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26 Jun 2006 : Column 66W—continued
Winter Fuel Payment
Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many individuals aged 60 to 79 years received the winter fuel payment of (a) £100 and (b) £200 for winter 2005-06 in (i) Lewisham, Deptford constituency and (ii) Lewisham borough; [79148]
(2) how many individuals aged 80 years and over received the winter fuel payment for winter 2005-06 in (a) Lewisham, Deptford constituency and (b) Lewisham borough; and how many out of those received an additional (i) £50 and (ii) £100. [79149]
James Purnell: The information is in the following table.
Wales
Correspondence
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what the average cost to his Department was of replying to a letter written by (a) an hon. Member and (b) a member of the public, broken down into (i) officials' time, (ii) cost of stationery and (iii) postage costs. [80512]
Mr. Hain: The Wales Office does not record expenditure in this format, and this information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Bills
Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (1) if he will list those Government Bills sponsored by his Department that are still to be introduced during the 2005-06 Session; [78845]
(2) if he will list the Government Bills sponsored by his Department that he has bid for in the next Session of Parliament; and if he will make a statement. [78846]
Mr. Hain: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 16 June 2006, Official Report, column 1431W, by my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House.
Regional Funding
Hywel Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales how much (a) Objective 1 and (b) Convergence Funds funding was included in each of the annual block grant totals set out in Annexe 1 of the Wales Office Annual Report 2005. [80397]
Mr. Hain: Annexe 1 of the Wales Office Annual Report 2005 provides information on the Wales departmental expenditure limit, and therefore takes account of the European Union receipts for structural funds, but these are not disaggregated.
Annexe 4 shows the reconciliation of grant payable to the National Assembly for Wales with Total Managed Expenditure in Wales 2005-06 included £234 million for EU receipts. The equivalent figures in earlier reports are:
2004 Annexe 5 2004-05: £235 million
2003 Annexe 5 2003-04: £186 million
2002 Annexe 5 2002-03: £170 million.
Electoral Commission Committee
Electoral Registration/Fraud
Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission (1) how many hours were spent by Electoral Commission staff on the issues of (a) postal ballot fraud and (b) electoral registration in each of the last five years; [80042]
(2) how many meetings Electoral Commission officers have (a) attended and (b) initiated on the issues of (i) postal ballot fraud and (ii) electoral registration in each of the last five years. [80050]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission has advised me as follows. The information requested is not available. However, as the issues of postal ballot fraud and electoral registration are both central to its work on promoting involvement and integrity in the electoral process, they arise frequently in work done by Commission staff and have been discussed by them in very many meetings over the last five years.
Chris Ruane: To ask the hon. Member for Gosport, representing the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, how many Electoral Commission reports on (a) postal ballot fraud and (b) electoral registration have been produced in each of the last five years; and how many words there were in each. [80051]
Peter Viggers: The Electoral Commission has informed me that, in the last five years, it has produced four reports dealing in part with postal ballot fraud, four reports dealing wholly, or in part, with electoral registration and two that deal with both issues.
Of the reports dealing with postal ballot fraud, one was produced in 2002 (33,578 words); two in 2003 (17,826 words and 54,351 words respectively); and one in 2004 (33,592 words). Of the reports dealing with electoral registration, two were produced in 2003 (17,809 words and 30,633 words respectively); one in 2004 (38,438 words); and one in 2005 (19,451 words). The two reports dealing with both these issues were published in 2003 and 2005, and contained 17,785 words and 23,081 words respectively.
Trade and Industry
Arms Exports
Helen Goodman:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what proportion of export credits
issued by the Export Credits Guarantee Department in each of the last three years were for military goods. [76857]
Mr. McCartney: The proportion of export credit guarantees issued for defence goods and services by the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) in each of the last five years was:
| Guarantees by business sector (defence) | |
| Percentage | |
ECGD's audited business figures for 2005-06 are not yet available.
British Energy (Decommissioning Fund)
Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry by how much the Government are underwriting British Energy’s decommissioning fund. [80043]
Malcolm Wicks:
As a result of the restructuring of British Energy, Government will underwrite the company’s segregated decommissioning fund. This fund will cover
the costs of decommissioning British Energy’s nuclear power stations as well as certain other liabilities relating to waste management. The fund is topped up through annual contributions from British Energy. Government will underwrite this fund to the extent that the liabilities outweigh the assets.
On recent valuation, the assets of the segregated fund total some £8.1 billion, the majority of which relates to the value attributed to the fund’s 64.6 per cent. convertible stake in British Energy, and which exceeds the recent revised forecast of the liabilities. The fund can also distribute a share of its surplus assets to the Government in the event of quinquennial reviews demonstrating a surplus in the fund.
Business Closures (Suffolk)
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many firms have ceased trading in (a) Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (b) the Suffolk county council area in each year since 1997. [79367]
Margaret Hodge: Value added tax (VAT) de-registrations are the best official guide to the pattern of business closures. DTI data on the number of VAT de-registrations in (a) Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (b) Suffolk county council area from 1997 to 2004 are shown in the following table. For comparison, the number of new VAT registrations and the ratio of de-registrations to registrations in each year is 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 Bury St. Edmunds constituency and Suffolk county 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.
Cathode Ray Tubes
Gregory Barker: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much has been paid to local authorities for the additional responsibilities to recycle televisions and monitors containing cathode ray tubes since July 2005. [78453]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 22 June 2006]: An interim payment of £14.7 million has been agreed to cover the treatment costs of separately collected cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and fluorescent tubes for the period 13 August 2005 to 1 June 2006, and Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) equipment from 1 April 2006 until 1 June 2006. The English local authorities’ share of the interim payment of £12.269 million has been made available as part of the Local Government Settlement for 2006-07. Additional funding to cover costs from 1 June onwards will be paid via a special grant scheme later in the year.
Gregory Barker:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate his Department has made of the likely costs associated with recycling
televisions and monitors containing cathode ray tubes following the introduction of the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive. [78454]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 22 June 2006]: The costs associated with recycling televisions and monitors containing cathode ray tubes will vary according to their size and weight and the proximity of treatment centres. Estimates of the costs of collecting, treating and recycling waste electrical and electronic equipment will appear in the partial regulatory impact assessment when public consultation begins later this summer on draft regulations to implement the WEEE directive.
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