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Advertising

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much money was spent on advertising and promotional literature for her Department's initiatives, broken down by year since 1997. [183808]

Ms Hewitt: For expenditure on advertising by my Department through COI from 1997–98 to 2000–01, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham on 20 November 2001, Official Report, column 162W. Advertising expenditure for 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2003–04 was £6,610,240, £13,741,906 and £4,547,749 respectively. Figures include advertising by the Small Business Service and exclude VAT.

Figures relating specifically to promotional literature are not held centrally and could be produced only at disproportionate cost.

Biomass Energy Industry

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how she intends to protect existing and well established wood-based industries from power stations whose raw material is the same wood residues. [185842]

Mr. Timms: The Woodfuel Resource Study published earlier this year found that 10 per cent. of potential resource in small roundwood and sawmill product, used by woodpanel industries, remains unused after needs of existing industries have been taken into account.

I understand my officials will be meeting with the Forestry Commission and the Wood Panel Industries Federation to discuss the Federation's concerns shortly. I met representatives of the Federation to discuss their concerns on 23 October 2003.

Brazil

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the trade barriers are to imported Brazilian products entering the United Kingdom. [184185]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: In terms of Brazil-specific measures for which this Department has responsibility, there is an anti-dumping duty of 32 per cent. imposed by the European Community on imports of malleable tube or pipe fittings originating in Brazil.
 
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Business Start-ups

Mr. Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many technology business start-ups there were in each year since 1995. [185332]

Nigel Griffiths: DTI figures based solely on VAT registrations in technology industries are shown as follows for the period 1995 to 2002. Data for 2003 will be available in Autumn 2004.
UK VAT registrations: 1995–2002

	Technology industries
1995	17,315
1996	20,410
1997	26,740
1998	30,600
1999	22,220
2000	23,755
2001	19,180
2002	15,860

Source:
Business Start-ups and Closures;
VAT Registrations and De-registrations 1994–2002;
Small Business Service, www.sbs.gov.uk/analytical/statistics/vatstats.php

VAT registrations and de-registrations do not capture all start-up activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if they fall below the compulsory VAT threshold, which has risen in each year since 1995. 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.

Call Centres

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what research her Department has conducted into the security implications of call centres being outsourced to other countries; and if she will make a statement; [185456]

(2) what representations have been made to her Department by representatives of British industry regarding security concerns which have arisen from outsourcing call centres from the UK. [185455]

Ms Hewitt: Companies wanting to transfer personal data from the UK to other countries must comply with the Data Protection Act's requirements, including its eight rules of good information handling known as the Data Protection Principles.

Where a company overseas is processing personal data under contract to a company in the UK, the UK Company, as controller of the data, retains full responsibility for the actions of the second company. This situation applies whether the processing is being carried out in the UK or abroad.

Responsibility for administering and enforcing the Act lies with the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, who carries out these duties independently of the Government. Any directly affected person who believes that one of the Act's requirements has been broken can ask the Commissioner to assess whether this is the case. If he concludes that there has been a significant breach, it is open to him to take enforcement action against the organisation concerned. To date, the
 
1 Sept 2004 : Column 754W
 
Information Commissioner has not received any substantive complaints that the Act has been breached as a result of the offshoring of call centre work.

Common Agricultural Policy

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what research her Department has commissioned on the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy on non-European Union trade, with particular reference to less-developed countries. [184046]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The DTI has not commissioned its own research into the effects of the Common Agricultural Policy on non-European Union trade. However, our view, based on the ample research on others such as the World Bank and the OECD, is clearly set out in the recent White Paper on Trade and Investment and in the Economics Paper which accompanied it.

Departmental Accountancy Practice

Mr. Bacon: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry who the Finance Director of (a) the Department, (b) UK Trade and Investments Service, (c) Postal Services Commission, (d) Ofgem, (e) Office of Fair Trading and (f) Export Credits Guarantee Department is; what accountancy qualifications each Director holds; and on how many occasions there has been a qualified opinion on (i) the resource accounts and (ii) other accounts of each in the last five years. [183454]

Ms Hewitt: The Finance Director for the Department of Trade and Industry is David Evans, and he is a Doctor of Philosophy. He does not hold a CCAB qualification. There has not been a qualified audit opinion to the Department's resource and other accounts in the last five years.

The Finance Director for UK Trade and Investments Service is Susan Haird. She has an MA in Economics and Modern History and does not hold a CCAB qualification. There have been no qualifications to the resource accounts in the last five years. The appropriation account for 2000–01 received an excess vote qualification.

The Finance Director of the Export Credit Guarantees Department is Ian Dickson. He is a qualified accountant and is a member of the following accountancy bodies: Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland; Chartered Institute of Management Accountants; and the Association of Corporate Treasurers. There have been no qualifications to the resource or other accounts in the last five years.

The Postal Services Commission, Ofgem and the Office of Fair Trading have elected to respond to the Member directly.

Departmental Annual Report

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many copies of her Department's annual report were printed in each year since 1997; how many were sold in each year; and what the (a) publication costs and (b) sales revenue were. [183888]

 
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Ms Hewitt: The cost incurred by the Department for producing the Departmental Reports is limited to the design and artwork, and, since 1999, the costs incurred in placing an electronic version of the report on the Departmental website. Other costs of printing and publication are met directly by the publisher, TSO (The Stationery Office Limited), which recoups these costs through sales. TSO uses its commercial judgement as to the number of copies printed.

Total sales revenue is impacted by the number of copies sold at a discount, and is a commercial matter for TSO, but TSO has confirmed that the total numbers of copies sold are:

Year	Number Sold
1997	not avail.
1998	1,346
1999	1,219
2000	1,244
2001	1,145
2002	1,085
2003	1,000
2004	765(29)

⁽²⁹⁾ to date (mid July)

The number of hard copies ordered is reducing as recipients are being encouraged to use the web-based electronic version of the Report.

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