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Regional Assemblies
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what representations he has received from the Electoral Commission concerning the publication of information by the Government during the period prior to the referendums on the proposed elected regional assemblies. [159825]
Mr. Raynsford: Sam Younger, Chairman of the Electoral Commission, wrote to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in January about the timing of the Government's information campaign about elected regional assemblies. He suggested that the Government's information campaign should stop once the referendum period begins.
In my reply, I have pointed out that during the course of the Regional Assemblies (Preparations) Bill, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister undertook to deliver a leaflet providing information about the referendum issues to every household in the regions affected. It is not feasible for us to print or deliver that leaflet before the referendums have been called and the date of those referendums is settled. This commitment to Parliament could not be honoured if Mr. Younger's suggestion was followed.
Section 125 of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 (PPERA) requires the Government to stop providing information 28 days before the close of poll. However, we intend these referendums to be conducted by all-postal ballot, which means that voters will receive their ballot papers, and be able to vote, up to three weeks before close of
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poll. We have therefore indicated to the Chairman of the Electoral Commission our intention to stop our information campaign 28 days before the first day that ballot papers can be dispatched. This complies with both the letter and the spirit of the PPERA and enables our commitment to Parliament to be honoured.
Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps he is taking to ensure that arguments (a) in favour of and (b) against elected regional assemblies will be put to the public at the regional hearings he is conducting in the next two months. [159829]
Mr. Raynsford: The regional hearings are to enable Ministers to hear views from members of the public, and others, about the proposed powers of elected regional assemblies. They are not about presenting arguments in favour of or against elected assemblies. However, representatives from both the yes and no campaigns have been invited to attend the hearings as they are key stakeholders in the regions.
Ann Winterton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the proposed Government grants of £780 million for the North West Region, £350 million for the North East Region and £570 million for Yorkshire and the Humber Region are subject to financial restraints for allocation and use; and by whom they are controlled. [160755]
Mr. Raynsford: The finance powers of elected regional assemblies were set out in Chapter 5 of the White Paper "Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions" (Cm. 5511).
The Government want to give elected regional assemblies the maximum flexibility over how they spend the money allocated to them. It would constrain an assembly unduly if grants were to be ear-marked by central Government for specific purposes. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister therefore proposes to give regional assemblies a single block grant with freedom to spend money as they judge best.
In return, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will expect each assembly to help achieve in their region a small number of targets agreed with the Government and relevant to an assembly's responsibilities. Some additional money will be available to reward elected assemblies which achieve or exceed the targets.
Local Councillors (Anonymous Complaints)
Mr. Cummings: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many anonymous complaints have been made against local government councillors to the Standards Board for England since its inception; how many of these have been investigated; and which councils were involved. [155170]
Mr. Raynsford: Out of 5,819 allegations received by the Standards Board for England up to January 2004, 14 have been anonymous. Of these, three were referred for investigation. Two of these related to Councillors in Sedgefield borough council and the third to a Councillor in Selatynn and Gobowan Parish Council.
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TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Working Time Directive
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of Crosby have benefited from a reduction of the working week to 48 hours. [160542]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Working Time Regulations provide workers with the right not to work more than 48 hours if they want to. Numbers for Crosby are not available, however it has been estimated that around 50,000 workers resident in Merseyside stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the benefits to residents of Crosby of new rights for night-shift workers. [160527]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Working Time Regulations limit working time to 48 hours per week averaged over a 17-week reference period. For night workers the limit is eight hours per day on average, including overtime where it is part of a night worker's normal hours of work. There is no opt-out from the night working time limit.
Night workers are entitled to 11 hours rest between working days, one day's rest per week, and a 20-minute in work rest break if the working period is longer than 6 hours.
All night workers should be offered a free health assessment before they start working night and thereafter at regular intervals for as long as they are working nights. The health assessments should take account of the nature of the work and the restrictions on a worker's working time under the regulations. Workers who suffer from problems as a result of working at night, should as far as practicable be offered alternative day work.
All workers are entitled to four weeks paid annual leave. There are no specific data available for night shift workers in Crosby.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of Crosby benefit from the right to four weeks' paid holiday. [160540]
Mr. Sutcliffe: All workers resident in Crosby benefit from the right to four weeks paid holiday set out in the Working Time Regulations.
Disciplinary and Grievance Hearings
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of Crosby have benefited from new rights to representation at (a) disciplinary and (b) grievance hearings. [160541]
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Mr. Sutcliffe: A worker has the right to be accompanied by a fellow worker or trade union official when asked by his or her employer to attend a disciplinary or grievance hearing. There are no estimates of the number of Crosby residents who have exercised this right since it came into force in September 2000.
Employment Rights Advice
Lynne Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the cost in 2003–04 is to her Department of producing, in (a) internet and (b) paper format, advice on individual employment rights. [159684]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Figures are not available on the cost of providing advice on individual employment rights on the internet and could not be provided cost-effectively.
DTI anticipate costs for producing employment rights booklets for 2003–04 in paper format in the region of £460,000. Acas estimate that it will cost £265,000 for their employment rights publications. This does not include the cost of advice on new or changed rights.
Renewable Energy Initiative
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 8 March 2004, Official Report, column 1285W, on renewable energy, how much the Renewable Energy Initiative has cost to date; and how much is budgeted to be spent in the future. [160995]
Mr. Timms: As indicated in my previous answer, the Renewable Energy Initiative focuses on raising awareness. The costs are subsumed within existing administration budgets and are not separately identifiable.
Once any business is underwritten by ECGD it would be logged as a contingent liability rather than expenditure.
EU Structural Funds
Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much funding has been (a) applied for and (b) paid out to each region from European Union Structural Funds to date; and how much it is planned that each region will get in total from these funds. [161126]
Jacqui Smith [holding answer 12 March 2004]: Details of the amounts of European Structural Funds applied for and paid out to each region since the Funds first became available in the United Kingdom are not kept centrally. Compiling these figures now could be done only disproportionate cost.
However, I can provide the allocation by region of Structural Funds for the period 2000–06, which is shown in the following table:
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