§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what advice he plans to issue to community charges registration officers on how to register(a) submariners spending alternate periods of four weeks at sea and four weeks on shore, (b) members of the armed forces on four months tours of duty in Northern Ireland, (c) Gurkhas, (d) Royal Navy personnel on sea-going vessels and (e) members of the armed forces attached to foreign forces and serving abroad with them.
§ Mr Ridley[holding answer 27 February 1989]: My Department is consulting the local authority associations, and we shall issue guidance shortly.
§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment is he has any proposals to seek to exempt from community charge residents of(a) homes for elderly persons run by the Abbeyfield Society or (b) other homes run by other organisations including local authorities and charities of the same type of accommodation and level of care as Abbeyfield.
§ Mr. Ridley[holding answer 27 February 1989]: I intend to amend the definition of a residential care home in paragraph 9(2) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (using the power conferred by paragraph 9(6)) to include any home run by the Abbeyfield society. This will bring the definition of a residential care home, for community charge purposes, more closely into line with the definition used for income support purposes.
People receiving care or treatment in a home run by any organisation will be exempt from personal community charge liability, if they have their sole or main residence in the home, and if the home falls within the description in the 1988 Act of a residential care home, a nursing home, a mental nursing home or a hostel providing a high level of care.
§ Dr. CunninghamTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what instructions he proposes to give to valuation and community charge tribunals concerning the provision of material in ethnic minority languages and translation facilities.
§ Mr. Ridley[holding answer 27 February 1989]: The Government are making available to local authorities 112W translations of the notes to the community charge canvass form in five important minority languages. These explain the right to appeal. Most members of valuation and community charge tribunals will have been members of local valuation panels, and will have experience of appeals from people whose first language is not English. Anyone appealing to a tribunal may be accompanied by a friend or representative, who may speak on their behalf.