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15 Sep 2008 : Column 2117W—continued
Departmental Procurement
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what his Department’s policy is on requesting discounts from its suppliers in return for swift payment of invoices. [220442]
Mr. Thomas: The Department follows OGC best practice guidance in making payments to its suppliers within 30 days of a correctly submitted invoice. This is reflected in the provisions of our standard form of contract. The Department does not have a practice of requesting discounts in return for swift payment of invoices.
The Department is subject to the provisions of the Late Payments of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 which provides suppliers with rights to claim interest on late payments of a commercial debt.
Departmental Public Buildings
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which organisations have received (a) free and (b) discounted room hire from his Department's agencies in each of the last five years; and what the commercial value of the discount was in each case. [221573]
Mr. Thomas: I have asked the chief executives of the Insolvency Service and Companies House agencies to respond to the hon. Member directly.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 21 July 2008:
The Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has asked me to reply to you directly in respect of your question (2007/3592) asking which organisations have received (a) free and (b) discounted room hire from (i) his Department and (ii) its agencies in each of the last five years; and what the commercial value of the discount was in each case.
The Insolvency Service has no record of providing free or discounted room hire to any other organisations in the last five years.
Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 28 July 2008:
I am responding on behalf of Companies House to your recently tabled Parliamentary Question to the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.
A record of organisations using Companies House's meetings rooms is not kept. However, in the past five years, other government departments, and external organisations for the benefit of Companies House staff, have been allowed to use meeting rooms at no charge. These have included the Welsh Assembly Government, various BERR departments and Benendon Healthcare. As a commercial value is not placed on the meetings rooms there were no discounts identified.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which organisations have received (a) free and (b) discounted room hire from his Department since its inception; and what the commercial value of the discount was in each case. [221594]
Mr. Thomas: It is not BERR policy to offer free or discounted room hire for any of its conference facilities on the main BERR estate.
Departmental Public Participation
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what (a) listening exercises and (b) public forums his Department has held in each of the last two years; what the (i) purpose and (ii) cost was in each case; and who the private contractor was and how much it was paid in each case. [221359]
Mr. Thomas: Listening events, including public meetings are among the consultation methods that the Department uses in developing policy—the standard method for formal consultation exercises being a written consultation document made available on the BERR website. Listening events may or may not be organised by private contractors.
It would not be possible, except at disproportionate cost, to analyse all consultations by method used and extract costs relating specifically to listening events.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what (a) reviews and (b) public consultations have been initiated by his Department since 27 June 2007. [221370]
Mr. Thomas: The Department’s Better Regulation Simplification Plan published in December 2007 followed a detailed review of the administrative burdens imposed by all the regulations for which BERR and its agencies are responsible.
Our approach is to review regulation in line with the March 2008 White Paper “Post-legislative scrutiny: the Government’s Approach” by the Office of the Leader of the House. In addition, the revised impact assessment process has increased the focus on post implementation reviews.
All the Department’s consultations are listed in the consultation index of its website at:
Departmental Responsibilities
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which projects his Department has commissioned from (a) think tanks and (b) charities in each of the last two years for which figures are available; what the aim of each project was; which think tank or charity was commissioned; and how much was paid. [221607]
Mr. Thomas: The amount of expenditure made by the Department for projects commissioned from think tanks and charities in each of the last two years is not available without disproportionate cost.
Departmental Sick Leave
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many staff in his Department and its predecessor have had five or more periods of sickness absence of less than five days in two or more of the last five years. [218981]
Mr. Thomas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 21 July 2008, Official Report, column 921W: departmental sick leave.
Departmental Written Questions
David Simpson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how long on average his Department took to answer (a) ordinary written and (b) named day questions in each of the last three years. [215454]
Mr. Thomas: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However of 2,369 questions, tabled between November 2007 and June 2008, 80 per cent. of questions were answered within 10 sitting days.
Named day figures for the same period show that of 529 tabled, 134 were answered on the date specified (25 per cent.). All other named day questions received a holding answer and 70 per cent. received a substantive reply within five sitting days.
Electricity Generation: Renewable Energy
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what proportion of electricity generated in (a) Cornwall, (b) the South West region and (c) nationally comes from renewable sources. [221678]
Malcolm Wicks: The Department does not collect data at (a) the county level for renewable generation. The Department publishes the annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) covering (b) regional and (c) national level statistics. For 2006, the last year for which data has been published, 4.6 per cent. (18,133.3 GWh) of electricity generated in the UK was from renewable sources. Of this, 797.4 GWh were generated in the South West region.
Electronics Industry
Dr. Gibson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of (a) the number of semiconductor companies based in the UK and (b) the number of people employed in the semiconductor industry. [216148]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 3 July 2008]: The Department has made no such estimate. However, according to the National Microelectronics Institute (NMI), there are 13 semiconductor manufacturing plants in the UK employing a total of approximately 4,700 people.
Energy: Manpower
Steve Webb: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many of his Department's staff work on (a) nuclear energy and (b) combined heat and power issues. [220898]
Malcolm Wicks [holding answer 22 July 2008]: 62 of the Department's staff work on nuclear energy. This includes legacy nuclear, nuclear non-proliferation, and new nuclear. Three work on combined heat and power, where the policy lead rests with the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
Exports
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what his Department’s budget will be for supporting UK companies in their exporting activities in each of the next five years, broken down by main category of expenditure. [218925]
Mr. Thomas [holding answer 15 July 2008]: The budgets for UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) are agreed with HM Treasury on a three year spending cycle. The budgets agreed in the Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 are drawn from three sources; UKTI’s directly voted programme expenditure, and budgets delegated from UKTI’s two parent departments—The Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The estimated budget for trade promotion/exporting across the sectors, from aerospace to water as bespoke support for individual companies and for groups of companies within particular sectors for 2008-09 is £242 million reducing to approximately £236 million by the end of the 2010-11 financial year, subject to UKTI’s annual corporate planning and annual parliamentary approval.
UKTI has not allocated any formal budgets beyond this time frame.
Exports: Middle East
Mr. Breed: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what estimate he has made of the value of goods exported from the UK to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories in the latest period for which figures are available. [220064]
Mr. Thomas: HM Revenue and Customs maintains records of UK exports to Israel and to the occupied Palestinian territories. However, no records are kept by HM Revenue and Customs of the final destination of these exports.
Fair Trade Initiative
Mr. Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 18 February 2008, Official Report, column 387W, on the Fairtrade initiative, what Fairtrade products are (a) available for purchase at his Department's staff catering facilities and (b) offered at official departmental meetings and engagements. [209015]
Mr. Thomas: Fair Trade products provided by the Department’s contracted catering service provider from staff catering facilities include all coffee beans and filter coffee, standard tea bags, sugar sticks (brown and white), limited confectionery and a selection of biscuits. These are also supplied when ordered for meetings and other engagements.
Firearms: Exports
Mr. Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what support his Department provides to UK companies who export sporting firearms. [218924]
Mr. Thomas [holding answer 15 July 2008]: UK Trade and Investment is the organisation within the FCO and BERR that provides UK businesses with access to a range of information, advice and support to assist their efforts in overseas markets. Support is tailored specifically to individual company needs.
However, there are no specific examples of UKTI helping exporters of sporting firearms.
Flexible Working
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) how many requests for flexible working by (a) (i) mothers and (ii) fathers were refused by employers in each year since 2003 and (b) carers were refused by employers in 2007; [216192]
(2) how many requests for flexible working by (a) (i) mothers and (ii) fathers were accepted by employers in each year since 2003 and (b) carers were accepted by employers in 2007. [216193]
Mr. McFadden: The following answer provides information on the number of requests for flexible working accepted or rejected by working parents by gender. The Department does not have the requested information for each year since 2003 and does not have evidence on the number of requests accepted or rejected by carers.
The Department does periodically conduct a Work-Life Balance Employees’ Survey.
The last employee survey (Third Work Life Balance Employees’ Survey) was conducted in 2006 (before the implementation of the extension of the right to request to carers therefore no evidence related to these requests is available).
Across the survey as a whole, 17 per cent. of employees had made such a request. 22 per cent. of mothers said that they had made a request to change the way that they work in the past two years as compared to 14 per cent. of fathers.
Data on acceptance and refusal rates are given in the following table; the numbers do not sum up to 100 per cent. because at the time of the survey some requests were awaiting decisions.
| Percentage making a request | Percentage requests accepted by employer | Percentage requests refused by employer | |
The Second Work-Life Balance Employees’ Survey was carried in early 2003. Data on acceptance and refusal rates from requests made by mothers and fathers were not identified separately and so this information is not available.
Data on acceptance and refusal rates are given in the table below; the numbers do not sum up to 100 per cent. because at the time of the survey some requests were awaiting decisions.
| Percentage making a request | Percentage requests accepted by employer | Percentage requests refused by employer | |
Stephen Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) how many working parents were (a) eligible to request, (b) asked for and (c) were refused flexible work in the most recent year for which figures are available; [216892]
(2) how many employers (a) were eligible to be asked to provide flexible working, (b) were asked by an employee for flexible working arrangements and (c) refused an employee's request to work flexibly in the most recent year for which figures are available. [216893]
Mr. McFadden: The following answer gives evidence on the number of parents eligible to request flexible working and the outcome of these requests, in addition we are also providing information related to employers receiving a request. We do not have information on the number of employers who are eligible to be asked to provide flexible working.
Three surveys carried out by the Department provide evidence on the information requested.
The Regulatory Impact Assessment carried out in 2002
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