House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 06 Oct 2008 (pt 0060)

6 Oct 2008 : Column 282W—continued

Post Offices: Closures

Susan Kramer: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many post office branches have experienced temporary closures of more than one month in the last five years for which information is available; and what assessment he has made of the merits of using mobile post offices during such periods of temporary closure. [221768]

Mr. McFadden: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.

Post Offices: Devon

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what representations from hon. Members on the Devon post office closures programme have been received by the Post Office National Consultation Team. [224058]

Mr. McFadden [holding answer 17 September 2008]: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, Managing Director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.

Copies of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

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Postal Services: Fees and Charges

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the appropriateness and transparency of handling fees charged to UK customers by international parcel delivery services. [223464]

Mr. McFadden [holding answer 15 September 2008]: Postal operators are legally required to work with HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to facilitate the collection of customs duty and taxes on goods entering the UK from outside the EU. The handling fee goes towards covering the costs incurred in storing items and collecting the duty fee on behalf of HMRC before it can be released to the customer.

In such a highly competitive market, it is for the parcels companies to review their own pricing structures in response to competitive pressures and market demands. Where there is evidence that an operator is behaving in an anti-competitive manner, the matter should be drawn to the attention of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Public Houses: EU Legislation

Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will review (a) the effects of tied lease agreements for pubs on (i) competition and (ii) bar prices and (b) the extent to which tied lease agreements are consistent with EU regulations; and if he will make a statement. [224035]

Mr. Thomas [holding answer 17 September 2008]: The Department has no plans to commission research of this type. The relationship between pub operating companies and their tied tenants has been extensively examined in recent years by both European and UK competition authorities. The conclusion has been that tied lease and tenancy agreements generally do not raise competition concerns.

Regional Development Agencies

Mr. Wallace: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what research his Department has undertaken into the functions of regional development agencies in the last four years. [223335]

Mr. McFadden [holding answer 15 September 2008]: Since 2004, the Department has conducted the following research into the functions of the regional development agencies (RDAs):

In 2006-07, the National Audit Office carried out Independent Performance Assessments (IPAs) of all the RDAs (except for London which had been covered in a previous Audit Commission Review). This is available on the NAO website: http://www.nao.org.uk/guidance/rdas.htm.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is currently undertaking a thorough review for the RDAs of their impact since 2002. The report will be publicly available once concluded in autumn 2008.

Regional Development Agencies: Managers

Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (1) how many staff there are in managerial posts in each
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regional development agency (RDA); what pay scales apply to such posts; how many such staff are employed on each scale; and what the average salary of managerial staff employed by RDAs is; [220092]

(2) what change there has been in the number of (a) administrative and (b) managerial posts in each regional development agency in 2007-08; and what such changes he expects to occur in 2008-09. [220096]

Mr. McFadden: The RDAs do not draw a common administrative/managerial distinction between staff. However, for the sake of consistency, administrative staffs have been classified as those occupying posts primarily concerned with supportive responsibilities, e.g. PAs, assistants to PAs, team administrators, office administrators. In the same way, managers are considered to be those who have a discrete area of managerial ' responsibility for a team or programme of work. RDAs vary in overall staffing numbers as some have much bigger budgets/geographical coverage than others. The following tables show this information.

RDAs	Posts	Actual 2007-08	Projected 2008-09^{( 1)}
AWM	Administrative	55	55
	Managerial	⁽²⁾60	63
EEDA	Administrative	49	48
	Managerial	40	38
EMDA	Administrative	28	28
	Managerial	35	35
LDA	Administrative	150	⁽³⁾—
	Managerial	105	⁽³⁾—
NWDA	Administrative	63	50
	Managerial	56	46
ONE	Administrative	55	46
	Managerial	62	58
SEEDA	Administrative	35	35
	Managerial	36	⁽⁴⁾40
SWRDA	Administrative5	92	78
	Managerial	59	55
YF	Administrative	53	54
	Managerial	51	⁽⁶⁾58
⁽¹⁾ Projected figures as at 1 September 2008. ⁽²⁾ This excludes three vacant managerial posts, which have subsequently been filled. ⁽³⁾ The LDA is currently in the process of restructuring. This restructure is subject to a formal consultation, which is already under way. However, the phasing of this restructure has yet to be consulted upon with staff and unions. Therefore the LDA is unable to provide estimated figures for 2008-09. ⁽⁴⁾ This increase on 2007-08 is due to recruiting additional senior staff managing strategic programmes and relations with partners. ⁽⁵⁾ SWRDA has additional programmes over other RDAs due to Cornwall's Objective One status. ⁽⁶⁾ YF has appointed three managerial posts in relation to the delivery of the new ERDF programme. Due to internal restructuring, two existing finance posts have been re-graded to include additional responsibilities. There is a new post to manage the contract for Business Link services. There is a temporary post for a payroll specialist.

The following table reflects actual staffing numbers as they stand as of 2 September 2008.

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RDA	Pay scales	Salary range (£)	Number of staff
AWM	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Corporate Director 2	89,760 to 102,000	4
	Functional Director (Development)	65,505 to 81,881	1
	Functional Director	59,550 to 74,457	11
	Pay Zone A (Head of Team)	47,186 to 58,983	14
	Pay Zone B (Team Leader)	40,106 to 50,133	32
AWM average salary of managerial posts is £61,327

EEDA	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Directors	73,280 to 104,051	5
	Senior Manager 3	71,214	2
	Senior Manager 2	61,066	4
	Senior Manager 1	54,960	13
	Professional Manager 4	46,410 to 51,295	15
EEDA average salary of managerial posts is £61,945

EMDA	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Executive Directors	76,500 to 89,250	4
	Operational Directors	56,638 to 67,986	8
	Head of Team	36,149 to 54,425	22
EMDA average salary of managerial posts is £58,700.

LDA	J	150,380 to 162,740	2
	I	120,674 to 148,320	2
	H	102,666 to 120,674	2
	G	91,356 to 112,218	24
	F	65,773 to 80,595	75
LDA average salary of managerial posts is £80,671.

NWDA	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Executive Director	61,055 to 112,717	19
	A	45,333 to 67,998	36
NWDA average salary of managerial posts is £65,064.

ONE	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Directors 1	96,928 to 114,033	2
	Directors 2	81,717 to 96,137	3
	14	67,862 to 79,838	0
	13	74,950 to 76,480	15
	12	54,100 to 63,647	1
	11	45,111 to 53,072	40
ONE average salary of managerial posts is £60,722.

SEEDA	Chief Executive	⁽¹⁾138,601	1
	Executive Director Upper Band	98,500 to 125,000	1
	Executive Director Lower Band	85,000 to 112,289	5
	Senior Management and Professional A	64,073 to 81,870	19
	Senior Management and Professional B	55,132 to 70,446	14
SEEDA average salary of managerial posts is £75,944.

SWRDA	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Band 0	69,710 to 103,372	4
	Band 1	65,160 to 77,813	16
	Band 2	47,673 to 60,331	38
SWRDA average salary of managerial posts is £61,289.

YF	Chief Executive	Up to 134,973	1
	Director	94,881	5
	Grade R	50,694 to 75,507	24
	Grade Q	40,678 to 51,707	10
	Grade O/P	33,240 to 47,057	11
YF average salary of managerial posts is £68,890.
⁽¹⁾ The salary for the South East Chief Executive reflects an agreed weighting for proximity to London.

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