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World Rowing Championships

Angela Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport if she will be attending the world rowing championships at Dorney Lake in August. [49450]

Mr. Caborn: To date I have not received an invitation to attend this event. Should I do so, my decision to be present will be determined by my diary commitments.

Angela Browning: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what support her Department is providing to the world rowing championships that are to take place in the UK in August; and if she will make a statement. [49451]

Mr. Caborn: These championships have received significant financial support from a number of sources. In May 2002, UK Sport made an award of up to £1.15 million of lottery funding towards the bidding and staging costs. In addition, funding has been provided to contribute to completion of the construction of the Dorney Lake Start and Finish Towers to bring it up to the required international and Olympic standard. At the beginning of 2005, Sport England granted £250,000 of lottery funding to the Amateur Rowing Association; UK Sport contributed £112,000 exchequer funding and the London Development Agency and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport provided combined exchequer funding of £88,000.

Worship Grant Scheme

Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much the Listed Places of Worship Grant scheme has cost in each year since 2001. [49233]

Mr. Lammy: The Listed Places of Worship Grant scheme returns to faith groups the equivalent of the VAT incurred in making repairs to listed places of worship. The cost per year of the scheme is represented in the table.

				£
	2001–02	2002–03	2003–04	2004–05
Grants disbursed	1,193,237.39	8,049,941.63	9,006,413.95	10,444,277.82
Administration costs	50,549.20	205,526.00	215,072.74	230,747.57
Total	1,243,786.59	8,255,467.63	9,221,486.69	10,675,025.39

TRADE AND INDUSTRY

Accounts Modernisation Directive

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what he expects to be the financial implications for business of not proceeding with the operating financial review and introducing the business review under the accounts modernisation directive. [47376]

Alun Michael: Based on the Regulatory Impact Assessment which accompanied the Companies Act 1985 (Operating and Financial Review and Directors' Report etc), Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/1011), removing the statutory requirement for quoted
 
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companies to produce an operation financial review, thus removing duplication so that quoted companies are required only to produce a business review, should reduce the burden on business by an estimated £33 million per annum, primarily by reducing audit compliance costs.

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what representations he has received on the proposed restructuring of the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and the potential loss of UK scientific research capacity; and if he will make a statement. [49093]

Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 6 February 2006]: The Department has received a number of letters from Members of Parliament, trade unions, environmental organisations, members of the public and others, about the Natural Environment Research Council's (NERC) proposal to restructure the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. NERC is being made aware of the views expressed.

Clean Coal Technology

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent steps he has taken to promote (a) clean coal technology and (b) carbon sequestration. [49203]

Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 6 February 2006]: The Government announced £25 million for the demonstration of Carbon Abatement Technologies as part of the Carbon Abatement Technology Strategy for Fossil Fuel Use", published in June 2005. CATs include Clean Coal Technology and Carbon Capture and Storage. The Chancellor announced a further £10 million for demonstration in his pre-Budget Statement in November 2005, bringing the total Government support for demonstration to £35 million. The money will be available from April 2006 for 4 years. We expect to receive proposals from industry for projects in late spring 2006.

In addition to this, CAT projects have been included as part of the November 2005 call for R&D proposals under the DTI's Technology Programme supporting collaborative R&D. Around £13 million is being made available for energy based technologies with some of this being allocated to the successful CAT projects.

Clear Skies Grants

Mr. Walter: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the Clear Skies grants madetoprojects in Dorset since the scheme was introduced. [45752]

Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 30 January 2006]: Since the start of the Clear Skies programme, grant support has been approved for 195 household projects in Dorset, 136 of which have completed and received grant funding. In terms of community projects, four have been approved for grant funding, of which one has completed and received funding, two are yet to complete and one has withdrawn. A list of community projects supported under Clear Skies can be
 
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accessed at http://www.clear-skies.org/communities/ApplicationGuidelines.aspx There is not a publicly available list for household projects.

Commission for Equality and Human Rights

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps the Government are taking to ensure that there will be (a) a race committee and (b) black and minority ethnic commissioners on the Commission for Equality and Human Rights. [47561]

Meg Munn: At Report Stage of the Equality Bill on 16 January we made a clear commitment to urgently progress work to identify how race equality work will be undertaken in the new Commission. This work will also seek to establish how the new Commission's work in these areas will fit within the Government's wider framework of activity on community cohesion, race equality and relations with faith communities, and will be undertaken jointly with the Home Office, to ensure coherent and effective delivery that meets the needs and of all our black and minority ethnic communities.

We also made clear our confidence that the provisions in the Bill, requiring appointments to the Commission to be made on the basis of knowledge or experience in the specific areas of discrimination, will ensure that the Commission is a diverse and reflects the full breadth of the communities and interests with whom it will work, including black and minority ethnic communities.

We welcome the opportunity to engage further with the BME communities on this important agenda and, further to these commitments, I have agreed to meet with 1990 Trust, Operation Black Vote, the CRE and the Greater London authority. This meeting will take place shortly.

Correspondence

Alistair Burt: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will reply to the letter of 25 July 2005 from the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire in relation to driving offences committed by foreign hauliers; and if he will make a statement. [47748]

Alan Johnson: This case was transferred to the Department of Transport, who I understand have replied to the hon. Member.

Kitty Ussher: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the Minister for Employment Relations will reply to the letter of October 2005 from the hon. Member for Burnley regarding a constituent Mr. Morrison. [47956]

Alan Johnson: The matter raised by my hon. Friend's constituent is not a matter for this Department and has been transferred to the FCO. I apologise that there was a delay in doing so, due to an administrative error.

Derek Wyatt: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will reply to the letter dated 3 November 2005 from Mr. John Waterman, a constituent of the hon. Member for Sittingbourne and Sheppey. [48400]

Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 6 February 2006]: I am awaiting technical information to enable me to provide a comprehensive answer to the concerns of my
 
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hon. Friend's constituent. I hope to have that information within the next week and apologise for the delay.

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