§ Helen JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, pursuant to her answer of 11 March 2002,Official Report, column 673W, on public bodies, what information she receives on possible appointees to non-departmental public bodies prior to their appointment; and what method her Department uses to notify people of their appointment to a non-departmental public body. [44083]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 18 March 2002]:The procedures for making appointments to non-departmental public bodies are governed by the rules of the Commissioner for Public Appointments as set out in her Code. This includes the requirement for completion of an application form by each individual being considered for appointment. In addition to information relevant to the specific appointment application forms request monitoring information on ethnicity, gender and disability. It is also a requirement of the OCPA Code that information is collected from all applicants on political activity in the five years prior to application.
Individuals who are appointed through the procedures receive a letter of appointment. Details of appointees to individual bodies are made public in press releases at the time of appointment or in the annual report of the NDPB and details of all appointees are published in the Departmental Annual Expenditure Plans Report copies of which are placed in the Libraries of the House.
§ Fiona MactaggartTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many appointments to public bodies have been made through her Department(a)from April 2000 to March 2001 and (b)since 31 March 2001; and how many of these were (i) men and (ii) women. [42151]
§ Ms Hewitt[holding answer 12 March 2002]:The numbers of men and women appointed to bodies for which my Department is responsible during the periods in question are:
Period Men appointed Women appointed 1 April 2000–31 March 2001 347 129 1 April 2001–28 February 2002 207 62
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many people have been appointed by her to official bodies and NDPBs coming under the aegis of her Department in the last three years; and who they were. [33346]
391W
§ Ms HewittDetails of all individuals appointed to NDPBs falling within the responsibility of my Department are set out in the DTI's annual Expenditure Plans reports, copies of which are placed in the Libraries of the House. The reports set out the body to which the appointment has been made, the name of the appointee, the position to which they have been appointed, the period of the appointment, the remuneration where applicable and the time commitment required of the appointee.
Details for all appointments made in 1999 are given in the report for 1999–2000 published in April 2000 (Cm 4611) and those for 2000 are given in the report for 2000–01 published in March 2001 (Cm 5112). Details for
392W
£ Cost to DTI Initiative Purpose 2000–01 2001–02 The Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF) To enable HEIs to respond to the needs of business, through both the continuing development of capacity in universities to interact with business and the community (building on HEROBC1), and large, strategic, collaborative projects to strengthen university-business partnerships. n/a 20,000,000 The Science Enterprise Challenge Fund (SEC) To establish a network of centres in UK universities, specialising in the teaching and practice of commercialisation and entrepreneurialism in the field of science and technology. 15,750,000 5,782,000 The University Challenge Fund (UC) To enable universities to access seed funds in order to assist the successful transformation of good research into good business. n/a 12,500,000 The Public Sector Research Exploitation Fund (PSRE) To enable public sector research establishments to develop their capacity to exploit their science and technology potential and to access seed funding to support the commercialisation of research. n/a 10,000,000 Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) To provide a catalyst to improve economic competitiveness and productivity, while working with UK universities to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in higher education. 1,450,000 14,000,000 LINK (inc. Foresight LINK Awards) To promote research partnerships between UK industry, universities and other research base organisations. The research is pre-competitive and strategic and undertaken within a well-defined project management framework. 31,000,0002 n/a3 Business Fellowships To focus on recognising and developing creative activities carried out within HEIs to build their response to the needs of business across the full range of their academic activity. n/a 103,125 Faraday Partnerships To promote closer interaction between the UK science, engineering and technology base and industry through the involvement of intermediate organisations. To strengthen the way technology is developed and exploited within the UK by stimulating closer communication and co-operation between researchers and new product developers. 2,040,000 6,200,000 Eureka To encourage industry-led projects in applied R&D involving large and small firms, research organisations and HEIs. To contribute to development of European network infrastructure for collaborative R&D—32 members in network. 3,500,000 3,500,000 International Technology Service To ensure that British businesses are able to keep abreast of the latest developments overseas and are able to afford the costs of access—to promote technology transfer between UK businesses and international businesses. 3,760,000 5,700,000 Britech To support effective technology partnerships between UK and Israeli companies that, individually, achieve additional benefits. Also to create a climate whereby UK and Israeli firms will wish to collaborate more, with benefit to themselves and wider benefits to the UK. 600,000 700,000 appointments made in 2001 will be included in the next report for 2001–02, due to be published in May. In advance of that publication I have placed a table giving the details in the Libraries of both Houses.