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Temporary Employment
Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what studies her Department has conducted into the number of temporary employees who (a) prefer to remain in temporary employment and (b) are unable to find permanent employment. [30680]
Alan Johnson: This Department has conducted no recent study on this issue. However, the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is an Office for National Statistics data set covering the UK, examines whether such individuals are temporary employees by choice or because they cannot find a permanent job. The LFS defines temporary employees as including individuals engaged
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on: employment business assignments, seasonal work, fixed term contracts and casual work. The autumn 2001 survey estimated that:
- (a) 500,000 temporary employees (30.2 per cent. of the total) preferred to remain in temporary employment, and
- (b) 416,000 (25.1 per cent) were unable to find permanent employment.
Conduct of Employment Agencies and
Employment Business Regulations
Mr. Jack: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to the answer of 3 December 2001, Official Report, column 52W, if she will define the unnecessary restrictions on organisations in the recruitment industry, including the IT sector which are due to be removed by the draft Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations. [30695]
Alan Johnson: The Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations will remove the following restrictions:
- (i) Preventing employment agencies offering, directly or indirectly, any financial benefit or benefit in kind to induce a work-seeker to use their services;
- (ii) Preventing employment agencies offering their services to a worker in employment, where the agent had previously received a fee for introducing him to that employment;
- (iii) Preventing employment businesses approaching a worker in employment, to induce the worker to agree to be supplied to a hirer;
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- (iv) The requirement for employment agencies and employment businesses to inform the Secretary of State in writing of their terms of business;
- (v) The requirement for employment agencies and employment businesses to keep records on their premises.
Small Business Service Offices
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small business service offices are situated in the coalfield communities. [29298]
Nigel Griffiths: The Small Business Service has an office in each of the nine English regions. The SBS contracts via regional teams with 45 Business Link Operators to provide business support services throughout England. All of the coalfield communities are served by this local network irrespective of the specific location of the office.
Redundancies
Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many redundancies were notified, broken down by (a) constituency, (b) region and (c) country in each year since 1997. [30297]
Alan Johnson: The following table shows the numbers of planned redundancies notified for each year from 1997 to 2001. Companies are required to notify only where they plan to make 20 or more people redundant. I regret there are no similar statistics for individual constituencies.
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Postal Services
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will place in the Library a copy of the Consignia/UBS Warburg strategic plan for postal services. [30105]
Ms Hewitt: Any Consignia strategic plan would be commercially confidential and therefore under Exemption 13 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information could not be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Construction Industry
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she has taken to replace the construction industry retention system as regards central Government, agency and local authority contracts. [29802]
Mr. Andrew Smith: I have been asked to reply.
I am aware of the concerns raised in the industry with regard to retentions, but it would be premature to seek to change the current arrangements.
The construction industry has yet to achieve 'zero-defects' or 'right first time' culture and continues to have difficulty ensuring quality. Contractors, sub- contractors and specialists in the industry, as well as government, have a role to play in ensuring that quality is a priority issue.
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The Achieving Excellence in Construction initiative, led by the Office of Government Commerce, is placing greater emphasis on team working and value for money procurement strategies and is encouraging central Government construction clients to use partnering and long-term commercial agreements with suppliers to reduce the need for retentions in the future.
The Local Government Task Force, which was formed to promote Sir John Egan's Construction Task Force report 'Rethinking Construction' in local government, is also encouraging authorities to work with suppliers to reduce the need for retentions.
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