Written Answers
Houses Of Parliament: Cleaners' Pay
asked the Leader of the House:What is the weekly payment to the cleaners of the Houses of Parliament, including the House of Lords; what is the number of hours they work; and whether the House authorities will encourage negotitations with the relevant trade union regarding their conditions.
For those cleaners employed by one of the two Houses or by the Property Services Agency, the information is as follows:
| (i) | House of Lords Cleaners | £40·58 for 21 hours per week |
| (ii) | Property Services Agency— | |
| Industrial Civil Service Cleaners | £99·47 for 40 hours per week (in addition some overtime may be worked) | |
| Non-Industrial Civil Service Cleaners | £57·99 for 30 hours per week. |
Higher Education: Estimated Future Cost Savings
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will estimate the net savings of public expenditure arising from the proposed cuts in higher education itemising separately the loss of income taxes, national insurance and superannuation contributions of members of academic staff, losses of indirect taxation on the spending of persons who would otherwise have been employed in higher education, and any other indirect effects which can be identified.
The provision for higher education current expenditure in Cmnd. 8175 implies savings at 1980 survey prices of £70 million in 1981–82, £120 million in 1982–83 and £160 million in 1983–84, compared with provision in 1980–81.Institutions are currently formulating plans for adjusting to their lower levels of funding, therefore no accurate estimate can yet be made of the total number of job losses that will be involved. Changes in transfer payments and in tax and other revenues will depend entirely upon how quickly those who would otherwise have occupied posts in higher education find alternative employment, and the nature of that payment.
Research And Education Cuts
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they will estimate the number of research projects which will be curtailed or postponed as a result of the cuts in higher education, and how many of these will be in applied science or other areas of practicable applicability.
The Government recognise that the reduced level of funding for higher education will involve some further concentration of research activity, but it is not possible to quantify this in terms of the number of projects curtailed or postponed.
Open University: Unemployed Students' Fees
asked Her Majesty's Government:What help they will make available to persons registered as unemployed who wish to improve their employment prospects by undertaking part-time study with the Open University or other institutions of higher education.
The Government's grant to the Open University for 1982 will include £½ million to enable the University to remit substantially the fees of students who are unemployed.
Further Education Colleges: Governing Bodies
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware of the anomalies arising from the fact that the constitution of the board of governors of a further education college (other than a college of education) does not require the approval of the DES thus leaving it open to a local education authority to establish a board of governors with, for example, half its members nominated by the LEA, which is directly contrary to the advice given in Circular 7/70, and to the principles laid down in relation to schools in the Education Act 1980 introduced by the present Government, and will they arrange for this matter to be considered by the Working Party at present considering the structure of further education.
The Government are aware that there are variations in the constitution of governing bodies of further education colleges. The Education (No. 2) Act 1968 gave local education authorities discretion to determine the composition of these bodies, other than colleges of education, to meet particular local circumstances. Circular 7/70 suggested that there should normally be about one-third local authority representation with the remainder from industry, commerce, the professions and education (including representatives of the college staff). The circular was however not binding on authorities. The situation for schools is different because local authority representation had hitherto been much greater than at further education colleges; and the Education Act 1980 provided for other interests to be represented.The only working party at present considering any aspect of the structure of further education is a group of officers from the Department of Education and Science and the local authority associations who are reviewing the articles of government of further education colleges. There are no plans to include consideration of the Secretary of State's powers over college instruments in this group's terms of reference.
Education: Lea Expenditure Policies
asked Her Majesty's Government:When the annual report of Her Majesty's Inspectorate recording the effects of local education authority expenditure policies on the education service in England and Wales, for the Expenditure Steering Group (Education), will be published.
Analysis of the information collected by Her Majesty's Inspectorate in England and in Wales on the effects of local authority expenditure policies on the education service in 1981–82 is still in progress. Decisions on publication will be taken in the New Year when draft reports have been prepared.
Social Workers And Mental Health Services
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they can estimate the additional burden to be placed on local authorities by the proposals relating to approved social workers in the Mental Health (Amendment) Bill; whether they consider it will be possible to approve sufficient social workers within two years of the passing of legislation to enable them to replace "mental welfare officers"; and how they propose that the cost should be met.
The tasks which the 1959 Act assigned to "mental welfare officers" (ie people, normally from among their social workers, appointed to undertake these tasks by the Social Services Department) relate to the making of applications for hospital admissions under Sections 25, 26 and 29 of the Act. It is already normal practice to interview the patient before such an application is made, and most local authorities already try to prepare the people they designate for these special responsibilities through a special training course, but neither of these are legal requirements.The new Bill will alter the situation in two ways.
In the first place, under Clause 43, only social workers who have been approved by the authority as,
"having appropriate competence in dealing with persons who are suffering from mental disorder",
will be eligible for appointment for these tasks (and in approving such people a local social services authority shall,
"have regard to such matters as the Secretary of State may direct",
the intention being that the Secretary of State will be able to advise on training needs etc). Secondly, Clause 16 will create a specific obligation for the approved social worker to interview the patient, before making an application for admission, to satisfy himself,
"that detention in a hospital is in all the circumstances of the case the most appropriate way of providing the care and medical treatment of which the patient stands in need",
As an interview is already normal practice the duty to inquire into the "appropriate way of providing care and medical treatment" provides a clarification of role and function, rather than an additional burden.
We expect that the effect of the requirement that only approved social workers should be appointed will be to reduce the number of social workers involved in making these applications and increase the amount of training given to each. The cost burden of the increased length of training will in general be offset by a reduction in the numbers to be trained. Guidance is proposed suggesting that each local authority should identify the number of people they will require for this work, but information now available centrally does not allow us to form a precise estimate of the number who are likely to be so identified, and therefore to need training; nor is precise information available about the numbers now receiving some training, or the extent and cost of such training.
DHSS statistics show, however, that about 15,000 applications for hospital admissions under Sections 25, 26 and 29 were made in England and Wales in 1979. Of these a few will have been made by the patients' relatives without a mental welfare officer being involved. The number of occasions on which social workers were called out as mental welfare officers to interview prospective patients in their homes, et cetera, because a compulsory admission was under consideration, would of course have been greater than 15,000, because after some interviews no such application was in fact made. We believe that local authorities will see advantage in concentrating this limited volume of work so far as practicable into the hands of a limited number of social workers, so that the people appointed may build up wide experience, and wide contacts with the other services which are involved. In small local authorities, however, there may be only one or two compulsory admissions per week. Approved social workers will, of course, have other duties, as mental welfare officers do now. The cost of providing in-service training, offset against what is spent on comparable training at the moment, is expected to remain a relatively small item in the training budget of social service departments. We do not, therefore, propose any special financial provision for the particular form of in-service training directed towards approval under Clause 43.
The department is currently preparing draft guidelines on the training and approval of social workers for this purpose. It will be circulated to local authority associations, relevant training and professional bodies, and other interested organisations early in 1982 for their comments; the training proposals take the form of a general framework within which local social service authorities will develop their own training programmes, perhaps in co-operation with each. They will be able to make an early start at this task and should have little difficulty in taking training far enough to implement the proposed new requirement two years after the Bill becomes law.
It is envisaged that the training will be modular in form and that individual social workers who have already had some training will need to undertake only those parts of the training judged necessary to equip them effectively to carry out their legal responsibilities. Additionally some local authorities may choose to use some modules of the training set up under the Bill to enlarge the mental health knowledge and experience of other staff of social services departments, who are not expected to undertake responsibilities under the Bill but are doing relevant work. It is hoped that local authorities will find that the proposed training programme for the approved social worker will make a substantial contribution to development of their mental health services as a whole.
The Falkland Islands: Geneva Talks
asked Her Majesty's Government:What were the conclusions of the talks at Geneva between representatives of the United Kingdom and Argentina on the future of the Falkland Islands.
The round of Anglo-Argentine talks on the Falklands dispute, which were to have taken place on 18th-19th December, have been postponed at Argentine request. No new dates have yet been set.
Uganda: Poaching By Sudanese Army
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are aware that units of the Sudanese Army are making marauding expeditions into Northern Uganda, killing game and endangering life, both on land and in the air, and whether representations on this matter have been made to the Sudanese Government.
We have seen reports of poaching missions by units of the Sudanese army crossing the Northern borders of Uganda. This is in the first place a matter between the Sudanese and Ugandan authorities.
Aid To Overseas Countries And Territories
asked Her Majesty's Government:
Under the 1980 Council Decision aid is allotted to the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) on objective criteria which take special account of the population, size and poverty of each recipient. For 1980–85 British OCTs have been given the following allocations:—
| A. Present dependencies | Mn. ECUs* |
| Anguilla | 0·40 |
| British Virgin Islands | 0·50 |
| Cayman Islands | 0·50 |
| Falkland Islands | 0·50 |
| Montserrat | 0·70 |
| St. Helena | 0·45 |
| St. Kitts and Nevis | 2·20 |
| Turks and Caicos Islands | 0·50 |
| B. Former dependencies | |
| Vanuatu | 2·50 |
| St. Vincent and the Grenadines | 4·00 |
| Antigua | 2·70 |
| Belize | 5·50 |
| *1 ECU = approximately £0·58 | |
The Golan Heights: Israeli Decision
asked Her Majesty's Government:In view of the Israeli Government's decision to annex the Golan in the territory of Syria in violation of international law, what representation will be made by them to the state of Israel and international bodies such as the United Nations and the EEC.
The Foreign Ministers of the Ten members of the European Community issued a statement in London on 15th December making clear our opposition to this Israeli decision. We have drawn this to the attention of the Israeli Government, acting as President of the European Community. We have also called on Israel to reconsider her decision. The United Nations Security Council considered the issue on 16th and 17th December and adopted Resolution 497 for which we voted. I am arranging for a copy of this resolution to be placed in the Library of the House.
Cyprus: Missing Persons
asked Her Majesty's Government:What has been the result of the consideration by the investigating committee of the destination of 2,000 missing persons in Cyprus since the invasion by Turkish forces, and whether, if necessary, the United Kingdom will support further action by the United Nations to enable the investigation to be completed.
I understand that procedural difficulties have so far prevented the committee from getting down to substantive investigation. The committee's Red Cross chairman is attempting to resolve these. We believe that it is high time that this humanitarian issue was tackled. Any efforts likely to help towards that end have our fullest support.
Matrimonial Homes, Scotland: Occupancy Rights
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether, as a consequence of the Matrimonial Homes (Family Protection) (Scotland) Act 1981, the entitled spouse will not be able to expel the non-entitled spouse from the matrimonial home.
Section 4 of the Act empowers a court to make an exclusion order suspending the occupancy rights of the non-entitled spouse, if it appears necessary for the protection of an entitled spouse or any child of the family from conduct injurious to their physical or mental health.
Organochlorine Imports
asked Her Majesty's Government:Why no records of the quantities of organochlorines imported into this country are kept when the use of these substances as seed dressings and for other agricultural purposes is supposedly controlled, and whether statistics are kept on the import of dangerous chemicals which are subject to statutory controls in this country.
Statistics on chemicals generally are not compiled because they fall within generic groups, or are subject to statutory controls or are considered dangerous. Some information on imports of particular organochlorines is given in the Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom under SITC (R2) Item 511-39, although in some cases with restrictions on publication owing to the needs of commercial privacy. Estimates of average annual usage of organochlorines in agriculture have already been provided in answer to Written Questions by the noble Lord on 29th October and 8th December, 1981.
British Overseas Trade Board: Clinics In The South-West
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they are satisfied that the South-Western Regional Office of the British Overseas Trade Board can adequately serve the South-West by holding clinics in Plymouth and Truro every month.
The South-West Regional Office of the British Overseas Trade Board has contact with over 450 exporters in Devon and Cornwall. Clinics are a cost effective means of maintaining these contacts and assisting exporters, but are complementary to visits to individual exporters and telephone discussions of, and correspondence on, particular problems and prospects.
Overseas Orders And Former Overseas Students
asked Her Majesty's Government:Whether they have formed any estimate of the proportion of orders for goods purchased in this country by developing nations which are placed by persons who received their education in the United Kingdom.
Her Majesty's Government have not formed any estimate of this sort, and doubt whether it would be practicable to attempt to do so.House adjourned for the Christmas Recess at twenty-four minutes before twelve o'clock noon until Monday, 18th January next.