To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the recent report by Her Majesty's chief inspector of constabulary on the specialist operations department of the Metropolitan police. [229]

Yes. I have today placed in the Library a note of the recommendations from the report, together with the Commissioner's responses and the police authority responses, which take into account the advice my right hon. and learned Friend and I have received from the Metropolitan police committee.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the outcome of the programme of work arising from the scrutiny of enforcement of immigration laws which he announced on 18 July 1996. [230]

The programme of work announced by my right hon. and learned Friend in July 1995 was designed to implement the findings of an efficiency scrutiny which examined ways in which the Government as a whole could work more effectively to strengthen immigration control and to prevent those temporarily or illegally in this country from receiving state benefits to which they should not be entitled.I am pleased to say that the scrutiny process is now complete. It has successfully:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the future of the Building Research Establishment. [388]

On 2 October, the Construction Industry Council sent to me the business plan developed by the construction industry for a national centre for construction, thus meeting the deadline I set out in my reply of 2 April to a question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Watford (Mr. Garel-Jones). I am grateful for the work the industry's representatives have put into the preparation of this plan which I have considered very carefully, but I have concluded that it does not provide a satisfactory basis on which to enter a single tender negotiation to transfer BRE to the private sector. As I advised the House of 2 April, my next option is to privatise BRE through a competitive sale. I am therefore putting in hand at once the action necessary to seek tenders.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made in implementing in the United Kingdom the European Commission stage 1 petrol vapour recovery directive. [652]

We are laying regulations in Parliament today, under the Environmental Protection Act 1990, to implement the EC directive (94/63/EC) on the control of volatile organic compound emissions resulting from the storage of petrol and its distribution from terminals to service stations. These are important measures which aim to reduce emissions of the volatile organic compounds which contribute to the formation of ground level ozone.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what further action he proposes to take against those local authorities whose direct labour and direct service organisations failed to meet their statutory financial objectives in 1994–95. [653]

On 30 July this year, 22 statutory notices were served on 17 local authorities concerning the failure of their direct labour and service organisations to meet the required financial objectives in 1994–95, and one notice was served on an authority for submitting a qualified account for work which it was carrying out. My right hon. Friend has now considered the responses to those notices, and has decided to give 16 directions to 12 local authorities.The directions take the following forms:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Environment Council on 15 October. [654]

Together with my noble friend the Earl of Lindsay I represented the UK at the Environment Council in Luxembourg on 15 October.Policy debates were held on the review of the fifth environment action programme and on the proposals to revise directive 90/219 on the contained use of genetically modified micro-organisms. In each case, the Council is expected to reach agreement in December. There were also useful discussions on the "auto-oil" proposals, the proposals for a revision of the drinking water directive and on the review of the Community waste management strategy.The Council agreed conclusions on the EU position for the third conference of the parties to the convention on biological diversity. The Council noted a report from the presidency on the progress which is being made on the negotiation of a protocol to the UN framework convention on climate change and on a framework agreement on humane trapping standards.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the recent Council meeting of the Economic and Finance Ministers of the European Union. [190]

I represented the UK at the Economic and Finance Council—ECOFIN—of the European Union in Brussels on 14 October.The Council considered a Commission report on guarantee arrangements for lending outside the Union by the European investment bank. The main issues discussed were the coverage and level of the guarantees on EIB lending provided by the loan guarantee fund and the proportion of lending on which the EIB should find third party guarantees—that is, guarantees which do not fall on the EU budget or member states. No final agreement was reached, and this item will be taken again at a future ECOFIN meeting.Over lunch, EU Finance Ministers met EFTA Finance Ministers to discuss employment policy. A joint communique was issued which emphasised the need for macro-economic frameworks to support strong and sustainable economic growth, prudent budget policies and joint efforts further to implement the single market.Commissioner Monti presented the Commission's work programme on VAT. Over the period to 2000, the Commission plans to bring forward a series of proposals to overhaul the current EC VAT arrangements to allow tax authorities to collect revenue and tackle tax avoidance with greater certainty. There was no discussion of this item.The Council noted the report of the high-level working group on trans-European networks. This report rules out extra funding for TENs by a revision to the financial perspective and instead concludes that every effort should be made to remove all non-financial delaying factors.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes to labour market statistics the director of the Office for National Statistics will introduce following the Steel report; and if he will make a statement. [191]

The director of the Office for National Statistics has conducted wide-ranging consultation on the Steel report both inside and outside Government. This showed some support for monthly publication of employment and unemployment and estimates from the labour force survey, but also doubts about whether the additional £7 million to £8 million annual cost of redesigned and enlarged survey represented value for money. An alternative option, costing an additional sum of around £200,000 a year, was also considered based on monthly publication of three-month rolling average estimates from the existing quarterly survey. The benefits of this in terms of informing macro-economic debate could, however, be diminished by potential problems of misunderstanding estimates which related not to individual months but to rolling three-month periods.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the progress of his proposals for stamp duty on share trading. [192]

I announced on 24 July 1996 that I intended to replace the current stamp duty on exemptions for market makers and broker dealers on the London stock exchange with a new relief for purchases made on any UK recognised investment exchange or European Economic Area regulated market by any firm fulfilling the role of intermediary on that exchange. The new regime would apply to all UK shares on which stamp duty is levied. Following detailed consultation by the Treasury over the last three months, I have now decided that it is not necessary to confine the relief available to intermediaries to purchases which are offset by sales within a given period. The introduction of such a time limit would impose additional compliance costs on firms; it would encourage a new type of tax-driven trading; and it would do little, if anything, to protect the revenue from stamp duty on shares.My central expectation is that the proposed new regime, without a time limit, should deliver broadly the same yield from stamp duty on shares as the current regime. However, in order to guard against any potentially significant losses in revenue which may emerge on the introduction of the new tax regime and the stock exchange's new trading system, I propose to take reserve powers to impose a non-zero rate of stamp duty on share purchases and other defined classes of transactions by intermediaries. These powers could be activated to prevent against loss of revenue arising from abuse of the extended relief for intermediaries' transactions.As well as replacing the current reliefs for stock exchange market makers and broker dealers, the proposed regime would also replace the existing stamp duty reliefs for market makers and principal traders on the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange. Stamp duty relief would be available to LIFFE equity options intermediaries for equity purchases on other exchanges of the stocks in which LIFFE trades an option and the purchase is made on a recognised investment exchange or an EEA regulated market. LIFFE intermediaries would not necessarily have to become intermediaries on other exchanges in order to gain relief.Detailed provisions, reflecting these proposals, will be brought forward for the 1997 Finance Bill, with a view to implementing the new regime as soon as is practicable during 1997–98.

To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what progress has been made to establish a Disability Discrimination Act telephone information line. [84]

I am pleased to announce that following a successful tender exercise, the contract to run the Disability Discrimination Act information line has been awarded to Merit Direct Ltd. The line will be operational by 2 December 1996. Literature and fact sheets on the employment rights and the rights of access to goods, facilities and services will be available through an operator, by textphone, and on the Internet. Additionally, the fact sheets will be available by fax. Initially an automated service may be used for re-ordering literature.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the progress to complete the work on the secondary legislation for the Reserve Forces Act 1996. [82]

Work to develop the necessary secondary legislation to enable the Act's new powers to operate is proceeding well. Both new regulations and amendments to existing ones will be necessary, with some requiring formal public consultation before they are made.That process of consultation has now begun. On 18 October we published a consultative document on schemes for exempting reservists from call-out and recall, and for financial assistance for reservists and their employers, provided under part VIII of the Act. The document is available in the Library of the House. As required by the Act, copies have been sent to representatives of employers, employees, the self-employed, and to the Council of Territorial, Auxiliary and Volunteer Reserve Associations. Copies have also been sent to those who responded to the last consultation exercise on the draft Reserve Forces Bill, and to selected reserve units. The consultation period finishes on 29 November and I would encourage all those that the regulations affect or who have an interest in them to read the document carefully and to send in their comments.I consider it most important to allow adequate time for interested parties to respond to our proposals, and for a measured assessment of those comments. I have therefore decided that the regulations, and the Act as a whole, should take effect from 1 April 1997 rather than 1 January 1997, the original target date for implementation.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is the current status of the Army's Challenger 2 programme; and if he will make a statement. [194]

The Challenger 2 development programme was successfully completed, with all reliability targets achieved on development tanks. Following a series of trials on early production tanks we identified a need to improve the reliability of some of the elements of production vehicles to meet the very high standards set. An agreed programme to achieve this is being undertaken by the contractor, Vickers plc, at no additional cost to my Department. Central to the programme is a sequence of production reliability growth trials with agreed technical milestones.The company has met the requirements set in the first of those trials, which was held in July. Challenger 2 has already demonstrated an impressive capability. I am confident that Challenger 2 will fully meet all our technical and reliability requirements in 1997. In order to ensure that the comprehensive logistic support arrangements that we require are properly established, I have agreed that the in-service date for Challenger 2 will be June 1998.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will place in the Library copies of his speech to the social services conference in Edinburgh on 18 October and of the two documents whose publication he announced on that occasion; and if he will make a statement. [83]

In his speech on 18 October, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced the publication of a consultation document on setting the standards of conduct and practice for social services staff, entitled "The Obligations of Care". Copies are being sent out to interested parties this week. Comments have been requested by 28 February 1997.My right hon. Friend also announced the publication of Tom Burgner's report on his review of the regulation and inspection of social services, and gave the Government's initial response to it. Copies are being sent to interested parties this week. The Government intend to publish a White Paper on social services in January next year, and some more detailed responses to the Burgner recommendations will be given then. Meanwhile, we shall be initiating the necessary further consultations on particular issues with the relevant interests, whom we shall be approaching direct in due course.Copies of both documents and of the speech have been placed in the Library.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health when he proposes to establish a partnership scheme for long-term care. [389]

The Government remain committed to the proposals for a partnership scheme set out in the consultation paper "A New Partnership for Care in Old Age", copies of which are available in the Library. In the light of responses to the consultation paper, they also intend to legislate to allow residents in care homes to "top up" the care arranged by their local authorities.