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Willie Rennie: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by how much the cost of heating fuel has changed in each year since 1997. [64422]
Malcolm Wicks
[holding answer 18 April 2006]: Percentages real terms year-on-year price changes for those fuels used in the domestic sector are shown in the following table.
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Mr. Gauke: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions the Department has had with the Treasury on the abolition of Home Computing Initiative tax relief. [62453]
Alan Johnson [holding answer 30 March 2006]: My Department has had a number of discussions with the Treasury on Budget issues relevant to DTI, including the Home Computing Initiative.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much has been paid to (a) Beresfords, (b) UDM, (c) Vendside, (d) Wake Smith and (e) AMS Law for noise-induced hearing loss claims in each year since 2000; and what the average payment was in each case. [64452]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 19 April 2006]: The costs payments made are set out in the table:
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many claimants have been paid for noise-induced hearing loss in (a) Bassetlaw and (b) Nottinghamshire since 1999. [64453]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 19 April 2006]: The number of claimants paid for noise-induced hearing loss since 1999 is 1,389 in Bassetlaw and 11,163 in Nottinghamshire 1 .
1 Nottinghamshire covers the constituencies of Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Gedling, Mansfield, Newark, Nottingham East, Nottingham North, Nottingham South, Rushcliffe and Sherwood
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what agreements on costs have been reached for noise-induced hearing loss claims with (a) Beresfords, (b) Wake Smith, (c) AMS Law, (d) UDM and (e) Vendside; and when each agreement (i) began and (ii) will end. [64454]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 19 April 2006]: The Department's agreement on costs for noise-induced hearing loss claims with Beresfords was reached in December 2000 and ended in March 2002. The current agreement with the UDM was reached in May 2003, is ongoing, and covers claims originating with the Union but submitted by either their claims handling company, Vendside, or the solicitors AMS Law. We do not have an agreement with Wake Smith.
Mr. Marsden: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what discussions (a) he and (b) his officials have had with representatives of gas and electricity supply companies on improving the information on social tariffs provided to customers. [64379]
Malcolm Wicks: DTI officials and I have regular contact with all of the major energy supply companies and their trade organisation, the Energy Retail Association, on a wide range of issues, including the introduction of social tariffs by energy companies. With DTI's encouragement, the energy suppliers established the Home Heat helpline, which, among other things, provides customers with advice on the most appropriate tariff, including information on social tariffs. It is for individual suppliers to determine how best to market their tariffs.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many letters the Information Commissioner's Office has sent to date to (a) companies that have had in excess of 50 complaints made against them under telephone preference service regulations and (b) to companies breaching telephone preference service regulations. [62238]
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. It should be note that
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complaints received by his office about breaches of Regulation 21 concern calls made to Telephone Preference Service (TPS) registered numbers and also organisation not to make marketing calls to that number.
Due to the nature of the casework management system used by the Information Commissioner's Office he is unable to identify companies about which more than 40 complaints have been received about alleged breaches of Regulation 21 and is therefore unable to identify how many letters have been sent to companies about which more than 50 such complaints have been received.
To date, the Information Commissioner has written to organisations in 1,754 cases regarding an alleged breach of Regulation 21.
So far the Information Commissioner has been able to deal with complaints relating to alleged breaches of Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, through informal resolution with the organisations concerned. Information Commissioner has not needed to initiate formal enforcement action against any organisation for breaching Regulation 21. As most cases have been resolved at any early stage of their proceedings.
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many complaints about telephone cold calling were made against (a) the Labour party, (b) the Conservative party, (c) the Scottish National party and (d) the Green party since the introduction of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) 2003; and on how many occasions the Information Commissioner has initiated formal action in response to these complaints. [61652]
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. It should be noted that complaints received by his office about breaches of Regulation 21 concern not just calls made to Telephone Preference Service (TPS) registered numbers but also calls made to numbers where the subscriber has directly asked the calling organisation not to make marketing calls to that number. Also, Regulation 19 relates to the use of unsolicited direct marketing automated telephone calls.
The number of complaints about telephone cold calling made against the parties since the introduction of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) in 2003 is as follows:
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (1) against how many UK companies more than 50 complaints have been made under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003; [61653]
(2) on how many occasions the Information Commissioner has taken against firms in breach of telephone preference service rules; and whether the Information Commissioner has taken action against firms about which he has received more than 50 complaints. [61654]
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. It should be note that complaints received by his office about breaches of Regulation 21 concern calls made to Telephone
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Preference Service (TPS) registered numbers and also organisation not to make marketing calls to that number.
Due to the nature of the casework management system used by the Information Commissioner's Office he is unable to identify companies about which more than 40 complaints have been received about alleged breaches of Regulation 21 and is therefore unable to identify how many letters have been sent to companies about which more than 50 such complaints have been received.
To date, the Information Commissioner has written to organisations in 1,754 cases regarding an alleged breach of Regulation 21.
So far the Information Commissioner has been able to deal with complaints relating to alleged breaches of Regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, through informal resolution with the organisations concerned. Information Commissioner has not needed to initiate formal enforcement action against any organisation for breaching Regulation 21. As most cases have been resolved at any early stage of their proceedings.
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