Asked by: Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how often the Retail Sector Council meets; and whether the dates of these meetings are in the public domain.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
The Retail Sector Council meets approximately three times a year. They first met in March, then June and November of 2018. Their next meeting is scheduled for February.
The UK retail sector is one of the largest employers in the country, with a workforce of over three million and accounting for around 5.1% of economic output with sales of nearly £360 billion in 2017.
The latest ONS retail briefing shows that for the whole of 2018, retail sales in terms of quantity bought increased by 2.7% and Total Retail sales in 2018 increased to £368bn in 2018, an increase of 3%, but we and the Council recognise that the sector faces some key challenges.
The Council is prioritising its work to address the key challenges facing the sector and will initially focus on; costs to business, skills and lifelong learning, employment protection, consumer protection, the circular economy and the Industrial Strategy. The priority areas were selected by the industry and each workstream will be led by a senior industry figure.
Asked by: Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to his letter of 25 September 2018 to the right hon. Member for Delyn on Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, when he plans to provide an update.
Answered by Kelly Tolhurst
BEIS officials have continued to receive information on this matter from the rt. hon. Member’s constituent, and from RBS. I will write to the rt. hon. Member shortly with a further update.
Asked by: Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the average length of time was for an application for a patent submitted to the Intellectual Property Office to be (a) granted and (b) dismissed in each year since 2010.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
(a) For patents granted in the years 2010-2018, the average time from filing of the patent application to grant was:-
Grant Year | Days to Grant | Approx Months to Grant |
2010 | 1071 | 35 |
2011 | 1077 | 35 |
2012 | 1015 | 33 |
2013 | 923 | 30 |
2014 | 954 | 31 |
2015 | 1038 | 34 |
2016 | 1120 | 37 |
2017 | 1186 | 39 |
2018 | 1241 | 41 |
(b) Few unsuccessful patent applications are formally dismissed, with most simply expiring through failure to comply with the Patents Act within a prescribed period. Measurement of this time period does not, therefore provide a meaningful metric.
Asked by: Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many staff were employed at the Intellectual Property Office in each year since 2010.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The headcount at the Intellectual Property Office from 01 April 2010 is as follows:
Date | Headcount |
01/04/2010 | 907 |
01/04/2011 | 899 |
01/04/2012 | 920 |
01/04/2013 | 982 |
01/04/2014 | 1017 |
01/04/2015 | 1108 |
01/04/2016 | 1169 |
01/04/2017 | 1171 |
01/04/2018 | 1215 |
Asked by: Lord Hanson of Flint (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many applications for a patent lodged at the Intellectual Property Office have been pending a decision for over (a) two, (b) three and (c) 4 years.
Answered by Sam Gyimah
The number of patent applications which have been pending a decision for over two, three and four years are:
(a) Over two years: 8233
(b) Over three years: 3863
(c) Over four years: 1241
The IPO has a Ministerial Target, offering faster handling of patent applications by providing an examination report with a search report when both are requested at the application date, and meeting at least 90% of requests for an accelerated two-month turnaround for search, publication and examination. All requests to receive the search and examination reports together are acceded to; and 97% of all accelerated examination requests have been completed within 2 months of request for the current financial year.