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9 Mar 2010 : Column 287W—continued
Overseas Trade: Kazakhstan
Mr. Keetch: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent assessment he has made of the level of trade between the UK and Kazakhstan; and if he will make a statement. [320775]
Ian Lucas: HM Revenue and Customs Overseas Trade Statistics recorded UK exports of goods to Kazakhstan in 2009 worth about £260 million, compared with £209 million in 2008. UK imports of goods from Kazakhstan in 2009 were worth about £174 million, compared with £112 million in 2008.
The ONS UK Balance of Payments Pink Book gives a figure of UK exports of services to Kazakhstan in 2008 worth about £915 million, and imports worth about £363 million. Geographical data on trade in services for 2009 are due to be published at the end of July.
Post Office
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the suitability of Post Office Ltd as a bidder for the contract set out in tender notice 2009/S 247-354963. [319961]
Mr. McFadden:
The Government are keen for the Post Office to expand its Government services work. One of the major new opportunities in this area is for post offices to act as centres for the capture of biometric
data for passports, driving licences, and potentially ID cards. This issue has been actively considered within Government and the Post Office is expected to bid to be a service provider. The Post Office agreed a deal last year with the DVLA to provide a "one-stop" biometric data capture facility at 750 branches around the country and is therefore well placed to provide similar services.
Post Offices: Greater London
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many post office branches there were in (a) Bexleyheath and Crayford constituency, (b) the London Borough of Bexley and (c) Greater London in (i) 1997 and (ii) 2009. [321060]
Mr. McFadden: I have asked Alan Cook, managing director of Post Office Ltd to respond directly to he hon. Member and a copy of his reply will be placed in the Libraries of the House.
Private Finance Initiative
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding his Department will provide to fund all existing private finance initiative and public-private partnership contracts in each of the next 10 years. [320563]
Mr. McFadden: The Department has one PFI contract which expires in 2014. This covers the supply of a wide range of ICT goods and services. The forecast funding is:
| £ million | |
Public Holidays
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of the introduction of an additional public holiday; and if he will make a statement. [315125]
Mr. McFadden: This Department has not made an estimate of the costs to the Department of the introduction of an additional public holiday. The additional Bank Holiday to mark Her Majesty's Diamond Jubilee announced on 5 January is due to take place in June 2012, which falls in 2012-13 financial year.
Skills Funding Agency
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will take steps to ensure that the Skills Funding Agency publishes on its website minutes of its council and committee meetings within two weeks of those meetings taking place; and if he will make a statement. [320276]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 4 March 2010]: The Skills Funding Agency, as an agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills will not have a council and committee structure. The Chief Executive of Skills Funding will ensure that there is external involvement in the Skills Funding Agency governance arrangements and this will take effect after the establishment of the agency on 1 April 2010. Relevant minutes will be available on the Skills Funding Agency website at appropriate intervals, subject to the redaction of any sensitive or confidential information which is exempt under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act.
Supermarkets: Competition
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether it is his Department's policy to assist small shops adversely affected by competition from supermarkets; and if he will make a statement. [320839]
Kevin Brennan: The Government recognise the important role of small shops to local communities and, the national economy. There is a wide range of support available which can be accessed through business link:
Local planning authorities are required to take into account the Government's Planning Policy to help safeguard retail diversity and vibrancy of town centres which includes creating opportunities for small shops.
Ensuring fair competition in markets is a matter for the independent competition authorities. The Competition Commission, who reported on the market on the UK supply of groceries in 2008 concluded that while the process of competition can be challenging, it was generally working well and delivered good outcomes for consumers.
Trade Promotion: Indonesia
Mr. Soames: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to promote UK trade and investment with Indonesia. [320962]
Ian Lucas: Indonesia is one of UK Trade and Investment's 17 high-growth markets which received additional resource in 2006 to ensure UK business can benefit from the opportunities in this market. The Asia Task Force chaired by my noble Friend the Secretary of State undertakes an outreach programme alerting UK business to the potential of Asia markets, Indonesia is a key component of this work. We expect this work to continue throughout 2010.
My noble Friend the Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Small Business visited Jakarta in November 2009. During meetings with the Government of Indonesia, he secured progress on a number of important market access issues that will help to open doors for British business. Following this visit, a report has been commissioned on doing business with Indonesia which will help UK companies to understand and navigate the business environment better in Indonesia. This work will be disseminated broadly later in the year.
Trade Promotion: Turkey
Mr. Soames: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to promote UK trade and investment with Turkey. [320961]
Ian Lucas: UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) has identified Turkey as one of 17 high-growth markets which are afforded higher focus and greater attention under the 2006 strategy "Prosperity in a Changing World". UKTI supports business through trade and investment teams based in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir in Turkey. They provide a range of support services to UK companies wishing to trade with or set up joint ventures in Turkey. These are detailed on the UKTI web pages. There is also a team in Istanbul dedicated to promoting opportunities for investment into the UK by Turkish companies.
Regular events are delivered through partner organisations in the English regions and in the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to make UK companies aware of the prospective opportunities of doing business in Turkey and how best to realise them.
UKTI leads on the work of the Turkey-UK Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO), which identifies new business opportunities and also focuses on ways to tackle barriers to trade and improve the environment for business.
My noble Friend the Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Small Business, visited Turkey in July 2009 and a ministerial delegation from Turkey is due to visit the UK this month (March 2010).
UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation
Nick Harvey: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what the target market countries are of the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation. [320755]
Ian Lucas: The current list of UKTI DSO Priority Markets is: Algeria, Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Greece, India, Iraq, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UAE and the USA. UKTI DSO is supporting campaigns in a total of 52 countries.
Unemployment
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people in each ethnic group were not in education, employment or training in each quarter of the last five years. [319901]
Kevin Brennan: The following table gives the number and percentage of people aged(1) 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training for each ethnic group for every quarter in the last five years. These estimates are from the Labour Force survey.
Please note that these estimates are subject to large sampling variability and should therefore be treated with caution and viewed in conjunction with their confidence intervals(2) (CIs, given in Table 2), which indicate how accurate an estimate is. For example, a CI of+/-4.2 percentage points (pp) means that the true value is between 4.2pp above the estimate and 4.2pp below the estimate.
These figures are not seasonally adjusted and therefore adjacent quarters are not directly comparable.
(1)Age used is the respondents academic age, which is defined as their age at the preceding 31 August.
(2) Those given are 95 per cent. confidence intervals.
| Table 1: People aged 16 to 24 not in education, employment or training for each ethnic group-England | |||||||||||||
| Number NEET | Percentage NEET | ||||||||||||
| Quarter | Year | Total | White | Mixed | Asian or Asian British | Black or Black British | Other ethnic group | Total | White | Mixed | Asian or Asian British | Black or Black British | Other ethnic group |
| Note: Base: 16 to 24 year olds, England Source: Labour Force Survey | |||||||||||||
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