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Town Planners

Ms Shipley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many registered (a) town planners and (b) landscape designers work in each Regional Development Agency. [71871]

Alan Johnson: There are 34 registered town planners working in the Regional Development Agencies at present. This figure is broken down as follows.

23 Jul 2002 : Column 953W

Regional development agency	Number of town planners
Advantage West Midlands	12
East of England Development Agency	3
East Midlands Development Agency	5
North West Development Agency	3
One NorthEast	0
South East of England Development Agency	5
South West of England Development Agency	5
Yorkshire Forward	1

There are no landscape designers working in the agencies.

Universal Bank

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the timescale for the development of the universal bank; and whether it will be fully operational by 2003. [70845]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 18 July 2002]: Detailed work is being carried out on implementing universal banking services for delivery in advance of the migration of benefit payment to automated credit transfer from April 2003.

Ex-miners (Compensation Claims)

Mr. Weir: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many claims by (a) ex-miners and (b) widows of families of ex-miners suffering from vibration white finger, chronic bronchitis and emphysema have been processed; and how many still await to be processed, broken down by nation and region of the UK. [69574]

Mr. Wilson [holding answer 16 July 2002]: The figures are as follows. They are constantly changing due to the fact that claims continue to be received at the rate of 800 per week for vibration white finger (VWF) and respiratory disease respectively. Claims received very recently are therefore included in the total of "outstanding claims".

Full and final settlements and outstanding claims by region as at 11 July 2002 for VWF

	VWF outstanding claims
	Live	Widows/families	Total
Wales	10,312	962	11,274
Scotland	5,377	195	5,572
Nottinghamshire	5,966	1,026	6,992
Yorkshire	35,895	2,444	38,339
North East	28,817	906	29,723
North West	2,564	73	2,637
Midlands	5,836	192	6,028
South	2,367	84	2,451
Other	321	59	380

	VWF full and final settlements (including denied/withdrawn)
	Live	Widows/families	Total
Wales	6,771	219	6,990
Scotland	3,015	138	3,153
Nottinghamshire	4,267	91	4,358
Yorkshire	12,384	364	12,748
North East	10,790	449	11,239
North West	1,714	48	1,762
Midlands	2,014	38	2,052
South	1,163	9	1,172
Other	117	22	139

In addition there are over 10,000 VWF general damages offers with solicitors for consideration.

23 Jul 2002 : Column 954W

The Department's claims handlers are unable to provide the breakdown of outstanding offers for VWF by region in the time given.

Full and final settlements and outstanding claims by region for respiratory disease as at 11 July 2002

	COPD outstanding claims
	Alive	Widows/families	Total
Wales	15,165	15,231	30,396
Scotland	5,862	5,645	11,507
Nottinghamshire	5,906	711	6,617
Yorkshire	31,626	16,817	48,443
North East	20,858	28,492	49,350
North West	2,881	2,200	5,081
Midlands	4,475	2,134	6,609
South	2,540	1,428	3,968
Other	920	701	1,621

	COPD full and final settlements (including denied/withdrawn) as at 14 July 2002
	Alive	Widows/families	Total
Wales	5,019	1,756	6,775
Scotland	1,572	172	1,744
Nottinghamshire	1,799	110	1,909
Yorkshire	9,017	1,314	10,331
North East	5,118	1,031	6,149
North West	913	164	1,077
Midlands	1,358	202	1,560
South	890	103	993
Other	10	6	16

In addition there are over 13,000 full and final offers with solicitors for consideration. The breakdown is:

COPD outstanding offers (including denied) as at 15 July 2002

	Total
Wales	5,303
Scotland	1,644
Nottinghamshire	1,288
Yorkshire	6,916
North East	4,089
North West	491
Midlands	1,084
South	741
Other	1

Employment Tribunals

Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the length of time it takes to convene an employment tribunal. [71793]

Alan Johnson [holding answer 22 July 2002]: Cases are dealt with on an individual basis by the judiciary of the Employment Tribunals and it is not possible to state how long a case will wait before being heard. In 2001–02, 69 per cent. of single Employment Tribunal cases reached a first hearing within 26 weeks of receipt.

0870 Telephone Numbers

Mr. Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her policy is on using 0870 telephone numbers for inquiries by the public to the Department and its agencies. [66190]

23 Jul 2002 : Column 955W

Ms Hewitt [pursuant to my reply, 11 July 2002, c. 1092W]: I can now provide the individual Chief Executive replies.

Letter from Julia Fraser to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

Radiocommunications Agency does not use any 0870 telephone numbers for enquiries from the public to the Agency.
We do, however, have an 0845 local-call rate telephone number, advertised as the number to call for members of the public wanting to report radio or TV interference, which connects to our main telephone enquiry point.

Letter from Desmond Flynn to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

I am Chief Executive of The Insolvency Service and have been asked by the Secretary of State to reply to your question (2001/5280) on our policy on using 0870 telephone numbers.
The Insolvency Service is an Executive Agency of the DTI and operates from 33 nationwide locations. Each office has a local telephone number, rather than a central 0870 number, which together with an extensive catalogue of information booklets comprises our primary information-giving service.
Additionally The Service operates a central enquiry line from London with calls charged at the national rate.

Letter from Roger Heathcote to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

You tabled a Parliamentary Question on 1 July 2002 to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry concerning the policy on using 0870 numbers for enquires by the public to the department and its agencies. I have been asked to reply in respect of the Employment Tribunals Service (ETS) which is an executive agency of the DTI.
The ETS does not use any 0870 numbers and has no policy on their usage.
Our public enquiry line and its companion minicom line are operated on 0845 numbers. Calls to these two lines are charged at the local rate regardless of where in the United Kingdom from the call originates.

Letter from Dr. J. W. Llewellyn to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has asked me to reply on behalf of the National Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) to your question regarding the policy on using 0870 telephone numbers for enquiries by the public to the Department and its Agencies.
The national Weights and Measures Laboratory (NWML) does not employ any 0870 numbers.

Letter from Claire Clancy to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

I am responding on behalf of Companies House Executive Agency to your Parliamentary Question on the Department of Trade and Industry's policy on the use of 0870 telephone numbers for public enquiries.
Companies House uses an 0870 telephone number for our national public enquiry call centre. The decision to employ this type of number is consistent with the guidance set down by the Office of e-Envoy, which states that the choice of a national rate, local rate, freefone or premium rate number should be determined by individual business requirements. As a Trading fund the Agency has to cover the cost of providing services and to avoid cross subsidy. These factors led to the decision to use an 0870 number.

Letter from Caren Fullerton to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

I am replying on behalf of the Patent Office to your Parliamentary question, tabled on 1 July 2002, relating to the use of 0870 telephone numbers for enquiries by the public.

23 Jul 2002 : Column 956W

The Patent Office does not use 0870 telephone numbers. It provides 0845 numbers to be used for enquiries by the general public, who are charged local call rates for their telephone calls. This policy, determined by the business requirements of the Patent Office, conforms with the e-Envoy-s Guidelines for UK Government Call Centres.

Letter from Martin Wyn Griffith to Mr. John Randall, dated July 2002:

To ask the SoS what her policy is on using 0870 telephone numbers for enquiries by the public to the Department and its Agencies.
In response to the above Parliamentary Question, please note that:
The Small Business Service's Small Firms Finance team contracts with EC Logistics who distribute Late Payment Guidance and other publications for the SBS via an "0870" number; and
The SBS' Business Services directorate uses an "0870" number for the following purposes:
The "CONNECT" hotline
a) for Business Advisors—
to enable direct contact for Business Advisors to the CONNECT team for booking equipment/technician for shows;
for ordering CD-ROMS, technical advice, requests for presentation and clip finding service; and
for general advice and requests for literature.
b) for small business customers—
for advice on how they can access the CONNECT series via their local Business Link
The Benchmark Index hotline
a) for Business Advisors—
to enable direct contact with the Benchmark Index team for technical queries;
for advice on questionnaires;
for advice on the make up of data sets; and
requests for literature and other general support.
And b) for our small business customers—
sign-posting them to their nearest Business Link operator for access to the Benchmark Index and general help and information.
The Small Business Service uses these 0870 numbers in accordance with DTI central guidelines.
I hope this is helpful.

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