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26 Apr 2004 : Column 734W—continued
Car Advertisements
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will take steps to prevent car advertisements from referring to maximum speed levels achievable where these are in excess of the national speed limit. [167766]
Mr. Timms: The rules under Section 48 of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code already provide such safeguards for motoring advertising.
"Marketers should not portray speed in a way that might encourage motorists to drive irresponsibly or to break the law and should not condone irresponsible driving."
"Marketers should not make speed or acceleration claims the predominant message of their marketing communications. However it is legitimate to give general information about a vehicle's performance such as acceleration and mid-range statistics, braking power, road-holding and top speed."
Debt
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will publish research carried out or commissioned by her Department which compares the level of (a) secured and (b) unsecured debt in the UK with other countries. [167267]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The DTI has not carried out or commissioned research which compares the level of secured and unsecured debt in the UK with other countries.
Comparisons of amounts spent on unsecured debt by the bottom two income deciles in UK, France, Germany and the USA are included in research commissioned by the DTI to look at the way interest rate controls have worked in other countries. This work was announced in the Consumer Credit White Paper (December 2003), and will be published later this spring.
The DTI commissioned and published research into levels of household debt in the UK from the Personal Finance Research Centre (Kempson, Elaine, "Over- indebtedness in Britain", September 2002, available at http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topicsl/pdfl/moricontents.pdf). In the Consumer Credit White Paper, we committed to monitoring the extent and profile of over-indebtedness in the UK, and will be reporting on our approach in the forthcoming Strategy on Over-indebtedness.
DTI draws on research carried out by others in its assessment of the level of debt in the UK compared with other countries. For example:
The Treasury published a comparison of outstanding residential mortgage debt across EU countries in the EMU study 'Housing, consumption and EMU' with the five tests assessment (available at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/the euro/assessment/studies/euro assess03 studdorset.cfm).
Sir Andrew Large, Deputy Governor of the BoE, recently gave a speech entitled 'Major puzzles in today's economy: the build-up in household debt' in which he placed the UK experience in the international context and compared household debt levels in the UK with other major industrial countries (March 2004, available at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/speeches/speech217.pdf).
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya's debts to the Export Credits Guarantee Department, broken down by sector, are; if she will list the top five contracts, by value, on which these debts are based; and if she will make a statement on the Government's intention to recover this debt. [167829]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Libya made a payment of £20 million to ECGD on 29 December 2003 in negotiated settlement of its outstanding debt obligations towards ECGD-insured debt.
To avoid prejudicing ongoing negotiations with other similar debtors, it is not ECGD's policy to reveal details of the amounts outstanding in respect of which this settlement was made. However, the settlement reached represented a good outcome to negotiations between HMG and the Libyan Government.
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The debt related to business dating back to the early/mid-1980s. The majority of the business was covered under short-term guarantees, with the balance mainly construction projects and services. We do not have a comprehensive breakdown of the debt on the basis requested.
Export Credits Guarantee Department
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) if she will make a statement on the timetable for the Export Credits Guarantee Department becoming a capitalised trading fund; [167265]
(2) what estimate has been made of the cost of the Export Credits Guarantee Department becoming a capitalised trading fund, broken down by (a) the source of the funding and (b) how the money is to be allocated; and if she will make a statement. [167266]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Ministers are considering the arrangements for ECGD's Trading Fund, and an announcement will be made in due course.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether an assessment of the effects of fully privatising the Export Credits Guarantee Department was made before the decision that it should become a trading fund was taken. [168650]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Privatisation of ECGD was considered in the Mission and Status Review of ECGD in 1999–2000 (a copy is available on ECGD's website www.ecgd.gov.uk). The Review concluded that privatisation should not be pursued, and that ECGD's risk management systems should be strengthened by the establishment of a Trading Fund.
Gasified Coal
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps she is taking to encourage the gasification of coal. [167750]
Mr. Timms: We are supporting six R&D projects under the Cleaner Coal Technology Programme. We are also investigating the feasibility of Underground Coal Gasification and plan to produce a report on this in about a month's time.
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage of power was derived from gasified coal in 2003. [167751]
Mr. Timms: Currently in the UK there is no power produced through coal gasification.
Low Pay Commission
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the terms of reference for the Low Pay Commission's Report of 2004; why the monitoring of enforcement and compliance with regard to the National Minimum Wage was not included as in previous years; and whether such matters will be included in the Low Pay Commission remit in the future. [167301]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
The Low Pay Commission monitored and evaluated issues connected with minimum wage—including enforcement—in their last full report in 2003.
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The remit for the Commission's 2004 Report was specifically drawn to cover two issues raised in the 2003 Report: to consider whether any fine-tuning was needed to the proposed October 2004 increases; and to consider the possible advantages and disadvantages of a minimum wage rate for 16–17 year olds.
Further remits for the Low Pay Commission will be announced to Parliament in the usual way.
National Minimum Wage
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many inspections have been undertaken where no complaint has been made about an employer to ensure that they are complying with the National Minimum Wage provisions in each year since the introduction of the National Minimum Wage; and what level of underpayment was identified as a result of each of these inspections. [165826]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The number of cases completed and arrears identified since the introduction of the minimum wage, where a complaint had not been received, are provided in the following table:
| Number of cases | Arrears identified (£) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 2,532 | 158,839 |
| 2000–01 | 4,742 | 1,025,333 |
| 2001–02 | 3,655 | 1,206,898 |
| 2002–03 | 4,284 | 1,043,706 |
| 2003–04 | 3,655 | 1,205,674 |
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what targets have been set for the national minimum wage compliance teams with regard to the investigation of complaints; and whether these have been met for each year since the introduction of the minimum wage. [166739]
Mr. Sutcliffe: Our Service Level Agreement with the Inland Revenue requires them to investigate every complaint made to the National Minimum Wage helpline each year and they do so.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry for what reason there has been no systematic evaluation of the use and efficacy of the formal powers available to national minimum wage compliance officers in response to the recommendations of the fourth report of the Low Pay Commission. [166740]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The assumption underlying this question is incorrect. The Government are currently reviewing the enforcement powers available to them and will cover this point in future evidence to the Low Pay Commission.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the progress being made by, and conclusions drawn from, the local enforcement pilot projects for the national minimum wage. [166741]
Mr. Sutcliffe:
Following recommendations made in the Low Pay Commission's second report seven local enforcement projects were launched between March
26 Apr 2004 : Column 738W
and September 2001. Three of these met with limited success and it was decided with our partners that they should close.
Four of the projects are still running; we will be evaluating their effectiveness over the coming months and will cover this issue in future evidence to the Low Pay Commission.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will break down those employees affected by cases of underpayment of the national minimum wage brought to the attention of the Inland Revenue by (a) sex, (b) age group, (c) ethnicity and (d) region for each year since the introduction of the minimum wage. [166742]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table provides details of the number of workers that were found to be paid below the minimum wage following an Inland Revenue investigation.
| Number of workers | |
|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 10,378 |
| 2002–03 | 7,373 |
| 2003–04 | 9,431 |
No information on the number of workers in this category was held prior to 2001–02. The Inland Revenue only holds information relating to workers being underpaid by sex, age group and region in connection with cases that originated with a workers' complaint. This information is set out in the joint DTI/Revenue Annual Reports on the minimum wage; copies of recent reports can be found on www.dti.gov.uk/er/nmw. No information is held in relation to ethnicity of the workers concerned.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will break down by industry the employers found to be not complying with the national minimum wage provisions by industry for each year since the introduction of the minimum wage. [166743]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The following table provides details of the number of employers investigated by the Inland Revenue where non-compliance with the minimum wage was found.
| Number of employers | |
|---|---|
| 1999–2000 | 1,280 |
| 2000–01 | 2,119 |
| 2001–02 | 1,937 |
| 2002–03 | 1,996 |
| 2003–04 | 2,211 |
Further information on the breakdown by industry in connection with cases that originated with a worker's complaint is set out in the joint DTI/Revenue Annual Reports.
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the prevalence of re-offending in relation to employer non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act 1998. [166744]
26 Apr 2004 : Column 739W
Mr. Sutcliffe: As part of the post evaluation assurance programme, officers re-visit a number of employers to ensure continued compliance with the national minimum wage.
As part of the first evaluation undertaken in August 2002, 87 cases were selected for revisiting. Of these 71 employers were found to be complying (82 per cent.). As part of a second evaluation undertaken in March 2003, 95 per cent. Where appropriate the Revenue take formal enforcement action at an early stage where an employer has re-offended.
DTI and Inland Revenue are presently working on a strategy to use the prosecution powers, contained in the National Minimum Wage Act 1998 to tackle, among others, any employers that are found to repeatedly re-offend.
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