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Fair Trade Products

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to encourage Government departments and agencies to offer fair trade products in their restaurants and cafeterias. [162082]

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Ms Hewitt: It is government policy to promote Fairtrade products, against the background of the need to obtain best value for money, the EC procurement rules and the Department's objectives. Within these guidelines the Department and its Agencies are committed to supporting ethical trading wherever possible.

Since September 2002, I have ensured that Fairtrade tea and coffee are available throughout DTI HQ, and many of my Cabinet colleagues have done likewise. I am pleased to announce that Government departmental restaurants and cafeterias are continually adding to their range of Fairtrade products. In addition to Fairtrade coffee and tea, staff, visitors, and ministers can now enjoy Fairtrade cereal and chocolate bars, and Fairtrade hot chocolate, sweetened with Fairtrade sugar.

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to encourage more companies to participate in fair trade practices. [162083]

Ms Hewitt: The Government has worked hard to encourage companies to participate in fair trade practices. The Government, through DFID, has provided £0.5 million in support for UK development awareness and education campaigns centred around fair trade over the past two years. This includes £120,000 to the media campaigns of the Fairtrade Foundation to raise both business and consumer awareness of how fair trade benefits poor producers and to increase the exposure of products carrying the Fairtrade mark.

Government support for fair trade is part of a wider programme designed to mainstream social responsible business practices in the corporate sector. The Government, through DfID, funds the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI); £1.3 million over the last three years. The ETI, an alliance of Trade Unions, NGOs and private companies, seeks to promote good practices in the implementation of labour related codes of conduct throughout the supply chain.

Miners' Compensation

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how long on average former miners (a) represented and (b) not represented by a trade union have waited for their respiratory claims to be resolved. [161339]

Nigel Griffiths: The Department does not hold these figures.

Post Office Closures

Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will instruct Post Office Ltd. to publish a profile of the select teams of personnel involved in walking between each sub-post office proposed for closure in the Wakefield area plan and the named alternative branch indicating how many of the personnel were (a) wheelchair users, (b) physically disabled, (c) aged between 65 to 75 years, (d) aged between 75 to 85 years, (e) aged over 90 years and (f) wheeling pushchairs and accompanied by young children. [162383]

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Mr. Timms [holding answer 18 March 2004]: No. Post Office Ltd. personnel involved in drawing up closure proposals under the urban reinvention programme undertake a detailed on the ground study assessment of the accessibility of the alternative offices identified as the main receiving branches and their facilities for the disabled. This assessment includes the nature of the terrain between the branches, the distance of the journey on foot, including how busy the roads are, where there are pedestrian crossings, traffic lights or underpasses where these need to be crossed. Access by public transport, predominantly by bus, is also checked giving route numbers and distance of stops from the closing and receiving branches. Availability of parking is also checked. The offices in Wakefield scheduled to close have an alternative office within 0.5–0.6 miles accessible by bus.

Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she takes to monitor the factual accuracy of information upon which proposals to close sub-post offices are based; what steps have been taken to evaluate the factual accuracy of the Post Office area plan for Wakefield; and if she will make a statement. [162379]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 18 March 2004]: The public consultation process enables any factual inaccuracies in the proposals to be identified and Postwatch closely monitors every individual closure proposal including factual accuracy of information from a consumer perspective.

Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what assessment has been made of the change in the number of road journeys consequent on the proposal to close sub-post offices within the Wakefield metropolitan district; [162380]

(2) what assessment has been made of the health and social care implications of the proposal to close sub-post offices within the Wakefield metropolitan district; [162381]

(3) what steps were taken during the development of the Post Office area plan for Wakefield to assess the consequences of the plan for levels of road accidents and fatalities involving pedestrians. [162382]

Mr. Timms [holding answers 18 March 2004]: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to respond direct to my hon. Friend.

Postwatch Scotland

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in how many cases Postwatch Scotland has lodged an objection to a proposed post office closure in the context of the Urban Reinvention Programme; and in how many cases Postwatch Scotland has withdrawn such an objection. [161459]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Postwatch and I have asked the Chairman of Postwatch Scotland to respond direct to the hon. Member.

Regional Development Agencies

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) new and

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(b) safeguarded jobs are directly attributable to each regional development agency for each year since their inception. [157201]

Jacqui Smith: When England's Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) were established in April 1999, they inherited eleven different programmes, each with their own budgets, objectives and output definitions. So the figures for the three years 1999–2000 to 2001–2002 were reported using a number of different definitions. The following table shows the total number of jobs directly attributable to RDA activity for each of the first three years since their inception. The figures are not split between new and safeguarded jobs.

	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02
Advantage West Midlands	25,305	12,792	8,587
East of England Development Agency	2,615	3,019	1,546
East Midlands Development Agency	10,092	11,243	9,321
London Development Agency(5)	N/a	N/a	13,007
Northwest Development Agency	33,340	34, 685	29,523
ONE NorthEast	11,695	15,369	18,786
South East England Development Agency	8,310	16,476	3,063
South West of England Regional Development Agency	3,547	21,766	17,965
Yorkshire Forward	15,720	21,282	14,788

The basis for reporting outputs changed with the introduction of the Single Programme budget in April 2002, when a common targetry framework was introduced, together with a set of agreed outputs for each RDA and common output definitions. Target levels are set through the corporate planning process and each RDA has the flexibility to set targets within the common framework based on the priorities for its region. The following table shows the total number of jobs directly attributable to RDA activity in 2002–03 against the Corporate Plan targets. This information has been previously published -1 refer the hon. Member to the statement I made on 7 July 2003. The figures are not split between new and safeguarded jobs.

	2002–2003 Target	2002–2003 Achievement
Advantage West Midlands	13,626	13,416
East of England Development Agency	953	2,177
East Midlands Development Agency	5,150	2,940
London Development Agency	14,450	13,873
Northwest Development Agency	14,532	16,764
ONE NorthEast	7,449	7,774
South East England Development Agency	2,066	3,107
South West of England Regional Development Agency	6,450	6,508
Yorkshire Forward	10,500	10,888

All of the above information is taken from each RDA's Annual Report and Accounts, which the eight RDAs outside London are required to produce, and are laid in Parliament. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House. The London Development Agency also produces an Annual Report and Accounts, which is not required to be laid in Parliament, but is available on the LDA's website.

¹ The London Development Agency was not established until July 2000 and the LDA first reported outputs in 2001–2002.

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