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16 Oct 2006 : Column 965W—continued
Equal Pay
Ms Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many (a) women and (b) men are employed in the Department; what the average pay was for (i) women and (ii) men in the Department in (1) 1997 and (2) 2006; what women's average pay is as a percentage of men's average pay; and how many (A) women and (B) men the Department employed in each of the last five years, broken down by grade. [67786]
Margaret Beckett: The following table shows the number of (a) men and (b) women currently employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), average pay for (i) men and (ii) women in 2006, current women's pay as a percentage of men's and the numbers of (A) men and (B) women by grade for each of the last five years - except 2004.
The staff numbers are for FCO UK based civil servants and represent full time equivalent staff. The gender breakdown and average pay by gender for 1997 are not available. The numbers in grade by gender are not available for 2004.
Due to restructuring of the senior management structure (SMS) in 2001 and 2002 it is not possible to provide figures for these years which equate to the current four SMS paybands.
| April 2006 | ||||
| Grade | Number of women employed by the FCO | Number of men employed by the FCO | Average pay women (£) (and as a percentage of men's pay) | Average pay men (£) |
| April 2005 | ||
| Grade | Number of women employed by the FCO | Number of men employed by the FCO |
| October 2003 | ||
| Grade | Number of women employed by the FCO | Number of men employed by the FCO |
| December 2002 | ||
| Grade | Number of women employed by the FCO | Number of men employed by the FCO |
| January 2001 | ||
| Grade | Number of women employed by the FCO | Number of men employed by the FCO |
Ethiopia/Somalia
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions she has had with (a) the Ethiopian Government and (b) the leader of the Somalian Union of Islamic Courts to try to avert conflict. [93726]
Mr. McCartney: My noble Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Lord Triesman, and our ambassador in Addis Ababa and his staff have frequent discussions with Prime Minister Meles and other representatives of the Government of Ethiopia about the situation in Somalia. We do not have any bilateral contacts with the Union of Islamic Courts, which is not a single entity, but officials take part in multilateral meetings outside Somalia where various of their representatives are present. We continue to urge all parties inside and outside Somalia to refrain from action that could provoke violence, to respect the UN arms embargo on Somalia and to pursue a peaceful resolution through dialogue under the Khartoum process.
European Union
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the evidential basis is for her statement in Prospects for the EU in 2006 (Cm 6896), that the internal market has boosted EU gross domestic product by 875 billion euros over 10 years and generated 2.5 million jobs; and if she will make a statement. [89815]
Mr. Hoon: The source is “The internal market: ten years without frontiers”, published by the European Commission. The correct figure for the increase in EU gross domestic product is €877 billion.
Mr. Brady: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the evidential basis is for her statement in Prospects for the EU in 2006 (Cm 6896), that the Services Directive as agreed in the Competitiveness Council will create 600,000 new jobs and boost wages by 0.5 per cent. across the EU and will add 31 billion euros to EU gross domestic product; and if she will make a statement. [89816]
Mr. Hoon: The source of these figures is a study conducted by Copenhagen Institute of Economics titled the ‘Economic Assessment of the barriers to the Internal Market for Services 2005’. The study was commissioned by the European Commission.
The analysis from consultants Copenhagen Economics found that all member states will benefit in terms of job creation and gross domestic product growth from the Services Directive. Specifically, for the EU, they estimate that the directive:
is worth around £30 billion annually;
could create up to 600,000 new jobs; and
could lead to an increase in real wages of up to 0.4 per cent.
The consultants' findings are broken down by projected impact per member state. For the UK, the consultants estimate that the directive:
will be worth £5 billion per year to UK business and consumers;
could create up to 135,000 new jobs; and
could increase real wages by up to 0.7 per cent.
Further details on the Copenhagen Economics study are set out in the Government's partial Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) on the Services Directive which was sent to the EU Scrutiny Committee by my right hon. Friend the Minister for Trade on 9 May. A copy of the RIA is available in the Library of the House.
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