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21 July 2009 : Column 1739W—continued
Parliamentary Questions: Government Responses
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when the Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Consumer Affairs plans to respond to question 245130, tabled by the hon. Member for Torbay on 17 December 2008, on correspondence on sales of replica hand grenades. [271616]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 30 April 2009]: I am responding to the hon. Member today.
Pleural Plaques
Mr. Clapham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate his Department made of its potential liabilities arising from compensation claims from those with pleural plaques in advance of the House of Lords judgment on pleural plaques compensation of October 2007. [284308]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 6 July 2009]: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (then the Department for Trade and Industry) had estimated potential liabilities of £22.5 million in relation to British Shipbuilder-related cases of plural plaques. This was shown in the Department's Resource Accounts 2006-07 as a contingent liability.
Post Offices
Andrew George: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many post office branches have closed in each network change plan area following adoption of the network change plan for that area. [288206]
Mr. McFadden: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member. Copies of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Post Offices: Nottinghamshire
John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many post office branches there were in Nottinghamshire in each of the last 30 years. [286831]
Mr. McFadden: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Post Offices: Wales
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many Post Office branches in each constituency in Wales have closed in each year since 1997; and how many such branches have been replaced by Outreach services. [288865]
Mr. McFadden: This is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of people in each constituency in Wales who lived further than two kilometres from a post office in each of the last five years. [288873]
Mr. McFadden: Compliance with the access criteria is an operational matter for Post Office Ltd. (POL). I have therefore asked Alan Cook, managing director of POL, to reply direct to the hon. Member.
Copies of the letter will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Postal Services
Mr. Watson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many Royal Mail post boxes are located by reference to a (a) postcode and (b) grid reference. [284605]
Mr. McFadden: This is an operational matter for Royal Mail. I have therefore asked the chief executive, Adam Crozier, to reply direct to the hon. Member. Copies of the letter will be place in the Libraries of the House.
Mr. McLoughlin: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the quality of postal services in remote rural areas compared to those in towns and cities. [286410]
Mr. McFadden: Postcomm, the industry regulator, monitors Royal Mail's quality of service performance in all postcode areas on a quarterly basis. Postcomm also commissions an annual survey of residential and small and medium-sized enterprise customers, which involves asking questions of customers in rural and deep rural areas about their use of mail services and how satisfied they are as senders and recipients of mail.
In the latest 2008 survey, all respondents were asked to rate their overall satisfaction with Royal Mail on a scale of one to 10 (10 representing extremely satisfied and one extremely dissatisfied). The total sample gave Royal Mail a mean score of 8.02. A breakdown of the sample showed that deep rural customers gave Royal Mail a higher mean score of 8.47.
More information can be found on Postcomm's website:
Publicity: Finance
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills spent on management of its corporate identity. [289080]
Mr. McFadden: In 2007-08 the Department spent an estimated £38,759.49 on managing its corporate identity. This includes development of the logo, branding guidelines, signposts, display panels and stationery.
Redundancy
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many employers in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point sought advice on redundancy issues from his Department in (i) the latest period for which figures are available and (ii) the same period 12 months previously. [284951]
Mr. McFadden: Employers are able to seek advice on redundancy issues from my Department via the Business Link helpline and the website, the ACAS helpline and the Redundancy payments Service helpline. The available figures are set out in the following table, except for calls to the Redundancy Payments Service helpline, which are not categorised or recorded by group:
Regulation
John Penrose: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many of the 106 regulatory conflicts identified by the Better Regulation Executive in the last financial year have been resolved; and what timetable has been set for resolving the remainder. [285864]
Ian Lucas: 106 of the 270 suggestions received on the Government's better regulation website
in 2008-09 were classified by the members of the public submitting the ideas as involving a "conflict in regulations". On close examination these may, or may not, involve actual regulatory conflicts.
Each idea submitted is considered individually by the relevant Government Department or Departments and an official response is sent to the originator and published on the website within 90 days. Data are not held centrally on which of the ideas classified by the originators as regulatory conflicts are actual regulatory conflicts and this information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Royal Mail
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans he has for the future ownership of Royal Mail; and if he will make a statement. [284702]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 7 July 2009]: Market conditions have made it impossible to conclude the process to identify a partner on terms that we can be confident would secure value for the taxpayer.
There is therefore no prospect in current circumstances of achieving the objectives of the Postal Services Bill. When market conditions change we will return to the issue.
We remain convinced that Hooper's combined package offers the best chance of securing the universal postal service while protecting Royal Mail pensions.
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the Electoral Commission's publication of registered donations to political parties in the first quarter of 2009, for what reason Royal Mail donated £3,000 to the Labour Party. [287357]
Mr. McFadden: This is a matter for Royal Mail but I understand from the company that as a part of its commercial activities, it has, over the last 12 months, made donations to all the major political parties in the form of sponsorship of receptions at their Scottish conferences.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations he has received on the working practices of the Royal Mail with specific reference to (a) their use of roads in rural and semi-rural areas, (b) access for vehicles to assist delivery, (c) payment of overtime and (d) arrangements to cover sick leave. [288023]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 20 July 2009]: Royal Mail working practices are operational matters for Royal Mail. My Department has not received specific representations on these issues.
Science and Technology Facilities Council: Finance
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills for what reasons the Science and Technology Facilities Council is (a) experiencing a budgetary shortfall and (b) planning a programme of funding delays and reductions for 2009-10. [278772]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 12 June 2009]: The science and technology facilities council continually adjusts and reprioritises its funding, for example to cover the adverse effect of exchange rate fluctuations on the level of its subscriptions to international organisations.
The STFC recently carried out such an exercise; its press notice of 25 June sets out the outcome of its most recent process of prioritisation.
Scientists: International Cooperation
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps the Government plan to take to use UK scientific expertise in support of the recommendation for a co-ordinated approach in the field of global weapons of mass destruction knowledge, proliferation and scientist engagements in the L'Aquila declaration of 9 July 2009. [287537]
Mr. Kidney: I have been asked to reply.
The Government contributed to and fully endorse the announcement made by the G8 at L'Aquila. The UK's commitment to the G8 Global Partnership Against the Spread of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction (launched at the G8 summit at Kananaskis in June 2002) is delivered by the UK's Global Threat Reduction Programme (GTRP). The Foreign and Commonwealth Office hold the overall policy lead for GTRP, but the nuclear and radiological components of the programme are managed by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). DECC's portfolio of GTRP programmes includes the Closed Nuclear Cities Partnership, which provided assistance to address the knowledge proliferation risks posed by unemployed or under-employed nuclear weapons scientists and technicians in closed nuclear cities in Russia and various Institutes of Nuclear Physics in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Georgia and Belarus.
This UK collaborative programme draws on UK scientific and technical expertise in both the public and private sector and provides:
finance for commercial civil sector projects;
training for personnel including study tours to share the UK's experiences of nuclear industry, defence industry downsizing and restructuring of Government funded laboratories to commercialise research and development and create "spin-out" businesses;
assistance in the establishment of commercial businesses with Russian etc. and Western foreign enterprises;
support to business development agencies and commercialisation units for sustainable economic development in the Closed Nuclear Cities and various Institutes of Nuclear Physics.
The Ministry of Defence, which manages the chemical and biological parts of GTRP, has a small but developing programme of redirection and engagement in the biological sciences in Former Soviet Union countries and elsewhere which engages world class UK scientific expertise from the Health Protection Agency, Veterinary Laboratory Agency, Food and Environment Research Agency and other such bodies.
Further details of these programmes are contained in the Global Threat Reduction Programme Annual Report which is available in the House Library and available from:
Small Businesses: Staffordshire
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what support his Department has offered to small businesses in (a) Tamworth constituency and (b) Staffordshire during the economic downturn. [270234]
Ms Rosie Winterton:
The Government are committed to ensuring that a comprehensive range of assistance is available to businesses affected by the economic downturn. The support available includes a package of schemes to address the cash flow, credit and capital needs of small businesses under the Real Help for Business campaign. This includes Government guaranteed lending under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme as well as loan funding from the Advantage Transition Bridge Fund which is administered by Advantage West Midlands (AWM). AWM also administers other schemes providing
financial support for eligible firms including the Grant for Business Investment and the Grant for Research and Development.
Details of funding provided to businesses in Tamworth and Staffordshire under national initiatives are not available. Financial support provided to businesses in Staffordshire by AWM over the last six months is as follows:
(i) Eight businesses have received offers of Grant for Business Investment totalling £564,671;
(ii) Three businesses have received offers of Grant for Research and Development totalling £327,880;
(iii) 11 businesses have received loans from Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) totalling £295,000;
(iv) Six businesses have received offers of loans totalling £510,000 from the Advantage Transition Bridge Fund;
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