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9 Nov 2004 : Column 678W—continued
Self-employment
Mr. Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what percentage of those in full-time employment in Northern Ireland during 2004 are self-employed. [196514]
Mr. Gardiner: Latest figures from the summer (June-August) 2004 Labour Force Survey estimated that 17.4 per cent. of people in full-time employment in Northern Ireland are self-employed.
Vehicle Registration
Rev. Ian Paisley: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many registered (a) private vehicles and (b) powered two-wheel vehicles there are in Northern Ireland. [195236]
Angela Smith: The Northern Ireland vehicle register does not easily distinguish between vehicles in private and company ownership. At 18 October 2004 the number of licensed vehicles and vehicles with Statutory off the Road Notifications on the Northern Ireland vehicles register was 914,970. 32,378 of these were powered two-wheel vehicles.
Water Conservation
Lady Hermon: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps have been taken to promote water conservation as part of the reform of water and sewerage services in Northern Ireland. [195845]
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Mr. Spellar:
Water conservation and the sustainable and long-term management of water resources is an objective of the Water Framework Directive. This Directive puts forward pricing as a means of achieving this objective and it requires that, by 2010, the price charged to water consumers for abstraction, water supply and collection and treatment of waste water reflects the true cost of the provision of the services. The proposed charging regime for water and sewerage
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services, which I announced on 13 September, has been developed in light of the Directive and the water pricing policies within it will require a contribution from households and other sectors towards the cost of the water and sewerage services they receive as an incentive to use water efficiently.
Water Service is taking forward a wide range of measures to promote water conservation and reduce demand for water.