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20 May 2003 : Column 707W—continued

African Trade

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the value is at current prices of United Kingdom (a) exports to and (b) imports from Africa in each of the last 20 years; and what percentage of (i) UK and (ii) world trade UK trade with Africa constitute in each of these years. [113650]

Ms Hewitt: Table 1 shows the value of UK exports to Africa and imports from Africa between 1983 and 2002, in current prices. Table 2 shows UK trade with Africa as a percentage of UK trade. Table 3 shows UK trade with Africa as a percentage of world trade with Africa and Table 4 shows UK trade with Africa as a percentage of total world trade. All the figures refer to the trade in goods only.

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Table 1: Value of UK trade with Africa
£ million (current prices)

UK exportsUK imports
19833,8812,773
19844,0973,311
19854,1963,913
19863,3822,722
19873,3352,272
19883,3552,395
19893,3772,556
19903,6773,010
19913,6322,727
19923,5892,688
19933,9232,895
19944,0563,084
19954,7233,492
19964,9973,895
19974,9483,841
19984,7003,843
19994,3454,276
20004,5625,858
20014,8167,102
20024,8296,910

Source:

HM Customs & Excise


Table 2: Africa's share of the UK's total trade

Percentage of UK exports going to AfricaPercentage of UK imports from Africa
19836.44.2
19845.84.2
19855.44.6
19864.63.2
19874.22.4
19884.12.2
19893.62.1
19903.52.4
19913.52.3
19923.32.1
19933.22.1
19943.02.1
19953.12.1
19963.02.1
19972.92.0
19982.92.0
19992.62.2
20002.42.6
20012.53.1
20022.63.0

Source:

HM Customs & Excise


Table 3: UK Trade with Africa as a share of world trade with Africa

Percentage of world exports to Africawhich are from the UKPercentage of world imports from Africa which go to the UK
19837.85.6
19847.45.5
19857.95.9
19867.36.6
19877.55.2
19887.45.8
19896.95.1
19906.95.5
19916.85.2
19926.14.8
19936.25.0
19946.45.0
19956.25.1
19966.54.9
19976.64.9
19986.15.6
19995.75.9
20005.35.8
20015.26.9
2002n/an/a

Source:

IMF Direction of Trade


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Table 4: UK trade with Africa as a share of total world trade

Percentage of world exports to Africawhich are from the UKPercentage of world imports from Africa which go to the UK
19830.330.22
19840.290.22
19850.280.24
19860.230.20
19870.220.14
19880.210.15
19890.180.13
19900.180.15
19910.170.13
19920.150.11
19930.150.11
19940.140.10
19950.140.10
19960.140.11
19970.140.11
19980.140.11
19990.120.12
20000.100.13
20010.110.16
2002n/an/a

Source:

IMF Direction of Trade


Age Discrimination

Mr. MacDougall: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans the Department has to accord people aged over 65 the same level of employment rights as those aged under 65. [114611]

Alan Johnson: The great majority of employment protection legislation already applies to older workers, whatever their age. We intend to review upper age limits on statutory redundancy payments and general unfair dismissal claims in the light of responses to the next public consultation on age discrimination, due to be launched this summer.

Annual Leave

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will take steps to increase the minimum number of annual leave days. [113887]

Alan Johnson: The Government have no plans to increase the minimum number of annual leave days.

Broadband

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many broadband users there were,

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broken down by (a) local authority area and (b) regions in England and Wales; and what percentage of the population this represented, in the last month for which figures are available. [114571]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 19 May 2003]: According to Oftel, at the end of April 2003 there were around 1,915,000 broadband users throughout the UK. This represents about 7 per cent. of households in the UK. These data are not available for each local authority area, neither for English or Welsh regions.

Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent representations the department has received on support for the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation. [113913]

Mr. Wilson: The Department has received 105 written representations in support of the Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation since the beginning of April this year.

Criminal Offences

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list, broken down by Act, the criminal offences created in legislation sponsored by her Department since 1997. [110990]

Ms Hewitt [holding answer 8 May 2003]: The information sought is summarised in a table, which has been placed in the Library.

Deregulation

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what deregulation measures have been identified and implemented within her Department since February 2002; and if she will make a statement. [112449]

Ms Hewitt [holding answer 12 May 2003]: The Government published their Regulatory Reform Action Plan in February 2002 to which the Department contributed 25 measures for reform. To date the department has delivered on 13 of its commitments and work is continuing on the remainder and to identify further reforms.

E-Government Projects

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list by project the consultancies her Department and its non-departmental public bodies have used on e-government projects since 1st January 2001. [114187]

Ms Hewitt [holding answer 16 May 2003]: Based on centrally-held records, the following e-government consultancies have been used within the core department since 1st January 2001.

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ProjectConsultancy
Business Support ReviewCap Gemini Ernst and Young
Government Gateway Scoping StudyUnitas consortium
Government Gateway GuidelinesUnitas consortium
E-procurementKermon/Xansa
British Trade International e-government programmeCathedral consortium (2 assignments)
Small Business Service customer relationship management programmeYale consulting
'business gov' programmeCathedral consortium
Electronic services to mobile phones proof of conceptIMB
Scoping study into DTI customer relationship managementUnitas consortium
Enhancements to DTI customer relationship management programmeParity
Consumer Direct consumer helpline pilots evaluationCompass Partnership
Consumer Direct project planning and implementationSophron

These records do not cover the department's non-departmental public bodies and gathering the information from them would incur disproportionate cost.

Employment Tribunals

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) in how many cases those served witness orders failed to attend the employment tribunal in (a) England and Wales and (b) Scotland in 2002; [113759]

Alan Johnson: The Employment Tribunals Service does not record centrally the number of witness orders made in relation to Tribunal proceedings. Accordingly, we are unable to supply the requested information.

EU Committees

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list (a) the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the EU Scientific and Technical Research Committee, (b) the number of times, and the dates, on which it has met since January 2002, (c) the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, (d) the decisions it has made since January 2002 and (e) the means used to communicate the decisions to the House. [110293]

Ms Hewitt: The Scientific and Technical Research Committee (CREST) is attended by officials from the Office of Science and Technology.

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CREST has met on eight occasions since January 2002:


During these meetings, CREST received updates on European Research and Technological Development (RTD) policy from the Commission and Presidency. In addition, it covered a range of other issues including:


As noted in my reply of 14 July 2002 to the hon. Member's earlier question, Official Report, columns 326–27W, CREST is a standing advisory committee to the Council and the Commission, with records of meetings and opinions forwarded to the Commission and the Council, and publicly available at: http://register.consilium.eu.int

As my reply of 14 July 2002 noted, the Commission publishes an annual report on the working of committees. The latest of these reports, covering 2001, was submitted to the Scrutiny Committees of both Houses by FCO on 22 January 2003 (EM 5060/03-COM(02)733).

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list (a) the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the EU committee for the development of the internal market in postal services and the improvement of the quality of service, (b) the number of times, and the dates, on which it has met since

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January 2002, (c) the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, (d) the decisions it has made since January 2002 and (e) the means used to communicate the decisions to the House. [110311]

Ms Hewitt: Officials from the DTI and the Postal Services Commission attend the committee, which has met once since January 2002, on 29 November 2002. The meeting considered a range of technical issues relating to postal service quality standards, and delivered positive opinions on EU proposals for European Committee for Standardisation standards, but took no substantive decisions.

The EU Commission has undertaken to publish an annual report on the working of committees. The first report was deposited in the Libraries of both Houses in February 2002, and the latest on 10 January 2003 (Com [2002] 733). The UK Government have encouraged the Commission to produce and maintain an electronic database of every comitology committee, its agendas and recent actions, to be accessible through its website.


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