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7 Jul 2003 : Column 565W—continued

Audit/Company Law

Mr. Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she expects to publish draft legislation on audit and company law reforms. [123569]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 4 July 2003]: We have just completed consultation on proposals for taking forward changes to the regulatory regime for the accountancy profession following last year's review, and

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on community interest companies. We hope to set out some further elements of company law reform by the end of the year.

Bank Accounts

Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the percentage of the UK population was without any form of bank account in each of the last five years; and what she estimates it will be in April 2004. [118328]

Mr. Pond: I have been asked to reply.

Information is not available for the time period requested or for UK coverage.The Family Resources Survey can provide estimates up to 2001–02 for Great Britain. This information is in the table.

	Percentage of adults without any form of bank account
1997–98	11
1998–99	10
1999–2000	10
2000–01	11
2001–02	9

Notes:

1. All figures are estimates and are taken from the Family Resources Survey (FRS). 2001–02 is the latest year for which data is available. Figures have been rounded to the nearest percentage point.

2. Adults are defined as all those aged 16 and over, except for 16 to 18-year-olds in full-time non-advanced education; all adults in the household are interviewed as part of the FRS.

3. Any type of bank account includes Current account, National Savings Ordinary and National Savings Investment or any other bank/building society accounts.

4. The estimates are based on sample counts that have been adjusted for non-response using multi-purpose grossing factors that control for tenure type, Council Tax Band and a number of demographic variables. Estimates are subject to sampling error and remaining response bias.

Source:

Family Resources Survey (Great Britain)

BNFL

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether BNFL requires authorisation to provide donations to the United States Nuclear Energy Institute. [116800]

Mr. Timms: No. This is a matter for the BNFL Board.

Broadband

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what funding will be made available for the provision of broadband infrastructure for rural villages. [123482]

Mr. Timms: My aim is for every community across the UK, irrespective of location, to be able to access affordable broadband from a competitive market.

Government will be spending £1 billion over the next few years on public sector connectivity. This will enable broadband access in every primary and secondary school, GP's surgeries and other public sector services. DTI, with Regional Development Agencies are aggregating this public sector demand and this

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investment will have a significant positive impact on industry investment and availability of broadband. I believe this will make a significant contribution to extending broadband to village communities.

Business Statistics

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) start ups of new businesses and (b) businesses going into receivership there were in each of the last three years in (i) England and Wales and (ii) North Yorkshire. [123483]

Nigel Griffiths : New business start-ups are measured officially by VAT registrations. The latest data is available for 2001.

VAT registrations 1999–2001Number

	1999	2000	2001
England and Wales	163,485	168,455	160,280
Former Country of North Yorkshire(1)	2,240	2,30	2,210

⁽¹⁾ Includes York UA

Source:

Business start-ups and closures: VAT Registrations and De-registrations 1980–2001, Small Business Service

Receivership data is published by DTI. No regional or local area data is available.

Receivership appointments⁽²⁾ 2000–02

England and Wales	Number
2000	1,595
2001	1,914
2002	1,541

⁽²⁾ Includes administrative receiverships and others, for example under the Law of Property Act 1925

Source:

DTI.

Company Directors

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many adverse reports required under the Company Directors' Disqualification Act 1986 have been received by her Department concerning the conduct of directors in each year since 1997. [122903]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows:

Calendar year	IP Adverse Reports	OR Adverse Reports	Total
1997	3,280	2,576	5,856
1998	3,314	2,229	5,543
1999	3,422	2,140	5,562
2000	3,396	2,153	5,549
2001	3,186	2,074	5,260
2002	3,552	2,500	6,052

The above figures are the number of unfitted reports submitted by both Insolvency Practitioners (IP) and Official Receivers (OR).

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many disqualification orders have been made against directors under the Company Directors'

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Disqualification Act 1986 for a period of (a) two years and (b) more than two years in each year since 1997. [122904]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The figures for the number of disqualification orders and undertakings obtained by The Insolvency Service under section 6 of the Company Directors' Disqualification Act 1986 are:

	2002	2001	2000	1999	1998	1997
Two years	74	100	122	122	114	128
More than two years	1,520	1,589	1,380	1,367	1,236	1,091
Total	1,594	1,689	1,502	1,489	1,350	1,219

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many disqualification undertakings have been received by her Department from company directors since 1 April 2001. [122909]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows:

	Undertakings
Period April 2001 to March 2002	1,213
Period April 2002 to March 2003	197
Total	2,685

Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the Tyson Report on the Recruitment and Development of Non-Executive Directors; and if she will implement its recommendations. [122996]

Jacqui Smith : I am grateful to Laura Tyson and her group for her thought-provoking report. It shows the clear benefits for business of diversity at board level. It is vital for UK business that they look more widely for the best candidates. I also agree that it is important to monitor change and highlight best practice examples of building diverse and meritocratic boards.

I welcome the report's three recommendations:

1. Rigorous and transparent Non-Executive Director Selection Processes—This is being taken forward as part of the Financial Reporting Council's work on amending the Combined Code, following Derek Higgs' Review.

2. An initiative to bring together companies and training providers to establish guidelines to ensure that training programmes for directors are providing what is needed, and that useful information about such programmes is easily accessible on a timely basis.

3. An initiative to monitor both progress on achieving rigorous and transparent processes for NED appointments and progress on building more diverse boardrooms. I agree that it would be useful to monitor progress and disseminate best practice and we will be considering how best this should be done. But it is clear this is not the end of the story. We must see real results in broadening the talent pool of directors appointed to our boardrooms and we are also looking at what further work the government can do to help business achieve this.

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Employment Legislation

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the items of employment legislation, including delegated legislation, introduced by her Department since 1997. [122906]

Mr. Sutcliffe: In its first term (1997–2001), the Government introduced a foundation of minimum standards in the workplace. Every employee now has, for example, the right to a minimum wage, paid holidays, rest breaks, time off for family emergencies, and a cap on the working week. Trade unions have the right to recognition by the employer where a majority of the workforce want it. Part-time workers have the same rights as their full-time colleagues.

In its second term, the Government are building on all these measures in their drive to raise productivity, including a range of changes to support families and to make work pay. The Government have improved existing maternity rights and introduced paid paternity and adoption leave for the first time. For example, the payment period of Statutory Maternity Pay and Maternity Allowance has been extended to 26 weeks. They have also introduced a right for working parents with children under six, or disabled children under 18, to request flexible working. This new right builds on existing best practice and further enforces our aim to promote greater dialogue in the workplace to find flexible solutions which suit both employers and employees.

Recently both Houses have passed regulations to tackle discrimination in employment on the grounds of sexual orientation and religion or belief, which will take effect in December 2003.

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