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Newspaper Industry
Mr. Woolas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has to investigate the level of competition in the wholesale newspaper industry. [119251]
Dr. Howells: The Director General of Fair Trading has a general responsibility to keep under review the carrying on of commercial activities in the UK. He has powers to investigate and to act where he has concerns about anti-competitive behaviour.
If anyone has evidence to suggest anti-competitive behaviour in the wholesale newspaper market they should inform the Director General of Fair Trading.
Nuclear Safeguards Bill
Mr. Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what requirements will be placed upon British Nuclear Fuels to allow access by safeguards inspectors to United Kingdom-owned or originated plutonium held at BNFL sites as a result of the enactment of the Nuclear Safeguards Bill [Lords]. [119255]
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Dr. Howells: None. Under the terms of the UK/ Euratom/IAEA safeguards agreement and the Euratom Treaty, British Nuclear Fuels are already required to allow access by safeguards inspectors to all civil nuclear material they hold, including plutonium.
Rover
Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the effect of the closure of Rover Longbridge (a) outside the West Midlands and (b) in Wales; and if he will make a statement. [119284]
Mr. Alan Johnson: Much will depend on the outcome of BMW's negotiations with Alchemy or any other potential purchaser. These are ongoing. The Rover Task Force will be submitting an interim report to the Government shortly.
However, until these discussions are concluded and it becomes clearer what the full implications of the acquisition might be, it would be imprudent to draw conclusions about the effect that reduced working at Longbridge might have elsewhere in the UK.
Mr. Wigley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans he has for areas outside the West Midlands which will be affected by the closure of the Longbridge Rover plant to receive financial assistance for retraining and employment creation; and if he will make a statement. [119285]
Mr. Alan Johnson: The Government will consider this in the light of the interim report from the Rover Task Force, which will be published shortly.
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for what purposes the Government's aid package for employment in relation to Rover will be allocated, broken down between (a) retraining the work force, (b) grants to attract new business, (c) support for the eventual owners of Rover and (d) other purposes. [119201]
Mr. Byers [holding answer 14 April 2000]: Decisions on the allocation of the aid package will be informed by the recommendations of the Task Force. I expect to receive their interim report in the near future.
Longbridge
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what money will be available in Worcestershire for reinvestment and retraining from the first £129 million package for Longbridge. [118696]
Mr. Alan Johnson: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced on 17 March that the Government would contribute £129 million to support projects aimed at economic regeneration, job creation, and to deal with the consequences of BMW's decision in relation to Rover.
Export Controls
Ann Clwyd: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the export licences granted for strategic exports from the UK from 1 January to (a) Zimbabwe, (b) Uganda, (c) Rwanda, (d) Burundi, (e) Angola and (f) Namibia. [118946]
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Dr. Howells: The entry in the relevant legislation under which the export of goods is controlled is known as their rating. The Export Control Organisation's computer databases have been interrogated. Between 1 January 2000 and 5 April 2000, 15 Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs), and no Open Individual Export Licences, were issued covering the export to consignees or end-users in the specified countries of goods subject to export control by being listed in Part III of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1994, commonly known as the Military List. One SIEL covered the export to Angola of goods with the rating PL5033, one SIEL covered the export to Uganda of goods with the rating PL5031, and 13 SIELs covered exports to Zimbabwe; information on the SIELs covering exports for Zimbabwe is set out in the table. Licences may cover a range of goods with various ratings; where this is so, the licence is included in the table in the total for all of the relevant ratings.
| Rating | Goods covered by the SIEL |
|---|---|
| ML1 | 4 |
| ML2 | 1 |
| ML6 | 1 |
| ML10 | 7 |
| PL5017 | 1 |
This information should be considered in light of the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswood (Mr. Berry) on 27 July 1999, Official Report, columns 307-08W.
In addition, Uganda and Zimbabwe are permitted destinations on certain Open General Export Licences covering the export of goods on the Military List; copies of all Open General Export Licences are routinely placed in the Library of the House.
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Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the most recent export licence for defence-related equipment was issued for export to (a) Saudi Arabia, (b) Kuwait, (c) Malaysia, (d) Zimbabwe, (e) Indonesia, (f) Iran, (g) Pakistan, (h) Yemen and (j) India; what each was for; how many licences for exports to each of those countries were granted in the last five years, and for what purpose; and if he will make a statement. [119479]
Dr. Howells: The entry in the relevant legislation under which the export of goods is controlled is known as their rating. The Export Control Organisation's computer databases have been interrogated. Between 1 January 1995 and 1 May 1997, 2,376 Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs) were issued covering the export to consignees or end-users in the specified countries of goods listed in Part III of Schedule 1 to the Export of Goods (Control) Order 1994, commonly known as the Military List. In this period there were no such SIELs issued to Iran.
As regards export licences granted for the export of military goods to the specified countries between 2 May 1997 and 31 December 1998, details of export licensing decisions in this period were set out in the Government's Annual Reports published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in March and November 1999. The Reports give details of the military equipment licensed for export during the periods as well as the ratings of these goods. Similar details of the military equipment licensed in later years will be set out in the relevant Annual Reports.
As regards licences granted since 1 January 1999, the Export Control Organisation's computer databases have been interrogated. Between 1 January 1999 and 5 April 2000, 1,221 SIELs have been issued covering the export of goods on the Military List. A breakdown of the licences issued between 1 January 1995 and 1 May 1997 and between 1 January 1999 and 5 April 2000 are set out in the tables.
Individual licences may cover a range of goods with various ratings; where this is so, the licence is included in the Table in the total for all of the relevant ratings.
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| Number of SIELs issued covering goods with this rating | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rating | India | Indonesia | Iran | Kuwait | Malaysia | Pakistan | Saudi Arabia | Yemen | Zimbabwe |
| ML1 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 6 |
| ML2 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 |
| ML3 | 9 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| ML4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| ML5 | 116 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| ML6 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| ML7 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| ML9 | 60 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| ML10 | 490 | 11 | 0 | 5 | 23 | 11 | 5 | 0 | 8 |
| ML11 | 111 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 29 | 7 | 10 | 1 | 1 |
| ML13 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| ML14 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| ML15 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| ML16 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ML17 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ML18 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ML21 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| ML22 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| PL5001 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PL5006 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PL5014 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| PL5017 | 30 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 3 |
| PL5018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Date of most recent SIEL | 3/4/2000 | 21/3/2000 | 25/5/1999 | 22/3/2000 | 29/3/2000 | 6/10/1999 | 4/4/2000 | 26/6/1999 | 28/3/1999 |
| and rating | ML1, PL5017 | ML10 | ML13 | PL5001 | ML2 | ML22 | ML1 | ML11 | ML2 |
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This information should be considered in light of the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Kingswood (Mr. Berry) on 27 July 1999, Official Report, columns 307-08W.
As regards Open Individual Export Licences, I shall write to the Member as soon as possible and place a copy of that letter in the Library of the House.
In addition, India, Kuwait, Malaysia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe are permitted destinations on certain Open General Export Licences covering the export of goods on the Military List; copies of all Open General Export Licences are routinely placed in the Library of the House.
Finally, it would entail disproportionate cost to compile information on the end-user for all of the licences shown in the Tables, and to make any inquiries necessary under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
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Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will introduce legislation to register arms brokers before autumn 2000; and if he will make a statement. [119052]
Dr. Howells [holding answer 17 April 2000]: The Government will announce their proposals for new export control legislation, including proposals on trafficking and brokering, following conclusion of the review of the proposals in the White Paper on Strategic Export Controls (Cm 3989) in the light of the responses received. The Government are committed to introducing new legislation on strategic export controls when time is available in the legislative programme.
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