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Written Answers to Questions

Wednesday 31 March 2004

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Supermarket Code of Practice

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she will respond to the Office of Fair Trading's assessment of the Supermarket Code of Practice. [164073]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) announced on 20 February 2004 that it would carry out an audit of the supermarkets' own records to determine whether there is evidence to support complaints about the Code made by various suppliers. When OFT have finalised their assessment, DTI is ready to look closely at the findings and any recommendations for action.

BACS

Brian White: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress her Department has made to manage the changeover from the Bank Automated Clearing System to the new BACSTEL-IP system for electronic payments. [164327]

Ms Hewitt: The Department's account services provider, Amey BPO Services, have made arrangements to be ready for migration to BACSTEL-IP as and when required by the Bank of England.

Competitiveness Council

Mr. Connarty: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to her answer of 17 March 2004, Official Report, columns 326–27W, to the hon. Member for Clydesdale (Mr. Hood), on the Competitiveness Council, for what reasons no agreement was reached on the regulation for the Community Patent. [164294]

Ms Hewitt: Agreement was not reached because of an unresolved issue over whether translations of the claims of the patent, which are required to be filed in all official languages of the European Union, should be for information only, or whether they should have full legal effect. One view is that a company should not be disadvantaged if it infringes a patent due to a bad translation. At the other end of the spectrum, various delegations believe that giving legal effect to translations would raise costs for everyone and increase uncertainty. The UK is anxious to see a compromise which recognises industry's clear view that excessive translation costs would make a Community Patent of little value compared to existing arrangements.

Entrepreneurship

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department has taken to improve the start-up advice available to entrepreneurs. [163314]

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Nigel Griffiths: The government has a range of services and initiatives in place aimed at helping those thinking of starting a business. A comprehensive range of advice, information and support is delivered through the network of Business Link Operators and its partners. The Businesslink.gov website contains tailored advice and information aimed at those thinking about starting a business. This includes a new online training directory to help people thinking of starting a business, or in their first year of trading, to access training in order to innovate, improve, grow and be more competitive. Steps have also been taken to address concerns expressed by those starting in business about understanding their responsibilities with the publication of the 'No Nonsense Guide to Government rules for setting and running your business'. This brings together in one place all the rules and regulations that affect start-up businesses.

Export Credit Guarantees

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when and where payment was made by the Export Credits Guarantee Department of the agent's commission on the contract the ECGD backed on the sale of bridges to Papua New Guinea; and what percentage of the contract the commission represented. [163537]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: ECGD does not pay agent's commission on contracts it supports. However, the element of the contract price which reflects commission payments can be financed by banks within the loans ECGD guarantees.

ECGD is normally obliged to treat all information provided by its customers on the payment of agent's commission confidentially, using it to establish that the payment and value of the commission are acceptable.

Following our request, the exporter has agreed that ECGD can disclose that it employed a private engineering company to act both as local agent and sub-contractor. Commission formed an element of this arrangement and it was payable as work progressed. The commission was financed under the ECGD-guaranteed loan.

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether the Export Credits Guarantee Department covered agent's commission on the contract it supported on the addition of Trains 4 and 5 to the liquified natural gas plant at Bonny Island in Nigeria; what percentage of the contract the commission represented; and what the (a) place and (b) date of payment were. [158313]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: ECGD is not covering agent's commission on this contract.

Post Office Closures

Mr. Hinchliffe: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what assessment Post Office Ltd. made prior to the programme of closure of sub-post offices in Wakefield of its responsibilities under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 in respect of access to services provided to customers who are (a) blind or visually impaired, (b) wheelchair users, (c) users of electric wheelchairs, (d) deaf, (e) frail due to advanced years, (f) mentally incapacitated or impaired and (g) sufferers

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from heart conditions, emphysema or other conditions which restrict mobility; and if she will make a statement; [164244]

(3) what action Post Office Ltd. is taking to reduce customer waiting time at the main post office in Wakefield City. [164246]

Mr. Timms: These are operational matters for Post Office Ltd. and I have asked the Chief Executive to respond direct to the hon. Member.

Small Businesses

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the steps she has taken to encourage small businesses to grow in the United Kingdom. [163310]

Nigel Griffiths: The latest Barclays figures on Start-ups and Closures show that there were 384,900 start-ups in England and Wales in the 12 months ending September 2003, an increase of 3 per cent. on the year before.

A range of financial support is available to improve SMEs' access to finance, including the Small Firms Loan Guarantee scheme, R&D grants, Regional Venture Capital Fund, the Community Development Venture Fund, and Early Growth Funds.

OECD's review of EU countries ('Regulation, Productivity and Growth Economic Survey of the United Kingdom' (January 2003) shows the UK has almost the lowest administration cost and fewer regulations for entrepreneurs than any other EU country and that across Europe tax burdens on small business are lowest in the UK. The OECD Economic Survey—the United Kingdom (January 2004) indicates that in the UK economic and administrative regulations inhibiting competition and barriers to trade are among the lowest in the OECD.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps her Department has taken to reduce the regulatory burden on small businesses. [163323]

Nigel Griffiths: Government are committed to reducing the regulatory burden on small business, in particular those regulations that act as a barrier to start-up and growth. We are determined to ensure that we only regulate when there is good reason to do so and when the benefits clearly justify the costs. Government have strengthened both the Regulatory Impact Assessment process and the guidance on the small firms impact test. Costs and benefits of proposed regulations are now properly analysed—and published.

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Some of the highlights of the specific measures we have introduced to improve the regulatory environment for small business include:

Publishing the Government Action Plan for Small Business reiterating not only the commitment to better regulation but also our commitment to improving the regulatory environment for small firms.

Cutting form-filling and red tape for 700,000 small businesses with the new flat rate VAT scheme as well as abolishing automatic penalties for late filling of VAT which cost businesses £99 million in 1996–07.

Securing agreement across Government that there should be 12 weeks between the making of new regulation and its implementation, thereby allowing small firms more time to adopt and adapt to new regulations.

Publishing the Regulatory Reform Action Plan—setting out over 250 proposals for better regulation and reform. The Action Plan is designed to make it quicker and easier to repeal out of date legislation.

Raising the small company audit exemption threshold to the EU maximum of £5.6 million, saving 219,000 small businesses up to £274 million.

Announcements in the recent budget also highlight Governments commitment to reducing the regulatory burden for small firms.

A further increase in the VAT threshold to £58,000 keeping 5,000 of the smallest businesses out of the VAT system.

Government Departments reporting on their own regulatory performance. The independent Better Regulation Taskforce will publish its own analysis of these reports and Departments regulatory performance will be taken into account in the 2004 spending review.

Regulatory proposals that are likely to impose major new burdens on business will have to be cleared by the Panel for Regulatory Accountability, chaired by the Prime Minister, based on a thorough Regulatory Impact Assessment that has been agreed by the Cabinet Office Regulatory Impact Unit.

We have already introduced common commencement dates for employment legislation on two days per year in April and October. The Small Business Service will be consulting with Government Departments and small business on extending common commencement dates to other areas of legislation.

Government accepts in principle the benefits to business of moving to direct payment of the Working Tax Credit. This has the potential to reduce the cost of payroll administration benefiting 1.2 million small businesses.

All of these measures are designed to reduce the regulatory burden on small firms but it should be noted that the UK is not over-regulated compared to other countries.

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