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28 Jan 2010 : Column 1093W—continued
Departmental Video Conferencing
Gregory Barker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what process was involved in procuring the installation of video conferencing and telepresence facilities in Kingsgate House; and which companies were invited to take part in that process. [304481]
Mr. McFadden: The procurement and installation of the video conferencing and telepresence facilities when implemented in Kingsgate House were undertaken using an existing video conferencing contract the Department for Children, Schools and Families had in place at the time with British Telecom and no formal competition was therefore necessary.
Gregory Barker: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many video conferencing screens there are as part of the telepresence facilities in Kingsgate House. [304482]
Mr. McFadden: For the telepresence facilities only one large video conferencing screen is used.
Departmental Written Questions
David Simpson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what average time his Department took to answer questions for (a) ordinary written answer and (b) written answer on a named day in the last 12 months. [313655]
Mr. McFadden: The information requested cannot be obtained on either the Department's database system nor the Parliamentary Information Management System (PIMS) and could only be obtained by manual checking at disproportionate cost.
With effect from the current Session of Parliament, each department will provide the Procedure Committee with sessional statistics on the time taken to answer written questions. This implements recommendation 24 of the third report from the Procedure Committee, Session 2008-09.
Employee Engagement Review
Lorely Burt: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) what assistance his Department is providing to encourage implementation of the recommendations of the MacLeod review of employee engagement by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs); and whether his Department plans to provide funding for SMEs for such purposes after March 2010; [313920]
(2) whether his Department plans to provide funding for the implementation of the recommendations of the MacLeod review of employee engagement from the end of March 2010. [313921]
Mr. McFadden: The Department is currently implementing the recommendations from the MacLeod Review report 'Engaging for Success'. The Government have committed to implementation by March 2010.
Our objectives in implementing the MacLeod recommendations are to make the business case for
engagement; to provide practical support for businesses who wish to go down the engagement route; and to make that help as widely accessible as possible.
To that end, a campaign to raise awareness among businesses-in particular SMEs-of the benefits of adopting employee engagement practices was launched in the autumn-featuring regional and national media and events, and focused around a dedicated campaign website:
At the same time, we have been developing a range of "quick start" guides on engagement for businesses. Focused on the key themes from the MacLeod Report-Leadership; Engaging Managers; Employee Voice; and Organisational Integrity-these will be launched on the BusinessLink.gov website in March. We are working with other mainstream providers of advice and support to businesses-both inside and outside Government-to ensure that these guides reach as wide an audience as possible; and to guarantee that practical support and guidance on employee engagement remains readily available to employers in the future. More generally, the Department's support for SMEs will continue longer term through the guidance and tools on the Business Link.gov website, the Solutions for Business portfolio of business support products and its National Skills strategy.
Foreign Investment in UK
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of foreign direct investment into the UK was (a) in the electricity generation sector and (b) in Wales in the last 12 months; and how many of the companies making such investment received allocations from the UK Innovation Investment Fund. [314191]
Ian Lucas: Table 5.3 of the Office for National Statistics publication MA4 gave the flow of foreign direct investment into the United Kingdom in electricity, gas and water as £12.35 billion in 2007, about 13 per cent. of the total that year. These figures are due to be revised when estimates for 2008 are published on Thursday 4 February.
The ONS does not subdivide its foreign direct investment statistics between different parts of the UK. The Welsh Assembly Government commissioned an Empirical Investigation of Foreign Direct Investment in Wales from the University of Wales Swansea, and this can be read at:
http://wales.gov.uk/docs//dfm/research/090701foreign directinvestmenten.pdf
None of these businesses have received funding from UK Innovation Investment Fund (UKIIF). We expect UKIIF to begin investing in technology based businesses during the first quarter of 2010.
Higher Education: Finance
Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what funding his Department has provided for (a) teaching, (b) research and (c) staff development for (i) Newcastle and (ii) Northumbria universities since 2004-05. [314003]
Mr. Lammy: Funding made available to these universities by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Research Councils are as follows:
| £ | ||||
| Teaching grant (HEFCE) | Staff development (HEFCE) | Research grant (HEFCE) | Research Councils | |
| (1) This allocation from 2006-07 onwards is part of HEFCE's teaching grant and is not identified separately. | ||||
Insolvency
John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) the Insolvency Service and (b) administrators on the obligations to their creditors of successor companies to failed companies under pre-pack administration arrangements. [311751]
Ian Lucas: The Insolvency Service is an executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and has policy responsibility for insolvency matters. The Insolvency Service carries out the Secretary of State's function with regard to both the direct authorisation of insolvency practitioners and the regulation of the recognised professional bodies that authorise the vast majority of insolvency practitioners. The Department has therefore not had any direct liaison with administrators nor the recognised professional bodies on the issue of pre-packs as this has been undertaken by the Insolvency Service.
New disclosure requirements aimed at improving the transparency of pre-packaged administrations were introduced on 1 January 2009, in SIP (Statement of Insolvency Practice) 16. The Insolvency Service is examining all information received from insolvency practitioners in relation to disclosures made under SIP 16, and is working closely with the recognised professional bodies to improve insolvency practitioners' compliance with the SIP. A report on the first six months' operation of the SIP was published by the Insolvency Service in July 2009 and may be accessed through:
http://www.insolvency.gov.uk/insolvencyprofessionand legislation/policychange/sip16-final.pdf
John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps his Department has taken to assess the effects on small business creditors of the implementation of pre-pack administrations, with particular reference to (a) turnover and (b) numbers of jobs. [311756]
Ian Lucas: The Insolvency Service is an Executive agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, and has policy responsibility for insolvency matters.
The Insolvency Service has made no specific assessment of the impact of pre-packaged administrations on small business creditors in relation to their turnover or number of jobs. However, it is not the pre-pack transaction that causes the loss to small business creditors, but the insolvency of the company.
In addition, the Office of Fair Trading has recently launched a market study into the corporate insolvency market. The study will look into the structure of the market and any features in the market which could result in harm, such as higher fees or lower recovery rates for certain groups of creditors.
Post Offices: Bank Services
Peter Luff: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what discussions he has had with (a) UK banks in which the Government holds shares and (b) other UK banks on standardising the banking services they offer through the Post Office network; and if he will make a statement. [313804]
Mr. McFadden: A number of UK banks offer accounts which can be accessed through post offices. We are working with Post Office Ltd. to expand the banking services offered by Post Office Ltd.
UK Trade and Investment
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many businesses in each (a) constituency, (b) local authority area and (c) Government Office region have received services since 1 April 2008. [312236]
Ian Lucas: UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) services delivered by the English regions including Passport, English Regions Trade Advisers, MVS and charged services delivered through UKTI's overseas network are publicly available by Government office region on a quarterly basis from UKTI's Performance and Impact Monitoring Survey (PIMS) at:
Services delivered since 1 April 2008 are captured by PIMS waves 13 onwards.
| Passport | |||||||||
| Firms supported | East midlands | East of England | London | North-east | North-west | South-east | South-west | West midlands | Yorks |
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