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"Your Guide"
Mr. Caton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which Government Departments' and agencies are involved in discussions with Consignia about participating in the "Your Guide" scheme to use sub-post offices in a Government general practitioner role when it is introduced across the UK. [57945]
Mr. Timms: I understand that Post Office Ltd. has engaged in discussions with a wide range of Government Departments and with representatives of local government. Discussions are currently focused on the Department for Work and Pensions, the Inland Revenue, the Department for Education and Skills, and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
Oil and Gas Directorate
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many of her Department's Oil and Gas Directorate posts that are in Aberdeen (a) have been
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transferred from London and (b) are new posts created in Aberdeen; and if she will list these jobs by grade of employment. [56327]
Mr. Wilson [holding answer 14 May 2002]: Responsibilities of the Oil and Gas Directorate have changed considerably over the years since the Aberdeen office was first set up in 1993. This has led to many changes in posts in both London and Aberdeen. For example:
- a new pay and grading structure was introduced in 1997;
19 posts were transferred to the Oil and Gas Directorate in Aberdeen from British Trade International in 2000;
14 Oil and Gas Directorate Aberdeen posts were transferred to the Inland Revenue's offshore taxation office in Aberdeen in 2000.
Mr. Salmond: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many of her Department's Oil and Gas Directorate posts are in (a) Aberdeen and (b) London; and if she will list the jobs in each location by grade of employment in each year since 1994. [56326]
Mr. Wilson [holding answer 14 May 2002]: The number of Oil and Gas Directorate posts located in (a) Aberdeen and (b) London in each year since 1994 were as follows. A breakdown by grade of employment is only available from 1997 onwards:
| Aberdeen | London | |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 44.2 | 115.3 |
| 1995 | 44.2 | 120.8 |
| 1996 | 45.5 | 118.9 |
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British Telecom
Mr. Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she last held discussions with British Telecom. [56154]
Mr. Timms: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and I regularly meet major UK companies. I have met the Chairman of BT today.
Correspondence
Mr. Chidgey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she will respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Eastleigh dated 18 March regarding the funding for supply chain companies constructing the A380 Airbus. [62311]
Mr. Wilson [holding answer 18 June 2002]: I apologise for the delay in responding to this letter which is due to an administration error. I will be responding to the hon. Member very shortly.
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Liabilities Management Unit
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to her answer to the hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) of 10 June 2002, Official Report, column 993W, if she will state (a) the preferred bidder, (b) the private sector source for the loan of a Director to the Liabilities Management Unit, (c) whether that source is meeting the staff costs involved and (d) the sources of loans and secondments of all other private sector staff within the LMU. [62934]
Mr. Wilson: I am not yet in a position to give details of the partner contractor but I expect to be able to make an announcement shortly. The Director of the Liabilities Management Unit (LMU) is seconded to the Department from the Ford Motor Company. The Director continues to receive his salary from the Ford Motor Company but the Department is making a contribution towards it. The other secondees currently in the LMU are drawn from BNFL and UKAEA. Costs are being met by the Department.
Lean Manufacturing
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how often during the past year the Manufacturing Advisory Service has (a) given advice to firms about lean manufacturing and (b) acted as a medium between firms implementing lean manufacturing and (i) lean manufacturing experts and (ii) firms that have already had success in this area. [62681]
Alan Johnson: The Regional Centres for Manufacturing Excellence (RCMEs) delivering the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) in each region are coming on stream at present and are the responsibility of the Regional Development Agencies in the regions concerned. They are not expected to provide information to the Department in the degree of detail requested by the hon. Member.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures are being taken by the Manufacturing Advisory Service to inform domestic firms about lean manufacturing. [62680]
Alan Johnson: All the Regional Centres for Manufacturing Excellence being established to deliver the Manufacturing Advisory Service in their respective regions will be communicating to manufacturers the merits of lean manufacturing. The associated MAS website (www.dti.gov.uk/manufacturing/MAS) includes a fact sheet on lean manufacturing.
In addition the service will refer manufacturers to the lean manufacturing experts within the group of Industry Forum Adaptation Projects that the Department supports.
Californian Energy Crisis
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the lessons to be learned from the Californian energy crisis. [60056]
Mr. Wilson [holding answer 13 June 2002]: The Department has monitored the situation in California closely, and continues to do so. The underlying cause of the problems in the Californian electricity market appears to have been a shortage of generation capacity. By contrast, capacity margins in Great Britain are healthy and demand growth in GB has been much more modest than
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it was in California. Overall, the Department believes a similar combination of circumstances is unlikely to occur in Great Britain, although the Department is not complacent. The Department and Ofgem set up a joint Security of Supply Working Group in July 2001 which, among other matters, is monitoring capacity issues carefully.
University Research
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of public funding of research in UK universities in each of the last five years has been for (a) military application and (b) other purposes. [61091]
Ms Hewitt: The information required can be found in Tables 6.4 and 6.5 on the Science, Engineering and Technology Statistics website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/ ost/setstats.
Mr. Kidney: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate she has made of the proportion of research in UK universities in each of the last five years that has been funded (a) privately and (b) publicly. [61090]
Ms Hewitt: The information required is as follows.
| Private(4) | Public(5) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 26 | 74 |
| 1998–99 | 25 | 75 |
| 1997–98 | 24 | 76 |
| 1996–97 | 23 | 77 |
| 1995–96 | 22 | 78 |
(4) Private includes income from UK based charities, industry, commerce and public corporations.
(5) Public includes income from OST/Research Councils, Funding Councils, UK central Government bodies/local authorities, health and hospital authorities.
Sources:
Higher Education Statistics Agency. Office for National Statistics. The figures are derived from data on income received by universities as research grants, contracts and infrastructure support.
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