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Pathfinder Broadband Project

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what advice she has received on the effect of the Competition Act 1998 on the Pathfinder broadband project in Scotland. [108958]

Mr. Timms: The Broadband Pathfinder project in Scotland is the responsibility of the Scottish Executive, which takes legal advice as appropriate to ensure that the project satisfies all the relevant legislative requirements.

Post Offices

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent assessment she has made of changes in (a) Post Office footfall, (b) Post Office profitability and (c) benefit take up rates in those areas where the 'Your Guide' pilot scheme operated and was subsequently withdrawn. [109884]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. And I have asked the Chief Executive to write direct to the hon. Member.

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what elements of the Your Guide pilot scheme have been continued and remained in place as at 1 April. [109887]

Mr. Timms: None. The facility was discontinued at the end of the pilot period in March 2002.

Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much has been spent on supporting rural sub-post offices in Suffolk since 1997. [108778]

Mr. Timms: The rural network benefits from investment in the network generally. For example, the rural network benefits from the considerable investment in the Network's IT, and in new products, including universal banking services. On automation alone the Government has made the largest ever investment in the Post Office network—£480 million—much of it on the rural network. There is no breakdown of the proportion of this funding that has been spent on supporting rural sub-post offices in Suffolk since 1997.

A number of measures are already in place to maintain the network of rural post offices. These include the formal requirement placed on the Post Office in November 2000 to prevent any avoidable closures and the establishment of a £2 million capital start up fund to support volunteer and community initiatives to maintain or re-establish a post office facility where the

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traditional post office is under threat of closure or has recently closed. Under this scheme, grants of up to £20,000 are available to support the costs of relocating or refurbishing alternative premises. Of the £2 million fund to support community post office initiatives 165 grants have been approved, totalling £1,231,454, and payments totalling £931,478 paid as at end of March 2003. To end March 2003, grants from this fund to a total value of £16,933 had been approved in respect of four applications from Suffolk.

Rural post offices in Suffolk will, of course, benefit from the £450 million package of financial support for the rural post office network that I announced on 2 December.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) post offices and (b) sub-post offices there were in the Hemsworth constituency in each year since 1996. [109910]

Mr. Timms: Except for a special exercise undertaken in 1999 to determine the numbers of post offices in each parliamentary constituency and how many of them derived more than 40 per cent. of their income from benefits work, Post Office Ltd. did not collate data on the numbers of post offices by parliamentary constituency until April 2002, when they compiled such a list of post offices classifying them as urban or rural offices. A copy of this list is held in the Libraries of the House.

Jon Trickett: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) post offices and (b) sub-post offices there are in the Hemsworth constituency; and how many of them transact more than 40 per cent. of their work from paying benefits and pensions. [109911]

Mr. Timms: A special exercise was undertaken by the Post Office in 1999 to determine the numbers of post offices in each Parliamentary constituency and how many of them derived more than 40 per cent. of their income from benefits work. That information is set out in the reply given to the then hon. Member for Birmingham, Erdington on 29 November 1999, Official Report, column 22W, and remains the latest information available in that form.

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the level of disabled access at Maesbrook post office in Shrewsbury. [109663]

Mr. Timms: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to write direct to the hon. Member.

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effects on (a) pensioners, (b) the disabled and (c) the unemployed of the closure of Meole Brace post office in Shrewsbury. [109662]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to write direct to the hon. Member. The proposal to close Meole Brace post office is subject to public consultation under the Code of Practice agreed between Post Office Ltd. and Postwatch.

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Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps the Post Office has taken to investigate (a) the long-term viability of Meole Brace post office and (b) alternatives to closing the post office. [109666]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to write direct to the hon. Member.

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many post office staff based in Shrewsbury were subjected to (a) verbal and (b) physical attacks in the last year. [109667]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to write direct to the hon. Member.

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the (a) volume and (b) value of transactions was in the last year at the Meole Brace post office in Shrewsbury. [109668]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to write direct to the hon. Member.

Radiocommunications Agency

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations she has received on the Radiocommunications Agency's proposal to realign the 450–470 MHz spectrum band; and how many were opposed to the proposal. [109782]

Mr. Timms: RA received 17 e-mailed substantive responses, four written substantive responses and 22 telephone responses. These last were asked to respond in writing, but only one did so. In addition, there were 10 e-mail licensing queries and over 200 telephone licensing queries as a result of a follow-up letter sent to RA customers inviting them to respond to the consultation document.

None of the written or e-mailed responses were in outright opposition to the RA proposals, however most of the responses identified areas of concern that the respondees would wish RA to take into account in the implementation of the project. two of the telephone respondees were opposed to the proposals but these declined to provide written comments.

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment of costs to British industry she has made of the Radiocommunications Agency's proposal to realign the 450–470 MHz spectrum band; and what cost-benefit analysis she has made. [109783]

Mr. Timms: Some preliminary costing information was included in the consultation document. More detail, including a cost-benefit analysis, will be included in the submission I will receive in early May.

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the Radiocommunications Agency's proposal to realign the 450–470MHz spectrum band; and if she will make a statement. [109784]

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Mr. Timms: Responses to the consultation document are currently being analysed. A summary of the responses will be published on the RA website in May and a submission will be made to me in the same timeframe for a decision on the way forward. It is therefore too early to make a statement at this stage.

Regions White Paper

Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress the Department has made towards the aim in the White Paper, Your Region, Your Choice, of assessing the balance of staff between the centre and the regions in terms of effective policy design and implementation; and what examples there have been since the publication of the White Paper of the Department deciding between locating new streams of work (a) in and (b) outside London and the South East. [108567]

Ms Hewitt: DTI has established teams in three locations outside London and the South East dealing with automotive and aerospace and defence issues in Birmingham, technical textiles and bioscience in Manchester, and materials and engineering in Leeds. These teams, which form part of DTP s national business relations resource, will build better joint working links with regional partners to provide an improved service to business. They will enhance the way knowledge is pooled from both the national and regional levels to enhance the design and implementation of policy.

The £30 million UK Broadband Fund was distributed to Regional Development Agencies and Devolved Administrations for them to develop regional and local pilots for extending access to broadband. The UK Broadband Taskforce, established in November 2002, has put a Regional Broadband Coordinator in each of the Regional Development Agencies to use the aggregated public sector demand for broadband connectivity as a mechanism to extend broadband availability.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Budget plans to examine relocation of public services with the aim of achieving best value for money. He has asked Sir Michael Lyons—Director of the Institute of Local Government Studies at Birmingham University—to advise on relocation by the next Spending Review.

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