Hansard - United Kingdom Parliament

113W
Written Answers
20 JUNE 2011
Written Answers
114W
Apprenticeship places are secured through a range of
sources. Between August 2010 and January 2011 there
were 213,400 1 apprenticeship starts in England.
1
Information on the number of apprenticeship starts is published
in a quarterly statistical first release (SFR). The latest SFR was
published on 31 March:
http://www.thedataservice.org.uk/statistics/statistical firstrelease/
sfr_current
Banks: Loans
Chris Leslie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business,
Innovation and Skills (1) whether HSBC Holdings plc
are subject to the Project Merlin agreement that bankers’
remuneration would be linked to lending targets; [61063]
(2) who signed the Project Merlin agreement on
behalf of the banks; [61064]
(3) which individuals are subject to the Project
Merlin agreement that bankers’ remuneration would be
linked to lending targets. [61065]
Mr Prisk: The Merlin commitment to lending has
been made by Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group,
The Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander.
Lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs)
will be part of the performance metrics of each bank’s
chief executive and those of the senior managers responsible
for business lending.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and
Skills, my right hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham
(Vince Cable), has written to each of the bank’s chairman
to ask them to explain clearly how their incentives for
senior managers are linked to SME lending.
Business
Christopher Pincher: To ask the Secretary of State for
Business, Innovation and Skills how many people
representing small and medium-sized businesses located
in (a) the UK, (b) Staffordshire and (c) Tamworth
constituency (i) he, (ii) Ministers in his Department and
(iii) officials in his Department have met in the last 12
months. [59976]
Mr Prisk: BIS Ministers and officials regularly engage
with organisations and individuals representing small
and medium sized enterprises from across the UK. This
includes regular meetings of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum,
chaired by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State,
and the Small Business Economic Forum, which I chair.
All meetings that BIS Ministers have with external
organisations are published quarterly at
http://www.bis.gov.uk/transparency/staff
with data currently available up until December 2010.
As the lead on local enterprise partnership (LEPs)
policy, I am meeting all LEPs which include representatives
of small and medium sized businesses across England.
To date I have met with 21 partnerships and am due to
meet with the Stoke and Staffordshire LEP at the beginning
of July. BIS Local West Midlands also have regular
engagement with representatives of small and medium
businesses in Staffordshire as part of their day to day
working.
Business: Industrial Health and Safety
Simon Kirby: To ask the Secretary of State for Business,
Innovation and Skills (1) what assessment his Department
has made of the administrative requirements on businesses
arising from health and safety legislation; and if he will
make a statement; [58862]
(2) what assessment he has made of the effect of the
administrative burden of health and safety regulations
on the priority given by businesses to (a) compliance
with legislation and (b) the implementation of effective
health and safety measures; and if he will make a
statement; [58871]
(3) if his Department will assess the merits of
implementing the recommendation of the Davidson
Review that the Health and Safety Executive should
exempt the self-employed from certain health and safety
legislation in low-risk sectors. [58872]
Mr Prisk: The Department has an established working
relationship with the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
and I am delighted that this Government is implementing
the recommendations from Lord Young’s recent review
of HSE in the UK. As these questions suggest, there are
a number of ideas in circulation about how the UK’s
HSE regime could be still further improved in ways that
reduce the costs and burdens to business. I will be very
interested to see the impact of proposals developed by
the Ministry of Justice to tackle the “litigation culture”,
in the wake of Lord Justice Jackson’s consideration of
the “no win, no fee” conditional fee arrangements
(November 2010). In addition, there is a current
independent review commissioned by the Minister for
Employment my right hon. Friend the Member for
Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) of HSE legislation
which is being undertaken by Professor Ragnar Löfstedt,
Director of the Centre for Risk Management at King’s
College, London. I also look forward to hearing the
views of business and other stakeholders when the Red
Tape Challenge turns its attention to HSE at the end
of June.
Carbon Emissions
Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for
Business, Innovation and Skills what consideration he
has given to (a) including in the Green Economy
Roadmap a commitment to (i) measure and (ii) reduce
the UK’s total carbon footprint and (b) the reckoning
in the calculation of that footprint of (A) emissions
from consumption and (B) outsourced emissions
embedded in imports. [57700]
Mr Prisk [holding answer 7 June 2011]: The Green
Economy Roadmap is designed to provide businesses
with clarity about the transition to a lower carbon
economy and how it affects them; it is not the appropriate
vehicle for assessing the UK’s total carbon footprint or
weighting contributions to that footprint. The Government
will continue to monitor emissions according to current
standards.
Companies: North West
John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for Business,
Innovation and Skills what the monetary value is of
financial support received by companies in the North
West through the Regional Growth Fund. [59063]