| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Gas-fired Power Stations
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations her Department received prior to the lifting of the moratorium on gas-fired power stations. [44665]
Mr. Wilson: Representations were made to the Department throughout the period of the stricter consents policy on the value of the policy and its application to particular projects. It is not realistic to detail all these. However the ministerial decisions of particular cases are a matter of public record.
Construction Skills Certification Scheme
Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much public funding, including EU funding has been made available to the Construction Skills Certification Scheme in each year since its inception. [44224]
Mr. Wilson [holding answer 18 March 2002]: CSCS Ltd. is an independent company limited by guarantee. The Department has not provided any public funding to CSCS. Overall funding is a matter for them.
The inquiry has been passed to CSCS with the request that they respond directly.
Women Engineers
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what plans she has to encourage women engineers back to work who have taken time off to raise families; [43576]
25 Mar 2002 : Column 695W
- (2) what plans she has to promote an increase in the number of women entering the engineering profession. [43577]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 19 March 2002]: The DTI Promoting SET for Women unit works closely with the WISE campaign on a number of projects designed to attract more girls into engineering. We are funding a pilot mentoring scheme by WES/AWISE which will encourage and support both entrants and returners to science and engineering careers.
Export Licence Requirements
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether export licence requirements extend to the production in countries outside the EU of weapons, vehicles and equipment otherwise licensable in the military list as part of offset deals on the sale of services and intellectual property involving UK firms. [44710]
Nigel Griffiths: An export licence is not required from the Department of Trade and Industry's Export Control Organisation to manufacture items outside the UK. However, where the product to be manufactured under commercial licence has a potential military use, the UK exporter might require an export licence before the goods and technology necessary for the establishment and operation of the licensed production facility can be supplied from the UK.
The Government have made it clear that an export licence will not be issued where to do so would be in contravention of the Consolidated EU and national arms export licensing criteria, including where there is a clear risk that the finished products could be used for internal repression, international aggression, or diverted to an undesirable end-user.
Company Law Review
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made with regard to the company law review; and if she will make a statement. [44778]
Ms Hewitt: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given by my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for State for Competition, consumers and Markets to the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (Brian Cotter) on 15 October 2001, Official Report, column 982W.
Inward Investment
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the British percentage was of inward investment into the EU from (a) the USA, (b) the G7 countries and (c) Japan in each of the last 20 years. [44781]
Ms Hewitt: The information is in the following table:
(37) G7 comprises of UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada and USA.
Note:
Eurostat Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) statistics have been quoted to ensure consistent comparison between countries and are based on inward FDI stock figures as reported by individual EU member states. Outward FDI stocks in the EU published by other non-EU country statistical offices may differ from those published by Eurostat. For example, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis statistics reported than in 1999 the UK received 41 per cent. of US outward FDI stocks. There are a number of widely recognised technical reasons why such apparent discrepancies arise.
Source:
Eurostat New Cronos database.
25 Mar 2002 : Column 696W
EU Tariffs
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate she has made of the cost to (a) EU countries and (b) the UK economy of tariffs applied by the EU in the last year for which figures are available. [44764]
Ms Hewitt: In 2000, the latest full year for which figures are available, on total UK imports of £222.6 billion the customs duty charged was £1.8 billion.
In the same year on total EU imports, including UK imports, of £1,525 billion, the customs duty charged was £8.9 billion.
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many tariffs the EU has applied to goods from outside the EU in each of the last 20 years. [44780]
Ms Hewitt: The European Union's 2002 Common Customs Tariff has 10,400 lines. A positive "most favoured nation" "full" rate of duty is payable on 8,270 of these lines, although in most cases one or more "preferential" (i.e. lower) rates of duty is payable on imports from a range of countries. On the remaining 2,130 lines, no duty is payable.
Equivalent information for earlier years is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Broadband Access
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what is the (a) total number and (b) percentage of (i) homes and (ii) businesses in the UK that have broadband access. [44784]
Ms Hewitt: A map showing availability of broadband services in the UK was contained in the UK Online annual report 2001. The report states that 60–65 per cent. of the population (equating to around 15 million households) is now covered by at least one affordable broadband technology.
Oftel have reported that there were some 350,000 subscribers to ADSL and cable modem services as at 25 January 2002.
25 Mar 2002 : Column 697W
DTI's Business in the Information Age International Benchmarking Report 2001 provides information on the information and communication technologies used by businesses.
Copies of these documents have been placed in the Libraries of the House.
Universal Bank
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the progress made in establishing the universal bank. [44789]
Ms Hewitt: Progress continues to be made on universal banking services.
25 Mar 2002 : Column 698W
Trade Union Membership
Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many and what percentage of workers belonged to trade unions in each of the last 20 years; and what the figures were broken down into (a) public and (b) private sector workers. [44765]
Ms Hewitt: The number of workers who are members of a trade union can be estimated annually from the results of the autumn Labour Force Survey. The number and percentage of workers in Great Britain is given in the table. Data are available for union membership from 1990 and can be sub-divided for the private and public sector from 1993.
| Workers(38) in employment | Workers(38) in private sector | Workers(38) in public sector | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Members (Thousand) | Union density | Members (Thousand) | Union density | Members (Thousand) | Union density |
| 1990 | 8,835 | 33.9 | — | — | — | — |
| 1991 | 8,602 | 33.6 | — | — | — | — |
| 1992 | 7,956 | 32.2 | — | — | — | — |
| 1993 | 7,767 | 31.5 | 3,920 | 23.7 | 3,847 | 64.4 |
| 1994 | 7,530 | 30.1 | 3,825 | 22.5 | 3,705 | 63.6 |
| 1995 | 7,309 | 28.8 | 3,651 | 21.3 | 3,658 | 61.4 |
| 1996 | 7,244 | 28.2 | 3,629 | 20.6 | 3,615 | 60.9 |
| 1997 | 7,154 | 27.3 | 3,605 | 19.7 | 3,548 | 60.8 |
| 1998 | 7,152 | 26.9 | 3,590 | 19.2 | 3,561 | 60.7 |
| 1999 | 7,257 | 27.0 | 3,649 | 19.2 | 3,609 | 59.8 |
| 2000 | 7,321 | 27.0 | 3,600 | 18.7 | 3,720 | 60.0 |
| 2001 | 7,270 | 26.5 | 3,606 | 18.4 | 3,664 | 58.1 |
(38) Includes all those in employment, excluding members of the armed forces, unpaid family workers, and those on college based schemes.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |