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Performance and Innovation Unit

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade   and Industry what reports she has made to the Prime Minister on progress against conclusions in   the Performance and Innovation Unit report of 2000. [165438]

Mr. Timms: My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister has been kept informed on a regular basis with progress on implementation of the PIU report.

Post Office Network

Mrs. Calton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry who are the key Post Office network stakeholders. [165440]

 
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Mr. Timms: A very wide range of organisations and individuals are stakeholders in this important national network, as clients, customers or partners.

Regional Development Agencies

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the likely impact on regional businesses of incorporation of regional development agencies into future regional assemblies. [165211]

Jacqui Smith: The Government's plans for elected regional assemblies in the English regions and their relationship with the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) are set out in the White Paper "Your Region, Your Choice". In regions which choose to have elected regional assemblies the RDA will become accountable to the assembly but will retain its present day-to-day operational independence. In appointing the RDA Board members the assembly will be required to ensure that the Chair and at least half the Board have had recent or current experience of running a business. Business will therefore continue to be at the heart of the   decision-making process for regional economic development.

As now, regional business will be able to contribute to the formation and delivery of the regional economic strategy. A key role of the elected assembly will be to improve the region's sustainable economic performance by ensuring the region's economic development strategy is integrated with policies and strategies on related issues such as skills, planning, housing and transport. This will enable business to benefit from better targeted policies.

Moreover, business will be able to help shape the assembly's work on this and more generally through the arrangements that will be put in place for stakeholder involvement. Elected assemblies will be required actively to involve stakeholders in their work—which could include scrutiny, policy development, consultation and implementation. As a key stakeholder, regional business will therefore have a range of opportunities to influence issues which affect them.

A draft of the Bill to establish elected regional assemblies, including their structures, powers and functions, will be published before the first referendums are held.

Regulatory Impact Assessments

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the answer of 15 March 2004, Official Report, column 43W, on regulatory impact assessments, how many regulatory impact assessments were issued by the Small Business Service in each year since their inception, with particular reference to the Evaluation of Regulatory Impact Assessments Compendium Report 2003–04, March 2004, Pages 25–26. [165110]

Nigel Griffiths: In respect of the previous answer, I was advised that the Small Business Service had not issued any regulatory impact assessment. However, I have subsequently discovered that it has issued one assessment which related to the transposition into UK law of EC Directive 2000/35/EC on combating late payment in commercial transactions.
 
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Sellafield

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the near-crash of an RAF Hercules transport aircraft into the cooling towers for the Calder Hall nuclear reactors at Sellafield. [165161]

Mr. Timms: My officials have discussed this matter with the site operator BNFL and with the Ministry of Defence. Both have confirmed that no such incident took place.

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will place in the Library copies of the annual safeguards inspection reports prepared by Euratom on the B30 nuclear materials storage ponds at Sellafield. [165162]

Nigel Griffiths: The Commission has published reports on Euratom safeguards operations for 1999–2000, 2001 and 2002 (see Department of Trade and    Industry Explanatory memoranda 11669/01 COM(2001)436 final, 13397/02 COM(2002)566 final and 16077/03 COM (2003) 764 final respectively, which are available in the Libraries of the House. Commission follow-up of its inspections at individual installations is by letter to the operator concerned. Such letters are however classified by the Commission and we cannot therefore place copies in the Libraries of the House. The reports on specific inspections from which the comments in its follow-up letters are drawn are internal to the commission—and not shared with either the   facility operator or Member State authorities concerned.

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what quantities of plutonium are held in the B30 nuclear materials storage silo at Sellafield; and what methods are used to verify the plutonium contents in the radioactive wastes contained. [165163]

Nigel Griffiths: For security reasons, we do not reveal information on the quantities of nuclear material held in specific locations (Exemption 1a), information whose disclosure would harm national security or defence (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information). Records exist to show the quantities of nuclear material in spent magnox fuel received at the B30 plant. Material leaving the plant is similarly recorded, and equipment to enable Euratom safeguards verification of fuel rods shipped from the plant was in operation between 1993 and 1998 when such shipments ceased. Information therefore exists on the quantities of waste materials now in the plant but the condition of these materials and the need to minimise radiation exposure means that the activities that can be performed at present to verify this information (including in the course of Euratom safeguards inspections) are limited. Appropriate measurement and verification of the material will however take place as material is removed during the decommissioning of B30.

Llew Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what recent communications she has received from the European Commission in respect of the application of Euratom nuclear safeguards to the B30 nuclear waste storage plant at Sellafield; [165164]
 
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(2) if she will place in the Library a copy of the letter by Mr. Ian Holt, UK permanent representative to the European Union to the European Commission Director-General for Transport and Energy, dated 8 December 2003, in respect of the application of safeguards verification at the B30 plant at Sellafield. [165174]

Nigel Griffiths: The Commission summarised its safeguards concerns relating to the B30 waste storage plant in a letter to the United Kingdom's Permanent Representative to the European Union dated 13 October 2003. A response to the commission's letter was sent on 8 December 2003, but a copy cannot be placed in the Libraries of the House because the issue is now the subject of legal correspondence between the Commission and the UK. There is a confidentiality agreement between the Commission and Member States that governs the release of such correspondence.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Bosnia

Mr. Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what work has been done to delineate tasks between the EU and NATO in Bosnia once the European Union takes over the Stabilisation Force operation; and if he will make a statement. [165561]

Mr. MacShane: Work continues on the delineation of tasks between the EU and NATO in Bosnia once the Stabilisation Force (SFOR) withdraws. We would expect the continuing but limited NATO role in Bosnia to focus on defence outreach and some operational tasks, including in support of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, once SFOR withdraws.

European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Mr. David Atkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether it is the Government's policy (a) to promote and (b) to support the accession of the European Union to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms; and if he will make a statement. [165023]

Mr. Rammell: The Government believes that EU accession to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) could bring significant advantages in ensuring that the European Union institutions are externally held to account for human rights breaches, in exactly the same way as member states. But the instrument of EU accession must not detrimentally affect the position of individual EU member states under the ECHR.

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