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Regional Development Agencies

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what level of surplus has been accrued by each Regional Development Agency in each year since their inception. [105049]

Alan Johnson: Information on the income and expenditure of each of the Regional Development Agencies, including on surpluses carried forward, is set out in an annual report. Copies are placed in the Library and the most recently published are available on the internet. The following table shows, according to the audited annual reports and accounts of the Development Agencies for 2000–01 and 2001–02, surpluses or deficits carried forward, in £000s for each of the Regional Development Agencies from their inception. The London Development Agency is not included since it is a local government body and similar information is not available.

RDA and internet website address	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Advantage West Midlands (www.advantagewm.co.uk)	365	312	-40
East of England Development Agency (www.eeda.org.uk)	-47	193	703
East Midlands Development Agency (www.emd.org.uk)	822	258	-239
Northwest Development Agency (www.nwda.co.uk)	-3,223	3,889	4,327
One North East (www.onenortheast.co.uk)	1,091	1,154	2,213
South East England Development Agency (www.seeda.co.uk)	681	0	0
South West of England Regional Development Agency (www.southwestrda.org.uk)	-183	131	130
Yorkshire Forward (www.yorkshire-forward.com)	-255	692	-2,719

Timber

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much plywood from Indonesia was imported into the United Kingdom in each of the last three years. [105388]

Nigel Griffiths: According to information from HM Customs and Excise, UK imports of plywood from Indonesia were as follows:

	Value £ million	Thousand cubic metres
2000	52.8	216.6
2001	68.6	285.3
2002	52.8	237.0

Plywood is defined by headings 634.11, 634.12, 634.31, 634.39, 634.41 and 634.49 of the Standard International Trade Classification, revision 3.

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what quantity of Indonesian timber door blanks have been imported into the United Kingdom in each of the last three years. [105389]

Nigel Griffiths: According to information from HM Customs and Excise, UK imports of timber doors, their frames and thresholds from Indonesia were as follows.

	Value £ million	Thousand metric tonnes
2000	26.6	22.9
2001	24.9	23.1
2002	25.7	23.0

Timber doors, their frames and thresholds are defined by heading 635.32 of the Standard International Trade Classification, revision 3.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Burundi

Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the situation in Burundi. [105077]

Mr. Rammell: We remain committed to supporting the Arusha process and the transitional government institutions. We are concerned that, despite the 2 December 2002 ceasefire agreement, fighting has continued in Burundi and the FNL remain outside of the peace process.

The early deployment of the African Mission is central to the success of the ceasefire agreement and the smooth transition of power after the May 1 hand over.

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We stand ready to assist financially. We are encouraged that President Mbeki of South Africa has said that he expects the African Mission to start deploying in Burundi in the week beginning 31 March.

Entry Clearance

Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when entry clearance officers in (a) Moscow, (b) Belgrade, (c) Beijing, (d) Kolutta (Calcutta), (e) Dusseldorf, (f) Cairo, (g) Algiers, (h) Nicosia, (i) Lagos and (j) Accra ceased using the pre-assessment procedure for visa applications. [105027]

Mr. Rammell: Neither (a) Moscow nor (i) Lagos have ever operated a pre-assessment system. The remaining Posts ceased using the pre-assessment as follows; (b) Belgrade—September 2002, (c) Beijing—July 2000, (d) Kolkata (Calcutta)—October 2002, (e) Dusseldorf—July 2002, (f) Cairo—July 2002, (g) Algiers—August 2002 (opened full visa service June 2002), (h) Nicosia—March 2003 and (j) Accra—September 2002.

Henry Olonga

Miss Widdecombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will use his discretion to expedite a visa for Mr. Henry Olonga. [105412]

Mr. Rammell: It is not our usual practice to disclose details of individual entry clearance cases in a public forum. I will write separately to the right hon. Member about this case in the next few days.

TREASURY

Banking

Mr. Kidney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many suspicious transactions have been reported by banks to the authorities in the last three years; and of these how many have been investigated by the authorities. [104894]

Mr. Bob Ainsworth: I have been asked to reply.

The National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) monitors whether the financial disclosures it receives and forwards to law enforcement agencies are of value to those agencies.

For the calendar years 2000, 2001 and 2002 NCIS received 18,408; 31,251 and 56,126 disclosures respectively, which were forwarded to law enforcement for action as necessary. Of these, NCIS received feedback on 8,060; 13,464 and 10,619 disclosures respectively of which 5,187, (64 per cent.); 11,009 (82 per cent.) and 8,125 (77 per cent.) replies indicated that the reports had assisted law enforcement efforts.

Birmingham Mint

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he plans to take to ensure that the Birmingham Mint can continue in business; and if he will make a statement. [105414]

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Ruth Kelly: None. There is no automatic government role in the event of an insolvency.

Tax Credits

Mrs. Anne Campbell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in the Eastern region will benefit from working tax credits. [105159]

John Healey [pursuant to his reply, 27 March 2003, c. 446]: As explained in paragraph B41 of the pre-Budget Report in November 2002 (Cm 5664), in operating the conventional accounting rules for the national accounts, the Government follows OECD guidelines which mean that the new tax credits will not be counted as public expenditure to the extent they are less than or equal to the tax liability of the household.

Sir John Bourn, the Comptroller and Auditor General, has not, as far as I am aware, offered any views on the accounting treatment of tax credits in the national accounts, although the Chairman of the Statistics Commission, Sir John Kingman, has raised questions over the classification of tax credits. I refer my hon. Friend to an answer given by the Financial Secretary to the Treasury to the hon. Member for Truro and St. Austell (Matthew Taylor) on 16 July 2002, Official Report, column 255W.

Treasury Entertainment Fund

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the limits are on use by (a) team leaders and (b) managing directors in HM Treasury of the Treasury Entertainment Fund. [105188]

Ruth Kelly: I am sending the full text of the guidance to the hon. Member and placing a copy in the Library of the House.

CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport why she has not replied to the letter to her dated 4 February from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Ms A. Tucker. [104877]

Tessa Jowell: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 25 March 2003, Official Report, column 160W.

Lottery

Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will list for each of the National Lottery distributory bodies (a) the total amount made available since the inception of the lottery, (b) the total amount that has been awarded and (c) the total amount so far drawn down. [105013]

Mr. Caborn: The information requested is shown in the following table. The information on total awards made has been supplied by the distributing bodies.

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£

Distributor	Total funds available	Total awards made	Total drawn down
Arts Council of England	1,864,191,612.22	1,790,600,000.00	1,622,212,652.78
Film Council	115,017,630.03	65,518,199.00	42,443,232.55
Arts Council NI	72,910,617.08	54,961,107.00	37,438,543.79
Scottish Arts Council	206,431,883.13	187,765,313.19	158,778,919.69
Arts Council of Wales	121,613,575.81	113,735,299.41	91,096,719.79
Community Fund	2,439,659,817.65	2,500,173,404.00	2,137,823,165.79
Heritage Lottery Fund	2,554,613,228.91	2,229,000,000.00	1,541,094,941.13
Millennium Commission	2,320,184,037.78	2,160,273,034.00	2,097,128,686.00
New Opportunities Fund	1,633,614,555.31	1,806,141,000.00	774,341,438.04
Sport England	1,966,630,913.12	1,964,000,000.00	1,692,530,000.00
Sports Council NI	66,694,103.61	54,243,692.00	45,143,072.06
Sport Scotland	216,732,795.63	193,678,224.00	138,121,807.07
UK Sport	87,888,447.60	153,000,000.00	84,287,386.00
Sports Council for Wales	119,115,836.60	105,000,000.00	85,971,457.76
Scottish Screen	11,518,222.86	12,158,000.00	9,075,032.38

In addition to the figure shown in the awards column, which represent contractually binding 'hard' commitments, distributing bodies have also entered into other 'soft' commitments, which are not yet subject to a formal binding arrangement but which they have every expectation of fulfilling.

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