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16 May 2007 : Column 757W—continued
Market in Financial Instruments Directive
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many EU member states have transposed the Market in Financial Instruments Directive into national legislation; and if he will make a statement. [136412]
Ed Balls [holding answer 9 May 2007]: As I said in my answer of 16 April 2007, Official Report, columns 405-6W, the Commission currently reports that the UK, Ireland and Rumania have notified their transposition of both MiFID Directives. Lithuania has reported it has transposed the Level 1 MiFID Directive.
This clearly leaves the majority of member states still to complete transposition. Timely implementation of MiFID is essential if firms are to have opportunity to prepare for launch in November and I have written to Commissioner McCreevy on this very subject urging him to maintain the pressure on member states.
The Commission has asked all member states to confirm when they will complete transposition of the two MiFID directives and this information is available at:
http://ec.europa.eu/internalmarket/securities/isd/mifid_ implementation_en.htm.
By the end of the summer, the majority of countries plan to have completed transposition.
Smith Institute
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) Smith Institute and (b) SI Events Ltd events have been booked for No. 11 Downing street in (i) July and (ii) August 2007. [136987]
John Healey: The Smith Institute asked in 1997 to use the facility for seminars on a once a month basis and sometimes, when they are conducting a series of seminars, on a more regular basis. Ministers agreed to that request.
Ministerial Meetings
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what matters he discussed with President Bush on his recent visit to Washington DC. [133368]
John Healey: The Chancellor of the Exchequer met President Bush on 13 April 2007. I refer the hon. Member to the Chancellor’s interviews and statement given at the end of the IMFC meeting in Washington on 14 April.
VAT: New Businesses
Lady Hermon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were tasked with processing new business VAT number applications in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales and Northern Ireland in each of the last 12 months, broken down by grade. [136795]
John Healey: At 30 April 2007 the National Registration Service had in the region of 316 staff employed in the processing of VAT registration applications.
Figures are not available on a monthly basis as the deployment of staff across the service and between work streams changes frequently to deal with changes in work priorities and volumes. HMRC do not record separate figures for England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland.
Lady Hermon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average length of time taken was to process new business VAT number applications in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales and Northern Ireland in each of the last 12 months. [136796]
John Healey: The average time taken to process an application for VAT registration for the following months was:
| Month | Average time taken (in days) |
HM Revenue and Customs do not record separate figures for England, Scotland Wales and N. Ireland.
Lady Hermon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new businesses in (a) England, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales and Northern Ireland applied for VAT numbers in each of the last 12 months. [136797]
John Healey: The following number of businesses applied for VAT registration in the UK:
| Month | Number of new businesses |
HM Revenue and Customs do not record separate figures for England, Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland.
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Agriculture: Subsidies
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many farmers in Lancashire are owed (a) all and (b) part of single farm payments. [136959]
Barry Gardiner: Detailed analysis of all the payments made under the Single Payment scheme is not yet available. Once the remaining scheme payments have been completed, a decision will be taken on the level of detail that will be published.
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will make a statement on the changes to eligibility for common land in the Single Farm Payment scheme. [137034]
Barry Gardiner [holding answer 15 May 2007]: There have not been any changes in the eligibility rules relating to common land under the Single Payment scheme. However, a number of industry representatives have raised issues in relation to how those rules are applied in practice and these will be considered further with those concerned.
Departments: Paper
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what percentage of paper used (a) for photocopying and (b) in printed publications by his Department was from recycled sources in each of the last three years. [134045]
Barry Gardiner: From information held centrally, the figures are as follows:
| Copier | Publications | |||
| T onnes | Percentage | T onnes | Percentage | |
DEFRA’s sustainable procurement policy is to adhere to the highest standards of recycled paper. DEFRA currently buys paper that contains 75 per cent. recycled fibre for coated paper used in publications and for office paper (copier) and publications using uncoated paper there is a target 100 per cent. recycled fibre.
The only exceptions to these standards are where recycled paper is not available for a specific process e.g. security paper. Meeting the targets owes much to the fact that a considerable proportion of DEFRA’s printed publications are commissioned from a single central business unit using a centrally negotiated contract for recycled paper.
Gangmasters
Mr. Moss: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what estimate he has made of the number of gangmasters in (a) Cambridgeshire, (b) Norfolk and (c) Lincolnshire; [136238]
(2) what steps are being taken to ensure that migrant workers are not exploited by unregistered gangmasters; [136239]
(3) what steps are being taken to ensure that gangmasters are complying with the law on the minimum wage. [136240]
Barry Gardiner: As of 4 May 2007, there were 57 gangmasters in Cambridgeshire, 37 in Norfolk, and 146 in Lincolnshire. This includes registered gangmasters and those in the process of applying for licences.
The Gangmasters (Licensing) Act 2004 protects workers from exploitation and reduces illegal activity. The Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) was set up to curb the exploitation of workers in the agriculture, horticulture, shellfish gathering and associated processing and packaging industries. It is now illegal to supply workers to the agriculture, food processing and packaging, and shellfish gathering sectors without a GLA licence.
The GLA enforces the criminal offences in the Act on behalf of DEFRA by:
(i) Investigating criminal offences under the Act and identifying Labour Providers and Labour Users operating illegally
(ii) Engaging other government departments in joint investigative activity of mutual benefit to tackle illegal activity by Labour Providers
(iii) Providing a visible presence to deter, disrupt, or displace illegal activity.
Any person employed in the UK is entitled to be paid at least the appropriate minimum wage rate set out in minimum wage legislation. This includes all foreign nationals legally entitled to work in the United Kingdom. If a worker considers they might have been underpaid, they should contact the relevant minimum wage enforcement authority who will arrange for the matter to be investigated.
In addition, compliance with minimum wage legislation represents one of the licence conditions that a gangmaster must meet in order to obtain a gangmaster’s licence. Gangmasters who fail to meet this requirement will have their licences revoked by the GLA.
ICT: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the total expenditure was from inception to termination on (a) the Catalyst Project and (b) the Phoenix IT Project; and what the projected cost was on the launch of each project. [133535]
Barry Gardiner: The total expenditure from inception to termination on (a) the Catalyst Project and (b) the Phoenix IT Project, was as follows.
(a) £12.6 million. This included costs of a large pilot and of preparing for the wider programme, which was not rolled out. The initial funding bid for an Electronic Document and Records Management project (SR2002) was £14.7 million.
At the point at which the pilot was launched the estimate for the pilot and initial rollout was £13.6 million.
Following a pilot of the Catalyst project, aimed at developing a central repository of electronic information for the whole of DEFRA, it was decided not to proceed to full roll out because the business benefits no longer demonstrated good value for money and Catalyst alone could not sufficiently meet DEFRA’s long term information and knowledge management requirements.
The Catalyst system is still maintaining the documents and records deposited by pilot users and the lessons from the project have been built into a new approach to information and records management now being rolled out across DEFRA.
(b) £4.0 million. The estimated costs at commencement of the project was £2.6 million.
The Phoenix project suffered a series of delays and cost increases. It reached a point where continued investment could not be justified relative to other priorities and so had to be cancelled.
However, the project resulted in completed work on a number of key functional documents, particularly the System Requirements Specification, Logical Data Model, and Functional Use Cases, which were agreed by the stakeholders and base-lined.
These together with the other completed documents in the Project library provide all of the information necessary to support the definition of a future technical solution within Animal Health’s Business Reform Programme.
Poppies: Licences
Mr. Ellwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how much revenue was generated from issuing the licences for the growing of poppies in each of the last three years; and how many hectares of land were used for the purpose in each year. [136643]
Barry Gardiner [holding answer 14 May 2007]: The Home Office issue permission letters, free of charge, to growers of poppies (Papaver Somniferum) who meet specified criteria.
The cultivation area of poppies was approximately 1,978 hectares in 2004, 1,650 hectares in 2005 and 774 hectares in 2006.
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