§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the public service agreement target on UK performance in transposition of EU single market measures. [23167]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe UK had transposed 97.2 per cent. of EU single market measures due by November 2001. Work is in hand across Government on this and we expect to exceed the PSA target in 2002.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on the number of successful high growth business start ups. [23175]
§ Nigel GriffithsFor the purposes of this target high growth is defined as achieving annual sales of £1 million or more, or employing 10 or more people, by the fourth year of trading. Latest data from the Inter Departmental Business Register maintained by the Office for National Statistics show the figure for 1997–98 was 12,600 and for 1998–99 was 12,800.
Due to the long time lags inherent in this target, it is too soon to establish further progress.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on productivity and profitability of small and medium sized enterprises assisted by Business Link partnerships. [23176]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe last Business Link Value for Money study in 1997 showed that after allowing for wider positive and negative effects, it is estimated that Business Links have generated at the national level more than 8,000 jobs, nearly £1 billion extra business turnover, more than £300 million extra profits, £145 million worth of extra net assets and nearly £400 million of extra exports in the last three years. The targets is to improve on this each year. Another VFM study is planned in 2002 to compare with the original study.
Year on year progress is being monitored by SBS using business data provided by Business Links. The monitoring system was only recently established so no year on year data are available yet. First comparative data are expected in February 2002.
Various quality measures are being introduced to monitor both customer satisfaction with Business Link Services and the Business Link operators themselves.
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§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on performance against a set of competitiveness indicators. [23177]
§ Ms HewittThe DTI published its most recent assessment of progress in "UK Competitiveness Indicators: Second Edition", a copy of which is available in the Libraries of the House. The DTI is currently working on an update of the "UK Competitiveness Indicators" to be published next year.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on the productivity gap relative to other industrialised countries. [23178]
§ Ms HewittThe most recent ONS data shows that in 2000, UK productivity on both a "per worker" and "per hour worked" basis was lower than in France, Germany and the US. However, since 1997, the productivity gap on both a per worker and per hour basis has closed slightly with France and Germany. The gap with the US has remained broadly the same on a per hour basis, but has widened on the per worker measure. This is largely the result of the exceptional growth experienced by the US during the second half of the 1990s. The productivity data is available from the December 2001 ONS publication "Economic Trends", available from the Libraries of the House.
The Government's aim is to close the productivity gap through policies to encourage enterprise, innovation, investment, competition and the acquisition of skills. The policies have been designed to correct long-standing problems and so we should not expect to see results immediately. However, the slight narrowing of the productivity gap with our European competitors is encouraging.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on the number of UK small and medium sized enterprises connected to the digital market place. [23174]
§ Mr. AlexanderThe number of UK SMEs which are "connected" (i.e. have a website, or use external e-mail or Electronic Data Interchange) is now 1.9 million, up from 1.7 million in 2000, and 600,000 in 1999. This is well in excess of the Government target of having 1.5 million SMEs connected by 2002.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the Public Service Agreement target on electronic trading. [23169]
§ Mr. AlexanderThe recently published International Benchmarking Study showed that 540,000 UK businesses are trading online, up by 90,000 since 2000.
§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on progress with the target on the Radio Communications Agency financial efficiency, between 1998–99 and 2002–03. [23161]
§ Mr. AlexanderUnder the DTI Public Service Agreement the Radiocommunications Agency has a target to achieve a gain in financial efficiency of 20 per cent. over the five-year period 1998–99 to 2002–03.
267WThe Agency achieved annual gains of five per cent. in each of the year's 1998–99,1999–2000 and 2000–01. It's latest Corporate Plan for 2001–02 to 2005–06 set targets of three per cent. for 2001–02 and two per cent. for 2002–03 which if met will ensure it delivers the overall target of efficiency gains of 20 per cent.