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Public Bodies (Membership)

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry who the members of the (a) Post Office Users Council for Scotland, (b) Post Office Users Council for Northern Ireland, (c) Post Office Users Council for Wales, (d) English Advisory Committee on Telecommunications and (e) Scottish Advisory Committee on Telecommunications were on 1 January; what their term of office is in each case; and what their remuneration is. [151448]

Mr. Timms: In 2001 the former Post Office Users National Council was replaced by a new Consumer Council of Postal Services, known as Postwatch. The Postwatch Council is made up of the Chairs of nine Regional Postwatch Committees and four national Council members, operating under a National Chairman. Full details of all Council members and their remuneration are set out in the Postwatch Annual Report. Currently the Northern Ireland, Scottish and Welsh committees are chaired by, respectively John Stringer, Tom Begg and Eifon Pritchard. The remuneration for the Regional Chairs is based on an average annual rate of £20,500 per annum for two days per week; with some working for two and a half and some three days per week.

The Advisory Committees on Telecommunications effectively ceased to exist with the vesting of Ofcom on 29 December 2003.

Science and Society Directorate

Sue Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 15 December 2003, Official Report, column 646W, on the Science and Society Directorate, whether the objectives of the Science

30 Jan 2004 : Column 597W

and Society Directorate's Public Engagement Team include the promotion of the public understanding of cultural factors impinging on and operating within scientific communities that will help the public make informed judgments. [151087]

Ms Hewitt: The Science and Society Directorate's Public Engagement Team promotes public awareness and engagement with all aspects of science. This includes the scientific 'process' in all its forms, for example: the setting of research priorities; peer review; the interaction of scientists within and across disciplines; the legal boundaries within which scientists operate; ethical considerations; and the lack of absolute certainty in science.

We believe this approach helps to set the context within which the public can consider specific science related issues as they arise.

Security Passes

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many security passes have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen by staff in her Department in the last 12 months. [150889]

Ms Hewitt: I refer to the answer given to the right hon. Member for Winchester (Mr. Oaten) on 22 January 2004, Official Report, column 1386W.

Telecommunications Masts

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what studies have been commissioned by her Department into the safety of TETRA masts. [151793]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 29 January 2004]: My Department contributes to the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme (MTHR), which includes studies looking at TETRA technology. The Home Office also has an extensive research programme. Details of the MTHR research programme can be found at www.mthr.org.uk and the Home Office at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/docs/tetra.html

UK Business Online

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the closure of UK Business Online. [150617]

Mr. Timms: In November 2002, the Secretary of State announced that business support was to be radically restructured as a result of feedback from key stakeholders. Rather than being closed, therefore, UK online for business will be integrated into mainstream DTI and Business Link, from April onwards. The aim is to make it simpler for businesses to access the support that DTI provides and to make the support more effective.

While the UK online for business brand will therefore be discontinued, ICT support and promotion will nevertheless remain a key focus for DTI.

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Unfair Dismissal

Brian Cotter: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what advice her Department has given to small firms about unfair dismissal rules introduced under the Employment Act 2002. [144235]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Part 3 of the Employment Act 2002 set out a framework of new minimum statutory dismissal and disciplinary and grievance procedures, and also made some changes to the law on unfair dismissal and on employment particulars. The detailed operation of disciplinary and grievance procedures was left to be specified via secondary legislation. This was laid before Parliament on 20 January 2004, and is anticipated to come into force on 1 October 2004.

All employers, regardless of size, will normally be required to follow these minimum procedures before dismissing employees—failure to do so may result in a tribunal finding the dismissal automatically unfair. In addition, in ordinary unfair dismissal cases, the employment tribunals will continue to take account of the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures in deciding whether or not an employer acted reasonably in dismissing. Acas launched this month a public consultation on a revised version of their Code of Practice.

The Government will put in hand an extensive guidance and advice campaign in good time for implementation, in consultation with small firms and other advisory organisations. This will inform employers and employees as necessary of the new rights and responsibilities created by this part of the Employment Act.

Utilities Act

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry under which provisions of the Utilities Act 2000 she is prevented from making public the findings of the Engineering Inspectorate of its inquiry into the power failures in London and Birmingham; and if she will make a statement. [151346]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 27 January 2004]: Section 105 of the Utilities Act 2000 places general restrictions on the disclosure of information relating to the affairs of any individual or to any particular business obtained by virtue of the provisions of the Act, Part I of the Gas Act 1986 or Part I of the Electricity Act 1989 during the lifetime of the individual or so long as the business continues.

Disclosure is permissible with the consent of the individual or the person for the time being carrying on the business. Disclosure is also permitted in limited circumstances, for example where it is necessary for the purpose of facilitating the performance of certain functions of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry or regulatory authorities or where it is required by a licence holder in order to fulfil a condition of his licence.

Section 105 makes unauthorised disclosure of information obtained under the 2000 Act, or under Part I of the 1986 Act or Part I of the 1989 Act, a criminal offence.

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WORK AND PENSIONS

Attendance Allowance Claims

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what proportion of attendance allowance claims, processed since the new claim pack was introduced in October 2003, have been subject to appeal. [146742]

Mr. Pond [pursuant to his reply, 7 January 2004, c. 458W]: The information given contained an inaccuracy in one of the figures; that of the number of decisions made in November 2003. The correct information is tabled as follows.

The following information shows the number of decisions made on new Attendance Allowance claims in the months of October and November 2003 and the number of Attendance Allowance appeals registered in the same months. Decisions appealed in October and November will contain a mix of claims made on the old and new forms. No separate data are available.

	October 2003	November 2003
Decisions made	35,111	30,521
Appeals registered	1,213	1,120
Percentage	3.45	3.67

Child Poverty

Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many and what percentage of children are living in poverty, using the (a) absolute low income, (b) relative low income and (c) material deprivation indicators announced in his Department's report, Measuring Child Poverty; and if he will give this information for (i) before and (ii) after housing costs for (A) 1998 and (B) 2001 for (1) the UK, (2) England, broken down by region, (3) Scotland, (4) Wales and (5) Northern Ireland. [151376]

Mr. Pond: The requested figures for absolute and relative low income are available from: "Households Below Average Income—An analysis of the income distribution for 1994–95 to 2001–02". This analysis covers Great Britain only; no data are available for Northern Ireland.

'Measuring Child Poverty', published in December 2003, outlines the Government's measure of UK child poverty for the long term; this new measure will begin from 2004–05. It also states that data for material deprivation will not be collected on the Family Resources Survey until the 2004–05 sample, and not available for full analysis until 2006.

All publications listed are available in the Library.

Andy King: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will estimate (a) how many and (b) what percentage of children will be living in poverty in (i) 2004–05, (ii) 2010 and (iii) 2020, (A) before and (B) after housing costs, broken down by nation and region of the UK. [151377]

Mr. Pond: Pre-Budget report 2003 announced that the child element of the Child Tax Credit would increase by £180 to £1,625 a year, equivalent to a weekly increase

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of £3.50. This increase will benefit 7.2 million children in 3.7 million families. As a result of this investment the Government are on track to meet or exceed its PSA target to reduce by a quarter the number of children in low income-households by 2004–05 on a Before Housing Costs (BHC) basis. The target is more challenging on an After Housing Costs (AHC) basis, although the nature of the target means there are uncertainties either way.

Forecasting how many children will be in relative low income in future years is problematic. Any estimate is dependent on forecasting median household income growth from 2001–02 (the latest available data). This itself is dependent on a number of factors, including the rate of earnings growth, demographic changes, changes in household composition and employment patterns, and changes to the tax and benefit system. Consequently, there is inherent uncertainty in any estimates produced, which is exacerbated the further into the future one attempts to model. For this reason, while our estimates allow us to provide a broad indication of progress towards the 2004–05 PSA target to inform policy decisions, point estimates are not sufficiently robust to be put in the public domain.

Independent analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests that the increase in Child Tax Credit will enable the Government to make substantial progress on both elements of the PSA. This extra investment will also enable the Government to make progress step by step towards their goal to halve child poverty by 2010 and eradicate it by 2020.

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