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4 Nov 2009 : Column 1070W—continued
Tenancy Deposit Solutions
Grant Shapps: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government how much his Department paid to Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd in each of the last five years. [297728]
John Healey: The Department has not provided any financial support to Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd. in any of the last five years.
Working Neighbourhoods Fund
John Hemming: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what funding his Department expects to make available to local authorities in England from the Working Neighbourhoods Fund in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11 and (c) 2011-12. [297151]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The Working Neighbourhoods Fund is paid through Area Based Grant, indicative announcements have been made for the 2008-09 to 2010-11 spending period. £507,800,000 has been allocated for 2009-10, and the indicative settlement for 2010-11 is £507,900,000. We expect to confirm what funding is available for 2010-11 in December, alongside the Local Government Finance Settlement. No decision has been made about Working Neighbourhoods Fund beyond 2010-11.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Business Council for Britain
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the achievements of the Business Council for Britain against its objectives. [295909]
Ian Lucas: The Business Council for Britain was established by the Prime Minister to ensure that the Government focuses on the areas where it will make the greatest benefit to the business environment and to assist the Government in putting in place the right strategy to enable business to compete in the global economy.
The Business Council continues to operate as a private sounding board for Government and provides a valuable insight into the current cross-cutting challenges and opportunities, highlighting where the links need to be made in order to drive a competitive UK economy.
Business: Government Assistance
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many small businesses in Coventry have applied for financial assistance under (a) the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme and (b) the Capital Enterprise scheme; and how many such applications were successful. [297389]
Ian Lucas: Under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, as of 28 October, 19 businesses in Coventry have been offered loans totalling £2.4 million. Businesses may apply for a loan from any one of the participating lenders who will assess which form of lending, including the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, is most appropriate. We do not hold figures for those businesses which are instead offered a normal commercial loan, or are rejected for failing to meet the lender's commercial criteria.
Capital for Enterprise Fund (CfEF) activity data on enquiries and deal flow is collected on a national and regional basis and is not available for reporting at a sub regional basis. As from 28 October CfEF received
78 enquiries from businesses in the West Midlands seeking investment to the value of £76.9 million. While no investments have been made so far in this region, one business has been offered investment totalling £1.5 million and 11 propositions are under active consideration with a value of £13.9 million. The remaining enquiries are either being considered subject to further information to be supplied by the applicant or have been rejected or withdrawn.
Companies Act 2006
John Penrose: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps were taken to enable Companies House to manage the demand for electronic incorporations following the coming into force of the relevant provisions of the Companies Act 2006 on 1 October 2009. [296446]
Ian Lucas: All Companies House operational processes, including electronic incorporations, required to support the implementation of the Companies Act 2006, were subject to the same programme disciplines. Processes were reviewed, redesigned as necessary within the programme, and then quality assured by the relevant operational areas. The computer system changes required to support the revised operational processes were designed, built and subjected to a number of testing cycles. Staff were trained to undertake the new processes and then had practice sessions to reinforce the training they had received. In addition staff were trained in a number of processes to allow resources to be redeployed into areas experiencing high demand. A communications programme, in collaboration with the Department of Business Skills and Innovation, was run over the last two years to inform customers of the changes coming into force and how they would be affected.
Companies: Complaints
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many complaints Companies House received in respect of companies registered with it in each of the last four years. [295903]
Ian Lucas: The number of complaints received by Companies House on technical offences in respect of companies registered in each of the last four years is as follows.
| Number | |
| (1)Up until October | |
Copyright: Internet
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent assessment is of the effectiveness of (a) bandwidth capping and (b) temporary internet account suspension in preventing illegal music file sharing. [296348]
Ian Lucas: Both measures are options which could be used to combat unlawful file-sharing of music files. The effectiveness of (a) bandwidth capping would depend on the level of the cap imposed and the aim would be to impose such a level as to severely restrict such activity without unduly impacting on other legitimate internet activities. Temporary account suspension (b) would block all file-sharing. However it would also prevent access to all internet functions and as such is a serious step which would only be used against the most serious infringers.
It should be noted that this is a fast changing area of technology and before considering introducing any such measure, we would seek up-to-date advice from Ofcom as to their effectiveness.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent assessment is of the likely effect on internet accounts which have been used to unlawfully file share copyrighted material of the threat of temporary account suspension. [296349]
Ian Lucas: The suspension of an internet account is a possible option that might be employed against those subscribers who have been identified as persistently file-sharing material in breach of copyright. There is a mass of industry survey evidence which shows that most subscribers would cease file-sharing activity if they received warning letters backed up with the threat of further enforcement action. Enforcement action in the form of account suspension represents a real, effective and credible deterrent. However it would also block legitimate internet activities and as such is a serious step which would only be used against the most serious infringers.
It should be noted that this is a fast changing area of technology and social behaviour and before considering the introduction of such a measure, we would seek up-to-date advice from Ofcom.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent assessment is of the likely effect on consumers of a reduction in the level of unlawful peer-to-peer file sharing on the internet. [296359]
Ian Lucas: File-sharing is an activity which requires large amounts of internet bandwidth. Many ISPs already employ traffic management techniques to limit bandwidth-hungry applications at peak times to optimise the performance of their networks.
Any significant reduction in unlawful file-sharing activity could therefore improve average broadband speeds.
A reduction in unlawful file-sharing will be the result of enforcement, education and new commercial deals. We would therefore expect a greater number legal content offers to become available to consumers thereby increasing choice.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent assessment is of the likely costs to internet service providers of compliance with the obligations set out in the Digital Britain report to reduce unlawful file sharing on their networks. [296372]
Ian Lucas: The most recent assessment of the likely costs to internet service providers was contained in the Government's consultation on P2P file-sharing issued on 16 June 2009.
The impact assessment calculated the likely costs to ISPs to be between £290-500 million over a 10 year period. This was set against likely benefits in the region of £1.2-1.4 billion.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent steps he has taken to obtain assessments from internet service providers of the likely cost to them of compliance with obligations set out in the Digital Britain report to reduce unlawful file sharing on their networks. [296373]
Ian Lucas: We have held two consultations (July 2008 and June 2009) on possible action to tackle unlawful P2P file-sharing. Both consultations contained impact assessments and both formally asked all parties, including ISPs, for further information on the likely costs that would result. In particular the most recent consultation asked for estimates of the likely cost of the obligations proposed. This consultation closed on 29 September 2009.
More informally we have been in constant contact with all stakeholders including ISPs over the last two years and have made it clear throughout that we welcome additional and updated information on costs.
Departmental Manpower
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many staff were allocated to defence-related work in each of the last four years. [295050]
Ian Lucas: Since 2007, BIS (and its predecessors) has had three full-time staff engaged on defence industrial policy and relationship management of companies in the defence sector. In 2006, there were five full-time posts.
The Ministry of Defence's former Defence Export Service's Organisation (DESO) transferred to BIS on 1 April 2008 to form UK Trade and Investment's Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI-DSO). This focuses on promoting UK defence exports and employs 152 staff.
Further Education
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations he has received from the further education sector on the use of the title of college. [297089]
Ian Lucas: In the last six months, the only representations received from the further education sector have been two letters from the chief executive of the Association of Colleges on behalf of its members.
Internet
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) what his most recent assessment is of the proportion of the UK's internet traffic that is peer-to-peer; [296351]
(2) what his most recent assessment is of the proportion of network traffic carried by the main domestic internet service providers that is illegal peer-to-peer. [296352]
Ian Lucas: No such assessment has been made. This would require all ISPs to have the necessary technical ability to examine the contents of network traffic and to compare the contents against a registered content database to establish the legality of the traffic. Currently UK ISPS do not have such a capability.
In turn, HM Government cannot require them to monitor internet traffic in this way as such a general requirement would run counter to the eCommerce Directive.
Motor Vehicles: Manufacturing Industries
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many cars had been purchased under the car scrappage scheme in (a) Chorley, (b) Lancashire and (c) the North West at the latest date for which figures are available. [296720]
Ian Lucas: Using data based on the locations of dealerships and data for scrappage transactions which have been completed and vehicles delivered, there have been 23,864 completed scrappage transactions in the North West, 3,752 in Lancashire and 142 in Chorley.
Video Games
Philip Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the monetary value of (a) exports of UK-produced video games and (b) video game imports to the UK in each year since 2001. [295763]
Ian Lucas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 26 October 2009, Official Report, column 133W.
Children, Schools and Families
Departmental Marketing
Mr. Laws: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what his Department's budget for publicity and advertising was in (a) 2007-08 and (b) 2008-09; and if he will make a statement. [293394]
Ms Diana R. Johnson: The Department's publicity and advertising budgets for the two years are contained in the following table.
| Total (£) | |
GCE A-Level: Disadvantaged
Michael Gove: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many pupils on free school meals were awarded a grade A in A Level history in 2008. [293607]
Ms Diana R. Johnson [holding answer 16 October 2009]: 52 (10.3 per cent. of those entered) pupils eligible for free school meals achieved a grade A in A-level history in 2008.
This figure relates to 16 to 18-year-olds (age at start of academic year, i.e. 31 August 2007) in all maintained schools.
Sixth Form Education: Finance
Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when his Department was first informed by the Learning and Skills Council of the projected reduction in funding for 16 to 19 year old education for 2009-10; and if he will make a statement. [271205]
Mr. Iain Wright: We worked across Government to identify additional funding for the recent surge in demand for education and training. Thanks to the £655 million funding announcement in the Budget, we will be able to fund learning for an additional 54,500 young people each year for 2009/10 and 2010/11. This additional investment will secure the learning places required to help meet the September guarantee of a suitable learning place for every 16 to 18-year-old who wants one.
This will mean that we have funding for at least 1,550,000 learners for 2009/10 and 2010/11, the highest number of young people in learning that this country has ever seen.
We were quickly able to reassure school and college leaders who had previously feared their financial allocations would not fund their growth in the number of young people wanting to continue learning.
It will also mean that we were able to fund a further 20,000 young people who had not made their choice of learning place earlier in the year. We have recently announced an additional allocation for providers to deal with further over recruitment that has become apparent this September/October. Details of the latter will be announced shortly.
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