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|1989
|(US$
|Million)
--------------------------------------------------------------------
UNHCR
In Pakistan |37.4
In Afghanistan |3.8
Voluntary Repatriation Scheme |13.1
ICRC
For activities within Afghanistan and in Pakistan
Swiss Francs (million) |38
NATIONAL FINANCE
Bloodstock
Mr. Bellotti : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessments he has made of the implications for the bloodstock breeding industry of the changes to the administration of value added tax due to be introduced in January 1993 ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The Government are keenly aware of the problems which the bloodstock industry faces after 1992 due to the very low rates of VAT for bloodstock in France and Ireland. My right hon. Friend the then Paymaster General had discussions with representatives of the industry in November and I shall continue those discussions following a meeting which is to take place between the Horseracing Advisory Council and officials to consider possible solutions to the industry's perceived future difficulties.
Income Tax
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what rise in income tax would be required to raise £3.6 million per day.
Mr. Maude : A yield of £3.6 million per day would be equivalent to an annual yield of about £1,300 million. Raising the basic rate of income tax by 1p would yield about £2 billion in a full year.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer by how much income tax would have to be raised to cover expenditure of £1,008 million per calendar month.
Mr. Maude : A yield of £1,008 million per calendar month would be equivalent to an annual yield of about £12,100 million. Raising the basic rate of income tax by 6p would yield about £12,500 million in a full year.
Mr. Bowis : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate for (a) the increase in revenue from income tax and (b) the increase in revenue from VAT, in the event of a 1p reduction in basic rate of income tax ; and what is his estimate for the same tax revenues in the event of a 1p reduction in higher rate of income tax.
Mr. Maude : The direct effects of a 1p change in the basic rate of income tax and a 1p change in the higher rate of income tax are given in chapter 4 of the 1990 autumn statement (Cm 1311). Estimates of the wider effects of tax changes depend on the economic model used and on assumptions about other economic policies.
Column 388
Personal Incomes
Sir Ian Gilmour : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the percentage of personal income taken by (a) income tax, (b) national insurance contributions, (c) domestic rates/community charge and (d) value added tax, in 1979 and 1990.
Mr. Norman Lamont : Figures are not yet available in respect of 1990 for these items. The percentages in 1979 and 1989 are given in the table :
As a percentage of total personal income
|1979|1989
------------------------------------------------
Income tax |12.7|12.2
National insurance contributions |6.8 |7.5
Domestic rates/community charge |2.1 |2.7
Value added tax |4.1 |5.4
Tax and Benefit Systems
Mr. Evennett : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what consideration he has given to the integration of the tax and benefit systems ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Maude : This was discussed in chapter 6 of the 1986 Green Paper "The Reform of Personal Taxation" (Cmnd 9756). I cannot, however, anticipate my right hon. Friend's Budget statement.
Taxation
Mr. Nicholas Brown : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate, on the same basis as the ready reckoner published in the autumn statement, the effect on a one-earner, two-child family of spending in 1991-92 the same sum on (a) a cut in the basic rate of income tax, (b) raising income tax thresholds above their indexed levels, (c) raising child benefit assuming (i) no change in income support and family credit rates and (ii) corresponding changes in income support and family credit rates.
Mr. Maude [holding answer 21 January 1991] : The effects of the various changes to income tax and child benefit on a married man on average earnings with two children are given in the table. In a full year each of the changes would cost £1.95 billion, the cost of a 1p cut in the basic rate of income tax. Estimates are based on projections of the 1988-89 survey of personal incomes in line with forecasts in the autumn statement.
Increase in income after tax<1>
compared with indexation in 1991-92 for a married
man<2>
on average earnings<3> with two children
|£ per
|week
-------------------------------------------------------
(a) 1p cut in basic rate |2.34
(b) Increase in main income tax allowance |1.68
(c) Increase in child benefit
(i) £6.30 per week per child<4> |12.60
(ii) £3.07 per week per child<5> |6.14
<1>Disregarding any change to entitlement to social
security income-related benefits except in item (c) (
ii).
<2>Assumed to have no reliefs and allowances other
than the personal allowance and the married couple's
allowance.
<3>Average earnings assumed to be £334.1 per week.
<4>Assuming no change in income support and family
credit children's rates.
<5>Assuming corresponding changes in income support
and family credit children's rates.
Column 389
Local Government Finance
Mr. Beith : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the Treasury's current assumptions on the level of local government current spending in England, Scotland and Wales in 1991-92, showing how much of this is financed by central Government grant, non-domestic rates and community charge, both gross and net of rebates, indicating the assumed default rate for community charge.
Mr. Mellor [holding answer 24 January 1991] : No assumptions have been made about the level of local authority current spending in 1991- 92. But the Government have given an indication of the amount of revenue expenditure they believe would be appropriate for that year (total standard spending in England and Wales, and
Government-supported expenditure in Scotland). The table shows this spending, together with the planned level of aggregate external finance, split into grant and non-domestic rate payments.
£ million
|England |Scotland|Wales
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total Standard Spending<1> |39,000 |5,447 |2,433
Financed by:
-Aggregate External Finance |26,050 |4,353 |1,936
of which
Non-domestic rates |12,408 |1,347 |525
Grant |13,642 |3,006 |1,411
-Community charge (gross) |12,950 |1,094 |497
<1>Government Supported Expenditure in Scotland.
These calculations do not require any assumption about non-collection of the community charge. The latest estimate of the cost of community charge benefit in 1991-92 in Great Britain is just over £2 billion.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 17 January to the hon. Member for Gedling (Mr. Mitchell), Official Report, column 562, what are his estimates of the savings on community charge benefit in 1991-92 as a result of the introduction of the community charge reduction scheme.
Mr. Mellor [holding answer 24 January 1991] : Some £300 million.
Mr. Ralph Howell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will tabulate, giving the date and amount in each case, any funds which the Treasury has made available to lessen the impact of the community charge since its inception and the total cost to date.
Mr. Mellor [holding answer 21 January 1991] : Table 21.4.2 of the Government's expenditure plans 1990-91 to 1992-93 (Cm. 1021) details transitional grants in Great Britain which have been made available as part of the introduction of the new local government finance regime. Table 21.4.4 shows funding under the community charge benefit scheme. Updated tables are due to be published in early February in the supplement to the autumn statement.
Announcements to date have been :
April 1989
Adjustment to income related benefits to assist community charge payments £500 (GB).
19 July 1989
Inner London education Grant 1990-91 £100 million.
Low rateable value areas grant 1990-91 £100 million.
Column 390
11 October 1989Low rateable value areas grant to be aggregated with Area protection grant from 1991-92 onwards. 1991-92 £400 million, 1992-93 £200 milion, 1993-94 £85 million (England).
Transitional relief scheme for chargepayers, 1990-91 £300 million (England).
Community charge benefit for 1990-91 £2 billion.
Other income related benefits £0.5 billion.
6 November 1989
Transitional relief scheme (Wales) for 1990-91 £17.5 million. 13 November 1989
Additional grant of £30 million for Scotland 1990-91 to protect against withdrawal of the safety net.
19 July 1990
Transitional relief scheme for 1991-92 raised from £260 million to £570 million (England).
23 July 1990
Transitional relief (Wales) for 1991-92 and 1992-93 to be £20 million.
25 July 1990
Additional area protection grant (Scotland) for 1991-92 £15 million.
17 January 1991
Community charge reduction scheme. Additional funding 1991-92 of £1,200 million (England), £65 million (Scotland) and £42 million (Wales).
Media Advisory Service
Mr. Fisher : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether the media advisory service is now operational ;
(2) what role the media advisory service has in liaising with the Ministry of Defence ;
(3) if he will list the members of the media advisory service ; (4) how many personnel, and at what grade, are employed by the media advisory service ;
(5) what is the remit of the media advisory service ; and under what guidelines does it operate ;
(6) if he will describe the role of the media advisory service in relation to reports from the Gulf.
Mr. Maples [holding answer 25 January 1991] : The media advisory service has not been activated during the present Gulf conflict. Its remit is to provide advice to media editors in time of tension and war. Personnel are not allocated to the media advisory service until it is activated. However, two members of staff of the Central Office of Information are engaged in the development of the service ; one grade 5 and one senior executive officer.
AGRICULTURE, FISHERIES AND FOOD
Farm Bankruptcies
Mr. Alex Carlile : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many farmers were declared bankrupt in each of the years 1979 to date ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : Figures for bankruptcies in England and Wales for the agricultural and horticultural sectors from 1979 to date are as follows :
Column 391
|No. of |per centage of
|bankruptcies |total
|bankruptcies
------------------------------------------------------------
1979 |55 |1.7
1980 |50 |1.3
1981 |70 |1.5
1982 |78 |1.5
1983 |98 |1.5
1984 |155 |2.0
1985 |136 |2.1
1986 |130 |1.9
1987 |172 |2.4
1988 |162 |2.1
1989 |142 |1.7
<1>1990 |136 |2.2
<1> first half.
Note: Figures from 1983 onwards were set out in Business
Briefing' published by the Association of British Chambers
of Commerce dated 9 November 1990. Previous figures were
published in British Business' dated 29 April 1983 and 22
January 1982.
The balance sheet from British agriculture remains strong with liabilities representing less than a fifth of total assets.
Fisheries Regulations
Mr. David Porter : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement about the disparity of fines for offences committed against fisheries regulations ; and what plans he has for an overall sentencing framework for such offences.
Mr. Curry : The Department is currently reviewing the maximum level of fines for a number of fisheries offences to see whether they need increasing. The penalties imposed for fisheries offences within the maximum are a matter for the courts whose sentencing will take into account the circumstances of individual cases, including any factors pleaded in mitigation.
Mr. David Porter : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what discussions he plans to have with his EC counterparts on a coherent overall sentencing policy for offences committed against fishing regulations ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Curry : Member states are responsible for the enforcement of EC fisheries regulations in their territories and fisheries limits and impose penalties for offences under national legislation.
Environmentally Friendly Farming
Mr. Morley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what steps he will be taking to ensure that any system of direct payments per hectare will achieve environmental goals as well as social ones.
Mr. Curry : As my right hon. Friend the Minister made clear in his reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Bosworth (Mr. Tredinnick) on 23 January, at column 247, we intend, in negotiations on any proposals for changes to the common agricultural policy, to argue for the closer integration of agricultural and environmental policies.
Mr. Morley : To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make representations to the EC Commission to ensure that the regulation EC COM(90)366 makes provision for member states compulsorily to introduce measures to ensure the
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continuation of environmentally friendly farming practices and the option of allowing the introduction of a scheme to reduce plant protection and fertilise inputs.Mr. Curry : In line with our policies for designating environmentally and nitrate-sensitive areas, we favour an approach that permits the member states to target the provisions in EC(COM)366 at those areas where they would be likely to achieve the greatest environmental benefits.
ENVIRONMENT
City Grant Scheme
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the total Government money awarded under the city grant scheme, breaking down the sum for each year and indicating how much was awarded by urban development corporations for each year ; and how many jobs have been created under the city grant scheme.
Mr. Portillo : The amounts of city grant approved in each financial year since the scheme's introduction in May 1988 are shown in the table. The approvals from my Department in total, including projects not yet completed are expected to provide over 21,600 jobs and those from the urban development corporations over 9,400.
Year |£ million<1>|£ million<2>
----------------------------------------------------
1988-89 |29.055 |18.327
1989-90 |72.636 |11.0
<3>1990-91 |42.330 |25.485
|------- |-------
Total |144.021 |54.812
<1> City Grant from Department of the Environment.
<2> City Grant from the urban development
corporations.
<3> to date.
Local Authority Debt
Mr. Simon Coombs : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list the non-metropolitan district councils in England, in ranking order of their indebtedness, in the last year for which figures are available, with the figures for their debt and their population.
Mr. Key : I have today arranged for the available information to be placed in the Library.
Community Charge
Mr. John Carlisle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has received from Mid-Bedfordshire district council as to the number of those liable for community charge who have not yet received any demand for payment.
Mr. Key : No information is collected centrally on the number of community charge demands sent out by local authorities.
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will issue his Department's community charge practice notes to all current members of valuation and community charge tribunals.
Column 393
Mr. Portillo : Each valuation and community charge tribunal has copies of the Department's practice notes on the community charge, which can be consulted by tribunal members if necessary.Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how much it costs to administer the collection of 20 per cent. poll tax payments due from those on income support.
Mr. Key : The total cost of collecting the community charge in the English local authorities is budgeted to be £413 million in 1990-91. Information is not available on the costs of administering the collection of community charges from those on income support.
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many individuals have qualified for community charge transitional relief in Chelmsford in the current financial year to the latest available date.
Mr. Key : Relief grant claim forms from the local authority indicate that 16,500 charge payers in Chelmsford have benefited from transitional relief this financial year.
Mr. Burns : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) how many individuals are liable to pay the community charge in Chelmsford in the current financial year ;
(2) how many individuals have not paid any community charge in Chelmsford in the current financial year to the latest available date.
Mr. Key : Information reported by the local authority shows 117,000 people to be liable to make a payment in respect of a personal community charge by 31 December 1990 ; of these 4,000 had not made a payment.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish a table showing (i) the assumed poll tax he has assigned to each local authority for 1991-92 for the purposes of the community charge reduction scheme and (ii) the actual poll tax levied by each authority in 1990-91.
Mr. Portillo [holding answer 24 January 1991] : I am placing in the Library copies of a table showing the average personal community charge for each English authority in 1990-91 and the community charges which it is proposed should be used for calculating community charge reductions in 1991-92. In most cases the latter charges are derived from an authority's average personal community charge for 1990-91 adjusted to take account of the change in support per adult resulting from the replacement of the safety net and low rateable value areas grant by area protection grant. However, for a number of authorities such a calculation, if applied, would produce a charge less than the figure used as the basis of the calculation of transitional relief this year--the lower of an authority's 1990-91 actual and assumed personal community charges. In these cases, the 1990-91 figure for calculating transitional relief is to be used. In all cases if the figure derived in the way described above is greater than the personal community charge set by the relevant authority for the financial year beginning on 1 April 1991, we propose that the latter should be used for calculating entitlement to a community charge reduction.
Column 394
Glass and Glazing Federation
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment when he last met the Glass and Glazing Federation to discuss (a) quality of workmanship and possible warranty or guarantee schemes and (b) glazing companies which cannot repair unsatisfactory work because they have gone into liquidation ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Yeo : My right hon. Friend has not met the Glass and Glazing Federation. However, my officials did so on 14 June 1989 to discuss these matters.
Environment and Development Conference
Mr. Battle : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will be consulting non-governmental organisations and national bodies to assist in his preparations for the United Nations 1992 conference on environment and development.
Mr. Trippier : I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave on 10 December to the hon. Member for Gordon (Mr. Bruce), at column 266.
ASRA Housing Association
Mr. Cartwright : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what steps he is taking to ensure that the London borough of Greenwich observes the conditions on nomination rights contained in his Department's consent of 27 November 1990 for the disposal of land at the rear of 52 to 86 Ceres road, SE18, to the ASRA (Greater London) Housing Association.
Mr. Yeo : It is the responsibility of the district auditor to keep under review the legality of an authority's transactions.
Countryside Stewardship Scheme
Mr. Morley : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are the nature conservation objectives of the countryside stewardship scheme ; and what assessment he has made of the scheme's likely contribution to the fulfilment of international obligations under the EC Council directive on the conservation of wild birds--79/409/EEC--and the Berne convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats.
Mr. Trippier : Details of the countryside stewardship scheme are being worked up by the Countryside Commission in conjunction with my Department, the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Nature Conservancy Council. The scheme is intended to enhance and recreate valued English landscapes and wildlife habitats and to improve opportunities for people to appreciate and enjoy them. The commission is very aware of the need properly to integrate nature conservation considerations with those of landscape and access and involved the Nature Conservancy Council in the design of the scheme from its inception.
The commission hopes to be in a position to start inviting applications to the scheme by late spring this year. Initially, countryside stewardship is likely to target chalk and limestone grasslands, heathland, waterside landscapes, coastal land and possibly some upland areas.
Column 395
It is hoped that the scheme will, among other things, assist in conserving and recreating habitats of importance to species covered by the EC Council directive on the conservation of wild birds and the Berne convention on the conservation of European wildlife and natural habitats.Recycling
Mr. Janman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what are his Department's criteria for recycling and recovery ; and what is being done to encourage each, in light of forthcoming obligations outlined in the EC directive on waste management.
Mr. Baldry : The Government's criteria for recycling and recovery are that they should take place where it makes environmental and economic sense to do so. Our policy and actions on these matters are set out in chapter 14 of the White Paper "This Common Inheritance"--CM 1200.
Mr. Janman : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what provisions are required in contracts entered into by waste collection authorities and recyclers in respect of retention by a county council or waste disposal authority offering recycling facilities for the same materials.
Mr. Baldry : None. Section 14(2) of the Control of Pollution Act 1974 allows waste collection and disposal authorities to agree the extent to which the former may retain waste for re-use or reclamation. Section 48(2) of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 will replace that provision with a permission for any waste collection authority to retain waste for the purpose of recycling unless the waste disposal authority has made arrangements with a contractor for recycling that waste and has served notice on the collection authority accordingly. Waste disposal authorities do not acquire more than a small proportion of household or commercial waste direct from the producers of the waste ; most is handled first by the waste collection authority or a private waste collection company.
Bed-and-Breakfast Accommodation
Mr. Robert Hicks : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many representations he received in response to his consultation paper about business rating and bed-and-breakfast accommodation ; what was the balance of the various proposals outlined and submitted ; and the details of the options he considered prior to his final decision.
Mr. Portillo : We received 246 responses to the consultation paper. Taking into account the weight of responses from groups and bodies as opposed to individuals, the majority were in favour of an exemption for bed -and-breakfast operators who intended to offer accommodation in their own homes for up to six people. There was also majority support for the qualification that the exemption should apply only where use of the dwelling for bed and breakfast was subsidiary to its use as a residence. Besides the proposals set out in the consultation paper, we considered all options that were put to us in the responses.
Column 396
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