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Business Support Schemes
Mr. Tipping : To ask the President of the Board of Trade how much money has been spent under each scheme available for supporting businesses from his Department in 1993-94 in each county of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and each region of Scotland ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. McLouglin : A breakdown by county of the Department's schemes for business support is not available except at disproportionate cost. However, the table shows expenditure to the end of November 1993 for those schemes which give direct grant or support to business, broken down by region where that is possible. Schemes covering England often have counterparts funded by the territorial departments. A regional breakdown of expenditure on the Department's business support schemes under the Industrial Development Act 1982 is provided in the appendices to the Industrial Development Act 1982 annual reports.
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|£000
------------------------------------------------
Schemes covering United Kingdom (Regional breakd
Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme |11,511
NE=North East Region, NW=North West Region
EM=East Midland Region, WM=West Midland Region
YH=Yorkshire and Humberside Region, SW=South
West Region
|£000
------------------------------------------------
Schemes covering United Kingdom (Regional breakd
Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme |11,511
NE=North East Region, NW=North West Region
EM=East Midland Region, WM=West Midland Region
YH=Yorkshire and Humberside Region, SW=South
West Region
|£000
------------------------------------------------
Schemes covering United Kingdom (Regional breakd
Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme |11,511
NE=North East Region, NW=North West Region
EM=East Midland Region, WM=West Midland Region
YH=Yorkshire and Humberside Region, SW=South
West Region
|£000
------------------------------------------------
Schemes covering United Kingdom (Regional breakd
Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme |11,511
NE=North East Region, NW=North West Region
EM=East Midland Region, WM=West Midland Region
YH=Yorkshire and Humberside Region, SW=South
West Region
London United Investments
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to take any civil or criminal action against KPMG Peat Marwick following the criticisms of the firm's auditing practices by the Department of Trade and Industry inspectors in their report on London United Investments.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : Copies of the inspector's report have been passed to the Serious Fraud Office and to the relevant supervisory bodies, the Institutes of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and in Scotland, for such further action as those bodies deem appropriate.
Accountants
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to investigate the electoral procedures of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I have no such plans.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether the accountancy firms preparing the compilation reports for small companies are to be exempt from the monitoring requirements of the Companies Act 1989.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I shall be making a statement shortly on this and other details of the implementation of the proposed relaxation of the audit requirement for small companies.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what oral or written discussions he or his Department has had with any official of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants about its internal democracy ;
(2) what discussions he or his Department has held with any representative of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants in respect of its democracy.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : My Department has been told by the association that electoral reform will be one of a
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number of subjects which will feature in proposals for revisions to its bye-laws. These will be put to its council and members in a general meeting, in due course.Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is his Department's policy in relation to the award of contracts to accountancy firms (a) against whom legal proceedings are being taken and (b) who have been criticised in the DTI inspectors report.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Hartlepool (Mr. Mandelson) on 27 October, Official Report, column 671.
Professional Ethics
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he will provide a list of the reforms of professional ethics which he has urged recognised supervisory bodies to adopt.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : It is my duty to satisfy myself that the ethical guidance provided by the recognised supervisory bodies for company auditors meet the requirements of paragraph 7 of schedule 11 to the Companies Act 1989. This is one of the matters covered in my Department's routine monitoring of and discussions with the supervisory bodies.
Defence Exports
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) in which year a specific allocation of Export Credits Guarantee Department's cover was allocated for defence exports ; what was the size of the provision ; and how that decision was reported to Parliament ;
(2) on what date it was agreed to allocate a sum within the Export Credits Guarantee Department for the offering of insurance cover on defence exports ; what that sum was ; and on what dates that sum was subsequently revised.
Mr. Needham : On 28 June 1988 the then Minister for Trade announced, in a written answer, that £1 billion of export credit support would be made available by the Export Credits Guarantee Department to support large contracts for the sale of United Kingdom defence equipment.
The sum of £1 billion was never revised and the unused balance was effectively withdrawn in August 1991.
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the size of the Export Credits Guarantee Department cover for defence exports in each year since 1985-86, the take-up of the cover and the year-end total of the contribution in respect of this cover to the Export Credits Guarantee Department's cumulative reserves and provisions.
Mr. Needham : ECGD's annual report includes a table detailing the breakdown of its capital goods business by industry sector including defence. A copy of ECGD's last annual report is in the Library of the House, the 1992-93 report will be laid before the House late this month. ECGD's accounts are not put together on a basis which enables the contribution of different industry sectors to its cumulative reserves and provisions to be detailed separately.
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Quangos
Mr. Meale : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the names of all former hon. Members who since 1979 have been appointed to quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations, excluding appointments
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as justices of the peace, giving in each case the title of the post, any salary payable and the duration of the appointment.Mr. Eggar : The table sets out the information available.
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Ã
Name |Post |Salary |Duration
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sir Julian Ridsdale |Member of the Simpler Trade |Unpaid |27 October 1992-26 October 1994
|Procedures Board
Charles Longbottom |Non-executive director, of British |£5,000 |Since 1988 (renewed on a yearly basis)
|Shipbuilders
John Corrie |Chairman of the Transport Users |£6,310 |1 January 1989-31 December 1995
|Consultative Committee for Scotland
Robin Hodgson |Member of the West Midlands |Unpaid |1 January 1989-31 December 1994
|Industrial Development Board
Mr. Meale : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the names of all former British representative members in the European Parliament who since 1979 have been appointed to quasi-autonomous non- governmental organisations, excluding appointments as justices of the peace, giving in each case the title of the post, any salary payable and the duration of the appointment.
Mr. Eggar : No such appointments have been made since 1979.
Auditors
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade which auditing guidelines, issued by the Auditing Practices Committee while his Department was represented on it, urged auditors to be passive.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I do not accept the premise on which the hon. Member's question is based.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will make a statement on the kind of auditing firms who will be exempt from monitoring by the recognised supervisory bodies as a result of the small company audit exemption proposals contained in the Chancellor's statement.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : The announcement by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 30 November 1993, Official Report, columns 934-35 does not affect the monitoring requirements for company auditors. Any individual or firm who chooses to remain a member of a recognised supervisory body and retain eligibility for appointment as a company auditor under the rules of that body will remain subject to the monitoring arrangements of that body.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will provide a list of the minutes of meetings of the Auditing Practices Board received by his representatives on that board.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : My Department's representative has received minutes of the meetings of the Auditing Practices Board which he attended on the following dates :
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1991 |1992 |1993
----------------------------------------------------
3 July |14 January |12 January
9 September |11 February |9 February
15 October |10 March |9 March
3 December |13 April |19 April
|19 May |11 May
|30 June |8 June
|28 July |13 July
|8 September |21 September
|25 September|12 October
|15 October |16 November
|24 November
Minutes of the board's meetings may be obtained from the board's secretary.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he will seek to amend the regulation on non-audit fee disclosures so that companies will be required to give details of the non-audit services purchased from their auditors.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I have no plans to do so. The regulations already require companies to disclose in their annual accounts the amount of fees paid to their auditors and their associates for non-audit work.
Supervisory Bodies
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what action he takes upon receiving a complaint about the conduct of the bodies acting as recognised supervisory bodies under the Companies Act 1989.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I would first consider whether the complaint concerned the statutory duties imposed on the supervisory bodies by the Companies Act 1989. If so, I would refer the complaint to the relevant supervisory body for it to consider. If the complaint concerned the complaints procedure established by the supervisory body to meet its statutory duty under the Companies Act 1989, I would consider whether the body had properly discharged that duty.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what plans he has to take powers to provide that the recognised supervisory bodies do not threaten academic freedoms.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : None. I have no evidence that the recognised supervisory bodies act in the way the hon. Member implies.
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Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade whether he will seek to introduce legislation under which auditors of public limited companies will be required to file audited information about their affairs with the appropriate recognised supervisory bodies.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : I have no plans to do so.
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what assurances he has sought or will be seeking on democracy and openness from the organisations acting as recognised supervisory bodies under the Companies Act 1989.
Mr. Neil Hamilton : Each supervisory body for company auditors was required to satisfy the Secretary of State that it met the requirements for recognition set out under part II of the Companies Act 1989. Sections 35 and 36 of that Act, and the Companies Act 1989 (Register of Auditors and Information about Audit Firms) Regulations 1991 (SI 1991/1566), require those bodies to make certain information available to the public about those eligible for appointment as company auditor. Section 37 of the Companies Act 1989 requires them to submit an annual report on audit regulation to the Secretary of State, copies of which are placed in the Library of the House.
Export Credits Guarantee Department
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the year-end cumulative surplus or deficit and the year-end total of provisions for the Export Credits Guarantee Department in each year from 31 March 1986.
Mr. Needham : This information is reported in ECGD's annual trading accounts copies of which are in the Library of the House ; the 1992-93 accounts will be laid before the House later this month.
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what provision was made in the expenditure plans for 1993-94 of the Export Credits Guarantee Department for writing off irrecoverable debts from Iraq ; and what provision was made for 1994-95 and 1995-96 in the public expenditure plans of November 1992 and those recently published.
Mr. Needham : ECGD's trading operations do not constitute a charge on public expenditure and as such there is no provision for any such costs in ECGD's public expenditure plans.
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the total exposure of the Export Credits Guarantee Department in respect of exports to Iraq (a) up to the invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and (b) subsequently ; how much of this exposure has so far been written off as irrecoverable ; and in which financial years this was done.
Mr. Needham : ECGD's total exposure on Iraq is now estimated at £652 million of which £521 million relates to claims paid outstanding for recovery. ECGD's 1991-92 accounts included a provision for loss equivalent to 93 per cent. of exposure on Iraq ; the 1992-93 accounts are still being audited.
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if Export Credits Guarantee cover was obtained to
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support the financing of the British- Jordanian defence sales agreements ; and how payments insurances cover was provided for.Mr. Needham : ECGD provided support for two defence equipment lines of credit to Jordan which were signed in 1986 and 1987 respectively.
Companies (Exports)
Mr. Meacher : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what dealings he or any member of his Department has had, whether for export promotion or for any other purpose with (a) A.T.E. International Ltd., (b) Admincheck Ltd., (c) Advance Electronics Development Ltd., (d) Arctic Centre I.C.E. Ltd., (e) Atlas Equipment Co. Ltd., (f) Atlas Air Conditioning Co. Ltd., (g) Dominion International, (h) Endshire Export Marketing, (i) Falcon Systems, (j) Geodesigns, (k) Investacast Precision Castings Ltd., (l) Meed International Ltd., and (m) Rajbrook Ltd. ; and if he will give the purpose of his dealings with each of these companies.
Mr. Needham : Some of the companies named have contacted the Department in connection with the publication by the United States treasury office of assets control of lists of specially designated nationals. Some have contacted the Department about export licences. It is not the practice of the Department to disclose details of such commercially confidential matters.
British Coal (Pensions)
Mr. Hardy : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what rates of growth net of contributions have been achieved by coal industry pension funds in each of the last 15 years ; and in which of these a guarantee would have had to have been effected if his present proposals had been in operation.
Mr. Eggar : The performance of the British Coal pension funds and their record of deficiencies and surpluses are matters for the trustees of the pension schemes.
Nuclear Material
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade, pursuant to his answer of 6 December, Official Report, column 38, if he will set out (a) those notifications of withdrawal of nuclear materials from safeguards that were temporary, giving the uses to which the material was put and (b) those notifications which were permanent.
Mr. Eggar : The majority of the withdrawal notifications referred to in my answer of 6 December, Official Report, column 38, concerned the permanent withdrawal from safeguards of depleted uranium for sources shielding or small amounts of other nuclear materials for research and development or analytical purposes.
Safeguards Agreement
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade on how many occasions since the entering into force of tripartite safeguards agreement with EURATOM and the International Atomic Energy Agency, the safeguards authorities have been notified by Her Majesty's Government of intended withdrawals under clause 14 of the treaty.
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Mr. Eggar : In accordance with the provisions of article 14 of the United Kingdom/Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement, 571 advance notifications of the withdrawal of nuclear material from safeguards have been made since May 1979. The majority of these involved either the temporary withdrawal of material transferred to MOD sites for processing before being returned to safeguards at civil sites, or, in the case of permanent transfers to MOD sites, the withdrawal from safeguards of material such as depleted uranium for source shielding or small amounts of other nuclear materials for R & D or analytical purposes.
External Trade
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is the trade and commodity coverage of the 1980 weights given in table F2 of the "Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics" ; and what were the corresponding weights in 1980, 1985 and 1990 in terms of United Kingdom exports and imports of manufactures.
Mr. Needham : The coverage of the weights is given in the footnote to table F2 in the" Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics". The other information requested is shown in the table.
Weights based on total trade (exports plus imports)
of manufactures with the United Kingdom
|1980 |1985 |1990
-------------------------------------------------------
Belgium-Luxembourg |8.976 |7.498 |7.912
Canada |2.895 |2.457 |1.810
France |13.060|11.990|14.512
Germany (Federal Republic) |20.453|23.049|24.267
Italy |8.175 |7.946 |8.721
Japan |5.299 |6.485 |7.352
Netherlands |9.443 |9.224 |10.356
Sweden |5.373 |4.662 |4.371
Switzerland |8.628 |4.556 |3.821
United States |17.698|22.134|16.877
Note: Manufactures defined as sections 5-8 of the
Standard International
Trade Classification.
Magnox Reactors
Mrs. Anne Campbell : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will give the publication date for the nuclear installations inspectorate's examination of generic safety issues in Magnox reactors in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Eggar : I understand that the Health and Safety Executive is planning to publish the nuclear installations inspectorate's report reviewing the generic safety issues of the long term safety reviews of Magnox power plant by the end of April.
Trade Balance
Sir Teddy Taylor : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what was (a) the net balance of trade with the other EC countries in 1972 and (b) the total balance of trade in the period since the United Kingdom joined the EC ; and what were the figures in respect of manufacturing trade.
Mr. Needham : The available information is given in the table.
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United Kingdom crude balance of trade<1> with the EC<2> (£ billion, current prices) Year |Total |<3>Manufactures ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1972 |-0.6 1973 |-1.4 1974 |-2.4 1975 |-2.5 |-0.5 1976 |-2.4 |-0.5 1977 |-2.3 |-0.6 1978 |-3.0 |-1.6 1979 |-3.7 |-2.7 1980 |-0.0 |-1.7 1981 |-0.7 |-3.0 1982 |-2.2 |-5.0 1983 |-3.8 |-7.9 1984 |-4.4 |-8.4 1985 |-3.4 |-9.0 1986 |-9.7 |-10.8 1987 |-10.2 |-11.1 1988 |-14.9 |-13.4 1989 |-16.3 |-14.6 1990 |-10.9 |-9.9 1991 |-1.9 |-1.6 1992 |-5.1 |-3.7 <1>The crude balance of trade is defined as exports (free on board) less imports (cost, insurance and freight). <2>The EC is defined throughout as it was defined in 1992; that is, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany (including the former Democratic Republic), Italy, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Greece, Portugal and Spain. <3>Manufactures are defined by sections 5 to 8 of the standard international trade classification. Sources: Total: Monthly Review of External Trade Statistics, CSO. Manufactures: Overseas Trade Statistics of the United Kingdom.
Defence Sales
Mr. Cousins : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what rescheduling of payments on outstanding debts occurred in course of the British-Jordanian defence sales agreements ; on what dates this occurred ; and how this was reflected in public accounts.
Mr. Needham : ECGD-insured debts of £170 million due from Jordan have been rescheduled. These debts relate to payments of principal and interest due between 1989 and early 1994 ; a substantial proportion relates to the defence sales agreements. The debts are covered by two bilateral rescheduling agreements, the first signed in August 1991 and the second in January 1993. The reschedulings were concluded as part of general agreements reached between Jordan and its creditors in the Paris Club. To date payments under these agreements have been made on time.
The rescheduling of these debts is reflected in ECGD's annual trading accounts.
Plutonium
Mr. Martyn Jones : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will give the quantities of plutonium material unaccounted for for each of the last 10 years of Magnox reprocessing at Sellafield, and details of projections of MUF quantities of plutonium once the thermal oxide reprocessing plant is in operation.
Mr. Eggar : Since 1977, British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) and the AEA have issued annual press releases giving the difference between the book inventory of nuclear materials on each site and the measured physical inventory. This difference, known as material unaccounted for'--MUF-- indicates an apparent gain of material
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when positive and an apparent loss when negative. It is not normally evidence of an actual loss or gain of material but often reflects measurement error.The figures published by BNFL and the AEA for the 10 years to 1991-92 were :
|Kg
--------------------
1982-83 |-0.5
1983-84 |+4.2
1984-85 |+9.1
1985-86 |+4.0
1986-87 |+2.2
1987-88 |-1.5
1988-89 |+4.0
1989-90 |-1.0
1990-91 |-11.5
1991-92 |+9.8
Once the thermal oxide reprocessing plant comes into operation, its contribution to Sellafield MUF will be reflected in the site figures in the normal way. The impact on the total will depend on the plant's performance.
The safeguards system for THORP has been described in papers presented at the 15th European Safeguards Research and Development Association--ESARDA-- symposium in Rome in May 1993 which make it clear that the tracking of nuclear material inventories is only part of an overall safeguards system covering a variety of arrangements.
EURATOM
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade which United Kingdom representatives are members of the European Commission and EURATOM special
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scientists group on atomic energy questions ; for how long they have been members of the group ; and if he will set out the part played by Her Majesty's Government in the choice of United Kingdom members of the group.Mr. Eggar : The last five-year mandate of EURATOM's Scientific and Technical Committee--STC--expired on 31 March 1993. A Council decision confirming the membership of the STC for the next period to March 1998 is expected shortly. Renewal of the mandate will be announced in the Official Journal of the European Communities.
Radioactive Waste Storage
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will set out the proposed management strategy for the radioactive waste that will be stored at Sellafield following retention in the enhanced actinise removal plant, as referred to in paragraph 6 of his decision document on THORP, published on 15 December.
Mr. Eggar : I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him on 18 February 1993, Official Report, column 319.
Mr. Llew Smith : To ask the President of the Board of Trade what reliability calculations his Department had conducted, or contracted to consultants, to evaluate the safety of the high level radioactive waste storage tanks at Sellafield using the EC computer program PC Cosyma.
Mr. Eggar : This is a matter for British Nuclear Fuels plc, subject to the Health and Safety Executive's nuclear installations inspectorate's views as to safety.
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