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8 Apr 2010 : Column 1485W—continued
Richard Burden:
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many (a) small, (b) medium-sized and (c) large businesses in Birmingham have received assistance under (i) the Working Capital Scheme, (ii) the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme,
(iii) the Capital Enterprise Scheme, (iv) the Regional Loan Transition Fund and (v) the Phoenix Fund since each scheme's inception. [325338]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information is as follows:
(i) The Working Capital Scheme (WCS) has provided guarantees to two banks on portfolios of short-term loans with good credit risk in order to release regulatory capital to enable those banks to increase lending to businesses. The two banks with WCS guarantees, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland, have made lending commitments of £39 billion.
Public Borrowing Review 2009 announced that as the broader Asset Protection Scheme now provides banks with considerably greater capital release, so new portfolios will not be guaranteed under the WCS although existing portfolio guarantees will remain until March 2011. Companies' access to the WCS was through the banks; they did not apply for it directly.
(ii) The Enterprise Finance Guarantee is open to SMEs with a turnover of up to £25 million, rather than large businesses. A total of 142 loans worth £16.16 million have been offered to Birmingham businesses under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee, of which 118 loans worth £11.40 million have been drawn down. Loans under the scheme are available to firms with a turnover of up to £25 million and are not therefore available to large businesses.
(iii) The Capital for Enterprise fund provides support to SMEs rather than large businesses. To date the appointed fund managers have made offers totalling £98.7 million to 66 businesses, including three in the West Midlands worth £4.8 million. 26 businesses have received investment, including one in the West Midlands with a value of £2 million. I am not providing this breakdown by parliamentary constituency as this could make it possible to identify the individual companies that have received, or are under consideration, for support.
(iv) The Advantage Transition Bridge Fund (ATBF) provided loans worth £2,677,000 to 18 companies in Birmingham. Information breaking these loans down by the size of the businesses is not available. The fund closed for new loans from 1 December 2009.
(v) During the Phoenix fund (which ran from 2002-06) Government provided £1.886 million to Community Development Finance Institutes (CDFIs) operating mainly in the Birmingham area. This capital was onward lent to 130 start up and existing businesses (the vast majority of these will have been in the Birmingham area).
Since the end of the Phoenix fund Advantage West Midlands has provided support to CDFIs and other lenders under the Advantage Small Loan scheme and more recently the Small Business Loan programme. Both have drawn on ERDF funding as well as funds from AWM and local authorities. Between 1 April 2007 and 31 December 2009 Aston Reinvestment Trust (ART) and the Arrow Fund (two of the alternative lenders which have received funding under these programmes) made 235 loans totalling £3.574 million to businesses in Birmingham and Solihull.
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what additional assistance his Department provided to small and medium-sized enterprises located in (a) Coventry and (b) the West Midlands during the recent recession. [325769]
Ms Rosie Winterton: It has not been possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Copyright: Music
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether the new regime of PPL music licensing will remove exemptions from (a) student unions and (b) educational institutions. [323976]
Mr. Lammy: Discussions between PPL and the third sector to find the best possible music licensing system are ongoing, initiated by my ministerial colleagues at the Office for the Third Sector. A number of issues remain to be resolved, and in the circumstances it has not been possible to introduce the planned legislative changes before the dissolution of Parliament prior to the forthcoming general election.
Departmental Internet
Jenny Willott: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many complaints his Department received regarding difficulties using its website in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [325204]
Ian Lucas: According to departmental records, no formal complaints have been received in the past year by the Department or its Ministers about difficulties operating the Department's corporate websites (including the websites of the former Departments for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS)). No formal complaints on this topic were recorded in the lifetime of the DIUS website. Records of formal complaints to BERR are not available prior to March 2009 when procedures were overhauled.
The Department receives informal feedback from website users on an ongoing basis by email and via contact forms on its websites, including occasional comments on website usability.
Jenny Willott: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department spent on external website design consultants in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [325222]
Ian Lucas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State for Business, Innovation and Skills to the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) on 29 March 2010, Official Report, columns 810-811W.
Departmental Location
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much his Department spent on the relocation of staff from posts in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point constituency in each of the last five years. [321436]
Ian Lucas: The Department did not relocate any staff from posts in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point constituency in each of the last five years.
Exports: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many companies in (a) Essex and (b) Castle Point made exports in each year since 1997. [325787]
Ian Lucas [holding answer 7 April 2010]: HM Revenue and Customs publishes the UK Regional Trade in Goods Statistics, the most recent issue was published on 11 March 2010. A copy can be found at:
These statistics provide data at regional level only so we are unable to confirm the number of exporting companies in the county of Essex or the district of Castle Point.
Foreign Investment: Essex
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has made of (a) the monetary value of foreign client investment in (i) Essex and (ii) Castle Point in each year since 2003 and (b) the number of jobs created as a consequence in each such year. [325788]
Ian Lucas [holding answer 7 April 2010]: It has not been possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Further Education: Finance
Justine Greening: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what estimate he has of the number of colleges in (a) England and (b) London which incurred costs in preparing capital bids to the Learning and Skills Council which were not proceeded with; and what estimate has been made of the total financial effect on those colleges in (i) England and (ii) London of the capital bids not proceeding. [325569]
Kevin Brennan: 171 colleges in England, 25 of which are in London, incurred property costs on projects not currently proceeding. All colleges were eligible for normal grant support towards these costs as set out in the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) Capital Handbook and additional capital support was also made available to 42 of the colleges experiencing the most serious financial difficulties as a result of their aborted capital programmes. In total, the net cost to colleges was £126 million, with colleges in London incurring costs of £27 million.
Since 2001 LSC grant support to projects has amounted to £3.4 billion.
Imports
Mr. Laws: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills whether measures to limit imports into the UK from countries which have not enacted legislation equivalent to the Climate Change Act 2008 are permissible under Article XX of GATT. [325862]
Ian Lucas: In accordance with World Trade Organisation (WTO) case law, to comply with Article XX of GATT any such import restriction would need inter alia to:
be primarily aimed at the conservation of exhaustible natural resources;
be the least trade-restrictive method of achieving the desired level of protection of the environment;
take proper account of the different ways in which countries may seek to pursue the same environmental goals and the needs of developing countries;
not constitute a means of unfair discrimination.
Industry: Denton and Reddish
Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what steps he is taking to encourage private sector investment in industry in Denton and Reddish constituency; and if he will make a statement. [325851]
Ms Rosie Winterton: Support from the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) has helped to turn Broadstone Mill in Reddish into a state-of-the-art workspace with business incubation facilities, aimed specifically at innovative new businesses in the knowledge economy. Further grants have been awarded to businesses operating within the incubator. Businesses in Denton and Reddish are also eligible for support under the Government's North West Intensive Startup Support Programme (ISUS) launched in January.
Learning and Skills Council: Sweet Concepts
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 156W, on the Central Office of Information: marketing, what promotional products were purchased from Sweet Concepts Ltd on behalf of the (a) Learning and Skills Council and (b) University for Industry; and at what cost in each case. [324301]
Kevin Brennan: The Central Office of Information purchased promotional food items from Sweet Concepts Ltd. on behalf of:
(a) Learning and Skills Council at a total cost of £6,655
(b) University for Industry (Ufi) at a total cost of £1,498.
Local Press: Competition
Mr. Grogan: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will refer the transfer of Guardian Media Group to Trinity Mirror to the Competition Commission to investigate potential monopolies in media ownership in Cheshire and Surrey. [325147]
Kevin Brennan [holding answer 6 April 2010]: The responsibility for investigating and making decisions on mergers falls to the UK's independent competition authorities. In this case, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is investigating the acquisition under the Enterprise Act 2002 which will include whether it creates potential monopolies in markets.
The OFT will announce its conclusions in due course including whether or not to refer the merger to the Competition Commission.
Optics: Technology
Chris Ruane: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how much research funding his Department has provided to the (a) Optic Research and Incubation Centre at St Asaph Business Park and (b) members of the Welsh Opto-Electronic Forum in each of the last 10 years; and how much such funding it plans to provide to each of those organisations in each of the next three years. [325392]
Mr. Lammy: It has not been possible to respond to my hon. Friend in the time available before Prorogation.
Overseas Students: Entry Clearances
Bob Spink: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how many places on higher education courses in (a) England and (b) Essex have been awarded to Tier 4 (General) student visa holders; and how many such students did not attend their course. [325839]
Mr. Lammy [holding answer 7 April 2010]: It has not been possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Students: Loans
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills how long on average the Student Loans Company has taken to process an application for a student loan in each year since 2005; and if he will make a statement. [325150]
Mr. Lammy: Academic year 2009-10 was the first year of operation for the new centralised Student Finance England service when all new students studying in England applied for support to the Student Loans Company (SLC), rather than to their local authority, and therefore we can only provide data for this year. The National Audit Office(1) found that the SLC took an average of 12.4 weeks to process new applications.
(1) The Customer First Programme: Delivery of Student Finance - Report by National Audit Office, page 5 - point 6, 19 March 2010.
Work and Pensions
Attendance Allowance: Na-h-Eileanan an Iar
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people in Na-h-Eileanan an Iar constituency received attendance allowance in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2008-09 and (c) 2007-08. [325847]
Jonathan Shaw: The available information is in the table:
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