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Small Businesses (Corporation Tax)
24. Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the impact of the new rate of corporation tax for small businesses. [77058]
Mr. Wills: Around 270,000 small and growing companies, that is two-thirds of all tax-paying companies, will benefit from the new 10 per cent. starting rate of corporation tax for small business, leaving them with more of their profits for retention, reinvestment and growth.
Trade Liberalisation
25. Mrs. Butler: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he next expects to discuss the liberalisation of trade with his international partners. [77060]
Mr. Wilson: The Secretary of State often meets his overseas counterparts individually and takes every opportunity to discuss with them specific issues relating to international trade and the importance of further liberalising world trade in general. He next expects to meet the majority of his international partners as a group at the World Trade Organisation's Ministerial conference in Seattle from November 30 to December 3 this year. The agenda for that meeting is not yet fixed but is expected to include the launch of a new Round of multilateral trade liberalisation negotiations.
Liberalisation of trade is a matter covered by the Common Commercial Policy of the EU. The Secretary of State will next discuss this with EU partners in Berlin on 9-10 May 1999 at an Informal Meeting of Trade Ministers. Other opportunities to meet groups of trade ministers include the annual Ministerial meeting of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development and the biannual Asia-Europe meeting.
Business Costs
26. Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the net change in (a) regulatory costs and (b) tax costs to business since 1 May 1997. [77061]
Dr. Howells:
Any assessment of the net change in regulatory costs is, on its own, misleading because it ignores the benefits of regulation which are much more difficult to quantify. What matters is that we minimise
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costs and maximise benefits when obliged to regulate. Our regulatory impact assessment procedures are designed to achieve this.
Details of the impact of particular tax measures introduced since 1 May 1997 are set out in the relevant edition of the Financial Statement and Budget Report.
Mr. Redwood:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will reassess the annual cost to business of full implementation of the (a) minimum wage and (b) working time regulations following recent business experience. [77885]
Mr. Byers
[holding answer 19 March 1999]: I will always be prepared to reassess our estimate of costs in the light of experience.
27. Mr. Andrew George:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he expects the Office of Fair Trading to report on its inquiry into supermarket profitability; and if he will make a statement. [77063]
Dr. Howells:
I understand that the Office of Fair Trading hopes to be in a position to announce its conclusions in April.
28. Mr. Pike:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations his Department has received on arrangements made by employers to avoid providing the full benefit of minimum wage to their employees. [77064]
Mr. Byers:
Not only do most employers support the principle of the national minimum wage, but many firms have already adjusted their pay structures to take account of its introduction. The Inland Revenue will enforce the minimum wage by responding to complaints and targeting inspections on those sectors where underpayments are likely to occur.
29. Mr. Walter:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received concerning the Bank of England's assessment of the inflationary implications of the minimum wage. [77066]
Mr. Byers:
I have received a number of representations on the possible effect of the introduction of the national minimum wage, including its impact on inflation.
30. Mr. Clapham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to review the Business Links services; and if he will make a statement. [77067]
Mr. Wills:
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State made a statement to the House last week which detailed our plans to create a new Small Business Service about which we will be consulting widely. As part of that consultation, I will be inviting views from Business Link Partnerships, small firms and their representative organisation, and other interested bodies, on how best we can deliver coherent, high-quality support programmes to smaller firms.
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31. Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent discussions he has had with (a) British Aerospace and (b) the Society of British Aerospace Companies concerning the consolidation of the European aerospace industry; and if he will make a statement. [77068]
Mr. Battle:
I met British Aerospace to discuss the consolidation of the European aerospace industry in advance of the meeting of Industry Ministers of the six European nations most closely involved in discussions on this issue, held in Madrid on 21 January.
32. Mr. Grogan:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the Government's policy towards the coal industry. [77069]
Mr. Battle:
The United Kingdom coal industry neither seeks nor receives special treatment. The Government are concerned to ensure that UK coal producers are able to compete on a level playing field with other sources of energy and with imported coal.
The measures the Government are taking to remove distortions in the UK electricity market will ensure a level playing field for all fuels. It is for UK coal producers to respond to the challenge of an open and competitive coal market.
I published last week a report by International Mining Consultants Ltd. (IMCL) commissioned by my Department on the prospects for deep mined coal production in the UK over the next twenty years. The report shows that there are sufficient reserves to sustain a competitive deep mine industry of significant size well into the new century.
33. Mr. Lock:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations (a) he has made and (b) plans to make to the Chancellor of the Exchequer concerning the impact on the financial services market of building society de-mutualisations. [77070]
Dr. Howells:
I have not made, nor will I be making, any such representations.
34. Mr. Laurence Robertson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on his plans to issue advice to businesses following the introduction of the euro. [77072]
Mr. Byers:
My Department has recently launched a Euro Planner floppy disc designed to help small and medium businesses deal with the euro. More than 40,000 copies of the Euro Planner have already been sent out.
This is one part of the Government's broader strategy to help SMEs deal with the euro, which includes a national awareness campaign, supported by high-quality information on the euro; a network of twelve regional euro forum; the provision of practical advice through Business Links and other intermediaries and specific measures to facilitate the use of the euro by business.
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Mr. Llew Smith:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research has been (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated by his Department into the forms of packaging available for containment of (i) low, (ii) intermediate and (iii) high level radioactive wastes for its repatriation after reprocessing. [77943]
Ms Glenda Jackson:
I have been asked to reply.
The Department does not commission research relating to specific packages: this is the responsibility of the designer concerned. The Department's role is to evaluate the safety case, made by designers, against the regulatory requirements which apply to certain types of package.
Ms Dari Taylor:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement about the Government's response to the recommendation on political donations by companies made by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in its report on the funding of political parties in the United Kingdom. [78860]
Mr. Byers:
The Government agree with the Committee that the current arrangements for company donations, under which directors have discretion whether to contribute to a political party and whether to seek shareholders' consent, will not be satisfactory in an era of greater openness about party sources and uses of party funds. It has therefore accepted the Committee's recommendation that legislative provision should be made to require any company intending to make a donation (whether in cash or in kind, and including any sponsorship, or loans or transactions at a favourable rate) to a political party or organisation to have the prior authority of its shareholders. The Government would, however, welcome views on the implementation of this recommendation, and I have today published a consultative document seeking comments on the following three areas: the definition of a "political donation" with respect to donations by companies; the way in which companies legislation should be amended to give effect to the Neill Committee's recommendation that a company should have to have the prior authority of its shareholders; and possible changes to the existing disclosure provisions relating to political donations in Schedule 7 to the Companies Act 1985. The consultation will inform the drafting of a Bill to implement the main findings of the Committee's report, which the Government intend to publish by the Parliamentary Summer Recess.
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