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4 Mar 2010 : Column 1409W—continued


4 Mar 2010 : Column 1410W

Letter from Peter Mason, dated 1 February 2010:

Letter from Sean Dennehey, dated 25 January 2010:

Letter from Gareth Jones, dated 22 January 2010:

Departmental Marketing

Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many brand managers his Department and its predecessors have employed in each of the last five years; and at what cost. [320408]

Mr. McFadden: This Department has one member of staff responsible for managing the Department's brand. This includes the publication and dissemination of the brand guidelines and advising on their application. It is estimated that 25 per cent. of this person's time is spent on branding related activities. Based on the average pay costs for a member of staff at this grade this represents a staff cost of approximately £11,241 in 2009/10.

The former Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the former Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) each had one member of staff responsible for brand management. The average pay costs for this were:

£

BERR 2008/09

11,653

BERR/DTI 2007/08

10,512


Figures for staff costs for earlier years could be provided only at disproportionate cost.


4 Mar 2010 : Column 1411W

£

DIUS 2008/09

6,300

DIUS 2007/08

12,000


The figure for DIUS in 2007/08 is the total staff cost on branding activity as a larger percentage of staff time was spent on branding issues in the first six months of the Department's existence.

Higher Education: Day Care

Mrs. Maria Miller: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent representations he has received on the provision of child care places by universities for students with young children. [320201]

Mr. Lammy: I have received joint representations about nursery closures from the National Union of Students, the University and College Union and UNISON. The provision of nurseries for the children of students is a matter for individual institutions. In addition to the standard student support package, the Government provides generous support to help students with children. A child care grant of up to £13,260 per year is available for eligible full-time, undergraduate students with children in registered and approved child care. In addition, for academic year 2009/10, student parents may also receive a parents' learning allowance of up to £1,508 to meet course-related costs.

Learning and Skills Council for England

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills when he expects the Learning and Skills Council to publish on its website the minutes of its National Council Meeting on 9 December 2009. [320275]

Kevin Brennan: The acting chief executive of the Learning and Skills Council has recently undertaken a review of its National Council minutes and decided to make public the full minutes from these meetings, subject to the redaction of any sensitive or confidential information which is exempt under the terms of the Freedom of
4 Mar 2010 : Column 1412W
Information Act. The minutes of the 9 December 2009 meeting were published on the LSC's website on 26 February 2010. These can be found at:

Minimum Wage: Glasgow

Mr. Bain: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people in Glasgow North East constituency aged (a) between 18 and 21 and (b) 22 years and over have been paid at the rate of the national minimum wage since its introduction. [319970]

Mr. McFadden: Data for earnings are not available at the 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 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.

The most recent figure from BIS analysis of the 2009 ASHE indicates the number of jobholders aged 18 to 21 who were paid at or below the NMW in April 2009 in Scotland was 11,000. The number of jobholders aged 22 and over who were paid at or below the NMW in Scotland was 51,000.

Science: Research

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding had been (a) allocated to and (b) disbursed from the Science and Research Budget to the (i) Large Facilities Capital fund, (ii) University Capital fund, (iii) Higher Education Innovation fund, (iv) Public Sector Research Establishments fund, (v) Science and Society fund and (vi) other programmes funded from that Budget in 2009-10 on the latest date for which figures are available. [319844]

Mr. Lammy: The Science and Research Budget funding figures for 2009-10 are as follows:

£ million

Allocated 2009-10 Expenditure to 31 January 2010

(i) Large Facilities Capital Fund(1)

138

(3)-

(ii) Research Capital investment Fund(1)

258

194

(iii) Higher Education Innovation Fund(2)

99

73

(iv) Public Sector Research Establishments Fund(2)

12

11

(v) Science and Society activities(2)

15

10

(vi) Other programmes(2)

9

5

(1) Capital programme. (2) Near Cash programme. (3) There is no expenditure recorded against the Large Facilities Capital Fund as this fund is used to make additional allocations to research councils for approved projects. To date £172 million has been allocated to research councils which includes £50 million of capital allocation brought forwards from 2010-11 under the capital acceleration scheme. Note: These figures do not include the allocations to and the expenditure of the research councils and the national academies.


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