House of Commons Hansard Debates for 13 Jan 1994

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Written Answers to Questions

Thursday 13 January 1994

ENVIRONMENT

Special Advisers

Mr. Matthew Taylor : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what arrangements are made to ensure that special advisers to Ministers in his Department do not have access to the kind of information, and are not involved in the type of business, that would be likely to create suspicion of impropriety in relation to subsequent employment.

Mr. Gummer : I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on Tuesday 14 December 1993 at column 561.

Government Car Service

Mr. Alan Williams : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment who, other than Ministers, have individually allocated cars from the Government car service ; and at what cost for each person.

Mr. Baldry : The Government car service currently provides some 30 cars which are made available to Departments for first call use by individuals, in addition to the cars on which Ministers have first call. A number of these cars are provided for security reasons, but the majority are used by senior officials of Permanent Secretary or equivalent rank.

The cost per car varies according to the level of service provided. The average annual cost per standard car and driver is some £47,000.

Water Mains

Mr. Gordon Prentice : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many miles of water mains are planned to be replaced by each of the water companies in England in 1994 because of poor water quality.

Mr. Atkins : The length of water mains which water companies plan to replace for water quality reasons in England during 1994 is estimated to be 1,100 miles. In addition, companies plan to reline approximately 1,380 miles. Replacement or relining may be carried out for reasons other than improvement in water quality, such as the structural condition of mains and to improve water pressure ; replacement for those reasons usually also results in an improvement in water quality.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Parry : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what representations he has received on local government finance ; and if he will make a statement.

Mr. Baldry : My right hon. Friend announced his proposals for the local government finance settlement for

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1994-95 on 2 December. During the consultation period on those proposals, which ended on 10 January, we received representations from 134 local authorities and their associations and from 18 hon. Members. In addition, we have met some 30 local authorities to discuss the settlement and will be seeing further authorities this week. My right hon. Friend will present his final decisions shortly.

Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant

Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what consideration was given to the option of permanent monitored dry storage of spent nuclear fuel as a nuclear waste management option in arriving at his judgment on THORP.

Mr. Atkins : The dry storage of spent nuclear fuel was addressed in the waste management section (paragraphs 98-108) of the decision by my right hon. Friends the Secretary of State for the Environment and the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in respect of an application from British Nuclear Fuels for authorisations to discharge radioactive wastes from the Sellafield site. Copies of the decision document are in the House Library.

Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will set out the basis for his conclusion set out at paragraph 131 of his decision document on THORP of 15 December that the increase in costs of the Nirex waste repository would not jeopardise the economic viability of THORP.

Mr. Atkins : An estimate of the impact of a 10-year delay to the Nirex repository is given in section 6 of appendix 3 to the BNFL document, "The Economic and Commercial Justification for THORP", which was made available for public consultation. It is evident that such a sum would not jeopardise the commercial gains shown in that appendix.

Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will place in the Library copies of the advice notes and other information made available to his Department, along with interdepartmental correspondence, by (a) the Department of Transport, (b) the Department of Trade and Industry, (c) the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, (d) the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee and (e) the National Radiological Protection Board as part of the consultation process on THORP referred to at paragraph 20 of his decision document on THORP of 15 December.

Mr. Atkins : No, other than copies of the advice from the Radioactive Waste Management Advisory Committee and the National Radiological Protection Board which have already been placed in the Library of the House.

Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, when British Nuclear Fuels made available to his Department or to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, a full version of the Touche Ross accountants report on the projected profitability of THORP ; and what assessment was made of the robustness of the report in coming to the conclusion on the economic prospects for THORP as set out as paragraph 133 of his decision document on THORP of 15 December.

Mr. Atkins : No such report is, or has been, in our possession.

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Council Tax

Mr. Bayley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many appeals against council tax valuations in each district council area in North Yorkshire have been (a) received and (b) settled ; and of those settled how many resulted in a reduced council tax valuation.

Mr. Baldry : As at 31 December 1993, receipts and settlements of proposals to alter the valuation list for each billing authority in North Yorkshire are as follows :