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16 Nov 2005 : Column 1354W—continued
MG Rover
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what date his Department's inspectors' report on MG Rover will be published. [28013]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The inspectors have not completed their enquiries and so have not yet submitted their report to my right hon. Fiend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. Whilst the investigation is making good progress I am unable to say when the report will be submitted. The Secretary of State will then consider publication.
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much public funding has been allocated to tackle issues related to the collapse of MG Rover to date, broken down by main cost area; and what estimate he has made of the cost of administration of MG Rover by PricewaterhouseCoopers to date. [28311]
Ian Pearson: The main areas of public funding allocated to tackle issues related to the collapse of MG Rover have been:
The Government announced a £150 million package of support following the collapse of Rover on 15 April:
up to £50 million for training for workers made redundant at MG Rover and suppliers (£25 million of new money from the DTI, DWP and European Social Fund and priority access to £25 million from the Employer Training Pilots for companies affected by MG Rover in the West Midlands and nationally; and support for people wanting to start businesses);
£24 million for the MG Rover Task Force, including £15 million to establish a loan fund to help otherwise viable businesses affected by MG Rover's collapse and £9 million for other purposes; and
In addition, Advantage West Midlands is making an investment of £42 million for the redevelopment of the Longbridge site and the establishment of a technology park there together with a grant of £19.3 million to Warwick Manufacturing Group's International Automotive Research Centre.
The Government made a £6.5 million loan to the administrators to sustain the company (i.e. to allow wages and other expenses to be paid) for a week in order to provide a short breathing space to assist the administrators to look quickly at any prospect of selling part or all of the companies as a going concern and to enable the position of the workforce to be resolved in an orderly manner.
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In addition, on 31 May 2005 the Secretary of State appointed inspectors to investigate issues raised by the Financial Reporting Review Panel in their report and developments after 2003. The total costs of both inspectors as at the end of September are £1.6 million. The accountant inspector has a team of junior staff working for him, retrieving, copying, logging and analysing documents. The costs are inherently front loaded because of the need to obtain the records and financial information at the outset. Whilst it is always difficult to predict the length of inspections both the Secretary of State and the inspectors are intent on completing this inspection as quickly as possible, with due regard to the fairness procedures, and to the thoroughness of the task.
PWC report to the company creditors on the joint administrators remuneration costs. The latest (six month) report showed PWC's costs as £5.6 million for MG Rover Group Ltd and £l million for Powertrain Ltd. There will be additional costs for some of the other companies in administration.
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total estimated costs are of the investigation commissioned by his Department into the collapse of MG Rover; and what the expected timetable is for completing this work. [28683]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The total costs of both inspectors as at the end of September are £1.6 million. The accountant inspector has a team of junior staff working for him, retrieving, copying, logging and analysing documents. The costs of the inspection are inherently front loaded because of the need to obtain the records and financial information at the outset. While it is always difficult to predict the length of inspections both the Secretary of State and the inspectors are intent on completing this inspection as quickly as possible, with due regard to the fairness procedures, and to the thoroughness of the task.
Nuclear Industry
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what studies he has commissioned into the impact of (a) contractualisation and (b) privatisation on the British nuclear industry; and if he will make a statement. [28027]
Office of Fair Trading
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many staff hours the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has devoted to its inquiry into fees at independent schools; how the schools being investigated were selected for inclusion in the inquiry; and what proportion of the OFT's staff has been involved in the inquiry. [26993]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The information is as follows:
(i) The OFT informs me that it does not have figures that differentiate costs between cases pre-dating the launch of its dedicated time recording systems on 1 April 2004. The investigation into independent school fees commenced in June 2003. The figures available show that the hours worked by staff
- in the OFT's Competition Enforcement Division on the investigation since 1 April 2004 are approximately 5354. These figures are the direct costs recorded by staff in the OFT's Competition Enforcement Division and do not include time spent by specialists in the OFT's Legal Division or the OFT's economic advice team in its Markets and Policy Initiatives Division.
(ii) The OFT's investigation concerns the exchange of confidential information amongst fee paying independent schools relating to their intended fee increases and fee levels. The OFT has focused its investigation on those schools involved in the survey known as the Sevenoaks survey". Further information is contained in a press notice that was issued by the OFT on 9 November 2005 which is available on the OFT website:
(iii) Save at the very outset, when the investigation was led by a single Principal Investigation Officer, the investigation has at any one time been led by two Principal Case Officers with support, as required, from other staff within the OFT's Competition Directorate Enforcement Division and from the OFT's Legal Division and the economic advice team in its Markets and Policy Initiatives Division. The case has also had up to three paralegal temporary staff employed at any one time to assist with the organisation of the 13,000 plus documents on the OFT's file, to which the parties have a right of access and from which confidential information must be redacted.
The level of resources dedicated to the case is in proportion to the staff resources the OFT's Competition Enforcement Division dedicates to dealing with cases of this size under the Competition Act 1998. The Division has 156 dedicated staff, including 66 Principal Case Officers.
Packaging
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received from the packaging industry requesting a (a) review of and (b) changes to the Supermarkets Code of Practice with Suppliers; and if he will make a statement. [28489]
Mr. Sutcliffe [holding answer 15 November 2005]: I have received a number of representations concerning the supermarkets code form a range of stakeholders. The Department currently handles around 50,000 letters a year and approximately 200,000 emails, but that a further breakdown in the form requested is not available.
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received calling for (a) taxes and (b) bans on specific packaging material and products; and if he will make a statement. [28490]
Malcolm Wicks: None. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has not received representations calling for either of these things in relation to packaging material and products.
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