1. The Trade and Industry Committee is appointed to examine on behalf of the House of Commons the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and any associated public bodies. We carry out our work by taking evidence from relevant interests. This may be oral, or written, or both. The Government has to reply to any Report we make to the House within two months of its publication. The Committee, along with the Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees, is also a participant in the 'Quadripartite Committee' which scrutinises the Government's strategic export control regime.

2. As a result of an initiative by the Liaison Committee of the House of Commons, our predecessors produced annual reports on the work of the Trade and Industry Committee during the last Parliament. Because of the general election in 2005, we did not issue a similar Report at this time last year. As a result, this Report covers a longer period than usual—from the nomination of the members of the Committee in July 2005 till the end of December 2006.

3. We undertook fourteen inquiries during the period, excluding our work as part of the Quadripartite Committee which is described below.[1] We published eight Reports, including three in which we revisited issues on which our predecessors had reported. We completed another four inquiries: into local energy generation—on which we reported in January 2007;[2] and into the reasons for success and failure in the UK car industry, UK dependence on coal and gas imports, and the work of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service—on which Reports will be published as early as possible in 2007. In addition, we have held 'one-off' evidence sessions—on the Annual Plan of Ofcom (the telecommunications regulator), which we conducted concurrently with the Culture, Media and Sport Committee in May 2006; and, in October 2005 and again in October 2006, on the Departmental Annual Reports of the DTI for 2005 and 2006 respectively. We will continue to take evidence for a further seven inquiries early in 2007. A summary of the topics we have covered is set out in Table 1 below.Table 1: Subjects covered by the Trade and Industry Committee in 2005-06

Subject	Evidence Sessions in 2005-06	Outcome
DTI Departmental Annual Report 2005	1	Evidence, October 2005
Security of gas supply	1	Report, December 2005
Royal Mail after Liberalisation	3	Report, December 2005
European Commission's negotiating strategy for the World Trade Organisation Hong Kong Ministerial Conference	2	Evidence, November and December 2005
Subject	Evidence Sessions in 2005-06	Outcome
Work of Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS)	1	Report to be published
Trade and Investment Opportunities with India	6	Report, June 2006
Ofcom Annual Plan[3]	1	Evidence, May 2006
New Nuclear? Examining the Issues	6	Report, July 2006
Export Credit Guarantee Department's bribery rules	2	Report, July 2006
Export Credit Guarantee Department's bribery rules: follow up	0	Report, October 2006
Work of the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency and United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority	1	Report, August 2006
Royal Mail Group	1	Report, October 2006
UK dependence on gas and coal imports	8	Report to be published
Local Energy: turning consumers into producers	3	Report, January 2007
Reasons for Success and Failure in the UK Automotive Industry	3	Report to be published
DTI Annual Report 2006	1	Evidence, October 2006
Trade and Investment Opportunities with Mercosur	1	Evidence, November 2006
Manufacturing industry in the UK: skills shortages	1	Evidence, December 2006
Manufacturing industry in the UK: Marketing UK plc—the Work of UKTI	1	Evidence, December 2006
Manufacturing industry in the UK: Public procurement	1	Evidence, December 2006
Implementation of the Report of the Women and Work Commission	0	Sub-Committee established. Oral evidence to be taken in 2007
Recent developments with Airbus	0	Oral evidence to be taken in 2007
Strategic Export Controls: Annual Report for 2004, Quarterly Reports for 2005, Licensing Policy and Parliamentary Scrutiny[4]	5	Report, August 2006

4. We could not have undertaken such a work programme without the contributions and co-operation of witnesses, Ministers, and officials in the DTI and other government departments and agencies in the UK, and in Foreign and Commonwealth Office posts in the countries which we visited in the course of our inquiries. We would like to thank all those who have helped us in our work .

2   Local energy-turning consumers into producers,First Report of Session 2006-07, HC 257 Back

3   Inquiry undertaken concurrently with the Culture, Media and Sport Committee Back

4   Inquiry undertaken concurrently with the Defence, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees Back