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11 Sept 2003 : Column 429W—continued
Energy Supply
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the future of the UK's energy supply; and how the Government intends to bridge future energy generation shortfall. [128645]
Mr. Timms: The Government's Energy White Paper 'Our energy future—creating a low carbon economy', published on 24 February this year, covered both these points. It set out the Government's new energy policy, designed to deal with the major challenges that confront our energy system, namely climate change, our declining indigenous energy supplies and updating our energy infrastructure. The position remains as set out in the White Paper.
Estate Agents
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 10 July 2003, Official Report, column 888W, when she expects to receive the report of the Director General of Fair Trading on estate agents; and on what date she expects to publish the report. [126752]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I expect the Office of Fair Trading to publish its report on estate agents in the autumn.
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Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 10 July 2003, Official Report, column 888W, (1) how many estate agents are practising in the United Kingdom; and what percentage of estate agents are members of the Ombudsman for Estate Agents Scheme; [126753]
- (2) how much was paid out in each year since 1997 by way of compensation by the Ombudsman for malpractice by estate agents. [126756]
Mr. Sutcliffe: This information is not collected by the Department.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 10 July 2003, Official Report, column 888W, what procedures are in place to ensure that estate agents banned by the Office of Fair Trading (a) no longer practise and (b) are no longer involved in the management of estate agency companies; how many estate agents banned since 1997 have subsequently been discovered to have continued or recommenced estate agency work; how many estate agents have been prosecuted since 1997 for such practices; what the penalties received were; and what procedures are in place to monitor estate agents whose conduct has resulted in warning letters being issued by the Director General of Fair Trading. [126754]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The banning of an estate agent by the Office of Fair Trading results in a press release that alerts other local estate agents and consumers. Local Trading Standards Officers are advised separately, and the OFT relies on them to notify it if the banned agent continues in business or is involved in the management of an estate agency company. It is a criminal offence for an agent banned by the OFT to continue doing estate agency work.
No estate agents banned since 1997 have subsequently been discovered to have continued or recommenced estate agency work or been prosecuted for such practices.
The OFT does not publicise the issue of warning letters to estate agents, and does not formally monitor estate agents whose conduct has resulted in a warning letter being sent. However, a copy is sent to the local Trading Standards Department to alert them to the action taken. Formal warning orders are treated as per banning orders.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 10 July 2003, Official Report, column 888W, on estate agents, how many complaints were investigated by the Office of Fair Trading in each year since 2000; how many were upheld in each year since 1997; what the average time taken to investigate a complaint is; and what the longest time taken to investigate a complaint is. [126755]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table contains details of the complaints about estate agents investigated by the Office of Fair Trading and the number of complaints upheld in each year since 2000. The OFT did not record details of how many complaints were upheld prior to 2001.
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| Complaints investigated by the Office of Fair Trading | Complaints upheld by the Office of Fair Trading | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 213 | — |
| 2001 | 170 | 80 |
| 2002 | 206 | 97 |
| 2003 | (1)126 | (1)47 |
(1) Up to 31 July 2003
The three main areas of complaints were: agents not passing on offers, failing to declare a personal interest and misrepresentation as to the details/existence of a prospective purchaser.
The average time taken to investigate a complaint is three months. Complex cases may take up to a year.
Flexible Working
Dr. Ashok Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans there are to monitor and record the number of workers (a) requesting and (b) being granted flexible working in (i) central government, (ii) local government, (iii) the public sector and (iv) the private sector; and if she will make a statement. [128673]
Mr. Sutcliffe: In addition to the detail in my answer to my hon. Friend on 1 July, Official Report, column 214W, my Department has since commissioned questions on flexible working to appear in the monthly Office for National Statistics omnibus survey.
The Government is taking a strategic approach to monitoring flexible working. This will feed into the review of the new flexible working law it is committed to commencing in 2006 and to the future work of the Government's Work-Life Balance campaign. The approach involves gathering qualitative and quantitative evidence to establish a comprehensive research base.
The Government is circulating a summary of the Government's approach to how it is monitoring all the new working parent laws introduced in April 2003 to interested parties, which is also available at www.dti.gov.uk/workingparents. This invites others to share their own experience of the new laws, including flexible working.
GATS
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the openness of the GATS negotiations; and what she estimates the benefits were of (a) open and (b) closed discussions during this process. [118914]
Ms Hewitt [holding answer 16 June 2003]: The Government believe that all WTO negotiations should be as transparent as possible, consistent with protecting negotiating positions. To this end the Government have been as open as possible with civil society about progress with the negotiations, meeting them frequently.
In relation to the GATS, we published our second public consultation document last year, setting a lead that other governments and the European Commission have followed. We will shortly be publishing our response. We also pressed strongly for the EU's initial
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GATS offer to be published at the time of its submission to the WTO. A number of other WTO Members have done so.
However, transparency is a matter for each government and we must respect the wishes of those who have asked for their GATS requests or offers to be treated as restricted. For this reason, we have not published other countries' requests to us in full, but summarised them in our consultation document. That is the balance we have struck.
Home Accident Surveillance System
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will change her policy on the termination of the collection and analysis of the Home Accident Surveillance System statistics. [128369]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Since the decision to stop HASS was announced on 2 May, contracts to collect the data have been terminated and the work within the DTI is being wound up. I have no plans to reverse this policy.
Mr. Donohoe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether she plans to establish a new Government accident recording system to ensure and improve the safety standards of home and leisure products and activities. [128370]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I have no plans to establish such a system. I have, however, offered to support initiatives that the Department of Health might launch to strengthen the surveillance of accidental injury at regional and local levels in the NHS.
Joyce Quin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many representations she has received in opposition to the decision taken by her Department to cease the collection by Home Accident Surveillance Systems of statistics relating to accidents in the home. [127057]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I have received approximately 80 representations opposing the decision to stop HASS.
Independent Chief Engineer
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the Government have plans to create an independent chief engineer. [128646]
Mr. Timms: The Government have no plans to appoint an independent chief engineer.
Inward Investment
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent representations her Department has received from major inward investors on the effects on their investment decisions of the condition of the transport system. [124732]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Invest-UK, British Trade International's inward investment arm, has received one such recent representation from a major inward investor—Pfizer Global Research laboratories based in Sandwich.
In their continuing dialogue with key major inward investors, Invest UK has identified the UK's transport infrastructure as one among a number of important
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competitiveness factors for investors when looking to maintain or further develop their UK presence. UK inward investment figures for the year to March 2003 show that the UK remains by a good margin the top destination in the EU.
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