Nick Ainger: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he intends to end the remanding of juveniles into prison department establishments.
Nick Ainger: Is the Secretary of State aware that it is almost two years since Phillip Knight from my constituency committed suicide in Swansea gaol at the age of 15 and that the Secretary of State's reply offers no hope to many juveniles currently on remand or in prison? Will he encourage his Department to introduce a scheme whereby we shall no longer see juvenile suicides in our prisons?
Nick Ainger: I congratulate you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, on your appointment. I wish you well in your office as, I am sure, do all other hon. Members. I am the first Labour candidate to be elected to the House for Pembroke since 1966. I am also the first Labour Member for the reorganised Pembroke constituency which was established after the 1979 election. I will try to keep my traditional comments brief,...
Nick Ainger: That is enough of that. Although we have many benefits, we have serious economic problems. The Milford Haven estuary has one of the largest petrochemical installations in Britain. It has three oil refineries and an oil-fired power station and is a major port in any terms. However, Esso decided to close its refinery in the early 1980s. The Milford fishing industry has been in decline and has...
Nick Ainger: I know that other hon. Members wish to speak and I shall try to be brief. National Power is, understandably, looking towards burning orimulsion full time at Pembroke power station. Following the hike in crude oil prices in the early 1970s, the station has never been able to run in the way for which it was designed, which was as a base-load station burning heavy fuel oil supplied by the...
Nick Ainger: Last July, the Milford Haven middle-distance fleet effectively collapsed. Having pleaded with the Government for almost two years to introduce a decommissioning scheme under which they could rationalise, restructure and reduce the size of the fleet, the fishermen found market forces taking over, and seven trawlers owned by three separate companies had to cease operations. The effect on the...
Nick Ainger: I add my congratulations to those already offered to the hon. Member for Hexham (Mr. Atkinson) on his maiden speech. I appreciate the position that he was in when he made it, as I was in the same position only a couple of weeks ago. This so-called reform package has been trailed as a great victory for the Minister. It is interesting that Conservative Members were selective in their...
Nick Ainger: I would welcome the right hon. Gentleman's statement if it contained a categorical guarantee. The farmers of west Wales have not recovered from the 1984 imposition of milk quotas. I hope that they will not be put in the same position in 1993 and 1994. It is all very well to say that it is hoped that they will not be put in that position, but what happens if the market is not as expected and...
Nick Ainger: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much money (a) in cash and (b) as a percentage of the Welsh total, will be spent on trunk roads in Dyfed in the financial years 1992–93, 1993–94 and 1994–95; and if he will make a statement.
Nick Ainger: Is the Minister aware that the analysis by Dyfed county council shows that less than 6 per cent. of the capital from the Welsh Office is spent on the 24 per cent. of the road network of Wales that lies within the county? Is he aware that all the local authorities and the members of the task force on whose strategy team the Secretary of State sits identify the fact that west Wales has serious...
Nick Ainger: On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I am listening with interest to the hon. Gentleman. What he says is relevant to the United States of America but has nothing to do with the subject of the debate. He is going beyond the reasonable rules of debate.
Nick Ainger: Will my hon. Friend comment on the statement by Mr. David Thomas, the environmental health officer for the Torfaen area, that he may be aware of shipments coming to ReChem, but is unable to inform his own members, the fire brigade or local disposal authorities about the route of the import?
Nick Ainger: Does my hon. Friend agree that the reason why there are massive imports of toxic waste into this country, with a significant increase in the 1980s and early 1990s, is that ReChem is not a high-technology company, but a low-technology company? It has a static bed furnace, not a rolling furnace, and it does not have after-burners. Capital investment at the plant has been far lower than is the...
Nick Ainger: Is the hon. Gentleman aware that the reason for the recent increase in the export of PCBs from Sweden is that the Swedish Government have decided that the incineration of PCBs is too dangerous? They have decided to export their problem rather than to solve it and have given it to us. The Swedes have made a decision which is correct for them, but damaging internationally, and certainly to...
Nick Ainger: A call of nature.
Nick Ainger: Surely it is best immediately to stop importing waste from countries such as Sweden and make them address their problems rather than push those problems on to us.
Nick Ainger: The hon. Lady quotes figures for the amount of toxic waste generated in Britain. My hon. Friends the Members for Torfaen (Mr. Murphy) and for Blaenau, Gwent (Mr. Smith) quoted the figures for PCBs, which is what the debate is really all about. It concerns not toxic waste in general but PCBs specifically.
Nick Ainger: Perhaps the hon. Lady can give the figures she has for PCBs incinerated at the ReChem plant. What is the tonnage generated in the United Kingdom, and how much is imported?
Nick Ainger: Is the hon. Lady not aware that Sweden, which has its own incinerator, decided that incineration was a not a safe way to dispose of PCBs, so it exported them to Pontypool? Is she not aware, also, that the 1,500 tonnes of waste from the St. Basile-le-Grand fire was destined for an incinerator at Swan Lake in Onatrio, but that the Quebec Government demanded earlier disposal of the PCBs, which...
Nick Ainger: I understand that the Bonnybridge plant, formerly run by ReChem, was closed down before a public inquiry could be held into the operations of the plant and the pollution that it has caused. The hon. Gentleman should not cite Bonnybridge as an example.