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2 Mar 2009 : Column 1340W—continued
Bankruptcy: Greater London
Justine Greening: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many people were declared bankrupt in (a) Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, (b) Wandsworth and (c) London in each of the last 10 years. [258362]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 25 February 2009]: The following table shows the number of bankruptcy orders recorded in (a) Putney, Roehampton and Southfields, (b) Wandsworth and (c) London in each year from 2000-07. Regional figures are not yet available for 2008, nor for years prior to 2000.
| 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| Note: 1. Classifying insolvent individuals into administrative geographies are done using the postcode that the person provides. 2. Inaccurate or missing postcodes mean that the numbers in the table will be subject to an element of missing data. Nationally, this proportion has been decreasing from about 12 per cent. in 2000 to less than 4 per cent. in 2007. | ||||||||
Business: Government Assistance
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many loans he estimates will be taken out under the Working Capital Scheme in the next 12 months; and what estimate he has made of the average value of such loans. [252244]
Ian Pearson: The working capital scheme is not available directly to businesses. The scheme enables participating banks to increase the amount of working capital they can make available to businesses
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps his Department is taking to support (a) manufacturing industry, (b) the retail sector, (c) small businesses, (d) motor traders and (e) business start-ups; and if he will make a statement. [254476]
Ian Pearson: The Government are taking a range of steps to help businesses through the current economic downturn to boost capital and liquidity in the market. This is across all sectors of the economy. Key measures include the reduction in VAT, the introduction of a new Enterprise Finance Guarantee to support up to £1.3 billion of bank lending, a separate £10 billion guarantee facility to support further working capital bank lending, a £75 million Capital for Enterprise Fund to convert businesses’ debt into equity and £25 million of regional funds.
There is also an extensive range of support for anyone considering starting their own business at:
On manufacturing, the Government launched their new Manufacturing Strategy in September last year. It focuses on what the sector needs for success in the long-term—including seizing the opportunities of the low carbon economy, supporting skills, realising overseas opportunities and improving the perception and understanding of manufacturing.
It builds on existing areas of support such as R and D Tax Credits, the Technology Programme and the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS). MAS is monitoring the situation for small manufacturing companies and responding flexibly with suitable advice to help companies. We are also piloting increased support for MAS in the West Midlands.
In the longer term, we are ensuring that the policies within the Manufacturing Strategy work to bolster UK manufacturing and deliver the foundations of 21(st) century success such as world-leading R and D and a highly skilled work force.
The retail sector also has access to the package of help on offer. For example, 1,876 retailers/wholesalers and repair shops have, since October, benefited from a Business Link “Health Check”. This is just one of the many schemes that can be accessed via the portal at:
On support for motor traders, I refer my hon. Friend to the statement I made on the automotive sector on 27 January 2009, Official Report, columns 165-67.
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much and what proportion of their budget was spent by each regional development agency on supporting (a) high technology businesses, (b) science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills, (c) innovative procurement and (d) social innovation and social enterprise in each year since 2005. [258999]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 26 February 2009]: The RDAs do not record expenditure as requested. Furthermore, to separate out this data would incur disproportionate cost.
Capital for Enterprise Fund
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will place in the Library a copy of the business plan for the Capital for Enterprise Fund. [254603]
Ian Pearson: The Capital for Enterprise Fund is a commercial investment fund which will be governed by a commercial limited partnership agreement between the fund manager and the investors in the fund. What the fund will do will be specified in the partnership agreement, summarised as follows:
The Capital for Enterprise fund will provide £75 million of equity, made up of £50 million Government funds and an additional £25 million from high street banks.
The fund will provide equity and quasi-equity of £250,000 to £2 million for companies under the EU SME definition, that is those with turnover of up to €50 million who have viable business models and growth potential in need of long term capital.
Risk will be shared equally between Government funds and those committed by banks.
Construction: Finance
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the effect on the construction and associated industries of reductions in credit insurance cover; and if he will make a statement. [258759]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 25 February 2009]: The reduction of credit insurance can exacerbate financial difficulties already being felt by firms. The Department is discussing the issue of reduction of credit insurance with industry.
Departmental Public Expenditure
Dr. Cable: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform if he will estimate his Department’s expenditure on the Export Credits Guarantee Department in each financial year from 2009-10 to 2014-15. [257650]
Ian Pearson: ECGD is self-funding and funds its operations out of the premium it charges for its support to exporters and the interest it charges on un-recovered claims.
Departmental Surveys
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much his Department’s central media and communication unit spent on public surveys in each of the last three years. [247924]
Mr. McFadden: Public surveys are not procured through this Department’s central communications directorate but, rather, across the business. Such information could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the following figures are available relating to expenditure on public surveys procured through the Central Office of Information (COI) in the last three full financial years:
| £ | |
Export Credits Guarantee Department: Empty Property
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the estimated cost in empty property business rates for the vacant properties recorded on the e-PIMS database owned by the Export Credits Guarantee Department is in 2008-09. [258524]
Ian Pearson: ECGD does not own any property.
Government Departments: Procurement
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many contracts have been awarded through the supply2.gov website in each year since its creation; and what proportion of them were awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises. [253636]
Ian Pearson:
The supply2.gov.uk site offers consolidated access to public sector opportunities and allows businesses to search and view open lower-value contract opportunities in a single place. The portal seeks to bring a greater level
of transparency to public sector opportunities, enabling more small businesses to access opportunities that had historically been difficult to identify. It does not measure contract awards and consequently no estimate of the number of contracts awarded, or the proportion won by SMEs, through the site are available.
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many contracts have been awarded through the CompeteFor website in each year since its creation; what proportion of those contracts were awarded to small and medium-sized companies; and if he will make a statement. [253637]
Ian Pearson: The CompeteFor portal was only launched a year ago. It is early days in terms of contract opportunities as it is designed to capture contracts predominantly in the Olympic supply chain. 217 opportunities have been awarded that have been advertised on CompeteFor and 60 per cent. of these were to companies on CompeteFor. 82 per cent. of the contracts awarded to CompeteFor companies were to SMEs. In total 1,700 opportunities have been posted on CompeteFor and 850 of these opportunities have been posted since 10 December 2008.
Greater Manchester
Mr. Hands: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2009, Official Report, column 1311W, on departmental official visits, how much the agency which deals with overnight accommodation for his Department charged for hotel accommodation costs in Manchester on 7 January 2009. [258927]
Honours
Mr. Hands: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what meetings the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform has had with members of the Honours Committees since his appointment. [251066]
Mr. McFadden: Honours Committees are composed of civil servants and independent members. Of the independent members, my noble Friend, the Secretary of State has had one meeting, to discuss BERR issues, with Professor Sir George Bain. He has had various meetings with some of the civil servants on the Honours Committees (including his permanent secretary): none of them have been to discuss the Honours process.
Israel: Arms Trade
Mark Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether his Department has carried out investigations to determine whether export licences have been granted inappropriately for unmanned aerial vehicles used in the Gaza conflict. [257362]
Ian Pearson
[holding answer 24 February 2009]: The UK operates a licensing system built around pre-licensing risk assessment. All export licence applications are rigorously assessed on a case by case basis against the Consolidated
EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria and any other relevant announced policies. Assessments of applications take account of all available information at the time of the application, including information about the situation in the receiving country. HMG seeks advice on export licence applications, as appropriate, from its advisors in diplomatic posts overseas, including for Israel.
Licences will not be issued if any of the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria would be breached by doing so. However, the Government reassess licences that are in force if circumstances change significantly in the destination country and can revoke these licences if, in the light of those changed circumstances, they assesses that the export covered by the licence would breach any of the criteria.
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