323
Written Answers
8 FEBRUARY 1983
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS
Hong Kong
Mr. Parry asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he is satisfied with the mechanism for investigating complaints and grievances about public administration in Hong Kong.
Mr. Rifkind: Yes.
European Convention (Repatriation)
Mr. Marks asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which Governments have announced their intention of signing the European convention to permit the repatriation of persons imprisoned in participating countries.
Mr. Rifkind: I am not aware that any countries have made a public announcement of their intention to sign the convention.
Falkland Islands (Compensation)
Mr. David Young asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will seek to ensure that no funds given to the Falkland Islands for reairs or compensation arising out of recent hostilities are paid to absentee landlords who are Argentines.
Mr. Onslow: Yes. But it is not always possible in the event of corporate ownership to be certain of the identity of all beneficiaries.
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Cats and Horses
Mr. Arthur Lewis asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek to introduce a system of licensing for domestic cats and horses.
Mrs. Fenner: No.
Radioactive Waste Dumping
Mr. Gordon Wilson asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek to obtain the reports of the investigations carried out by Professor W. Jackson Davis, a marine biologist at the University of California, on the subject of radioactive waste dumping at sea.
Mr. Buchanan-Smith: Copies of the paper prepared by Professor W. Jackson Davis and submitted by the Governments of Kiribati and Nauru have been circulated to contracting parties to the London dumping convention by the secretariat. I have placed a copy in the Library of the House.
Ultra Heat Treated Milk Imports
Sir Peter Mills asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what action he is taking on ultra heat treated milk imports.
Mr. Peter Walker: The European Court of Justice has today issued its judgment in the case dealing with United Kingdom imports of ultra heat treated milk. The court finds our present arrangements for licensing imports of
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ultra heat treated milk and for applying certain requirements to the sale of such milk, to be contrary to Community law. On the other hand, the court judgment states that the United Kingdom would be entitled to lay down the objective conditions that it considers ought to be observed as regards the quality of milk before treatment and as regards the method of treating and packing UHT milk of whatever origin offered for sale on its territory.
The Government will be studying the judgment in detail and will take as soon as possible the steps necessary to comply with it. Our aim will be to provide for the import of UHT milk from other member states subject to its satisfying the same health and hygiene requirements on which, in the interests of public health, we insist for the production and processing of our own milk. The necessary legislation will be set in hand urgently as soon as the details of the judgment have been studied and consultations held with the Commission and with other member states.-
Meanwhile, in order to deal with the immediate situation created by the judgment and to retain full safeguards for public health, the Government are taking temporary precautions against the imprt of unsafe milk by amending the open general import licence so as to prohibit imports while the necessary studies and consultations take place.
HKK 011
Departmental Cash Limit
+
*1."
3
Mr. Jim Spicer asked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has any plans to change the cash limit for expenditure in Class III, Vote 3 (Other Agricultural and Food Services); and if he will make a
statement.
KIM
AC
Mr. Peter Walker:-The current year ash limit Class III Vote 3 (Other Agricultural and Food Services) is to be reduced by £0.4 million to £91,282,000. This is to offset an increase in the level of monthly instalments paid to the Potato Marketing Board, and accounted for in Class III Vote 2 (Agricultural Support and Flood Protection), towards the cost of administering the potato price guarantee arrangements. The reduced cash limit results from savings in the provision for the horticultural protected crops adaptation aid.
SOCIAL SERVICES
Family Finances Survey
Mr. Andrew F. Bennett asked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to publish more detailed analyses of the family finances survey of low income families than that provided in the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys report "Family Finances".
Mr. Newton: I have today placed in the Library copies of "The Living Standards of the Unemployed: Findings from the Family Finances Survey” prepared by the social policy research unit at York university.
Analytical work directed at the incidence of low income, the characteristics of non-claimants to benefits, and factors resulting in people moving out of low income is currently being undertaken within the Department.
Work directed at the living standards of unemployed people, economies of scale-enlarged families, domestic
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