| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
30 Mar 2010 : Column 1030W—continued
One North East: Public Relations
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills pursuant to the answer of 22 February 2010, Official Report, column 298W, on One North East and North East Economic Forum: public relations, for what reason the Regional Development Agency chose to use the services of Sovereign Strategy. [324202]
Ms Rosie Winterton: North East Economic Forum (NEEF) events have been sponsored by a number of public and private bodies including One North East. In March 2006, One North East agreed to sponsor NEEF to deliver a series of events to debate economic issues affecting the North East. One North East paid £23,500 in March 2007 for this sponsorship. The payment was made to Sovereign Strategy as it is the company which manages the administration of NEEF. NEEF is a separate company registered with Companies House. One North East has no current contract with Sovereign Strategy.
Regional Planning and Development: Finance
Robert Neill: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what funding (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) regional development agencies have allocated to regional design panels since their inception. [308696]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Regional Design Panels (RDPs) are mainly funded by the RDAs. EEDA, NWDA, SEEDA, SWRDA and YF are the sole fund providers for their RDPs. AWM and LDA provide contributions to their RDP. ONE does not provide any funding to its RDP.
The following table gives a breakdown of both core and project funding provided by RDAs for Regional Design Panels (RDP) in their region. Where no data is provided, the RDP in that region was not yet in operation.
| £ 000 | ||||||||
| RDA | 2002-03 | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 | 2008-09 | 2009-10 |
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 18 December 2009:
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 15 December 2009, UIN 308696, to the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Companies House has not allocated any funding to regional design panels since their inception.
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 21 December 2009:
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has asked me to reply to your question what funding (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) regional development agencies have allocated to regional design panels since their inception.
The Insolvency Service does not have any involvement in regional design panels.
Letter from Sean Dennehey, dated 22 December 2009:
I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 15 December 2009, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
The Intellectual Property Office do not provide funding to regional design panels.
Letter from Peter Mason, dated 21 December 2009:
I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled on 15 December 2009, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
Since the formation of the National Measurement Office in April 2009, the Agency has not allocated any funding to the regional design panels.
Research Councils: Finance
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of the cost to each research council of fluctuations in the sterling exchange rate in the financial year 2009-10; and how much his Department has allocated to compensate research councils for such fluctuations. [323383]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 25 March 2010]: For financial year 2009-10 the movements in the sterling exchange rate have given rise to increases in international subscriptions costs of £13.45 million at NERC and £31.63 million at STFC.
The Department has provided additional allocations of £12.45 million to NERC and £28.63 million to STFC to compensate them for these extra costs.
Space Technology: Finance
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what his most recent estimate is of the cost to the public purse of the creation of the proposed new UK space agency, including the (a) rebranding of the British National Space Centre and (b) public consultation conducted in 2009 on the civil space sector. [324602]
Mr. Lammy: The direct cost of creating the new UK Space Agency and rebranding the British National Space Centre (BNSC) is £46,500, relating to the launch event itself (note that this event also included the launch of the Government response to the Space IGT), the development of the logo, the protection of trademarks on the name and logo within the UK, and the website revamp.
The public consultation was run via the BNSC website and managed within the remit of existing BNSC staff, so did not involve any direct additional costs.
Students: Disabled
Mr. Paice: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps the Student Loans Company follows in administering the disabled students allowance in order to ensure that companies supplying specialist equipment to recipients have the capacity to deliver (a) the volume of equipment tendered and (b) ongoing support for the duration of a student's course of study. [324700]
Mr. Lammy:
There is no contractual relationship between the Student Loans Company (SLC) and companies supplying specialist equipment which may be purchased by recipients of disabled students' allowances (DSAs). The Department recommends that SLC deals with suppliers audited by the disabled students' allowances-Quality Assurance Group(1) and committed to specific service
level agreements (which include a requirement to provide support for the duration of the student's course). However, DSAs are personal grants to individual students who are entitled to use whichever supplier they wish.
(1) The disabled students' allowances-Quality Assurance Group is a registered charity which provides a quality assurance service for assessment centres in the delivery of the disabled students allowances in England and Wales.
Tractors: Government Assistance
Mark Williams: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether he has made an assessment of the merits of a scheme to provide a financial incentive to replace old tractors. [325301]
Ian Lucas: I fully appreciate the impact the recession has had on all parts of the UK economy. We do not have any plans to introduce any additional financial incentive to replace old tractors.
Trade Unions
Mr. Syms: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many days staff of his Department and its agencies spent on trade union activity in the latest year for which figures are available; and what recent estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of such activity. [320618]
Mr. McFadden: This Department currently employs 3.0 full time departmental trade union side officers at an approximate cost of £90,000.
Across BIS, approximately 100 people have facilities time arrangements. The majority of these are very small allocations. It is not possible to provide figures for this except at disproportionate cost.
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 16 March 2010:
I am replying on behalf of Companies House to your Parliamentary Question tabled 1 March 2010, UIN 320618 to the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills.
In the financial year 2009-10 Trade Union representatives used a total of 229.5 days facility time at an estimated cost of £19,350.00.
The facility time granted to Trade Union representatives in Companies House is in line with the ACAS Code of Practice "Time off for Trades Union Duties and Activities".
Letter from Stephen Speed, dated 9 March 2010:
The Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has asked me to reply to your question regarding how many days staff in The Insolvency Service spent on trade union activity in the latest year for which figures are available, and any estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of this activity.
The number of recorded days that staff in The Insolvency Service spent on trade union activity from 1st April 2008 to 31st March 2009 was 122.93 (full-time equivalent). It should be noted that this figure is likely to be an under-estimate. Some staff that are not trade union officials but are trade union members, may engage in trade union activities e.g. attendance at officially sanctioned trade union meetings, for which no central records are kept. Additionally, the figure excludes any management involvement in trade union activities e.g. attendance at Whitley meetings (the main employee relations communication and consultation forum with trade unions).
I am unable to provide any estimate of the annual cost to the public purse of trade union activity, as this would incur disproportionate cost.
Letter from John Alty, dated 3 March 2010:
I am responding in respect of the Intellectual Property Office to your Parliamentary Question tabled 01 March 2010, to the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.
There were 255 days of allowed staff time spent on trade union activity in the Intellectual Property Office in 2008/09. This came at a cost of approximately £58,000 based on the average cost of the staff involved.
Letter from Peter Mason, dated 11 March 2010:
I am responding in respect of the National Measurement Office (NMO) to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister of State, Department of Business, Innovation and Skills how many days staff of his Department and its agencies spent on trade union activity in the latest year and what recent estimate he has made of the annual cost to the public purse of such activity.
The National Measurement Office (NMO) is part of the Partnership Agreement with the Cabinet Office and the Council of Civil Service Unions (CCSU) and also the Joint Agreement between the Permanent Secretary and the constituent Trade Unions FDA, PCS and Prospect. Under the Agreement and through the Departmental Whitley Council, NMO affords facility time to those members of staff acting as Accredited Officials up to a maximum of 25 days a year paid special leave (40 days for members of the National Executive). Time off for union activities has to be agreed and all time is recorded on the Agency time recording system. Under the Agreement on Facilities for Industrial Relations Activities and Trade Union Activities members may be granted reasonable paid time off for specific union activities as laid out in the agreement and we follow the ACAS Code of Practice "Time off for Trades Union Duties and Activities".
The relevant time recording system was introduced in April 2009 and data is therefore available only for the 11 months to end February 2010. During that period, 9.5 days (66.56 hours) have been credited for union activities. As individual members are from different grades, it is not possible to provide a cost in the time allocated for the reply.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |