Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 15 June 2004, Official Report, column 835W, on the STEPS agreement, whether the payments made to Mapeley STEPS Ltd. in each year to April (a) 2002, (b) 2003 and (c) 2004 were provided for in the contract which commenced on 2 April 2001.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will deposit in the Library a copy of the instruments of the transfer of sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the interim Government of Iraq.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what criteria formed the basis of the EU's recent decision that China is not a market economy.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list the areas of shared competence within the EU Constitutional Treaty where a unanimous decision of the member states will be required to enable the Union to acquire sole competence.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the members of the Advisory Panel on Country Information.
Mr Denzil Davies: Is my hon. Friend aware that AXA Insurance and Denplan are the main private providers of dentistry in Britain, with about 30 per cent. of the dentistry market? In Llanelli, the market share is close to 100 per cent. If the trend continues and is not arrested, does he agree that there will be very little left of NHS dentistry, in Wales or Britain as a whole?
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the lone parent employment rate is as a percentage of the total employment rate in Wales.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in Wales are benefiting from (a) the child tax credit and (b) the child benefit.
Mr Denzil Davies: Now that sovereignty in Iraq has been transferred from the coalition, would an Iraqi Government be free to acquire, produce or indeed hold weapons of mass destruction, or will the instruments of transfer contain a stipulation to prevent that?
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what mechanism is in place to monitor whether the estimated total savings from the STEPS agreement is being periodically met.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many days were lost in his Department through sickness absence in each of the three latest years for which figures are available.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make ex gratia payments to Mr. Paul Thomas and Mr. David Morgan, former employees of Corus, whose cases have been the subject of correspondence with her Department.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many days were lost in her Department through sickness absence in the year ending 31 March 2004.
Mr Denzil Davies: The debate has, naturally, focused on the constitutional treaty—I am happy to call it that—and the negotiations that will take place in the next few days and may continue into the weekend. As experience has shown over the past 30 years, the final outcome will no doubt depend upon haggling and late-night compromises, which have been the hallmark of the negotiations. At the end, if there is...
Mr Denzil Davies: I shall briefly mention the Lisbon agenda in a moment. The point that I am trying to make—I do not really need to make it, as my hon. Friend agrees—is clear. In Germany, unemployment is currently at 10.5 per cent.—and that is in the summer. The average unemployment rate for the EU of 15 member states is about 8 per cent., and it is far greater for the EU of 25 members. I am not quite...
Mr Denzil Davies: I asked some Irish friends that question some time ago at a conference. Being charming and Irish, they said, "Mr. Davies, Ireland is crawling these days with economists trying to find an answer to that question." If one looks at the core, one sees that the problems are very great. Analysts have suggested that the European Union's GDP per head is now about 60 per cent. that of the United...
Mr Denzil Davies: I am sorry; one has to be very careful with the language. As far as I can see, behind the words, the Lisbon agenda basically says, "Well you, France, Germany and Italy, must dismantle your welfare states." I think that that is what it says in general terms. It mentions what are called inflexible labour laws. Opposition Members will no doubt approve of that sort of Wall Street Journal agenda,...
Mr Denzil Davies: I was not making either case but my arguments have obviously been insufficiently lucid; otherwise, my hon. Friend would not have asked that question. I was trying to make the point that the macro-economic structure is ossified—it cannot go in one direction or the other. I should like it to move in the direction of decentralisation and more power reverting to member states. I do not believe...
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total value of surplus or deficit accruing to the European Union from trade with Japan was in each of the three latest years for which figures are available.
Mr Denzil Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the value of the surplus or deficit accruing to the European Union from trading with (a) India and (b) China was in each of the last three years for which figures are available.
