TNAG-2033-FCO40-2896-Visit-by-Douglas-Hurd--Secretary-of-State-for-Foreign-and-Co-1990 — Page 43

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Written Answers

7 MARCH 1990

urther improvements in health care for patients in the Greater Glasgow health board area. I am sure the hon. Gentleman will welcome these improvements in the care of the elderly in his constituency.

Equal Opportunities

Mr. Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what measures he has implemented to ensure that recruitment and promotion policy in his Department does not directly or indirectly discriminate against applicants who were mature students or women returning to work following a career break due to child care.

Mr. Rifkind [holding answer 5 March 1990]: My Department as a matter of course provides guidance for members of recruitment and promotion boards which includes reference to the need to avoid discrimination of this kind. The practice of my Department, subject to certain conditions, is to reinstate all applicants who originally resigned for domestic reasons. Previous service is taken into account for pay and seniority purposes and, in certain circumstances, previous performance assess- ments count towards eligibility for promotion boards. In addition, plans are in hand to introduce short answer tests as an alternative to formal education qualifications for recruitment at administrative assistant and administrative officer level and to extend special leave arrangements to allow staff breaks in employment of up to five years with automatic right of re-engagement.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

HKD

Hong Kong

20. Mr. Andrew MacKay: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he next intends to visit Hong Kong.

Mr. Maude: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has no plans to make a further visit to Hong Kong in the immediate future. I hope to visit in the next few months.

30. Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will pay an official visit to Green Island.

Mr. Maude: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has no plans at present to do so.

Soviet

Estonia

21. Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether his Department has received a copy of the declaration of the General Assembly in Estonia on independent statehood of 2 February; and whether he sent any message to the Estonian Parliament to coincide with the Estonian national day on 24 February.

a

Mr. Waldegrave: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs has received copy of the declaration. He did not send a message in connection with the Estonian national day.

355 CW8/33 Job 7-6

[FED

Written

RECEIVED:

British Hovercraft Ex990

22. Mr. Sims: Tolask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will take steps to give publicity and assistance to the British hovercraft expedition to China from Hong Kong and if he will make

a statement.

Mr. Maude: The organisers of this expedition have been in close touch with the ODA, as well as the British embassy and British Council in Peking, and the British trade commission in Hong Kong, which have given advice on commercial sponsorship and publicity. The British ambassador in Peking has also donated £1,000 toward the purchase of solar refrigerators for the expedition. The objectives of this expedition are admirable, and I wish it well.

Palestine Liberation Organisation

(NENAS

23. Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions his Department has held with the Palestine Liberation Organisation representatives about the aban- donment of terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens and others.

Mr. Waldegrave: We take every opportunity to stress to the PLO the importance of its maintaining its commitment to refrain from terrorism. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs did so most recently when he saw Bassam Abu Sharif on 1 March.

35. Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether Her Majesty's Government have made any representations to the Palestine Liberation Organisation with respect to terrorist attacks undertaken by Fatah against Israeli civilian targets within Israel's 1967 borders, since December 1988.

Mr. Waldegrave: We have made clear to both the PLO and Israel that we deplore violence from whatever quarter and look to them to resolve their differences through face-to-face negotiations.

FED

Albania

UND

24. Mr. Bowis: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made recently on Albanian human rights.

Mr. Waldegrave: On 21 February, at the current session of the UN Commission on Human Rights, we and our EC partners expressed our concern at the reports of recurring violations of human rights and particularly religious persecution in Albania.

German Unification

25. Mr. Wareing: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a further statement on his policy on the issue of German unification.

Mr. Waldegrave: We have long supported the principle of German unification, to be brought about as the result of the freely expressed choice of the peoples of the two