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17 Mar 2006 : Column 2535W—continued
World Bank
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent discussions he has had with the World Bank regarding the tackling of corruption. [58831]
Ian Pearson: My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary, regularly discusses the issue of corruption with the UK's international partners. These have included the World Bank although the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is not the World Bank's principal British interlocutor. HM Treasury holds more regular discussions with the World Bank including on tackling corruption. My right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary supports the World Bank's move to mainstream anti-corruption activities in its Country Assistance Strategies.
Zimbabwe
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions the Government has had with the Government of (a) Mozambique, (b) Botswana, (c) South Africa and (d) Zambia on the number of refugees arriving in their countries from Zimbabwe. [58899]
Ian Pearson: Our posts in these countries regularly discuss Zimbabwe with their host Governments, including the destabilising impact the Zimbabwe refugee problem is having on them. We also take every opportunity to reinforce to African Governments the UK's concerns about the damage Zimbabwe is causing to the region. My noble Friend the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister for Africa, Lord Triesman of Tottenham, discussed these issues with a range of South African Government leaders during his visit from 2–4 March.
TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Corporate Behaviour
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps are being taken by his Department to ensure that British companies comply with international guidelines on corporate and social responsibility. [55512]
Malcolm Wicks: We are committee to ensuring that UK companies apply high standards of corporate behaviour by addressing their environmental and social impacts wherever they operate, including adhering to relevant internationally agreed norms and initiatives. We have set out our approach to encouraging environmentally and socially responsible practice in our International Strategic Framework on Corporate Social Responsibility published in March 2005.
We already support a range of international initiatives which encourage high standards of corporate behaviour. For example, we promote the OECD guidelines for Multinational Enterprises which reflect
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the high expectations of business and set out clear standards for their performance including on social and environmental issues. We have written to FTSE 100 companies to raise awareness of the Guidelines.
We also support the UN Global Compact, an agreement between the UN and business to uphold and promulgate a set often principles covering human rights, labour rights, environmental protection and combating corruption.
John Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent representations he has received on corporate and social responsibility. [55513]
Malcolm Wicks: DTI continues to coordinate across Government to work closely with business to create the right framework to encourage companies to make socially responsible practice an integral part of their business operations, to the benefit of both society and business. We have worked to establish the CSR Government website and the CSR Academy which provides companies with skills to take forward CSR, and have funded the Corporate Responsibility Index run by Business in the Community to encourage companies to adopt CSR and benchmark themselves against other companies.
As part of this work Ministers have met with a number of businesses, business representative organisations and other key partners. Ministers have addressed a number of major conferences on this issue including the one we organised as part of the UK Presidency.
Default Retirement Age
Mr. Gerrard: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the possible effect of the European Court of Justice ruling in Werner Mangold v. Rudiger Helm (Case C—144/04, 22 November 2005) on his Department's proposals for a default retirement age. [58685]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Mangold judgment confirmed that the directive allows for direct discrimination provided the act meets a legitimate aim and it is proportionate and necessary. The default retirement age meets these requirements.
The court in Mangold also stated that member states unarguably enjoy broad discretion in their choice of the measures capable of attaining their objectives in the field of social and employment policy, within which the default retirement age lies.
Domestic Electricity Generation
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps his Department is taking to encourage households to generate their own electricity. [58731]
Malcolm Wicks: We have taken several steps to encourage households to install microgeneration technologies that can generate electricity. For example we have
Provided £41 million of support for solar power projects and £12.5 million of support for household and community renewables projects through the Clear Skies Initiative (which supports both heat an electricity generating technologies).
Committed a further £30 million to fund the Low Carbon Buildings capital grant programme, which will take over from Clear Skies and the Major PV Demonstration Programme in April 2006.
Amended the Renewables Obligation Order to make it easier for smaller generators to claim Renewable Obligation Certificates for the electricity they are generating from renewable sources.
We are also supporting the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Bill, which contains several measures to assist the development of microgeneration, including a power for the Government to implement a scheme to reward the export of electricity from microgenerators, should the energy industry fail to develop such a scheme within 12 months from when the Act comes into force.
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Future steps we will be taking to encourage the development of microgeneration will be outlined in our strategy for the promotion of microgeneration, which will be published by the beginning of April.
Energy Bills
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the average annual energy bill was per household in (a) Wales, (b) England and (c) Scotland in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [58760]
Malcolm Wicks: The average annual household energy bill for the past three years is available regionally for England, Wales and Scotland. The data presented as follows is for standard credit customers. This data is in cash terms and has not been adjusted for inflation.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what was the (a) cost in real terms and (b) percentage increase on the previous year of (i) gas and (ii) electricity prices in each year since the industries were privatised. [58704]
Malcolm Wicks: Prices for gas and electricity are shown for domestic and industrial consumers. The average annual prices for each fuel since 1990 in pence per kilowatt-hour (p/kWh) are as follows. These are in real 2005 price terms and have therefore been adjusted for inflation.
Percentages real terms year-on-year changes for gas and electricity prices are shown for domestic and industrial consumers.
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Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade andIndustry how many times (a) his Department and (b) Ofgas has (i) approved and (ii) not approved increases in gas and energy prices since privatisation. [58705]
Malcolm Wicks: Neither Government nor Ofgem, the industry regulator, have a role in approving increases in gas prices and energy. Gas and energy prices are determined by the operation of fully functioning gas and electricity markets. Ofgem works to ensure that those markets operate effectively and monitors the conduct of companies within the market, in order to protect the interests of customers.
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