---

18 Mar 2004 : Column 498W—continued

Temporary Staff

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many staff the Department employs on a temporary basis through employment agencies; what percentage this is of total staff employed; and how much the Department paid employment agencies to supply temporary staff in (a) 2001–02, (b) 2002–03 and (c) 2003–04 to the most recent date for which figures are available. [158238]

Fiona Mactaggart: The Home Office does not maintain a central record of agency workers. Agency workers are appointed by agreement with individual units within the Department and the recruitment agencies supplying agency workers.

The information required could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Travel Documents

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when the results of the six-month trial into the requirement of carriers to copy passenger travel documents will be available. [159529]

Beverley Hughes: At the end of the six-month trial we will be discussing the results with carriers. A revised Regulatory Impact Assessment will then be published as soon as possible following further consultation with stakeholders.

Work Visas

Mr. Simmonds: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many work visas were issued to foreign nationals in each year since 1997. [157814]

Beverley Hughes: The number of work permits issued in each of the last five calendar years is set out in the following table:

	Number issued
1999	60,743
2000	88,651
2001	120,823
2002	136,151
2003	145,351

18 Mar 2004 : Column 499W

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

"The Impact of Increasing International Competitionin Services"

Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what conclusions she has drawn from the consultation on her paper "The Impact of Increasing International Competition in Services". [159647]

Ms Hewitt: My Department received over 40 responses to the consultation paper and they are now being analysed. A response to the consultation will be included as part of the Trade and Investment White Paper which we intend to publish in June.

18 Mar 2004 : Column 500W

Bankruptcies and Liquidations

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) company compulsory liquidations and (b) personal bankruptcies there were in each quarter since 1999, broken down by region. [162214]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Table 1 records the number of company compulsory liquidations in England and Wales by region classified according to groupings of Official Receivers' Offices from 1999 to 2003.

Table 2 records the number of bankruptcies in England and Wales by region classified according to groupings of Official Receivers' Offices from 1999 to 2003.

Table 1: Company Compulsory Liquidations by regions classified according to groupings of Official Receivers Offices 1999–2003

	Annual Totals					1999	1999	1999	1999
	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Anglia Region	719	672	708	733	625	148	192	186	193
London	1161	951	911	1147	864	334	263	258	306
Midland Regions	605	664	553	821	617	184	120	173	128
North East Region	599	546	504	480	502	178	159	131	131
North West Region	714	597	586	987	656	194	187	159	174
Public Interest Unit	37	94	150	266	560	—	16	7	14
South East Region	768	769	715	1028	880	184	192	187	205
South West Region	606	632	548	768	531	157	165	139	145
England and Wales Total	5,209	4,925	4,675	6,230	5,235	1,379	1,294	1,240	1,296

	2000	2000	2000	2000	2001	2001	2001	2001
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Anglia Region	181	181	125	185	223	187	164	134
London	220	270	226	235	262	283	173	193
Midland Regions	154	176	178	156	170	145	110	128
North East Region	121	144	163	118	149	150	97	108
North West Region	152	173	128	144	175	149	139	123
Public Interest Unit	27	6	45	16	18	13	34	85
South East Region	186	180	216	187	212	252	112	139
South West Region	169	170	150	143	150	169	111	118
England and Wales Total	1,210	1,300	1,231	1,184	1,359	1,348	940	1,028

	2002	2002	2002	2002	2003	2003	2003	2003
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Anglia Region	191	188	158	196	205	153	149	118
London	217	336	215	379	281	200	174	209
Midland Regions	195	209	205	212	190	141	135	151
North East Region	119	131	106	124	140	136	113	113
North West Region	240	292	250	205	180	153	161	162
Public Interest Unit	81	91	38	56	115	347	40	58
South East Region	211	233	242	342	261	227	200	192
South West Region	154	199	175	240	213	113	104	101
England and Wales Total	1,408	1,679	1,389	1,754	1,585	1,470	1,076	1,104

Table 2: Bankruptcies by regions classified according to groupings of Official Receivers Offices 1999–2003

	Annual Totals					1999	1999	1999	1999
	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Anglia Region	3,408	3,144	3,521	3,527	4,191	952	873	851	732
OR London	1,286	1,285	1,427	1,457	1,933	334	368	258	326
Midland Region	3,066	3,187	3,409	3,501	4,187	823	749	782	712
North East Region	3,396	3,838	4,228	4,227	4,581	863	849	886	798
North West Region	3,517	3,640	4,108	4,116	3,868	911	908	921	777
Public Interest Unit	5	6	6	11	12		2	1	2
South East Region	2,931	2,730	2,755	3,052	4,618	805	756	695	675
South West Region	4,002	3,720	4,023	4,401	4,627	1111	1022	971	898
England and Wales Total	21,611	21,550	23,477	24,292	28,017	5,799	5,527	5,365	4,920

18 Mar 2004 : Column 501W

	2000	2000	2000	2000	2001	2001	2001	2001
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Anglia Region	878	744	781	741	961	848	871	841
OR London	338	289	340	318	351	342	361	373
Midland Region	756	840	852	739	904	889	846	770
North East Region	961	982	986	909	1,111	1,130	1,006	981
North West Region	977	885	926	852	1,056	1,084	1,041	927
Public Interest Unit	1	2	0	3	3	1	2	0
South East Region	721	704	658	647	659	765	694	637
South West Region	1035	968	908	809	1,033	1,056	996	938
England and Wales Total	5,667	5,414	5,451	5,018	6,078	6,115	5,817	5,467

	2002	2002	2002	2002	2003	2003	2003	2003
	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4
Anglia Region	926	860	857	884	1,013	1,003	1,082	1,093
OR London	345	404	355	353	450	463	479	541
Midland Region	824	914	915	848	1,046	1,002	1,105	1,034
North East Region	1,035	1,141	1,098	953	1,082	1,208	1,185	1,106
North West Region	1,036	1,080	1,087	913	1,020	919	1,039	890
Public Interest Unit	3	3	2	3	3	3	4	2
South East Region	121	756	806	763	1,017	1,198	1,236	1,167
South West Region	1,131	1,111	1,129	1,030	1,281	1,152	1,087	1,107
England and Wales Total	6,027	6,269	6,249	5,747	6,912	6,948	7,217	6,940

BBC

Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she next expects the Office of Fair Trading to examine the BBC's undertakings on the on-air promotions of BBC published magazines. [157481]

Estelle Morris: I have been asked to reply.

This is a matter for the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). The OFT considers annually its priorities for review of remedial Orders made and undertakings given under the monopoly provisions of the Fair Trading Act 1973. I understand that the OFT currently has no firm date in mind for the review of the BBC undertakings. Any information concerning a possible lack of compliance by the BBC with its undertakings should be passed to the OFT.

---