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Ministerial Meetings

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when (a) she and (b) the Minister for Energy have (i) met and (ii) spoken to (A) the Chairman and (B) the directors of (1) British Energy and (2) British Nuclear Fuels Limited since 1 June 2001; and what the nature of each discussion was. [74369]

Ms Hewitt: Ministers and Officials from my Department have had regular discussions on a wide range of issues with the Chairman and directors of British Energy and British Nuclear Fuels Limited.

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the (a) dates and (b) purpose of (i) meetings and (ii) discussions ministers in her Department have had with the European commissioners for (A) Transport and Energy, (B) Competition, (C) Enterprise and Information Society, (D) Internal Market, (E) Taxation and Customs Union, (F) Economic and Monetary Affairs, (G) Trade, (H) Health and Consumer Protection, (I) Education and Culture and (J) Employment and Social Affairs since June 2001. [74381]

Ms Hewitt: Ministers undertake bilateral meetings with any EU Commissioners as and when appropriate. No one central record is kept of Ministerial meetings with each individual EU Commissioner and to provide such detailed information would entail disproportionate costs.

Data Collation

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the form in which (a) questions and (b) comments from third parties made to her Department by (i) telephone, (ii) e-mail, (iii) fax, (iv) letter and (v) other means are collated. [74388]

Ms Hewitt: Questions and comments from third parties received by my Department in writing—by e-mail, fax or letter—are kept on file by the directorate to which the correspondence is relevant. Replies, where applicable, to that correspondence are filed with it.

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Unless of an ephemeral nature, verbal enquiries or comments, by telephone or otherwise, are noted for the record and similarly filed. Where possible third parties are encouraged to put substantive comments and queries in writing to the Department.

Export Licences

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the licences agreed by her Department since 2 May 1997 for the export of material to (a) Iran and (b) India, stating for each licence (i) what it was for and (ii) what checks were made to establish whether it could be used for arms production. [74393]

Ms Hewitt: Leaving aside concerns over confidentiality, it would entail disproportionate cost to provide details of all export licences issued to Iran and India since 2 May 1997, together with information on what the proposed export was for and what checks were made to establish whether it could be used for arms production.

Details of all export licences issued are published by destination in the Government's Annual Reports on Strategic Export Controls. Copies of the 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001 Annual Reports are available from the Libraries of the House.

Departmental Publications

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the publications produced by her Department since 25 February, stating for each the (a) number of copies produced and (b) cost of production. [74754]

Ms Hewitt: A list of those DTI publications produced since 25 February 2002 which have been notified to my Department's Publications Unit has been placed in the Libraries of the House. For publications produced prior to this date I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 25 February 2002, Official Report, columns 849–850W. The listing includes the total cost incurred by the Department in publishing, preparation and production of each publication (where notified centrally), and excludes publications produced for internal use.

Information on the number of copies produced is not held centrally by the Publications Unit and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Lost Post

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many and what percentage of (a) first and (b) second class letters and packages were lost in each of the last five years. [74394]

Ms Hewitt: These are matters that fall within the day to day responsibility of Consignia Limited and I have therefore asked the Chief Executive to reply direct to the hon. Member.

Broadband Market

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the

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Government's progress towards the target of the United Kingdom having the most extensive and competitive broadband market in the G7 by 2005. [74387]

Ms Hewitt: In the UK Online Annual Report (November, 2001), it was announced that the UK was fourth in the G7 in terms of competitiveness, ahead of the other European members of the G7, and fifth in terms of extensiveness. We will publish updated figures later this year.

Advisers and Consultants

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the advisers or consultants retained by her Department since 1 June 2001, stating for each adviser or consultant (i) the purpose, (ii) the length and (iii) the cost of their retention. [74589]

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Ms Hewitt: This information is not readily available centrally and could only be collected at disproportionate cost.

Unionised Workers

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate she has made of (a) the number and (b) the percentage of unionised workers in the (i) private sector, (ii) public sector and (iii) in total in each year since 1997. [74407]

Ms Hewitt: The number and percentage of unionised workers in (i) the private sector, (ii) the public sector and (iii) in total in each year from 1997 are summarised in the tables below. Table 1 refers to employees only and table 2 to all in employment, which includes the self-employed. Both tables exclude the armed forces and the ''all in employment'' figures also exclude unpaid family workers and those on college based schemes.

Table 1. Trade union membership and density for employees ¹ , UK

	Private sector		Public sector		Total
	thousands	per cent.	thousands	per cent.	thousands	per cent.
1997	3426	19.7	3670	61.0	7096	30.4
1998	3462	19.3	3677	61.0	7139	29.9
1999	3496	19.2	3708	59.9	7204	29.6
2000	3448	18.7	3835	60.2	7283	29.5
2001	3460	18.6	3786	59.3	7246	29.1

Note:

1 Includes all employees, excluding members of the armed forces. These data do not include the self-employed, unpaid family workers and those on government training schemes.

Source:

Labour Force Survey, Autumn quarters from 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Table 2. Trade union membership and density for all in employment ¹ , UK

	Private sector		Public sector		Total
	thousands	per cent.	thousands	per cent.	thousands	per cent.
1997	3701	17.7	3671	60.8	7372	27.4
1998	3717	17.5	3679	60.8	7396	27.1
1999	3789	17.6	3709	59.8	7498	27.1
2000	3746	17.3	3834	60.0	7580	27.1
2001	3762	17.2	3788	59.2	7550	26.8

Note:

1 Includes all those in employment, excluding members of the armed forces, unpaid family workers, and those on college based schemes. These data include the self-employed and those on government training schemes not based at a college.

Source:

Labour Force Survey, Autumn quarters from 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001.

Ofgem

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on discussions between her Department and Ofgem since 1 August. [74383]

Ms Hewitt: My Ministerial colleagues, Departmental Officials and I have regular discussions with the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets on a range of issues.

Consignia

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the financial results of Consignia in each of the last five years. [74384]

Mr. Timms: The post tax profit/(loss), including exceptional items, for each of the last five years is as follows:

Year	Outturn # million
2001–2002	(940)
2000–2001	49
1999–2000	(264)
1998–1999	496
1997–1998	447

The recent poor performance of the company, is the result of deep-seated problems that have not been addressed over a number of years. Government has now put in place steps for this to be remedied. These include the appointment of new board members and making available the #1.8 billion of accumulated reserves, which will back much needed investment in the mails business and Post Office Limited.

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