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Equality and Diversity

David T.C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much the Department has spent promoting equality and diversity in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [14658]

Meg Munn: The Department is fully committed to the equality and diversity agenda and has policies and processes in place to ensure that there is no unfair discrimination on any grounds.

The cost of providing information relating to every diversity and equality event held in the Department over the last five years is not readily available and can be obtained only at a disproportionate cost. As much of the departmental diversity training is integrated into all other training the entire cost for that element cannot be calculated.

The following costs are extracted (where figures are available-from 2001 only) from the Department's training providers and HR Diversity/Equality training events:
£

Event	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	Total cost
Diversity training (various)	6,580	11,220	8,287	9,400	66,485	101,972
Equal opportunities action plans:	—	—	13,895	70,838	53,044	137,777
Cabinet office disability bursary scheme	2,000	2,000	2,000	2,000	20,000	28,000
Diversity week	10,000	25,000	—	—	—	35,000
Valuing ability mentoring programme- for people with disabilities	—	—	—	10,000	10,000	20,000
Childcare/nursery scheme	n/a	n/a	30,957.16	95,096.23	60,338.96	186,392.35
Conferences for disability/ethnic/lesbian/gay staff	n/a	n/a	25,000	7,000	n/a	32,000
Specialist equipment for disabled staff	n/a	n/a	17,857.80	73,407.98	30,659.53	121,925.31

Grocery Trade

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many representations his Department has received in 2005 from (a) members of the public and (b) individual companies on (i) Tesco's market share, (ii) mergers and acquisitions in the grocery trade and (iii)the Retailer Code of Practice; and if he will make a statement. [16862]

Mr. Sutcliffe: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State and Ministers at the DTI have received a considerable number of representations from members of the public, pressure groups and companies on the structure of the grocery market and the Supermarket Code of Practice.

Competition in the supermarket and grocery sectors is a matter for the independent competition authorities, in this case the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). On mergers, the OFT's role is to refer situations where it believes there is likely to be a substantial lessening of competition to the Competition Commission (CC). It is for the CC to decide whether the merger should be allowed to proceed. The OFT assesses each merger on a case by case basis, so it is not possible to say whether any future mergers will be referred to the CC.

The Supermarkets Code of Practice (the Code) only concerns transactions between supermarkets and their direct suppliers. Asda, Sainsbury's and Tesco are statutorily bound by the Supermarkets Code while Morrisons has volunteered to abide by it. The OFT reviewed the operation of the Code in 2003–04 and again in 2005. On 3 August they published a report on the final outcome of their 2005 review. This is available on their website at http://www.oft.gov.uk/News/Press+releases/200S/l46–05.htm

Industrial Tribunals

Sarah Teather: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many cases were brought against each local authority dealt with by industrial tribunals in the last year for which figures are available; and how many were successful. [15833]

Mr. Sutcliffe: In 2004–05 86,181 claims were brought to an employment tribunal. The Employment Tribunals Service does not collate statistics on the number of claims brought against specific respondents, such as local authorities, nor how many of these were successful.
 
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Matched Funding

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to his answer of 22 June 2005, Official Report, column 1088W, on matched funding, how much of the funding came from the Government in each year. [15656]

Alun Michael: The responsibility for identifying and securing match funding for projects supported by the European Structural Funds rests with the project sponsor. Although the Government provide a significant proportion of the match funding referred to in the answer of 22 June 2005, Official Report, column 1088W, the Government's contribution is only recorded at project level and an overall figure could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Patent Applications

Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many patent applications have been subject to secrecy orders in each of the last 10 years; and how many have subsequently been declassified. [15377]

Alan Johnson: A table of the figures requested is provided as follows. To put the figures in context, the Patent Office received 29,835 patent applications in 2003 and 28,223 in 2004.
Patent applications

	UK originated applications	Foreign applications	Total applications	Declassified
1996	87	25	112	6
1997	64	33	97	13
1998	51	19	70	21
1999	94	37	131	53
2000	67	20	87	43
2001	86	16	102	39
2002	117	10	127	46
2003	90	15	105	33
2004	73	4	77	26
2005(18)	32	4	36	6
Total	761	183	944	286

⁽¹⁸⁾To July.

Petroleum/Oil Supplies

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the effects on competition in petroleum retailing of adopting a refiner importer system for oil stocking arrangements. [16296]

Malcolm Wicks: The UK meets its international obligations to hold stocks of oil for use in the event of disruption of supplies by imposing obligations on commercial companies. We have always aimed to set obligations so as to impose an equal additional burden on different parts of the industry as far as possible. We intend to continue doing so under our proposed new system where the obligations will be based on products from refineries or entering the UK as imports.

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received relating to compulsory stocking arrangements for oil and petroleum. [16297]

 
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Malcolm Wicks: The Department held a public consultation last year seeking views on the future of the UK system for holding emergency stocks of oil in the event of a major international supply disruption. We received 14 responses from refiners, importers, retailers and other affected sectors. We are working closely with the industry to agree a system which will continue to be robust in future as the UK's obligations to hold emergency stocks increase as we become a net importer.

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the merits of a not-for-profit agency to administer oil storage obligations; and if he will make a statement. [16308]

Malcolm Wicks: The UK meets its international obligations to hold stocks of oil for use in the event of disruption of supplies by imposing obligations on commercial companies. The release of stocks following Hurricane Katrina has shown that the UK system works well.

As part of the recent public consultation on the future of the UK system, members of the industry have proposed a system where they would work collectively through an agency to ensure that the stocking obligations are met. We have agreed to work with the industry in considering the long-term potential of this solution.

Phoenix Fund

John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what grants have been made to (a) Leeds and (b) Leeds West from the Phoenix Fund. [15936]

Alun Michael: The Phoenix Fund has provided a total of £250,000 for activities wholly in Leeds. It is not possible to identify separately the proportion of that funding that relates to Leeds West.

In addition, the fund has provided £1,470,180 for activities that have included Leeds, although not exclusively. It is not possible to identify separately the proportion of that amount that relates to Leeds or Leeds West.

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