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13 July 2009 : Column 183W—continued

Apprentices: Greater London

Mr. Evennett: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of apprenticeship places that have been lost in (a) the London Borough of Bexley and (b) Greater London as a result of the recession in the last 12 months. [283016]

Kevin Brennan: Data about the total number of apprentices made redundant are not currently held centrally. Arrangements are in place from 1 August 2009 onwards to record the number of apprentices who are made redundant. Working with the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) we have established a matching service to help apprentices at risk of redundancy to find alternative employment and to complete their apprenticeship. More generally, providers and the LSC have procedures to advise and relocate apprentices, in cases where providers or employers fail, to help ensure that they are able to continue in work and complete their apprenticeship. The £140 million package announced by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister for an additional 35,000 apprenticeship places will help fund new provision in both the public sector and private sector, and will extend the opportunities available to people facing redundancy.

Aspire Fund

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many applications for funding have been made to the Aspire fund since its creation; and what proportion of (a) successful and (b) unsuccessful applications made to the fund were from female entrepreneurs. [253634]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Since the launch of the Aspire Fund on 19 November the fund has received around 80 general enquiries and 57 specific approaches for investment.

The Aspire Investment Committee has made two offers, both accepted, which are expected to complete by the end of June and early July, totalling £850,000.


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There are seven further deals under active consideration totalling around £3.4 million of investment.

All of the 57 approaches have related to businesses where the founder or co-founder is female or a significant proportion of the senior management team are female.

British Airways

Mr. Amess: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on what dates the Secretary of State met representatives of British Airways since June 2007; what issues were discussed; who attended each meeting; whether a record of each meeting was kept; and if he will make a statement. [269842]

Mr. McFadden: The then Secretary of State, my right hon. Friend the Member for Barrow and Furness (Mr. Hutton), met with Willie Walsh (chief executive) and Maria De Cunha (director, Government Affairs), on 19 June 2008; and my noble Friend the Secretary of State met with them on 9 December 2008. They discussed a range of issues facing British Airways and the aviation industry.

Broadband

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the likelihood of every home in Britain having access to 2MB broadband by 2012. [278699]

Mr. McFadden: It is the Government's intention that all households will be able to have access to a broadband connection capable of delivering at least 2 Mbps by 2012. The Digital Britain White Paper published on 16 June confirmed the Government's commitment to providing universal broadband access that can deliver at least 2 Mbps to virtually all UK homes and businesses by 2012.

Mr. Hunt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps have been taken by the Government to help implement the Community Broadband Network's proposals for an umbrella body for local and community broadband networks. [279095]

Mr. McFadden [holding answer 11 June 2009]: The Government have held several discussions with the Community Broadband Network (CBN) and set out in the Digital Britain Report, published on 16 June, how they will take forward this action.

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding his Department plans to raise from the private sector before 2012 to fund universal broadband commitment of two megabits per second. [282619]

Mr. McFadden: Government are committing an anticipated £200 million of public funds to deliver the Universal Service Commitment. It is envisaged that the remainder of the costs will be met from the private
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sector through in-kind contributions, competitive commercial pricing through tender contract and design, and contributions from other public sector organisations. It is impossible at this stage to determine what the total cost may be. The finer details will be looked at by the proposed Network Design and Procurement Group.

Broadband: Essex

Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent estimate he has made of the proportion of households without access to broadband in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point. [282845]

Mr. McFadden: The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member.

Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Broadband: Rural Areas

Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) what recent estimate he has made of the number of people living in remote rural areas of (a) the Vale of York, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) England who have access to broadband. [286234]

(2) what proportion of households in rural areas in (a) the Vale of York, (b) North Yorkshire and (c) England have access to (i) a digital subscriber line (DSL) at speeds of at least 512 kBits/s and (ii) cable broadband services of at least 2Mbps. [286589]

Mr. McFadden: The matter raised is the responsibility of the independent regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), which is accountable to Parliament rather than Ministers. Accordingly, I have asked the chief executive of Ofcom to reply directly to the hon. Member. Copies of the chief executive's letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.

Building Britain's Future

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to paragraph 36 of Building Britain's Future, Cm 7654, which Department will sponsor the proposed new Infrastructure UK advisory body. [283955]

Mr. Byrne: I have been asked to reply.

The development of Infrastructure UK will be led by Lord Davies of Abersoch, reporting to the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the First Secretary of State. It will be supported by a joint HM Treasury/Department for Business, Innovation, and Skills secretariat.

Business

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will estimate the cost to businesses of compliance with (a) EU and (b) UK regulations in 2009-10 to date. [281426]


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Ian Lucas: The costs to business from new regulations are included in published Impact Assessments which can be accessed at:

Developing robust estimates of the costs to business of complying with all existing regulations would involve disproportionate cost.

Business: Government Assistance

Mr. Weir: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many applications for the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme have been (a) received and (b) approved; [265951]

(2) how many successful applications for the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme have been taken up by businesses. [265952]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Since its launch on 14 January 2009 the Enterprise Finance Guarantee has over £573 million of eligible applications from 5,090 firms that have been granted, are being processed or assessed. 3,697 businesses have been offered loans totalling £364.33 million.

Mr. Cox: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what guidance his Department has issued to lenders consequent upon the extension of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme to agricultural businesses. [270422]

Ms Rosie Winterton: Revised guidance was incorporated into the web portal used by lenders to determine eligibility and guidance issued to lenders via Capital for Enterprise Ltd (CfEL). Additionally, details are on the BIS website at

and are shared with the regional development agencies and Business Link.

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many applications have been made to the Capital for Enterprise Fund; and how many of these have met the eligibility criteria. [280005]

Ms Rosie Winterton: As from 11 June 2009, the Capital for Enterprise Fund has received 459 formal inquiries. From these 169 have been rejected on the basis of ineligibility. 278 of these applications fit broad eligibility criteria subject to further information and are under consideration. 12 of the applications meet all eligibility criteria and offers have been made totalling £12.4 million.

Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what support his Department is providing to small and medium-sized businesses in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point. [280226]

Ms Rosie Winterton: East of England Development Agency provides an integrated package of business support, accessible through Business Link; key examples for Essex and Castle Point are:


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On 14 January 2009 we launched the Real Help Now for Business measures to support businesses in the current economic climate. These include useful information, advice and tools to help businesses with staff, cash flow and access finance measures, such as:

The £1.3 billion Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) scheme supports bank lending, up to £1 million, to viable small businesses which, due to the current economic downturn, are struggling to secure the finance they need through normal, commercial lending.

EFG data are available at district and county level and as at 24 June, Essex county offered 92 loans with a total value of £8.39 million of which 58 have been drawn with a total value of £5.81 million

Included in this total is Castle Point. Nine loans were offered with a total value of £977,000 of which six loans have been drawn with a total value of £899,000.

In addition to the above there are the unitary authorities of Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock. These have an additional 20 loans offered with a value of 1.12million of which 13 loans have been drawn with a total value of £866,000.

Capital for Enterprise Fund (CfEL) announced in PBR 2008 as a £50 million debt for equity fund, this now provides £75 million of equity, made up £50 million of Government funds and an additional £25 million from high street banks. The fund provides equity and quasi-equity of £250,000 to £2 million for companies under the EU SME definition, ie 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 the banks. Data for the CfEL are only available at regional level at present.

The Working Capital Scheme which (though not available to business to apply for) enables participating lenders to increase the amount of working capital they can make available to businesses with a turnover of up to £500 million.

As part of the Real Help offered to businesses, they could undertake a "Health Check" (an impartial and
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objective assessment of business performance to identify; key strengths, prioritising areas for improvement and highlighting business opportunities) either on-line or with a Business Link adviser. Since the end of October 2008, over 57,000 businesses have undertaken a "Health Check" with more than 5,400 benefiting in the East of England.

Further details of the Real Help for Business finance measures and the wide range of information, advice and tools are available via

Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent steps his Department has taken to assist (a) small, (b) medium-sized and (c) large businesses in Peterborough constituency. [281718]

Ms Rosie Winterton: East of England Development Agency supports businesses in Peterborough in a number of ways and has highlighted key examples as follows:

Margaret Moran: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many employers in (a) England and (b) Luton sought advice on redundancy issues from his Department and its predecessors in (i) the latest period for which figures are available and (ii) the same period 12 months previously. [282201]


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