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Icelandic Trawlermen (Compensation)

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many claims for compensation have been paid to former Icelandic trawlermen, since her Department's decision on the post-79 issue; and how many remain to be paid. [29905]

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Nigel Griffiths: Since 26 October 2000, when my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry announced an additional £10 million being made available to former Icelandic trawlermen, 928 claims have been paid.

There are currently 284 claims where further information is required before entitlement to compensation can be assessed and a further 386 which are in the process of being paid.

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many payments have been made to former Icelandic trawlermen; and what the total amount of compensation claims paid is, broken down in each case by port. [29906]

Nigel Griffiths: The figures as of 23 January 2002 are as follows:

Current area of residence of claimant	Number of payments	Amount of compensation (£)
Hull	1,370	15.3m
Grimsby	497	3.8m
Fleetwood	256	2.5m
Blackpool	38	311k
Cleethorpes	134	1.1m
Newcastle	260	2.9m
West Yorkshire	162	1.5m
Aberdeen	117	671k
Others	362	3m
Total	3,196	31m

National Minimum Wage

Shona McIsaac: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the impact of the national minimum wage in the (a) Cleethorpes and (b) Grimsby constituency. [29907]

Alan Johnson: Estimates for parliamentary constituencies are not available. Between spring 1998 and 2001, there has been a reduction of around 120,000 in the number of jobs paying less than the national minimum wage rates in Yorks and Humberside.

Faulty Goods

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to introduce legislation to require retailers and manufacturers to repair faulty goods within a given time scale; and if she will make a statement. [29935]

Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 24 January 2002]: When the Sale of Consumer Goods Directive (1999/44EC) is transposed into UK law later this year, it will give consumers a legal right to repair, carried out within a reasonable time, if goods do not conform to contract.

Export Credits Guarantee Department

Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total sum is of (a) premiums received by the Export Credits Guarantee Department,

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and (b) claims paid out by the Export Credits Guarantee Department in the financial years of (i) 2000–01 and (ii) 2001–02. [27213]

Ms Hewitt: Using the published annual report and the provisional figures to December the figures are as follows:

£ million

Financial year	2000–01	2001–02(17)
Earned premium	109.5	57.5
Claims authorised	298.0	180.1

⁽¹⁷⁾ Provisional to end December 2001

The claims figures relate mostly to business with Indonesia that has been rescheduled and which ECGD expects to recover in the fullness of time. These claims are in respect of business supported before the years indicated.

Public Appointments

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to her answer of 10 December 2001, Official Report, column 671W, on public appointments, if she will list the bodies with the names of those appointed. [27887]

Ms Hewitt: My answer of 10 December gave the number of appointments made between 7 June and 30 November as 167. Details of the bodies to which the appointments were made and the names of the appointees have been placed in the Libraries of the House, together with details of a further 11 who were appointed to the research councils in that period but whose numbers were inadvertently omitted from the original figure of 167. The total number of appointments in the period concerned was in fact 178.

Departmental Expenditure

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to her answer of 18 January 2001, Official Report, column 508W, on departmental expenditure, if she will state the calculation by which she reached her answer; and if she will make a statement. [30291]

Ms Hewitt: For each loan refinanced, ECGD calculates the savings generated by the reduction in the guaranteed return paid to the lending banks and the savings generated by using HMG funding as compared to alternative fixed funding over the life of the loan. The figure of £75 million represents the sum of these savings for all cases refinanced in this way up to 31 March 2001.

Climate Change Levy

Mr. Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her estimate is of the net cost of the climate change levy to the manufacturing sector. [30168]

Mr. Boateng: I have been asked to reply.

It is not possible to say what the precise effect of the climate change levy will be on any one particular sector.

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Government Supplies

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the Government's policy is regarding credit checking its supplier companies and traders. [29903]

Mr. Andrew Smith: I have been asked to reply.

The Office of Government Commerce published new guidance on the financial appraisal of suppliers in October 2001. The guidance stresses that while credit ratings are useful indicators they should not be used as a substitute for a more detailed financial examination of prospective suppliers.

A copy of Supplier Financial Appraisal Guidance is available on the Office of Government Commerce website at: www.ogc.gov.uk/ogc/publications.nsf/pages/ publications.html.

ELECTORAL COMMISSION COMMITTEE

Transfer of Functions

Mr. Rendel: To ask the right hon. Member for Berwick- upon-Tweed, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, if the additional costs relating to the transfer of the functions of the Local Government Commission for England to the Electoral Commission will be met in advance of the transfer date of 1 April 2002 provided for in the Local Government Commission for England (Transfer of Functions) Order 2001 (SI2001/ 3962). [31316]

Mr. Beith: In order to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the transfer and to enable the transferring local government boundary review functions, together with the related functions transferring from the Secretary of State for Local Government, Transport and the Regions, to be carried out without interruption, urgent expenditure estimated at £127,000 will be met by repayable advances from the Contingencies Fund.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Council Tax (Police Costs)

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list, by police authority, the police element of council tax per head for each year since 1995–96 and the percentage change (a) in each year and (b) for the whole period. [28667]

Dr. Whitehead: I have been asked to reply.

A table showing the police authority council tax for each year since 1995–96 per head of population and the percentage change in each year, and for the whole period, has been placed in the House of Commons Library. The figures per head of population include council tax that is met by council tax benefit.

Police Grant

Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how he plans to allocate police grant in 2002–03; and what the final funding allocations for police authorities will be for that year. [31248]

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Mr. Denham: I have today laid before the House the Police Grant Report (England and Wales) 2002–03 (HC 533). The report sets out my determination for 2002–03 of the aggregate amount of grants that I propose to pay under section 46(2) of the Police Act 1996, and the amount to be paid to each police authority and to the Greater London Authority for the Metropolitan Police Authority.

Allocations of police grant: 2002–03£

	Grant allocations	Transitional grants	Total
Avon and Somerset	91,025,174	0	91,025,174
Bedfordshire	34,313,252	0	34,313,252
Cambridgeshire	40,842,075	0	40,842,075
Cheshire	59,689,589	0	59,689,589
City of London	29,843,245	0	29,843,245
Cleveland	44,723,013	0	44,723,013
Cumbria	32,733,488	0	32,733,488
Derbyshire	56,470,734	0	56,470,734
Devon and Cornwall	94,722,350	0	94,722,350
Dorset	37,600,585	0	37,600,585
Durham	43,958,181	0	43,958,181
Dyfed-Powys	28,173,194	0	28,173,194
Essex	92,346,333	0	92,346,333
Gloucestershire	33,653,863	0	33,653,863
Greater Manchester	203,722,362	0	203,722,362
Gwent	37,640,172	0	37,640,172
Hampshire	108,365,042	0	108,365,042
Hertfordshire	61,640,063	300,000	61,940,063
Humberside	60,476,986	0	60,476,986
Kent	102,446,510	0	102,446,510
Lancashire	97,392,588	0	97,392,588
Leicestershire	55,659,650	0	55,659,650
Lincolnshire	34,305,310	0	34,305,310
Merseyside	126,336,316	0	126,336,316
Metropolitan police	1,015,895,687	0	1,015,895,687
Norfolk	46,284,453	0	46,284,453
North Wales	41,105,875	0	41,105,875
North Yorkshire	42,026,127	0	42,026,127
Northamptonshire	35,505,178	0	35,505,178
Northumbria	113,187,850	0	113,187,850
Nottinghamshire	67,683,907	0	67,683,907
South Wales	89,252,826	0	89,252,826
South Yorkshire	92,071,806	0	92,071,806
Staffordshire	60,965,947	0	60,965,947
Suffolk	37,702,731	0	37,702,731
Surrey	54,442,942	800,000	55,242,942
Sussex	91,312,691	0	91,312,691
Thames Valley	122,386,580	0	122,386,580
Warwickshire	28,078,851	0	28,078,851
West Mercia	61,765,548	0	61,765,548
West Midlands	206,139,660	0	206,139,660
West Yorkshire	155,924,778	0	155,924,778
Wiltshire	34,566,488	0	34,566,488
Totals
England	3,808,207,933	1,100,000	3,809,307,933
Wales	196,172,067	0	196,172,067
England and Wales	4,004,380,000	1,100,000	4,005,480,000

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