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23 Oct 2002 : Column 354W—continued

Monetary Union

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if his Department has completed the study of the experience of the United States as a monetary union, which was referred to in the HM Treasury Paper issued on 6 September, entitled, ''The Treasury's Approach to the Preliminary and Technical Work''; and if he will make a statement. [75733]

Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 22 October [75841]

Royal Mint

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the investigation by the Serious Fraud Office into the Royal Mint. [75252]

Ruth Kelly: The SFO announced on 26 September 2002 that it is now carrying out an investigation into the Royal Mint in respect of alleged improper payments made between 1996 and 1999.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to privatise the Royal Mint. [75253]

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Ruth Kelly: The Government must conduct a ''Prior Options Review'' of the Royal Mint every five years, due to its Executive Agency status. The next review is due in 2003–4.

Coinage

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to put out to tender the Treasury contract for United Kingdom coinage; and if he will make a statement. [75987]

Ruth Kelly: The Treasury keeps the arrangements for the supply of circulation coins under review. The current arrangements with the Royal Mint have several years to run. They are designed to enable both the Treasury and the Mint to plan for the medium term on a commercial basis, and to ensure a cost-effective supply of coins to meet demand.

UK Economy

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress has been made towards improving the productivity performance of the UK economy; and if he will make a statement. [75732]

John Healey: Productivity has grown since 1997, even with rapidly falling unemployment. Productivity growth between 1997Q2 and 2002Q1 has averaged 1.3 per cent. p.a. (comparing each quarter with a year earlier). This is in the context of rising employment (increased employment of over 1½ million since Spring 1997), while unemployment as measured either using the International Labour Organisation methodology or via the ''claimant count'' has been at its lowest since the 1970s over the past year.

The Government's long-term ambition is that Britain will achieve a faster rate of productivity growth than its main competitors, closing the productivity gap. The creation of a sustainable, stable macroeconomic framework since 1997 has provided the foundation for productivity growth in UK firms, and microeconomic reforms are supporting and encouraging further growth. These reforms include:

the Competition Act 1998, which prohibits anti-competitive agreements and abuses of dominant market position;

the Enterprise Bill (introduced to Parliament in March 2002), which will build on the achievements of Competition Act by further strengthening our competition authorities;

Research & Development tax credits—together the small and large company credits provide #500 million new support for business R&D;

the largest sustained growth in spending on science for a decade, with the 2002 Spending Review committing some #1.25 billion additional spending by 2005–06 compared to 2002–03;

a Green Paper setting out a fundamental reform of the land-use planning system to ensure that it does not provide a barrier to economic growth and productivity—the 2002 Spending Review allocated the ODPM substantial additional resources to drive forward the reforms set out in the Green Paper;

a 10 year plan for transport, which sets out plans for public and private investment of more than #180 billion up to 2010, creating a modern transport network across the UK—the 2002 Spending Review continued the investment necessary to deliver the Ten-Year Plan, increasing public expenditure on transport from #7.6 billion in 2002–03 to #11.6 billion in 2005–06;

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reduced corporation tax rates—the main rate has been reduced from 33 per cent. to 30 per cent., the lowest ever UK rate; the small company rate has been reduced from 23 per cent. to 19 per cent., and a new starting rate has been introduced, reduced in 2002 to 0 per cent. for profits under #10,000; average corporation tax bills for small companies have been cut by 30 per cent. since 1997;

increased investment to raise standards in education—spending per pupil was #2,700 in 1997, but rose to #3,500 last year; this could rise to #4,900 per pupil by 2005–06, which after inflation, is 50 per cent. more per pupil than in 1997;

ambitious new policies and targets to improve adult literacy and numeracy, and increase lifelong learning; and

reforms to the work permit and immigration systems to ensure that UK employers can recruit staff with the skills they need.

Substantial productivity gaps with our major competitors remain. Nevertheless, recent encouraging evidence includes:

the rating of the UK by the OECD as having the lowest barriers to entrepreneurship of any major economy;

Global Competition Review awarding the UK competition regime four and a half stars this year (compared with three and a half last year); this rating was bettered only by the US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission (5 stars);

increased gross expenditure on R&D in the UK of 11.6 per cent. in real terms between 1997 and 2000;

improved educational achievement of young people—the proportion of 16 year olds achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grades A*-C increased by 8 per cent. between 1997–8 and 2001–2 to over 50 per cent.; and

an increase of 61,000 in the number of businesses registered for VAT between 1997 and 2000.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Gibraltar

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if Gibraltar's special tax status is held to be a barrier to integration. [75103]

Peter Hain: It has been the policy of successive British Governments not to integrate Overseas Territories into the United Kingdom. This Government's policy, as set out in its 1999 White Paper, is to promote a modern and effective partnership with them.

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on his proposals for shared sovereignty with Spain over Gibraltar. [76260]

Peter Hain: I refer my hon. Friend to the statement my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary made to the house on 12 July, Official Report, columns 1165 to 1167.

Chemical Weapons

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what attempts have been made by the United Kingdom to encourage the United States administration to agree to intrusive inspections of chemical sites in the US with regard to the International Chemical Weapons Convention. [75826]

Mr. Macshane: The Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) entered into force in 1997. Industrial inspections did not begin in the United States until 2000, because the necessary national implementing legislation had not

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been put in place. The United Kingdom had consistently pressed the United States to put this legislation in place at the earliest opportunity. Since the implementing legislation has been in place, the United States has accepted all inspections of its chemical sites required by the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the Convention.

From entry into force of the CWC and 31 December 2001, the OPCW conducted 1117 inspections. Of these 374 (33 per cent.) were in the United States. In addition, OPCW inspectors are at each of the United States' chemical weapons destruction facilities at all times, conducting round-the-clock monitoring.

Weapons

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what information was produced by UNSCOM to December 1998 that identified United Kingdom origin technology and material discoveries in production plants used for the manufacture of (a) chemical weapons or their pre-cursor agents, (b) biological weapons and (c) nuclear weapons or fissile material manufacture or processing. [75824]

Mr. MacShane: Reports of all of UNSCOM's findings are published on the UNSCOM website (www.un.org/unscom).

During their inspections, UNSCOM and the IAEA Action Team identified items imported directly or via middle-men from a variety of countries, including some of UK origin at sites that they visited.

Ambassadors

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the ambassadors he has appointed since June 2001. [75657]

Mike O'Brien: The following have taken up their positions as Ambassadors or High Commissioners since June 2001:

Graham Hand, Algeria

Christopher Prentice, Jordan

Peter Westmacott, Turkey

Paul Brummell, Turkmenistan

Mike Murray, Eritrea

Tony Cantor, Paraguay

Graeme Loten, Mali

Andrew Caie, Brunei

Christopher Hum, China

Philip Priestley, Belize

Basil Eastwood, Switzerland

Tom Duggin, Colombia

Ric Todd, Slovakia

John White, Barbados

Sir Emyr Jones Parry, Permanent Representative, UKDel

NATO, Brussels

John Sawers, Egypt

Bernard Whiteside, Moldova

Stephan Evans, Sri Lanka

Richard Clarke, Tanzania

Hamish Daniel, East Timor

David Maclennan, Qatar

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Michael Smith, Tajikistan

David Merry, Botswana

Steve Hiscock, Guyana

Richard Lavers, Guatemala

Brian Donnelly, Zimbabwe

Paul Hare, Cuba

Matthew Kirk, Finland

Kathryn Colvin, The Holy See

Ron Nash, Afghanistan

Adam Wood, Uganda

Keith Bloomfield, Nepal

William Patey, Sudan

Robert Brinkley, Ukraine

Sue Hogwood, Rwanda

Peter Mathers, Jamaica

Bruce Cleghorn, Malaysia

Chris Wilton, Kuwait

Bill Sinton, Bolivia

Norman Ling, Malawi

Dame Glynne Evans, Portugal

John Thompson, Angola

Tim David, Zambia

Paul Dimond, Philippines

Frank Martin, Lesotho

David Reader, Swaziland

Denise Holt, Mexico

John Everard, Uruguay

Stuart Laing, Oman

Edward Clay, Kenya

Lyn Parker, Cyprus

Paul Nessling, Tonga

Mariot Leslie, Norway

Jim Malcolm, Panama

Sir John Holmes, France

Anne Pringle, Czech Republic

Jim Hoare, North Korea

Haydon Warren-Gash, Morocco

Andrew Tesoriere, Latvia

Georgina Butler, Costa Rica

Andy Ashcroft, Dominican Republic

Ian Cliff, Bosnia & Herzegovina

George Edgar, Macedonia

Ian Soutar, Bulgaria

Craig Murray, Uzbekistan

Kay Coombs, Honduras

Sherard Cowper-Coles, Israel

David Landsman, Albania

Robin Kealy, Tunisia

Philip Rouse, Mongolia

Vincent Fean, Malta

Fraser Wilson, Seychelles

Peter Jenkins, Permanent Representative, UK Mission to UN, Vienna

Jeremy Hill, Lithuania

Richard Fell, New Zealand

Alasdair MacDermott, Namibia

Richard Wildash, Cameroon

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