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31 Mar 2009 : Column 1176W—continued
Departmental Internet
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 12 February 2009, Official Report, columns 2288-9W, how many hits each of the websites maintained by his Department received in each of the last 12-months. [262835]
Mr. McFadden: In the period March 2008—February 2009 page views for the core BERR website:
| Date | Page views |
Other websites operated by the Department are not centrally managed. Information on visitor numbers for these sites is not centrally held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Lobbying
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether Ministers in his Department received representations from (a) Lord Moonie, (b) Lord Taylor of Blackburn, (c) Lord Snape and (d) Lord Truscott in the last seven months. [255244]
Departmental Lost Property
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform whether officials in his Department who have lost laptops that were the property of his Department in the last 12 months have been charged the full value of replacement. [266228]
Mr. McFadden: It is not this Department’s policy to charge its officials for accidental loss of equipment.
Departmental Public Appointments
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform which former (a) hon. Members who have left Parliament since 1997 and (b) Members of the House of Lords from each party have been appointed to positions on public bodies within his Department’s responsibility; and who made each appointment. [267540]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 27 March 2009]: This information is not held centrally. Information on board membership and remuneration are published in individual bodies’ annual reports and accounts.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many (a) staff and (b) ministerial away days were organised by his Department in each of the last five years; and what the cost of such events was in each year. [265109]
Mr. McFadden: Information about staff away days is not kept centrally and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
There was a ministerial away day in 2004 and a meeting of Ministers and senior officials in 2006.
Developing Countries: Overseas Companies
Greg Clark: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the UK's regulatory regime for corporate social responsibility for British companies operating in developing countries. [267353]
Ian Pearson: My Department has not undertaken a recent assessment. However, we expect UK companies operating overseas to abide by national law, to develop their own corporate responsibility policies and follow the relevant UK and international guidelines.
Hindalco Industries
Mrs. Gillan:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory
Reform what discussions (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have had with Hindalco Industries Ltd in the last six months on matters on which Hindalco Industries have been engaged to advise his Department. [264587]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 19 March 2009]: None.
Jaguar Land Rover: Job Creation
Mr. Hands: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many jobs he expects to be (a) safeguarded and (b) created by the £27 million made available to Jaguar Land Rover under the Grant for Business Investment Scheme; and whether his Department has sought undertakings from Jaguar Land Rover on the safeguarding and creation of jobs under the scheme. [265752]
Ian Pearson: The support of up to £27 million to be made available to Jaguar Land Rover under the Grant for Business Investment scheme is expected to help safeguard the existing 1,942 jobs at the Halewood facility and create an additional 229 manufacturing jobs, giving a total of 2,171 jobs by 2013. Payments under the scheme are made in instalments, typically over several years as jobs and capital expenditure targets are met. The support of up to £27 million, therefore, will be explicitly linked to the creation and maintenance of jobs at Halewood.
LDV: Finance
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what financial assistance his Department has provided to suppliers of the LDV Group. [264537]
Ian Pearson: Automotive manufacturers and suppliers with a turnover of at least £25 million recorded in their last published Report and Accounts and with a proposed investment of at least £5 million may in principle be eligible to apply for support under the Automotive Assistance programme. Automotive firms are also eligible for support from other Government programmes and details are available at:
Lord Truscott
Greg Clark: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on what dates (a) the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, (b) Ministers in his Department and (c) officials have met Lord Truscott since the latter ceased to be a Government Minister. [256943]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 23 February 2009]: My right hon. Friend the Member for Croydon, North (Malcolm Wicks), the then Energy Minister, met Lord Truscott once in February 2008.
Officials met Lord Truscott once in July 2008.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he plans to reply to the right hon. Member for North East Hampshire's letter of 26 November 2007 to the Lord Chancellor, transferred to his Department in December 2007, on his constituent, Miss Mollye Huddleston. [263229]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 12 March 2009]: I responded to the right hon. Member on 20 March.
Minimum Wage
Jon Cruddas: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what recent assessment he has made of the effects of the economic downturn on the staffing requirements of each of the national minimum wage compliance teams. [264354]
Mr. McFadden: Worker complaints and case loads for each of the national minimum wage compliance teams are closely and continually monitored. The teams continue to investigate 100 per cent. of cases passed to them and balance this with risk-assessed cases to maximise their enforcement effort. The Government are clear that the downturn should not be an excuse to deny people their basic employment rights including national minimum wage.
Motor Vehicles: Government Assistance
Mr. Ancram: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps he is taking to safeguard UK car manufacturing. [265438]
Ian Pearson: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Chorley (Mr. Hoyle) dated 12 March 2009, Official Report, column 707W.
Motor Vehicles: Small Businesses
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps his Department is taking to support small businesses which supply parts to the automotive industry. [265681]
Ian Pearson: I wrote to major automotive manufacturers and Tier 1 suppliers in December 2008 asking them to circulate a tailored note about support to their suppliers. A revised version of the note—including details of the Automotive Assistance Programme announced on 27 January and the Enterprise Finance Guarantee—was circulated on 16 March 2009. Copies will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Opposition
Charles Hendry:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what formal contacts there have been between
regional development agencies and each (a) Shadow Minister and (b) Liberal Democrat spokesperson on the policy areas where each have lead responsibility in the last six months. [266042]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 24 March 2009]: The Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) network is divided into a series of ‘lead roles’ whereby a certain RDA will assume responsibility for the wider network’s policy relationship with a particular Government Department. The following list shows formal contacts between RDAs with Shadow Ministers and Liberal Democrat spokesperson in the last six months.
East of England Development Agency—(lead for Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
James Paice
Lord Taylor of Holbeach
South West Development Agency—(lead for Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Tobias Ellwood
Don Foster
Performing Arts
John Mason: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform pursuant to the answer of 25 March 2009, Official Report, column 528W, on performing arts, what expenditure his Department and its predecessor incurred in engaging (a) actors, (b) musicians and (c) other performers in each of the last five years, broken down by (i) event and (ii) initiative. [268232]
Mr. McFadden: This information is not held centrally or readily disaggregated from contracted expenditure with suppliers. It could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
Postal Services
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what meetings (a) the Secretary of State and (b) Ministers in his Department have had with (i) TNT, (ii) DHL, (iii) UPS, (iv) FedEx and (v) the Communication Workers' Union since 3 October 2008. [266344]
Mr. McFadden: The Secretary of State has met the CWU on:
22 October 2008
19 December 2008
13 January 2009
9 February 2009
and TNT on 9 December 2008 and 30 January 2009.
I met TNT on 18 March 2009 and the CWU on 22 October 2008, 2 February 2009 and 23 February 2009.
Shriti Vadera met TNT on 17 March.
Royal Mail
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many postal operators have expressed interest in forming a strategic partnership with Royal Mail to date. [267048]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 27 March 2009]: Government have received a number of expressions of interest regarding a partnership with Royal Mail. At this stage of the process only TNT has made their interest public.
Science and Innovation: Expenditure
Adam Afriyie:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory
Reform pursuant to the answer of 2 March 2009, Official Report, column 1342W, on business: Government assistance, how much was spent by each regional development agency on science and innovation in each year since 1999. [263105]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 20 March 2009]: The following table shows expenditure by each RDA on science and innovation since 2001-02. The RDAs retain records of the last seven years. To provide records before this period will incur disproportionate costs.
The figures are based on the proportion of expenditure that was directly attributable to science or innovation. The increase in spending from 2001-02 to 2002-03 onwards was due to the introduction of the single programme budget, which enabled RDAs to have more flexibility around investment decisions.
| RDAs expenditure on science and innovation | |||||||
| £ million | |||||||
| RDAs | 2001-02 | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
| (1 )Due to a change in accounting methods, data are unavailable before 2002. | |||||||
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