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16 Jun 2006 : Column 1482W—continued
UN Draft Disability Treaty
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether he has sent officials to participate in negotiations on the UN draft Disability treaty. [75241]
Mrs. McGuire: My Department has led the UK delegation since the start of negotiations in 2002, and officials from my Department and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office have participated in all the negotiating meetings on the draft UN Disability convention.
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions whether the Government plans to bring forward changes to UK legislation to be compatible with the UN draft Disability treaty. [75296]
Mrs. McGuire: The Government actively support the Draft UN Disability Convention and are playing an active role in its negotiation. When the text is adopted by the UN General Assembly the Treaty will be open for signature and ratification by States. Depending on the final text of the Convention, it is possible that changes to national legislation may be required or that appropriate reservations are in place.
Vaccine Damage Payment Act
Ian Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims under the Vaccine Damage Payment Act 1979 were made in each year since 2000; and how many were successful. [76172]
Mrs. McGuire: The number of claims received and successful payments made under the Vaccine Damage Payments Act 1979, in each financial year since April 2000 is as follows:
| 1 April to 31 March | Number of claims received | Number of claims successful |
| Source: Vaccine Damage Payments Unit Database | ||
Trade and Industry
Air Industry
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans the Government have for maintaining the UK air industry sector. [76613]
Margaret Hodge: The Government are working in partnership with the aerospace industry to strengthen the UK capabilities in this sector and are implementing the agenda set by the industry-led Aerospace Innovation and Growth Team report in 2003. This set out a vision for the future success of the industry that by 2022,
“The UK will offer a global Aerospace Industry the worlds most innovative and productive location, leading to sustainable growth for all its stakeholders”.
The key areas of focus work are on technology, process excellence, skills, and environmental issues.
This implementation work is overseen by the Aerospace Innovation and Growth Leadership Council, which I chair jointly with Mike Turner, CEO of BAE Systems.
More information is set out in the DTI evidence to the Trade and Industry Committee inquiry in March 2005.
In regard to the defence air sector, the recently published Defence Industrial Strategy provided clarity to industry on our military capability requirements, and set out a requirement to work with BAE Systems and key areas of the supply chain to ensure a sustainable long-term industrial base.
Arms Exports
Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what checks are made by his Department to ensure that ex-military aircraft transferred to countries subject to a UN arms embargo are not used for military purposes; and if he will make a statement. [77080]
Malcolm Wicks: Ex-military aircraft are rated ML10b under the UK’s “Military List”. As such, they would only receive a licence for export to an embargoed destination, where permitted by an exception in the embargo for example where they were to be used by UN representatives or peace keeping forces or for humanitarian work. In such cases a risk assessment is made before a licence is granted to verify the stated end-use.
Bonuses
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many non-pensionable bonuses were awarded to members of his staff in each of the last three years; and at what total cost. [73029]
Jim Fitzpatrick: Department of Trade and Industry awards non-pensionable bonuses in two formats:
1. Special bonuses, for exceptional performance in particularly demanding tasks or situations. Staff in receipt of a special bonus may also receive an annual performance award.
2. Annual performance awards, paid to highly successful performers as part of the annual pay award.
The number of staff receiving awards, their financial value and their value as a proportion of the total paybill can be seen in the following table.
| 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | |
Business Closures (Peterborough)
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many firms in (a) Peterborough constituency and (b) the Peterborough city council area have ceased trading in each year since 1997. [76622]
Margaret Hodge: Value added tax (VAT) registrations and de-registrations are the best official guide to the pattern of business start-ups and closures. DTI data on the number of VAT registrations and de-registrations in (a) Peterborough constituency and (b) Peterborough city council area from 1997 to 2004 are shown in the following table. The table shows the number of new VAT registrations, the number of de-registrations and the ratio of de-registrations to registrations in each year are also shown.
| VAT de-registrations and registrations 1997-2004 | ||||||||
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | |
| Source: Business Start-ups and Closures: VAT Registrations and De-registrations 1994-2004, Small Business Service, available at http://www.sbs.gov.uk/vats | ||||||||
In both Peterborough constituency and Peterborough city council area the stock of VAT registered businesses has increased each year since 1997, as registrations have exceeded de-registrations throughout this period.
VAT registration and de-registration data do not capture all business activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if their turnover falls below the compulsory VAT threshold, which has risen in each year since 1997. Similarly, businesses that de-register will not necessarily have closed. Only 1.8 million out of 4.3 million businesses (42 per cent.) were registered for VAT at the start of 2004.
Citizens Advice
Mr. Bone: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry pursuant to his statement of 11 May 2006, Official Report, column 560, on Citizens Advice, if he will bring forward proposals to ensure that citizens advice bureaux operate in each major town in England. [73503]
Mr. McCartney: There are approximately 450 CAB bureaux in England and Wales and there is at least one in most major towns.
Decisions on whether a town has a CAB is a matter largely for the local authority and the Government have no powers to ensure this.
Correspondence
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when the Minister for Industry and the Regions will reply to the letter of 3 April from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on the Government’s Enlightened Shareholder Value. [78038]
Margaret Hodge: I responded to the hon. Member on 9 June.
Departmental Press Office
Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many (a) black and Asian and (b) other people are employed in his Department’s press office. [74352]
Jim Fitzpatrick: The Department collects data, on a voluntary basis, on the ethnic origin of its staff. Such data, relating to small individual business units, are not available for publication for reasons of confidentiality.
Note:
Civil Service Statistics contains information on the numbers of staff who have declared their ethnic background. The latest available information at April 2004 is available in the Library and on the civil service website at the following address:
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/management/statistics/index.asp
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