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8 Jun 2009 : Column 763W—continued
Departmental Manpower
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many officials work in the (a) Further Education, (b) Higher Education and (c) Business and Skills division of his Department's Universities and Skills Directorate. [277990]
Mr. Simon: As of 31 March 2009, 457 officials work in the Department's Further Education and Skills and Higher Education Groups. This figure is taken from the TRENT payroll system.
Further Education and Skills Group (FESG): 310
Higher Education Group: 147.
This includes 13 staff working in the Joint Apprenticeship Unit, which reports to both DCSF and DIUS.
These two Groups are currently restructuring to become the Universities and Skills Group with a separate Directorate whose work will be to set up the new Skills Funding Agency. Adult Skills Directorate, which was part of FESG will be moving to join the new Business Innovation Group.
The staffing for the new groups is being finalised, until it is we cannot give final information on staff numbers.
Departmental Stationery
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of office supplies purchased by his Department were recycled products in the latest period for which figures are available. [275351]
Mr. McFadden: In the 12-month period up to 30 April 2009, 78.5 per cent. of all office supplies purchased by the then Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform were considered sustainable and annotated as such by our supplier.
Export Credit Guarantees
Mr. Bailey: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the reduction or removal of trade credit insurance on the exports of small and medium-sized enterprises. [273229]
Ian Pearson
[holding answer 13 May 2009]: The Government are aware of the problems that some businesses are facing in getting access to short-term export finance. ECGD is consulting on a new facility to support UK exporters by sharing risk with banks that confirm letters
of credit for UK exporters. The Export Credits Guarantee Department is also considering other potential interventions in the short-term market.
Graduates: Science
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Minister of State for Business, Innovation, and Skills how many and what proportion of postgraduate students studying (a) science, (b) technology, (c) engineering and (d) mathematics subjects took their first degree in the UK in (i) the period 1979 to 1984 and (ii) the latest period for which figures are available. [277816]
Mr. Lammy: Figures from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) show in the 2007/08 academic year 73,150 postgraduate enrolments listed their highest qualification on entry to their science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) postgraduate course as a first degree from a UK institution. This represents 41 per cent. of all STEM postgraduate enrolments whose highest qualification on entry is known. Equivalent figures for 1976 to 1980 are not available.
It is important to note that students who entered their STEM postgraduate course with a qualification higher than a first degree (i.e. those who already held a postgraduate qualification) will not be included in the above figures. A number of these students may have obtained a first degree from a UK institution.
Higher Education: Plymouth
Linda Gilroy: To ask the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many students resident in Plymouth, Sutton were in higher education in (a) 1997 and (b) the latest date for which information is available. [276682]
Mr. Lammy: The latest available information is shown in the following table. Figures for the 2008-09 academic year will be available in January 2010.
| Enrolments( 1) from Plymouth Sutton parliamentary constituency( 2) UK higher education institutions—Academic years 1997-98 and 2007-08 | |
| Academic year | Enrolments |
| (1) Covers undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled on full-time and part-time courses. (2) Parliamentary constituency is defined by full and valid home postcodes recorded on the HESA student record. Note: Figures are on a snapshot basis as at 1 December and are rounded to the nearest five. Source: Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA). | |
Insolvency: Greater London
Mr. Duncan Smith: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses in (a) Chingford and (b) Woodford Green have entered administration in the last 12 months. [264788]
Mr. McFadden: There were 4,820 administrations (Enterprise Act 2002) in England and Wales in 2008. Statistics covering business administrations are not currently available on a regional basis within England and Wales.
Metals: Prices
Mr. Holloway: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of recent reductions in scrap metal prices on the scrap metal industry and employment levels in that industry. [273341]
Ian Pearson: The recent fall in scrap metal prices is a global issue brought about by a sharp reduction in world metals demand and production, which has fed through to the entire supply chain for this sector including raw materials such as scrap metal. Official employment statistics do not identify numbers employed in the scrap metals industry, although the data do show that employment in basic metals production fell by 14.7 per cent. between January 2005 and February 2009.
Minimum Wage
Lynne Jones: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when he plans to announce the outcome of his Department's consultation on proposals to amend national minimum wage regulations in order to end the practice of tips being counted towards payment of the national minimum wage. [278166]
Mr. McFadden: The outcome of our consultation on tips and the national minimum wage was issued on 6 May 2009. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House and from BERR’s website:
Newsagents: Closures
Mr. Pelling: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what discussions the Secretary of State has had with ministerial colleagues on the effect of closures of local newsagents on local communities. [276026]
Ian Pearson: My noble Friend the Secretary of State and BIS Ministers meet regularly and discuss a wide range of issues.
Professional Bodies
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many complaints have been made against each recognised professional body in each of the last three years; and in how many such cases his Department and its predecessor intervened; [261586]
(2) how many individuals are licensed by each recognised professional body. [261588]
Ian Pearson:
The Department sometimes receives complaints about accounting firms and professional bodies. In these cases we refer the complainant to the relevant professional body or to the Professional Oversight Board as appropriate. The information on the numbers of complaints received by the Professional Oversight Board is contained in its Annual Report to my noble
Friend the Secretary of State, on pages 23 and 47. This is published on the website of the Financial Reporting Council
The information about the number of complaints in which the Department intervened is not held centrally and can be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
With regards to the question as to how many individuals are licensed by each recognised professional body, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform does not hold this information. The Director of the Professional Oversight Board of the Financial Reporting Council has informed us that he wrote to my hon. Friend on this matter on 19 March 2009.
Regulation
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will introduce legislation to replace the recognised professional bodies with a single statutory regulator. [263853]
Ian Pearson: The Government have no plans to replace the existing professional bodies. In 2002 Parliament set up the current regime, which gives the Financial Reporting Council and its operating bodies oversight over the recognised professional bodies. This is kept under review by the Government, but the Government have no evidence that this system is not working well.
Risk and Regulation Advisory Council: Expenditure
John Penrose: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what expenditure under which budgetary headings the Risk and Regulation Advisory Council incurred on (a) forum events, (b) research, (c) publishing and (d) public relations in 2008-09; and what sums under which budgetary headings the Council budgeted for (i) secretarial and (ii) administrative costs in that year. [272073]
Ian Pearson: The Risk and Regulation Advisory Council (RRAC) support team is co-located with the Operational Research Unit in the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, and they have operated from mid-financial year 2008-09 as a single unit for accounting purposes. The following figures are the most detailed currently available for the combined unit, and should be considered estimates prior to the publication of BERR final accounts for 2008-09.
Public Relations and Marketing: £114,000—which includes forum events, publishing and public relations.
Research: £125,000— (b) research.
I also refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 2 April 2009, Official Report, column 1448W.
Students: Employment
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he has made a recent estimate of the proportion of students in further education who supplement their student loans with a part-time job. [278016]
Mr. Lammy: The Student Income and Expenditure Survey 2007/8, published on the 21 April 2009, is a comprehensive study of student income, expenditure, borrowing and debt. It showed that 53 per cent. of all English domiciled full-time undergraduate students undertook paid work at some time during the academic year—either during term-time, during the short vacations or both. For those undertaking such work, earnings over the academic year were on average £4,005 (after tax).
Justice
Climate Change
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what steps his Department has taken to adapt to climate change in the last two years. [277643]
Mr. Wills: All Departments are actively involved in the cross-Government Adapting to Climate Change Programme, which aims to help society adapt to climate change. The role of the programme is to develop and provide a comprehensive evidence base including adaptation tools, to raise awareness of the need to adapt, to measure success and to work across Government at all levels to embed adaptation. Further details about the programme's work can be found at:
The steps the Ministry of Justice has taken to adapt to climate change in the last two years are publicised on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs website:
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what estimate he has made of his Department's potential gross (a) costs and (b) savings arising from its climate change adaptation measures in the next three years. [277718]
Mr. Wills: The Ministry of Justice is not yet at the stage where it can provide information on what estimate has been made of potential gross costs (a) savings and (b) arising from its climate change adaptation measures in the next three years.
It has, however, been shown in the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change that timely and well-targeted climate adaptation measures will yield benefits in excess of their costs. The main rationale for investment to address climate risk will be to reduce the UK's vulnerability to longer-term climate change impacts.
The Government are undertaking a Climate Change Risk Assessment and Economic Analysis, which will provide estimates of the costs and benefits of adaptation to the UK. This analysis will be presented to Parliament within three years of the Climate Change Act 2008 coming in to force.
Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008
Mr. Dunne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many (a) charges and (b) prosecutions there have been under the provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 of retailers suspected of selling tobacco to those aged under 18 years. [278284]
Maria Eagle: New retailer sanctions under the provisions of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 for the persistent sale of tobacco products to young people under the age of 18 years came into force on 1 April 2009.
Court proceedings data for 2009 will be available in the autumn of 2010.
Departmental Foreign Workers
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many people employed by his Department are Republic of Ireland nationals. [278109]
Mr. Wills: Information on the nationality of Ministry of Justice staff (including public sector Prison Service and National Offender Management Service Headquarters staff) is not held centrally and could be collected only at disproportionate cost.
The Ministry of Justice’s application packs contain information about nationality requirements and documentary evidence is rigorously checked at interview stage. At point of employment the Ministry of Justice ensures that the correct security checks and clearances are made.
Departmental Older Workers
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many members of staff aged over (a) 55 and (b) 65 years his Department employs. [278116]
Mr. Wills: On 30 April 2009 the Ministry of Justice employed (a) 14,314 staff over 55 years of age and (b) 801 staff over 65 years of age.
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