £170 million.Eligible expenditure includes the employment of advisory teachers, support for non-teaching support staff, the provision of extra books, materials and equipment and INSET. It is, however, for individual LEAs to apply for these grants, to identify needs and priorities for different subjects in the light of local circumstances and to direct spending towards them.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to be making a decision as a result of the public inquiry concerning the compulsory purchase of land for the Weston-super-Mare primary distributor road, stages VA and VB.

The decision should be issued shortly.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if his Department has considered an application for an exhibition relating to the Kenya wildlife trust to be displayed in the Upper Waiting Hall.

I understand that, under procedures agreed by the Services Committee, arrangements have been made with the authorities of the House for the exhibition to be held in the Upper Waiting Hall from 16 December to 20 December 1991.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what efforts are being made by his Department to ensure that existing food pledges result in immediate food deliveries to the people of Ethiopia.

The world food programme is responsible for the co-ordination of food aid deliveries to Ethiopia. In order to reach those in need as quickly as possible, we channel our food aid through international agencies, including WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR and British non-governmental organisations. Deliveries of United Kingdom food aid are phased to take account of in-country storage and distribution capacity. Britain has pledged 93,366 tonnes of food to Ethiopia since last September. A total of 55,000 tonnes is already in the country.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list all additional new funds allocated for food aid emergency relief to each country in Africa between January and the present time.

The list is as follows:

United Kingdom cereals food aid 1991
Country	Tonnage	Estimated cost £ million
Ethiopia	67,634	16·316
Sudan	67,500	14·531
Somalia1	8,000	2·128
Mozambique	17,630	2·953
Angola	7,472	1·700
Malawi	6,000	1·650
Uganda	6,706	0·900
Kenya	3,294	0·400
Totals	184,236	40·578
1 To be committed when security situation permits.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make it his policy to support the restarting of Operation Lifeline to the south of Sudan.

We have committed almost £14·9 million to Operation Lifeline Sudan—OLS—since it began in 1989. We have already pressed the Government of Sudan and the Sudan Peoples' Liberation movement to co-operate in the continuing implementation of OLS.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much money has been allocated to the transport and delivery of food to Mozambique by his Department from January to the present time; and whether he has any plans to make more money available for (a) relief, (b) market food aid and (c) to assist food transport and distribution to Mozambique.

We have allocated over £10 million for food aid, including transport, for Mozambique since January. This includes:

£3·5 million bilaterally and £4·4 million through the EC for food and its distribution within Mozambique.

£1·3 million bilaterally and £1 million through EC for food and its distribution to Mozambique refugees in Malawi.

We shall continue to play our part with other donors in responding to Mozambique's food aid requirements.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the incinerator proposed for the Maydown, Londonderry site will be required to have gas/gas heat exchanges to maintain the stack gases well above the gas clear point.

Any combustion plant including an incinerator will be required to incorporate heat exchangers to ensure that the flue gas temperature does not fall below the acid dew point.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will bar telephones in his Department from connection to premium rate services.

[holding answer 8 July 1991]: All Departments in Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Office in London are reminded that, in the battle to reduce departmental running costs, the use of call barring, especially for premium rate services, can be an effective strategy.Where it is technically achievable, call barring is applied to STD and international calls in addition to premium rate services throughout Departments in Northern Ireland and London.Experience has shown that there are sound operational reasons for retaining access to premium rate telephone services for selected Government staff.Call barring is used on a site-by-site basis to prevent misuse of the telephone system, while retaining an operationally effective service to users. The Department of Finance and Personnel provides central advice to all Departments on the effective use of telephone services. Call logging equipment is used to identify telephone traffic at a significant number of sites.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will quantify the total cost of the backlog of maintenance on the national health service estate for each district health authority.

On 31 March 1990 (the latest information available) the cost of bringing the NHS estate to an overall condition which exhibited only minor deterioration was estimated to be £1·8 billion. The information by health authority is shown in the tables and includes property due to be replaced within three years, property not used for patient care, property awaiting planned preventive maintenance and property awaiting disposal. These four types of property together represent about 30 per cent. of the total NHS estate. In 1982 a report "Underused and Surplus Property in the NHS" said:

"It is clear that the backlog has accumulated over very many years"

and estimated that the cost of the work required to bring property in England up to an acceptable standard would be of the order of £2·9 billion, at 1990 prices.Between 1979–80 and 1990–91 capital spending in the NHS rose by 62 per cent. in real terms. About 77 per cent. of the resources allocated to NHS capital are invested in the estate and in the current year over 400 building projects each costing over £1 million are at various stages of planning, design and construction. The capital building programme for 1991–92 exceeds £1 billion.

District health authority	Cost to B2(£ thousands)
NORTHERN REGION	86,189
Hartlepool	5,650
North Tees	13,656
South Tees	5,296
East Cumbria	1,127
South Cumbria	8,622
West Cumbria	12,293
Darlington	4,530
Durham	7,272
North West Durham	926
South West Durham	5,260
Northumberland	14,104
Gateshead	1—
Newcastle	1—
North Tyneside	1,014
South Tyneside	2,840
Sunderland	3,599
YORKSHIRE REGION	110,446
Hull	5,609
East Yorkshire	6,200
Grimsby	3,531
Scunthorpe	4,809
Northallerton	1,525
York	2,497
Scarborough	1,442
Harrogate	400
Bradford	16,216
Airdale	7,089
Calderdale	1—
Huddersfield	1,051
Dewsbury	412
West Leeds	18,240
East Leeds	30,525
Wakefield	8,306
Pontefract	2,595
TRENT REGION	98,648
Regionally managed schemes	1—
North Derbyshire	6,154
South Derbyshire	5,841
Leicester	20,197
North Lincolnshire	2,937
South Lincolnshire	1—
Bassetlaw	4,373
Central Nottingham	17,353
Nottingham	20,038
Barnsley	1,200
Doncaster	5,182
Rotherham	1,573
Sheffield	13,801
EAST ANGLIA REGION	43,151
Cambridge	12,912
Peterborough	1—
West Suffolk	3,043
East Suffolk	11,770
Norwich	11,572
Great Yarmouth and Waveney	1—
West Norfolk and Wishech	2,617
Huntingdon	1,237
NORTH WEST THAMES REGION	67,408
North Bedfordshire	4,967
South Bedfordshire	9,579
North Hertfordshire	1—
East Hertfordshire	1—
North West Hertfordshire	1—
South West Hertfordshire	3,488
Barnet	1—

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent steps his Department has taken to encourage health authorities to ensure that guidance on hospital discharge is followed in hospitals from which they purchase services.

Existing guidance continues to be binding on health authorities. Purchasers will be able to specify in their contracts with providers the discharge procedures they wish to see followed.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will publish a table showing for each district health authority in London the number of food poisoning incidents reported for each year since 1979.

The information is not available in the form requested. Cases of food poisoning reported to the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys by each of the four Thames regional health authorities for the period 1979–90 are set out in the table.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proposals he has for curtailing the publication of national health service waiting lists; what consideration he has given to the implications of such a proposal for health budget holders wishing to shop around for treatment; and if he will make a statement.

We have no intention of curtailing the collection and publication of information on waiting lists and times.We currently collect and publish information on waiting lists and times in districts within which treatment is provided. However, this does not show waiting performance of individual hospitals, and is a poor guide for "shopping around". From April 1991 we are also collecting figures by district residence. Both sets of figures will be collated within my Department for up to two years so as to ensure continuity of data while the new data flows settle down.Thereafter we propose to collect centrally only the residence-based figures, in order to monitor purchasing health effectiveness in securing early treatment for their residents. Statistics on waiting times at individual hospitals will continue to be held at local level, as now. Arrangements will be made for ensuring the wide availability of hospital level information to purchasing health authorities, GP fund-holders and others before the central collection of provider-based statistics is finally dropped.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he expects to receive the report of the review of continence services.

I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington, South (Mr. Butler) on 10 July at column 410.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many residential placements each local authority in England and Wales intends to provide in children's homes in 1992;

The information available centrally relates to the number of children in the care of each local authority who are in children's homes rather than the number of homes or places. This information relates to the local authority responsible for the child not the authority responsible for the home.This information is published in "Children in Care of Local Authorities", a copy of which is available in the Library. The most recent edition is for the year ending 31 March 1988: the 1989 edition will be published shortly.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement about the recent child care initiative from the European Community Social Affairs Commissioner and Her Majesty's Government's policy towards it.

We have no knowledge of any recent child care initiative taken by the European Commission. The Council recommendation on child care mentioned in the press release issued by the Commission on 3 July has not yet been forwarded to the Government.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many tests for HIV and AIDS have been carried for each health authority in England and Wales for each of the past five years.

[holding answer 4 July 1991]: Data on the number of tests carried out for the human immunodeficiency virus (there is no test for AIDS) by region and district are not collected. However, an indication of the trends in testing can be obtained by examining the total numbers of HIV tests (not including the tests associated with unlinked anonymous testing) carried out by the public health laboratory service laboratories for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. These are given as follows (to the nearest 500).

	Number
1986	102,500
1987	161,000
1988	142,000
1989	141,000
1990	167,500

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many tests for HIV and AIDS have been carried out on pregnant women in the past five years in each health authority in England and Wales;(2) how many of the pregnant women who have been tested for AIDS in England and Wales over the past five years had positive test results; and how many were informed of the result of the test, by health authority.

[holding answer 4 July 1991]: Data on pregnant women tested via voluntary named testing are not collected centrally.In the anonymised HIV ante-natal survey a total of 52,813 samples were tested between January and September 1990. The numbers tested and the prevalence rates are as follows:

Area	Number of specimens tested	Prevalence-one person in
Inner London	23,166	500
Outer London and rest of South East England	13,668	1,500
Rest of country	15,979	16,000

To ask the Minister for the Civil Service what use has been made of polygraphs in the civil service during the past five years.

None.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what bids he has received for expansion of the operating theatre complex at the treatment centre for elective

Receipts from the sale of council houses1
£000s
Local authority	1981–82	1982–83	1983–84	1984–85	1985–86	1986–87	1987–88	1988–89	1989–90	1990–91
Alyn and Deeside	691	388	446	847	1,155	943	1,150	2,257	3,724	2,147
Colwyn	754	705	532	415	544	605	758	1,305	1,407	787
Delyn	773	651	1,068	3,889	453	681	1,089	1,070	1,986	85
Glyndwr	791	1,212	627	438	1,498	727	709	1,875	2,017	867
Rhuddlan	412	335	373	391	627	467	844	1,541	1,457	881
Wrexham Maelor	2,009	1,388	719	867	1,320	1,997	3,095	4,433	10,329	4,322
Carmarthen	1,628	1,348	963	944	632	741	845	1,549	1,793	1,697
Ceredigion	1,628	1,888	1,193	819	580	1,020	869	2,291	3,133	1,877
Dinefwr	712	596	336	329	484	768	730	1,198	1,279	1,260
Llanelli	1,645	1,874	2,139	1,352	1,141	1,695	1,984	3,258	3,383	2,236

A bid of £300,000 for additional theatre facilities to serve the whole of the Prince of Wales hospital, Rhydlafar has been received from South Glamorgan health authority under the 1991–92 waiting times initiative. It does not specify the additional throughput that will result and my officials are in touch with the authority.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will list his full itinerary for the recently completed investment mission to North America.

During the mission I undertook engagments in the states of California (San Jose, Los Angeles, San Diego) Minnesota (Minneapolis/St. Paul), Michigan, Connecticut, New York state (Buffalo, Rochester, New Jersey) and New York city; and in Canada I visited Toronto, Peterborough and Ottawa. I visited 20 companies and met over 200 senior company representatives.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will now announce the date and venue of the public inquiry regarding the diversion of footpath 46 at Frampton road, Gorseinon, Swansea.

The order was made by Lliw Valley borough council under the Highways Act 1980 in May and has been advertised. There has been one objection. The order must now be submitted to my right hon. Friend for determination. Once it has been received a public inquiry will be held before a decision is reached. As promised in previous correspondence, I shall write to the hon. Gentleman once the inquiry has been arranged and place a copy of my letter in the Library of the House.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the value of council house sales in each of the Welsh housing authorities since 1979.

The information which is available is shown in the following table; figures for 1979–80 and 1980–81 are not available on a consistent basis.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much has been received from the sale of council houses in Wales since 1979; how much of this sum has been kept by the councils; and how much has gone to central Government.

Capital receipts from council house sales have totalled £734 million from 1981–82 to 1990–91. These receipts are not, and never have been, returned to central Government but are used by councils themselves either to finance new capital expenditure or to redeem debt.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he intends to publish the Government's response to the Welsh Affairs Committee report, HC 166 of Session 1990–91, on Cardiff-Wales airport.

Year £	Highest award £	Average award £	Total compensation £	Fixed minimum award £
April 1981—31 March 1982	136,500	1,267	21,976,696	250
1982–83	112,000	1,492	29,444,675	250
1983–84	123,250	1,553	32,820,772	1400
1984–85	303,500	1,785	35,293,451	400
1985–86	175,809	1,844	41,559,996	400
1986–87	400,000	2,200	48,241,764	400
1987–88	496,400	2,482	52,042,581	2550
1988–89	307,781	2,484	69,381,286	550
1989–90	834,703	2,679	72,721,563	550
1990–914	n/a	3,138	110,433,000	3750
1 From 1 February 1983.
2 From 7 November 1986.
3 From 1 February 1990.
4 Provisional figures.

I am pleased to announce that the repsonse has been published today as Command Paper 1584.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was (a) the highest award of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in each year from 1981 to date, (b) the lowest award, (c) the average award and (d) the total award in the same years.

The available information is shown in the following table:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was (a) the aggregate amount of compensation paid by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board in each year from 1981 to date and (b) the total number of recipients.

The information requested is shown in the following table:

Year	Total value of awards £	Number of recipients
April 1981–31 March 1982	21,976,696	17,350
1982–83	29,444,675	19,733
1983–84	32,820,772	21,133
1984–85	35,293,451	19,771
1985–86	41,559,996	22,534
1986–87	48,241,764	21,925
1987–88	52,042,581	20,991
1988–89	69,381,286	27,752
1989–90	72,721,563	27,926
1990–911	110,433,000	35,190
Totals	513,915,784	234,305
1 Provisional figures.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the total number of single member decisions of Criminal Injuries Compensation Board awards for each year from 1981 to date.

The available information on awards made by the board, which includes decisions taken by more than one member following a hearing, is given in the following table:

Year	Monetary awards	Nil awards	Interim awards	Total
April 1981—31 March 1982	17,350	4,395	3,875	25,620
1982–83	19,733	5,354	3,297	28,384
1983–84	21,133	7,622	3,356	32,111
1984–85	19,771	6,940	3,152	29,863
1985–86	22,934	6,711	3,792	33,437
1986–87	21,925	6,480	3,571	31,976
1987–88	20,991	6,484	3,316	30,791
1988–89	27,752	8,219	3,977	39,948
1989–90	27,926	8,580	3,307	39,813
1990–911	35,190	14,841	4,106	54,137
1 Provisional figures.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what information his Department received following the foiled attempt at a mass escape from Crumlin Road prison, Belfast, in October 1989 about the smuggling of Semtex, a pistol and ammunition into the prison in the heels of trainer shoes; and what subsequent action was taken to alert all prisons in the United Kingdom to this technique.

Officials from the prison service in England and Wales meet officials from Northern Ireland and Scotland several times each year to discuss security and to share information. This is regular and ongoing.The problems of concealment of various weapons and other contraband in footwear is very well known. Specific warning advice was issued to governors in England and Wales in December 1985 about the dangers of weapons being concealed in this way. Similar advice on the dangers of contraband items being concealed in shoes was issued on eight separate occasions between August 1982 and April 1991. The position in Scotland and Northern Ireland is a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Scotland and for Northern Ireland.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisons which at 9 July had an industrial dispute; and if he will also list the nature of the disputes.

Industrial disputes, registered under the agreed disputes procedure between prison service management and the Prison Officers Association, were recorded at 49 prisons in England and Wales as at 11 July 1991. The establishments are listed. The majority of the disputes are about staffing figures. Other disputes cover matters including shift systems, local conditions and overcrowding, prison regimes and opposite sex postings policy.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what restrictive practices exist in the prison service.

The "fresh start" agreement in 1987 involved the abolition of a number of inefficient working practices and systems of attendance. This was followed last year by the removal of outdated national restrictions on the civilianisation of prison officers' work. There is still scope in some instances for securing the more efficient matching of work and resources within individual establishments. That is something which is currently being addressed through an establishment-by-establishment work identification exercise known as the corporate objectives process.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on improvements in productivity at Brixton prison since the inception of fresh start.

Under "fresh start" efficiencies in the use of prison officers' hours are being achieved through progressive reductions in their average working week. The extent of the efficiencies which are achievable varies between establishments depending on the way that work is organised and on changes in workload since 1987. At Brixton, between April 1987 and April 1991 there was a 24 per cent. efficiency improvement in the use of prison officer hours, which is slightly more than the national average of 22 per cent.

Number of houses for which consent was given for transfer by district councils to other landlords by voluntary disposal
1989–90	Voluntary disposal to:
District council	Private companies	Housing associations	Co-operatives	Scottish homes	Other
Angus	36	—	—	—	—
Banff and Buchan	—	—	—	—	1
Clydebank	—	—	218	—	—
Edinburgh	—	14	7	—	—
Glasgow	—	88	—	—	—
Perth and Kinross	—	24	72	—	1
Tweeddale	—	—	—	—	1
West Lothian	—	26	—	—	—
Total	36	152	297	—	3

1990–91	Voluntary disposal to:
District council	Private companies	Housing associations	Co-operatives	Scottish homes	Other
Argyll and Bute	—	12	—	—	—
Banff and Buchan	—	—	—	—	2
Clydebank	—	96	—	—	—
Dundee	—	82	—	—	—
Edinburgh	—	—	11	—	16
East Lothian	—	10	—	—	—
Glasgow	—	704	154	—	2
Kincardine and Deeside	—	1	—	—	—
Motherwell	—	—	140	—	—
Orkney	—	11	—	—	—
Perth and Kinross	—	—	54	—	—
Renfrew	244	11	—	—	—
Total	244	927	359	—	20

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the total amount of public money given to Forth Valley Enterprise, with a breakdown stating the amounts given to individual training companies; and whether he will express all the amounts as expenditure per trainee.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what has been the effect on the "fresh start" initiative on prison regimes.

Since the "fresh start" initiative to improve efficiency in the use of prison service manpower was introduced in 1987, there has been a general improvement in the level of regime delivery with an 8 per cent. increase in activity hours per inmate in 1989–90 and a further 7 per cent. increase in 1990–91.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how many local authority houses have been voluntarily transferred to (a) private companies, (b) housing associations, (c) tenant co-operatives, (d) Scottish Homes and (e) any other landlord by each housing authority in Scotland in each year since 1989.

The following tables give details of voluntary disposals of local authority houses to which my right hon. Friend's consent was given in 1989–90 and 1990–91 in terms of section 12(7) of the Housing (Scotland) Act 1987 or section 74(2) of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973.

The distribution of funds from within its grant-in-aid to local enterprise companies is an operational matter for Scottish Enterprise and I have asked the chairman to write to the hon. Member.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the advertising, promotional or public relations companies employed by, or on behalf of, his Department who are involved in the campaigns given in his answer of 2 July, Official Report, column 131.

[holding answer 11 July 1991]: The advertising companies employed by my Department in connection with the campaigns referred to in my answer of 2 July, Official Report, column 131 are Faulds Advertising Ltd. of Edinburgh and The Leith Agency of Edinburgh.

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the commencement date and duration of each of the publicity campaigns given in his answer of 2 July, Official Report, column 131.

[holding answer 11 July 1991]: The duration of the advertising campaigns referred to in my answer of 2 July, Official Report, column 131 are as follows:

To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement of his policy on (a) EC proposals to ban the sale of fish contaminated with pesticides and (b) plans for the EC's own environmental protection agency.

The United Kingdom has consistently supported the concept of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and greatly regrets that the delay in deciding its location is holding up its establishment. We see the provision of objective, reliable and comparable environmental information at the European level, which is the aim of the EEA, as the only sound basis for formulating environmental policies. As to the first part of the question I am not aware of any EC proposals on this subject.