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Alcohol Duty

Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate of the price elasticity of demand for (a) beer, (b) wine and (c) spirits are currently used to estimate the impact of changes in excise duties on Government revenue; over what period these price elasticities are based; and when they are next to be updated. [38971]

Mrs. Angela Knight: The revenue implications are estimated using a computer model produced by the Institute of Fiscal Studies, with values for independent variables updated annually. The model has a wide range of both own and cross price elasticities for various categories of consumption with own price elasticities of -0.963, -1.048 and -1.07 for beer, wine and spirits respectively.

Deregulation

Mr. Steen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is the estimated annual saving to private business and public funds from the Deregulation (Validity of Civil Preliminaries in Marriage) Order 1996. [39158]

Mrs. Angela Knight: I am advised by the Registrar General that the extension of the period of validity from three to 12 months of the civil preliminaries to marriage will produce no savings for business. Local authorities may accrue some small savings in administration.

Abortion Statistics

Mr. Bayley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many NHS abortions were performed in (a) North Yorkshire, (b) Yorkshire, and (c) England in each year since 1979. [38925]

Mrs. Angela Knight: The figures following are for women usually resident in (a) North Yorkshire district health region, (b) Yorkshire health region, and (c) England.

Number of NHS abortions performed to usually resident women, 1979-1994

	North Yorkshire	Yorkshire	England
1979	609	2,874	51,785
1980	634	2,970	56,966
1981	722	2,961	57,346
1982	629	2,825	58,714
1983	653	2,716	59,091
1984	692	2,719	61,190
1985	695	2,920	61,350
1986	789	3,252	63,368
1987	775	3,327	65,354
1988	924	3,221	64,885
1989	896	3,616	66,513
1990	1,002	3,889	69,059
1991	1,035	4,638	70,749
1992	1,059	5,640	87,198
1993	1,117	6,111	94,199
1994	1,235	7,315	100,001

23 Jul 1996 : Column: 250

Printing Costs

Mr. Steen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the agencies for which he is responsible indicating for each the costs incurred for printing (a) all publications and (b) the annual report in the last available year. [38671]

Mrs. Angela Knight: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the chief executives of the Chancellor's five agencies: National Savings, the Royal Mint, the Office for National Statistics, the Valuation Office and Paymaster agencies. I have asked each of them to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Peter Bareau to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 23 July 1996:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply, with details for National Savings, to your Question about printing costs.
The total cost of printing external publications (excluding the annual report) during 1995-96 was approximately £1.8 million. This figure covers principally the costs of our product booklets, investment guides and interest rate leaflet, all of which are available throughout the post office network, and our guide for financial advisers.
The cost of printing the annual report for the year ending 31 March 1996 was just under £14,000.

Letter from Mrs. V. E. Lowe to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 23 July 1996:

In your question to the Chancellor (ref 38671) you ask about the costs incurred in printing publications and the Annual Report.
I have regarded publications as that material available to the public, such as Council Tax leaflets, Charter booklets, Business Plan, Property Market Report etc. The cost during 1995-96 was £95,165 and the cost of producing the last Annual Report and Accounts was £7,918.
Please let me know if I can assist further.

Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 23 July 1996:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question requesting the most recent annual costs for printing all publications and in particular the Annual Reports for the agencies for which he is responsible as far as it relates to the Office for National Statistics.

23 Jul 1996 : Column: 251

On your first point, most ONS priced paper publications are published by HMSO, who pay for the printing costs. Details of these printing costs can be obtained from the HMSO. For priced paper publications published by ONS, the printing costs in the calendar year 1995 were approximately £24,000.
The printing costs for the last CSO Annual Report and Accounts (1995-96), which was laid before Parliament on the 15 July 1996, were £2964.
I hope you find this reply helpful.

Letter from Keith Sullens to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 23 July 1996:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question seeking information on the costs his Agencies have incurred on printing all publications, and separately the annual report for the last available year.
The total amount spent by PAYMASTER in 1995/96 was £47,932.72. Of this, £14,515.00 was spent on the Annual Report and Accounts.

Letter from Roger Holmes to Mr. Anthony Steen, dated 23 July 1996:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply to your Question about printing costs.
In the financial year 1995/96 the Royal Mint incurred costs of £10,437.00 for the design and printing of its Annual Report for 1994/95. There were no other publications printed during this period.

Primary Tax Legislation

Mr. Tim Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress has been made by the Inland Revenue with the project to rewrite primary tax legislation to make it clearer and more user-friendly. [39620]

Mr. Jack: I am very pleased with the progress that has been made in developing this important project. The Inland Revenue has today published a consultative document which sets out detailed proposals for taking the rewrite forward. Copies have been placed in the Library of the House.

This is a huge project and we are committed to doing it well. The full and continuing involvement of the private sector will be essential to its success. The document sets out how we propose to achieve that aim.

Petroleum Revenue Tax

Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to change the petroleum revenue tax legislation in respect of the provision of relief for expenditure not related to an oil field. [39639]

Mr. Jack: The Government intend to introduce legislation in the next Finance Bill to put beyond doubt that oil companies cannot manipulate existing tax rules to allow them to claim petroleum revenue tax relief on non-field expenditure incurred by an unrelated group which continues to hold North sea licence interests. The change will apply to all claims for relief made on or after today. This new legislation will ensure that substantial amounts of PRT are protected.

Further details are given in an Inland Revenue press release which is being issued today.

Alcohol and Tobacco

Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes Customs and Excise are

23 Jul 1996 : Column: 252

proposing to the measurement of cross-border shopping in alcohol and tobacco products; and if he will make a statement on the latest estimates of revenue losses. [39641]

Mr. Kenneth Clarke: Customs have advised me that their estimate of the extent of legitimate personal imports of alcoholic and tobacco products is now calculated on the basis of data from the international passenger survey. Customs' earlier estimates used data from the omnibus survey. The international passenger survey has a larger sample than omnibus, interviewing travellers during or shortly after their journey. It is therefore considered a more reliable source of data on cross-border shopping. Customs have consulted with representatives of the alcohol and tobacco industries over this change, and have given them all relevant data.

Customs' estimate of total tax revenues--excise duty and VAT--lost from legitimate personal importation of alcohol and tobacco for the calendar year 1995 has been re-calculated on this basis as £210 million for duty paid alcoholic drinks and £80 million for tobacco products, making a total of £290 million. The new figure for alcoholic products is broadly in line with that calculated from omnibus data. As before, these figures use Customs' assumption that 50 per cent. of alcoholic products purchased abroad represent additional consumption.

Cervical Cancer

Ms Harman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what have been the rates of cervical cancer amongst women (a) nationally and (b) from ethnic minorities for each of the past five years. [37038]

Mrs. Angela Knight [holding answer 12 July 1996]: The table shows (i) death rates for all women per 100,000 women from cervical cancer--ICD ¹ 180--in the United Kingdom for the years 1986-1994 and (ii) incidence rates of cervical cancer for all women per 100,000 women in the United Kingdom for the years 1986-1990, the latest five-year period available. Information on ethnic status is not collected.

Per 100,000 women

	Death rates		Incidence rates
1986	7.7	1986	17.1
1987	7.3	1987	16.6
1988	7.4	1988	17.2
1989	7.0	1989	15.7
1990	6.7	1990(40)	16.7
1991	6.4
1992	6.3
1993	5.7
1994	5.2

(39)International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision.

(40) Provisional.

The United Kingdom death rates from 1986-1994 are based on deaths registered each year for Scotland and Northern Ireland. The deaths for England and Wales are those registered for 1986 to 1992; but for 1993 and 1994 the deaths are those that occurred in the year.

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