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18 Mar 2004 : Column 505W—continued
Radioactive Waste
Mr. Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the Government will assess the merits of creating a new radioactive waste management organisation, based on Nirex, as a statutory corporation. [158643]
Margaret Beckett: I have been asked to reply.
Government has established the independent Committee on Radioactive Waste Management (CoRWM) to recommend the best form of management for the UK's higher activity radioactive waste. We have also announced that we are looking at ways to make Nirex independent of industry and under greater Government control and we will make an announcement on this in due course.
Renewable Energy
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she has taken to implement the recommendations of the G8 Renewable Energy Task Force to work with the other G8 members in expanding domestic renewable energy markets. [162045]
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Mr. Timms: The UK is committed towards taking forward the key recommendations of the G8 Renewable Energy Task Force report (G8 RETF)—which is why at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 2002 we launched an initiative for a global renewable energy and energy efficiency partnership (REEEP). Since then a small secretariat based in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been working with international Governments, business and other organisations including representatives of civil society to develop the REEEP as a means for enabling the delivery of the G8 REFT recommendations. The REEEP aims to trigger a step change in renewable energy markets and bring together stakeholders globally to provide the concerted action needed. For our part, the Government have the target of renewables providing 10 per cent. of our electricity and has put in place the Renewable Obligation as the main means of increasing and development of renewable energy domestically to meet this target. Through the REEEP, the UK is working with others, including various G8 members, to share and build upon good policy, regulatory and financing practise necessary to accelerate the market development of renewable energy.
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what grants her Department funds for the installation of (a) solar panels and (b) other forms of renewable energy for (i) private landlords who rent out their properties and (ii) private households. [162053]
Mr. Timms: Under the Major Photovoltaics Demonstration Programme, private landlords and private households can receive up to 50 per cent. of the cost of installation, subject to price cap. Please see website at www.solarpvgrants.co.uk
Under the Clear Skies initiative private householders can apply for grants for the following technologies; solar water heating, small wind, micro hydro, ground source heat pumps and biomass heating. The level of grant is different for each technology and is also subject to a price cap.
Landlords are not eligible to apply when the property where the installation takes place is let. However public landlords can apply under the community stream of Clear Skies and can receive up to 50 per cent. of the costs.
Further details can be found on the website at www.clear-skies.org
Secondments
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of her Department's senior civil servants went on one week's secondment in (a) the private sector and (b) a small or medium-sized enterprise between April 2002 and April 2003. [161148]
Ms Hewitt: To date 85 per cent. of my Department's Senior Civil Servants have either completed or have made firm arrangement to undertake a one week attachment with some having completed more than one. Attachments were undertaken at a wide range of organisations of which approximately 80 per cent. were in the private sector. We have not broken this down between large and small or medium-sized enterprises.
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I have placed a copy of my Department's publication "Inside Out" in the Libraries of the House. As will be seen most of the case studies included in this are of people going to small or medium-sized enterprises.
Small Businesses
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the visits she has made to firms employing fewer than 50 workers since 1 January 2003. [157862]
Ms Hewitt: I undertake many visits to companies in the course of my Ministerial duties and as a Constituency MP and I have quarterly meetings with the Chair of the Small Business Council. My officials have checked the records and, since 1 January 2003, I have visited two companies with fewer than 50 employees, in my capacity as Secretary of State.
- 6 June 2003—Voice Connect Groby, Leicestershire
- 14 November 2003—Inspiration Healthcare, Beaumont Leys, Leicester
Records also show that during the same period, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Minister for Small Business and Enterprise has visited some 21 companies with fewer than 50 employees.
Uzbekistan
Tom Brake: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what projects her Department is funding in Uzbekistan. [159847]
Websites
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the cost in (a) financial and (b) other terms was in (i) each financial year since 1997 and (ii) 2003–04 until the latest date for which figures are available of (A) developing and (B) maintaining (1) her Department's website and (2) each website for which her Department is responsible; and how many (C) unique hosts and (D) hits there were in each month for each website in (iii) each financial year since 1997 and (iv) 2003–04 until the latest date for which numbers are available. [155856]
18 Mar 2004 : Column 508W
Ms Hewitt: For expenditure on and visitors to the Department's main website, I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 10 April 2002, Official Report, column 393W and 24 March 2003, Official Report, column 27W. Information on other departmental and NDPB websites is not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.
(C) The DTI website is hosted by our IT service partner and has been hosted centrally since it was set up. Other external hosts have on occasion been used for individual project or scheme websites. However, there is now a programme of activity to bring all of these sites onto the main DTI hosting platform.
Since Jan 2003, the number of unique visitors and hits to the DTI website have been:
| Unique users | Hits | |
|---|---|---|
| February | 322,232 | 24,108,693 |
| March | 375,384 | 27,198,493 |
| April | 367,607 | 26,314,327 |
| May | 357,743 | 23,398,885 |
| June | 324,062 | 21,707,116 |
| July | 337,485 | 22,941,249 |
| August | 321,670 | 19,980,667 |
| September | 345,555 | 21,335,241 |
| October | 377,785 | 22,611,172 |
| November | 408,669 | 22,036,418 |
| December | 307,932 | 18,619,093 |
Working Time Directive
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action the Government are taking to ensure that the UK opt out from the EU Working Time Directive is not amended or abolished. [153542]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The opt out is important to the UK as it maintains flexible labour markets and gives choice to individuals to work longer hours if they so wish. I, and my colleagues, are working in Europe to stress the importance of the opt out to both employers and employees and to ensure that key decision makers understand the benefits of an approach which provides protection to workers who do not wish to work long hours without restricting those who wish to make a different choice.