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1 Jun 2009 : Column 59W—continued
Industrial Health and Safety
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how much his Department spent on compliance with requirements of health and safety at work legislation in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [274550]
Ian Pearson: The information requested is not collated centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Logistics: Bankruptcy
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many logistics companies in each region were (a) declared bankrupt and (b) ceased trading in the first quarter of 2009. [276156]
Mr. Thomas: The information is as follows:
(a) Company insolvency statistics are not available centrally broken down by both region and industry sector. Further, the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) currently in use does not identify “logistics” as a composite industry grouping.
(b) Statistics on business closures are now published by the Office for National Statistics (also, previously, by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform). These are based on calendar years; the latest currently available covers 2007. The industry classification for these statistics is also the SIC, as for (a) above, so does not readily identify “logistics”.
Companies House Executive agency maintains the register of companies and also records routine and event-based information on registered companies, according to the Companies Act and related legislation. Again, industry is classified according to the SIC 2003.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he plans to respond to the letter from the right hon. Member for West Derbyshire of 14 January 2009 on the difficulties faced by a constituent’s business. [268707]
Mr. Thomas [holding answer 20 April 2009]: My right hon. Friend the Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs responded to the right hon. Member on 13 May 2009. I apologise for the delay which was caused by the current high volume of correspondence.
Steve Webb: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he plans to reply to the letter of 20 January 2009 from the hon. Member for Northavon, sent on behalf of Mr R Woolley of Yate, on the small business finance scheme. [269020]
Ian Pearson: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he plans to reply to the letter of 2 February 2009 from the hon. Member for Yeovil on links from the South West Regional Development Agency website; and if he will make a statement. [270068]
Mr. McFadden: I responded to the hon. Member on 1 April 2009.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Secretary of State plans to reply to the letter of 14 February 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on Mr. Smith, transferred to him by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. [271027]
Mr. Thomas: My right hon. Friend the Minister for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs responded to the letter from my right hon. Friend the Member for Manchester, Gorton on 2 May. I apologise for the delay which was caused by the current high volume of correspondence.
Mr. Burns: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he expects to reply to the letter of 27 February 2009 from the hon. Member for West Chelmsford on his constituent, Mr. Paul Cook. [271671]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 28 April 2009]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Mr. Baron: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he plans to reply to the letters of 26 February and 26 March 2009 from the hon. Member for Billericay on his constituent, Mr. Piechuta. [272324]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 5 May 2009]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Secretary of State plans to reply to the letter of 12 February 2009 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton on Mr. J. Parris. [273751]
Ian Pearson: I apologise to my right hon. Friend for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and my right hon. Friend will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State plans to reply to the correspondence from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 13 February 2009 on dormant companies. [273820]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 8 May 2009]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State plans to reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 5 March 2009 on funding for pubs. [273821]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 8 May 2009]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he will reply to the letters of 23 February and 30 March 2009 from the hon. Member for Forest of Dean on loan guarantees for small businesses, reference FD5310. [274689]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 12 May 2009]: Your letter of 23 February was not received by the Department but your letter of 30 March was.
I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Janet Anderson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he plans to reply to the letter of 6 April 2009 from the hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen sent on behalf of Northern Joinery Ltd. of Whitworth in Rossendale. [274801]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 12 May 2009]: I apologise to my hon. Friend for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and my hon. Friend will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
John Mason: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Secretary of State plans to respond to the letter of 20 February 2009 from the hon. Member for Glasgow East on the difficulties encountered by small businesses in Glasgow. [275151]
Ian Pearson: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business plans to respond to the letter from the right hon. Member for West Derbyshire of 6 February 2009, on his constituent’s business. [275835]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 15 May 2009]: I apologise to the right hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the right hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform when he will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire dated 3 March 2009, transferred from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, reference: 124365/SW, on information services. [275841]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 15 May 2009]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding, this is unacceptable and the hon. Member will receive a response from the relevant Minister shortly.
Royal Mail
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what the cost of employing consultants charged with the task of identifying suitable private sector partners for Royal Mail is; and if he will make a statement. [276902]
Mr. Thomas: The work on the partnership deal is on-going. It would not be appropriate to give an estimate of the cost of consultants’ fees at this stage, as this remains subject to a range of variable factors. These include the length of the process and the number of interested parties.
Government will of course make the expenditure on consultants available once the deal has been completed and the overall costs are known.
Telephone Services: Hearing Impaired
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform what steps Ofcom plans to take to enable deaf and hard of hearing people and sign language users to use the proposed pan-European 116 helpline numbers. [275432]
Ian Pearson [holding answer 14 May 2009]: Ofcom have recently moved to Stage Two of a comparative selection process for the first three harmonised, pan-European 116 numbers for services of social value. At this stage—in a detailed assessment of applicants—Ofcom will be looking at how the bidding organisations address equality and diversity issues in their own workplaces, and how they will address equality and diversity in both relationships with callers and in promoting the services they offer. Bidding service provider (SP)/communications provider (CP) partnerships will also be required at this stage of the scrutiny to present on how they will handle calls from non-English speakers and citizens who cannot communicate effectively through the spoken word. The selection advisory committee can also stipulate and monitor conditions attached to the allocation and use of the number that will ensure ease of accessibility for all potential users of the service.
Ofcom published a response to the public consultation on allocation and charging for 116 numbers in the UK—which included representations from the deaf, hard of hearing and sign language user communities. This response, including an Impact and Equality assessment, is available on their website. Separately, Ofcom has recently launched a consultation “Access and Inclusion” which commits “to ensuring that disabled people can
access communications services on an equivalent basis to others and propose to work to tackle the most critical issues that they face. This will include assessing the policy case for improving the existing text relay service”.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Air Conditioning
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many of his Department’s buildings are equipped with air conditioning systems with output greater than 250kW; how many of these systems have been inspected under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 since the Regulations came into force; and if he will place in the Library a copy of each inspection report. [272120]
Mr. Woodward: My Department has only one building equipped with an air conditioning system with output greater than 250 kW for which we are directly responsible. Under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 we are required to have this system inspected by 4 January 2010 and we intend to do so.
We will place a copy of the report in the Library when it is available.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how much has been spent by his Department on carrying out inspections of air conditioning systems within departmental buildings in accordance with the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007 since the Regulations came into force. [272125]
Mr. Woodward: To date nothing has been spent on carrying out inspections of our air conditioning systems in accordance with the regulations.
Under the Energy Performance of Buildings (Certificates and Inspections) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008, for all systems first put into service on or after 30 December 2008, the first inspection must have taken place within five years of the date when it was first put into service; for air-conditioning systems where the effective rated output is more than 250 kW the first inspection must happen by 4 January 2010; and for other air-conditioning systems where the effective rated output is not more than 250 kW the first inspection must happen by 4 January 2011. We fully intend to comply with all these deadlines.
Departmental Contracts
Bob Spink: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which services his Department has outsourced in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [274444]
Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Office and its agencies outsourced the following services which had previously been provided in-house in the Northern Ireland Office:
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