§ Mr. GibbTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry when he will publish regulations required under the EU Nickel Directive (94/27/EC).[126815]
§ Mr. Alan JohnsonI plan to sign and lay before Parliament by the end of June the Dangerous Substances and Preparations (Nickel) (Safety) Regulations 2000, which will implement the Nickel Directive (94/27/EC).
Total number of businesses helped by Business Links—1998–99 Quarter 1 Quarter 2 Quarter 3 Quarter 4 Average England 88,754 93,920 102,267 108,639 98,395 Eastern 10,706 10,999 11,908 11,986 11,400 East Midlands 6,372 6,387 6,800 7,076 6,659 London 8,716 8,851 10,837 11,473 9,969 North East 4,658 4,309 4,389 4,992 4,587 North West 16,959 19,401 19,034 19,531 18,731 South East 14,075 14,684 15,803 16,366 15,232 South West 7,615 8,799 10,915 11,186 9,629 West Midlands 10,714 11,876 12,699 13,887 12,294 Yorks and Humber 8,939 8,614 9,882 12,142 9,894 Part of the SBS performance Information requirement is to count all businesses using Business Link services for non-trivial activity. Only one use per business is recorded during each quarter. The first repeat use by a business of Business Link Services in a later quarter is also recorded. Because a business can appear more than once during the year, figures cannot be totalled across quarters to provide cumulative figures without double counting.