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1 Mar 2010 : Column 980W—continued
Government Car and Despatch Agency
Grant Shapps: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department paid to the Government Car and Despatch Agency in each of the last five years; how much it has spent on such payments in 2009-10; and what proportion of such payments was made in respect of the Government Car Service. [316421]
Mr. McFadden: This Department and its predecessors have paid the following amounts to the Government Car and Despatch Agency for the use of the Government Mail Service:
| £000 | |
Costs of ministerial cars are reported annually to Parliament by my noble Friend the Secretary of State for Transport through written ministerial statement and are available in the Libraries of the House.
Hotels
Anne Main: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department spent on hotel accommodation for (a) Ministers, (b) special advisers and (c) civil servants in each of the last five years. [305672]
Mr. McFadden: Following a machinery of government change the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was formed in June 2009. The following figures relate to the Departments before the merger.
The amount spent by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform on hotel accommodation for in each of the last five years was:
| £ | |
The figures include Department of Trade and Industry spend until it was disbanded in June 2007.
The amount spent by the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills on hotel accommodation since it was formed in 2007 was:
| £ | |
Travel by Ministers, civil servants and special advisers are undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Management Code respectively.
The Department does not separately record overnight accommodation from that of officials-to provide this information would entail disproportionate costs.
Cabinet Office provides an annual list of overseas travel over £500 undertaken by Ministers. These can be accessed at
The list for 2008-09 was published on 16 July. This and earlier lists are available in the Libraries of the House.
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many separate bookings for stays at five star or above hotels were made through the Expotel contract by his Department in the last year for which figures are available; and at what cost. [315262]
Mr. McFadden: Following a machinery of government change the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was formed in June 2009. The following figures include former BERR and DIUS before the merger.
| The number of bookings for stays at five star and above hotels made through the Expotel contract for the period January to December 2009 | |
| Number of bookings | Cost (£) |
| Note: Figures include overseas bookings | |
Wherever possible Expotel will book accommodation within indicative rates set by the Department; this may include five star hotels which have special offers available and fall within these rates.
All expenditure incurred is in accordance with the principles of Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook.
Insolvency
Dr. Cable: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what record (a) his Department and (b) its agencies keep of fees paid to insolvency practitioners. [315180]
Mr. McFadden: The Department does not record details of the fees paid to insolvency practitioners.
I have approached the chief executives of the Insolvency Service, Companies House, the National Measurement Office and the Intellectual Property Office and they will respond to the hon. Member directly.
Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 8 February 2010:
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 28 January 2010, UIN 315180, to the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Companies House has no record of any fees paid to Insolvency Practitioners.
Letter from Peter Mason, dated 15 February 2010:
I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 29 January 2010, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills asking what record is kept of fees paid to insolvency practitioners.
The nature of the National Measurement Office's business, and that of its predecessor the National Weights & Measures Laboratory, means that there should be no need to pay any fees to insolvency practitioners, and there are no records of us having done so. Should there be occasion to pay such fees we would expect to register them separately in our accounting records through the creation of a new account code.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 2 February 2010:
The Minister of State, for the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has asked me to reply to your question what record (a) his Department and (b) its agencies keeps of fees paid to insolvency practitioners.
In corporate insolvencies, the officeholder is required to file receipts and payments accounts or statement of accounts with the Registrar of Companies. In Individual Voluntary Arrangements, the Supervisor is required to send a final receipts and payments account to the Secretary of State.
This information is not extracted or collated into a central record.
Letter from Sean Dennehey, dated 2 February 2010:
I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 29 January 2010, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Intellectual Property Office maintains records of all payments and has paid no fees to insolvency practitioners.
Paid Leave: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent estimate he has made of the number of residents of (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point who qualify for paid leave entitlements. [318108]
Mr. McFadden: All workers resident in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point qualify for paid annual leave entitlements. The statutory minimum as set out in the working time regulations is at least 5.6 weeks.
Numbers of workers resident in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point are not available. However, according to the Annual Business Inquiry Employee Analysis by the
Office for National Statistics, there were a total of 517,900 employees who worked in Essex and 19,300 in Castle Point (but did not necessarily live there) in 2008, who would all qualify for paid annual leave entitlement.
Maternity Leave: Feltham
Alan Keen: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many and what percentage of women resident in Feltham and Heston constituency have taken 26 weeks maternity leave since 1997. [316698]
Mr. McFadden: From April 2007 all employed mothers are entitled to 52 weeks maternity leave, of which 39 may be paid. Employers are not required to record or report the uptake of maternity leave to the Government. No figures are available at the constituency level.
The most recent estimates of take-up of maternity leave are based on the DWP 'Maternity Rights and Mothers' employment decisions in Britain: Survey of Mothers' (2007). In 2006, when mothers included in the study went on maternity leave, the statutory entitlement to ordinary maternity leave (OML) was 26 weeks, while mothers who had worked for their employer for a qualifying period of 26 weeks were also entitled to additional maternity leave (AML) of 26 weeks. For mothers taking maternity leave in 2006:
84 per cent. took 26 weeks or more maternity leave;
35 per cent. took exactly 26 weeks maternity leave;
46 per cent. of mothers took between 27 and 52 weeks and only 3 per cent. were off for more than 52 weeks;
16 per cent of mothers took less than the statutory minimum entitlement (i.e. 26 weeks in 2006).
The next 'Maternity Rights' survey will be based on mothers who took maternity leave starting in summer 2008. It is due to report in 2010.
Members: Correspondence
Sir Michael Spicer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when he plans to respond to the email from the hon. Member for West Worcestershire of 23 November 2009 on the future of Cadbury. [319249]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 26 February 2010]: I apologise to the hon. Member for the delay. My colleague the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Regulatory Reform has responded today, as the matter falls within his portfolio.
Minimum Wage: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the number of people in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point who have been paid at the rate of the national minimum wage since its introduction. [318105]
Mr. McFadden: Data for earnings are not available at the county or constituency level because of small sample sizes at these levels in the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE).
Due to rounding in the conversion of payroll data into hourly wage rates and small sample sizes for 16 to
17 and 18 to 21-year-olds in ASHE, it is not possible at the regional level to infer the number of employees earning exactly at the national minimum wage (NMW) with sufficient certainty. However it is possible to estimate the number who were paid at or below the NMW.
At the Government office region level the most recent figure from BIS analysis of the 2009 ASHE indicates the number of jobholders who were paid at or below the NMW in April 2009 in the east of England region was 64,000.
Music: Copyright
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with reference to the Government response to the consultation on changes to exemptions from public performance rights in sound recordings and performers' rights, and pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Ruislip Northwood of 1 February 2010, Official Report, column 101W, on religious practice: buildings, whether recorded music used in divine service such as funerals, baptisms and weddings by (a) the Church of England and (b) places of religious worship certified by the Registrar General under the Places of Religious Worship Act 1855 will require a public performance licence under the proposed Option 1 changes; and what role he has played in the consideration of these changes. [318314]
Mr. Lammy: The proposed changes to the current charitable statutory exemptions for the public performance of recorded and broadcast music will apply to music used in divine worship by the Church of England or places of worship as certified. However, as part of this process, Phonographic Performance Limited (PPL), the organisation who license the public performance and broadcast of sound recordings, have agreed to implement a voluntary exemption for the use of broadcast and recorded music not only as part of divine worship anywhere but also for all religious ceremonies, civil ceremonies and civil partnership ceremonies; domestic/family occasions such as wedding parties; residential homes/hospices (not including staff areas); hospital wards and medical therapy.
The Government fully consulted on this matter, taking into account legal advice and an impact assessment prepared by Europe Economics, and negotiated a number of safeguards including a system of joint licensing, a code of practice and an independent complaints ombudsman. I have been involved at all key stages of the consultation and officials have kept me informed throughout. I considered this matter extensively before writing to the Economic Development Committee on 2 July 2009 for clearance. I received clearance for the publication of the Government response and the proposed repeal of the charitable exemptions on 24 July 2009.
Qualifications: North East
Jim Cousins: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of the working age population in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne Central constituency, (b) Newcastle upon Tyne, (c) Tyne and Wear and (d) the North East region (i) had no qualifications, (ii) were qualified to level 2 and (iii) were qualified to level 4 in (A) 2001 and (B) each year since 2004. [318809]
Kevin Brennan: The table shows the proportion of the working age population in Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear Local Education Authority, and the North East region qualified to at least level 4, 3, 2, below Level 2 and with no qualifications.
These estimates are taken from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The APS sample is not large enough to provide estimates for smaller geographies such as constituencies, but it is suitable for Local Education Areas estimates. However, please note that these estimates are subject to sampling variability and should therefore be treated with caution and viewed in conjunction with their Confidence Intervals (CIs), which indicate how
accurate an estimate is. For example, a CI of +/- 2.7 percentage points (pp) means that the true value is between 2.7pp above the estimate and 2.7pp below the estimate.
Estimates of qualification levels in regions and local areas from 2000 to 2008 are published on the Further Education Data Service website at:
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