To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what plans he has to review legislation concerning the withdrawal of money from a bank account by a relative or carer on behalf of a mentally incapacitated adult; and if he will make a statement.

The Law Commission is reviewing the law and procedures relating to decision making on behalf of mentally incapacitated adults. The commission's initial consultation in 1991 produced a large number of responses in the light of which the commission decided to embark on a second round of separate consultations on particular topics before publishing final proposals. The commission has now published the first of three further consultation papers, "Mentally Incapacitated Adults and Decision-Making: A New Jurisdiction" (L.C.C.P. No. 128) which canvasses proposals for reform of the private law aspects, including financial decision making.

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 19 April, Official Report, column 28, if he will place in the Library the results of the survey carried out by the Northern Ireland court service into advice at police stations.

The survey referred to is not in a form which could readily be placed in the Library. However, I will write to the hon. Member enclosing a summary of the results of the survey for his information. The hon. Member will already have received some of this information in the answer provided to his earlier question on 21 April 1993, Official Report, column 93.

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when he intends to appoint a deputy chairman for the Parliamentary Boundary Commission for Wales.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Neath (Mr. Hain) on 20 April, Official Report, column 45.

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what progress has been made on reform of lease law; and if he will make a statement.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 31 March by myself to my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Mr. Hendry), Official Report, column 197, and to the answer given on the same date by my hon. Friend the Minister for Housing and Planning to my hon. Friend the Member for Bromsgrove (Mr. Thomason), Official Report, columns 293–94.

To ask the Prime Minister if he will publish the reply he has sent to the letter of Mr. E. B. Glover QC, on the subject of the effect of VAT on energy bills for pensioners.

[holding answer 14 April 1993]:A reply has been sent on my behalf by the Department of Social Security. It is not my normal practice to publish correspondence, but it explains that the annual uprating of benefits will in due course reflect the increases in fuel bills; that we will be making available extra help to people on income support and income-related benefits which we will announce in the autumn and which will be paid from April 1994 before the bills have to be paid; and that the Government are not taking back the extra help they gave to pensioners on income support to assist them in paying the community charge, even though the community charge has now been abolished.

To ask the Attorney-General what evidence the Law Officers have submitted to the Scott inquiry on exports to Iraq.

My Department has provided Lord Justice Scott with copies of all documents relevant to the range of issues which he has identified.

To ask the Attorney-General how many prosecutions in 1992–93 the Serious Fraud Office has launched in relation to possible offences involving the use of phoenix companies.

None. Such cases are more likely to be handled by other prosecuting authorities.

To ask the Attorney-General if he will make a statement about the recruiting policy of the Crown Prosecution Service.

The Crown Prosecution Service continues to recruit on merit in open competition high-quality applicants for a comparatively small number of vacancies for lawyers.

To ask the Attorney-General what was the success rate in prosecutions by the Serious Fraud Office which were concluded within the last six months.

Eleven Crown court trials involving 22 defendants have been concluded since 1 October 1992. Seventeen defendants have been convicted and two acquitted and three were discharged without the jury having to return a verdict. In one further trial in the magistrates court the defendant was acquitted. This decision is the subject of appeal to the divisional court.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will detail, by category of prisoner, the number of prisoners who escaped while under prison escort for the last five years for which figures are available.

	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992
Category 'A' Adult Male	—	—	—	1	—
Category 'B' Adult Male	13	13	33	19	28
Category 'C Adult Male	5	18	25	31	38
Unsentenced Adult Male	29	39	26	54	43
Sentenced Young Offender Male	4	8	14	9	9
Unsentenced Young Offender Male	8	35	16	25	25
Sentenced Female	2	1	1	5	4
Unsentenced Female	—	4	4	—	—
Total	61	118	119	144	147

The information relates to those prisoners who escaped whilst under prison escort between 20 June 1988 and 31 December 1992. Information was not collated centrally prior to June 1988. The information is derived from incidents reported to the Incident Management Support Unit, a part of the Directorate of Custody.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will detail, by category of prisoner, the number of prisoners who escaped while under prison escort during the months of April 1990, April 1991 and April 1992.

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general, who has been asked to arrange a reply.

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service who has been asked to arrange a reply.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) to what extent prisons provide non-smoking recreation and eating areas; and if he will make a statement;(2) whether prisoners who do not smoke are required to share cells with those who do;(3) what action his Department has taken to reduce the amount of tobacco smoking by prisoners in Her Majesty's prisons.

Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the director general of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what studies his Department has made or plans to undertake about the policing difficulties arising in connection with the protection of anglers taking part in official and legitimate angling competitions from disruption from anti-angling demonstrations; and if he will make a statement.

The policing of any event is an operational matter for chief officers.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many representations he has received about wheel clamping from persons in the Rochdale metropolitan borough and in the Greater Manchester area.

Since 1 April 1992, the Home Office has received 10 letters from hon. Members representing constituencies in the Greater Manchester area concerning the use of wheel clamps on private land. In the same period, five members of the public living in that area have written direct to this office on the same issue. Since the publication of the Home Office consultation paper on 23 February this year, we have received three requests for that document from individuals living in the Greater Manchester area.Wheel clamping on the public highway currently takes place only in London, and we are not aware of any representations from people in Greater Manchester on that issue.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what recent representations he has received from hon. Members regarding wheel clamping on cars; and if he will make a statement.

In the 12 months up to 31 March this year, I received 117 letters from hon. Members in relation to

Reported racial incidents
Forces	1988	1989	1990	1991	1992
Avon and Somerset	57	71	83	148	98
Bedfordshire	21	25	33	n/a	57
Cambridge	52	60	71	107	110
Cheshire	0	0	0	3	29
City of London	4	0	0	0	0
Cleveland	29	55	57	68	73
Cumbria	0	4	1	9	13
Derbyshire	17	20	53	143	60
Devon and Cornwall	2	3	6	9	7
Dorset	6	12	3	9	10
Durham	43	23	41	70	40
Dyfed Powys	0	0	0	0	0
Essex	2	26	43	59	80
Gloucestershire	17	20	51	25	33
Greater Manchester	28	40	123	204	401
Gwent	1	4	5	12	31
Hampshire	45	n/a	42	141	139
Hertfordshire	49	49	51	n/a	106
Humberside	49	52	67	81	68
Kent	88	81	88	120	115
Lancashire	75	93	201	119	231
Leicestershire	84	190	287	369	338
Lincolnshire	1	2	2	4	5
Merseyside	136	123	144	162	134
Norfolk	8	22	23	45	30
North Wales	3	1	0	3	4
North Yorkshire	5	6	12	20	22

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will consider setting up a working party to conduct a study of the recruitment methods used by secret cults in the United Kingdom and to advise if legislation would be appropriate.

The Government do not plan to set up such a working party. Nor do the Government consider it appropriate to legislate specifically in this area. The existing criminal law is adequate to deal with any offences committed by members of a new religious movement or sect.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) in how many cases brought to court during the last year of assault involving racial motivation the defendants were juveniles;(2) what information his Department has as to the numbers of reported or recorded racial attacks for the latest three years

The only information held centrally relates to the number of reported racial incidents in England and Wales and is given in the table.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will increase the proportion of the Overseas Development Administration's budget devoted to the problems currently being experienced in the former Soviet Union; what criteria he uses to allocate priorities between different parts of the world; and if the will make a statement.

We provide substantial assistance to the former Soviet Union and recently announced the doubling of our bilateral aid for Russia.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what new proposals he has to extend the scope of the know-how fund in the Baltic states.

The know-how fund is considering new proposals which will benefit the agriculture, finance and small business and energy sectors and promote good government.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what role his Department is playing in helping the Azeris of Nagorno-Karabakh.

It is not possible to identify assistance specifically provided to the Azeris of Nagorno-Karabakh. However, since December 1992 the ODA has provided £750,000 in response to appeals by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Through these organisations we have provided relief assistance to both Azeris and Armenians displaced by the conflict whether they be in Azerbaijan, Armenia or Norgorno-Karabakh itself.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people are estimated now to be receiving British food relief on a regular basis; and if he will make a statement.

Most United Kingdom food aid is for relief purposes and is not targeted to any group of people on a regular basis. In 1992–93 the United Kingdom supplied over 244,000 tonnes of food aid to developing countries, in addition to paying for our share of European Community food aid. This would in theory be enough to provide around 1·4 million people with their basic needs for a year. But in practice no single group is wholly dependent on food aid from the United Kingdom.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans there are to send humanitarian convoys to Goradze and Zepa in Bosnia.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which co-ordinates the international relief effort to the former Yugoslavia, is making every effort to deliver relief supplies to Gorazde and Zepa. But over the last few months it has only been possible to reach these towns sporadically by road convoy because of the continuing hostilities. The United Kingdom has contributed 58 vehicles plus support staff to UNHCR's road convoys.However, supplies are presently being airdropped to Gorazde, Srebrenica and Zepa. The United Kingdom has provided almost £600,000 of food for the air drops.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what plans he has to introduce environmental studies into the national curriculum;(2) what initiatives promoting environmental awareness in schools his Department supports; and what funding is available for these initiatives.

All pupils receive education about the environment through the national curriculum core and foundation subjects, the terms of which are set out in the statutory orders and associated documents issued by the Department. The Government will support £85 million of local education authority expenditure on the basic curriculum and assessment in 1993–94 which will be mainly devolved to schools to spend either on training or on books and equipment; and a further £25 million on training to enhance primary teachers' knowledge in specific subjects, including geography which has particular relevance to environmental education.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education what rights under statute and remedy against failure parents of children at each of the key stages have to see that their children are tested this term; and if he will make a statement.

Section 10 of the Education Reform Act 1988 imposes a duty on head teachers of maintained schools to secure the implementation of the national curriculum, including the assessment arrangements at the end of the key stages. Local education authorities and governing bodies are under a corresponding duty to exercise their functions so as to secure its implementation.Teachers' conditions of employment require them to assess, record and report on the development, progress and attainment of pupils, under the reasonable direction of the head teacher, and having regard to the curriculum for the school.Parents who believe that LEAs or governing bodies are failing to discharge a statutory duty associated with the national curriculum should in the first instance complain through the local complaints machinery, provided for in section 23 of the Education Reform Act. If their complaint is not satisfactorily dealt with, they may then complain to the Secretary of State who may give directions to the LEA or governing body concerned, under section 99 of the Education Act 1944, if he considers this is appropriate.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education (1) what action he is taking to ensure that children's special educational needs are being identified and met at the earliest possible stage;(2) what action he is taking to improve the information and support available to parents during the full assessment and drawing up of statements on children with special educational needs.

The Education Bill, currently before Parliament, provides for the Secretary of State to issue a code of practice which will give practical guidance to which LEAs must have regard when fulfilling their duties towards children with SEN. The Government have tabled amendments in another place, which, if accepted, would ensure that the code applied to all LEA maintained and self-governing (GM) schools and offered those schools guidance on early action to identify, assess and monitor pupils with special educational needs. The Government envisage one of the guiding principles of the code will be that it should promote partnership between LEAs and parents, not least by ensuring that parents are kept fully informed of the authority's thinking and the reasons behind an authority's decisions at all stages of the process of making assessments and statements. The guidance will be tightly defined to ensure that all children who need an assessment and subsequently a statement are properly safeguarded and will ensure that full parental involvement is encouraged at all stages.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what assessment has been made of the costs and benefits of (a) the Comber bypass, (b) the Balloo road stage 3 Bangor, (c) the A5 Burndenneth, (d) the Ann street/Thomas street, Dungannon, (e) the A5 Magheramason, (f) the A5 Leckpatrick, (g) the Antrim-Ballymena stage 2, (h) the Greenmount link, Coleraine, (i) the Omagh throughpass stage 2, (j) the Belfast urban area plan roads (95/96) and (k) the Belfast urban area plan roads (96/97) road schemes.

Economic and environmental assessments of these road improvement schemes have been undertaken. The assessments showed that each scheme was good value for money.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on what date Donaghadee urban district council, as planning authority, gave planning permission for the conversion of Warren house, Warren avenue, Donaghadee, into two flats.

The Department does not have records of the planning decisions made by Donaghadee urban district council.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the outstanding demand for rates unpaid in due time; and what steps are being taken for this collection.

Responsibility for rate collection has been delegated to the Rate Collection Agency under its chief executive, Mr. D. Gallagher. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether he has sent copies of the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland" to the Northern Ireland Law Society and the Northern Ireland Bar Council.

I am not prepared to disclose to whom copies of this confidential consultative paper have been sent.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whether the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland" has been discussed by the Anglo-Irish secretariat.

I am not prepared to disclose with whom the Government have had discussions about this confidential consultative paper.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will list those organisations which received copies of the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland", indicating the date which they were dispatched and the date and from whom responses were received.

No.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will now forward to the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, NIACRA, the constitutional political parties in Northern Ireland and parties represented in this House, copies of the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland".

I will consider requests for copies from individuals and organisations as they arise.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland why the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights was not sent a copy of the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland".

I am not prepared to disclose whether or not a particular individual or organisation received a copy of the confidential consultative paper.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will place copies of the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland" in all the public libraries in Northern Ireland.

No.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will extend the period for responses to the consultation paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland" until 30 June to enable those bodies and persons previously unaware of the paper to make responses.

I will be grateful to receive responses at any time.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland when he expects to introduce legislation based on his proposals contained in the consultative paper "Terrorist Exploitation of the Construction Industry in Northern Ireland" and the responses to it.

Our ideas are at a formative stage, and it would be premature to announce our intention to legislate or to establish a timetable for possible legislation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many cormorants were killed under licence to prevent serious damage to fisheries in Northern Ireland in each year since 1985 and 1993 to date.

The information is as follows:

Cormorants recorded as being killed under licence
Year	Number
1985	5
1986	24
1987	99
1988	41
1989	36
1990	35
1991	87
1992	82
1993	1—
1 Not yet available.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many licences were (a) applied for and (b) issued, under section 18 of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985 to permit the killing of cormorants to prevent serious damage to fisheries in Northern Ireland for each year since 1985 and 1993.

The information is as follows:

Year	Licences applied for	Licences issued
1985	1	1
1986	6	6
1987	14	14
1988	18	15
1989	18	18
1990	24	20
1991	17	17
1992	18	18
11993	12	11
1 To 22 April.

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will publish a table to show the rateable value of (a) each parliamentary constituency in Northern Ireland, (b) each council area in Northern Ireland, (c) each district electoral area in each council area and (d) each ward; and if he will indicate the rates due from each of the areas and the average sum due per elector in each such area or as much of such information as is conveniently available to him.

Responsibility for the subject in question has been delegated to the Rates Collection Agency under its chief executive, Mr. David Gallagher.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many licences the Medicines Control Agency has (a) issued and (b) refused each year since April 1989; and how many licences have been issued each year since 1989' in response to applications from other EC countries.

The figures shown in the table relate to product licences only for the three years up until March 1992. Figures from April 1992 to March 1993 are not yet available. Manufacturers' licences, wholesale dealer and parallel import product licences have been excluded. The numbers of refusals relate to formal refusals; in many cases, applicants chose to withdraw their applications rather than pursue them to a formal refusal. No separate records are maintained which would enable the Medicines Control Agency readily to identify product licence applications arising from other EC countries.

Question recently put down by you. This related to rateable value, rates due and the average sum due per elector in each parliamentary constituency, district council area, each district electoral area and each ward in Northern Ireland.

Unfortunately all of the information you seek is not available. However I am able to provide statistics on a district council basis, and these are set out on the attached schedule.

Rateable values and the number of electors, but not rates data can be provided on a ward basis. However rating due is at present being revised to reflect the outcome of the recent Local Government Boundaries Commission Review and this information will become available during July.

I will write to you again at that time.

	Product licences issued	Applications refused
April 1989 to March 1990	663	3
April 1990 to March 1991	728	0
April 1991 to March 1992	883	5

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement on her Department's forthcoming survey on mental health.

The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys is carrying out the first national survey to assess the extent of psychiatric morbidity in Great Britain. The survey, due to be completed in 1995, will provide information on the nature and extent of psychiatric illnesses among adults and will enquire into any associated social disabilities; the variation in the use of health, social and voluntary care services; and the risk factors associated with mental illness. The survey information will form a baseline against which changes in the health and social functioning of people with a mental illness can be measured, thus providing a means of assessing progress towards achieving the targets set out in our White Paper, "The Health of the Nation" (Cm 1986).

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to her answer of 5 February, Official Report, column 377–78, if she will give details of the ethnic origin of those detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act 1983 during each year from 1984 to 1986 in the North West Thames, North East Thames, South East Thames and South West Thames areas; what assessment she has made of the extent of and the reasons for the discrepancy between such detentions in those areas compared with other regions; and if she will make a statement.

This information is not available centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health whether she will introduce regulations for the registration of hypnotherapists and psychotherapists.

We have no such plans.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action she is taking to improve access to community care services for elderly people of Asian origin and other ethnic minorities.

Responsibility for ensuring proper access to community care services for all groups rests with local authorities. To help local authorities do this the Department:

(a) issued policy guidance about ensuring that assessment of community care needs is accessible to people from ethnic minority backgrounds and that services are appropriate (copies are available in the Library);

(b) issued practice guidance on care management and assessment which draws specific attention to the needs of ethnic minority communities and is developing further practice guidance on ethnic minority issues (copies are available in the Library);

(c) produced audio cassettes about community care in seven minority languages;

(d) grant aids the race equality unit, which advises local authorities on good practice in the delivery of personal social services to people from minority groups.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received concerning the statutory registration of psychologists; and if she will make a statement.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received concerning the statutory registration of psychologists; and if she will make a statement.

We have received representations from the British Psychological Society and are considering whether psychologists employed by the national health service should be required to be chartered.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many small orthopaedic specialised hospital units have been closed in the past two years.

This information is not available centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research she has commissioned on the effect of the closure of small hospital units that specialise in orthopaedics on waiting times for hip or knee replacements.

None. The patients charter guarantees that all patients waiting for hip or knee replacement operations will be treated within a maximum of 18 months. Latest waiting time figures show that the number of orthopaedic patients waiting more than a year fell by over 45 per cent. in the year to September 1992.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will review the working practices of the Prescription Pricing Authority in respect of the remuneration of pharmacists; and if she will make a statement.

No.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what representations she has received about the proposed changes to community pharmacists' pay.

We have received a number of representations about our proposals for restructuring pharmacists' remuneration. We shall take these into account in the further discussions we shall be having with the pharmacists' representatives.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what proposals she has to restrict the ability of general practitioners to work in single-handed practices; and if she will make a statement.

None.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many salaried dentists are currently employed within each health district in England.

The information provided by the Dental Practice Board by family health services authority area at 31 December 1992 is shown in the table. The information relating to the first quarter of 1993 is not yet available.

Salaried dentists for each family health services authority 31 December 1992
Family Health Services Authority	Number of salaried dentists employed
Buckinghamshire	1
Cambridgeshire	2
City and East London	8
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	2
Derbyshire	1
Essex	2
Greenwich and Bexley	8
Kensington, Westminster and Chelsea	8
Kent	3

Family Health Services Authority	Number of salaried dentists employed
Lambeth, Southwark and Lewisham	27
Liverpool	2
Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth	1
Salford	1
Somerset	4
West Sussex	1
Total	71

To ask the Secretary of State for Health where the pilot scheme is operating which has been agreed between her Department and the British Dental Association for financial assistance towards the setting up or expansion of dental practices within family health services authorities; what is the cost to date of the scheme; how many practices have been awarded assistance; what plans there are to extend the scheme; and if she will make a statement.

The 68 family health services authorities taking part in the pilot scheme, aimed at encouraging dentists to set up or expand their practices in areas which need more dentists, are:

• Avon
• Barking/Havering
• Barnet
• Barnsley
• Bedfordshire
• Berkshire
• Birmingham
• Buckinghamshire
• Calderdale
• Cambridgeshire
• Camden/Islington
• City/East London
• Cornwall/Isles of Scilly
• Coventry
• Cumbria
• Derbyshire
• Devon
• Doncaster
• Dorset
• Durham
• Ealing/Hammersmith/Hounslow
• East Sussex
• Enfield/Haringey
• Essex
• Gateshead
• Greenwich/Bexley
• Hampshire
• Hillingdon
• Humberside
• Isle of Wight
• Kensington/Chelsea/Westminster
• Kent
• Kingston/Richmond
• Kirklees
• Lambeth/Southwark/Lewisham
• Lancashire
• Leeds
• Leicestershire
• Lincolnshire
• Liverpool
• Manchester
• Merton/Sutton/Wandsworth
• Norfolk
• Northamptonshire
• North Yorkshire
• Nottingham
• Oxfordshire
• Redbridge/Waltham Forest
• Rotherham
• St. Helens/Knowsley
• Salford
• Sandwell
• Sefton
• Sheffield
• Shropshire
• Solihull
• South Tyneside
• Staffordshire
• Stockport
• Surrey
• Suffolk
• Sunderland
• Trafford
• Wakefield
• Walsall
• West Sussex
• Wiltshire
• Wolverhampton

Since 1989 when the scheme started, the Department has spent over £720,000 and 140 practices have benefited. An assessment of the scheme is being undertaken and any decisions about its future will be made in the light of the outcome of the assessment.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she has on the number of dentists who offer NHS patients the option of a Denplan care programme as an alternative.

None. Private dental treatment is entirely a matter between individual patients and dentists.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what is the present level of funding for the Child Migrants Trust; and what future support is envisaged;(2) what action she will take to advise relatives of child migrants of the present locations of persons who left the United Kingdom prior to 1967; and if she will make a statement;(3) what action she will take to assist child migrants living abroad to receive details of family background and to re-establish United Kingdom family contact.

The Department has no information regarding the location of former child migrants. There are no plans to assist directly. The Department has provided funds to the Child Migrant Trust which provides a record tracing and advisory service. The trust has been awarded a grant of £25,000 for this year. Decisions about future funding will be taken at the appropriate time.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what dialogue she has undertaken with health departments in (a) Australia, (b) New Zealand and (c) Canada concerning the welfare of United Kingdom child migrants;(2) what dialogue she has undertaken with the

None.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what information she has available identifying the number of child migrants who have located and rejoined their families in the United Kingdom.

None.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what changes are planned in the pay of the ambulance service in the 1993–94 financial year.

My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State set out in her letter of 12 November 1992 to national health service employing bodies, including NHS trusts, the limits she expected to be applied to pay settlements throughout the NHS in the year from that date, a copy of which was deposited in the Library. In that context, offers of an increase of 1·5 per cent. in pay and allowances for the 1993–94 year have been made for those ambulance personnel whose pay is negotiated centrally. Information is not available about pay settlements for staff on NHS trust-specific terms and conditions.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what sources, independent of her Department and of the pharmaceutical industry, have been used by the Advisory Committee on National Health Service Drugs since 1985 to obtain advice on the costs of the products considered for inclusion on the selected list or on the impact of their actions on other national health service costs.

The Advisory Committee on National Health Service Drugs is an independent body of experts whose members use whatever sources they consider necessary to obtain advice and information for their deliberations.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what are the elements of the costs of administering the selected list scheme;(2) what has been the cost of the administration of the selected list in each year of its operation; and what is the estimated cost for 1993–94 and 1994–95.

The cost elements of administering the selected list scheme are those incurred in running the Advisory Committee on National Health Service Drugs and of providing departmental administrative support for the Committee. This amounted to £55,000 in 1991–92. Figures for earlier years are not available but the costs have remained constant in real terms since the inception of the scheme in 1985. An increase of around 50 per cent. is forecast for 1993–94 to deal with the extra work of reviewing the 10 new categories of drugs. Costs thereafter are expected to reduce to the earlier levels.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many cases of hepatitis and dysentery there have been in England for each year since 1987.

The information is shown in the tables.

Number of cases notified for Viral Hepatitis in England, 1987–1991
	Hepatitis A	Hepatitis B	Non A-Non B	Other/Not Known	Total
1987	1,797	420	241	823	3,281
1988	3,093	374	334	1,067	4,868
1989	5,210	409	249	1,074	6,942
1990	7,165	419	162	1,002	8,748
1991	7,186	471	149	693	8,499

Number of cases notified for dysentery in England, 1987–91
	Number
1987	3,333
1988	3,601
1989	3,162
1990	2,521
1991	8,963

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will list for each family health services authority the remuneration paid to chief executives and non-executive directors.

Chief executives of family health services authorities (FHSAs) are remunerated in range of £33,160 to £60,650 per year according to the size of the FHSA. All non-executive directors are remunerated at the rate of £5,000 per year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will give details of the remuneration paid to chief executives and non-executive directors of district health authorities.

Chief executives of district health authorities (DHAs) are remunerated in the range of £41,830 to £69,990 per year according to the size of the DHA. All non-executive directors are remunerated at the rate of £5,000 per year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) if she will list for each family health services authority the names of the chief executives and all non-executive directors;(2) if she will list for each district health authority the names of the chief executive and all non-executive directors.

This information is not available centrally. The appointment of chief executives to family health services authorities (FHSAs) and district health authorities (DHAs) is not carried out by Ministers, but is a matter for the FHSAs and DHAs themselves. Non-executive directors of FHSAs and DHAs are appointed by the appropriate regional health authority.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many people in the United Kingdom have developed AIDS.

Up to 31 March 1993, 7,341 AIDS cases had been reported.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total Government expenditure on HIV/AIDS medical research; and if she will provide an estimate of total expenditure from all sources on HIV/AIDS medical research.

The cumulative total of Government funding for AIDS research for the financial years 1986–87 to 1992–93 is £105,239,000. Information about expenditure from non-governmental sources is not available centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what has been the total expenditure from her Department in support of HIV and AIDS counselling, awareness and education programmes.

Between 1985–86 and 1993–94 the Government have allocated £85 million to the development of the national AIDS public education campaign, including the running costs of the national AIDS helpline and related telephone services. The sum of 11·5 million is being made available in 1993–94.The table shows the Department of Health and health education authority spend for the development of the national HIV and AIDS public education work including the running costs of the national AIDS helpline and related telephone information services. Not shown in the table are the sums spent by other Government Departments on HIV prevention work within their own spheres of interest.

HIV and AIDS public education
	Department of Health (£ million)	HEA (£ million)
1984–85	Nil	—
1985–86	0·52	—
1986–87	7·60	—
1987–88	6·74	4–47
1988–89	—	10·00
1989–90	—	12·00
1990–91	—	10·00
1991–92	—	11·00
1992–93	—	11·225

Since 1989–90 contributions have also been made towards the costs incurred by regional and district health authorities in the development of local HIV prevention activities. Regional AIDS (Control) Act 1987 reports since 1989–90 record expenditure on local HIV prevention initiatives as follows:

	£ million
1989–90	13·4
1990–91	23·4
1991–92	27·95

Figures for 1992–93 are not yet available though they are expected to reflect a steady increase in the development of district based HIV prevention work.Figures recording the total spent on all aspects of health promotion are not collected centrally. However, the Government continue to spend more on HIV and AIDS education than on any other single health promotion programme.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many United Kingdom citizens are HIV positive.

Up to 31 March 1993, 19,524 reports of persons testing positive for HIV had been received. The true number of infected people will undoubtedly be higher as some will not have been tested.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what was the percentage uptake of immunisations in each year since 1980 by district health authorities and FHSAs for (a) MMR, (b) rubella, (c) under-two diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio and (d) pre-school diphtheria, tetanus and polio and BCG, together with the source of this information.

Information on vaccination and immunisation by family health services authority is not available centrally.Figures for the two-year uptake of diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio by district health authority have been published in the Department of Health publication "Vaccination and Immunisation" since 1987–88, copies of which are available in the Library.Further information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will place in the Library the latest edition of "Vaccination and Immunisation" based on forms KC50, KC50A and KC51.

The latest edition available is for the period 1990–91, a copy of which is in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if she will make a statement indicating the total number of cases in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) the world of human veno-occlusive liver disease attributable directly to comfrey consumption; and what percentage of the total incidence of this condition these figures represented in the years in which they arose.

This information is not available centrally. However, table 15, pages 184–191, of the World Health Organisation's "Environmental Health Criteria 80", 1988, lists cases of pyrrolizidine alkaloid poisoning and human reports of veno-occlusive disease from the United Kingdom and many other countries. All these cases are linked to the consumption of plants, including comfrey, which contain the toxic pyrrolizidine alkaloids. The Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, in its recent statement on the safety-in-use of comfrey, refers to an additional two cases of veno-occlusive disease reported since 1988, one in the USA and one in New Zealand.Copies of the World Health Organisation publication, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food's analysis of comfrey products, the advice of the Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment and the Food Advisory Committee together with a draft information note are available in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to change the existing status for the Forestry Commission in Wales; and if he will make a statement.

I refer the hon. and learned Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland to my hon. Friend the Member for Staffordshire, Moorlands (Mr. Knox) on 30 March 1993, Official Report, column 150.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make funding available to enable water public limited companies and local authorities to upgrade existing unadoptable sewers to adoptable standards; and if he will make a statement.

Responsibility for uprating unadopted sewers to adoptable standards rests with the owners. Sections 104 and 105 of the Water Industry Act 1991 (as amended) provide an adequate mechanism to allow unadopted sewers to be adopted by the relevant authority and include provision for appeals to the Director General of Water Services in the event that adoption is refused.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what plans he has to set up and fund a programme of survey work designed to measure the extent of unadopted sewers; and if he will make a statement.

None.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what information he has as to how many households in Wales have unadopted sewers; and if he will make a statement.

This information is not available centrally.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will give figures for the number of disconnections of domestic water supply for each year since 1987.

The information the hon. Member requested is set out in the following table. Separate data for domestic disconnections are not available for 1987–88 and 1988–89. Information on statutory water company disconnections was not collected prior to 1988–89.

Disconnections by water companies in Wales1
	Number
Domestic and non-domestic disconnections
21987–88	2,067
1988–89	1,249
Domestic disconnections
1989–90	1,356
1990–91	1,305
1991–92	2,951
31992–93	1,072
1 Dwr Cymru Cyf, Chester Waterworks Company and Wrexham and East Denbighshire Water Company.
2 Excluding Chester Waterworks Company and Wrexham and East Denbighshire Water Company.
3 Half year ended 30 September 1992.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many cases of hepatitis and dysentery there have been in each year since 1987.

The numbers of notifications of viral hepatitis and dysentery in Wales in each year since 1987 are shown in the table:

	Viral hepatitis	Dysentery
1987	98	283
1988	194	91
1989	129	115
1990	257	235
1991	360	972
19921	481	676
1 1992 data are provisional.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how many careers services organisations of the eight county councils have opted to become (a) part of the nearest training and enterprise council, (b) free-standing organisations, (c) partnership organisations and (d) other; and if he will make a statement.

Voluntary partnerships between training and enterprise councils and the careers services of local education authorities have been established in all Welsh counties. We shall be looking closely at the progress of these partnerships before deciding on what arrangements might apply in the future, as a result of legislation proposed in the Trade Union Reform and Employment Rights Bill.

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether he intends to cap any Welsh authorities for 1993–94; and if he will make a statement.

Local authorities in Wales have now set their budgets and council tax for 1993–94. Almost all have budgeted within or very close to the limits implied by the provisional capping criteria I announced last December.The provisions of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 require me to determine capping principles for a class of authority prior to announcing a decision to cap any authority of that class.In the light of careful consideration of their budgets and all other relevant considerations I have now decided my capping principles for district councils.The principles I have adopted broadly give effect to the provisional criteria I announced to the House last December with one modification. I have included a de minimis proviso to avoid designation in cases where the reduction which could be secured by capping would be less than £1·50 per band D household. Full details of my principles have, this afternoon, been placed in the Library of the House.On the basis of these principles I have designated Aberconwy borough council for capping. Its 1993–94 budget is £8,734,695 and I have proposed a cap of £8,566,950. The original council tax for a two adult band D dwelling was £69. The reduction implied by the proposed cap is £8.

To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many grey herons were killed under licence in England and Wales in each year since 1988, to prevent serious damage to fisheries.

The information requested is as follows:

	Number
1988	0
1989	0
1990	0
1991	5
1992	11
1993	11
1 Returns of action taken under licence still awaited, so figures may not be final totals.