§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many residents of the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale have benefited from a reduction of the working week to 48 hours; and what percentage of those are(a) women and (b) of Asian origin. [178516]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe Working Time Regulations provide workers with the right to refuse to work more than 48 hours on average, if they do not want to. Numbers for Rochdale are not available, however it has been estimated that around 300,000 workers resident in the North West stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998.
(a) Around 30,000 (10 per cent.) of the workers in the North West who stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998 were female.(b) The number of workers in the North West who stood to benefit from the introduction of the weekly working time limits in 1998 of Asian origin was too small to provide a reliable estimate.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the benefits to the residents of the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale of the new rights for nightshift workers. [178517]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe Working Time Regulations came into force on 1 October 1998. The regulations limit working time to 48 hours per week averaged over a 17-week reference period. For night workers the limit is eight hours per day on average, including overtime where it is part of a night worker's normal hours of work. There is no opt-out from the night working time limit.
Night workers are entitled to 11 hours rest between working days, one day's rest per week, and a 20-minute in work rest break if the working period is longer than six hours.
All night workers should be offered a free health assessment before they start working nights and thereafter at regular intervals for as long as they are working nights. The health assessments should take account of the nature of the work and the restrictions on a worker's working time under the regulations. Workers who suffer from problems as a result of working at night, should as far as practicable be offered alternative day work.
All workers are entitled to four weeks paid annual leave. There is no specific data available for night shift workers in Rochdale.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what steps the Government have taken to help small businesses in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale since 1997. [178562]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe Business Link Operator for North Manchester has provided assistance to 1,795 enterprises in the constituency of Rochdale since 2001. The Small Business Service was set up as an agency of the Department of Trade and Industry in April 2000. Contracts were exchanged with a national network of 45 Business Link Operators (seven in the North West) to provide Business Support to small and medium sized824W enterprises from April 2001. Before this date Government Support to businesses was provided through Training and Enterprise Councils and the Small Business Service does not have access to this data.
The type of assistance provided to the 1,795 companies include Business Finance, Environmental, E-services, High Growth, International trade, Innovation and Technology, Micro Support, Workforce Development and other Account Management assistance.
Under the Enterprise Grant scheme (EGS), which has now come to a close (April 2004), 27 companies have received offers of grant with a total value of £994,500 since 1997.
Under the Research and Development grant scheme (R&D), six companies have received offers of grant with a total value of £325,776.
§ Mrs. FitzsimonsTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many new businesses have started up in the parliamentary constituency of Rochdale since 1997 and what percentage are run by(a) women and (b) people of Asian origin. [178563]
§ Nigel GriffithsBarclays Bank's latest survey of business creation includes non-VAT registered firms and shows that there were 115,000 business start ups in England and Wales, including 400 in Rochdale local authority (for which Rochdale is a constituency), in the last quarter of 2003. Data for local authorities are not available for before 2003.
The latest yearly figures show 465,000 business start ups in England and Wales in 2003. This represents a 19 per cent. increase on the year before.
DTI figures based solely on VAT registrations for Rochdale local authority (for which Rochdale is a constituency) are shown as follows for the period 1997 to 2002. Data for 2003 will be available in autumn 2004.
VAT registrations per year-Rochdale Number 1997 480 1998 455 1999 440 2000 430 2001 455 2002 465 Source: Business Start-ups and Closures: VAT Registrations and De-registrations 1994-2002. Small Business Service, available from www.sbs.gov.uk/analytical/statistics/vatstats.php. The figures are also in the Library of the House. VAT registrations do not capture all start-up activity. Businesses are unlikely to be registered if they fall below the compulsory VAT threshold, which has risen in each year since 1997. Similarly, businesses that de-register will not necessarily have closed. Only 1.8 million out of 3.8 million enterprises were registered for VAT at the start of 2002.
The numbers of businesses starting in Rochdale that are run by women, or people of Asian origin, are not available.
825WThe Small Business Service Omnibus Survey from autumn 2002 estimates that the proportion of businesses in England with one to 249 employees, with a majority of women in control of the business, is 13 per cent.; and the proportion of businesses in England with one to 249 employees, with a majority of people of Asian origin (Bangladeshi, Indian or Pakistani) in control of the business, is 3 per cent.