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Unlicensed Hire Vehicles

Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people have been prosecuted in Northern Ireland for operating vehicles not licensed for hire or reward in the last five years. [189732]

Angela Smith: The Driver and Vehicle Testing Agency has primary responsibility for enforcing the regulations governing the use of vehicles for hire and reward within Northern Ireland. During the period April 1999 to March 2004 inclusive, a total of 629 operators were prosecuted for operating goods vehicles without being licensed to carry goods for hire and reward.

LEADER OF THE HOUSE

Select Committees

Llew Smith: To ask the Leader of the House what proposals he has to increase public knowledge of the dates of sitting and subject of inquiries by Select Committees; and what proposals he has to facilitate public access to Select Committee hearings. [190141]

Mr. Hain: Considerable progress has been made in making information about Committee activity more readily accessible to the public. In particular, I commend the new forward calendar of Committee activity on the Parliament website and the Committee Office telephone information line. The live webcasting of all Committee hearings is also a very welcome development. However, I believe that more needs to be done to ensure that the information provided reaches a greater section of the public; and to this end I hope that the House of Commons Commission will give sympathetic consideration to the recommendations in the Modernisation Committee's recent report on Connecting Parliament with the Public.

The reception and security facility planned for Cromwell Green will facilitate public access to Select Committee hearings. I very much hope that the House will also support in due course plans for a Visitors' and
 
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Educational Centre, which would allow for live relay of Committee hearings, as well as proceedings in the Chamber.

CABINET OFFICE

Civil Service Pensions

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if she will make it her policy to amend the pre-2002 Civil Service Pension Scheme to allow widows and widowers of civil servants who remarry or cohabit to retain their pension rights; and if she will make a statement. [190183]

Ruth Kelly: I have no plans to do so.

Until recently all public service pension schemes (and many in the private sector) only provided widows' and widowers' pensions up until the beneficiary remarries or cohabits with someone as their husband or wife. From October 2002, a new pension scheme for civil servants was introduced (known as premium) which has an improved benefit structure paid for by higher employee contributions. One of the improvements is to provide widows and widowers pensions for life. To provide a similar improvement in respect of the pre-October 2002 scheme (known as classic), where higher contributions have not been paid, would not only be unfair to the members of premium who are paying higher contributions for enhanced benefits, but would also result in tax payers meeting the additional costs to the classic scheme of doing so.

Public service-wide additional costs for future service have been estimated at £150 million per annum, plus a one off cost of £3 billion to cover all past service.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Cosmetics (Animal Testing)

Tom Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many European Union states have a ban on the use of animal testing for cosmetics; and if she will make a statement. [190251]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The UK has operated a voluntary ban on the testing of cosmetic products on animals since 1996. This ban was made compulsory on 11 September 2004, with the implementation of the Cosmetic Products (Safety) Regulations 2004 (SI 2004/2152), which implement the 7th Amendment to the EU Council Directive on the safety of cosmetic products.

All EU member states were required to implement the 7th Amendment by 11 September 2004. It imposes a ban on the testing of finished cosmetic products on animals from 11 March 2005.

Coal Mine Methane

Ms Walley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the implications of (a) converting coal mine methane to energy and (b) venting coal mine methane; and if she will make a statement on support for coal mine methane-related technology. [190236]

 
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Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government commissioned a study in 2003 to see if there are any possible mechanisms, consistent with the objectives of the Energy White Paper, which could be deployed to encourage the control of CMM emissions. This study was undertaken by independent consultants and was overseen by a Advisory Board of representatives from the industry, DTI, DEFRA, and the Coal Authority. The purpose of the exercise was to investigate means for controlling emissions to atmosphere from abandoned mines where the current practice of venting is clearly undesirable. The results of the study are available on the DTI's website at http://www.dti.gov.uk/energy/coal/cfft/coalminemethane.shtml.

The study included an assessment of commercially exploiting CMM for power generation or for use as a burner tip fuel. The consultants found that the least cost option for dealing with these methane emissions was through flaring rather than putting them to commercial use. It was also concluded that the potential capacity for power generation, beyond that already exploited by the industry, was limited at less than 20 MW. There was therefore no significant security of supply arguments for specifically encouraging electricity generation from CMM.

However, as a result of this study it was proposed that a scheme be established to control CMM emissions, which would be open to all technology options, including electricity generation, burner tip fuel use as well as flaring. Proposals from the private sector to control the emissions would be competitively considered by the Coal Authority and the most cost-effective solution awarded a contract leaving them to decide on the most cost-effective means of control.

The Government recognise and value the benefits the coal mine methane technology industry provides by tapping the methane emissions from disused coal mines and putting them to good use for generation of electricity. We have already demonstrated this support through our securing exemption from the climate change levy for electricity generated from CMM which came into force in November 2003, and why the proposed grant-scheme will be open to this technology.

Combined Heat and Power

Richard Younger-Ross: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when she will publish the Combined Heat and Power Potential Study that is listed on the Sustainable Energy Policy Network's website. [187583]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The "Study on the economic potential for Combined Heat and Power" was published by Defra on 22 September. It can be found on the Defra website under Environmental Protection and then under Energy: Sustainable Energy.

Doorstep Cold Calling

Mr. Truswell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what action her Department is taking to combat doorstep crime; and if she will make a statement; [190131]
 
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(2) what steps she is taking to achieve a cross-departmental approach to combat crime and unscrupulous trading associated with doorstep cold calling. [190130]

Mr. Sutcliffe: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer given on 16 September 2004, Official Report, column 1719W.

Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Task Force

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will list the (a) membership, (b) start date and (c) purpose of the Pharmaceutical Industry Competitiveness Task Force; and how much has been allocated to this body by her Department. [188059]

Ms Rosie Winterton: I have been asked to reply.

The pharmaceutical industry competitiveness task force was established in March 2000 and reported to my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, in March 2001. A copy of the final report is available in the Library. Its aims were to ensure that the right strategies were in place to allow industry to contribute fully to the economy and bring safe, effective medicines to the British market.

The membership of the task force was:

Co-chairmen
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath	Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health
Sir Tom McKillop	AstraZeneca
Members
1. Government:
Lord Sainsbury of Turville	Minister for Science and Innovation
Baroness Blackstone	Minister of State for Education and Employment
Nick Raynsford MP	Minister for Housing and Planning
Stephen Timms MP	Financial Secretary to Her Majesty's Treasury
Sir Nigel Crisp	Permanent Secretary and Chief Executive, Department of Health
2. Industry:
Sir Richard Sykes	Glaxo Welcome
J-P Gamier	SmithKline Beecham
Bill Fullagar	ABPI President, and Novartis
Vincent Lawton	APG Chairman, and Merck Sharp and Dohme
Trevor Jones	ABPI Director General

The Department did not allocate any funding to the task force. Jointly with industry, it provided the secretariat to the task force.

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