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Television Sets

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many jobs there were in the UK in each of the last five years in the manufacture of small and medium sized television sets. [34909]

Mr. Alexander [holding answer 11 February 2002]: Figures for the number of jobs in the UK in the manufacture of TV's are not available, though the British Radio and Electrical Equipment Manufacturers Association maintain data on the UK Consumer Electronics sector as a whole. Sales of high value, large screen and widescreen TV's are the main growth area of the industry, however, with 4.76 million sold in 2000 against 3.6 million in 1999, presenting manufacturers with the opportunity to move their UK production up the value chain.

Working Hours

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps the Government are taking to help people working longer than the 48 hour working week; and if she will make a statement. [35683]

Alan Johnson: The Government have introduced the Working Time Regulations, which provide that no worker (excluding those in the transport and offshore sectors, sea fishing and junior doctors ) may be required to work beyond 48 hours a week on average.

The Government are also encouraging the greater provision of flexible working opportunities which can help ease the pressure on employees to work long hours. The Government's work-life balance campaign seeks to persuade companies to introduce ways of working which meet the needs of the business and its customers while simultaneously improving the work-life balance of their employees. The Government are also particularly looking to facilitate discussion between employers and parents to consider flexible working arrangements that suit them

13 Feb 2002 : Column 446W

both. It is introducing a new right, to come into force in April 2003, for parents of children aged under six, or under-18 for parents of disabled children, to request flexible working and to have those requests seriously considered by their employers.

Employment Status Consultation Paper

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the Government's consultation paper on employment status is due to be published; and if she will make a statement. [35305]

Alan Johnson: We are just beginning a review of employment status in relation to statutory employment rights. As part of this review, we are holding initial discussions with stakeholders, which will inform a discussion document, which we intend to publish in late spring.

Post Office Investment

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will provide a detailed breakdown of the £750 million the Government have invested in the Post Office, referred to by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Edinburgh, South (Mr. Griffiths), on 29 January 2002, Official Report, column 252. [35201]

Mr. Alexander [holding answer 11 February 2002]: I refer to the answer given to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 17 January 2002, Official Report, column 409W. In addition, £480 million has been invested by Government in the Horizon programme to automate the entire post office network.

Your Guide

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what financial contribution from the Scottish Executive is being sought prior to rolling-out the "Your Guide" system in Scotland. [35735]

Mr. Alexander [holding answer 12 February 2002]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 6 February 2002, Official Report, column 967W. Should the evaluation of the pilot "Your Guide" system, and the additional work on the costs and benefits of this, indicate that a national service should be rolled out, then we will work with all of the devolved Administrations to determine the form, content and funding of any future "Your Guide" service.

Consignia

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she intends to make a decision regarding the dividend taken from Consignia this year; and what her policy on Consignia dividends is. [35480]

Mr. Alexander [holding answer 12 February 2002]: I would expect to take a decision on dividends after the end of the current financial year. The policy on dividends is set out in the White Paper, "Post Office Reform: A World Class Service for the 21st Century".

13 Feb 2002 : Column 447W

British Trade International

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to change the departmental expenditure limit of British Trade International for 2001–02. [36524]

Ms Hewitt: Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, British Trade International's Resource DEL will be increased by £175,000 from £88,818,000 to £88,993,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital are set out in the following table:

	£000
Resources
Change	175
New DEL	88,993
of which:
Voted	88,993
Non-voted	0
Capital
Change	0
New DEL	248
of which:
Voted	248
Non-voted	0

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from a transfer of £175,000 in resources from the Department of Trade and Industry to British Trade International in respect of two Rover Task Force projects in the west midlands.

Ofgem

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans she has to change the departmental expenditure limit and administration costs limits for her Department and the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets. [36525]

Ms Hewitt: Subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate the Department of Trade and Industry DEL will be increased by £69,043,000 from £4,766,430,000 to £4,835,473,000 and the Administration Costs limit will be reduced by £23,020,000 from £435,345,000 to £412,325,000. This includes the impact on the DTI DEL of the Machinery of Government transfers from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, which were still under consideration when the announcement was made regarding the Winter Supplementaries of both Departments.

Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is as set out in the following table:

	£000
Resources
Change	50,539
New DEL	4,022,145
of which:
Voted	895,145
Non-voted	3,127,000
Capital
Change	18,504
New DEL	813,328
of which:
Voted	-148,330
Non-voted	961,658

13 Feb 2002 : Column 448W

The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:

(i) the transfer of £40,300,000 of non-Voted DEL to reflect Machinery of Government transfers from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in respect of Regional Development Agencies;

(ii) to reflect the reclassification of the Private Finance Initiative Contract relating to the National Physical Laboratory as on-balance sheet, by transferring £11,220,000 to capital;

(iii) to transfer £1,506,000 to the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions for the acquisition and reclamation of strategically sited land in furtherance of the Rover Task Force diversity, modernisation and regeneration objectives;

(iv) to reclassify from capital £395,000 for the Rover Task Force Modernisation and Diversification Projects (subheads U3 and A2), of which £175,000 will be transferred to British Trade International in connection with Autosport International and Overseas Links;

(v) to record £497,531,000 of voted current receipts from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and to increase non-voted resource expenditure by an equivalent amount to reflect revised agreement on the sums to be recorded as a Machinery of Government transfer related to Regional Development Agencies;

(vi) to reclassify £650,000 from voted to non-voted DEL to reflect the funding of Regional Development Agencies via grant in aid following the above Machinery of Government changes;

(vii) to reclassify £3,010,000 from voted to non-voted DEL in connection with the funding via Regional Development Agencies of innovative schemes to establish broadband networks;

(viii) to reclassify £441,000 from voted to non-voted DEL in connection with the funding via Regional Development Agencies of regional manufacturing centres;

(ix) to reclassify £3,218,000 from voted to non-voted DEL in connection with the funding via Regional Development Agencies of Regional Supply Offices;

(x) to transfer £250,000 to the devolved Administration of Scotland in connection with the funding of innovative schemes to establish broadband networks;

(xi) to transfer £250,000 from the devolved Administration of Scotland as indemnity for costs incurred by administrators of Atlantic Telecom Group plc for costs of continuing provision of telephone services;

(xii) to increase by £900,000 the non-Voted resource DEL of Postwatch to be offset by an equivalent increase in voted licence fee receipts;

13 Feb 2002 : Column 449W

(xiii) to transfer an additional £257,000 in administration costs and £311,000 in resource (of which £50,000 to be vired to administration to reflect funding via ACAS) from the Department for Education and Skills for publicity and evaluation in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers;

(xiv) to utilise £105,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement transferred from the Department for Education and Skills for publicity and evaluation in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers

(xv) to transfer £100,000 from the Home Office in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers;

(xvi) to transfer £11,000 in administration costs from the Home Office for the administration of the Easter and British summer time; Sunday trading, street markets and Chartered Fairs Projects to reflect Machinery of Government Transfers;

(xvii) to transfer from capital £5,440,000 in connection with British Trade International to fund IT development under the ELGAR PFI contract;

(xviii) to reclassify from capital £471,000 to fund Claims Handling in the Redundancy Payments Service system upgrade;

(xix) to transfer £50,000 from the Lord Chancellor's Department in support of the Debt Advice Project;

(xx) to utilise £3,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase the External Financing Limit of British Coal Corporation to provide for compensation payments to dismissed miners.

RfR2

(i) to take up £5,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to fund Higher Education Innovation Fund projects;

(ii) to take up £4,000,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to fund Exploitation of Discoveries at Public Sector Research Establishments;

(iii) to take up £2,884,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase non-voted expenditure of the Medical Research Council;

(iv) to take up £2,350,000 of the non-voted Science Departmental Unallocated Provision to increase non- voted expenditure of the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council;

(v) to take up £2,862,000 of the Science non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision to increase non- voted expenditure of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;

(vi) to transfer £334,000 of capital from the Synchrotron Radiation Source project to fund additional non-voted expenditure of £334,000 to the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;

13 Feb 2002 : Column 450W

(vii) to take up £782,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to fund Science Enterprise Challenge projects;

(viii) to take up £146,000 of the Science non-voted Departmental Unallocated Provision for funding of Foresight LINK Awards.

The change in the capital element of the DEL arises from:

RfR1

(i) to reclassify £2,175,000 and make a transfer of this amount to the Department for Education and Skills for MG Rover training;

(ii) to reflect the reclassification of the Private Finance Initiative Contract relating to the National Physical Laboratory as on-balance sheet, by transferring £11,220,000 from resource;

(iii) to reclassify to resource £395,000 for the Rover Task Force Modernisation and Diversification Projects;

(iv) to record £636,558,000 of capital receipts from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and to increase non-voted resource expenditure by an equivalent amount to reflect revised agreement on the sums to be recorded as a Machinery of Government transfer related to Regional Development Agencies;

(v) to transfer £57,000 from the Department for Education and Skills for publicity and evaluation in relation to the Work Life Balance project to reflect Machinery of Government transfers;

(vi) to transfer to administration £5,440,000 in connection with British Trade International to fund IT development under the ELGAR PFI contract;

(vii) to reclassify to administration £471,000 to fund Claims Handling in the Redundancy Payments Service system upgrade;

(viii) to utilise £435,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement for the Capital Modernisation Fund for the Innovative Clusters Fund for the regions, and reclassify to reflect funding via Regional Development Agencies.

RfR2

(i) increases in non-Voted expenditure of £3,000,000 by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, funded by a £3,000,000 reduction in voted provision for the Synchrotron Radiation Source project;

(ii) to take up £6,063,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement from underspends on Joint Infrastructure Fund projects to fund projects under the Science Research Investment Fund;

(iii) to take up £8,044,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase non-voted expenditure by the Medical Research Council;

(iv) to take up £1,500,000 from the unused balance of the Department's end-year flexibility entitlement to increase non-voted expenditure by the Natural Environment Research Council;

13 Feb 2002 : Column 451W

(v) to transfer £334,000 from the Synchrotron Radiation Source project to fund additional resource expenditure of the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils;

Also, subject to parliamentary approval of the necessary Supplementary Estimate, the departmental expenditure limit for the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets will be increased by £1,000 from £1,316,000 to £1,317,000. The Administration Costs Limit will increase by £1,220,000 from £36,130,000 to £37,350,000. Within the DEL change, the impact on resources and capital is as set out in the following table:

	£000
Resources
Change	1
New DEL	352
of which:
Voted	352
Non-voted	0
Capital
Change	0
New DEL	965
of which:
Voted	965
Non-voted	—

All of the above increases will either be offset by inter- departmental transfers, take-up of End-Year Flexibility or use of Departmental Unallocated Provisions and will not therefore add to the planned total of public expenditure.

13 Feb 2002 : Column 452W

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