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24 Nov 2009 : Column 75W—continued
Insolvency: Fees and Charges
Mr. Weir: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether his Department plans to set a cap on the fees charged by insolvency practitioners. [300679]
Ian Lucas: I have no plans to set a cap on the fees charged by insolvency practitioners, which are properly a matter for the creditors or the court.
However, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) confirmed on 12 November that they are to undertake a market study into the corporate insolvency market which may include analysis of the level of fees charged by insolvency practitioners as insolvency office-holders.
The Government believe that it is particularly important at this point in the downturn that creditors and employees who lose their jobs through insolvency have confidence that the fees charged by insolvency practitioners represent good value for the very important work they do and I look forward with interest to the outcome of the study announced by the Office of Fair Trading.
Students: Finance
Annette Brooke: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent estimate is of the number of applications for finance made to Student Finance England which are awaiting decision; and if he will make a statement. [300917]
Mr. Lammy: The Student Loans Company has released figures to show the levels of processing and payment of Student Support in England for the 2009/10 academic year. The information is available on the Student Loans Company website and includes information, under "application status", on "applications currently being processed" and "further information required from student/sponsors".
Annette Brooke: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the average time taken to process applications for finance made to Student Finance England for the 2009-10 academic year; and if he will make a statement. [300918]
Mr. Lammy: I am informed by the SLC that, for those Student Finance England applications for both new students and those returning to University which had been approved by 1 November 2009, the average number of days from the date the applications were submitted to the date they were approved was 31 days.
Annette Brooke: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations he has received on the length of time for which Student Finance England has retained the passports of applicants for funding; and if he will make a statement. [300919]
Mr. Lammy: I have received two representations from applicants of Student Finance England complaining that passports had not yet been returned. Both were advised on the reasons for the delay and have now had their passports returned.
Students: Loans
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the merits of increasing the salary threshold at which people are required to make payments towards their student loans. [301475]
Mr. Lammy: The repayment threshold is currently £15,000. The threshold is agreed between my Department and the Devolved Administrations. Early this year, the decision to raise the threshold from April 2010 by inflation was cancelled because the relevant RPI rate was negative, meaning the threshold would have been reduced and borrowers would have had to pay more. Instead the threshold was frozen at £15,000 for a further 12 months. We will be considering the threshold for April 2011 early in the new year.
Telephone Services
Mark Hunter: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent estimate Ofcom has made of the average waiting time before speaking to a person when calling telephone numbers with (a) 0844, (b) 0845, (c) 0870 and (d) 0871 prefixes; and if he will make a statement. [300851]
Mr. Timms: 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.
Mark Hunter:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent estimate Ofcom has made of profit made by
operators of lines with numbers with (a) 0844, (b) 0845, (c) 0870 and (d) 0871 prefixes in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement. [300852]
Mr. Timms: 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.
Unemployment: Young People
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what proportion of people aged between 16 and 24 years were not in education, employment and training in (a) each year since 1992 and (b) the latest quarter for which figures are available. [300486]
Kevin Brennan: Table 1 shows the number and percentage of people aged 16 to 24(1) in England who are not in employment, education or training in quarter four of each year since 2000. Due to incomplete data, estimates are not available prior to 2000.
These estimates are from the Labour Force Survey and will include pregnant mothers, those caring for children or relatives, people with a disability or suffering from ill health, and those waiting for a course or job to start, including those on a gap year.
(1 )Age is based on academic age, which is defined as the age of the respondent at the preceding 31 August
| Table 1: Number and percentage of 16 to 24 years-olds not in employment, education or training | ||
| Number | Percentage (of all 16 to 24 years) | |
In the latest quarter available, Q3 2009, there were 1,082,000 (18 per cent.) people aged 16 to 24 not in employment, education and training compared with 973,000 in Quarter 3 of 2008. It must be noted that a direct comparison between consecutive quarters cannot be made as quarterly NEET estimates from the LFS display a strong seasonal pattern.
Estimates for quarter three are always considerably higher than in quarter 4 because of the number of young people who are either between courses or who have recently left education.
Estimates for every quarter since 2005 have been produced by the Department for Children Schools and Families and are available here: NEET quarterly brief
Work and Pensions
Jobcentres: Domestic Visits
Mr. Clappison: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what jobcentres she has visited since her appointment. [300300]
Jim Knight [holding answer 23 November 2009]: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State visited St. Marylebone Jobcentre (part of Central London District) on 8 June, Leith Jobcentre (part of Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders District) on 1 July, Westminster Jobcentre (part of central London District) on 21 October and Chelmsford Jobcentre (part of Essex District) on 16 November.
Northern Ireland
Departmental Rail Travel
Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on what date he last travelled by train in the course of his official duties. [301199]
Mr. Woodward: 12 November 2009.
Energy and Climate Change
Carbon Emissions: Buildings
Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what financial assistance his Department makes available to low-carbon building projects to help to improve their energy efficiency in (a) Milton Keynes and (b) England. [300711]
Joan Ruddock: Through Budget 2009, Government made available £25 million for community heating infrastructure in the UK. Of this, £20.96 million was made available for schemes in England (and is being administered by the Homes and Communities Agency on behalf of the Department for Communities and Local Government). Through this fund we have allocated £1.5 million to provide Milton Keynes with a new biomethane plant which, along with the city's planned anaerobic digestion plant, will power households with green energy by injecting biomethane gas into the regional gas network.
Support for low carbon building projects is also provided through the work of the Research Councils and the Technology Strategy Board, funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. The Technology Strategy Board has a significant programme of work relevant to this area under its Low Impact Buildings Innovation Platform.
In addition, my Department's policies also provide significant funding to support the retrofit of energy efficiency measures in existing homes, through programmes such as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (£3.2 billion over 2008-11), Warm Front (£950 million over 2008-11), and the Community Energy Saving Programme (£350 million over 2009-12). In the Low Carbon Transition Plan we committed to continuing the CERT programme for at least a further 21 months potentially driving a further £1.9 billion of investment before the end of 2012.
Christmas
Mr. Roger Williams:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many Christmas parties his Department plans to host in 2009; what has been budgeted for each such reception; what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) lamb, (b) beef, (c) chicken, (d) pork, (e) turkey, (f) other meats, (g)
vegetables, (h) fruit and (i) alcohol to be served at each such function which is produced in the UK; and if he will make a statement. [300876]
Joan Ruddock: The Department of Energy and Climate Change is not planning to host any Christmas parties in 2009.
Community Energy Savings Programme
Martin Horwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how much his Department plans to spend on the Community Energy Savings Programme in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12, (d) 2012-13 and (e) 2013-14; and what estimate he has made of the (i) proportion of such expenditure to be incurred in England, (ii) the carbon savings to be achieved, (iii) the number of properties affected and (iv) the number of jobs created from such expenditure in each year. [300477]
Joan Ruddock [holding answer 23 November 2009]: The Community Energy Savings Programme (CESP) is funded by an obligation on energy suppliers and generators. They are expected to install around £350 million worth of energy efficiency measures across GB in the CESP obligation period, from 1 September 2009 to December 2012. DECC does not fund the programme.
There are around 4,500 eligible CESP areas across GB, 3248 are in England. Within this constraint energy companies, working with local authorities and community groups, are free to choose where they deliver CESP. The programme is expected to deliver up to 100 projects across GB, benefiting c90,000 households and saving 2.9mtCO2 over the lifetime of the programme.
Given CESP's focus on delivering energy efficiency measures to hundreds of households in each particular area targeted we expect this to create business and employment opportunities. For example, the energy companies are currently assessing their options for delivering CESP including in the first instance recruiting staff where necessary and reviewing their supply chains to deliver the significant number of energy efficiency measures expected under CESP.
Departmental Assets
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what assets of his Department are planned to be sold in each year from 2009-10 to 2013-14; what the (a) description and (b) book value of each such asset is; what the expected revenue from each such sale is; and if he will make a statement. [300199]
Joan Ruddock: There are no current plans to sell any of the assets of the Department of Energy and Climate Change in any of the years from 2009-10 to 2013-14.
Departmental Food
Mr. Roger Williams: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the proportion of (a) lamb, (b) beef, (c) chicken, (d) pork, (e) turkey, (f) other meats, (g) vegetables and (h) fruit procured by his Department that was produced in the UK in the latest period for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [300178]
Joan Ruddock: A second report on the proportion of domestically produced food used by Government Departments and also supplied to hospitals and prisons under contracts negotiated by NHS Supply Chain and HM Prison Service was published in November 2008, covering the year from 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008. This report and the first one covering the previous year can be found at:
The report gives details of the proportion of individual meat, fruit and vegetable categories purchased.
DECC was established after the information in this report was collated, therefore the percentage of meat, fruit and vegetables procured domestically within the estate currently occupied by DECC is included within the information provided on the attached report under DEFRA.
A third report is expected to be published shortly.
Departmental Pay
John Mason: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what (a) bonuses and (b) incentives have been paid to (i) consultants and (ii) contractors engaged by his Department in each of the last three years. [300639]
Joan Ruddock: The information is as follows:
(a) Bonuses to consultants or contractors are not paid by the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Contracts are let for a service at the market rate determined by competition.
(b) Incentives are not paid to consultants or contractors. Suppliers can benefit from early payment and shared reduction of cost. Incentives are used without a cost to the Department when milestones are included into contracts, allowing early payment to the supplier as they are paid on completion of milestones. This is an incentive to the supplier to finish the work on schedule. The Department also seeks innovative solutions from suppliers wherever possible. In some contracts this may allow a reduction of costs that can be shared between both the Department and the supplier.
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