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17 July 2007 : Column 279Wcontinued
No external consultancy fees have been incurred in the relocation of the Department.
Bell Design has been paid £10,563.50 for graphic design services.
Mrs. Lait: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the total cost is of all the private finance initiative projects for which his Department has responsibility that have been completed since 1997; and what the projected cost is of such projects that have been commissioned or are under way. [148026]
Mr. Thomas: BERR holds one operational PFI contract, which is with its IT service provider Fujitsu Services. This contract was signed in 1998: it began in 1999 and is due to end in 2014.
Expenditure to date under this contract has been £288.7 million.
Projected expenditure, for the rest of the life of the contract, is expected to be £243.5 million.
Total project cost of this service is expected to be £532.2 million.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the cost effectiveness of advertising commissioned by his Department, including relevant campaigns commissioned by its predecessor in the last 12 months. [148503]
Mr. Thomas: The former Department of Trade and Industry commissioned a limited amount of advertising in the financial year to March 2007 via the Central Office of Information. This comprised the following:
classified recruitment advertising for the Small Business Service;
online advertising about the national minimum wage, targeting young people; and
press and online advertising about the NMW, targeting migrant workers.
The cost effectiveness of the advertising was assessed by the number of responsesfor example, cost-per-click in the case of the online advertising targeting young people, and potential audience size as calculated by press circulation and online user figures in the case of the advertising targeting migrant workers.
Details of any other expenditure by the Department is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
David Simpson:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many complaints of racial abuse relating to the staff of (a) his Department and (b) its predecessor have been (i)
investigated and (ii) upheld in the last 12 months. [149261]
Mr. Thomas: There have been no complaints of racial abuse in the Department or its predecessor over the last 12 months.
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many staff in his Department have taken (a) five or more, (b) four, (c) three and (d) two periods of sick leave of less than five days in the last 12 months. [147050]
Mr. Thomas: In the former DTI records show:
Spells of absence of less than 5 days | Number of staff (DTI HQ, inc SBS and UKTI), 2006-07 |
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the merits of providing British sign language videos on his departmental website for the benefit of those whose first language is BSL. [142499]
Mr. Thomas: Resources are currently allocated to a project that will secure accessibility improvements to my Departments website, with the specific aim of ensuring that it meets government accessibility requirements.
My Department has made no assessment of the merits of providing BSL videos on its website.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what in-store facilities are being made available in Hampshire for customers to return white goods under the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive; what his strategy is for increasing such facilities in the county; and if he will make a statement. [148527]
Malcolm Wicks: Detailed figures at a county level are not available, but all retailers of electrical and electronic equipment are obliged to offer in-store take-back if they are not members of the distributor takeback scheme.
Within Hampshire all 26 local authority civic amenity sites have been approved as designated collection facilities and are playing their part in the UK waste electrical and electronic equipment system. Estimates made by Hampshire county council suggest that Hampshire is already diverting an average of 11 kg of waste electrical items per person from landfill.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the average estimated cost of an employment tribunal case is to (a) an employee, (b) an employer and (c) the state. [148095]
Mr. McFadden: The survey of employment tribunal applications 2003 estimated that the mean paid cost of advice and representation for all applicants was £445, while for those applicants who said they had paid for advice and representation it was £2,493. Mean non-advice related costs of a tribunal case to applicants (travel, communications and loss of earnings) were £4,553.
For all employers, the mean paid costs of advice and representation were £1,491, while for those employers who said they had paid for advice and representation it was £4,362. In addition, employers said they spent an average of 9.8 days (mean) or four days (median) on tribunal cases.
The average cost to the Exchequer of an employment tribunal application is around £606 (based on figures for 2005-06).
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will make it his policy to ensure that costs are generally awarded to claimants who are successful in employment tribunal cases against employers. [149962]
Mr. McFadden: Employment tribunals have powers to make cost orders against parties who have acted vexatiously, abusively, disruptively or otherwise unreasonably. Michael Gibbons' review of employment dispute resolution in Great Britain, published on 21 March, made wide-ranging recommendations for changes to the dispute resolution system. The Government are considering the responses to their consultation on the Gibbons proposals, which closed on 20 June, and will publish their response in due course.
Alan Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much energy installed biomass generation has contributed to UK electricity supply through the national grid in each of the last five years. [148430]
Malcolm Wicks: Biomass, here defined as farm waste, animal waste derived fuel (such as poultry litter and, meat and bone), straw, energy crops, sawdust, wood pellets, olive pellets, sunflower pellets, cereal products, palm oil kernels and nuts, tall oil and municipal solid waste (biodegradable fraction) is estimated to have contributed as follows to electricity supplied through the public electricity distribution systems of the United Kingdom:
Generation from biomass transferred to the public distribution system (GWh) | Total electricity supplied (GWh) | Biomass as a proportion of supply (percentage) | |
Note: These figures are the latest available data and include the contribution of biomass co-fired with fossil fuels. Source: Digest of UK Energy Statistics, 2006. |
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent representations he has received on the liberalisation of the energy sector in the EU. [149530]
Malcolm Wicks: Ministers and officials are in regular contact with business and others to discuss further action to liberalise the internal energy market.
Following endorsement by the European Council of the European Commission's strategic energy review of earlier this year, we expect the Commission to bring forward proposals for legislation in the autumn.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many (a) fast-track voluntary arrangements and (b) post-bankruptcy individual voluntary arrangements have been made in each year since the introduction of the Enterprise Act 2002. [148969]
Mr. McFadden: The individual insolvency provisions of the Enterprise Act 2002 came into force on 1 April 2004.
2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | |
Charles Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether he has received representations opposing the producer compliance schemes requirement under the waste electrical and electronic equipment directive for all participants to be jointly and severally liable for other businesses within the scheme. [148744]
Malcolm Wicks:
The WEEE regulations prevent a producer from being excluded from a scheme part way through a compliance period. Producer compliance schemes have made representations on this in relation to a situation when a producer fails to pay its membership fees and thus the scheme has the obligation but has not received the necessary payments
from the producer to cover the associated costs. However producer compliance schemes are required under the regulations to ensure that they have sufficient resources to fully discharge the obligation of their members. If a producer does not adhere to membership requirements, such as payment of fees etc., the scheme can use existing debt recovery regulations to pursue the producer.
Dan Norris: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what total amount has been paid to date to former miners in Wansdyke constituency following claims for compensation for (a) respiratory disease and (b) vibration white finger. [149903]
Malcolm Wicks: The total amount of compensation paid to former miners and their families in the Wansdyke constituency for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is £33.5 million, and for vibration white finger is £8,550.
Mr. Heald: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the average time for an employment dispute to be resolved was in the last 12 months. [148459]
Mr. McFadden: Information on the average duration of tribunal cases for the time period in question is not yet available.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps are taken by the Official Receiver in creditor bankruptcy cases to assess the return to creditors that would be achieved through (a) the appointment of an insolvency practitioner as trustee in bankruptcy and (b) a fast track voluntary agreement. [150310]
Mr. McFadden: In all bankruptcy cases the Official Receiver will identify, and establish valuations for, assets in the bankrupt's estate. Where there are sufficient assets to warrant the appointment of an insolvency practitioner as trustee, then a first meeting of creditors is called for creditors to vote for the insolvency practitioner of their choice who will have responsibility for the realisation of assets and distribution of funds to creditors.
In cases where there are no assets, or insufficient assets to attract an insolvency practitioner, the Official Receiver will not call a first meeting of creditors and will be appointed trustee.
Since 2002 the Insolvency Service has had a policy of retaining and dealing with cases where asset realisations are straightforward and creditors have not indicated they wish to appoint an insolvency practitioner. In most cases this provides a higher return to creditors.
All bankrupts are provided with the "Guide to Bankruptcy", which sets out the various alternatives to bankruptcy. If the facts of the case suggest that a fast
track voluntary arrangement is appropriate, it will also be discussed with the bankrupt at interview. The key factor in determining whether an FTVA is appropriate is whether the creditors will receive a better return from the FTVA than they could obtain in the bankruptcy.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps are taken by the Official Receiver in creditor bankruptcy cases to ensure that the best return to the bankrupt's creditors is achieved. [150311]
Mr. McFadden: In all bankruptcy cases the Official Receiver will identify what assets are comprised in the bankrupt's estate and will obtain third-party verification of the valuations given by the bankrupt.
Where there are sufficient assets to warrant the appointment of an insolvency practitioner as trustee, a first meeting of creditors is called, and the creditors vote for the insolvency practitioner of their choice who is responsible for the realisation of the assets and distribution of funds to creditors.
In cases where there are no or insufficient assets, the Official Receiver will not call a first meeting of creditors and will be appointed as trustee.
Since 2002 The Insolvency Service has had a policy of retaining and dealing with cases where asset realisations are straightforward and creditors have not expressed a wish to appoint an insolvency practitioner. In the majority of cases this provides a greater return for creditors.
In cases where the Official Receiver forms the view that an individual voluntary arrangement or fast track voluntary arrangement would produce a better return to creditors than a bankruptcy, he will inform the bankrupt of these options.
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