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Departmental Publicity

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is his Department's budgeted expenditure on (a) advertising, (b) publicity and (c) public information campaigns for January to March 1997; and what was the outturn expenditure on (a) to (c) for the same period for each of the last five years. [13306]

Mr. John M. Taylor: The information requested is not collected centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.

Privatised Companies

Mr. Salmond: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will calculate the current market capitalisation value of each of the privatised companies supervised by a regulator, at 1996-97 prices. [14009]

Mr. John M. Taylor: Market capitalisation values for each of the privatised companies supervised by a regulator, and quoted on the stock exchange, are regularly published in the financial press, copies of which are available in the Library of the House.

Imperial Weights (EU Directives)

Mr. Spearing: To ask the President of the Board of Trade which European (a) directive and (b) proposed directive contains provisions relating to the offer for sale of goods whose weight is specified in pounds and ounces; and which directive or proposed directive applies the criminal law to such offer for sale. [14091]

Mr. John M. Taylor: Goods sold by weight, measure, length or square area are required under Directive 80/181, as amended, to use metric units as the primary indications of quantity, with the option to use imperial units as supplementary indications. Goods sold loose by the pound and the ounce may continue to use imperial units as the primary indication until 31 December 1999.

4 Feb 1997 : Column: 561

A number of other directives that harmonise national provisions concerning weighing instruments and the labelling of packaged goods give effect to the provisions of directive 80/181.

As regards proposals under discussion, the new price indications directive would--if adopted--require the price per unit (the "unit price") to be indicated by reference to either the kilo, litre, metre or square metre.

Neither the existing directives nor the proposed price indications directive include specific enforcement provisions. It is a matter for member states to introduce measures necessary to implement the directives, with appropriate disincentives for non-compliance.

Satellites

Mr. Menzies Campbell: To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will list the satellites (a) wholly and (b) partly owned by Her Majesty's Government since 1967, indicating their operator. [13251]

Mr. Ian Taylor: I refer the hon. and learned Member to the answer I gave on behalf of my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs today. In addition, the satellites wholly owned and operated by Her Majesty's Government since 1967 are as follows:

Name	Operator
SKYNET 1A	MOD
SKYNET 1B	MOD
SKYNET 2A	MOD
SKYNET 2B	MOD
ARIEL 3	SERC
ARIEL 4	SERC
ARIEL 5	SERC
ARIEL 6	SERC
X-3 (PROSPERO)	RAe Farnborough
X-4 (MIRANDA)	RAe Farnborough
AMPTE-UKS	SERC
IRAS(7)	SERC(7)

MOD--Ministry of Defence.

SERC--Science and Engineering Research Council. SERC is no longer in existence, its space research responsibilities having passed to the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council.

RAe Farnborough--Royal Aerospace Establishment, Farnborough is now part of the Defence Evaluation Research Agency.

(7) Operated but not owned by SERC.

ARIEL 1 and ARIEL 2 were launched in 1962 and 1964 respectively, their missions coming to an end in 1976 and 1967 respectively.

There are no satellites partly owned by Her Majesty's Government.

Nuclear Safety

Mr. McAllion: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what recent discussions he has held with environmental groups relating to nuclear safety. [12508]

Mr. Page: None. A number of environmental groups, including Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace, set out their views on nuclear safety issues in evidence contributed to the 1994 nuclear review. The Government have consistently made clear their position that safety is the highest priority and that the UK's nuclear licensing and regulatory regime provides a rigorous and robust system for ensuring high standards of safety at UK nuclear facilities.

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Exotic Animal Imports

Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the President of the Board of Trade (1) what requirements have to be satisfied by those intending to import into the United Kingdom exotic animals not listed in the convention on international trade in endangered species; [12579]

(2) if his Department requires prior notification of the numbers and destination of non-CITES-listed venomous snakes imported into the United Kingdom. [12624]

Mr. Nelson [holding answers 29 January 1997]: My Department does not require prior notification of, or impose requirements relating to, the import of venomous snakes or any other exotic animals. This is because, alongside the import restrictions applied to species covered by CITES, a range of other controls on the possession and treatment of animals within the United Kingdom apply regardless of whether the animals are bred here or imported. The main regulatory measures include the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976, for which the Department of the Environment is responsible, together with a network of health, welfare and anti-rabies rules enforced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Home Office and HM Customs and Excise.

European Union (Investment)

Mr. Colvin: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what is his estimate of the value of investment by countries outside the European Union in EU member states in each of the last 10 years; and in each case what percentage of that investment came to the United Kingdom. [13686]

Mr. Greg Knight [holding answer 31 January 1997]: The available information is given in the table.

Inflow of foreign direct investment by countries outside the European Union into EU member states 1984-1994

	EU(12)(8) £ million	Percentage invested in UK
1984	3,634	32
1985	3,365	11
1986	4,781	47
1987	9,155	43
1988	12,054	48
1989	18,817	56
1990	23,395	45
1991	14,680	27
1992	14,365	45
1993	15,562	40
1994	13,485	15

Note:

(8) EU(15) 1992 onwards.

Source:

European Union Direct Investment 1984-1993, Eurostat.

Eurostat estimate 1992-1994.

Since investment flows are volatile, it is more meaningful to look at investment flows over a number of years. Over the period as a whole, the UK attracted around 40 per cent. of investment into the EU. According to UK figures, investment from outside the EU more than tripled between 1994 and 1995.

Business Links

Mrs. Roche: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what extra resources have been allocated to

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business links to ensure that they are able to maintain support currently provided by the Rural Development Commission to their small business clients in rural development areas. [13887]

Mr. Page [holding answer 31 January 1997]: None. Business links already provide support to all small and medium-sized enterprises in their areas--rural or urban. In addition, an element of the local competitiveness challenge has been earmarked for bids from rural development areas. Projects with a rural dimension have featured strongly at the outline bid stage of the challenge.

TREASURY

Employment Statistics

Ms Church: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many economically active people aged under 25 years whose highest qualification was a degree and who had been in full-time education in the previous year, broken down where possible by ethnic group, were unemployed in (a) 1992 and (b) at the latest available date; [6645]

(2) how many economically active people aged under 25 years who did not have a higher education qualification and who had been a full-time student or pupil the previous year, broken down where possible by ethnic group, were unemployed in (i) 1992 and (ii) at the latest available date;[6646]

(3) how many people aged 16 to 24 years with no higher education qualification who were in full-time education in the previous year sought a full-time job but accepted a part-time job in (i) 1992 and (ii) 1996, broken down where possible by ethnic group; [6648]

(4) how many people aged 16 to 24 years with no higher education qualification who were in full-time education in the previous year, sought a permanent job but accepted a temporary job in (i) 1992 and (ii) 1996, broken down where possible by ethnic group. [6649]

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Mrs. Angela Knight: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the chief executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Tim Holt to Ms Judith Church, dated 4 February 1997:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply as the Director of the Office for National Statistics to your four outstanding questions (6645, 6646, 6648 and 6649) on under 25 year olds.
These questions were originally tabled along with four others due for reply on 27 November last year. However, because the necessary variable concerning qualifications was not then available for spring 1996 your office said they would wait until the questions could be answered using spring 1996 rather than use spring 1995 figures. In the event it took longer than expected for the necessary variable to become available. I apologise for this delay.
The estimates for Great Britain available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are shown in the tables below. The LFS uses the International Labour Office (ILO) definition of unemployment. As in the case of any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to sampling variability. Figures below 10,000 are considered too small to provide reliable estimates and this is why the data on those ILO unemployed can only be broken down into white and non-white and why the figures on those accepting temporary or part-time jobs cannot be broken down at all by ethnic group.
Your questions about those unemployed according to qualification refer to those with degrees and those without a higher education qualification. To ensure that the two categories added up to the total, we have interpreted "without a higher qualification" to be all those without degrees for all the questions answered here. The definition of a higher qualification which we normally use for our analyses covers everything above 'A' level. If you would like further analyses based on this definition your researcher should contact Tim Thair (LFS Analysis at ONS) on 0171 533 6142. I understand he and your researcher discussed the questions answered previously.
Employees aged 16-24 with highest qualification below degree(9) level who were full-time students a year agoGreat Britain (000)

	Sought full-time job but accepted a part-time job	Sought permanent job but accepted a temporary job
Spring 1992	24	20
Spring 1996	25	24




Notes:

It is not possible to give the ethnic breakdown as the sample size is too small.

(9) Includes those with no qualifications.

Source:

ONS, Labour Force Survey.

4 Feb 1997 : Column: 563

Unemployed persons aged 16-24 who were in full-time education a year ago by highest qualification(10)Great Britain

	000's				ILO unemployment rate(11)
	Degree(12)	Non-degree(13) Degree(12)			Non-degree(13)
ILO unemployed		All	White	Non-white		All	White	Non-white
Spring 1992	21	134	122	12	22.1	18.4	17.8	27.8
Spring 1996	22	178	157	20	17.7	22.3	21.3	35.2




Notes:

(10) It is not possible to give any other ethnic breakdowns as the sample sizes are too small. Estimates for degree and non-degree, non-white are subject to considerable sampling variation.

(11) Total ILO unemployed as a percentage of all economically active persons in the relevant group.

(12) Degree in 1996 includes NVQ level 5 but NVQ level 4 has been included in non-degree.

(13) Includes those with no qualifications.

Source:

ONS, Labour Force Survey.

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