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166059

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
answering body	Women and Equalities
answering dept id	31
answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
hansard heading	Females: Directors
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Ministers for Women and Equalities, what estimate her Department has made of the overall change in women's representation in boardrooms in the private sector in the UK between 1984 and 2014.
tabling member constituency	East Londonderry
tabling member printed	Mr Gregory Campbell
uin	215897
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/11/2014 answer text <p>The Government supports Cranfield University which produces the Female FTSE report. This measures progress annually of the female representation on UK listed boards.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>· In 1999 the proportion of women directors was 6.29%. This included female Executive Directors (EDs) at 2.02% and Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) at 10.82%. In 2000 the proportion of female directors had fallen to 5.81%.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>· In 2011 the Government established the Lord Davies Review when the number of women on FTSE boards was still only 12.5%.</p><p> </p><p>· The latest figures published in November show almost a doubling of these figures since 2011. Nearly 23% (249) of directors in the FTSE100 are now women. Of these 8.4% (24) are executive directors and 27.9% (225) are non-executive directors. There are now no all-male boards left in the FTSE100 and we are on track to meet the target set by Lord Davies of 25% women on boards by 2015.</p><p> </p><p>With the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), Government also funds Cranfield University to monitor corporate governance practices in respect of whether companies are complying with the changes in the FRC code. The last report was launched by the Minister for Women and Equalities on 5 November. The report shows progress is being made in the FTSE 100 companies with 85% having a clear policy on boardroom diversity in comparison to 65% last year. The Government wants to see all companies addressing every point of the new Code in their reporting.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 28/11/2014 12:48:14 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	1409 label Biography information for Mr Gregory Campbell

166060

registered interest
date	25/11/2014
answering body	Women and Equalities
answering dept id	31
answering dept short name	Women and Equalities
answering dept sort name	Women and Equalities
hansard heading	Human Rights: Females
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Ministers for Women and Equalities, what recent discussions she has had with her international counterparts on protecting the rights of women and girls overseas.
tabling member constituency	North East Hertfordshire
tabling member printed	Sir Oliver Heald
uin	215837
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 28/11/2014 answer text <p>We participate in the Commission on the Status of Women, which is the principal global event on women’s rights organised by the UN. My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Minister for Women and Equalities, recently returned from the US where she had a meeting with the Executive Director of UN Women, and others active in the field, to discuss the forthcoming session, which will be held in March next year.</p><p> </p><p>In the summer we hosted two global events – a summit with a focus on preventing sexual violence in conflict, which generated strong international support; and a girl summit, which brought together a range of international stakeholders to accelerate momentum in tackling child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation<strong>. </strong></p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 28/11/2014 10:35:54 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	69 label Biography information for Sir Oliver Heald

164308

registered interest
date	24/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Electronic Government
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Brighton, Kemptown
tabling member printed	Simon Kirby
uin	215655
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2014 answer text <p>A number of BIS services are available online including transaction services (e.g. filing information and accounts at Companies House), as well as online guidance available on GOV.UK and information on BIS services. BIS also uses digital channels to engage stakeholders in developing policy making.</p><p>BIS is committed to the vision set out in the Government Digital Strategy, publishing its own digital strategy in 2012. BIS and Partner Organisations have embarked on a digital transformation programme that by 2020 will ensure that all services that can be redesigned as such will be 'digital by default' and available on GOV.UK. They will be redesigned around the needs of users i.e. businesses, students, employees and consumers.</p><p>As a critical first step, BIS is playing a key role as part of the Government's Digital Exemplar Programme covering organisations with services that have over 100k transactions annually. BIS provides 5 of the 25 exemplar services. These are:</p><ul><li>Patents Renewal (Intellectual Property Office (IPO))</li><li>Redundancy Payments (Insolvency Service)</li><li>Land Registry Digital Delivery Service</li><li>Apprenticeships (Skills Funding Agency)</li><li>Part-Time Student Finance (Student Loans Company)</li></ul><p>Each of these services have or are being redesigned to be digital by default. Two are already live - Patents Renewal and Part-Time Student Finance - and the remaining three will be publicly available by end March 2015.</p><p>Beyond the exemplar services, The BIS Digital and Technology 2020 roadmap will identify all current non-digital services across BIS and Partner Organisations that need to be redesigned to be digital by default by 2020 along with the estimated timelines for development and online availability.</p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 27/11/2014 15:37:12 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	3929 label Biography information for Simon Kirby

164115

registered interest
date	21/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Scottish Power
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how he plans to keep the people who lost money following the failure of firms involved in Scottish Power's cashback warranty scheme updated on progress on the review of whether there will be further investigations of that matter.
tabling member constituency	Liverpool, Walton
tabling member printed	Steve Rotheram
uin	215591
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The outcome and recommendations of the review have just been passed to me and I will need to consider them. Any enquiry into this matter may be by way of a publicly announced inspection or a confidential investigation. If a public inspection is to be carried out this will be announced in due course.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 26/11/2014 15:22:25 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	4035 label Biography information for Steve Rotheram

156913

registered interest
date	20/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Insolvency
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effect on financial redress for creditors from April 2015 of changes to funding of insolvency litigation in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
tabling member constituency	Chesterfield
tabling member printed	Toby Perkins
uin	215424
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/11/2014 answer text <p>Insolvency trade body, R3, commissioned research to try to measure the impact of the civil justice reforms on insolvency litigation. This research estimates that contingency fee arrangement backed insolvency litigation realises £150m-160m per annum.</p><p>When the exemption for insolvency proceedings was introduced in 2013 the impact assessment made the assumption that by April 2015 alternative funding arrangements would have been developed for insolvency cases. On that basis it was assumed there would be no major impact on the volume of insolvency cases which were pursued, or on the value of assets recovered in the long-run, although the risk of recoveries falling was acknowledged.</p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 27/11/2014 15:41:30 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	3952 label Biography information for Mr Toby Perkins

156916

registered interest
date	20/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Insolvency
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the effect of the changes to insolvency litigation in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 on the Government's ability to tackle director misconduct.
tabling member constituency	Chesterfield
tabling member printed	Toby Perkins
uin	215435
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2014 answer text <p>Ministers are regularly in touch about matters in which they have a common interest.</p><p> </p><p>The changes in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 are not expected to have any impact on the c.1, 200 directors we disqualify every year as a result of actions brought by officials in The Insolvency Service.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 25/11/2014 13:33:49 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	3952 label Biography information for Mr Toby Perkins

156917

registered interest
date	20/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Post Office Card Account
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the future of the Post Office card account after March 2015.
tabling member constituency	Colne Valley
tabling member printed	Jason McCartney
uin	215421
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 26/11/2014 answer text <p>The Post Office card account is a matter for the Department for Work and Pensions. The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills does not have a role in commercial negotiations between other Departments and Post Office Ltd.</p><p> </p><p>Post Office Ltd and the Department for Work and Pensions are currently discussing the future of the Post Office card account and an announcement will be made when these discussions are concluded.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 26/11/2014 15:21:53 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	3953 label Biography information for Jason McCartney

156919

registered interest
date	20/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Postal Services
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent representations he has received form private sector mail delivery companies on delivering mail in urban areas of the UK; and what assessment he has made of the effect of such proposals on the Royal Mail's ability to deliver Universal Service Provision in rural areas.
tabling member constituency	Vale of Clwyd
tabling member printed	Chris Ruane
uin	215390
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2014 answer text <p>Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Ministers and officials meet intermittently with representatives of UK postal companies, though there have not been any recent representations from such operators specifically on the issue of delivering mail in urban areas of the country.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Under the Postal Services Act 2011, Parliament gave Ofcom as an experienced and independent regulator the primary statutory duty to secure the provision of the universal service to all addresses – urban and rural – in the UK. Ofcom maintains an ongoing monitoring regime which tracks Royal Mail’s performance and any actual or potential market impacts on the provision of the universal service. Ofcom has said that their own evidence clearly shows that the service is not currently under threat.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Ofcom has been reviewing the case which Royal Mail has been making about the potential impact of competition on their ability to provide that service and is expected to make a statement very shortly. More information about Ofcom’s regulatory regime can be found on its website (<a href="http://www.ofcom.org.uk/" target="_blank">www.ofcom.org.uk/</a>).</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The BIS Select Committee is currently carrying out an inquiry into postal competition in the UK and postal operators have recently submitted their evidence on market competition to inform the inquiry. Copies of written submissions can be found on Parliament’s website (<a href="http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-innovation-and-skills/inquiries/parliament-2010/competition-in-the-uk-postal-sector-/?type=Written#pnlPublicationFilter" target="_blank">http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/business-innovation-and-skills/inquiries/parliament-2010/competition-in-the-uk-postal-sector-/?type=Written#pnlPublicationFilter</a>).</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 25/11/2014 13:43:59 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	534 label Biography information for Chris Ruane

156924

registered interest
date	20/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Motor Vehicles: Insurance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much and what proportion of the total annual expenditure of the Competition and Markets Authority was spent on activities relating to the motor insurance market in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Northfield
tabling member printed	Richard Burden
uin	215383
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2014 answer text <p>The Competition and Markets Authority became the UK’s lead competition and consumer body in April 2014, combining the Competition Commission (CC) with many of the functions of the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). It does not keep records of its expenditure by market. However, based on approximate time allocations and all-inclusive staff costs, and taking into account some external costs such as the cost of commissioning surveys, the total cost of the CC/CMA market inquiry into private motor insurance (which ran from 28 September 2012 to 24 September 2014) was approximately £2million. On the assumption that this cost was spread evenly over time, this would have represented approximately 4% of the CC’s costs in 2013/14.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 25/11/2014 13:26:38 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	301 label Biography information for Richard Burden

156926

registered interest
date	20/11/2014
answering body	Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept id	26
answering dept short name	Business, Innovation and Skills
answering dept sort name	Business, Innovation and Skills
hansard heading	Motor Vehicles: Insurance
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how much and what proportion of the total annual expenditure of the Financial Reporting Council was spent on activities relating to the motor insurance market in each of the last 10 years for which figures are available.
tabling member constituency	Birmingham, Northfield
tabling member printed	Richard Burden
uin	215385
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2014 answer text <p>I understand that the Hon Member has already been in correspondence with the Financial Reporting Council (FRC) on this issue.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>The FRC publishes annual reports on its activity and in addition reports to parliament on the exercise of its statutory functions.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency East Dunbartonshire answering member printed Jo Swinson question first answered 25/11/2014 13:22:12 answering member 1513 label Biography information for Jo Swinson
tabling member	301 label Biography information for Richard Burden