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Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 17 December 1992
TRANSPORT
River Services, London
Mr. Tony Banks : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has held with private sector operators about commercial passenger river services in London ; and if he will make a statement on the future of such services.
Mr. Norris : I have today announced the establishent of a River Thames working group which I will chair to undertake a thorough study of the use of the river for transport. The terms of reference for the study are :
1. Establish what present use is made of the tidal part of the River Thames upstream of Southend and Sheerness for transport purposes and by whom.
2. Establish what constraints presently deter or inhibit transport operators from developing those uses.
3. Establish the likely potential for the development of transport use of the river, taking into consideration the interests of other river users, the views of riparian boroughs, its linkage to the existing transport network and all relevant safety issues raised in the Hayes report on river safety.
4. Consider how far it is in the overall interest to develop the transport usage of the river taking into account the environmental, leisure, amenity and planning aspects of any such development. 5. Identify the scope for private sector development which would assist the achievement of the river's transport potential for freight and passenger traffic.
I have invited the Port of London Authority, London First, the London Docklands development corporation, the London planning advisory committee and London Transport to be members.
I will also be consulting a broad range of bodies with responsibility for or interests in the river. I would also like to hear from other people who have proposals for increased use of the river.
Kent Coast Line
Mr. Gale : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he now expects orders to be placed for the construction of new trains to serve travellers on the Kent coast line ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Freeman : The Chancellor's autumn statement enables BR to order on lease an additional £150 million of new rolling stock over the next three years. Only the lease payments--as opposed to the full cost of the rolling stock--will count against BR's external financing limit. BR is currently considering which rolling stock orders would be suitable for leasing. It is for it to decide priorities. However, the options include new rolling stock for Kent coast.
While the Government's preference is that the orders should be placed over the next three years, they are prepared to consider flexibility on this timing.
As part of their plans for the privatisation of British Rail, the Government wish to see the private sector
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becoming involved in the procurement of rolling stock as quickly as possible. A consultation document on this will be issued in the new year.Royal Train
Mr. Alan Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on how many occasions, and for how long, the royal train has been used by members of the royal family in each of the last three years.
Mr. Freeman : The royal train has been used by members of the royal family as follows, in the last three years :
1990
6 journeys daytime
27 journeys single overnight stay
2 journeys two overnight plus one day
1 journey single overnight plus 1 day
36 occasions
1991
2 journeys daytime
39 journeys single overnight stay
2 journeys two overnight plus one day
7 journeys single overnight plus one day
50 occasions
1992
2 journeys daytime
33 journeys single overnight stay
2 journeys single overnight plus one day
37 occasions
Airlines
Mr. Amess : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what are the criteria on which take off or landing slots are awarded between airlines ; and whether he will seek an agreement on slots which will ensure that the allocation of take off and landing rights at airports is such as to promote fair opportunities for smaller and newer airlines as well as larger and older ones.
Mr. Norris [holding answer 9 December 1992] : Slots are allocated between airlines by airport co-ordinators, according to guidelines laid down by the International Air Transport Association and used world wide. With regard to the regulation on slot allocation recently agreed by the Council of Ministers, I refer my hon. Friend to the reply my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Dartford (Mr. Dunn) on Thursday 10 December, at column 784. The regulation strikes a balance between protecting the legitimate interests of established carriers and providing opportunities for new entrants.
Marine Salvage
Ms. Walley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport on what grounds a load time exemption certificate was issued to the Golden Eye salvage vessel.
Mr. Norris : The Golden Eye was issued with a United Kingdom load line exemption certificate after being satisfactorily surveyed in accordance with the Merchant Shipping (Load Line) Rules 1968.
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Private Finance
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Secretary of State for Transport in what areas of his Department's responsibilities he has introduced, or may introduce, private finance ; and if he will describe in each case the procedures by which private finance is sought.
Mr. MacGregor : We are already promoting private sector investment in transport through :
--privatisation in several transport areas :
--turning over complete projects to the private sector (as in the case of the channel tunnel and the Queen Elizabeth II bridge at Dartford) ;
--developer contributions (such as I am negotiating for the Jubilee line extension).
I very much welcome the changes relating to the use of private finance announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer in his autumn statement. I have recently been developing plans to encourage more private sector involvement in joint ventures and other initiatives, particularly in relation to major road and rail schemes. I am also keen to encourage the private sector to come forward with its own proposals.
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Green Issues
Mr. Dafis : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food who in his Department has been appointed to oversee and develop green issues ; how many civil servants have been allocated new or additional responsibilities to deal with the management and development of green issues ; and what additional allocation of resources has been made to support programmes related to green issues in his Department.
Mr. Curry : My right hon. Friend the Minister is the Department's green Minister and has overall responsibility for environmental aspects of all the Department's policies. All staff are expected to have regard to environmental considerations in discharging their duties. Forecasts of the numbers of staff and resources allocated to the programmes comprising the Ministry's aim
"To enhance the rural and marine environment"
are set out in the "Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Intervention Board Departmental Report on the Government's Expenditure Plans 1992-93 to 1994-95" Cm 1903, February 1992. A copy is in the Library of the House.
Agricultural Land
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what study he has made of the restrictions on agricultural land ownership, farm size maximum restrictions, agricultural land sales and inheritance, in each of the member states of the European Community.
Winston Grange
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food which companies sponsored the agriculture and environment exhibition held at Winston Grange on 28 September.
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Mr. Gummer : More than 70 companies and other organisations assisted with or sponsored exhibits at the show which demonstrated the best of the British agricultural and food industries.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food on what date instructions were given to the Agricultural Development Advisory Service to carry out an assessment of works to be carried out on land at Winston Grange.
Mr. Gummer : The Agricultural Development Advisory Service was asked on 15 May 1992 to carry out the assessment and supervision of a conservation area exhibit.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what contribution was made to the cost of the assessment of works carried out at Winston Grange in September by the owner of those premises ; and on what date.
Mr. Gummer : None. The assessment and supervision work contributed to creating a conservation area exhibit which demonstrated the central theme of the informal Council.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment work, and at what value, was carried out on land at Winston Grange in the period prior to 28 September at public expense.
Mr. Gummer : The assessment work related to a conservation area exhibit. The cost in staff time was covered by existing arrangements under which the Agricultural Development Advisory Service provides services in support of the Ministry's policies on the environment and conservation.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what contribution was made by Hillsdown Holdings plc to the cost of works on land at the Winston show organised by his Department in September.
Mr. Gummer : Hillsdown Holdings plc sponsored the conservation area exhibit at the show. Their contribution amounted to £2,615.91 which included the cost of hiring a marquee.
Mr. Campbell-Savours : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for what purposes the agriculture and environment exhibition sponsored by independent companies was arranged at Winston Grange in September.
Mr. Gummer : The theme of the informal Council of Agriculture Ministers was the importance of integrating conservation and environmental protection into agricultural policy. It contributed to a constructive discussion at Cambridge of ways of moving to a fuller integration of environmental protection into the common agricultural policy.
Bee-keeping
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many bee officers there were in (a) 1986, (b) 1988, (c) 1990 and (d) at the latest available date.
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Mr. Curry : The information is as follows :
|Number
---------------------
1986 |64
1988 |30
1990 |34
1992 |37
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what are the reasons for the closure of the bee-keeping department at Sparsholt agricultural college.
Mr. Boswell : I have been asked to reply.
The decision to close the bee-keeping unit at Sparsholt agricultural college with effect from 31 December 1992 was taken in June 1992 by the governors of the college because the courses had ceased to be financially viable. The decision was reached following consultation with bee-keeping associations, which failed to identify any other sources of financial support.
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how much funding has been allocated to action in relation to bee-keeping problems in the current year and each of the next three years ; and if he will give a breakdown of the applications to which the amount injected into bee-keeping problems has put in the current year.
Mr. Curry : The expenditure necessary depends on the incidence of bee disease and may vary considerably from budget. We had the first recorded incident of Varroa in the United Kingdom in April 1992 and its effect has been as follows :
|Estimated
|Budget 1992-93 |Expenditure 1992-93
|£ |£
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Central Science Laboratory |350,000 |565,000
Regions (including bees officers) |510,000 |610,000
HQ (including medicines and
printing) |50,000 |155,000
Research and Development |136,000 |186,000
Expenditure in future years will depend on the level of bee disease and decisions on how directive 92/65/EEC legislating on animals not covered by specific requirements under directive 90/425/EEC will be implemented in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what expert advice is available to him on the spread of the parasitic mite Varroa Jacobsoni.
Mr. Curry : Our principal source of expert advice is the Central Science Laboratory and in particular the national bee unit at Luddington.
Bacteria Collections
Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on transitional funding for the National Collections of Marine and Industrial Bacteria.
Mr. Curry : The Ministry has agreed to provide a further £140,000 in support of the work of the National
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Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria Ltd for 1993-94. This will provide the opportunity for an assessment to be made of the wider long-term value of the collections as a national scientific resource.Private Finance
Sir John Stanley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in what areas of his Department's responsibilities he has introduced, or may introduce, private finance ; and if he will describe in each case the procedures by which private finance is sought.
Mr. Curry : Following the announcement of the private finance initiative by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the autumn statement, the Department is considering how the initiative could be applied within its area of responsibility, on the basis of the guidance which has been published by HM Treasury.
Net Limitation Order
Mr. Trotter : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has taken a decision on the National Rivers Authority's north- east coast net limitation order ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Gummer : After careful consideration, I have decided that the new order restricting the number of licences which may be issued for netting for salmon off the Northumbrian and Yorkshire coasts should be confirmed with minor drafting amendments. It will take effect from 22 January 1993.
In reaching this decision, I took into account the representations made about the future of the north-east coast drift net fishery and the formal objections to the order that had been sent to me. Many of these argued that the fishery should be phased out over a much shorter time scale than that which would result from natural wastage. However, the order proposed by the NRA was consistent with the conclusions of the report on salmon net fisheries presented to Parliament in October 1991. In that report, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I noted that the review on which it was based had not produced any evidence that the drift net fishery posed an immediate threat to salmon stocks and thus any justification for depriving existing licence holders of their licences at a stroke. We concluded, however, that it would aid and improve the management of individual east coast salmon stocks if the fishery were to come to an end. And we recommended that, in order to avoid hardship, this should be done gradually by reducing the number of drift net licences as the licence holders left the fishery. The NRA's order provides for this.
The Government remain firmly committed to the phasing out of the drift net fishery. The effect of the new order will be monitored and the levels of drift net catches kept under close review.
Single Market
Mr. Patrick Thompson : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what progress has been made in completing the single market in the areas for which his Department has responsibility.
Mr. Curry : Considerable progress has been made to complete the single market within the agriculture, fisheries
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and food sectors. Most internal frontier controls will be removed from 1 January 1993 and there will be some substantial changes in the way trade between member states is carried out.For trade in live animals, regulations will be made implementing in Great Britain the live animals veterinary checks
directives--90/425/EEC and 91/496/EEC--from 1 January 1993. Under these arrangements, veterinary checks on intra-Community trade will be eliminated at internal EC frontiers on certain live animals and genetic material. A system of intensified checks at points of origin and spot checks at points of destination will be substituted for the present border controls. All consignments, when entering intra-EC trade, should be accompanied by health certificates or other documentation as required under the EC rules. Live animals entering the Community from third countries may only enter through an approved border inspection post and must be subject to documentary, identity and physical checks before entering free circulation within the Community.
In order to protect the health of the United Kingdom bee population, imports of bees are limited to countries of high bee health status free from varroasis. Ministers will be reviewing these controls in the light of agreement on EC bee health controls under directive 92/65/EEC, legislation on animals not covered by specific requirements under directive 90/425/EEC, due to come into operation on 1 January 1994. Until alternative measures are approved by the Commission under this directive, existing United Kingdom health measures will remain in force.
On the protection of animals in transport, further Community rules remain to be adopted to supplement those in directive 91/628/EEC which applies from 1 January 1993. As announced in the reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Brighton, Kemptown (Mr. Bowden) on 10 December at columns 762-63, existing national measures will be maintained in the areas concerned pending further decisions in the Community. Our controls on trade in horses will remain in place. Our existing measures of protection against the introduction of rabies will continue unchanged, as my right hon. Friend the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food made clear in a written answer to a parliamentary question on 16 June at columns 455-56.
Border checks for animal health and public health purposes on meat and animal products will cease at the internal borders of the Community on 1 January 1993. Under directive 89/662/EEC, as amended, they will be replaced by a system of checks on the products at their origin, backed up with non- discriminatory checks when the products reach their destination. Under directive 90/675/EEC, as amended, imports of meat and animal products from outside the Community will be checked at the first point of entry into the Community. Where animal health and public health rules are still unharmonised, member states will retain their own trade rules. The United Kingdom will continue to retain its high standards of protection against the introduction of exotic animal diseases pending full harmonisation. New regulations to implement two directives on the hygiene conditions for production and placing on the market of fishery--directive 91/493/EEC--and shellfish--directive 91/492/EEC--products come into effect on 1 January 1993. The directives set common standards of handling and quality, eliminating trade barriers and providing assurance to the consumer.
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Regulations to implement directive 91/67/EEC on the animal health conditions governing the placing on the market of farmed fish and shellfish will be laid before Parliament shortly. These will contain measures designed to prevent the introduction and spread of serious diseases and will provide important safeguards for the future health and well-being of our fish and shellfish stocks.All major decisions necessary for the introduction of the single market on plant health, including a plant passport, have now been taken and published. Implementation is planned from 1 June 1993. This gives growers a short breathing-space to prepare a smooth introduction of the new regime, which represents a significant reduction in the burdens of intra-Community trade.
The introduction of the single market will not, however, fundamentally affect the veterinary medicines sector. Under Community law, a United Kingdom product licence will still be required before any veterinary medicinal product can be imported and marketed in the United Kingdom, whether from an EC member state or not. Detailed arrangements will shortly be published by the Veterinary Medicines Directorate.
The Community's food law harmonisation programme removes barriers to trade, sets high standards of food safety and improves food labelling, thus offering important benefits to industry and consumers. The foundations of the single market in foodstuffs are firmly in place. The main framework directives on labelling, additives, flavourings, contact materials, special dietary foods and food inspection have already been adopted. The Council agreed a common position on contaminants in September and is expected to do the same with the food hygiene directive, the key United Kingdom priority in this area, on 17 and 18 December. A common position is also expected on additional enforcement measures which I regard as particularly important for the achievement of a level playing field. Although some issues remain to be resolved, the harmonisation programme is well established and the single market in foodstuffs will operate effectively from the start of 1993.
Interim measures for the banana market will be necessary from 1 January 1993 to ensure that the United Kingdom can continue to fulfil its obligations under the Lome convention to our traditional suppliers in the Commonweath Caribbean. These measures will in due course be superseded by Community-wide arrangements for the banana market.
Under our interim measures, a DTI import licence will still be required for dollar bananas, including those in free circulation in another member state, after 1 January 1993. It will continue to be an offence to import dollar fruit into the United Kingdom without a licence. Her Majesty's Customs and Excise will enhance its intelligence-led, anti-smuggling actions on bananas. In addition, there will be a new regulatory framework for banana ripeners. They will be required to register their ripening rooms by 14 January 1993, and keep records of all consignments of dollar bananas handled. They will have to allow authorised officers access to inspect their ripening rooms and records. This new regulatory framework will be operated by my officials and those from the other Agriculture Departments. I shall soon be laying before the House the necessary regulations to bring this new framework into force.
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Other single market issues, including agrimonetary arrangements, are on the agenda of this week's Agriculture Council which is continuing in Brussels this morning.Agriculture Council
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the outcome of the Agriculture Council held on 14 to 17 December.
Mr. Soames : Discussions were continuing at the Agriculture Council in Brussels this morning.
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