| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Departmental Policies (Tiverton and Honiton)
Mr. Martyn Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will set out, with statistical information relating as directly as possible to the Tiverton and Honiton constituency, the effects on Tiverton and Honiton of his Department's policies and actions since 2 May 1997. [157806]
Mr. Caborn: The Department has provided the following support for businesses in Tiverton and Honiton Constituency since May 1997.
10 Apr 2001 : Column: 518W
Enterprise Grants
The Enterprise Grants scheme is a simplified scheme that was introduced in April 2000 to help small firms undertake fixed capital investment projects. Two offers totalling £2,965 have been made to firms in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency.
Smart awards are designed to help small firms with the introduction of new products and processes. Four Smart awards totalling £268,125 have been made to firms in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency.
PROSPER Business Link has provided services to small businesses in the Tiverton and Honiton constituency since 1997. These include general and specialised advice to help businesses grow, export development counselling, ICT advice, and a full range of specialist information. From April 2001 these services will be provided by the Small Business Service operating through a franchise awarded to a PROSPER led partnership. This new service will be more customer focused ensuring that services are driven by local need.
Ministerial Conference, Doha
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry where and when the strategic goals to be pursued by the European Union at the four Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation scheduled for Doha in November were (a) agreed and (b) made public; and which Ministers and officials were present when the goals were agreed. [157327]
Mr. Caborn: The EU's aims for a New Round of multilateral trade talks were set out ahead of the three Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at Seattle in the General Affairs Council (GAC) Conclusions of 26 October 1999. Those aims were discussed in European Standing Committee C on Monday 22 November 1999 and the Government's proposals were accepted.
The GAC in Seattle on 3 December 1999, attended by myself and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, confirmed the EU's comprehensive approach to a New Round.
Following the failure at Seattle to launch a New Round, the UK has been fully involved in reviewing the EU's position through numerous discussions at Ministerial and official level. These include a Ministerial meeting in Porto which I and other EU Trade Ministers attended, on 17-18 March 2000, and most recently another Ministerial meeting of EU Trade Ministers on 25 February 2001, which I attended.
The EU is still seeking the launch of a comprehensive round of talks: we maintain that only a broad-based inclusive agenda can encompass priority issues for every WTO Member, increasing the incentive to tackle more difficult areas and so bringing greatest benefits to all.
The EU's principle of a comprehensive mandate was supported by the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union in its report on the EU Mandate after Seattle (HL Paper 76: published 13 June 2000). That report noted the need for it to be pragmatic and flexible in its execution of that mandate.
10 Apr 2001 : Column: 519W
DEFENCE
Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile
Mr. Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will list (a) the original in-service date, (b) the revised in-service date and (c) the latest expected in-service date for ASRAAM; and if he will make a statement. [157179]
Dr. Moonie [holding answer 9 April 2001]: The in-service date set at the main approval point for ASRAAM was December 1998. Technical problems with the missile hardware and software, combined with a decision to alter the delivery programme to align better with the candidate aircraft, resulted in the approval of a revised in-service date of April 2001.
Matra BAE Dynamics (MBD), the prime contractor for ASRAAM, has not yet achieved the missile performance level required by the Ministry of Defence (MOD). The company has encountered a number of technical problems, which have caused some delay to the programme and mean that the in-service date of April 2001 will not be achieved. The MOD is not prepared to take delivery of any missiles until MBD can show that an acceptable standard can be met. However, we have made clear to the company the need to resolve the problems and to agree a revised programme to its entry into service. Until that time, Tornado F3, Harrier GR9 and Sea Harrier FA2 aircraft will continue to have an effective short-range air-to-air capability using Sidewinder missiles.
Agency Performance Targets
Mr. Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what performance targets have been set for the Naval Manning Agency for 2001-02. [158296]
Mr. Spellar: The Key Targets that have been set for the Chief Executive of the Naval Manning Agency for the financial year 2001-02 are set out. The targets build upon progress made by the Agency since it formed on 1 July 1996.
- (a) The percentage of filled Officer billets to be--94 per cent. or greater.
- (b) The percentage of filled rating billets to be--92 per cent. or greater.
- (c) The percentage of filled other rank billets to be--90 per cent. or greater.
- The variation of strength to requirement to be--between plus ½ and minus 2 per cent.
- (a) The percentage of Officers receiving the required Notice of Change to be--60 per cent. or greater.
- (b) The percentage of ratings receiving the required Notice of Change to be--98 per cent. or greater.
- (c) the number of occurrences where Minimum Time Ashore criteria are met to be--99 per cent. or greater.
10 Apr 2001 : Column: 520W
NMA Corporate Efficiency:
- (a) To achieve strict control of NMA manpower overheads to within plus or minus 2 per cent. of the baseline established for manpower overheads as at 1 April 2000.
- (b) To carry out two benchmarking exercises.
- (c) To achieve a Customer Confidence Score of 63.
- (a) To operate the NMA within zero to minus 1 per cent. of its 2001-02 Net Cash-Allocation for Operating Activities.
- (b) Production of Annual Accrual Accounts to be completed by July 2002.
Mr. Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what key targets have been set for the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency for 2001-02. [158297]
Mr. Spellar: These key targets have been set for the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency for 2001-02:
- To deliver RN personnel to the trained strength (or to other training organisations) within 4 per cent. variance from the tasked requirement.
- To deliver RM recruits to Commandant General Royal marines within 3 per cent. variance from the tasked requirement.
- To obtain 96 per cent. "Satisfactory" assessments from the employers of NRTA trainees.
- To maintain success rates of 95 per cent. in Career Training and 97 per cent. in examined pre-joining training.
- To reduce the variance between RNR Trained Strength and Total Requirement to 32 per cent.
- To retain tasked capacity while operating NRTA within its 2000-01 resource allocation.
- To achieve net benefits of £12 million in FY 2001-02 from the partnering arrangement with Flagship Training Ltd.
Mr. Spellar: Key Targets have been set for the Chief Executive of the DCSA for the financial year 2001-02. The targets build on the progress already made by the Agency since it formed in April 1998 and are:
Key Target 1--Service Assurance
To meet an average of 98 per cent. for measured services against the performance targets agreed with the Agency's customers.
Key Target 2--Service Positioning
To commission on average 93 per cent. of new information service requests on, or before, the dates agreed with customers when the order is initially agreed by the DCSA.
Key Target 3--Operationally Urgent Service Restoration
To restore an average 96 per cent. of interrupted services classed as operationally urgent within four hours of the fault being reported to the DCSA, or within other specific periods agreed with customers.
To achieve an 85 per cent. average success rate against agreed standards in response to demands on all DCSA Operator Assistance Centres (OACs) and helpdesk facilities.
10 Apr 2001 : Column: 521W
Key Target 5--Customer Satisfaction
To achieve a 75 per cent. average of customers/users who express moderate or high satisfaction with the way they have been treated by the Agency and the subsequent services and support provided by the DCSA.
Key Target 6--Efficiency Measurement
To achieve an improvement in efficiency by reducing the average unit cost of output for DCSA products by 5 per cent. per annum.
Key Target 7--Introduction of New Projects on Time
To determine a baseline for the average cumulative slippage of complex projects' In Service Dates (ISD) and then to set performance improvements to reduce that figure.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |