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United States (Deportation)

Sir Menzies Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many individuals have been deported or otherwise involuntarily transferred from the United States to (a) Middle Eastern and (b) Central Asian countries on flights which have landed in the United Kingdom in each of the last four years. [16674]

Ian Pearson: The Government are not aware of the use of their territory or airspace for the purposes of 'extraordinary rendition'. The Government have not received any requests, nor granted any permissions, for the use of UK territory or airspace for such purposes.

The Government's policy is not to deport or extradite any person to another state where there are substantial grounds to believe that the person will be subject to torture or where there is a real risk that the death penalty will be applied.

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Animal Testing (Cosmetics)

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will bring forward legislation to ban the marketing of imported cosmetics which have involved testing on live animals. [17453]

 
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Mr. Sutcliffe: The Cosmetics (Safety) Regulations 2004 implemented into UK law the 7th Amendment to the Cosmetics Directive on animal testing as follows:

a ban on 'the testing of finished cosmetic products' on animals in any member state from 11 March 2005;

a ban on 'testing ingredients or combinations of ingredients' on animals within member states as soon as an alternative method has been published by the EC and, in any case, alternative tests must be developed six years after entry into force of the directive i.e. 11 March 2009 or earlier if a validated alternative test is available. In relation to three tests concerning repeat-dose toxicity, reproductive toxicity and toxikinetics, for which no alternatives are yet under consideration, the deadline will be 10 years after entry into force of the directive, 11 March 2013;

a total ban on the 'marketing of finished cosmetic products' which have been tested on animals, and a total ban on the 'marketing of cosmetic products the ingredients or combinations of ingredients' of which have been tested on animals, which will operate in the same way as the ingredient test ban described above. The marketing ban will apply no matter where in the world the cosmetics products originate.

Beer Measures

Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent discussions he has had with the pub industry about the serving of full pints of beer; and if he will make a statement. [17892]

Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 14 October 2005]: I had a useful meeting with representatives of CAMRA, the British Beer and Pub Association and the Local Authority Co-ordinating Body on Regulatory services (LACORS) about a year ago.

It did not appear that there is a consensus on how to make progress on this issue, but we are continuing to consider the results of our consultations. We are at present in the course of revising the legislation dealing generally with weights and measures for food, and are aiming to publish a new Consolidated Food Order for consultation in the new year and this will take account of our conclusions on this issue.

Company Statistics

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether he collects information about the (a) annual turnover, (b) annual profit, (c) number of staff employed by, (d) rates of growth of turnover, profit or staffing and (e) eligibility for Government grant of businesses which (i) are and (ii) are not registered for VAT. [16547]

Barry Gardiner: The Office for National Statistics (ONS) maintains a business register that contains turnover and number of staff employed for all businesses that are registered for VAT/PAYE. ONS also collects information from a sample of businesses in the Annual Business Inquiry such as turnover, employment and purchases that allows calculation of gross values added, net capital expenditure and average employment.

The Department purchases some of these data, where necessary to help advise Government policy. The Small Business Service runs a separate survey, the Annual Small Business Survey. This collects annual turnover, number of staff employed by, number of staff employed 12 months previously, and expected future employment
 
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and turnover. This survey covers a sample of businesses which is not limited to businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE.

Eligibility for Government grants is subject to EU state aids rules and depends also on the criteria for each individual Government grant programme or scheme. Government grants to businesses are delivered nationally, regionally and locally and the Department does not keep a central record of how many businesses are eligible for each different available grant.

Correspondence

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to the answer of 10 October 2005, ref 16862, if he will give a detailed breakdown of the responses he has received in terms of (a) letters, (b) emails, (c) postcards and (d) other from (i) members of the public, (ii) pressure groups, (iii)companies and (iv) others. [18756]

Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department currently handles around 50,000 letters a year and approximately 200,000 emails on a wide range of issues. Further breakdown in the form requested is not available.

EU Competition Law

Mrs. May: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the responsibilities of (a) Ofcom and (b) the Office of Fair Trading in implementing EU competition law (i) before and (ii) after 1 May. [19419]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Before 1 May 2004, Ofcom had no powers to implement EU competition law while the Office of Fair Trading had certain limited powers to assist the European Commission in carrying out its functions in applying EU competition law.

On 1 May 2004, the Competition Act 1998 and Other Enactments (Amendment) Regulations 2004/1261 entered into force. These Regulations designated both Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading as National Competition Authorities pursuant to Article 35 of European Commission Regulation 1/2003 and made a number of amendments to the Competition Act 1998 giving both bodies the power directly to apply EU competition law in addition to UK competition law.

Kyoto Protocol (Border Taxes)

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the merits of using border taxes on countries that have failed to ratify the Kyoto protocol to compensate British firms who incur transitional costs of reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the terms of the Kyoto protocol; and if he will make a statement. [17143]

John Healey: I have been asked to reply.

The Government have no plans to introduce border taxes.
 
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National Minimum Wage

Edward Miliband: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people in Doncaster, North constituency have received the national minimum wage since its introduction. [15065]

Mr. Sutcliffe: Reliable figures cannot be produced for the Doncaster, North constituency due to small sample size.

The DTI estimates that around 130,000 people in theYorkshire and Humber area stood to benefit from the introduction of the national minimum wage in October 1999.

The DTI has estimated that around 140,000 people in the Yorkshire and Humber area would be covered by the October 2005 up-rating of the national minimum wage. The DTI has based the October 1999 estimate on the Office for National Statistics central estimate of low pay; the 2005 estimate is based on data from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2004.

Postal Addresses

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many requests have been received by the Royal Mail for changes in postal addresses in (a) 2004 and (b) 2005; and how many were agreed. [18176]

Barry Gardiner: This is an operational matter for the company. The Chief Executive, Adam Crozier, has been asked to reply direct to the hon. Member.

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