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Inward Investment

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many foreign inward investors have received support through (a) regional selective assistance and enterprise grants and (b) the Selective Finance for Investment in England scheme since their introduction; what percentage this is of the total number of foreign inward investors locating in the UK; what the average duration was of retained foreign investment
 
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secured with the help of these schemes, broken down by region; and how many jobs were (i) projected and (ii) created by these investors. [175958]

Jacqui Smith: Statistics on offers of Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) to foreign owned companies were first published in the Industrial Development Act Annual Report for 1996/97. Copies of the reports are available in the Libraries of the House. In England, 410 such offers were accepted between 1 April 1996 and 31 March 2003. We estimate this to be about 10 per cent. of the total foreign inward investment projects, of which the Department is aware.

All assisted projects are monitored for a minimum period following project completion. However, information is not held regarding the total duration of the investment.

The number of projected jobs associated with the RSA offers is approximately 77,000. To date, around 54,000 have been achieved. As many of these projects are not yet complete this number is expected to increase. SFIE replaced RSA/EG in April of this year. To date, we are not aware of any offers to foreign owned companies. No such records have been maintained for Enterprise Grants (EG), which were available only to Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs).

Maternity/Paternity Leave

Mr. Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many and what percentage of women in Bootle have taken 26 weeks' maternity leave since 1997. [176528]

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 of the Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) they recover (since 2003 this has covered the first 26 weeks of leave). Figures for the take-up of SMP are not available on a regional basis, but nationally around 300,000 women receive SMP each year.

In addition, there will be some women who will qualify for maternity leave but not SMP (because they do not meet the earnings or length of employment criteria for SMP) 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).

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what mechanism her Department has put in place to assess the take-up by fathers of their statutory right to paid paternity leave since 6 April 2003; what targets for take-up have been set; and how much has been spent informing fathers of their new rights. [176561]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Employers will notify the Inland Revenue of the numbers of employees who have received Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP) in their annual returns for the 2003–04 tax year. No targets for take-up of paternity leave have been set, although our Regulatory Impact Assessment costed the measure on the basis of 70 per cent. take-up of the two-week entitlement.
 
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In the 12 months following implementation the Department spent £1.5 million on an awareness raising campaign promoting the new laws for working parents, which included maternity leave and pay, adoption leave and pay, and the right to request flexible working as well as fathers' rights to paternity leave and SPP. We have also provided support worth £50,000 to the charity Fathers Direct for their pilot magazine aimed at new fathers—'Dad', launched in five different maternity units in April 2003 which included information on their new right to paid paternity leave.

Military Support Vehicles

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the significance of the Ministry of Defence's forthcoming decision regarding the supply and maintenance of military support vehicles for the manufacturing base (a) in the West Midlands and (b) in the UK. [177462]

Jacqui Smith: This Department has been taking a close interest in the MoD Combat Support Vehicle procurement and has developed and maintained contact with all four of the bidding contractors to understand what each is offering in respect of UK industrial benefit.

National Minimum Wage (Bootle)

Mr. Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many workers in Bootle have benefited from the national minimum wage. [176529]

Mr. Sutcliffe: It is not possible to provide estimates specifically for the constituency of Bootle.

However, based on the Office for National Statistics' Low Pay data released in 2003, the DTI estimates that around 140,000 people in the North West stood to benefit from the introduction of the National Minimum Wage in April 1999. Between 130,000 and 160,000 people were expected to have benefited from the October 2003 uprating of the National Minimum Wage.

Official Vehicles

John Barrett: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what percentage of official vehicles used by her Department are run on (a) petrol, (b) diesel, (c) liquid petroleum gas and (d) compressed natural gas. [172764]

Ms Hewitt: My Department's ministerial vehicles are provided by the Government Car Service. Detailed information on the breakdown of the GCS vehicle fleet is being provided separately and I wish to refer to the answer provided by my colleague in the Cabinet Office.

The Government as a whole have signed up to various targets for improving the performance of their own vehicle fleet, details of which, together with reports on each Department's progress towards these targets, are available at: www.sustainable-development.gov.uk

While my Department does not have a vehicle fleet, it has put in place a range of measures to reduce the environmental impact of its transport-related activities e.g. promoting public transport, teleconferencing.
 
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Contracts for the delivery of services to the DTI HQ estate encourage the use of environmentally friendly fuelled vehicles.

Phthalates

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether, within EU discussions, the Government have supported a permanent ban on phthalates in specified toys and child care articles. [177230]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Government supported the temporary ban (introduced in 1999) on the use of six named phthalates in toys and child use and care articles intended to be mouthed by children under 36 months. However, we continue to believe that the use of phthalates in any such articles for children must be considered on a case-by-case basis. We will give careful consideration to the draft proposal which the Commission intends to circulate in the near future.

Royal Mail

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on Royal Mail's performance against letter and package delivery targets in London. [176613]

Mr. Timms: Royal Mail published Quarter 4 cumulative quality of Service Report (for April 2003 to March 2004) on 27 May 2004. This stated that the company had failed to meet its performance targets in the wake of last year's strikes and through the major change programme currently being undertaken. A copy can be viewed on the Royal Mail website www.royalmail.com and a copy of the report has been placed in the Libraries of the House.

Royal Mail's top priority is to improve its quality of service performance. It has drawn up detailed plans to tackle these problems and Ministers have Allan Leighton's personal assurance that these will be implemented vigorously. We are confident that the management is committed and determined to put things right.

TVS UK Ltd.

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made (a) of the number of UK manufacturers and suppliers that are involved in TVS UK Ltd and (b) TVS UK's significance to the UK defence industrial base. [177458]

Jacqui Smith: DTI officials have been holding a dialogue with TVS UK Ltd (Stewart and Stevenson) to assess the UK industrial benefits coming from their bid to be the preferred contractor for MoD's Combat Support Vehicle procurement. I also took the opportunity to meet with LDV (representing TVS) earlier this year to receive a personal briefing on the value of their bid to the UK manufacturing economy.

Similar discussions have been taking place with the other three contractors bidding for this programme.
 
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