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24 Apr 2006 : Column 826W—continued
Home Computing Initiative Scheme
Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many small businesses enrolled in the Home Computing Initiative Scheme in each year since 1999, broken down by region. [64164]
Alun Michael [holding answer 18 April 2006]: I am unable to provide a statistical breakdown of how many small businesses enrolled in the Home Computing Initiative Scheme in each year since 1999 or by region because this information is not available. However, recent figures provided by the Office of Trading tell us that nearly 4,000 approvals or HCI Group Directions under s101 (8) Consumer Credit Act (CCA) 1974 had been issued by OFT since January 1999. We are unable to break this list down by region or by size of business.
ICSTIS
Mr. Davey: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many fines were imposed by ICSTIS in each of the last five years; what the maximum fine imposed during each of the last five years was; and what the total value of fines imposed by ICSTIS has been to date. [64396]
Alun Michael: ICSTIS's current method of providing statistics on fines goes back to 2001. The table provides figures back to 2001.
Number of fines | Maximum fine imposed (£000) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001 | 142 | 100 |
| 2002 | 214 | 75 |
| 2003 | 211 | 75 |
| 2004 | 155 | 100 |
| 2005 | 145 | 100 |
The total value of fines imposed from 2001–05 was £9,456,800.00.
Invoicing
Clive Efford: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment he has made of the practice of naming individual company directors of small and medium sized businesses on invoices for the provision of goods and services to circumvent the protection of being a company limited by guarantee; and what powers companies have to require invoices to be directed to the company rather than individual directors. [63438]
Alun Michael: I have made no such assessment.
Section 349 of the Companies Act 1985 provides that the company's name must appear on its invoices.
Section 305 of the Companies Act 1985 provides that either all, or none, of the directors' names must appear on business letters where the company's name appears.
Both of these provisions apply to both companies limited by shares and by guarantee.
Minimum Wage
Mr. Jeremy Browne:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the
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number of people in (a) England, (b) the South West, (c) Somerset and (d) Taunton constituency who are earning less than the minimum wage. [64070]
Mr. Sutcliffe: For England there are approximately 1 million employees earning under the national minimum wage, and for the south west approximately 110,000 (the data come from ASHE 2005)
We are able to provide figures only for government regions and not constituencies.
Noise-induced Hearing Loss (Mining)
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total value is of cost payments that have been refused for noise-induced hearing loss claims to his Department due to breaches of section 4(2)c of the Conditional Fee Agreement Regulations 2000. [64516]
Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave him on 6 March 2006, Official Report, columns 1156–57W.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Tradeand Industry what (a) average and (b) range of costs have been paid for miners' noise-induced hearing loss claims by his Department in each year since 1999. [64441]
Malcolm Wicks: Solicitors costs paid in miners' hearing loss claims since 1999 are as follows.
(1)The lowest costs are part-payments of expenses with remainder recovered separately.
(2)The highest costs paid each year relate to claims pursued though litigation.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in how many claims to his Department by solicitors for miners' hearing loss an amount has been paid in costs for (a) work done by Melex Ltd., (b) fees to Vendside Ltd., (c) barristers' fees, (d) insurance premiums and (e) claimant loan interest costs. [64442]
Malcolm Wicks: There have been 10,376 noise induced hearing loss claims submitted by the UDM/Vendside since January 1997, for which costs have been paid to Vendside in 9,389 totalling £6.3 million.
The remaining information is not readily available. Miners' hearing loss claims are not schemed so solicitors' costs for each claim are dealt with on their own merits. Concerns relating to particular aspects of the costs would be raised as part of the negotiations on the appropriate level of costs for any given claim.
John Mann:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in how many claims to his Department by solicitors for miners' hearing loss an amount has been
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paid in costs for a referral fee to Beresfords solicitors, where a solicitor other than Beresfords has submitted the claim. [64443]
Malcolm Wicks: This information is not readily available. Miners' hearing loss claims are not schemed so solicitors' costs for each claim are dealt with on their own merits. However, we would not generally pay such a referral fee.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the average (a) settlement and (b) costs paid for miners' noise-induced hearing loss cases has been in each year since 1999. [64445]
Malcolm Wicks: Compensation and costs paid for miners' hearing loss claims since 1999 are set out in the table:
| Average damages | Average solicitors costs | |
|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 2,293 | 790 |
| 2000 | 2,357 | 704 |
| 2001 | 2,394 | 721 |
| 2002 | 2,286 | 738 |
| 2003 | 2,007 | 823 |
| 2004 | 2,392 | 1,152 |
| 2005 | 2,173 | 1,182 |
| 2006 | 2,070 | 1,256 |
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry in what percentage of noise-induced hearing loss cases disputed due to breaches of rule 4(2)c of the Conditional Fee Agreement Regulations 2000, what percentage of cases included a disbursement payment to (a) Vendside, (b) Beresfords solicitors, (c) Melex Ltd., (d) Dr. Yeoh, (e) NIG, (f) Composite Legal Expenses and (g) Bank of Scotland. [64512]
Malcolm Wicks: This information is not readily available. Miners' hearing loss claims are not schemed so solicitors' costs for each claim are dealt with on their own merits. Concerns relating to a breach of regulation 4 of the conditional fee regulations would be raised as part of the negotiations on the appropriate level of costs for any given claim.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many costs payments are being negotiated for noise-induced hearing loss claims to his Department due to breach of section 4(2)c of the Conditional Fee Agreement Regulations 2000; and how many involve Beresfords solicitors. [64513]
Malcolm Wicks: This information is not readily available. Miners' hearing loss claims are not schemed so solicitors' costs for each claim are dealt with on their own merits. Concerns relating to a breach of regulation 4 of the conditional fee regulations would be raised as part of the negotiations on the appropriate level of costs for any given claim.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many individual claimants have been informed by his Department that their case is being delayed due to negotiations over costs payments for noise-induced hearing loss to his Department due to breaches of section 4(2)c of the Conditional Fee Agreement Regulations 2000. [64515]
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Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the answerI gave him on 6 March 2006, Official Report, columns 1153–54W.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many costs payments have been refused to solicitors for noise-induced hearing loss claims to his Department due to breach of section 4(2)c of the Conditional Fee Agreement Regulations 2000 in (a) 2005 and (b) 2006. [64517]
Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the answerI gave him on 6 March 2006, Official Report, columns 1156–57W.
John Mann: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many costs payments have been refused to (a) Beresfords solicitors, (b) Bakewell solicitors, (c) Heptonstall solicitors, (d) Brown and Co. solicitors, (e) Ollerenshaw solicitors and (f) UDM/Vendside for noise-induced hearing loss claims to his Department due to breach of section 4(2)c of the Conditional Fee Agreement Regulations 2000. [64518]
Malcolm Wicks: I refer my hon. Friend to the answerI gave him on 9 March 2006, Official Report, column 1731W.
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