Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 7 December 2006
House of Commons Commission
Crèche Facilities
Kitty Ussher: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether the House of Commons Commission plans to introduce crèche facilities for parents of young children who work in the House. [104587]
Nick Harvey: The Commission did consider the proposal for a child care facility based in the House two years ago, but, after a survey of potential users, concluded that more flexibility would be provided by a child care voucher system. Many staff of the House come from outer-London boroughs or even beyond Greater London and receive greater benefit from a voucher system that enables them to use child care facilities nearer to home. The voucher system also benefits Members’ staff working in constituencies. Nearly 150 people take advantage of the scheme, and the Commission felt that it offered more flexibility than something based at Westminster.
Food Composting
Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether food waste from the refreshment outlets on the House estate is used in a composting scheme. [104844]
Nick Harvey: Food from House of Commons refreshment outlets is not currently used in a composting scheme but this possibility is being explored.
Hippo Bags
Jo Swinson: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission whether the toilets on the House estate make use of “Hippo” bags in the cistern. [104843]
Nick Harvey: Where it is appropriate, toilets on the House estate do make use of bags in the cistern to reduce volume of water.
Trade and Industry
Analogue Broadcasting
Mr. Bellingham:
To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry whether radio spectrum is planned to be reserved during the period of the 2012 Olympic
games in order to ensure that outside broadcast and radio microphone operations have full access to the current level of analogue spectrum; and if he will make a statement. [103179]
Margaret Hodge: The matter raised is the responsibility of the Regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom) which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of the Houses.
Energy Policy
Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how much his Department spent on (a) wave-generated electricity projects and (b) coppicing- generated electricity projects in each of the past four years; and how much he expects to spend in each of the next four years. [106926]
Malcolm Wicks: The research and development of emerging wave energy conversion technologies has been supported under the DTI's Technology programme since 1999. The following table gives the requested figures for each of the last four financial years.
| Financial year | Spend (£) |
The DTI's Marine Renewables Deployment Fund makes available £50 million to support the first pre-commercial grid-connected wave and tidal-stream demonstration projects. The allocation of those funds over the next four years is dependent upon the number and scale of projects that come forward.
For Biomass, there are a number of ongoing projects supported under the bio-energy capital grants scheme (BCGS) jointly funded by DTI and the Big Lottery Fund. To date, no funds have been drawn down on coppice-fuelled projects. This is primarily due to the timing and development schedules of these projects. Future funding over the next four years will be dependent on the progress of those individual projects.
DTI also funds a Research and Development programme, which has supported coppice-related projects. The spend on these projects is presented as follows:
| Financial year | Spend (£000) |
Electricity generation from renewable sources is also supported indirectly through the renewables obligation and by exemption from the Climate Change Levy. Electricity generation plant fired by a fuel supply of 90 per cent. or more (by calorific value) biodegradable material is eligible for the renewables obligation, regardless of the energy conversion technology used, with renewables obligation certificates (ROCs) issued for the renewable fraction. Co-firing of biomass, particularly energy crops, in fossil fuel power stations may also benefit from eligibility under the renewables obligation.
Industrial Diseases: Compensation
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many Group 3 turnovers have been achieved by the 20 law firms with the greatest volume of claims in the Vibration White Finger scheme; and what this figure represents as a percentage of each firm’s caseload. [107399]
Malcolm Wicks: The number of Group 3 turnovers that have been achieved by the 20 claimants' representatives with the greatest volume of claims for Vibration White Finger (VWF), and the percentages of VWF caseload are shown on the following table:
| Claimants’ representatives | Total claims registered | Group 3 denials overturned | Group 3 denials overturned as a percentage of total claims per cent |
Mr. David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the average damages recovered were by the 10 law firms with the greatest volume of claims for (a) Vibration White Finger and (b) chronic bronchitis and emphysema compensation. [107400]
Malcolm Wicks: The average damages recovered by the 10 claimants’ representatives with the greatest volume of claims for Vibration White Finger (VWF), and for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) are shown on the following tables:
| VWF | ||
| Claimants’ representatives | Claims registered | Average damages paid (on claims settled by payment as at 30 November 2006) (£) |
| COPD | ||
| Claimants’ representatives | Claims registered | Average damages paid (on claims settled by payment as at 30 November 2006) |
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