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Mortgage Provision (Health Checks)

Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what action she will take to discourage discriminatory health check requirements by mortgage providers on same-sex couples. [190208]

Jacqui Smith: The Government are aware of concerns about current imbalances in provisions for the different groups protected by discrimination legislation. Some of these imbalances affect lesbians, gay men and bisexual people adversely. One of the first tasks of the proposed Commission for Equality and Human Rights will be to review the legislative framework to ensure that it meets the needs of a modern Britain.

The Government are committed to improving equality and human rights for all in our society. The Civil Partnership Bill that allows same-sex couples to gain formal legal recognition of their relationship is one such important step forward.

National Business Debtline

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many calls the National Business Debtline has received (a) in total and (b) from businesses based in Buckinghamshire in each year since April 2002; and what the cost of the debtline was in each year. [191061]

Nigel Griffiths: The National Business Debtline received 6,170 telephone inquiries in the period from April 2002 to March 2003 and 8,340 calls in the period from April 2003 to March 2004.

77 calls were received from businesses in Buckinghamshire from 1 January 2003 to 30 September 2004. Information on calls received before this date is not available.

The Debtline has received a total of £387,500 in funding over the financial years April 2002 to March 2003 and April 2003 to March 2004. A breakdown of funding is set out in the following table.

			£
Financial Year	Banks	DTI/SBS	Total
April 2002 to March 2003	102,000	80,000	182,000
April 2003 to March 2004	125,500	80,000	205,500

PIN Pads (Post Offices)

Sandra Gidley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what costs have been associated with (a) replacing and (b) adapting the original PIN pads installed in post offices; [192813]

(2) what the initial cost was of installing PIN pads in post offices. [192812]

Mr. Sutcliffe: This is a commercial matter for Post Office Ltd.
 
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R and D Clusters

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures her Department has taken to develop research and development clusters into world class industries. [190833]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: This Government have demonstrated their commitment to translating the fruits of the UK's R&D into world-class business successes by:

significantly increasing investment in science and knowledge transfer. This funding will improve the sustainability of the science research effort; increase the volume of research universities are able to undertake and stimulate the commercialisation of science research;

encouraging links between the science base and industry;

introducing R&D tax credits to encourage businesses to invest in innovation;

introducing a National Technology Strategy to focus support on innovation. The strategy will be underpinned by £150 million—including £90 million allocated for nanotechnology; and

launching two new business support products, Collaborative R&D and Knowledge Transfer Networks, to assist businesses both within and between industry sectors.

The Regional Development Agencies, in England, and the devolved Administrations play a pivotal role in helping clusters to flourish. To assist them, DTI published, alongside the Innovation Report, a practitioners guide to cluster development in April 2004. This guide brings together the critical success factors to help clusters to flourish.

Regional Government

Mr. Wilshire: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how regional development agencies will be accountable to elected regional assemblies in England. [192296]

Jacqui Smith [holding answer 18 October 2004]: In regions with an elected regional assembly, the regional development agency (RDA) would become directly accountable to the relevant elected regional assembly. In practical terms this would mean that:

An RDA would become a functional body of the assembly, rather than being sponsored by central Government. The agency would retain its day-to-day operational independence and its board would continue to be directly responsible for ensuring that it fulfils its statutory role and delivers on its corporate plan.

The RDA would continue to be responsible for developing the regional economic strategy which would then be published by the assembly subject to any modifications its directs the RDA to make.

The elected assembly would appoint the chair and board members of its RDA.

The assembly would set its RDA's budget and provide funding for its RDA.

It would be up to each assembly to decide the precise arrangements it puts in place for its working relationship with its RDA.

This was set out in the Government's White Paper "Your Region, Your Choice" (Cm 5511).
 
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SMEs

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures are being taken to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. [190831]

Nigel Griffiths: The Government have put in place a wide range of measures to improve the competitiveness of small and medium-sized enterprises. These include:

High quality advice and support available to start up and growth businesses from Business Links, and the business support organizations in the devolved Administrations. Since 2001–02 Business Link market penetration has increased from 18 per cent. to 33 per cent., and customer satisfaction from 81 per cent. to 89 per cent.

A tailored range of business support products available from the DTI aimed at improving competitiveness by encouraging innovation, enterprise, best practice and investment. They include the Grant for R&D, Support to implement best practice, and the Small Firms Loan Guarantee.

The launch of the www.businesslink.gov.uk web portal in May. The site joins up national e-government services for the UK's small and medium-sized businesses, providing easy access to government regulatory and business support information, and to skills and training support. Usage of the site has exceeded targets since its launch. It is currently handling more than 400,000 user sessions each month.

UK Trade and Investment advises businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses about the best ways of internationalizing their activities to enable them to compete in overseas markets. The Passport programme, for example, available through Business Link provides developmental support and training for novice exporters.

Further measures to support encourage enterprise, support small businesses and to improve their competitiveness are set out in the Government Action Plan for Small Business published on 8 January 2004, and in the various economic development strategies of the devolved Administrations.

Small businesses are thriving under this Government. Since the start of 2002, the number of SMEs has increased by 200,000 to four million; around 500 new businesses are being created every day; the number of small businesses in the UK is showing the fastest rate of growth since 1995; and for three successive years now, small firms productivity growth has exceeded all firms growth.

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what measures her Department has taken to increase the capacity of small and medium sized enterprises to tender for Government contracts. [190836]

Nigel Griffiths: The Small Business Service, an executive agency of DTI, together with the Office of Government Commerce launched a national web portal, <http://www.supplyinggovemment.gov.uk> last year. The site provides advice and guidance for SME suppliers. A major enhancement, expected by summer 2005, will provide the ability to browse for contract opportunities and for suppliers to lodge standard information needed for pre-qualification. SBS and OGC have also run two training pilots for SMEs in the West Midlands and Haringey aimed at improving their success in tendering for contracts.

In addition, we abolished the requirement to provide three years accounts when tendering for Government contracts.
 
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