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Business Activity (Crosby)

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small businesses are registered in Crosby; and what the percentage change has been since 1997. [164412]

Nigel Griffiths: Barclays Bank's latest survey of business creation, published on 31 March 2004, includes non-VAT registered firms, and shows that there were 115,000 business start-ups in England and Wales, including 500 in Sefton local authority (in which Crosby is a constituency) in the fourth quarter of 2003. The
 
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latest yearly Barclays figures show 465,000 business start-ups in England and Wales in 2003, the highest figure since the survey began in 1988. Data for local authorities are not available for before 2003.

There were 5,380 businesses registered for VAT in Sefton local authority at the end of 2002. This represents a 7 per cent increase since the start of 1997 when there were 5,040 VAT-registered businesses. VAT registration data for the end of 2003 will be available in Autumn 2004.

It is important to note that VAT registration data do not capture all business activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if they fall below the compulsory VAT threshold, which has risen in each year since 1997. Similarly, businesses that de-register will not necessarily have closed. Only 1.8 million out of 3.8 million enterprises were registered for VAT at the start of 2002.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total Entrepreneurial Activity index for (a) Crosby and (b) England is; and if she will make a statement. [164413]

Nigel Griffiths: The Total Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA) index is not produced by government, but is a measure used by the London Business School to compare international rates of entrepreneurial activity as part of its annual Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

The latest TEA index, for 2003, is 6.5 per cent for England and 4.7 per cent for the North West. The UK was the only other G8 country apart from the United States to have seen a major recovery in levels of entrepreneurial activity in 2003 following the overall drop in 2002.

The UK GEM report does not provide a breakdown for areas smaller than the area covered by Government Office region. There is, therefore no TEA figure for Crosby.

Employment Rights (Birkenhead)

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of Birkenhead qualify for paid leave entitlement. [166503]

Mr. Sutcliffe: All workers resident in Birkenhead qualify for paid leave entitlements of at least 4 weeks as set out in the Working Time Regulations.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of Birkenhead have benefited from a reduction of the working week to 48 hours. [166504]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Working Time Regulations provide workers with the right not to work more than 48 hours if they want to. Numbers for Birkenhead are not available, but it has been estimated that around 50,000 workers resident in Merseyside stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998.

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many and what percentage of women in Birkenhead have taken 26 weeks' maternity leave since 1997. [166495]

 
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Mr. Sutcliffe: Take-up of maternity leave is not recorded centrally. It is possible to make an estimate of the numbers of women taking maternity leave based on employer returns to Inland Revenue for payment of Statutory Maternity Pay (since 2003 this has covered the first 26 weeks of leave). However, figures for the take-up of SMP are not available on a regional basis.

In addition, there will be some women who will qualify for maternity leave but not SMP (because they do not meet the earnings criteria) and similarly some who qualify for SMP but not leave (because they are employed earners for the purposes of SMP but not employees in order to qualify for leave).

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the benefits of the EU Social Chapter for the residents of Birkenhead. [166501]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The residents of Birkenhead have benefited from the EU Social Chapter by having their employment rights extended to include:

the right to parental leave which gives parents the right to 13 weeks unpaid leave at the birth or adoption of a child;

the entitlement of part-time workers to the same pro-rata terms and conditions of employment as full-time workers, thereby removing any discrimination and improving the quality of part-time jobs;

the provision that once a prima facie case has been made in an employment tribunal claim, the burden of proof is placed on the defendant (usually the employer), who will need to demonstrate that sex discrimination has not occurred;

rights under the Fixed Term Work Directive that provide equal treatment and prevent abuse of fixed term contracts;

rights under the European Works Council Directive which requires companies with at least 1,000 employees in total and at least 150 workers in each of the two Member States, to establish structures for consulting workers on issues that affect them; and

in addition, the Information and Consultation of Employees Directive, to be implemented in the UK by March 2005, establishes a right to new minimum standards for workforce communication and involvement in large firms.

Estate Agents Act

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will seek to amend the Estate Agents Act 1979 to include reference to buying and selling houses on the internet. [166113]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Office of Fair Trading report on estate agents recommended that the definition of estate agency work in the Estate Agents Act 1979 be reconsidered to ensure that consumers buying and selling by non-traditional means, including the internet, are afforded the same protection in law as those who employ the services of traditional estate agents.

The Department will consider carefully this and the report's other recommendations, and aims to publish a response by 18 June 2004.

Broadband

David Hamilton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what estimate she has made of broadband accessibility rates for (a) Scotland, (b)
 
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England, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland, broken down by percentage of (i) households and (ii) population. [165586]

Mr. Timms [holding answer 19 April 2004]: The Department of Trade and Industry has commissioned on-going research from Analysys Consulting Ltd to provide a comprehensive picture of developments in the UK broadband market.

According to the latest quarterly survey to the end of December 2003, the following estimates are given of population (households) that are covered by a mass-market broadband solution:

(a)   Scotland                            72 per cent.

(b)   England                              87 per cent.

(c)   Wales                                    72 per cent.

(d)   Northern Ireland      67 per cent.

This research is published quarterly on the Department's website:

http://www.dti.gov.uk/industry   files/pdf/uk   broadband   coverage   jan2004.pdf

Fire Safety

Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what measures are in place to assess the impact of furniture fire-safety regulations that came into effect in 1997; and what the findings have been. [166293]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The DTI commissioned the University of Surrey to research the effectiveness of the Regulations. The resulting report—"Effectiveness of the Furniture & Furnishings (Fire) (Safety) Regulations 1988"—was published in June 2000 and copies were placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The report's findings were "extremely good news". At a conservative estimate, the Regulations had saved at least 710 lives in the first ten years since their introduction, and at least 5,770 fewer people were injured in the same period. The benefits of the Regulations were most likely to be realised by the financially challenged, young children between 1 and 4 years of age, and the elderly. Recent figures from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister indicate that this downward trend has continued.

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