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Ministerial Visits

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the (a) businesses and (b) small businesses which she has visited in an official capacity since 1 January. [162765]

Ms Hewitt [holding answer 22 March 2004]: In my official capacity I frequently meet business people and also held regular meetings with business representative organisations.

Nirex

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 17 March 2004, Official Report, column 330W whether a representative

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of Nirex was present at the meetings of (a) 5 March and (b) 9 March; and whether the communications budget was discussed. [163047]

Mr. Timms: Nirex was not represented at these meetings, and they did not address its communications budget.

Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

Mr. Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether applications from foreign candidates will be considered for the post of (a) chair and (b) chief executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. [163644]

Mr. Timms: The Department is undertaking a recruitment campaign for two policy advisers who subject to the successful passage of the Energy Bill be appointed Chair, and Chief Executive of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The campaign is open and transparent and applications will be considered from all sources. The key requirement is that candidates meet the criteria for the posts. Successful candidates will need to obtain satisfactory security clearance.

Oil Reserves

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what assessment she has made of the importance of the Al-Ghawar oil field to the global oil market; [163400]

(2) what assessment she has made of the risks to sustaining output from the Al-Ghawar field at current levels. [163401]

Mr. Timms: The Al-Ghawar oil field is estimated to have production capacity of around five million barrels of oil per day, approximately 6 per cent. of global oil production.

My Department keeps abreast of the various studies looking at the sustainability of output from Al-Ghawar, and Saudi Arabia more generally. Although production from the Al-Ghawar field may slowly decline in future years, Saudi Aramco is confident that replacements from other giant oil fields mean that oil production from Saudi Arabia can be sustained at current levels, and higher if necessary, for several decades.

Mr. Blunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of short to medium term excess of oil and over-supply for oil on policy towards promoting development of more North Sea hydrocarbon resources. [163402]

Mr. Timms: The imperative to maximise the economic benefit, and the consequent contribution to energy security of supply, from the UK's oil and gas reserves applies whatever the oil price. Working with PILOT, the Government-industry forum, we aim to ensure that the North Sea's oil and gas reserves are fully exploited, for example by attracting new entrant oil companies and improving the recovery from existing fields.

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Phoenix Development Fund

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the effect of the Phoenix Development Fund on levels of enterprise in disadvantaged and under-represented groups. [163319]

Nigel Griffiths: The Fund is currently being evaluated and a final report is due in September 2004. However the results to date indicate that the project is helping in the creation of some 8,000 new enterprises and assisting over 8,200 existing businesses.

Renewable Energy

Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much her Department has spent on grants to encourage the use of renewable energy in each year since 1990. [162054]

Mr. Timms: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer that I gave to my right hon. Friend the Member for Oldham, West and Royton (Mr. Meacher) on 17 March 2004, Official Report, column 327–28W.

Rural Post Offices (Scotland)

Annabelle Ewing: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discrete criteria are to be employed for Scotland as far as the review of the rural post office network is concerned. [162948]

Mr. Timms: Officials from the Scotland Office and the Scottish Executive will be closely involved in the consideration of policy options for the future of the rural post office network through membership on an inter-departmental working group.

Small Businesses

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which of the recommendations of the Cross Cutting Review of Government Services for Small Businesses have been implemented. [163321]

Nigel Griffiths: 37 of 39 recommendations of the Cross Cutting Review of Government Services for Small Business have been or are being implemented, either in their original form, or as modified in the light of subsequent work. The 39 recommendations are set out in the following list.

Recommendation 22 in the list is not being pursued in its original form. Recommendation 23 has been deferred. Work has shown that it is not possible at this stage to develop an appropriate appraisal methodology to take full account of the costs to SMEs of different forms of service delivery.

Recommendations from the Cross Cutting Review of Government Services for Small Business

1. Government Departments to train staff in contact with small firms about the Government's objective of encouraging entrepreneurs: staff should be aware of the support and services available for new firms; this training should be sensitive to regional differences in rates of entrepreneurship.

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2. Government 'services' aimed at fostering entrepreneurs should be more consciously designed to help remove barriers for under-represented groups; SBS to lead work on this.

3. SBS should bring forward proposals to increase the reach and effectiveness of the Small Firms Guarantee scheme provided the changes can demonstrate value for money, to implement the broad thrust of SBIT and KPMG recommendations, in particular that:

where possible, sector exclusions are removed;

the scheme is simplified; and that

it is marketed effectively to encourage greater take-up by finance providers and small businesses alike.

4. SBS should act as a focal point for Government research on barriers to enterprise for under-represented groups.

5. SBS to give clearer instructions to Business Links Operators (BLOs) on how to acknowledge diversity in their business delivery and ensure best practice in delivering BLO services are spread to all.

6. SBS to redefine BLOs targets to encourage them to engage the local community, creating an inclusive and approachable reputation, and using intermediaries where these are better at providing business services to specific groups.

7. RDAs should work with Local Strategic Partnerships, using regeneration funds where relevant, to pioneer novel approaches to barriers for specific groups of local entrepreneurs.

8. SBS and Inland Revenue jointly should examine the costs and benefits of providing, in a suitably anonymised form, to Government Departments and expert organisations, on an ongoing basis, existing data available from self-employment registration forms (Annex C).

9. The SBS and ONS should review the questions on self-employment and business ownership in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) to ensure that all self-employed interviewees are captured in the survey, and to examine increasing the LFS sample size.

10. SBS and Inland Revenue should examine and report to Ministers whether data on gender, ethnic background and disability status of applicants by postcode could be captured from self-employment registration forms.

11. SBS and Customs and Excise should examine and report to Ministers whether data on gender, ethnic background and disability status of applicants by postcode could be captured via the VAT registration form.

12. SBS to enforce the BLO contract condition to supply data on the clients receiving 'significant' assistance from Business Links.

13. Government Departments to identify separate services which could be combined to provide a single service for small firms—for example, at start-up, or becoming an employer.

14. Departments to set targets which demonstrate progress towards providing quality services for all customers.

15. SBS and the Office of the e-Envoy, to establish management and governance arrangement for business.gov to ensure that it is developed in conjunction with the main public services for small business; and also will ensure that departments and

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agencies can base their electronic service delivery projects on a common, practical, research-based understanding of customer requirements, leading to a common look and feel for government information for small firms.

16. Departments and agencies who are service providers for small firms at start-up are to work with SBS to produce a resource pack with comprehensive information about what Government wants from new businesses and the newly self-employed and what it can do for them; the pack should be available through multiple private and public sector channels (including banks, accountants, libraries and so on). Local authority information should be incorporated as soon as possible.

17. Local enterprise events to be held: these give new and would-be entrepreneurs information about the help available (which they often underestimate).

18. Over time an electronic version of the resource pack to be developed to give more detailed and tailored information.

19. The pack will be underpinned by a common data source available to all issuing it, so that the same advice is given regardless of the agent who gives it.

20. OPSR (Cabinet Office) with support from PSPPU to develop guidance on customer-focused delivery and consult widely on their proposals.

21. SBS to develop further its expertise on small firm sector, to act as a proxy-customer and advise departments and agencies on the needs of small firms in designing and implementing policies which impact on them.

22. To raise awareness and promote culture change, SBS to sponsor a 'special award' for services to small firms within the existing Charter Mark Scheme, with applications judged by a panel comprising small firm representative groups and individual small businesses.

23. Departments to work with HM Treasury in developing further appraisal methodologies which take full account of the costs to SMEs of different forms of service delivery.

24. Departments' targets for measuring towards providing quality services for all customers, should also measure the extent to which the department has set the customer at the heart of its policy and implementation systems.

25. Whitehall Group to act as a forum to share best practice and ensure that opportunities for joint working that would benefit small firms customer are exploited.

26. Expenditure and service information to be collected again by SBS and HMT before the next spending review.

27. SBS to develop and maintain an information quarry on Government requirements of and support for small firms, available for other departments and small firms' advisers.

28. Departments with extensive contacts with small firms to train staff to use the information quarry to signpost small firms to other relevant Government services.

29. Departments and agencies with call centres to review operational targets to ensure these do not discourage effective signposting.

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30. As an executive agency of the DTI, the SBS's remit is redefined to take account of the importance of small firms' wider interactions with Government: it should aim to simplify and improve small firms' experience of Government.

31. SBS should develop its role as a source of market knowledge and expertise on small firms for national policy makers through its research and evaluation programme and through existing and newly developing networks.

32. The joint chairman of a group of departments and agencies who provide major services for small firms should be a member of the SBS steering board; the group will advise on SBS's annual work programme to improve the quality and flow of information about Government services; the group will also be a forum for sharing good practice in customer focus.

33. RDAs and SBS should develop a methodology, so that SBS can build up an aggregate picture of demand and supply for information on services for small business.

34. SBS should continue to develop the brokerage role for Business Links.

35. RDAs should work closely with sub-regional partnerships, and Local Strategic Partnerships to share information with small businesses and improve local communication about services for small business.

36. SBS, RDAs and partnerships should develop principles of good partnership working.

37. Members of partnerships may adjust their own services in the light of information about what others do, to eliminate overlapping services or fill gaps.

38. RDAs may wish to give sub regional partnerships budgets for improving information for small firms about what is available; and/or to move from information sharing and provision to positive planning and co-ordination of services.

39. Members of partnerships should also identify any barriers to joint working created by national policies and targets, and pass this information back to the department or agency concerned via the RDA.

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