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25 Feb 2005 : Column 877W—continued
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Carbon Dioxide Reduction
Adam Price: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the projected reduction in carbon dioxide levels by 2010 will be if Government renewable energy targets are met. [217505]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Government's 2010 target of 10 per cent. energy coming from renewable sources would mean a reduction of 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide per year over the same energy being produced by gas powered stations.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many gyms are available to staff in the Department; and what the cost of providing them was in the last year for which figures are available. [204376]
Ms Hewitt:
The Department of Trade and Industry has one gymnasium at 1 Victoria Street for the use of members of the DTI Sports and Social Association. The Department does not incur any direct costs for this facility.
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EU Committees
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the EC-Republic of South Africa Joint Committee on scientific and technological co-operation met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement. [215904]
Ms Hewitt: The last meeting of the EU-South Africa Steering Committee took place in Brussels on 2 and 3 December 2003 during the Italian presidency. Meetings are convened by the European Commission, and the member states are not invited, therefore no UK officials attend.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Committee for the implementation of the multiannual community programme to stimulate development and use of European digital content on the global networks and to promote linguistic diversity in the information society (e-Content) met; when and where these meetings took place; which UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement. [217253]
Ms Hewitt: The Committee for the implementation of the multiannual community programme to stimulate development and use of European digital content (e-Content) met three times during the course of the three presidencies (on 11 July 2003, 21 November 2003, 30 September 2004). The meetings took place in Luxembourg and on each occasion the United Kingdom was represented by an official from the Digital Content and Publishing Unit of the Department of Trade and Industry.
I refer the hon. Member to the series of Command Papers on prospects for the EU—Cm6174 laid in April 2004, Cm6310 laid in September 2004 and Cm6450 laid in February 2005, which cover the periods of the above presidencies and are available on the FCO website at: www.fco.gov.uk/commandpapers.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Advisory Committee for implementation of the Community market-access strategy met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement. [217835]
Mr. Alexander: The committee met once during each presidency in Brussels on 21 November 2003, 30 June 2004 and 30 November 2004. Officials from the Department of Trade and Industry attended each meeting.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Co-ordinating Group for the Community regime for the control of exports of dual-use goods met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement. [217839]
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Nigel Griffiths: The Co-ordinating group met once on 6 November 2003 in Brussels during the Italian presidency. A DTI representative was present at the meeting. There were no meetings during the Irish and Dutch presidencies.
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Quota Administration Committee met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement; [217915]
(2) how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Advisory Committee on Common Rules for Imports of Products from Third Countries met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement; [217916]
(3) how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Advisory Committee on Common Rules for Imports from Certain Third World Countries met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement; [217917]
(4) how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Textile Committee (Conventional Regime) met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement; [217919]
(5) how many times during the (a) Italian, (b) Irish and (c) Dutch presidency of the EU the Committee on Common Rules for Imports of Textile Products from Certain Third Countries (autonomous regime) met; when and where these meetings took place; what UK Government expert was present; and if she will make a statement. [217834]
Mr. Alexander: These committees are not recognised under the titles given. Matters relating to EU quotas would have been discussed in either the "Textile Management Committee" (for textiles) or the EU Regulation Committee (for the EU's Chinese non textile dti quotas). Committee meetings are held in Brussels and would have been attended by a representative of the Department of Trade and Industry.
External Consultants
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much UK Trade and Investment was spent on external consultants and advisors in each of the last three years. [210280]
Ms Hewitt: To date UK Trade and Investment's records show spend of £4.3 million in the current financial year (2004–05) on external consultancy and advice. Spend recorded under the same heads in 2003–04 amounted to £5.7 million. Comparable data are not available for 2002–03.
The largest element of the spend reflects the costs of providing specialist sector and market advice and specialist developmental and training support to SMEs, particularly new to export and new to market companies. Spend in these categories amounted to £2.6 million in 2003–04 and £2.8 million to end January
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in the current financial year. The cost of marketing support services to UK Trade and Investment—such as project management of events, promotional campaigns and marketing development—amounted to £1.4 million in 2003–04; and is £0.6 million so far this year.
Gas
Mr. Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the impact of changes in wholesale gas prices on the ability of the UK to meet its carbon dioxide reduction targets. [217491]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: Some exploratory analysis of the impact of CO 2 prices on emissions has been produced and reported as part of a November 2004 DTI publication on updated emissions projections. Carbon price analysis can be found at annex 7 of the report. The analysis does not explicitly examine gas price or fuel price differential scenarios but it is noted that the impact of CO 2 prices can be sensitive to the background assumptions, such as energy prices and power station efficiencies. Higher gas prices will tend to require higher carbon prices in order to meet required emission reductions. The report is available electronically:
Annex 2a of this report shows the background assumptions for fuel prices.
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