The Rt. Hon. Sir John Major KG CH

Tag: 1992

  • PMQT – 1 December 1992

    Below is the text of Prime Minister’s Question Time from 1st December 1992. Tony Newton deputised for John Major.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Q1. Mr. Ronnie Campbell : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Tony Newton) : I have been asked to reply.

    As part of his European Community presidency duties, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is visiting Spain and Portugal for discussions with Prime Minister Gonzalez and Prime Minister Cavaco Silva in preparation for the European Council in Edinburgh.

    Mr. Campbell : With 20 million tonnes of subsidised foreign coal coming into Britain and subsidised nuclear electricity coming from France– equivalent to 6 million tonnes of coal in the United Kingdom–will the Prime Minister consider subsidising the transportation of British coal to Europe and the rest of the world, thus saving miners’ jobs and British Rail jobs?

    Mr. Newton : The hon. Gentleman has, understandably, raised a variety of issues which are the subject of the review by my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade. I note that my right hon. Friend is present and will have heard what the hon. Gentleman suggested.

    Mr. John Greenway : Will my right hon. Friend remind the Prime Minister to tell the Prime Ministers of Spain and Portugal that many people in the United Kingdom must make great sacrifices in the present economic climate and that they will not take kindly to any great increase in the European Community budget to fund expenditure in those countries?

    Mr. Newton : I understand that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has referred to those matters in his conversations. I have no doubt whatever that he has once again made Britain’s position clear–we will not be prepared to contemplate any adverse change in the British abatement.

    Mrs. Beckett : Does the Lord President realise that when people get their council tax valuation figure based on 1991 prices, they are likely to feel that it is extremely unfair since, in most parts of the country, house prices have fallen sharply in the past year? In Greater London alone, house prices have fallen by about £11,500 since the valuations were carried out.

    Mr. Newton : The hon. Lady will be well aware that, generally, valuations in London have turned out to be lower than we thought. Somebody living in a band A or band B property in the south-east should not need to pay any more than someone living in a similar band elsewhere. What people must fear is the Labour party’s policy of returning to the rates.

    Mrs. Beckett : Will the figures be a devastating reminder of the way in which the Government have let people down by pursuing policies that have destroyed the value of their only major asset? Does the right hon. Gentleman realise that there are likely to be millions of appeals against the valuations, which will mean that the chaos and injustice of the poll tax is likely to be surpassed by the chaos and injustice of the council tax?

    Mr. Newton : The policies that the Government have pursued have brought about a halving of interest rates to the benefit of home owners generally in the past two years.

    Mr. Hendry : Given that today is the Churches National Housing Coalition’s lobby of Parliament, will my right hon. Friend take the opportunity to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to policies for tackling homelessness? Those policies include the rough sleepers’ initiative, the pilot foyer schemes and projects to bring empty shops and houses back into use, including 70,000 belonging to local authorities.

    Mr. Newton : Yes. I acknowledge what my hon. Friend says. I am glad to say that the Government’s policies are expected to deliver considerably more houses than the 153,000 over three years promised in the election manifesto. We expect the policies to produce 170,000 by 1994-95. In addition, an extra £86 million has been made available for the rough sleepers’ initiative over three years. That initiative has already reduced the numbers sleeping rough by more than 60 per cent. I am delighted–as my hon. Friends will be–that the first property has been purchased today by housing associations using the £600 million for England made available in the autumn statement.

     

    Q2. Ms. Gordon : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Ms. Gordon : Does the Leader of the House realise that, despite what he said, Londoners have been hit by a triple whammy in relation to the council tax? First, house prices were forced up by an unsustainable boom, then they collapsed because the Government refused to reduce interest rates in a futile attempt to save the pound, and finally houses have been banded on the basis of unrealistic values. Will he ask his right hon. Friend to intervene to ensure that Londoners are not hit again by a second unfair tax, and to modify the son of poll tax?

    Mr. Newton : I have already made the key point that I need to make in reply to the hon. Lady in response to the hon. Member for Derby, South (Mrs. Beckett). The grant paid to authorities in London and the south-east- -which has significantly increased in comparison with last year–takes account of the higher cost of providing services in that region. The hon. Lady should ensure that her local authority does not use the money in a profligate way.

     

    Q3. Dr. Goodson-Wickes : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Dr. Goodson-Wickes : Does my right hon. Friend agree that there is often an unfortunate link between lack of accommodation and lack of a job? Will he join me in congratulating the Young Men’s Christian Association in my constituency which, following a Government initiative, has pioneered a partnership between the churches, the Employment Service, and the training and enterprise councils to break the vicious cycle and bring hope to young people?

    Mr. Newton : I very much agree with my hon. Friend. I think that he is referring to what is known as–my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Mr. Hendry) mentioned it–the foyer project, which brings together in a strong partnership the expertise of people working in the spheres of employment, training and support for young people. It is an excellent initiative and I hope that we see more of them, along the lines of that described by my hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Dr. Goodson-Wickes).

     

    Q4. Mr. Winnick : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Winnick : Does the right hon. Gentleman think that the Prime Minister is particularly proud of the fact that, since he has held his present position, unemployment has risen from 1.5 million to nearly 3 million–even according to official figures? What sort of Christmas message are the Government to give to all those people in our country who have been deprived of the right to work, to the homeless, to people who are frightened of losing their homes, and to all the other victims of the Government’s wretched policies–people who cannot expect the Treasury to pick up their bills for them?

    Mr. Newton : Apart from what I have already said about the Government’s housing policies and the progress being made, I think that what my right hon. Friend would highlight the autumn statement and the prospects that it brings for improved economic performance.

     

    North of England

    Q5. Mr. Devlin : To ask the Prime Minister when he next intends to make an official visit to the north of England.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is making plans for a series of visits to all parts of the country and hopes to include the north of England among them.

    Mr. Devlin : When my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister comes to the north of England, will my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House remind him that it is a region which benefits more than any other in Britain from European Community investment and inward investment from outside the European Community? In the light of that, will my right hon. Friend tell the Prime Minister that it is seen as urgent by many people in my region that the Maastricht treaty be ratified as soon as possible?

    Mr. Newton : It is certainly the case that anybody who visits my hon. Friend’s part of the country will see the physical advantages of the attractions which, under this Government, this country has had for overseas investment such as Nissan and Fujitsu and the huge progress that has been made in generating a new economic base up there. I have no doubt that my hon. Friend speaks for his constituency in wishing to see that process continued and strengthened by the ratification of the Maastricht treaty.

     

    Engagements

    Q6. Mr. Ernie Ross : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    Mr. Newton : I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Ross : Can the hon. Member tell the House whether or not the substantial privatisation contract awarded to Tarmac was in any way a pay- off for the substantial sums donated by that company to the Conservative party last year.

    Mr. Newton : Yes I can, and it is not.

     

    Q7. Mr. Fabricant : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply. I refer the hon. Lady to the answer I gave some moments ago. [Laughter].

    Madam Speaker : Order. Mr. Fabricant.

    Mr. Fabricant : Is my right hon. Friend aware that the MO figure for money supply, the amount of cash flowing around in the economy, has increased by 3 per cent. this month over the same figure last year and, while not trying to allude to any botanic connection, would he agree that this is at least an encouraging sign for the economy?

    Mr. Newton : May I first apologise to my hon. Friend. It was not actually, despite the evidence, a deficiency of my eyesight, but the fact that the first person in my sight line was the hon. Lady opposite, the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent, North (Ms. Walley). On my hon. Friend’s question, it is the case that the MO figures, mainly notes and coins in circulation, do reflect the growth taking place in retail sales and they add, I think, to the improvement that can be seen, in the fact that, after allowing for falls in interest rates, real disposable income of a typical family with a £30,000 mortgage went up by 20 per cent. in the two years to October 1992.

    Mr. Mallon : I know that the right hon. Gentleman will share my view that the violence we saw in my constituency at the weekend and that ripped Belfast apart today is vile and reprehensible and cannot be allowed to exist in any civilised society.

    Does the Leader of the House agree that what the terrorist groupings fear most is not more resources for security or more troops, but the creation of a new agreement among the people of Ireland which will strip the terrorist groups of any shred of legitimacy and confine them to the dustbin of history? Will he ask his right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to ensure that when there is a new Taoiseach in the Republic of Ireland, they will jointly lead a drive for peace and a peaceful settlement within Ireland in 1993?

    Mr. Newton : The hon. Gentleman has spoken with warmth for virtually everybody–probably for everybody in the United Kingdom, certainly for the overwhelming majority. I shall take pleasure in drawing his remarks to the attention both of the Prime Minister and of my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland whose hard work to this same objective has been manifest over the past few months.

     

    Q8. Mr. Nicholls : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 1 December.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply. I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Nicholls : Has my right hon. Friend had the opportunity of considering the findings of Professor Rheinhardt Schmidt of Kiel university that of the top major companies in Europe, six are United Kingdom companies and that if facts like that are as obvious as far away as Germany, it is about time they were as obvious to the Opposition Front Bench here?

    Mr. Newton : I have indeed seen that report, showing that the three top firms in what is, I believe, German-based research, are British and that six of the top 10 are British, including a significant number of our pharmaceutical companies. They deserve to be congratulated on their achievement. I should like to hear a bit more of that type of compliment coming from the occupants of the Opposition Front Bench, instead of their trying to run down our firms and industry.

    Ms. Walley : While the Prime Minister is spending time in Portugal and Spain, may I ask the Lord President to urge him on his return, prior to his visit to the north of England, to call in at Stoke-on-Trent, my constituency, where he will see for himself the lack of Government support for manufacturing industry, particularly in relation to the pottery, ceramics and allied industries? May we have a Government commitment to examine the way in which investment can be made to that industry? Is the right hon. Gentleman aware that it is no good talking all the time about what can be done to get people retrained ; we should be preventing them from becoming unemployed in the first place?

    Mr. Newton : I shall draw the attention of my right hon. Friend to the hon. Lady’s request. I must, at the same time, draw her attention to the fact that the autumn statement included a substantial range of measures designed to encourage manufacturing industry, and that one of our key manufacturing industries, motor cars, is showing great signs of being far more successful than it has been for decades past.

  • PMQT Written Answers – 27 November 1992

    Below is the text of the written answers relating to Prime Minister’s Question Time from 27th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Wild Birds

    Mr. Sweeney : To ask the Prime Minister if he will bring forward proposals for making the power to impose licensing regulation over the shooting of wild birds, including pigeons, crows and sparrows, a matter for individual member states of the EC.

    The Prime Minister : We shall continue to seek the support of member states for an amendment to the EC directive on the conservation of wild birds (79/409/EEC), to recognise specifically the need for member states to exercise year-round control of pest. Member states may, under the provisions of the directive, derogate from the general prohibition on the killing of birds by issuing licences for controlling species which cause damage or threaten public health or safety. We intend to amend the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 to enable us to bring in a licensing system. The other member states have already introduced licensing systems.

     

    Matrix Churchill

    Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Prime Minister what account he took of the minute of August 1990, about the implications of the invasion for trade with Iraq, referred to in his letter of 23 November to the hon. Member for Linlithgow, in making statements in 1992 relating to legal proceedings involving the directors of Matrix Churchill.

    The Prime Minister : In all my correspondence and other replies I have taken into account the advice and information which was available to me.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Mr Constantine Mitsotakis – 27 November 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Constantine Mitsotakis, held in Athens on Friday 27th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER MITSOTAKIS:

    We had a very useful review of all issues and a discussion with Prime Minister Major, who was presiding over the Council of Heads of State and Government.

    We discussed all the issues that are on the agenda of the Edinburgh summit; we talked about Denmark, enlargement; we talked about the Cohesion Fund, the Structural Funds, subsidiarity; we talked about all the issues that are of interest to the Community. We talked also about former Yugoslavia and about the very interesting question for my country, Greece, that of the Republic of Skopje, and I must say that I am very satisfied with the discussion because our views are converging and we had the opportunity to go ahead with an in-depth analysis on all these issues.

    We will continue our talks tomorrow morning and I would like to grasp this opportunity in order to thank John Major for his visit which has proved extremely useful.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Can I just add a very brief word or two to that.

    It is a very great pleasure to have the opportunity of having these discussions again with the Prime Minister. We have enjoyed our previous discussions, tonight has been very worthwhile, very fruitful and has been of considerable assistance in moving towards a satisfactory Community agreement at the meeting in Edinburgh in a few days time.

    We have, as the Prime Minister said, been able to discuss the whole range of issues, many of them in some considerable detail, as we look forward to the discussions that we have in Edinburgh.

    We have a very crowded agenda there but I think there are many areas where there is a very strong convergence of view between the United Kingdom and Greece and I look forward to nailing down those agreements at Edinburgh in a few days time.

    The Prime Minister has made clear that we will be resuming our discussions in the morning; we have enjoyed them to such an extent that we thought an 8.15 further discussion would be a very good idea tomorrow morning and I look forward to that. I think, if the Prime Minister is content, we will be happy to take a couple of questions.

    QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

    QUESTION:

    I would like to put a question to you, Prime Minister, concerning the Edinburgh summit. Does the agenda of that summit include any discussion of the Republic of Skopje issue? I would also like to ask you whether you discussed an eventual trip of our Prime Minister to Serbia.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    On the first point, we are considering precisely what the agenda at Edinburgh should be at the present. I think it very likely that the subject of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia will be raised. It is not certain yet but it is a matter we discussed at Lisbon; it is a matter of concern we know in Greece and elsewhere and across the Community and it is very likely that we shall wish to take the views of the Prime Minister and others on this important subject.

    On the second half of the question, in terms of a visit by the Prime Minister to Serbia, that is one of the matters that I shall wish to discuss with my European colleagues and discuss again with the Prime Minister.

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, until now the European Community has stood by Greece in its dispute with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia over the name issue. I would like to ask you in your capacity as President of the European Council today, do you think that at the Edinburgh summit the European Community will continue to support Greece over that issue?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We share with the Prime Minister a wish to see a solution to this problem. I know that is the view of Prime Minister Mitsotakis – it is the view of the rest of the European Community – and we will be discussing ways to reach a satisfactory conclusion that is satisfactory right the way across the Community and right the way beyond it. Those are the matters that we will be discussing and I think that will be the same in the future as in the past.

    QUESTION:

    Influential figures like Robin O’Neal and also Lord Owen favour recognition of Macedonia at Edinburgh in order to preserve the stability of the region. Which would you think is the lesser of two evils, the instability in Macedonia or the instability of the Mitsotakis government?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    It is quite like being back in London! I am not going to get drawn down the question of internal politics in Greece. That would not be pertinent, it would not be prudent and it would not be polite. Let me just simply say that I have a great admiration for my friend the Prime Minister.

    On the first part of your question, I simply repeat what I said a moment ago: we have a shared interest in reaching a satisfactory conclusion to this problem and that interest is shared with all our Community partners.

    QUESTION:

    I would like to ask you, Sir, if you discussed tonight with the Greek Prime Minister the idea of a double name of Skopje – an internal name and an external, international one – and what you think about that?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We discussed all these issues and we are still discussing them.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Mr Giuliano Amato – 27 November 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Italian Prime Minister, Mr Giuliano Amato, held in Rome on Friday 27th November 1992.

    QUESTION:

    Can we ask you what sort of things you discussed in your meeting today?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have had a discussion on the whole agenda for Maastricht, the difficulties with ratification in Denmark, how we might meet some of those difficulties, we discussed future financing, indeed the whole range of issues that will be discussed at Edinburgh in a few weeks time.

    QUESTION:

    And on European economic recovery did you discuss the concerns there obviously are now about Europe’s economic position?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Yes we did. Clearly the growth pattern across the whole of Europe is far less attractive than it has been in recent years, we have been used to growth across Europe of something in excess of 2 percent, next year the projections across Europe as a whole are a good deal lower, so yes we certainly did discuss that.

    QUESTION:

    Are you any more confident about the Edinburgh summit?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I am in the midst of talking to all our colleagues, there are a whole series of complex matters, many of them interlocked, and at the moment I am in the midst of a series of discussions to find out precisely what are the priorities of all our European partners. I think it is in the nature of things that as we begin to conclude these discussions, the outcome at Edinburgh will become clearer.

    QUESTION:

    But you are not getting much support, did you get the support you are looking for today?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    You make an assertion like that, I suggest you wait until Edinburgh and see what the outcome is.

    QUESTION:

    Are we getting support for European economic recovery?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There were some rather strange stories about European economic recovery over the weekend, I do not know where they came from, they certainly did not emanate from us. But I think what we are keen to do is to make sure that within the resources available to Europe that they are directed to the right sort of expenditure, clearly we would like to see infrastructure expenditure both with growth potential in the short and medium term and as a result of that for its employment creation potential.

    QUESTION:

    What was your reaction to that particular proposal?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I have not yet had the opportunity of discussing it with all our partners, those I have discussed it with share my view that that sort of growth is the right sort of growth for Europe.

    QUESTION:

    What is your opinion about the Italian position on GATT?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you had better ask the Prime Minister about the Italian position on GATT. I think all of us in the Community understand the overriding importance of stimulating world trade. All around the industrial world and the non-industrial world we wish to see an increase in trade and an increase in growth. One of the important components of reaching that is to have a satisfactory agreement on the Uruguay Round.

    QUESTION:

    Does Mr Amato support your budget?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think you had better ask the Prime Minister.

    QUESTION:

    Mr Amato, what is your view of the EC budget?

    MR AMATO:

    We discussed the issue but this is really something for which the Presidency is looking for a good compromise that in Edinburgh can be reached.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    There is a wide range of views on the budget, we are seeking to bring all those views together and to reach a compromise. Some would wish to increase expenditure by rather more than others but we will reach a satisfactory compromise I hope at Edinburgh.

    QUESTION:

    Do you feel that you are going to get the kind of compromise that you would want?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We must wait and see, certainly there are I think views on both sides of the compromise we have produced, we must wait and see at Edinburgh.

    QUESTION:

    [Not interpreted].

    MR AMATO:

    [Inaudible].

    QUESTION:

    Prime Minister, what is your view of Her Majesty the Queen’s decision to pay tax?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    That is a domestic matter in the United Kingdom, that was a decision that The Queen took, she asked me to consider it in the summer, we considered it, I made a broad announcement, we will make a detailed announcement sometime early in the New Year.

  • PMQT – 26 November 1992

    Below is the text of Prime Minister’s Question Time from 26th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Q1. Mr. Hendry : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 26 November.

    The Prime Minister (Mr. John Major) : This morning I presided at a meeting of the Cabinet and had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others. In addition to my duties in the House, I shall be having further meetings later today.

    Mr. Hendry : Has my right hon. Friend seen the report in yesterday’s Financial Times on Derbyshire, which highlights the growth of jobs, prosperity and confidence in that county and beyond as a direct result of Toyota’s decision to manufacture cars in this country? Is that not the clearest possible evidence of the success of the Government’s strategy to make Britain the best place for international companies to invest? Is not that in the sharpest possible contrast to the position across the channel, where yesterday’s vote on GATT shows that the French claim to be good European citizens is a total sham?

    The Prime Minister : I greatly welcome the large investment by Toyota in Burnaston, together with that by other Japanese car manufacturers in recent years. Over that period their total planned investment in the United Kingdom is now nearly £2 billion and will create something in excess of 10,000 jobs. Clearly, that is extremely welcome news for this country. We are a very attractive area for foreign investment and I intend to keep it that way with low inflation, low taxation and no social charter.

    Mr. John Smith : In view of the evident public concern, will the Prime Minister tell the House whether he has had discussions with Her Majesty the Queen about the issues of taxation and the civil list payments?

    The Prime Minister : Let me say first to the right hon. and learned Gentleman that I believe that affection and respect for the monarchy are very wide and very deep across all sections of the nation. On the particular point that he raises, the sovereign is not liable in law to pay tax on her personal income and does not at present do so. But Her Majesty, some months ago–before the summer recess–indicated to me that she wished consideration to be given to changing that arrangement. She asked me then to consider the basis on which she might voluntarily pay tax and further suggested that she might take responsibility for certain payments under the current civil list arrangements. The House will be keen to know that the Prince of Wales has made a similar request in regard to the Duchy of Cornwall. Discussions are continuing between the Treasury, the Inland Revenue and the royal household. When they are completed I shall make a full statement to the House.

    Mr. Smith : I am sure that the whole House will welcome the fact that consideration of those questions has been initiated. When does the Prime Minister expect to be able to make that full statement to the House, and what has the Queen suggested by way of changes in the civil list?

    The Prime Minister : I cannot be precise about when I can make a statement, but I would expect to be able to make one early in the new year. I also expect that the new arrangements will be able to come into effect for the next tax year. On the second part of the right hon. and learned Gentleman’s question about the civil list, the Queen has asked me to consider arrangements under which she would reimburse the Consolidated Fund for the cost of annuities paid to all members of the royal family, except the Queen Mother and the Duke of Edinburgh.

    Mr. Clappison : Will my right hon. Friend join me in welcoming today’s encouraging news about American economic growth? Does he further agree that any consequent growth in world trade would be good for British trade, and that British industry is now well placed, with low inflation and low interest rates, to take advantage of world economic growth?

    The Prime Minister : I agree wholeheartedly with my hon. Friend. It is clearly good news to see that the American economy begins to grow again. That will be good news, not just for the United States, but for the rest of the world trading community. It means that British companies and British business have a great opportunity. We have low inflation, the lowest interest rates in the European Community, an extremely competitive exchange rate and a single market of 340 million people on our doorstep. Now that the prospect of a world trade war has been averted, the circumstances are coming together that provide better opportunities for British business than we have known for some time.

    Mr. Ashdown : What words has the Prime Minister to say to his fellow citizens of all political colours who, this afternoon, will discover that their councils are to sack teachers, close schools, shut down social services and still levy a council tax that is higher by far than anything that his Ministers promised during the last election?

    The Prime Minister : I suggest that the right hon. Gentleman should wait for the statement by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for the Environment in a few moments’ time. The right hon. Gentleman’s allegations have a familiar ring. We seem to have heard them from him and his colleagues year after year, yet they have never yet become fact.

    Mr. Waller : Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is vital for all European nations to support with one voice the general agreement on tariffs and trade? Does he further agree that if any one European nation were to jeopardise the implementation of that agreement, it would go against the interests not only of Britain and its European partners, but of international trade generally?

    The Prime Minister : I do agree with my hon. Friend on that. The agreement between the Community and the United States is a good one for the entire Community and the entire world trading community. It would, of course, be desirable for all member states to agree as speedily as possible. I know that there are difficulties in France, but I am sure that when France has examined every aspect of the deal, which has not yet been concluded and has to be concluded in Geneva, it, too, will realise that liberalisation of trade, services and manufactures is a very valuable prize for the French economy, as well as for the economies of every other industrial nation in the world.

     

    Q2. Mr. Ieuan Wyn Jones : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 26 November.

    The Prime Minister : I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Jones : How can the Prime Minister justify a system whereby unelected and unaccountable card-carrying Conservatives are appointed to run Wales by quango? Does not that drive a stake through the heart of the democratic process? When will such political nepotism stop?

    The Prime Minister : The heart of the political process of Wales is here in the House of Commons, with the answerability of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State.

    Mr. Peter Bottomley : May I put it to my right hon. Friend that both the question by the Leader of the Opposition and my right hon. Friend’s answer will be welcomed by people across the country and across the political spectrum? Would it be possible to suggest that senior members of the Privy Council should try to keep in contact with each other so that the country can respond to a lead from the royal household and from the leaders of the political parties?

    The Prime Minister : As I indicated to the House a few moments ago, I hope that we shall be able to conclude the arrangements before too long, and I hope then to be able to respond to the House. I think that the announcement that I have made today and the fuller announcement that I shall be able to make, I hope, early in the new year will be widely welcomed, both in the House and beyond it.

    Mr. Sheldon : While I welcome the announcement by the Prime Minister, will he now consider the setting up of a Select Committee on the civil list, as was done in 1972? It is about time, after 20 years, that we considered these matters dispassionately and carefully and came to a sensible conclusion.

    The Prime Minister : I know that the right hon. Gentleman has expressed that view, but I see no need for such a special Select Committee. The House approved the present civil list arrangements in 1990 to run for 10 years. The additional reimbursements which Her Majesty has asked me to consider will reduce the net cost to the Exchequer. I made the point that the arrangements run for a full 10 years. The actual increase is, of course, 6 per cent. because of assumed savings of 1.5 per cent. If there is a surplus at the end of the period, it will, of course, be taken into account in setting future civil list payments.

    Mr. Pickles : Does my right hon. Friend agree with me that, following the autumn statement, the best way to give a boost to British industry is to start a programme of removing regulation from business? Does he further agree that business currently faces a triple assault from the town hall, Whitehall and Brussels?

    The Prime Minister : I entirely agree with my hon. Friend. The autumn statement has set out the right framework for growth and we need to be sure that that growth is not shackled by red tape, whether it comes from Whitehall, county hall, town hall or the European Community. I announced some time ago that I had asked my right hon. Friend the President of the Board of Trade to lead a new blitz on the regulatory sausage machine from wherever those regulations may come. We intend to cut all unnecessary rules and requirements that dull enterprise and innovation. I hope that before too long British business men will be able to warm their hands at a new bonfire of controls.

     

    Q3. Mr. Darling : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 26 November.

    The Prime Minister : I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Darling : How can the Prime Minister justify a situation in which nurses and teachers will this year get no wage increase and possibly lose their jobs, when, at the same time, the chairmen of the privatised water industries are digging their faces into the public trough yet again and are asking, and will get, increases of between 30 and 50 per cent? What does the Prime Minister intend to do about it?

    The Prime Minister : Against the advice of the Government yesterday- -if I may borrow the hon. Gentleman’s phrase–around 90 Labour Members dug their noses in the trough.

    Mr. Peter Robinson : Will the Prime Minister– [Interruption.]

    Madam Speaker : Order. Hon. Members must resume their seats.

    Mr. Peter Robinson : Will the Prime Minister recite for the House the moral, political and legal principles that distinguish the two cases of informers, the case of Brian Nelson and that of the informer known as “Michael”, who featured in a BBC television programme? Can the Prime Minister explain to the House and to the country why one of the two is at present serving a 10-year sentence and the other has left the country with his pockets stuffed with tens of thousands of pounds, with a new life made for him in some other area of the United Kingdom?

    The Prime Minister : I understand that the Royal Ulster Constabulary is investigating the programme to which the hon. Gentleman refers and that a report will be submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions. The principle of employing participating informants to assist the police in the prevention of crime is well established in this country and in other democratic societies. As I believe the hon. Gentleman well understands, lives would be lost in Northern Ireland if the security forces were unable to receive information from informants. On his other point, there is no immunity from prosecution for informants who commit crime and the security forces are at all times subject to the rule of law.

     

    Q4. Ms. Hoey : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 26 November.

    The Prime Minister : I refer the hon. Lady to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

    Ms. Hoey : The Prime Minister will know that nearly a quarter of a million people have signed a petition demanding that St. Thomas’s hospital should stay open on its present site. I have taken the liberty of putting in his name, because it is his local hospital. I wonder whether he will sign it and ensure that his local hospital, a hospital crucial to central London, is kept open.

    The Prime Minister : As the hon. Lady knows, it is widely accepted that substantial changes in London will be necessary to provide the right health care in future. However, there will be very full consultation before any decisions are taken on the Tomlinson report. My hon. Friend the Minister for Health has already visited St. Thomas’s to listen to views on the proposals. We shall consider them, examine the report and announce our conclusions in the new year.

     

    Q5. Lady Olga Maitland : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Thursday 26 November.

    The Prime Minister : I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave some moments ago.

    Lady Olga Maitland : Does my right hon. Friend welcome the announcement yesterday by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster that £1.5 billion-worth of Whitehall in-house functions will be market tested? Does he agree that the civil service must subject itself to the same disciplines of efficiency and value for money as the private sector?

    The Prime Minister : The initiative on market testing announced by my right hon. Friend yesterday is a giant step forward in bringing new thinking and new skills to the service of the public, and in getting work done that needs to be done better and with better value for money than ever before. I believe that we can be proud of the work done by many millions of public servants. That does not mean that it cannot be done better. That is what market testing is about, and it is why we support it and why the Opposition, who so often put the convenience of trade unions before that of the public, oppose it and will no doubt continue to oppose it.

  • PMQT Written Answers – 25 November 1992

    Below is the text of the written answers relating to Prime Minister’s Question Time from 25th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Iraq

    Mr. Alan Williams : To ask the Prime Minister if briefing material for the Ministry’s folder for Question Time while he was (a) Chief Secretary to the Treasury, (b) Foreign Secretary, (c) Chancellor of the Exchequer and (d) Prime Minister still exists; and if he will make it available to the Scott committee of inquiry.

    The Prime Minister : The briefing material prepared for my use at Question Time while I was Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer and since I have been Prime Minister is still in existence. Not all the briefing material prepared for me for Question Time while I was Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has been retained, although that which relates to Iraq still exists. Material which is asked for by Lord Justice Scott’s inquiry will be made available to him.

    Mr. Hain : To ask the Prime Minister how the Iraqi defence procurement network’s activities in relation to United Kingdom-based companies were monitored by the Government in the period (a) 1985 to December 1988 and (b) since December 1988.

    The Prime Minister [holding answer 24 November 1992] : It is not the Government’s practice to comment on intelligence matters.

     

    Devaluation

    Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Prime Minister what assessment he has made of (a) the degree to which the sterling price of imports has been maintained and (b) the change in demand for imported manufactures, following the fall in the value of sterling.

    The Prime Minister : It is not possible to separate the impact of the recent fall in the value of sterling from other factors influencing the sterling price of United Kingdom imports. Nevertheless, improved competitiveness is expected to restrain the growth of manufactured import volumes in 1993.

    Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Prime Minister what assessment he has made of the benefits of devaluation to the financing needs of the coal industry.

    The Prime Minister : The new external financing limits for British Coal announced last week, which are provisional pending decisions on the coal review, already take account of recent changes in exchange rates.

     

    Pit Closures

    Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Prime Minister (1) what account he took in agreeing to the pit closures of the expenditure implications as regarding unemployment benefit; if he will publish a table showing for each mine in the current year and for each of the next five years (a) the estimated direct and indirect costs to the Exchequer of those made unemployed, (b) the estimated operational loss at each mine in 1991 and in the current year to date and (c) the estimated loss in 1993 of disposing of surplus production on the international market at the world price.

    The Prime Minister [holding answer 23 October 1992] : I had regard to the likelihood that, in the light of market assessments, continuing to mine coal for which there was no economic market would involve a substantial ongoing cost to public expenditure and that we were proposing a wide range of measures to help those made redundant secure new jobs and to enhance job prospects in the areas affected. I have asked the chairman of British Coal to write to the hon. Member about the information at (b). On (c), this too would be an operational matter for British Coal but even in the event that a suitable contractual arrangement could be established on commercial grounds there would also be the matter of compliance with the United Kingdom’s GATT and other international trade obligations.

     

    Public Interest Immunity Certificates

    Mr. Oppenheim : To ask the Prime Minister how many public interest immunity certificates were signed by Ministers (a) from 1974 to 1979 and (b) since 1979.

    The Prime Minister [holding answer 24 November 1992] : Public interest immunity certificates were signed by Ministers periodically throughout the period in question, but no central record is held of the number involved.

  • Mr Major’s Speech at 40th Anniversary of Mousetrap Play – 25 November 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s speech made during his visit to mark the 40th anniversary of the Mousetrap play on 25th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

    May I thank you for your splendid invitation and for the warmth of your hospitality at this very remarkable occasion today. If I may say so about the Mousetrap, it is unlike other plays, it is unlike almost anything else we have seen before. It has become quite literally over 40 years a British institution in the way no other play has previously done. I believe that is something well worth celebrating on this remarkable occasion today.

    I, as a politician, have a special affinity for long runs and doubtless to say Peter, yours is a run I have no wish to emulate. You have entertained audiences six nights a week at matinees twice a week for 40 years. I have audiences to entertain twice a week at 3.15pm on Tuesday and Thursday. It is just conceivably possibly they are occasionally tougher audiences than you have to face, but certainly I have no wish to do that for 40 years. I am very happy to see your record remain as unique as it has become. I suppose if we look round this room at the people here and the millions of people beyond here who instinctively know when you say Mousetrap what you’re talking about. There is something very remarkable about it and I asked myself when I contemplating what I might say on this occasion what it might be and I suppose perhaps it’s this. Most of us here have grown up with the Mousetrap, it has been an inevitable backdrop perhaps in lower case, perhaps sometimes in higher case depending upon how our individual lives have run. But there it has been as a backdrop through our lives, a constant in a rapidly changing world, so we’ve grown up with it.

    When the Mousetrap opened I was in short trousers at Cheam Common Primary School. Hitler had only been dead for 7 years. We had ration cards, we had identity cards. There was no colour television, Everest was unconquered, the four minute mile was unrun, the moon was unexplored and nobody had ever heard of Maastricht or any Treaty. They were I remember happy days. But it had a special appeal that play. I suppose you could look at it time and time again and try and analyse it but you won’t quite catch the essential nature of what has made this play last in a way no other play in the history of our theatre has ever lasted. A certain simplicity, a certain straightforwardness.

    Certainly of course the quality of acting right from the beginning with Sheila Simm and Dickie Attenborough, a splendidly acted play with an enormous talent that I believe is more evident in this country as a theatre, than in any other country around the world that has ensured [inaudible] has that gift that Agatha Christie, not uniquely, but certainly had to a very high order, that gift of reflecting two things. A Britishness that Matthew referred to a moment ago and also a particular period, you can read an Agatha Christie book, see an Agatha Christie play and the period itself comes to life in a quite remarkable and evocative way and that is certainly true with the Mousetrap over the years. But then of course it has other very distinguished figures who are inexorably connected with it and sitting on my left of course is one of the most distinguished of them, Peter Saunders. There are many reasons to admire Peter and there are many people in this room who know him far better and for far longer than I have. A very long connection with the theatre, but that isn’t unique. But I think there is a quality about everything that Peter Saunders has done in the theatre that very few people can match and I believe that is evident in the long run that the Mousetrap has had and the care and the skill, not just in the play but in the marketing of the play that has been so evident throughout those long years in which it has entertained London and visitors to London from throughout the world.

    Right from the first night onwards three names have been synonymous, the Mousetrap, Agatha Christie and Peter Saunders as well. I believe there is a small niche of our history that is there solid and secure for the future and for Peter, I believe, we should offer principal thanks for the fact that the Mousetrap has been such an outstanding success for so long. I of course am jolly lucky to be here today, particularly when I think where else I might have been, no, no, you misunderstand me, at least I hope you do. But I am by no means the first Prime Minister to be here on these occasions, Jim Callaghan was here, as you mentioned on your 25th Anniversary. Now I’m a great admirer of Jim Callaghan, we had some differences, there are many things about him to admire, but I believe alas he has one great deficiency, he has never seen the Mousetrap. I have not once but on more than one occasion and so have my family and I look forward Peter in due course to my grandchildren coming along to see it as well.

    But of course there is also Agatha Christie to mention. I was not introduced to Agatha Christie via the Mousetrap, I perhaps, I don’t know how many people in this room would claim the same, I would certainly claim to have read every book that Agatha Christie has written and believe that I have most of them at home. I spent in my early 20s around about a year in hospital lying on my back after a very miserable car accident and during that period amongst other things I busied myself by reading everything that Agatha Christie had written, through phases of her writing you could date her books when you read them from the style of the writing and you can see them in quite different phases, quite different styles, quite different depths for the character sketches. And one learnt one thing from reading her books, you get an instinct for the way she constructs her plots and it is very easy sometimes for people to say, well Agatha Christie is a very easy read, she wouldn’t have been a very easy write, for there was a great and definite skill lurking under those easy books that we pick up and read with such pleasure so frequently. An instinct for how she constructed her plots, and that ruthless element of surprise often the double or triple surprise at the end of her books, evident in the Mousetrap and evident throughout that vast number of books that she produced in her very long life. But above that I think she has one other gift worth mentioning, many people over many years have written books that people like to own, there are an awful lot of books that are purchased and never read, Agatha Christie’s gift was to write books that people wanted not only to own but to read and then to read again and I believe she did that with very great skill indeed and not only to have written books that people want to read but to have written a play that people want to see and see again in a way that none of our previous playwrights in our history have managed to equal. That is a very remarkable thing for anyone to achieve, and she was by any yardstick a very remarkable lady indeed.

    I think there’s one other thing that I would say about the Mousetrap and that is how clever it was to have selected London as its home and no other city in the world. I followed the point that Matthew made a few moments ago, I believe profoundly that we undersell what we have in this country, what we are in this country and what we can do in this country and I know of nowhere around the world that can match right the way across the spread of the arts, the theatre, painting, museums, musicians, orchestras, right the way across the spread of the arts and entertainment, I know of no city in the world that can beat what is available here in London day, day out and I would if I may say something else about the arts, the theatre of course, particularly in our minds now but the arts generally. I don’t regard the arts as an occasional optional add on extra to the life we have in our city or in our country, it is an integral part of our life in this country and it must remain so and become evermore enshrined in the future, that is what I certainly wish to see of the arts in the future and I believe it is what we will be able to achieve and one only has to go and see perhaps an unfashionable play with unfashionable names, young people not known through television, not known through mass media publicity to see the sheer rate of original talent that we actually have in this country. I believe one of our objectives in the next few years ought to be able to maximise that talent in this country and where we can export those skills for the benefit not just of this country but of the theatre going world wherever it may be and that I don’t [indistinct].

    It is mainly of course for the great impresarios, for those who live within the theatre all the time, not those like myself who are theatre goers but have no integral part in it, to develop that great theme, but I do hope that if I can touch upon one thing that we will be able to help in one respect, controversial in some areas, I defend very strongly the Government’s proposal to produce a lottery to raise a large amount of money for the arts and other good causes in this country. I can’t be certain yet how much money it will raise. I do know it will raise more money for the theatre, the arts, heritage and charities than would ever be likely to be available to the coffers of any Government however benevolent and whatever its tax rate and if we are to have a lottery in this country and we will whether it comes from abroad or from home, I for one would rather that it was founded in this country with the proceeds of the generosity of people in this country actually going to the artistic and other institutions of this country and that is what is proposed in the Lottery Bill that Peter Brooke will present to Parliament before too long. I hope it will play its part in boosting the arts, our heritage and other important parts of our national way of life.

    Let me just conclude with one further thought, I referred a moment ago to the number of remarkable people connected with the Mousetrap, Peter of course, remarkable actors and actresses who have appeared in it, but perhaps above all, the authoress herself, Agatha Christie, a very remarkable lady as I said a moment or so ago. Her life in many ways was theatre, there were many mysteries in her own life, not just a quite, secluded lady writing her books at that beautiful house in Devon, but also a lady in her own life who had a whole series of mysteries around the often and very high profile and public mysteries indeed. A lady who was a mystery in her own right. For who mysteries were her life, who left behind her a legacy of literature that we may treasure as part of our own heritage to the future. So it is partly to honour Agatha Christie, partly to honour the Mousetrap on this remarkable Anniversary of 40 years, never before equalled in theatre, and perhaps only by the Mousetrap ever to be beaten that we are actually here today. I would like to ask you if I may therefore, to drink a toast to somebody quite unique, not one thing perhaps but two, this most remarkable play, the Mousetrap and this most unique of all of those, Agatha Christie. So if I may I’ll ask you to rise and drink a toast to the lady who made it possible, Agatha Christie and the Mousetrap.

  • Mr Major’s Joint Doorstep Interview with Mrs Burndtland – 25 November 1992

    Below is the text of Mr Major’s joint doorstep interview with the Norwegian Prime Minister, Mrs Burndtland, held in London on Wednesday 25th November 1992.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    From the British point of view we would like negotiations to begin without delay, that is certainly the case, that is something we will have to agree with our European partners as to whether it is before or after ratification. But either way, it would be with the intention of Norway being able to join the Community by 1995.

    QUESTION:

    Do you expect hard negotiations?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    Negotiations are always hard but there is a great will within the Community to have Norway join us, I know of nobody who would not wish to see Norway in the Community. The general belief and expectation is that Norway’s proper position is as part of the European Community, so although the negotiations will be tough, Norway will have national interests to fight for, the Community will have difficulties to overcome, but I am sure the negotiations will be successful.

    QUESTION:

    Do you see any obstacles?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I think that is a matter that will become clear during the negotiations but I think obstacles are there to be overcome.

    QUESTION:

    In your discussions today what difficulties did you discuss?

    NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER:

    I can tell you that the areas I have mentioned is the importance of natural resources and the fishing situation for our coastal communities and for the whole north of Norway which are maybe the most vital, but also agriculture in sparsely populated areas close to the North Pole,

    QUESTION:

    Your meeting was longer than scheduled, what were you talking about?

    PRIME MINISTER:

    I offered the Prime Minister a glass of champagne, she accepted it and she drank it, in order to indicate our wish to see Norway as part of the Community – that explains the overrunning.

    QUESTION:

    [Inaudible].

    PRIME MINISTER:

    We have an expression in Great Britain – Third time lucky.

  • PMQT Written Answers – 24 November 1992

    Below is the text of the written answers relating to Prime Minister’s Question Time from 24th November 1992.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Sir Peter Tapsell : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is attending a lunch, given by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of the City of London to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Her Majesty the Queen’s accession to the throne.

     

    Former Prime Ministers

    Mr. McMaster : To ask the Prime Minister what has been the extent of the special financial allowance available in the past 10 years to former Prime Ministers ; what measures are in place to ensure that these allowances are not used for political or personal purposes; and if he will make a statement.

    The Prime Minister : The special financial allowance to assist former Prime Ministers to meet the additional office costs they incur because of their special position in public life was not available before 1 April 1991. Payments totalling £88,956 were made from the allowance for 1991-92 and payments in the first seven months of 1992-93 total £67,840.

    Payments from the allowance are subject to the same scrutiny and controls as other payments from voted moneys.

     

    Nuclear Test Veterans

    Mr. McMaster : To ask the Prime Minister when the study by the National Radiological Protection Board into the effects of radiation on veterans of British nuclear tests will be published ; and if he will make a statement.

    The Prime Minister : The study is being undertaken by the National Radiological Protection Board in conjunction with the Imperial Cancer Research Fund. Both are independent organisations and it would be inappropriate for the Government to interfere with the conduct of the study. A report will be published as soon as practically possible.

    Mr. McMaster : To ask the Prime Minister what are the terms of reference of the study by the National Radiological Protection Board into the effects of radiation on veterans of British nuclear tests; and if he will make a statement.

    The Prime Minister : A copy of the first report by the National Radiological Protection Board, including its terms of reference, is in the Library of the House. The updated study includes, I understand, the following changes in scope and methodology : follow-up work on all test participants to 1 January 1992, an increase of two years ; a sample emigration check; examination in detail of a sample of about 200 participants to see whether a pattern emerges between incidence of disease and the tasks performed, trades and professions and location at time of detonation.

     

    Parliamentary Private Secretaries

    Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Prime Minister if he will publish the current list of parliamentary private secretaries and the Minister to whom each is attached.

    The Prime Minister : The information is as follows :

    Department |Minister |Parliamentary Private Secretary

    Agriculture |Minister for Agriculture |James Paice

    |Minister of State |Douglas French

    Defence |Secretary of State |Henry Bellingham

    |Minister of State for Armed Forces |Roger Gale

    |Minister of State for Defence|Stephen Milligan

    Education |Secretary of State |Matthew Carrington

    |Minister of State |David Evennett

    Employment |Secretary of State |Julian Brazier

    |Minister of State |Derek Conway

    Environment |Secretary of State |Peter Thurnham

    |Minister for Housing and Planning |Dr. Charles Goodson-Wickes

    |Minister for Local Government and Inner Cities |David Evans

    |Minister for the Environment and Countryside |Jacques Arnold

    Foreign and |Foreign Secretary |David Martin

    Commonwealth |Minister of State |Hartley Booth

    |Minister of State |Malcolm Moss

    |Minister of State |George Kynoch

    Overseas Development |Parliamentary |Mark Robinson

    | Under-Secretary

    Health |Secretary of State |Keith Mans

    |Minister of State |Patrick Thompson

    Heritage |Secretary of State |Anthony Steen

    Home Office |Home Secretary |Phillip Oppenheim

    |Minister of State |Emma Nicholson

    |Minister of State |David Wilshire

    Chancellor of the |Chancellor |Ian Taylor

    Duchy of Lancaster /OPSS

    Law Officers |Attorney General |Tim Devlin

    Northern Ireland |Secretary of State |Michael Brown

    |Minister of State |Jerry Hayes

    |Minister of State |Jonathan Evans

    Prime Minister’s Office |Prime Minister |Graham Bright

    Privy Council Office |Lord Privy Seal |Andrew Mitchell

    |Lord President |John Marshall

    Scotland |Secretary of State |Simon Coombs

    Social Security |Secretary of State |Piers Merchant

    |Minister for Social Security and the Disabled |Michael Bates

    |Three Parliamentary |Ian Bruce

    | Under-Secretaries

    Trade and Industry |President of the Board of Trade |Richard Ottaway

    |Minister for Energy |Simon Burns

    |Minister for Industry |Dudley Fishburn

    |Minister for Trade |Andrew Rowe

    Transport |Secretary of State |Graham Riddick

    |Minister of State |Bowen Wells

    Treasury |Chancellor of the Exchequer |William Hague

    |Chief Secretary |David Amess

    |Paymaster General |Dr. Ian Twinn

    Wales |Secretary of State |John Bowis

    |Minister of State |David Tredinnick

     

    Libya

    Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Prime Minister if he will now consider advising the relevant bodies of the United Nations to lift sanctions against Libya.

    The Prime Minister : There can be no lifting of sanctions until Libya has complied in full with United Nations Security Council resolutions 731 and 748.

     

    Bacteria Collections

    Mr. Dalyell : To ask the Prime Minister if he will make a statement on Government support for the National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria.

    The Prime Minister : The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has, since 1983, provided financial support for the National Collections of Industrial and Marine Bacteria. This support, provided under an agreement with the company, ends in March 1993. The possibility of providing further support for an additional year is currently under consideration.

     

    Tobacco

    Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Prime Minister what arrangements are in place to co-ordinate the policies of the Department of Health and the Department of Trade relating to tobacco and tobacco imports; and if he will make a statement.

    The Prime Minister : There are links at both ministerial and official levels.

     

    Alcohol and Drug Abuse

    Mr. Michael : To ask the Prime Minister what arrangements have been made by Government Departments, individually or jointly, for funding existing residential projects for alcohol and drug misusers from April 1993.

    The Prime Minister : If eligible, people entering such projects from April 1993 will be entitled to income support from the Department of Social Security, including a residential allowance. People will have their charges met by the relevant local authority if they are assessed as needing residential care. A total of £635 million will be made available in 1993-94 to local authorities in Great Britain in recognition of their new community care responsibilities. We have announced that guidance to local authorities will reflect the particular circumstances of projects for alcohol and drug misusers.

    Funding for special needs housing schemes sponsored by housing associations, including those relating to the provision of accommodation for people with alcohol and drug-related problems, will continue to be provided by the Department of the Environment through the Housing Corporation.

    The Home Office will maintain its contribution to the running costs of those residential projects that reserve bed spaces for offenders with alcohol and drug problems.

     

    Iraq (Equipment)

    Mr. Oppenheim : To ask the Prime Minister what representations his Department received between 1986 and 1990 regarding the sale of machine tools to Iraq.

    The Prime Minister : My office has received a number of representations.

     

    Commonwealth

    Mr. Mackinlay : To ask the Prime Minister by whom, and by what method the Queen is advised on constitutional matters, including those specifically relating to the Crown, which relate equally both to the United Kingdom and to the other Commonwealth countries of which the Queen is head of state.

    The Prime Minister : On the rare occasion when a constitutional matter has implications both for the United Kingdom and other countries of which The Queen is sovereign, Her Majesty would take advice from her Ministers in the countries concerned.

    Mr. Mackinlay : To ask the Prime Minister on how many occasions over the past year, he has had discussions with the Prime Minister of those Commonwealth countries of which the Queen is head of state on matters relating to the common constitutional link of the Crown.

    The Prime Minister : None.

    Mr. Mackinlay : To ask the Prime Minister who is the Queen’s principal adviser on matters that relate to her capacity as head of the Commonwealth.

    The Prime Minister : The Queen consults her Ministers in the United Kingdom and in those other countries of which she is Sovereign, in matters relating to her capacity as head of the Commonwealth. Her Majesty also has regular contact with Heads of State and Government of other Commonwealth countries, at the biannual Commonwealth Heads of Government meetings and on other occasions.

  • PMQT – 24 November 1992

    Below is the text of Prime Minister’s Question Time from 24th November 1992. Tony Newton deputised for John Major.

    PRIME MINISTER:

     

    Engagements

    Q1. Mr. Amess : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    The Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons (Mr. Tony Newton) : I have been asked to reply.

    My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is attending a lunch– [Interruption.] given by the Lord Mayor and the Corporation of the City of London to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the accession to the throne of Her Majesty the Queen– [Interruption.] I understand that the Leader of the Opposition is also there.

    Mr. Amess : Basildon now being regarded as the barometer for national and international opinion, is my right hon. Friend aware that there is a most favourable reading following the excellent autumn statement and the outcome of the settlement of the GATT round? Will my right hon. Friend take the opportunity to appeal to politicians of all parties to talk up this wonderful country of ours rather than so treacherously talking it down, safe in the knowledge that he bats for Braintree as I bat for Basildon?

    Mr. Newton : I agree that, throughout the county that my hon. Friend and I have in common, the measures announced by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor and the achievement of my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in relation to GATT have received a great welcome. I am tempted to extend my hon. Friend’s alliteration by saying that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is batting for Britain, but in fact he is batting for the whole world economic community and it is time he was given credit for his success.

    Mrs. Beckett : Is the Lord President aware that while the Prime Minister, desperate to have something to show for a lacklustre British presidency, has been scurrying around Europe talking up the prospects of a European growth package, in Brussels today the Chancellor has been steadily talking it down? Which of them speaks for the Government?

    Mr. Newton : My right hon. Friend the Chancellor has been doing no such thing. ECOFIN, in which he participated, had a very important discussion yesterday directed to the growing concern about the recession in the Community and considered how, individually and collectively, the countries of the Community could work to improve the prospects of recovery on lines very similar to those adopted for this country in the autumn statement.

    Mrs. Beckett : But are not the chaos and confusion arising because, even though 1,000 British jobs have been lost in every day of the United Kingdom presidency, the growth package, instead of being at the top of the presidency agenda where it should have been, is a half-hearted afterthought?

    Mr. Newton : If there is any chaos and confusion, it is with Her Majesty’s Opposition, who fought the election campaign on a programme which they have since acknowledged would have made the recession significantly worse, and who continue to advance measures- -a minimum wage, a payroll tax, the social charter–which would end all prospects of recovery.

    Mr. Bates : Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating the employees of Nissan UK, who have achieved the European car of the year award for the British-built Micra? Does he also agree that that further demonstrates a transformation of the British car industry from one renowned for poor quality and militancy under a Labour Government to one renowned for high quality and high achievement, of which we can all be proud, under this Government?

    Mr. Newton : Yes, indeed, and it is an achievement that I view with particular pleasure in view of the connection that I had with the economic problems in and around Sunderland some years ago. It is a major achievement for the new industries that we have brought to that area that Nissan has won the award for its car. It will form part of an achievement to which I look forward–that of this country becoming a net exporter of cars for the first time in many years.

     

    Q2. Mr. Raynsford : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Raynsford : Is the Minister aware of the report published yesterday by the Engineering Employers Federation, which highlights the urgent need for a strategy to regenerate Britain’s industrial and manufacturing base, and its conclusion that the Department of Trade and Industry lacks both the competence and the commitment to achieve that? If the President of the Board of Trade is not going to intervene before breakfast, before lunch and before tea, will the Leader of the House urge the Prime Minister to do so when he gets back from lunch?

    Mr. Newton : I have just referred to the achievements of an important part of British manufacturing industry, which is significantly more successful than it has been for many years and certainly more than it was under the administration of Opposition Members. If I ask anyone to read anything, I shall invite them to read the hon. Gentleman’s recent article, in this month’s Fabian Review about the Opposition, entitled, “Sleepwalking Into Oblivion?”

    Dr. Liam Fox : Does my right hon. Friend welcome reports that the Germans will, after all, play a full role in the European fighter aircraft project, with all the implications that that has for British jobs? Does not that and the GATT round negotiations imply a triumph for the Prime Minister’s quiet style of international diplomacy?

    Mr. Newton : I believe that it does and, referring back to a previous question, it shows the efforts made by my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and the President of the Board of Trade and my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Defence to advance the interests of British manufacturing industry.

     

    Q3. Mr. Winnick : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Winnick : Does the Leader of the House accept that it shows no lack of respect to the Queen to suggest that the full cost of restoring Windsor castle should not fall entirely on public funds? Will that be considered by the Cabinet, and can the Leader of the House tell us whether the Cabinet have ruled out entirely the possibility of the Queen paying at least some income tax on her vast investment income?

    Mr. Newton : On the latter part of the question, I have nothing to add to the reply given by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the hon. Member for Coventry, South-East (Mr. Cunningham) on 3 November. On the first part of the question, the position is well known. The fabric of Windsor castle is state property and has long been recognised as such. All that my right hon. Friend the Heritage Secretary said yesterday was in acknowledgement of that simple fact.

     

    Q4. Mr. Riddick : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Riddick : Does my right hon. Friend agree that the measures contained in the autumn statement to help industry, along with the recent reductions in interest rates, are beginning to provide that vital ingredient–confidence–among industrialists? Does he share my pleasure at the somewhat unexpected support for the autumn statement last Thursday evening–either out of incompetence, which seems likely, or out of conviction, which seems less likely–from Her Majesty’s loyal Opposition?

    Mr. Newton : I share my hon. Friend’s view of the autumn statement’s reception–not least its emphasis on capital programmes and the measures directed towards the housing market, to the release of local authority receipts, to capital allowances and to export credits. There is a long list of comments from people in British industry supporting those measures. I am bound to wonder whether the occupants of the Opposition Front Bench could produce a list of any length in support of what they have put forward.

     

    Sheffield

    Q5. Mr. Michie : To ask the Prime Minister when he next plans to visit Sheffield.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister is making plans for a series of visits to all parts of the country– [Interruption.] Wait for it! He hopes to include Sheffield among them.

    Mr. Michie : I am sure that we can cope with that threat. Indeed, we look forward to the right hon. Gentleman’s visit. Is the Leader of the House aware that we hope that, during that visit, the Prime Minister will go around Sheffield’s housing stock in the public sector, which is in need of repair, rebuilding and refurbishment? Is the right hon. Gentleman further aware that it is to be hoped that, during that visit, the Prime Minister will display the same generosity in the provision of money to pay for repairing those houses as he has displayed towards Windsor castle, bearing in mind the fact that the tenants of those houses actually pay rent and taxes and that everyone’s home is their castle?

    Mr. Newton : I have already commented on the indirect thrust of the hon. Gentleman’s question. With regard to help for Sheffield, the Government provided £26 million of assistance for projects associated with the student games.

     

    Engagements

    Q6. Mr. David Evans : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Evans : Will my right hon. Friend send a message to the Prime Minister saying that we on the Conservative Benches have total loyalty to Her Majesty the Queen– [Intervention.] and her Prime Minister?

    When will the Asylum Bill become law? Is my right hon. Friend aware that 28 people were arrested for having 70 false identity cards? We know that the lot opposite could not care less whether the number was 700, 7,000 or 70,000–“Let them all in,” they say–but the British people and I want to know when the Bill will be on the statute book.

    Mr. Newton : The answer to the first part of my hon. Friend’s supplementary question is that I shall take the greatest possible pleasure in communicating to my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister my hon. Friend’s great declaration of loyalty and the support that it drew, I judged, from both sides of the House.

    The answer to the second part is that while I cannot give my hon. Friend an exact date, his question contained a message that I can also communicate to the Home Secretary, to urge him on in his efforts, and perhaps a message for Her Majesty’s Opposition in terms of the importance that is attached to the passage of that measure.

    Ms. Corston : Why has the Prime Minister, as President of the European Community, put Tory party unity before the needs of the EC in such a way that it has caused the French Trade Minister to describe the British presidency as the “most calamitous” that he had ever seen?

    Mr. Newton : It is clear that, as a result of his presidency of the European Community in the past few months, my right hon. Friend has played a crucial part in achieving the GATT settlement that is now in prospect.

     

    Q7. Sir Anthony Durant : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer my hon. Friend to the reply that I gave some moments ago.

    Sir Anthony Durant : Does my right hon. Friend agree that my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister deserves our support and congratulations for what he has done on the GATT round and that that has been an important achievement for most of the world, including the underdeveloped territories? Does he further agree that it would be wrong for a small group of French farmers to hold up that vital agreement?

    Mr. Newton : My hon. Friend makes an important point. In congratulating my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, perhaps we should also recognise the contribution made by Mr. Andriessen, Mr. MacSharry from the Community, Mrs. Hills– [Interruption.] It is right that we should recognise that the part played by my right hon. Friend has contributed to the efforts of others in an important way, including those whom I mentioned and Mr. Madigan from the United States. We have ensured that that negotiation now has a chance to reach a conclusion. I share the hope that my hon. Friend has expressed that it will not be frustrated by people in whose overall interests that agreement is.

     

    Q8. Mr. Michael : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list his official engagements for Tuesday 24 November.

    Mr. Newton : I have been asked to reply.

    I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave some moments ago.

    Mr. Michael : Is the Lord President aware that the reply given to me yesterday shows that the level of aid to Somalia was less than during the years of bloody dictatorship under Siad Barre ? Will he undertake that the Government will at least restore total aid to the level of 1987 and meet Britain’s historical responsibility to the people of Somaliland in the north?

    Mr. Newton : I understand that the principal problem in Somalia is not the shortage of funds but the difficulty in distributing the aid that we are keen to provide. As the hon. Gentleman well knows, the aid budget for next year was effectively projected in the autumn statement.