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Gas Supplies

Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the reasons for the recent rise in the cost of wholesale gas. [192240R]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Wholesale gas prices have risen recently due to a number of factors: high oil prices driving higher gas prices on the Continent, which feed into UK prices via the gas interconnector; the anticipated decline in gas production from fields on the UK Continental Shelf; and tighter gas markets as the UK moves towards becoming a net importer of gas. The recent Ofgem price probe also attributed these reasons for the current price movements, and the concurrent Financial Services Authority investigation into gas prices in October/November 2003 found no evidence of market abuse.

The Government are working to ensure that the right framework is in place to allow the market to deliver
 
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sufficient quantities of gas at competitive prices. This is already happening as major new import projects come forward, due to come onstream over the next three years. The Government are also encouraging the European Commission to ensure prompt and full implementation of the second EU liberalisation package, which will contribute to the development of more competitive markets across Europe.

Least Developed Countries

Mr. Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total value was of imports into the European Union from the least developed countries in each year from 2000 to 2003, broken down by type of import. [192632]

Mr. Alexander: Data on the European Union's imports from the Least Developed Countries are given in the following table.
EU15 imports of goods from the least developed countries 2000–03 £ million

	2000	2001	2002	2003
Animal products	550	619	653	656
Vegetable products	587	454	440	472
Animal or vegetable fats	56	58	54	39
Prepared foodstuffs, beverages	249	268	298	360
Mineral products	1,398	1,781	1,948	1,538
Chemicals, fertilisers, soap etc.	91	111	112	122
Plastics and rubber and their articles	13	23	21	28
Leather and articles	141	179	142	107
Wood, cork, straw and their articles	151	161	149	146
Pulp, paper, paper-board and articles	6	5	5	5
Textile and textile products	2,558	2,825	2,646	3,048
Footwear, headgear, umbrellas, articles of human hair	82	92	84	89
Articles of stone, plaster, ceramic, glass	11	14	12	14
Pearls, precious metals	1,360	1,242	1,342	1,008
Base metals and articles of base metal (iron, steel, etc.)	102	328	356	413
Machinery and mechanical appliances, electrical equip.	69	62	72	92
Vehicles, aircrafts, vessels	279	541	599	469
Optical, photo, medical instruments., clocks, etc.	17	17	21	21
Arms and ammunition	—	—	—	—
Miscellaneous manufactured articles like furniture, toys etc.	15	13	15	14
Works of art, collectors' pieces and antiques	3	3	3	2
Other products	10	10	9	12
Total	7,746	8,807	8,980	8,657

Source:
Eurostat Intra and Extra EU Trade.

Marine Development Fund

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what criteria are being developed for the administration of the new Marine Development Fund. [191982]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Department is working closely with the Carbon Trust, Scottish Executive and other stakeholders to look at mechanisms for applying the new funding.

Any scheme will be subject to state aid approval and so it would be premature to define specific criteria at this stage.

Marine Energy Extraction

Nick Harvey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the suitability of sites in the Bristol Channel for the award of funding for the development of marine energy extraction projects. [191983]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: We now have the results of a study called 'ATLAS' which maps UK marine renewable sources of energy, including the Bristol Channel. The Atlas was commissioned to inform Government's decision-making process for the next stage of offshore renewable energy development. It will assist in planning strategic environmental assessment for the exploitation of marine renewables.
 
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Funding for marine renewables development is provided to industry. The suitability of a particular site, including the Bristol Channel, for carrying out development activity is a matter for the developer, subject to obtaining the necessary permissions.

Mobile Phones

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many mobile phones were used by (a) Ministers and special advisers and (b) officials in her Department in each year since 1997; how many were (i) lost and (ii) stolen; and what their cost was. [191434]

Ms Hewitt: Responsibility for the provision of mobile telephones for official purposes and for payment of associated call charges was devolved to individual directorates, agencies and NDPBs at the end of March 1993. Since August 1997, the DTI has increasingly made use of the central Mobile Telecommunications contract managed by the Office of Government Commerce. This contract allows DTI users access to mobile telephone services and products at advantageous prices ensuring that the Department obtains good value for money. Due to the devolved responsibility for mobile telephone management the only information that can be provided at non-disproportionate cost is the total expenditure with DTI's main suppliers of mobile telephones and the number of handsets supplied through the central OGC contract since 2002.

	£
1998	90,881
1999	263,123
2000	226,695
2001	342,964
2002	(41)342,881
2003	(42)410,372

⁽⁴¹⁾ 549 mobile telephones on the central contract.
⁽⁴²⁾ 776 mobile telephones on the central contract.

Cost figures are not available for 1997 due to a change in the Department's accounting system over that period.

Offshoring

John Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment her Department has made of the impact on (a) the labour market and (b) pension provision of the loss of long-term skilled service sector jobs due to offshoring. [190887]

Mr. Alexander: The evidence so far of labour market trends is that 60 per cent. of workers who are displaced are about to find new work within three months, and 95 per cent. within a year. While we very much share the concerns of those who are affected by job losses, we do not at this stage see any medium-term adverse impact on labour markets or pension provision arising from offshoring.

Post Office

Mr. Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much has been spent on consultants involved in setting up the Post Office Card Account scheme. [192577]

 
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Mr. Sutcliffe: These are commercial matters for Post Office Ltd.

Radio Frequency Identification Technology

Mr. Challen: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what progress has been made in discussions between her Department and radio frequency identification technology suppliers and users. [190777]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: e.centre (The Association for Standards and Practices in Electronic Trade—BAN UK Ltd.) and relevant Trade Associations have formed a UK RFED Council. It is currently working with focus groups, retailers, manufacturers, officials and others to develop a code of practice for the use of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in a retail environment.

Renewable Energy

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the Government's policy towards renewable energy, with particular reference to how she intends to deliver her statement at Brighton that renewable energy will power the equivalent of every home in 10 major cities over the next five years. [191091]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: We have set a target of 10 per cent. of the UK's electricity supply to come from renewable sources by 2010 with the aspiration to increase that contribution to 20 per cent. by 2020.

The Government's main support mechanism for renewables is the Renewables Obligation. In addition to this, £500 million of funding has also been allocated between 2002 and 2008 for emerging renewable and low carbon technologies.

On the basis that 1 per cent. of electricity supplied from renewable energy sources will supply the equivalent of the power to some 700,000 households, supplying power to the 3.27 million households in the UK's 10 largest cities would require just under 5 per cent. of electricity generated from renewable energy sources. At present all renewable energy sources supply only 2.7 per cent. of our electricity but in the light of the new wind projects, both onshore and offshore coming forward, renewables should be able to contribute well over 5 per cent. of our electricity in five years time.

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