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Nuclear Industry

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent discussions her Department has had about the future of nuclear power generation in the UK. [161003]

Mr. Timms: The Department has many discussions with the nuclear industry and with other interested groups, in some of which the future of nuclear power generation in the UK has been raised. The Government's policy on new nuclear build remains as set out in the Energy White Paper.

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much revenue has been received by BNFL for dealing with imported nuclear waste; and if she will make a statement. [153372]

Mr. Timms: The UK does not import nuclear waste.

As far as spent nuclear fuel is concerned, THORP's order book amounts to some £12 billion. Details of payments for BNFL's reprocessing services are commercial matters for BNFL and its customers.

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions she has had with (a) the Scottish Executive and (b) Members of the Scottish Parliament about the future management of Scotland's nuclear waste. [161005]

Mr. Timms: There is regular contact between my Department and the Scottish Executive on a range of issues relating to radioactive waste management policy.

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what provision will be made in the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's Segregated Account for the very long-term management of radioactive waste. [160656]

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Mr. Timms: The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) will be a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) financed by the Government in the usual way.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Funding Account (NDFA) will record all the income and expenditure associated with the discharge of the NDA's responsibilities as set out in the Energy Bill and be maintained at a sufficient level to support NDA activity over the long-term. This includes securing the treatment, storage, transportation and disposal of radioactive waste.

Skills Base

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her assessment is of employers'

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demand for employees with (a) high, (b) intermediate and (c) lower level qualifications, broken down as a percentage of the UK workforce. [158853]

Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer to my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State's reply to the hon. Member's Question No. 155288 answered on 24 February, Official Report, column 396W, which set out how we seek to understand and raise employer demand for skills by working with the Sector Skills Development Agency and the Skills for Business Network to ensure that employers have the skills they require both now and in the future.

My right hon. Friend Secretary of State for Education and Skills may be able to offer further evidence on demand for qualifications but I refer you to the publication "Skills in England—2002" and the following table 6.11 gives the projected change in employment by qualifications from 1999 to 2010.

Table 6.11 Projected Employment by Qualification, 1999–2010

	Level 5		Level 4		Level 3
Region	1999 (Thousand)	Percentage ch.	1999 (Thousand)	Per cent. ch.	1999 (Thousand)	Percentage. ch.
London	328	36.9	1,123	42.4	615	-1.0
South East	173	34.1	866	38.9	750	14.1
East of England	100	34.0	468	38.5	445	8.8
South West	92	33.7	499	33.1	440	13.6
West Midlands	86	19.8	438	30.1	433	4.4
East Midlands	59	30.5	344	30.8	387	5.4
Yorkshire and The Humber	86	20.9	436	26.2	402	6.7
North West	107	29.0	603	28.2	586	2.7
North East	29	20.7	184	22.8	204	0.5
United Kingdom	1,237	30.8	5,864	33.2	5,099	5.4

Table 6.11 Projected Employment by Qualification, 1999–2010

	Level 2		Level 1		No qualifications
	1999 (Thousand)	(Percentage) ch.	1999 (Thousand)	Percentage ch.	1999 (Thousand)	Percentage ch.
London	834	-9.7	802	-8.4	433	-25.4
South East	906	2.1	844	10.9	405	-17.8
East of England	592	5.1	564	9.6	271	-10.3
South West	533	4.1	511	12.9	236	-30.9
West Midlands	558	-0.7	541	10.2	390	-41.3
East Midlands	410	0.7	433	13.6	262	-26.0
Yorkshire and The Humber	496	-2.0	505	13.9	307	-25.4
North West	683	-1.8	618	7.6	383	-36.0
North East	237	0.0	230	11.3	141	-34.0
United Kingdom	6,172	-0.9	5,778	8.2	3,388	-26.5

Note

Level 2 and below are regarded as lower level qualifications, Level 3/4 (e.g. A'levels and HNDs) as intermediate qualifications and Level 4 (degrees)/level 5 (higher degrees) as higher level qualifications

Source:

Wilson (200Ib) Table 14, Page 19.

Small Business

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her estimate is of the (a) number and (b) economic input of small businesses employing fewer than 10 people in the United Kingdom in the last year for which figures are available. [160133]

Nigel Griffiths: At the start of 2002 there were an estimated 3,596,855 businesses in the private sector (including public corporations and nationalised bodies) in the United Kingdom employing fewer than 10 people. This was 95 per cent. of the total number of UK private sector businesses.

These businesses employing fewer than 10 people had an estimated combined turnover of £482,984 million. This was 22 per cent. of the total turnover in UK private sector businesses.

These are the latest figures available.

EU Telecoms Council

Mr. Hood: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the outcome was of the Telecommunications Council held on 8 March; what the Government's stance was on the issues discussed, including its voting record; and if she will make a statement. [161443]

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Mr. Timms: I attended the Telecoms Council held on 8 March 2004 in Brussels. There was a round-table debate on the state of the telecoms sector, in particular on two areas for action by governments; the transposition of the new regulatory framework and implementing national broadband strategies. There was broad consensus that the sector was recovering, that compelling content would be key in driving take-up of broadband and that e-Government was important as driver and exemplar in services. The rollout of broadband in under served areas was also discussed, including the importance of applying structural funding in a technology-neutral, market-led and competition-based way.

I pointed out that in the face of increasingly stiffer international competition it was vital for the EU to make the most of its competitive edge from creating the largest single coherent telecoms market by implementing the new regulatory package in a timely, consistent and effective way. I emphasised the need for a vision and specific planning beyond 2005 to meet the Lisbon goal by 2010 of Europe becoming the world's knowledge-based leader. To achieve this, I stressed the importance of intensifying dialogue with industry across the whole value chain. The Presidency will submit the Conclusions of this Council discussion to the Spring European Council on 25–26 March.

The Presidency will also submit to the Spring European Council the Council Conclusions on the following items, which were agreed without substantial debate; the e-Europe 2005 Mid-Term, unsolicited communications for direct marketing purposes, or "spam" and on the following-up to the World Summit on the Information Society.

Ukraine

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions she (a) has had and (b) plans with the government of Ukraine concerning opportunities to sell Ukrainian products within the European Union; and if she will make a statement. [159543]

Ms Hewitt: The Secretary of State for Trade and Industry has had no recent discussions with members of the Ukraine Government concerning opportunities to sell their products within the European Union. However my right hon. Friend, Minister of State for Industry and the Regions, met with Valery Khoroshivskiy, Minister for Economy and European Integration, Ukraine, on 15 September 2003, and discussed a number of issues including trade.

EU relations with Ukraine are to a large extent based on the Partnership and Co-operation Agreement, which entered into force in 1998. The agreement regulates the political, economic and cultural relations between the EU and Ukraine and is the current legal basis for the EU's bilateral trade with Ukraine.

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