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Flexible Working

Caroline Flint: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how the introduction of employment legislation covering working time and temporary workers is affecting the ability of the manufacturing industry to act flexibly. [116572]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The UK is in favour of legislation to provide minimum standards of employment protection, but is keen to maintain the flexibility our individual labour market requires, and which many individual workers prefer. Last year, we implemented new rights for employees on fixed-term contracts in a way that provides a high level of protection for these employees, without unnecessarily reducing employers' flexibility to use fixed-term contracts. We must allow workers choice as well as protection. The proposed Directive on temporary agency work is currently being considered by the European Council of Ministers. The Directive would not need to be implemented in the UK unless and until it is adopted. The Government are keenly aware of the potential impact on UK agencies and agency workers of a Directive that takes no account of conditions in the UK labour market. We are therefore pressing very hard for the UK's legitimate concerns to be recognised.

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Information Technology

Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what major IT projects with a value in excess of £10,000 she authorised expenditure on in each of the last three financial years. [125719]

Ms Hewitt: My Department manages its major IT projects through the provision of centrally managed corporate projects aimed at benefiting the whole Department and through delegated arrangements for locally driven projects, where the overall costs and benefits may be quite small and specific to that work area. Records about all major IT projects with a value in excess of £10,000 are held centrally and a list of these for each of the last three financial years is as follows.






























Dr. Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much the Department spent on IT (a) software, (b) hardware, (c) maintenance and (d) licences in 2002–03. [124418]

Ms Hewitt: The Department of Trade and Industry spent £21.3 million on information technology in 2002–03. A full break down as requested is not available but this spend can be classified as follows:

£ million
Software/licences0.4
Hardware0.9
Maintenance3.8
Services16.2


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Insolvency Act

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many cases of offences for (a) wrongful trading and (b) fraudulent trading under the Insolvency Act 1986 have been referred for prosecution by the Official Receiver in each year since 1997; and how many of these cases have resulted in successful prosecution in each year. [126657]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows:

(a) Wrongful trading is not a criminal offence.

(b) Fraudulent trading under the Insolvency Act 1986 is not a criminal offence.

Both (a) and (b) are civil matters dealt with by a court on the application of a liquidator seeking a civil liability on an individual. As they both provide civil remedies, Official Receivers do not refer such matters for prosecution.

Official Receivers do report alleged Fraudulent Trading offences under the Companies Act 1985. The number of convictions in respect of such offence reported by Official Receivers since 1997 have been.

Number
199725
19989
199911
200011
200130
200214

The above figures are for the calendar year starting on 1 January 1997.

IT Contracts

Mr. Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many outsourced IT contracts have been signed by her Department in each year since 1997; how much each of these contracts is worth; with whom they are signed; how many have been renegotiated; how many are still in place; and if she will make a statement. [126203]

Ms Hewitt: Only one outsourced IT contract has been signed by my Department since 1997 and this was in 1999 for the ELGAR PFI contract between DTI and a consortium known as UNITAS, (consisting of Fujitsu Services in conjunction with LogicaCMG).

The overall value of this over the 15-year life cycle of the contract is estimated at £579 million for the provision of a large range of IT services across the Department.

This contract is still in place, has 11 years still to run and has not been renegotiated to-date. Specific new services provided will have been negotiated during the first four years of the PFI deal but within the terms of the existing contract.

Mobile Phones

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage of UK mobile phone users are (a) contract pay customers and (b) pre-pay customers. [126894]

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Mr. Timms: This is a matter for the Director General of Telecommunications, and I understand he will be writing to my hon. Friend setting out what information he collects in this regard.

New Electricity Trading Arrangements

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by how much energy production from (a) renewable sources, (b) wind and (c) combined heat and power has changed for each year since the introduction of New Electricity Trading Arrangements. [126719]

Mr. Timms: Electricity generation in the UK from these sources in 2000 (the year before NETA was introduced in England and Wales), 2001 (the year in which NETA was introduced) and 2002 are shown in the following table:

GWh

200020012002
Electricity generation from all renewable sources(6)10,38310,07711,444
of which generation from wind9479671,259
Generation from CHP(7)26,53922,56824,236

(6) Includes generation from large-scale hydro stations and from biodegradable and non-biodegradable wastes.

(7) Detailed CHP statistics for 2002 are to be published on Thursday 31 July 2003 in the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics, 2003

Post Office Card Account

Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage of benefit recipients in (a) Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) the North East and (d) the UK have (i) applied for and (ii) opened Post Office Card Accounts. [125729]

Mr. Timms: The information is not available in the format requested. National figures only are available.

A report containing Department of Work and Pensions figures for the number of clients opting for a Post Office card account, broken down by client group up to 27 June 2003, is available in the Libraries of the House.

I understand from Post Office Ltd. that by 4 July 2003, 20,000 Post Office card accounts had been opened. This figure is not broken down by category of benefit recipient. The number of Post Office card accounts should grow rapidly over the coming weeks and months as those people opting for a card account complete the application process.

Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the statement of 14 July 2003, Official Report, House of Lords, column 621, by the Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, Lord Sainsbury, on Post Office card account users, what the Government's current estimate is of the number of users; and if she will make a statement. [126907]

Mr. Timms: The migration to Direct Payment is at a very early stage and the figures are volatile, but, based on customer choices so far, the Government now expect the eventual number of Post Office card accounts to be in excess of our 3 million operating assumption. A

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report containing Department of Work and Pensions conversion figures up to 27 June 2003 is available in the Libraries of the House.

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