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11 Mar 2004 : Column 1675W—continued
Women Prisoners
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he has taken to implement the results of the research commissioned from Prisoners' Families on enabling women prisoners to keep in touch with their families. [159311]
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Paul Goggins: The work carried out by Action for Prisoners' Families will continue to inform the development of family policy and practice at Cookham Wood and other women's prisons.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Trading Standards
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what information the Office collects on the on-line submission of complaints to trading standards offices. [158900]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of Fair Trading do not collect statistics about the on-line submission of complaints to trading standards Departments. However, ConsumerComplaints.org.uk is a site developed with DTI support, which enables consumers to complain on-line. The complaint is automatically directed to the appropriate Trading Standards Department. Individual trading standards Departments use computer systems that are able to generate reports on how complaints are received. This would include a report on the number of complaints received on-line, compared to other methods.
Bankruptcies
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many companies went bankrupt in (a) Huddersfield and (b) the UK in each year since 1997. [160042]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Company Insolvency data for Huddersfield are not separately identifiable. Compulsory insolvencies are only broken down by Official Receivers Office. Huddersfield county court comes under the jurisdiction of the Official Receivers Office at Leeds, which also has responsibility for Bradford, Dewsbury, Halifax, Harrogate, Keighley, Leeds, Otley, Pontefract, Skipton, Wakefield and Todmorden. Company Insolvency Figures for the UK are provided in the following table:
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | 12,610 | 13,203 | 14,280 | 14,317 | 14,972 | 16,305 | 14,184 |
| Scotland | 477 | 566 | 572 | 583 | 602 | 788 | 631 |
| Northern Ireland | 113 | 99 | 103 | 136 | 100 | 102 | 143 |
| UK total | 13,200 | 13,868 | 14,955 | 15,036 | 15,674 | 17,195 | 14,958 |
Biomass Electricity Project, Winkleigh
Mr. Burnett: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the requests for payment from (a) her Department and (b) the South West Regional Development Agency in respect of the proposed Biomass Electricity Generation project at Winkleigh, Devon. [157145]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 27 February 2004]: The Department received an application for grant assistance of £11.50 million for this project under the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme in October 2002. The project was given a grant offer of £11.50 million in February 2003. No payments have yet been made, under this grant.
In parallel, the South West of England Regional Development Agency has received an application for support totalling £623,900 in respect of this project. Project funding has been authorised and to date £384,391 has been paid (mainly for land acquisition) leaving £239,509 to be paid as other elements of the project are completed.
British Nuclear Fuels
Dr. Jack Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many workers who transferred from AEA Technology to British Nuclear Fuels on 2 December 2003 lost pension benefits as a
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result; for what reasons they are required to pay increased contribution rates for pensions in their new jobs; and if she will make a statement. [159886]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 10 March 2004]: The staff that transferred on 1 December 2003 have until the end of May to decide which pension option they would like to take up out of those presented to them as part of the flexible transfer process.
As a minimum, transferring staff retained the value of their existing AEA Technology ("AEAT") pension fund. This existing pension fund had diminished during employment with AEAT but on transfer the funds were augmented via a mechanism involving AEAT, BNFL and employee's contributions. The Government Actuary's Department considered that the value of pension benefits arising from the augmented funds to represent a fair and equitable transfer of benefits under the stated Government guidelines on transfer of pension benefits within the public sector.
Transferring staff contribution rates are the same as those that they would have been required to make under their previous employment with AEAT if the transfer had never occurred.
Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions she has had with BNFL about their overseas contracts. [160017]
Mr. Timms: BNFL operates within a Governance Framework agreed by the Department as shareholder. Within this framework, BNFL is required to seek departmental agreement to specific contracts subject to certain criteria. On behalf of the Secretary of State, officials have regular discussions with BNFL regarding their overseas contracts in this context.
Correspondence
Mr. Chope: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the hon. Member for Christchurch will receive a substantive response to his letter of 18 December 2003 about the employment of non-UK labour in the construction industry and the Posting of Workers Directive. [157590]
Mr. Sutcliffe: As set out in the reply to the hon. Member for Christchurch, these are very important issues upon which the Government are seeking to obtain the full facts. I will write to him when I have further information to provide.
Employment Rights Advice Booklets
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the expected annual cost savings to her Department are of its decision to cease production of hard copy prints of most of its employment rights advice booklets. [159683]
Mr. Sutcliffe: We anticipate savings in the region of £380,000 per annum.
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Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 1 March 2004, Official Report, column 630W, to the hon. Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble), on employment rights leaflets, which leading customers of her Department's information service were consulted in relation to the decision to cease production of hard copy prints of most of the service's employment rights advice booklets. [159685]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Ceasing production of hard copy documents was one of the recommendations of a review on how our information on employment rights could be better focused on users needs. A practitioner group was set up as the means of consultation. Listed are the groups invited to be part of that group:
- CBI
- Trade Unions Congress
- Small Business Council
- Commission for Racial Equality
- NACAB
- British Retail Consortium
- Parents at Work
- Equal Opportunities Commission
- MaternityAlliance
- Amicus
- EEF
- ACCA
- West Midlands Employment and Low Pay Unit
- Construction Confederation
- British Hospitality Association
- Canary Wharf Group PLC
- Leo Abse and Cowen
- LG Electronics
- ACAS
- Disability Rights Commission
- CIPD
- British Chambers of Commerce
- Federation of Small Business
- An Employment Law Consultant
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 1 March 2004, Official Report, column 630W, to the hon. Member for Northampton, North (Ms Keeble), how many end users were surveyed during her Department's recent review of its information service; and how these end users were selected. [159686]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The review was conducted on the basis of consultation with users groups. A survey was not undertaken.
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many paper copies of each of her Department's employment rights booklets were ordered by customers in the most recent annual period for which information is available. [159687]
Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer the hon. Member to the following list.
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Notes:
1. Publications in italics will remain in hard copy format.
Source:
Extract from DTI Publications Full Title Usage Report 5 September 2003.
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Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the (a) most regular users of her Department's distribution service and (b) the total number of employment rights booklets ordered by each such user in the most recent annual period for which information is available. [159688]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following is a list of the organisations ordering the largest number of publications for the year ending 29 February 2004. Figures are for all booklets ordered by the organisation and not by subject matter.
Annual figures on employment rights booklets ordered by organisations are not readily available and would not be cost effective to produce.
| Addressnumber | Organisation | Total order quantity(29) |
|---|---|---|
| 558138 | Bright Star Fireworks UK Ltd. | 500,000 |
| 414998 | Amey | 135,000 |
| 326772 | Redundancy Payments Service | 111,515 |
| 563898 | TNT Fireworks UK Ltd. | 100,000 |
| 443440 | Lewisham Fire Station | 85,650 |
| 471697 | Clearview Imaging Services Ltd. | 69,125 |
| 473215 | The Portergate | 66,971 |
| 480222 | Trading Standards | 59,695 |
| 8813 | Edinburgh RPO | 58,948 |
| 206669 | Cosmic Fireworks | 51,000 |
| 439799 | Quality Mark Scheme Helpdesk | 50,876 |
| 1315868 | The Insolvency Service | 48,003 |
| 181100 | Strathclyde Fire brigade HQ | 45,010 |
| 582195 | Department of Trade and Industry | 40,980 |
| 607992 | SGB Youngman | 40,000 |
| 518183 | IWM 2003 Exhibition and Conference | 34,172 |
| 562459 | Invest UK and Itu telecom World | 33,193 |
| 295514 | Renault Printing Co Ltd. | 30,000 |
| 562496 | HM Customs Excise | 30,000 |
| 483912 | Employment Tribunals Service | 25,020 |
| 9106 | ROSPA Info Centre | 22,751 |
| 343898 | Anton Group | 20,000 |
| 139891 | Department of Trade and Industry | 20,000 |
(29) 31 January 2003 to 1 February 2004
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