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18 Apr 2006 : Column 618W—continued

Post Office Card Account

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent representations he has received about the decision to end the Post Office card account; and if he will make a statement. [63315]

Barry Gardiner: I have received representations from the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters.

Postcodes

David Mundell: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether his Department uses postcodes for purposes other than the postage of mail. [62928]

Alan Johnson: Postcodes are widely used in the Department but it is not possible to provide a detailed list of uses, because no central records are kept. The following examples are no more than indicative. Detailed postcodes can be readily linked to other geographical information, such as government region or ward and are frequently used to enable the production of analyses by geographical area. The link also enables the use of postcode as a means of indicating eligibility for schemes such as assisted area funding, although this does not imply that the schemes themselves are based on postcodes. Another website application gives the nearest Business Link operator for a given postcode.

Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what his Department's employer contribution rates to the Principal Civil Service pension scheme are; what assumed rate of return underlies those contribution rates; and what the contribution rate would be if the assumed rate of return was in line with current redemption yield on index-linked gilts. [61900]

Alan Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to him by my hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, the hon. Member for East Renfrewshire (Mr. Murphy) on 29 March 2006, Official Report, column 1030W.
 
18 Apr 2006 : Column 619W
 

Shoes (Dumping)

Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list the EU (a) committees and (b) meetings at which the decision to impose anti-dumping duties on imported shoes were made; and how the UK representatives voted on each occasion. [61763]

Ian Pearson: On 16 March 2006, the European Commission consulted the Member States in its advisory Anti-Dumping and Anti-Subsidy Committee on a proposal to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on certain footwear with uppers of leather originating in China and Vietnam. The UK abstained on the proposal.

Solar Photovoltaics

Ian Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the capital grant expenditure on solar photovoltaics was in 2005. [60994]

Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave to the hon. Member for East Surrey (Mr. Ainsworth) on 22 March 2006, Official Report, column 393W.

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what advice his officials give to householders applying for capital grants under his Department's Solar Photovoltaics Major Demonstration Programme. [62195]

Malcolm Wicks: The Energy Savings Trust (EST) runs the Photovoltaics Major Demonstration Programme on behalf of the Department. Inquiries to the Department are directed to the EST who maintain a website and help line number to provide information and advice on a wide range of issues, including the programme.

Kate Hoey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total number of accredited installation companies was under his Department's Clearskies and Solar Photovoltaic Major Demonstration programmes in (a) March 2003, (b) March 2004, (c) March 2005 and (d) March 2006. [62196]

Malcolm Wicks: Under the Clearskies Programme the following number of installers were registered on the approved list.

	Number of registered installers	Number of new installers in this year
2003	135	—
2004	204	69
2005	263	59
2006	290	27

Note:
Of all installers, 28 have either withdrawn or been suspended from the list which makes a current total of 262 installers currently registered.

Under the Photovoltaics Programme the details are as follows:

	Number accredited installers
2003	17
2004	5
2005	18
2006	22
Total	62

Note:
There were an additional 3 installers who have now either withdrawn or been disqualified.




 
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Superannuation Liability

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what total amount of employers' normal contributions accruing superannuation liability charge has been accounted for by his Department in each of the last five years for which data are available. [61356]

Alan Johnson: The amount of employers' accruing superannuation liability charges in respect of members of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme in the last five years is:

	£000
2004–05(274)	34,876
2003–04(274)	32,195
2002–03(274)	30,053
2001–02	25,324
2000–01	27,333

⁽²⁷⁴⁾ From 1 October 2002 new entrants have been able to opt for a partnership pension partnership account, a stakeholder arrangement will an employer contribution. Employers' contributions to partnership pension accounts are not included in the above figures.

Telephone Preference Service

Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what total value of fines was imposed on UK companies as a result of actions in breach of telephone service rules since 2003; what maximum fine can be imposed under telephone preference rules; and what maximum fine has been imposed; [61651]

(2) on how many occasions the Information Commissioner has followed an initial warning with the imposition of a fine under telephone preference service regulations. [62237]

Alun Michael: The Information Commissioner is responsible for administering the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003. Regulation 21 of these regulations relates to unsolicited direct marketing telephone calls. Complaints received by the Commissioner about breaches of Regulation 21 concern Telephone Preference Service (TPS) registered numbers and also calls made to numbers where the subscriber has directly asked the calling organisation not to make marketing calls to that number.

The enforcement mechanism available to the Information Commissioner is provided under the Data Protection Act 1998 and the graded response includes Informal Resolution Undertaking, Preliminary Enforcement Notice, Enforcement Notice and Prosecution for a breach of Notice. If an organisation is found by a court to have breached the terms of an Enforcement Notice issued by the Information Commissioner, the court can fine that organisation up to £5,000 for each breach of the notice. To date most cases have
 
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been resolved at an early stage of their proceedings. The objection of the process is to secure compliance rather than the level of fines imposed.

Tidal Power

Mr. David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) what financial support his Department is giving to the development of tidal power; [63068]

(2) what measures his Department has adopted to support the development of marine turbine power generation technology. [63071]

Malcolm Wicks: Since 2000 around £16 million has been committed to the development of tidal-stream power under the DTI's Technology Programme.

To date this has led to the development and testing of two full-scale prototypes, one of which is located in the sea, near Lynmouth in Devon. In the next year it is anticipated that at least three more prototypes will be installed at the European Marine Energy Centre in Orkney, the Humber Estuary at Hull and Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.

A further £50 million 'Marine Renewables Deployment Fund' has been allocated to support the continued development of wave and tidal-stream technologies of which £42 million is for direct support to early-stage pre-commercial trials.

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