Advisory Bodies (Hansard, 6 December 1994)

§ Mr. Harvey
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the number of meetings held, the secretarial and advisory arrangements, the budgeted and actual expenditure and the subjects of any reports and submissions produced by the Overseas Projects Board in each of the last three years.

§ Mr. Needham
The Overseas Projects Board met five times in 1992, four times in 1993 and three times in 1994, including one scheduled for 7 December. The DTI provides a small secretariat. The only costs are those associated with arrangements for meetings, which are marginal. The board provides advice to Ministers and to Government officials in plenary meetings and, occasionally, in smaller ad-hoc groups. It does not currently produce submissions and reports.

§ Mr. Harvey
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the number of meetings held, the secretarial and advisory arrangements, the budgeted and actual expenditure and the subjects of any reports and submissions produced by the engineering technology advisory committee in each of the last three years.

§ Mr. Eggar
The engineering technology advisory committee—ETAC—was established in 1990 to advise the DTI on its support policy for engineering technology. Its only report was produced in 1993 and contained the committee's views on future strategy in this area.
The committee met on six occasions from 6 September 1991 until its dissolution in October 1993. Secretarial support for it was provided by the Department. The actual expenditure incurred by the 14 members of the Committee related to travel expenses only and amounted to a total of £4,918.70 over its two-year life.

§ Mr. Harvey
To ask the President of the Board of Trade if he will publish a table showing the number of meetings held, the secretarial and advisory arrangements, the budgeted and actual expenditure and the subjects of any reports and submissions produced by the monitoring committee on misleading price indications in each of the last three years.

§ Mr. Ian Taylor
The monitoring committee on misleading price indications was disbanded in May 1993. The committee reported to Ministers in December 1991 and subsequently convened once in February 1992 to discuss its report with the then Minister for Consumer Affairs. A working group formed from the committee to examine service charges in hotels and restaurants met once, in February 1992, and reported to Ministers in August 1992. Both the committee and the working group were chaired and serviced by officials from the Department of Trade and Industry. No other costs were incurred.