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Retail Newsagents
Mr. Gill: To ask the President of the Board of Trade what representations she has received from retail newsagents relating to their current trading conditions. [12535]
Mr. Battle: Representations have been received from a number of sources including the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Multiple Newsagents Association. My hon. Friend the Minister for Competition and Consumer Affairs has seen the NFRN, and I have also agreed to see it.
Ministerial Endorsements
Mr. Letwin: To ask the President of the Board of Trade in what circumstances Ministers in her Department are entitled to endorse particular products and services. [12475]
Mr. Ian McCartney: In pursuit of Ministers' policy objectives, the DTI provides support to individual companies in a variety of ways, for example those seeking particular major business overseas, or through its small firms merit award for research and technology--SMART--to innovators. The DTI also makes use of a large number of contractors and advisers in the course of discharging its responsibilities. The existence of these arrangements, while not conferring a ministerial endorsement on the firms in question, is normally a matter of public record and the firms concerned routinely refer to them in their own publicity and promotional material.
Patents (Engineering Products)
Mr. Levitt:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what measures she is taking to prevent the import into
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Britain and Europe of copies of British engineering products, made in breach of World Patent Organisation rules. [12756]
Mr. Ian McCartney:
The importation into the European Union of goods which infringe trade marks, copyright and design rights is prohibited by virtue of Council Regulation 3295/94 provided that the relevant right holder has lodged an application for action with Customs and Excise, which is responsible in the UK for enforcement. The regulation fulfils the obligations of the UK and the EU under the World Trade Organisation--general agreement on tariffs and trade--formerly GATT agreement on trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights but its coverage of "counterfeit and pirated goods" does not embrace patent infringements.
Angela Smith:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what measures her Department is taking to ensure consistency in Government policy towards international development within (a) bilateral trade agreements and (b) multilateral trade agreements. [12282]
Mrs. Roche:
My Department works closely with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and others to ensure that UK development policies are adequately reflected in bilateral and multilateral trade agreements.
Angela Smith:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what proposals she has on codes of conduct for British companies importing produce from developing nations. [12314]
Mrs. Roche:
My Department is keen to work constructively with companies to establish voluntary codes of conduct with their suppliers both to improve the working conditions under which their products are made and to minimise any adverse impact on the environment. I welcome the moves many of our companies are making towards taking a more ethical stance in business and private sector initiatives such as the ethical trading initiative, which is supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and the Department of Trade and Industry.
Mr. Webb:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate she has made of the real level of average household bills for gas in Great Britain as a whole and for each region of Great Britain in each year since 1978.[12830]
Mr. Battle:
The data are given in the table.
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Source:
Published tariffs.
Notes:
(5) Based on equivalent of standard tariffs of British Gas and other supply companies. Based on an annual consumption of 17,600 kWh.
(6) Bills relate to the total bill received during the year which for credit consumers covers consumption in Q4 of the previous year to Q3 in year in question and includes all tariff changes and rebates.
(7) Real prices are cash prices adjusted for inflation as measured by the GDP market price deflator.
(8) 1997 bills are provisional in that they only include tariff changes announced up to August 1997 and therefore may be subject to revision if tariff changes occur. The 1997 deflator is an estimate and as such revisions may lead to changes in the real terms bill.
(9) Supply zones are defined as Main: Scottish, North Thames, South Eastern, Eastern, Southern, Wales and South Western; North: North Eastern, North Western and Northern; Midlands: East and West.
(10) Bills for the various trial competition regions are calculated so as to include the fact that those customers who switched supplier would have received their gas, prior to switching, from British Gas and charged BG tariffs for this gas. For example, the Phase 2a and 2b bills are based on the assumption that customers who switched in Phase 2a received gas supply from the new supplier from 10 February 1997, and for Phase 2b from 7 March 1997. Prior to these dates the customers are taken to be on British Gas tariffs (e.g. national or main zone).
(11) Phase 1 covers Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, Phase 2a covers the County of Avon and Dorset and Phase 2b covers Kent and East and West Sussex.
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27 Oct 1997 : Column: 693
Mr. Webb:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate she has made of the real level of average
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household bills for electricity in Great Britain as a whole and for each region of Great Britain in each year since 1978. [12833]
Mr. Battle:
The available data are given in the table.
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Source:
Electricity Association--1980 to 1988; DTI--1989 to 1997, based on published tariffs and rebates from Public Electricity Suppliers.
Notes:
(12) Based on an annual consumption of 3,300kWh.
(13) Bills from 1989 include all tariff changes and rebates but exclude discounts offered by some companies for prompt payment.
(14) Data from 1989 relates to the total bill received during the year, which for credit consumers covers consumption in Q4 of previous year to Q3 in year in question. Specific bills based on tariffs at 1 April are used pre 1989.
(15) Data pre 1989 and post 1988 are calculated on different basis and so are not directly comparable, but do reflect the overall trend.
(16) Real prices are cash prices adjusted for the effects of inflation as measured by the GDP market price deflator.
(17) 1996 bills exclude the National Grid Discount. Customers in England and Wales received a one-off rebate of £54.60 (including VAT) during Q1 1996, following the flotation of the National Grid Company.
(18) 1997 bills are provisional in that they are based on tariffs as at end August 1997. Information for the year may change (for example with rebates) further changes will occur as revisions are made to the current estimate of the 1997 GDP deflator.
(19) From 1989, averages are weighted by the number of domestic customers in 1994-95, prior to which data for each year are used.
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