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22 Oct 2007 : Column 101W—continued
UK Trade and Investment: Finance
Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what UK's budget for 2007-08 Trade and Investment is, broken down by sector; and how many staff it employs, broken down by sector. [159134]
Mr. Thomas: The total budget for UKTI in 2007-08 is £262 million. We do not attribute our budgets at sector level, but of the £262 million budget, some £191 million is spent on trade promotion across the sectors, from Aerospace to Water as bespoke support for individual companies, and for groups of companies within particular sectors.
UKTI is not an employer in its own right. It draws mainly upon the staff employed by one or other of its two parent Departments—the Foreign and Commonweath Office (FCO), and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). Some 2,225 full-time equivalent (FTE) people work for UKTI, mainly through the two parent Departments. We also use Government Office staff or people with business experience who are under contract to deliver UKTI services. Many front line staff work with companies across a wide range of sectors, and information on the number of staff employed on each sector is therefore not available.
Unfair Practices: Sales
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many businesses have been identified as holding bogus closing down sales in the last 12 months; and what steps have been taken against such businesses. [159136]
Mr. Thomas: Neither the Department nor the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) holds such information.
However, under Part 8 of the Enterprise Act 2002, the OFT, and other enforcers such as local authority trading standards services, have the power to apply for an enforcement order in relation to specific breaches of consumer legislation, including the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations 1998, where such a breach harms the collective interests of consumers. This would include an advertisement in a shop window giving the impression that a shop is closing down.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the likely impact of the implementation of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive on future prosecutions or other action against bogus closing down sales. [159137]
Mr. Thomas: The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive prohibits 31 specific practices outright. These include claiming a trader is about to cease trading or move premises when he is not.
The Directive will be implemented from April 2008 by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations. Trading Standards Services and the Office of Fair Trading will have a duty to enforce the Regulations. This does not automatically mean that formal (civil or criminal) enforcement action will be taken in respect of each and every infringement. Instead, the duty will oblige enforcers to take steps to promote compliance by the most appropriate means, in line with their enforcement priorities and consistent with available resources.
Unsolicited Goods and Services: Telephones
Mrs. James: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) what regulation is available to UK households to prevent unsolicited sales telephone calls from overseas; and what estimate has been made of the number of UK companies using such sales methods; [158087]
(2) what (a) complaints and (b) representations his Department has received about telephone sales cold calling from overseas countries to UK households. [158088]
Mr. Timms: Direct marketing is a legitimate form of business communication. No estimate has been made by Government of the number of UK companies using this method of direct sales. However, companies with a UK presence are legally required not to call a telephone number which has been registered with the telephone preference service (TPS) scheme, irrespective of whether the call is made from within the UK or from outside the UK. Such companies lay themselves open to enforcement action if they breach this requirement.
Under the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003, no one is allowed to make an unsolicited telephone sales call to a subscriber who has either previously notified the caller that they do not wish to receive such calls or who has been registered with the TPS scheme for at least 28 days. The TPS scheme is run by the Direct Marketing Association on behalf of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom). The Information Commissioner has responsibility for enforcement of the regulations by powers in the regulations drawn from the Data Protection Act 1998.
Subscribers registered with the TPS and who receive an unsolicited marketing call may complain to the TPS which reports regularly to the Office of the Information Commissioner (ICO) on the complaints received. Complaints may also be made directly to the ICO.
VAT: Warley
Mr. Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many VAT (a) registrations and (b) de-registrations there were in Warley constituency in each of the last five years. [160043]
Mr. Timms: The number of new VAT registrations and de-registrations in the Warley parliamentary constituency are shown in the table for 2001 to 2005, alongside the total number of VAT registered businesses at the start of each year. Data for registrations and de-registrations in 2006 will be published on 14 November 2007.
| VAT registrations, de-registrations and stock of VAT registered businesses in Warley parliamentary constituency | ||||||
| Warley parliamentary constituency | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| Source: Business start-ups and closures: VAT registrations and de-registrations 1994-2005 available at: http://stats.berr.gov.uk/ed/vat/index.htm | ||||||
Although the number of registrations and de-registrations has fluctuated over the period, the total number of VAT registered businesses in Warley parliamentary constituency has increased from 1,590 at the start of 2001 to 1,685 in 2005, an increase of 95 (6 per cent.).
VAT registration and de-registration data provides the only accurate indicator of the level of business start-up and closure activity at the parliamentary constituency level.
However, VAT registrations do not capture all business activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if they fall below the compulsory VAT threshold, which was £60,000 at the start of 2006. Only 1.9 million out of 4.5 million UK enterprises (41 per cent.) were registered for VAT at the start of 2006.
Winfrith Nuclear Research Establishment
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) what effect the time taken to decommission the Winfrith site will have on future decisions on a new generation of nuclear power stations; [158481]
(2) when he expects the Winfrith nuclear site to be decommissioned; and if he will make a statement. [158483]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 16 October 2007]: The Government have carried out a consultation on the future of nuclear power and no decisions will be taken on new nuclear power stations until the responses have been analysed and considered.
The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) has set out its proposals for the decommissioning of Winfrith in its strategy and successive annual plans. The annual plan for 2007-08 and other documents are available on the NDA website at:
Children, Schools and Families
Academies
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what options his Department considered for the delivery of the academies programme other than Partnerships for Schools. [159793]
Jim Knight: The options considered for the future delivery of the procurement of academies included retaining this work within the Department, contracting out these services, developing a new non-departmental public body, and Partnerships for Schools delivering this work alongside the delivery of Building Schools for the Future.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which Minister took the decision to transfer the delivery of the Academies programme to Partnerships for Schools. [159795]
Jim Knight: Final ministerial agreement to implement the new procurement model for academies was given by the right hon. Ruth Kelly, the then Secretary of State for Education and Skills. This was announced in the House on 23 March 2006.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether funding for the running costs of a city academy co-sponsored by a local authority is provided directly by his Department once the school is opened. [159947]
Jim Knight: Most recurrent funding for academies is provided directly by my Department; local authorities provide individually assigned resources for named pupils with special educational needs and—on behalf of the Department—also pass on to academies certain specific grants. The identity of the sponsor or sponsors does not affect these arrangements.
Assessments: Curriculum
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what effect the introduction of Key Stage 2 tests has had on the number of hours spent teaching non-tested subjects to Key Stage 2 pupils; and if he will make a statement. [158886]
Jim Knight: The focus on English, mathematics and science in the curriculum and assessment at Key Stage 2 reflects the importance of securing a firm grounding in these subjects to the future prospects of young people in education and the world of work.
There is no evidence to suggest that good test results can be achieved only by narrowing the curriculum. Ofsted has noted that many schools which perform well in the tests are also delivering a broad curriculum and offering lively and inspiring teaching across all subjects.
Building Schools for the Future Programme: Sports
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how much has been spent under the Building Schools for the Future programme on sports facilities. [159454]
Jim Knight [holding answer 19 October 2007]: Records of Building Schools for the Future expenditure on specific elements of local authority projects are not held centrally.
Our delivery partner, Partnerships for Schools, is working with Sport England, the Youth Sport Trust
and local authorities to ensure that physical education and sport is fully recognised in BSF projects. The strategic development of PE and Sports facilities is integral to the BSF educational vision.
Children: Disadvantaged
Mr. Allen: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he expects (a) to roll out the new nurse-family partnerships and (b) to allocate the £670 million two year provision which he announced in his recent speech in Bournemouth; and if he will make a statement. [157477]
Beverley Hughes: The Government continue to trial the family nurse partnerships in England and an increasing number of families are being enrolled in the pilot programmes. The next stage of the current pilots is being considered in the context of the recently announced spending review settlements. Further announcements will be made before the end of the year.
‘Aiming High for Young People: A Ten Year Strategy for Positive Activities’ was launched on 26 July 2007. The strategy and accompanying press release detailed the outcome of the comprehensive spending review (CSR) in relation to services for young people which over the three year CSR period, 2008-09 to 2010-11 will provide an additional £184 million alongside continuing funding of £3,495 million—a total of £679 million. This will support a range of initiatives and will be allocated to a variety of delivery agents in a number of different ways ahead of the start of the next financial year. Details of local authorities' share of these additional resources will be announced as part of the Local Government finance settlement in the autumn.
Class Sizes: East of England
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the pupil-teacher ratio was in each local education authority in the East of England at key stage (a) 1, (b) 2 and (c) 3 in each year since 1997. [159217]
Jim Knight: The requested information is not available. The following table provides the pupil:teacher ratios within maintained primary and secondary schools in local authority areas within the East of England, January 1997 to 2007.
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