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13 Mar 2006 : Column 1986W—continued
Personal Injury Claims
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) what assessment has been made of the effect of increasing the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000 on the number of (a) individuals (i) seeking legal advice and (ii) using solicitors and (b) cases being taken to the Small Claims Court; [56727]
(2) what assessment she has made of the recommendation by the Better Regulation Task Force to increase the small claims limit for personal injury claims to £5,000; and if she will make a statement. [56726]
Bridget Prentice: The Better Regulation Task Force in its report, 'Better Routes to Redress' recommended that research should be carried out into the potential impact of raising the small claims limit for personal injury cases from the current limit of £1,000. The Government indicated that it would carry out this research and would also consider other options for dealing with these claims in a more proportionate and cost effective way. This work is currently under way.
Specialist Advice
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs what representations she has received from citizens advice bureaux in (a) England and (b) Staffordshire on the decision of the Legal Services Commission to withdraw funding for specialist advice on complex cases. [57853]
Bridget Prentice: To date, the Department has received:
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs if she will make a statement on the decision of the Legal Services Commission to withdraw funding for specialist support from Citizens Advice Bureaux. [58110]
Bridget Prentice: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 2 March 2006, Official Report, column 932W.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Citibank
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when (a) he and (b) officials from his Department last met officials from Citibank International plc. [58298]
Barry Gardiner:
Neither my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry nor any DTI officials have ever met with Citibank International plc. about the Post Office Card Account.
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Citizen's Advice
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the planned funding is for the national organisation of Citizen's Advice in 2006–07; and how much funding was provided in each of the last five years. [57229]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department has not yet decided on the level of funding for Citizens Advice in 2006–07. Information on the amount of DTI funding for Citizens Advice for past financial years is published in their Annual Reports, copies of which are in the Libraries of the House.
Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what funding the Department have made available to Citizens Advice Bureaux in 2005–06; and whether the Department attaches conditions on geographical distribution to the funding. [56992]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Department provides funding for Citizens Advice, the national umbrella organisation for the Citizens Advice service in England and Wales. It also provides funding for Citizens Advice Scotland. It does not provide any funding for the individual Citizens Advice Bureaux in the UK.
Correspondence
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he intends to answer the letter dated 12 December 2005 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Mr. Paul Miller transferred by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. [55759]
Alan Johnson: I responded to my right hon. Friend's letter on 12 January. It has also been passed to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to reply to issues within their portfolio that your constituent raised.
Counterfeit Packaging
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will seek to legislate against the use of counterfeit packaging. [56316]
Barry Gardiner: The Government are not convinced that the law is deficient in this specific area.
However the Government have identified counterfeiting and piracy as a growing international threat and work has been moving forward through the multi agency National IP Crime Group, involving Government, enforcement and key industry sectors to deliver better-targeted enforcement action. Within the National IP Crime Group a specific Brands Expert Group is expressly looking at counterfeiting issues and practices related to product packaging.
We have also asked Andrew Gowers to lead an independent review of the UK's intellectual property framework. It will examine whether improvements could be made, especially in the context of rapid technological change and globalisation. The review team's call for evidence is available on the Review website at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/gowers
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Moreover the Government will continue to take an active part in discussions within the European Community on the legal framework for enforcement, taking account of the interests of consumers and brand owners.
Departmental Equipment
Mrs. Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) laptops and (b) mobile phones his Department bought in each year since 1997; and what the cost of each category of equipment was in each year. [41264]
Alan Johnson: My Department does not buy but leases mobile phones and IT equipment including laptops.
Occasionally it is necessary to buy items directly but this information is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
This information covers the central Department. It does not include Executive Agencies who have devolved responsibility for IT security and expenditure.
Economic Competitiveness
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry which international economic competitiveness data are taken into account by his Department when ranking the position of the UK against other countries as an international competitor. [56815]
Alan Johnson: A wide range of organisations such as KPMG and the World Economic Forum produce international competitiveness rankings, based on a variety of criteria. In addition, the Department produces an annual update of the Productivity and Competitiveness Indicators, which benchmark UK performance against the US, France and Germany. These look at performance on the Government's five key drivers of productivity, and, overall, give reason for optimism regarding UK productivity performance. But the real measures of the competitiveness of an economy is how well it is performing. On the basis the UK is doing well. GDP has grown for 54 consecutive quarters, the longest sustained expansion on record; the UK's employment rate is the highest among the G7 economies (bar Canada); and we are enjoying the longest period of sustained low inflation since the 1960s.
Emergency Services
Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the prevalence of hotels and other businesses barring direct calls to the emergency services; if he will introduce legislation to require direct connection to the emergency services by dialing 999 or 112 from any telephone; and if he will make a statement. [57254]
Alun Michael:
The matter raised is the responsibility of the Regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than to Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to consider the issues raised by this question and both reply directly to the hon. Member
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and to provide any appropriate advice to Ministers. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Energy Statistics (Scotland)
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the (a) potential and (b) actual energy output from each power station in Scotland was in each year since 1997. [57211]
Malcolm Wicks:
The Department collects information from electricity generating companies on the basis that information relating to individual
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companies is not disclosed in published statistics unless they are already publicly available. The available information on power stations in Scotland is contained in Table 5.11 of Chapter 5 of the Digest of United Kingdom Energy Statistics 2005, a copy of which is in the Libraries of the House and also available on the DTI website at www.dti.gov.uk/energy/inform/dukes/index.shtml. An extract showing only those power stations located in Scotland is given as follows along with the load factors for the latest available year (2004). Actual output is capacity multiplied by load factor multiplied by the number of hours in a year:
(52) Year of commission or year generation began.
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(53) Conventional steam plants, gas turbines and oil engines and plants producing electricity from renewable sources other than hydro and wind.
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