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25 Mar 2010 : Column 498W—continued
Tuberculosis
Dr. Naysmith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps his Department is taking to encourage health services in areas with a high number of tuberculosis cases to co-ordinate their work with other public services used by those at a high risk of contracting that disease. [323669]
Gillian Merron: In June 2007, the Department published a toolkit in to help the national health service to implement the key points of the Chief Medical Officer's Action 'Plan Stopping Tuberculosis in England' (October 2004) through effective commissioning and delivery of services. A copy of the plan has already been placed in the Library. This recommended a comprehensive approach to commissioning to include a wide range of stakeholders including community services used by those at high risk (and those being treated for Tuberculosis) and through development of locally targeted health promotion and awareness raising.
TB Alert are funded by the Department to help local primary care trusts develop targeted awareness raising, much of this to be delivered through partnerships with other local services working with risk groups.
Business, Innovation and Skills
Broadband
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if his Department will take steps to ensure that broadband service providers notify their customers of traffic management arrangements applied. [323563]
Mr. Timms: Consumers need to be properly informed about the services they are paying for and it is incumbent upon service providers to make this clear to their customers. Section 27(f) of Ofcom's voluntary Code of Practice for broadband speeds calls for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to:
"explain to the consumer in a clear and meaningful way that the actual throughput speed [...] experienced by a consumer will be influenced by a number of factors including the ISP's network capacity, the ISP's traffic shaping and management policy, the number of subscribers online at any one time, by time of day etc.".
It is important that such information is made available by all providers. Changes to the European electronic communications framework directives which were agreed at the end of 2009 require:
"undertakings providing public electronic communications networks and/or publicly available electronic communications sendees to [...] provide information on any procedures put in place by the provider to measure and shape traffic so as to avoid filling or overfilling a network link, and on how those procedures could impact on sendee quality" (Citizen's Rights amending directive article 21.3 (d)).
This Department will be bringing forward secondary legislation to implement these changes in the UK by 25 May 2011 and will consult fully on the changes over the summer.
Business: Government Assistance
Mr. Syms: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what funds have been disbursed under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme to date. [320487]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Since the Enterprise Finance Guarantee (EFG) became operational in January 2009 banks have offered loans totalling nearly £850.7 million to 8,378 businesses. It is then up to each SME to decide how much of their offered loans they wish to utilise, i.e. 'draw down'. To date, nearly 7,000 SMEs have drawn down £700.1 million of EFG-backed bank loans.
Departmental Buildings
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many smoking shelters have been built for his Department's staff since it was established; and at what cost. [324343]
Mr. McFadden: This Department has not built any smoking shelters for its staff since it was established.
Departmental Telephone Services
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what public information helplines his Department runs; and what contracts have been awarded by his Department for running them. [323509]
Mr. McFadden: The Department holds central information on six public information helplines. These are listed in the following table with the contract arrangements that are in place.
Educational Institutions: Finance
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effects on the economy of the funding settlement for land-based education colleges for 2009-10; for what reasons the settlement for such colleges is lower than the equivalent settlement in 2008-09; and what plans he has for the level of funding for such colleges in the next five years. [323846]
Kevin Brennan: The Department routes funding through the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) for the provision of further education (FE) and skills training for adult learners aged 19 and over, including those attending the 16 specialist land-based colleges in England.
In the 2008/09 academic year the LSC allocated £23,377,000 to specialist land-based colleges to deliver Adult Learner Responsive provision (ALR) and £22,684,000 for 2009/10. Although the allocations for five land-based colleges increased, there was an overall decrease in ALR allocation between 2008/09 and 2009/10. Across the FE and skills sector there was a decrease in ALR funding that reflected a commitment to increase funding for Train to Gain and Apprenticeships and away from Developmental Learning. Development Learning is defined as provision that is not aligned to one of the priority qualification categories: these are Full Level 2 (equivalent to 5 GCSEs at A*-C), Full Level 3 (2 A Levels or equivalent), Level 4, Foundation Learning and Skills for Life.
Funding allocations for 2010/11 academic year have not yet been finalised but final allocation letters are due to be sent to FE Colleges and Training Organisations from the end of March. The scale of future settlements is dependent on the outcome of the ongoing comprehensive spending review.
General Agreement on Trade in Services: EU Action
Paul Holmes: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what recent discussions his Department has had with the European Commission Directorate-General of Trade on the inclusion of Mode 4 provision in EU trade agreements. [324095]
Ian Lucas: The European Commission negotiates on behalf of member states on all trade in services issues, including Mode 4, at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and in negotiations to establish in Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
The Commission regularly consults member states on the content of relevant trade in services negotiations, including on Mode 4.
Formally, this consultation takes place via the Trade Policy Committee (TPC), especially the TPC (Services and Investment) which generally meets fortnightly and which is attended by officials from my Department.
Higher Education: Admissions
Justine Greening: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much funding was allocated by the Learning and Skills Council for development projects at each higher education establishment in London for (a) 2008-09, (b) 2009-10 and (c) 2010-11; and how much of that funding has been received by each establishment. [323784]
Kevin Brennan: No funding has been allocated by the Learning and Skills Council for development projects at any higher education establishment in London for the period 2008-11.
Higher Education: Finance
Justine Greening: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills which higher education establishments in (a) London and (b) England have been assessed as in financial difficulty consequent on approved funding bids from the Learning and Skills Council not proceeding; what assessment has been made of the development costs written off by each higher education establishment in (i) London and (ii) England in respect of those bids; which of those establishments have received financial assistance from the Learning and Skills Council; and what the monetary value is of the assistance provided to each such establishment. [323785]
Kevin Brennan: The Learning and Skills Council has not approved any capital project funding bids from higher education establishments in the last five years either on an in principle or a detailed basis and has, therefore, made no such assessments nor offered such financial assistance.
Internet
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if his Department will bring forward proposals to ensure that internet protocol throughput is not subject to traffic management measures; and if he will make a statement. [323546]
Mr. Timms: There are several legitimate reasons why a network provider may need to introduce traffic management measures, particularly in order to avoid network congestion; ensure delivery of e-mail services or to avoid poor performance. There is currently no evidence that network providers in the UK are using traffic management in illegitimate ways.
The legitimate uses of traffic management are recognised by the new provision in Article 22 of the Universal Services Directive which addresses "Quality of Service" issues. Article 22.3 states that:
"In order to prevent the degradation of service and the hindering or slowing down of traffic over networks, Member States shall ensure that national regulatory authorities are able to set minimum quality of service requirements on an undertaking or undertakings providing public communications networks".
Recital 34 suggests that such measures
"should be subject to scrutiny by the national regulatory authorities, [...], in order to ensure that they do not restrict competition"
This Department is currently working on implementing this and related provisions, and will be consulting in due course.
Manganese Bronze
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether his Department has had discussions with representatives of Manganese Bronze in Coventry on its decision to transfer the manufacture of key components to China. [323640]
Ian Lucas: The Department has regular meetings with LTI Ltd. (as part of Manganese Bronze Holdings plc) on a range of issues.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what financial assistance his Department provided to Manganese Bronze between 2007 and 2009. [323641]
Ian Lucas: LTI Ltd., as part of Manganese Bronze Holdings plc, has participated in the Vehicle Scrappage Scheme which was launched in May 2009.
On 17 March 2010, Manganese Bronze stated that 223 vehicles were sold under the scheme in 2009-which equates to Government support of £223,000.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will meet representatives of Manganese Bronze to discuss the future of the company's manufacturing operations in Coventry. [323642]
Ian Lucas: The Department has regular meetings with LTI Ltd. (as part of Manganese Bronze Holdings plc) on a range of issues including manufacturing at Coventry.
Post Offices: National Lottery
Mr. Evans: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (1) what assessment he has made of the effect on sub-post offices of the National Lottery Commission's proposal to permit lottery terminals to provide (a) bill payments, (b) mobile telephone top-ups and (c) other commercial services; [322906]
(2) what estimate he has made of the likely change in bill payment income for sub-post offices as a result of the National Lottery Commission's proposal to permit lottery terminals to provide commercial services. [322907]
Mr. McFadden [holding answer 18 March 2010]: Camelot's proposal to provide commercial services through lottery terminals is still subject to the regulatory approval of the National Lottery Commission. If the commission consents to Camelot's proposal, Post Office Limited will carry out an assessment of the impact on sub post offices.
Qualifications and Curriculum Framework: Finance
Mr. Laws: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 9 February 2010, Official Report, column 902W, on the Qualifications and Curriculum Framework: finance, whether planned expenditure by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the Skills Funding Agency on the Qualifications and Curriculum Framework (QCF) includes the estimated £40 million for IT costs in the LSC QCF Business Change Strategy referred to in footnote 2 of the paper prepared for the LSC National Council meeting on 10 September 2008, number LSC 52/2008; and if he will make a statement. [323992]
Kevin Brennan: The figure of £40 million referred to in the LSC document was an estimate of costs. Subsequent consideration led to a much-reduced figure such that actual spend on IT-related business change for the QCF was £0.47 million in 2008-09, and is expected to be around £2.14 million in 2009-10. These figures were included in the table given in my previous answer.
Radio Frequencies
John Mann: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if his Department will take steps to protect the high frequency spectrum for use in long-range communications from power line technology devices. [323208]
Mr. Timms: The Department for Business innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Office of Communications (Ofcom) are aware of this long-standing area of concern. Ofcom is responsible for the UK management of the radio spectrum. Ofcom has commissioned an independent study into the likelihood and extent of radio frequency interference caused by Power Line Technology apparatus. This study is virtually complete and is expected to be published next month. BIS and Ofcom will then review any action that might be necessary based on this report.
World War II: Lapel Badges
Mr. Davidson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many representations he has received on a proposed lapel badge for those who were conscripted to work in munitions factories in the Second World War; and if he will make a statement. [323837]
Mr. McFadden: Government truly value the important wartime contributions and sacrifices made by all civilian workers.
The Department has received 23 representations over the last two years seeking formal recognition for civilian workers during world war two.
Careful consideration has been given to this issue. However, there are no present plans to introduce a lapel badge.
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