| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
21 July 2009 : Column 1730W—continued
Met Office
Nick Harvey: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what representations from private sector weather companies have been submitted to the Trading Funds review of the Met Office. [284855]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The operational efficiency programme and trading funds assessment teams have heard the views of over 20 private sector stakeholders, including customers, suppliers and competitors of the trading funds. These representations have related to both the Meteorological Office specifically but also often to trading funds in general and include meetings with private sector weather companies.
Nick Harvey: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the (a) terms of reference and (b) membership are of the Met Office Trading Funds Review team. [284856]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The HM Treasury operational efficiency programme (OEP) Ministry of Defence asset review team's terms of reference have been placed in the Library of the House.
This OEP review team comprises HM Treasury, Ministry of Defence, shareholder executive and senior management of the Meteorological Office.
Met Office: Cost Effectiveness
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether the Shareholder Executive plans to meet the Office of Fair Trading in relation to the Operational Efficiency Programme review of the Met Office. [284656]
Ms Rosie Winterton [holding answer 7 July 2009]: The Shareholder Executive works as part of the HM Treasury Operational Efficiency Programme Ministry of Defence Asset Review Team. There are no current plans to meet with the Office of Fair Trading in relation to the Operational Efficiency Programme review of the Met Office.
Minimum Wage: Publicity
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which locations the Minimum Wage Battle Bus visited in 2009; and on what dates those visits took place. [284149]
Mr. McFadden: The national minimum wage trailer tour began on 19 November 2008 and ended on 7 February 2009. Locations visited during the eight week campaign are as follows:
| Location | |
Money Laundering Regulations 2007
Robert Neill: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether any (a) impact and (b) small firms assessment has been produced in relation to the Office of Fair Trading's plans to require compulsory registration of all estate agents under the Money Laundering Regulations 2007. [286810]
Kevin Brennan: The Office of Fair Trading has been the anti-money laundering supervisory authority for estate agents since December 2007. As Her Majesty's Treasury had carried out a regulatory impact assessment before implementation of the Money Laundering Regulations 2007, the Office of Fair Trading did not produce a separate impact assessment or small firms' assessment for the registration of estate agents for money laundering purposes, when deciding to require compulsory registration. In deciding upon compulsory registration, the OFT was concerned to minimise the burdens on business and has framed the information requirements and registration fee accordingly.
Money Lenders
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) how many calls the national illegal money lender helpline has received from each region in each month since it was established; [286016]
(2) how many calls made to the national illegal money lender helpline have (a) resulted and (b) assisted in the arrest or prosecution of an illegal money lender in each month since its establishment; [286017]
(3) how many staff have been employed on the national illegal money lender helpline in each month since its establishment; [286018]
(4) how much funding has been (a) allocated and (b) spent on (i) establishing the national illegal money lender helpline and (ii) operating the helpline in each month since its establishment. [286019]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 13 July 2009]: Since 1 March 2009 to 30 June to 2009 the total number of calls received for all regions via the national 0300 555 2222 hotline was 516.
The total numbers of calls received by some of the IML teams has been filtered (f) to indicate the number of calls received that gave actionable intelligence. However, some of the teams have maintained regional numbers to ensure a golden thread ensues for previous poster and media campaigns:
| March | April | May | June | July | |
| (1) South East, North West, East of England, Yorkshire and Humberside | |||||
Of the 519 calls received by the national hotline number the following assisted in the arrest or proceeding to the prosecutions of illegal money lenders.
All calls are answered by enforcement officers already employed within the teams. No additional staff were employed to operate the national hotline number.
The national number is not a helpline but a hotline for victims to report a loan shark in confidence. The single national number was established to make it simpler to report loan sharking and to create greater connectivity between regions and increased cross-border operations. Therefore the only direct costs resulting from setting up and running the national hotline are
(a) the cost of installing the hotline number = £200; and
(b) the quarterly rental cost for the hotline number = £10.
The easily recognisable number itself was free. The geographical set-up was free.
Motor Vehicles: Manufacturing Industries
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the monetary value is of loans underwritten by the Automotive Assistance Programme which have been drawn down by businesses. [287037]
Ian Lucas: Projects in the pipeline seeking loan guarantees are worth at least £2.4 billion with total Government support sought of around £1.45 billion.
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2009, Official Report, column 989W, on motor vehicles: manufacturing industries, what estimate he has made of the maximum number of car purchases that can be funded by the £300 million allocated by his Department to the car scrappage scheme. [287588]
Ian Lucas: Under the scrappage scheme, the Government provide £1,000 per vehicle. Therefore, the maximum number of vehicles that could be funded would be 300,000. However, the total number will be slightly less than that since a small portion of the £300 million will be used to cover monitoring and administration costs.
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2009, Official Report, column 989W, on motor vehicles: manufacturing industries, how many of the 94,000 orders for new vehicles qualify for Government funding under the car scrappage scheme. [287600]
Ian Lucas: The figure for total orders under the scrappage scheme is adjusted each week to take account of any errors or cancellations in previous orders. Therefore, we anticipate that, subject to any future minor adjustments of this sort, all the orders would qualify for Government funding. Over 121,700 orders for new vehicles have now been taken.
Motorsport Development UK
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the findings were of the evaluation undertaken by GHK Consulting of the Learning Grid and other Motorsport Development UK initiatives; and whether he plans to publish the report. [287296]
Ian Lucas: An evaluation has been commissioned by the East Midlands Regional Development Agency (EMDA) and I am expecting to receive a copy of the final report shortly. I will consider the arrangements for publication when I have read the report.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |