§ Mr. SteenTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what estimate he has made of the annual saving which will accrue to business from the deregulation(a) Fair Trading Act 1973 Amendment, Merger 544W and what contribution his Department has made towards the annual running costs in each of the past three years in respect of (1) Companies House, (2) the Radio Communications Agency, (3) the Office of Fair Trading, (4) the Export Licensing Unit, (5) the National Weights and Measures Laboratory and (6) the Engineering Inspectorate. [2741]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansThe amount of statutory fees and charges that were appropriated in aid of my Department's gross running cost provision in 1994–95 was £37.8 million. The late filing penalties collected by my Department's Companies House executive agency amounted to £16.7 million in the same period. These are treated as Consolidated Fund extra receipts and are therefore surrendered to the Treasury.
The information requested on total staff numbers is set out in the table: Disaggregated figures for (4) are not available.
Reference Time Limits Order 1995, (b) Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976 (Amendments) Variation of Exempt Agreements Order 1995, (c) Restrictive Trade Practices Act 1976 (Amendment) Time Limits Order 1995 and (d) Resolutions of Private Companies Order 1995; and what were the costs involved in repairing the cost-benefit assessment contained in the explanatory memorandum in respect of each. [2027]
§ Mr. Lang[holding answer 27 November 1995]: The estimates of cost savings have been considered in the respective explanatory documents. For the first two orders, savings are not readily quantifiable but include savings in management time, the cost of legal advice, and, for the second order, the potentially high cost of remaking an entire agreement; for the third order, the estimated saving is around £100,000 per year. All three orders provide substantial benefits for business by reducing uncertainty or the consequences of accidental error or oversight. The fourth order will also bring significant but not precisely quantifiable savings from speedier decision-taking, including reduced administrative and legal costs. Each cost-benefit assessment derived from the mandatory consultation with business and other interested bodies. The costs involved in preparing them were the normal costs of officials' time associated with any such exercise.