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Small and Medium Enterprise

Mr. Roche: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what has been the outcome of his Department's review of measures taken to facilitate small firms' access to appropriate areas of Government procurement in the light of best practice; [6671]

(2) what progress his Department has made regarding establishing a contact point with responsibility for liaison and relevant business support organisations and taking forward small and medium enterprise related public procurement initiatives. [6721]

Mrs. Angela Knight [holding answer 19 December 1995]: The Treasury set up a central purchasing unit five years ago to deal with all matters relating to the procurement of goods and services within the Department. This follows advice on good procurement practice issued by the central unit of procurement and acts as a focal point for all suppliers' business inquiries irrespective of the size of supplier.

20 Dec 1995 : Column: 1252

Manufacturing Employees

Mrs. Beckett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many jobs in manufacturing were lost between (a) the first quarter of 1974 and the second quarter of 1979 and (b) the second quarter of 1979 and the present day. [7032]

Mrs. Angela Knight [holding answer 19 December 1995]: The information requested is set out in the table:

Employees in Great Britain (seasonally adjusted) (net change-- thousands)

	June 1974-June 1979	June 1979-October 1995
Standard Industrial Classification 1980 Divisions 2, 3 and 4	-609	--
Standard Industrial Classification 1992 Section D	--	-2,761

Source: CSO.

Housing Authorities (Loan Books)

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what date the decision to sell the loan books of the Housing Corporation, Scottish Homes and Tai Cymru was made; and for what reasons it was not included in the Red Book expenditure tables. [6929]

Mr. Waldegrave [holding answer 19 December 1995]: The decision to sell the loan books was taken alongside other public expenditure decisions announced in the Budget. Allowance for the sales was made in the Red Book expenditure tables.

Benefits-in-kind

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consultation the Inland Revenue has had with the chairmen of non-departmental public bodies concerning revenue investigations into the value of benefits-in-kind, executive car leasing and other prerequisites. [6818]

Mr. Jack [holding answer 19 December 1995]: I am not aware of any such consultations. But, as part of its general tax compliance programme, the Inland Revenue may seek to satisfy itself that all benefits that are taxable on directors and employees have been disclosed.

Landfill Levy

Ms Ruddock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the two rates at which the landfill levy will be applied were arrived at; and if he will make a statement. [6889]

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory [holding answer 19 December 1995]: The different rates of landfill tax for inactive and other wastes reflect the different effects on the environment caused by landfilling these different types of waste.

Commemorative Coins

Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if Her Majesty's Government plan to issue any new commemorative coins. [7769]

20 Dec 1995 : Column: 1253

Mr. Kenneth Clarke: Her Majesty the Queen has been graciously pleased to approve my recommendation that a Crown be issued in 1997 with new obverse and reverse designs to mark the 50th anniversary of the wedding of Her Majesty the Queen and His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh.

It is not intended that these coins should go into general circulation although the coins will be available at most banks and post offices for £5 and special collectors' versions will be issued in precious metal and base metal. The coins will not be issued to the public until 1997.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Inward Investment

Mr. Wigley: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list for (a) each standard region of the United Kingdom and for (b) the United Kingdom, all inward investment projects published (i) during 1994 and (ii) since January 1995, indicating (1) the number of jobs committed and (2) the amount of gross investment, where published, expressed in pounds sterling at constant prices. [7040]

Mr. Oppenheim: A record number of inward investment projects were notified to the Invest in Britain Bureau in the financial year 1994-95. The regional breakdown of this is as follows.

Table A: 1 April 1994 to 31 March 1995

Region	Number of projects	Total jobs (created/ safeguarded)
East	12	2,462
East Midlands	44	11,670
North-east	41	15,281
Northern Ireland	23	5,259
North-west	53	7,494
Scotland	81	10,795
South-east	40	18,195
South-west	21	2,093
Wales	51	5,235
West Midlands	62	12,266
Yorkshire and Humberside	25	6,274
Total	453	91,394

Table B: 1 April 1995 to 18 December 1995

Region	Number of projects	Total jobs (created/ safeguarded)
East	2	400
East Midlands	4	353
North East	11	1,095
Northern Ireland	4	237
North West	13	1,276
Scotland	21	2,592
South East	23	10,439
South West	4	1,648
Wales	13	2,215
West Midlands	24	3,613
Yorkshire and Humberside	23	4,394
London(41)	1	150
N/S(42)	2	210
Total	145	28,622

(41) Figures for London are now separate from those of the South East.

(42) Not specified--project will create or safeguard jobs in more than

a Single region.

20 Dec 1995 : Column: 1254

Capital expenditure is not quoted in the preceding tables. This is because the information is not always made available to the Invest in Britain Bureau by the investor. Figures in table (B) should be taken only as indicative, as there is often a delay between a project announcement and official notification reaching the IBB.

IBB figures are based on numbers of projects notified to the IBB at the time of the decision to invest. Companies are under no obligation to notify their investment decisions and the figures take no account of subsequent developments.

New Companies

Mr. Welsh: To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many new companies in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland have registered in each of the past seven years; and if he will provide a breakdown by sector. [7245]

Mr. Oppenheim: Responsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to Companies House under its chief executive Mr. David Durham. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from David Durham to Mr. Andrew Welsh, dated 20 December 1995:

You recently asked the President of the Board of Trade for information on the registration of new companies. The President has asked me to deal with your request, as I have responsibility as Chief Executive and Registrar of Companies.
We are able to give you separate figures for the seven years for Scotland and Northern Ireland, but only a combined figure for England and Wales. We are not sure what you mean by "breakdown by sector". If you are referring to industry type, this information could be gathered from our database, but the exercise would be extremely time consuming and would not be economically viable.

New Companies Incorporated

Financial year	England/Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
1994-95	124,800	7,100	1,053
1993-94	109,000	6,400	955
1992-93	102,700	6,100	891
1991-92	105,400	6,600	1,075
1990-91	108,700	6,800	1,103
1989-90	119,300	7,000	1,186
1988-89	128,100	6,900	1,067

The statistics for England/Wales and Scotland are taken from DTI report "Companies in 1994-95": statistics for Northern Ireland are provided by the Information Unit, NI Registry.

I hope this information is helpful.

20 Dec 1995 : Column: 1255

Ministerial Offices

Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the President of the Board of Trade how much has been spent on furnishing and decorating ministerial offices in his Department in each of the last three years. [5561]

Mr. John M. Taylor: Expenditure on furnishing and decorating ministerial offices in each of the last three years is included in the running cost expenditure of my department, which is published in the annual report.

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