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Benefits, Doncaster
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security how many people are currently receiving (a) attendance allowance, (b) disability allowance, (c) family credit, (d) income support, (e) invalidity benefit and (f) sickness benefit in the Doncaster area.
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Mr. Scott : This is a matter for Mr. Michael Bichard, the chief executive of the Benefits Agency. He will write to the hon. Member with such information as is available.
Letter from Michael Bichard to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 8 March 1994 :
The Secretary of State for Social Security has asked me to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about benefit recipients in Doncaster.
The information is not available in the format requested. This is because Benefits Agency District boundaries do not correspond with county or borough boundaries. A small part of the Doncaster area falls within that covered by the Mexborough Branch Office of the Agency's Rother and Dearne District.
Statistics relating to the Mexborough customers living in the Doncaster area receiving Sickness Benefit, Invalidity Benefit, Income Support and Family Credit could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. However, I have provided details for the area covered by the Doncaster District only.
Statistical data for each of the benefits is collected and collated over different periods and timescales. The latest available figures show that on the last working day of January 1994 there were 14,728 people claiming Invalidity Benefit and 3,160 people claiming Sickness Benefit ; on the last working day of February there were 30,800 people claiming Income Support, and at 18 February 1994 there were 3, 010 people claiming Family Credit.
Attendance Allowance and Disability Living Allowance are centrally administered benefits. A clerical trawl would be necessary to ascertain the number of Attendance Allowance beneficiaries residing in Doncaster. To obtain the same information for Disability Living Allowance recipients would necessitate a scan of the DLA computer system. Both these exercises could only be carried out at a disproportionate cost.
I hope you find this reply helpful.
NATIONAL FINANCE
Inheritance Tax
Mr. Gordon Prentice : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many landowners claiming full exemption from inheritance tax have been found not to have made appropriate arrangements to publicise the right of public access to their land.
Mr. Dorrell : Landowners who breach the undertakings they have given to secure conditional exemption are liable to an inheritance tax charge on the current value of the land. To date there has been no need to raise any such charge. Any questions which have arisen have been resolved in discussion.
Council Tax
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the initial cost of the valuation of properties for council tax.
Mr. Nelson : The cost of the initial valuation banding of domestic properties for council tax was £36,067,401.
Paris Club
Sir Thomas Arnold : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are his current policies within the Paris Club ; which countries are in consultation with the club ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Nelson : The United Kingdom's policy is to work with other creditors in the Paris Club to negotiate sustainable reschedulings of bilateral claims that will maximise recoveries. For severely indebted, low- income
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countries, the United Kingdom's view is that more concessional relief is required,along the lines proposed by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister in Trinidad in 1990,and the Government are working to achieve a consensus for this.At its latest meeting, which ended on 4 March, the Paris Club agreed concessional reschedulings for Senegal and Niger. The world bank's publication "World Debt Tables 1993-94", a copy of which is in the Library, contains details of earlier multilateral debt relief agreements.
Banknotes
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what amount of banknotes will be printed by the Bank of England for each financial year from 1994-95 to 1996-97.
Mr. Nelson : The Bank of England expects to print approximately 1, 400 million notes of all denominations in each of the next three years. This is the same as it will print in 1993-94.
Public Sector Borrowing Requirement
Mr. Spellar : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the breakdown of the PSBR in this fiscal year between central and local government.
Mr. Nelson : A detailed breakdown of the forecast for the PSBR for 1993-94 was given in table 6.11 of the Financial Statement and Budget Report published last November. The table gives a summary of this information.
(b) Total expenditure per 100,000 population, based on mid-year
population figures:
|1990-91 |1991-92 |1992-93<1> |1993-94<2><3>
|(£000's) |(£000's) |(£000's) |(£000's)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Humberside |8,311 |9,245 |9,880 |10,312
North Yorkshire |6,807 |7,566 |8,490 |9,140
South Yorkshire |7,850 |8,466 |9,583 |10,126
West Yorkshire |9,347 |10,395 |10,859 |11,709
<1>Using estimated expenditure for 1992-93.
<2>Using budgeted expenditure for 1993-94.
<3>Based on mid-1992 population figures. 1993 figures not yet available.
Air Passenger Duty
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates he has made regarding the revenue derived from air passenger duty per annum in respect of (a) scheduled passenger flights and (b) charter flights to and from (i) Leeds-Bradford airport and (ii) Humberside airport.
Sir John Cope : CAA statistics for 1992 show terminal passenger traffic by individual airports. Assuming that all flights are return flights and that the proportion of EC to non-EC flights is the same as nationally, it is estimated that the air passenger duty revenue per annum for flights departing from these airports will be of the order of magnitude shown below.
(£ million)
|Scheduled|Charter
---------------------------------------------
Humberside |0.2 |0.2
Leeds/Bradford |0.9 |0.8
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Building Societies (Pre-tax Profits)
Mr. Alan W. Williams : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table giving the pre-tax profits for each financial year from 1978-79 for the following building societies (a) Halifax, (b) Nationwide, (c) Woolwich and (d) Abbey National now plc.
Mr. Nelson : These figures are not collated by the Treasury, but they are in the public domain. I suggest that the hon. Member approaches the institutions directly.
Betting Duty
Mr. Donohoe : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment his Department has made of the loss of betting duty caused by the cancellation of horse race meetings due to bad whether during the last year.
Sir John Cope : Receipts from general betting duty in the latest three months, November 1993 to fall in receipts specifically to bad weather, but this is likely to have been a factor.
VAT Penalty Regime
Mr. David Nicholson : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received since the November Budget on the VAT penalty regime ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir John Cope : There was extensive and very helpful consultation about the VAT penalty regime before the Budget. There have been very few further representations since.
Sports Clubs (VAT)
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the total amount of value added tax wrongly imposed on sports clubs in respect of subscriptions and the hire of grounds and equipment for each year since 1990 ; and if he will make a statement.
Sir John Cope : Customs and Excise estimates, based on information from the Department of National Heritage, are that repayments will amount to some £10 million for each calendar year since 1990.
Freephone and Freepost
Mr. Donohoe : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the use of freephone and freepost facilities currently being operated by his Department ; how much these facilities are costing ; for what purposes these facilities are being used ; and how much his Department has spent on operating freephone and freepost facilities in each financial year since 1979.
Mr. Nelson : The Treasury currently makes no use of freephone or freepost facilities and there is no record of it having done so since 1979.
Public Interest Immunity Certificates
Mr. Meacher : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 22 February, Official Report, column 96, if he will provide whatever information is
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available of those occasions on which he, or other Ministers in his Department, have signed public interest immunity certificates, and for what reasons.Mr. Kenneth Clarke : I have not signed any public interest immunity certificates as Chancellor of the Exchequer and no other serving Treasury Minister has ever signed such a certificate.
So far as I am aware, the only public interest immunity certificate signed by a Treasury Minister since 1979 was signed in January 1988 by my right hon. Friend the Member for St. Albans (Mr. Lilley) in his then capacity as the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. That certificate was issued in connection with civil proceedings in which the Bank of England was concerned, and related to Treasury and bank documents. Public interest immunity was claimed on the grounds that it was necessary that the documents in question be withheld from production, in the case of some, for the proper functioning of the public service, and in the case of others, for the proper exercise by the bank of its functions and responsibilities as a central bank and banking supervisor. The claim was considered by the court and upheld.
Child Care
Ms Harman : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Departments spend on child care ; on what provision the sum is spent ; how many children receive the child care ; and if he will make a statement about child care.
Mr. Nelson [holding answer 7 March 1994] : The information requested is set out for each of the Chancellor's Departments. The expenditure shown relates to the current financial year, unless otherwise stated.
Her Majesty's Treasury
Expenditure :-- £7,800 per annum.
Provision :-- School Holiday Playscheme and Emergency Nursery places.
Number of children receiving childcare this financial year to date : 32.
Inland Revenue :
Expenditure :-- The Inland Revenue subsidise a number of nurseries and playschemes, both in monetary terms and also by providing accommodation, utilities and administrative support. Childcare budgets are delegated to 34 regional offices, and no data are held centrally.
Provision :-- Nurseries and Playschemes.
Number of children receiving childcare : 651 use playschemes and 147 use workplace nurseries.
National Investment and Loans Office
Expenditure :-- £481 per annum.
Provision :-- School Holiday Playscheme.
Number of children receiving childcare this financial year to date : 3.
Government Actuary's Department
No expenditure on childcare.
Department for National Savings
No expenditure on childcare.
Registry of Friendly Societies
No expenditure on childcare.
Royal Mint
No expenditure on childcare.
Central Statistical Office
Expenditure :-- £5,798 per annum.
Provision :-- Playschemes.
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Number of children receiving childcare this financial year to date : 57.The CSO also spent £173,000 in 1992-93 building and setting up an on site nursery for 34 children.
Customs and Excise
Expenditure :-- £428,000 per annum.
Provision :-- Workplace nurseries, bought in schemes and other playschemes.
Number of children receiving childcare this financial year to date : approximately 1,000.
Paymaster General's Office
Expenditure :-- £44,500 per annum.
Provision :-- Nursery.
Number of children receiving childcare this financial year to date : 43.
HOME DEPARTMENT
Young Offenders
Ms Corston : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department where a 17-year-old alleged offender who is deemed to be category A would normally be held in the prison system.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Ms Jean Corston, dated 9 March 1994 : The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question about where a 17 year old alleged offender who is deemed to be category A would normally be held in the prison system.
For any alleged offender who, because of the nature and circumstances of their alleged offences, is placed in category A, security must be the first priority.
Unconvicted persons in prison custody who are placed in category A can only be held in Prison Service establishments with an appropriate level of security. In the case of a 17 year old alleged (ie unconvicted) offender the only YOI with a level of security appropriate to hold a category A is Moorland. Unless the courts to which a 17 year old would have to be taken for remand and trial appearances are within reasonable travelling distance of Moorland, such an individual would have to be held in a category A holding local prison.
Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme
Mr. Jenkin : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he expects to publish the detailed rules of the revised criminal injuries compensation scheme, the tariff scheme.
Mr. Howard : The detailed rules of the tariff scheme, which comes into force on 1 April 1994, are being published today.
A copy of the text of the rules and the accompanying guide, which explains to claimants how the new scheme works and the criteria adopted for deciding applications, have been placed in the Vote Office and the Library. Copies of both documents may be obtained from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, Tay house, 300 Bath street, Glasgow G2 4JR.
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Bail Hostels
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the answer of 9 February, Official Report, column 253, relating to the expected savings in 1994-95 in respect of bail hostels,what directions have been given to the West Midlands probation service as to the savings to be made in 1994-95.
Mr. Maclean : The Home Office has not given directions to the West Midlands probation committee on this matter. The committee has been asked to identify two approved hostels for closure so that the necessary savings in public expenditure may be made.
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he had received about his decision to close 11 bail hostels.
Mr. Maclean : Representations have been received from a number of hon. Members, probation services, and others involved in the criminal justice system from the areas affected.
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what arrangements will be made for offenders in the west midlands when there is no vacancy in a bail or probation hostel in the west midlands.
Mr. Maclean : There are over 100 approved hostels in England and Wales, a number of which are located in probation areas neighbouring the west midlands. All are available to the west midlands courts and it is the responsibility of the probation service to bring them to those courts' attention.
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of those remanded on bail are remanded to bail hostels.
Mr. Maclean : The information requested is not held centrally and is not available.
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Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what proportion of the total reduction in funding for bail hostels is being met from the west midlands.
Mr. Maclean : Some 16 per cent.
Dr. Lynne Jones : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will provide details of the rates charged by local authorities to other local authorities for accommodating those remanded on bail when there is no vacancy available in their own hostels.
Mr. Maclean : Local authorities are required to pay a standard flat rate charge for hostel residents for whom they have responsibility, irrespective of where that hostel is located. For 1993-94 the weekly charge is £65.03.
Prisoners
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many people were sentenced to a prison term under each offence category in the latest year for which figures are available ; and what numbers and percentage of the total were fine defaulters.
Mr. Peter Lloyd : Responsibility for this matter has been delegated to the Director General of the Prison Service, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from Derek Lewis to Mr. Martin Redmond, dated 9 March 1994 :
Receptions under Sentence--
The Home Secretary has asked me to reply to your recent Question asking how many people were sentenced to a prison term under each offence category in the latest year for which figures are available ; and what numbers and percentage of the total were fine defaulters. The information you have requested is given in the table.
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