§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what meetings she has had with the Small Business Council since 1997; and what response she has made to the recommendations contained in the SBC's first annual report. [5367]
§ Nigel GriffithsThe then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and I attended the first Small Business Council (SBC) meeting in May 2000. Since then my right hon. Friend and I have had several meetings with William Sargent, Chairman of the SBC. William Sargent met me and presented the first Annual Report of the SBC to me on 12 July 2001.
321WSome of the recommendations in the SBC report impact on several other Government Departments (HM Treasury, Cabinet Office and DfES) as well as the DTI. A copy of the SBC report has gone to these Departments for comment and my Department will provide a co-ordinated response to the SBC recommendations in the autumn.
§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what arrangements she intends to make for awarding licences for broadband fixed wireless access at 28 GHz that remained unsold after last November's spectrum auction. [5973]
§ Mr. AlexanderI intend to make available in September all of the licences that remained unsold after last year's auction. This will allow the provision of competitive services throughout the UK.
The key features of the award process will be:
Licences will be open for bids initially for a 12-month period.Applications will be invited for licences in specified regions, with bids at no less than the reserve prices.The first application for a licence in a region will be publicised and other applications invited within 20 working days. If there are no competing applicants for any of the licences on offer in the region all applicants will be awarded licences, subject to pre-qualification and associated bidder checks.If there are competing demands for a licence a simple multiple round auction will be held for all available licences in a region to determine which bidders will be awarded licences.Unsold licences will remain available until the closure of the 12-month period for applications.A successful bidder will be able to hold just one licence in each licence region, but will be able to hold a licence in any number of licence regions. The conditions attached to the licences, including the reserve prices, will be those applying to the licences sold in last year's auction.I will be publishing shortly draft regulations to be made under section 3 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 1998 to provide for this award process. There will be a period of 28 days for comments to be received. With the draft regulations I will also publish for comment a draft of the notice that I intend to issue under the regulations. The notice will set out the detailed arrangements for the award process and will include the date from which applications may be made. I will place copies of the draft regulations and the draft notice in the Libraries of the House. I hope to lay the regulations before Parliament by the end of August.