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Written Answers to Questions
Monday 22 June 1992
NATIONAL FINANCE
Animals (Illegal Imports)
Mr. Wilshire : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many illegally imported animals have been discovered by customs officers at each passenger terminal at Heathrow Airport in each of the past five years.
Sir John Cope : The discovery of illegally imported animals in the passenger terminals at Heathrow airport by customs officers is a rare occurrence because the airlines report illegally landed animals direct to Customs and to the Corporation of London's animal quarantine station before they are allowed to leave the aircraft. They are then taken direct to the animal quarantine station. The numbers of animals landed illegally were as follows :
Year |Number ---------------------- 1991 |160 <1>1992 |83 <1>To 17 June.
Records do not distinguish between terminals and are not available for earlier years. Only one of the animals concerned was discovered by Customs officers in a terminal.
Income Tax Reliefs
Mr. Cousins : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the revenue forgone in each category of allowances and reliefs, including MIRAS, to income tax in each of the last four years ; and if he will estimate the regional distribution of the forgone revenue.
Mr. Dorrell : The latest available United Kingdom estimates for the last four years are provided in the 1990 and 1991 editions of "Inland Revenue Statistics" and in appendix D of the Statistical Supplement to the 1991 Autumn Statement (Cm 1920). The corresponding information for regions is not available.
Civil Service
Mr. Mans : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will extend performance-related pay in the civil service.
Mr. Dorrell : The Government are already doing so. For most civil servants, a limited form of performance-related pay has been in place for some years. However, last year as part of our citizens charter programme the Chancellor made a statement to Parliament in which he announced the Government's intention to negotiate changes to the long-term civil service pay agreements to introduce, among other things, very substantial extensions of the existing performance pay arrangements.
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Since then, a good deal of progress has been made in negotiating new schemes for virtually all civil servants, which will mean major changes for the ways in which they are paid. Any increase within a pay scale will have to be earned through performance, and better performers will earn greater increases. Pay increments will no longer be automatic. Every civil servant will have an element of his pay each year linked to his performance.Sir Michael Neubert : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) industrial and (b) non-industrial civil servants were employed in (i) April 1979 and (ii) April 1992.
Mr. Portillo : Figures for 1 April 1992 are not yet available ; they will be announced in Parliament within the next few weeks. There were 166,460 industrial civil servants and 565,815 non-industrial civil servants at 1 April 1979 ; and 63,168 and 498, 735 respectively at 1 October 1991.
Mr. Terry Davis : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many civil servants were employed on the most recent date for which this information is available ; and how many were employed on the same date in 1982 and 1987.
Mr. Dorrell : There were 561,903 civil servants at 1 October 1991, the latest published figures ; 655,043 at 1 October 1982 and 585,155 at 1 October 1987.
Landowners, Cumbria
Mr. Martlew : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many landowners and estates in Cumbria have benefited under the tax procedures by which tax liability is reduced on the condition that there is an undertaking to manage and protect the land from development and allow reasonable public access.
Mr. Dorrell : There are six cases in Cumbria where conditional exemption from inheritance tax and capital transfer tax has been granted to land and buildings in return for undertakings to maintain and preserve the property and provide reasonable public access to it.
Land Access, Scotland
Dr. David Clark : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the counties or regions in Scotland in which he has granted exemptions from (a) inheritance tax or (b) capital transfer tax for the granting of access to land for each year since 1983 ; if he will give the amount and the numbers granted in each county ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Dorrell : There have been 26 designations of land in Scotland for exemption from inheritance tax or capital transfer tax. In addition, there have been 37 designations of historic buildings in Scotland, some of which will have extended to surrounding land. Some designations of historic buildings have been for the purposes of the tax exemptions for maintenance funds rather than for exemption of the buildings themselves.
A detailed breakdown by county or region is not readily available.
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Ozone-depleting Chemicals
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will outline his Department's policy on recovery and recycling of ozone- depleting chemicals.
Sir John Cope : It is Treasury policy to recover or recycle products containing such substances where possible.
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the amount in tonnes of ozone-depleting chemicals used or purchased by his Department for the years 1989 ; 1990 and 1991, and estimates of usage for the next year ; what is the estimated bank of ozone- depleting chemicals contained within his Department ; and how many months' supply of ozone-depleting chemicals have been ordered by his Department.
Sir John Cope : The amount of ozone-depleting chemicals used or purchased over the period specified has been significantly less than one tonne, as is the current stock of such chemicals. No ozone-depleting chemicals are on order.
Mr. Win Griffiths : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his Department's policy on purchasing ozone-depleting chemicals and goods manufactured with these substances ; and in which year his Department expects to cease using, purchasing or releasing ozone-depleting substances controlled by the Montreal protocol and HCFC.
Sir John Cope : In line with both Government and EC policy, Treasury procurement is based on best value for money and objective non- discriminatory criteria.
Within these parameters, it is Treasury policy not to purchase, wherever possible, any substances containing CFCs, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform or halons. This includes equipment and packaging where such substances have been used in manufacture. Where this is not possible, we expect suppliers to take all reasonable steps to comply speedily with the Montreal protocol.
Earnings Statistics
Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will update to April 1992 the information on net earnings provided in his reply of 10 February 1987 to the hon. Member for Fulham (Mr. Carrington), Official Report, columns 177-78.
Mr. Dorrell : Estimates of the level of earnings for the top 5 per cent. of earners are not published. The information in the table is based on estimates of these levels derived from distributions of earnings published in the relevant new earnings survey. Information for April 1992 is not yet available. Earnings levels are for men or women as appropriate paid at adult rates with pay unaffected by absence. Taxpayers are assumed to have no reliefs or allowances other than the appropriate personal allowance.
=
|c|Earnings after Income tax, national insurance
contributions<1> and|c|
|c|child benefit, April 1991|c|
|£ per week
-------------------------------------------------------------
Single man |445.90
Married man |459.10
Married man with two children under 11 |476.60
Single women |289.80
<1>At the contracted-in rate.
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Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will update to 1992-93 the information on real net earnings provided in his reply of 10 April 1986 to the hon. Member for Birkenhead (Mr. Field), Official Report, columns 193-94.
Mr. Dorrell : Estimates for 1992-93 are as follows :
|c|Changes in real net earnings after
income tax and NIC (1956-57 = 100)|c|
|c|Multiples of average earnings|c|
|2/3 |1 |2 |5 |10
--------------------------------------------
Single |179.6|182.7|191.0|220.7|283.9
Married |177.1|176.8|189.1|217.4|279.4
|c|Changes in real net earnings after
income tax and NIC (1956-57 = 100)|c|
|c|Multiples of average earnings|c|
|2/3 |1 |2 |5 |10
--------------------------------------------
Single |179.6|182.7|191.0|220.7|283.9
Married |177.1|176.8|189.1|217.4|279.4
Tax Changes
Mr. Kirkwood : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will update, to take account of the 1992 Budget, the information on tax changes contained in his reply of 21 October 1986 to the hon. Member for Oldham, West (Mr. Meacher), Official Report, columns 807-8.
Mr. Dorrell : Latest estimates of the annual change in income tax liability resulting from the changes in tax rates, allowances and thresholds announced in the 1992 Budget are in the table. The 1978-79 income tax regime has been indexed to 1992-93 levels by reference to the statutory formula, and allowing for independent taxation. For the purposes of these calculations the indexed regime of 1978-79 is applied directly to the income base of 1992-93. In practice, retention of the regime indexed as appropriate for the intervening years would have led to changes in the income base.
|c|Average reduction in income tax per individual<1> in 1992-93|c| |c|compared with the 1978-79 indexed regime|c| Range of individual's income in |Total |Average 1992-93 |reduction |reduction £ |£ million |£ per annum -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under 5,000 |500 |150 5,000 to 10,000 |32,000 |400 10,000 to 15,000 |4,500 |730 15,000 to 20,000 |4,300 |1,060 20,000 to 30,000 |5,000 |1,590 30,000 to 50,000 |3,600 |2,960 Over 50,000 |10,300 |21,000 Total |31,400 |1,200 <1>Individuals liable to income tax under the 1978-79 indexed regime.
Stamp Duty
Mr. Moate : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the hon. Member for Faversham may expect an answer to his written question number 192 of 8 June concerning stamp duty.
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Mr. Nelson : I replied to my hon. Friend's question on 18 June 1992, Official Report, column 628.EC Budget
Sir Teddy Taylor : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the net contribution or the net receipt of each member state to or from the EC in the most recent annual period for which figures are available ; and if he will express these totals also as a sum per head of population in each member state.
Sir John Cope : The European Commission does not publish information on member states' net balances in respect of the EC budget. The latest information available is contained in the European Court of Auditors' report for 1990 ; this gives information on member states' gross contributions and some 85 per cent. of budgetary receipts, with administration and research the main items of expenditure excluded. Using this incomplete information, the following table gives member states' net contributions ( ) or net receipts ( ) for 1990, both in absolute terms and per head of population :
|mecu<1> |ecu<1> per head
----------------------------------------------------------------
Belgium<2> |+774 |+77
Denmark |-422 |-83
Germany |+5,550 |+88
Greece |-2,470 |-245
Spain |-1,711 |-44
France |+1,805 |+32
Ireland |-1,892 |-541
Italy |+417 |+7
Luxembourg<2> |+60 |+150
Netherlands |-368 |-25
Portugal |-601 |-64
United Kingdom |+3,387 |+59
<1> At current prices and exchange rates.
<2> Although the table shows Belgium and Luxembourg as net
contributors in each year, they are not likely to have been
when administrative receipts excluded from the Court of
Auditors' report are taken into account.
Source: Member states' contributions and receipts-Court of
Auditors Report; Population-Eurostat
Travel Allowances
Mr. Clappison : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the travelling and subsistence allowances payable on a daily basis to persons in public service and the standard motor mileage allowance for such persons for the year 1992-93 ; and how much of these allowances are chargeable to tax.
Mr. Portillo [pursuant to his reply, 15 June 1992, col. 357] : I regret that one of the figures in the tables was incorrect. The answer should have read as follows :
The travelling and subsistence allowance payable on a daily basis to persons in the public service are as follows :
|c|Standard rate of motor mileage allowances|c|
Cars with engine |Up to |1501cc-
capacity: |1500cc |2000cc
|Pence |Pence
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
From 1 April 1992
Up to 5,000 miles |35.7 |40
Over 7,000 miles |17 |21
|c|Subsistence allowances|c|
Day subsistence allowance |Subsistence classification
(with effect from 1 August 1991) |All classes
|£
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More than 5 hours |3.90
More than 10 hours |8.60
Night subsistence allowance Subsistence classification
(with effect from 1 August 1991) |1 |2 |3
|£ |£ |£
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inner London |98.70 |68.50 |61.30
Elsewhere |85.85 |63.15 |48.85
Lodging allowance Subsistence classification
(paid after 30 nights)
(with effect from 1 August 1991) |1 and 2 |3
|£ |£
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Married officer:
Inner London |31.80 |25.60
Elsewhere |29.90 |23.80
Single officer:
Inner London |22.80 |22.80
Elsewhere |21.00 |21.00
These rates are reviewed annually. From 1 August 1992, Departments and agencies will determine their own motor mileage and subsistence rates. The excess between the motor mileage rates and the Inland Revenue fixed profit car scheme is taxable. The FPCS rates for 1992-93 are :
Cars with engine capacity |1001cc- |1501cc- |Over
|1500cc |2000cc |2000cc
|Pence |Pence |Pence
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From 1 April 1992
Up to 4,000 miles |30 |38 |51
Over 4,000 miles |17 |21 |27
HOME DEPARTMENT
Prisoners (Medical Treatment)
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisons in England and Wales that are able to perform major medical operations on inmates.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : There are modern fully equipped surgical units situated at Parkhurst and Liverpool prisons : the latter is closed temporarily to facilitate the installation of integral sanitation. Operations are performed by surgeons from the NHS, but where major surgery or highly specialist equipment is required, the patient is transferred to an outside hospital.
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the procedures that are followed by his Department when payment has to be paid to a hospital for giving medical treatment to prison inmates and who is responsible for such payment.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : No costs to the prison service arise for treatment or other care which is provided to prisoners in
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national health service facilities. The costs involved are ordinarily a matter for the prisoner's district health authority of origin.Personal Correspondence
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department on how many occasions personal correspondence in the possession of persons applying for temporary visitors' visas on arrival in the United Kingdom has been copied in each of the last 10 years.
Mr. Charles Wardle : This information is not available.
Electorates
Mr. Robert B. Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out, on the assumption of an unchanged number of parliamentary constituencies for England, (a) the 1992 electoral quota and (b) the entitlement of each county and London borough.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : The 1992 electoral quota for England is 69,534. The entitlement of each county and London borough is given in the table.
|1992 Electorate|Entitlement
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A. London boroughs
City of London<1> |3,862 |<1>0.06
Barking and Dagenham |111,231 |1.60
Barnet |211,617 |3.04
Bexley |168,328 |2.42
Brent |169,035 |2.43
Bromley |230,088 |3.31
Camden |122,855 |1.77
Croydon |244,184 |3.51
Ealing |189,481 |2.73
Enfield |196,309 |2.82
Greenwich |157,276 |2.26
Hackney |113,120 |1.63
Hammersmith and Fulham100,125 |1.44
Haringey |142,479 |2.05
Harrow |145,619 |2.09
Havering |180,826 |2.60
Hillingdon |171,812 |2.47
Hounslow |153,538 |2.21
Islington |112,247 |1.61
Kensington and Chelsea |84,700 |1.22
Kingston upon Thames |94,233 |1.36
Lambeth |172,136 |2.48
Lewisham |174,655 |2.51
Merton |126,737 |1.82
Newham |158,379 |2.28
Redbridge |171,964 |2.47
Richmond upon Thames |116,935 |1.68
Southwark |174,317 |2.51
Sutton |127,251 |1.83
Tower Hamlets |113,129 |1.63
Waltham Forest |163,252 |2.35
Wandsworth |199,397 |2.87
Westminster |109,738 |1.58
The whole of the City of London shall be included within a constituency, the
name of which shall refer to the City of London.
|1992 Electorate|Entitlement
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-metropolitan
Avon |729,224 |10.49
Bedfordshire |391,555 |5.63
Berkshire |554,630 |7.98
Buckinghamshire |478,462 |6.88
Cambridgeshire |496,704 |7.14
Cheshire |742,426 |10.68
Cleveland |418,538 |6.02
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly |370,241 |5.32
Cumbria |385,240 |5.54
Derbyshire |727,515 |10.46
Devon |795,793 |11.44
Dorset |525,714 |7.56
Durham |472,574 |6.80
East Sussex |549,501 |7.90
Essex |1,187,127 |17.07
Gloucestershire |416,339 |5.99
Hampshire |1,198,864 |17.24
Hereford and Worcester |530,098 |7.62
Hertfordshire |746,267 |10.73
Humberside |674,380 |9.70
Isle of Wight |101,442 |1.46
Kent |1,159,379 |16.67
Lancashire |1,077,486 |15.50
Leicestershire |675,422 |9.71
Lincolnshire |463,245 |6.66
Norfolk |593,291 |8.53
Northamptonshire |440,144 |6.33
Northumberland |239,896 |3.45
North Yorkshire |560,706 |8.06
Nottinghamshire |786,385 |11.31
Oxfordshire |422,930 |6.08
Shropshire |316,882 |4.56
Somerset |368,134 |5.29
Staffordshire |809,921 |11.65
Suffolk |483,323 |6.95
Surrey |784,235 |11.28
Warwickshire |378,414 |5.44
West Sussex |558,975 |8.04
Wiltshire |434,182 |6.24
|1992 Electorate|Entitlement
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-metropolitan
Avon |729,224 |10.49
Bedfordshire |391,555 |5.63
Berkshire |554,630 |7.98
Buckinghamshire |478,462 |6.88
Cambridgeshire |496,704 |7.14
Cheshire |742,426 |10.68
Cleveland |418,538 |6.02
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly |370,241 |5.32
Cumbria |385,240 |5.54
Derbyshire |727,515 |10.46
Devon |795,793 |11.44
Dorset |525,714 |7.56
Durham |472,574 |6.80
East Sussex |549,501 |7.90
Essex |1,187,127 |17.07
Gloucestershire |416,339 |5.99
Hampshire |1,198,864 |17.24
Hereford and Worcester |530,098 |7.62
Hertfordshire |746,267 |10.73
Humberside |674,380 |9.70
Isle of Wight |101,442 |1.46
Kent |1,159,379 |16.67
Lancashire |1,077,486 |15.50
Leicestershire |675,422 |9.71
Lincolnshire |463,245 |6.66
Norfolk |593,291 |8.53
Northamptonshire |440,144 |6.33
Northumberland |239,896 |3.45
North Yorkshire |560,706 |8.06
Nottinghamshire |786,385 |11.31
Oxfordshire |422,930 |6.08
Shropshire |316,882 |4.56
Somerset |368,134 |5.29
Staffordshire |809,921 |11.65
Suffolk |483,323 |6.95
Surrey |784,235 |11.28
Warwickshire |378,414 |5.44
West Sussex |558,975 |8.04
Wiltshire |434,182 |6.24
Probation Officers
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisons in England and Wales that do not have a full-time probation officer working within the prison.
Mr. Jack : Only one. Her Majesty's prison Haslar has a part-time main grade probation officer working one and a half days per week.
Phone Cards
Mr. Cox : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the prisons in England and Wales that allow inmates to use phone cards.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : In keeping with the commitment given in the prison service's White Paper, provision for cardphones for inmates' use is being made in all establishments in England and Wales. Within the rolling programme of installation scheduled for completion by the end of July 1992, cardphones are operational in the establishments listed below ;
Her Majesty's prison service establishments with cardphones for the use of prisoners Acklington
Aldington
Ashwell
Askham Grange
Blantyre House
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BrockhillCamp Hill
Castington
Channings Wood
Cookham Wood
Deerbolt
Dover
Drake Hall
East Sutton Park
Eastwood Park
Erlestoke
Everthorpe
Featherstone
Feltham
Ford
Glen Parva
Gloucester
Guys Marsh
Haslar
Hatfield
Haverigg
Hewell Grange
Highpoint
Hollesley Bay Colony
Hollway
Huntercombe and Finnamore Wood Camp
Kingston
Kirkham
Kirklevington Grange
Lancaster
Latchmere House
Lewes
Leyhill
Lindholme
Littlehey
Morton Hall
The Mount
New Hall
Northallerton
Northeye
North Sea Camp
Norwich
Onley
Oxford
Pucklechurch
Ranby
Risley
Rochester
Rudgate
Send
Shepton Mallet
Spring Hill
Stafford
Standford Hill
Stocken
Stoke Heath
Styal
Sudbury/Foston Hall
Swansea
Thorn Cross
Thorp Arch
Usk/Prescoed
The Verne
Wayland
Wellingborough
Werrington
Wetherby
Whatton
Winchester
The Wolds
Wymott
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