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Agency Workers

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many agency workers have been employed by the Department in each of the last two years; and at what cost to public funds. [115210]

Ms Hewitt: The Department does not keep central records of the number of temporary agency staff. The overall spend on temporary agency staff was £5.894 million in 2001–02 and £6.426 million in 2002–03.

Ethnic Minority Business Forum

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the process applied to the selection of members of the

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Ethnic Minority Business Forum; what review system of the selection methods is in place; and if she will make a statement. [117343]

Ms Hewitt: The process of recruiting and selecting members to serve on the Ethnic Minority Business Forum (EMBF) is governed by the Government's Code of Practice for all Non-Department Public Bodies (NDPBs).

Members of the EMBF are appointed from a broad spread of ethnic minority backgrounds and business sectors to achieve a balanced mix as an advisory body. There is an on-going programme to rotate the EMBF membership periodically.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what public monies have been made available in each year since 2001 to (a) the Ethnic Minority Business Forum, (b) individuals who are members of that Forum and (c) organisations and companies connected with individuals who are members of that Forum. [117344]

Ms Hewitt: (a) Members are currently unpaid but are reimbursed for travel and subsistence, according to the rates applicable to senior civil servants.

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(b) Current members of the Ethnic Minority Business Forum (EMBF) are as follows. (The EMBF currently has two vacancies).

Ethnic Minority Business Forum members

Ms Yvonne Thompson (Chair)

Mrs. Jaswin MacDonald

Mr. Tony Sealey

Mr. Kam Kothia

Mr. Niyazi Enver

Dr. Haider Imam

Ms Maxine James

Ms Adeeba Malik

Sir Gulam Noon MBE

Prof. Monder Ram

Mr. Askar Sheibani

Mr. Mohammed Isap

Mr. Leslie Fairclough

Mr. Michael Davis-Bingham

Mr. Numan Azmi

Miss Mai Sim Lei

Mrs. Rita Patel

Councillor Mohammed Afzal Khan

(c) List of organisation and companies connected with individual members of the Forum.

Name and Title	Organisation/Company
(Chair) Yvonne Thompson Ms	Managing Director, ASAP Communications Ltd.
Numan Azmi Mr.	Skills Manager, William Lee Innovation Centre at UMIST
Vlaxine James Ms	Partner, Equinox Consulting
Vlichael Davis-Bingham Mr.	Head Economic Development Environment & Economy—Borough of Telford and Wrekin
Jaswin MacDonald Mrs.	Administrator/Committee member, Anjuman
Rita Patel Mrs.	Project Manager, Belgrave Baheno Peepul Centre
Tony Sealey Mr.	Business franchise operator, MacDonald' s restaurants
Leslie Fairclough Mr.	Managing Director, Premier Care
Kam Kothia Mr.	Managing Director, E-Marketing Services Ltd.
Sfiyazi Enver Mr.	Managing Director, Nice and Easy Printing
Dr. Haider Imam	Director, Durham Organics Ltd.
Councillor Mohammed Afzal Khan	Partner, law firm Hussain Singh Khan & Co.
Mai Sim Lei Ms	Partner, Pridie Brewster Chartered Accountants
Adeeba Malik Ms	Deputy Chief Executive QED
Sir Gulam Noon MBE	Chairman and Managing Director, Noon Products
Prof. Monder Ram	Professor of Small Business Research, De Montfort University
Askar Sheibani Mr.	Chief Executive, Comtek Group
Mohammed Isap Mr.	Director, Manchester Print Graphics

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the material publicly available in respect of the Ethnic Minority Business Forum, with particular reference to the members of that forum. [117347]

Ms Hewitt: Details of the Ethnic Minority Forum members are published on their website www.ethnicbusiness.org, which is managed by the Small Business Service and in the Forum's annual report.

Executive Pay

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the publications produced by her Department in each year since 1997 which have made reference to executive remuneration, stating for each the (a) number of copies produced, (b) cost of publication, (c) cost of preparation and (d) cost of production. [117721]

Ms Hewitt: This information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Export Credits Guarantee Department

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the reasons why the ECGD has deemed that environmental impact assessments are commercially confidential. [117193]

Ms Hewitt: The ECGD does not consider Environmental Impact Assessments ("an EIA") commissioned by the ECGD as commercially confidential. However, in the case of an EIA provided to the ECGD by a third part, who claims that it is commercially confidential, the ECGD will consider that claim. Where the ECGD considers that the claims is justified in law then the ECGD will treat it as confidential.

National Minimum Wage

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many employers were (a) cautioned and (b) prosecuted in each of the Inland Revenue's

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regions in 2002–03 for failing to pay the national minimum wage; how many employees were affected; what the total was of arrears; what the penalties were; and if she will make a statement. [118111]

Alan Johnson: The National Minimum Wage Act 1998 contains a number of provisions empowering enforcement officers to take civil action against non-paying employers and the Inland Revenue always uses these in the first instance.

In 2002–03, 1,996 employers were found not to be complying with the minimum wage regulations, with approximately 7,373 workers benefiting directly from the Inland Revenue's investigations.

In addition, the Inland Revenue identified over £3.5 million in arrears. The majority of employers complied without further action being needed and only 26 enforcement notices were issued. To date there have been no criminal prosecutions in relation to under-payment of the minimum wage.

Outsourcing

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the impact of the change in outsourcing outside the UK on (a) employment and (b) job creation. [115047]

Alan Johnson: Outsourcing is one element of globalisation that also includes rising world trade, and greater flows of foreign direct investment (FDI). The key challenge for the UK is to seize the benefits of globalisation, allowing us to attract more FDI, and sell our goods and services into expanding global markets. The UK has the highest stock of FDI as a percentage of GDP in the G7, demonstrating our success in adapting to the opportunities provided by globalisation.

The Office for National Statistics does not produce estimates of job losses arising from outsourcing. The Government do recognise that job losses, from wherever they arise, are regrettable. However, the role of Government is to ensure that the labour market is flexible enough to generate new opportunities, and that workers have the skills to take advantage of them. Employment is close to a record level, and is nearly 1.5 million higher than in April 1997. Moreover, new jobs continue to be created. Around two million people either move into employment or change jobs each quarter.

Power Supplies (Dumfries and Galloway)

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the stability of power supplies in Dumfries and Galloway. [115818]

Mr. Wilson: I am aware that SP Transmission and Distribution, the license holder for the Dumfries and Galloway area, is addressing two strategic issues that relate to the security and quality of supply in the area. These are the closure of Chapelcross power station (in or before 2008) and the impact of renewable generation in the area. In the first case, a new substation will be commissioned in Gretna to secure the network against premature closure of the power station. In the case of renewables, SP Transmission and Distribution have

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collaborated with a study on behalf of the Department to identify necessary infrastructure reinforcements to accommodate various scenarios of renewable generation in Scotland.

Race Relations

Angela Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in her Department and non-departmental public bodies on implementing the requirements of the Race Relations Amendment Act 2000; and if she will publish the results of the monitoring required by the Act. [117470]

Ms Hewitt: In the middle of 2002, my Department publicly consulted on a draft Race Equality Scheme for DTI and its non-departmental public bodies. These comprise six Executive Agencies, seven Research Councils, 11 executive non-departmental public bodies, 24 advisory non-departmental public bodies and seven tribunals. The draft included a description of DTI's employment practices and of its policy programmes, categorised as having a "high", "moderate" or "low" likely impact on race equality. This consultation resulted in excess of 53,000 hits to the draft scheme on our website, and at the end of December 2002, the results were confirmed and published as DTI's final Race Equality Scheme. Both the analysis of the responses and the final Race Equality Scheme are available on the website or in hard copy. The Scheme includes a commitment to annual monitoring and appropriate publication.

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