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New Buildings and Premises

Mrs. Bridget Prentice: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what was the total expenditure on new buildings and premises by his Department and its agencies; and if he will indicate the square footage of new office space purchased or newly rented in each of the last five years. [41153]

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Mr. Willetts: The table details for the Cabinet Office and its agencies, including the Central Office of Information, (i) the capital costs, including fees, of new buildings and premises and new extensions to existing buildings and premises and (ii) the square footage of new office space purchased or newly rented for the five financial years 1991-92; 1992-93; 1993-94; 1994-95 and 1995-96.

Financial year	Capital costs	Square footage (purchased)	Square footage (rented)
1991-92	Nil	Nil	Nil
1992-93	£685,000	1,613	Nil
1993-94	Nil	Nil	15,954
1994-95	£2,940,482	Not offices	86,638
1995-96	Nil	Nil	30,083

The capital costs include extensions to non office accommodation at the Civil Service College and other non-office accommodation occupied by various agencies. Corresponding information for the Stationery Office Ltd. is not available from the company.

NATIONAL HERITAGE

Millennium Exhibition

Mr. Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will make a statement on the arrangement by which the chief executive of the Welsh Development Agency has been appointed chief executive of Greenwich Millennium Exhibition plc with an option to return to the Welsh Development Agency within 90 days; what assessment she has made of the principal advantages of this arrangement to the exhibition company; and if she will make a statement. [41068]

Mr. Spearing: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will state in respect of the millennium exhibition planned for the Greenwich peninsula site (a) the amount to be contributed by the national lottery, (b) private commitments already made by each individual organisation and the total and (c) the number of staff, their location, and names of those responsible as executive officers. [40930]

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: This is a matter for the Millennium Commission. I shall write to the hon. Members in my capacity as chairman of the commission and place copies of my reply in the Libraries of the House.

Royal Naval College

Sir Patrick McNair-Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what the responsibilities of her Department will be for the maintenance of the royal naval college, Greenwich when the Ministry of Defence has left the site. [41193]

Mrs. Virginia Bottomley: My Department is currently responsible for the maintenance of the external fabric of the royal naval college buildings together with the maintenance, including the interiors, of the painted hall and chapel. When the Ministry of Defence vacates the buildings, my Department will continue to contribute to the funding of these maintenance responsibilities. The level of funding and duration will be a matter for

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agreement between the Department and the trust which is being established to take over the main lease on the buildings. I would expect the taxpayer's contribution to reduce as the trust generates income to meet the costs of maintenance. My Department will remain concerned to ensure that the buildings are maintained to a standard appropriate to their status.

Promotional Expenditure

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how much her Department has spent on (a) publicity, (b) promotions, and (c) hospitality in each year since its formation. [40619]

Mr. Sproat: The information requested is given in the following table:

£

	1992-93	1993-94	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97
	(actual)	(actual)	(actual)	(actual)	(spend to date)
Publicity and promotions	nil	25,000	57,000	348,000	188,470
Hospitality	22,037	18,277	14,967	25,563	10,798

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage how many answers to (a) written and (b) oral parliamentary questions have required correction by her Department in each of the past two years. [40637]

Mr. Sproat: This is a matter of public record.

Concessionary Television Licences

Mr. Winnick: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what representations have been received recently over the concessionary television licence for pensioners; and what were the main points in such representations. [40971]

Mr. Sproat: Since April 1996, we have received about 170 representations concerning the concessionary television licence available to certain pensioners.

The main points raised were specific queries on eligibility for the concession, calls for extending the scope of the scheme and proposals to abolish the concession in favour of a reduced fee licence for all pensioners.

National Lottery

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what has been the total income received from (a) national lottery tickets and (b) national lottery scratchcard sales in South Yorkshire; what proportion these figures represent of the total income nationally; and what percentage of national lottery awards funding has been received by South Yorkshire lottery. [40840]

Mr. Sproat: Figures on the sales of national lottery tickets and scratchcards in South Yorkshire are operational matters for Camelot Group plc. I have therefore asked the Director General of the National Lottery, to write to the hon. Member, placing copies of his response in the Libraries of the House.

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To date, 135 lottery awards--1.5 per cent. of the total--have been made to projects in South Yorkshire for a total of £67,336,877--2.98 per cent. of the total awarded.

Television Licence Fraud Hotline

Mr. Redmond: To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage if she will set up a free phone hotline for the reporting of suspected television licence fraudsters; and if she will make a statement. [40872]

Mr. Sproat: No. The BBC is responsible for the administration and enforcement of the television licensing system, including policy on reducing licence evasion.

OVERSEAS DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION

Aid Budget

Mr. Galbraith: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to increase the overseas aid budget; and if he will make a statement. [40773]

Dr. Liam Fox: In common with the budgets of other Departments, the ODA's budget for 1997-98 is currently under consideration in the public expenditure survey round, the outcome of which will not be known until the Chancellor's November Budget statement. At £2,154 million in 1996-97, the UK's development assistance programme is substantial and is internationally recognised for its quality, effectiveness and poverty focus.

TREASURY

Balance of Payments

Mrs. Beckett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the disparity between his forecast for the balance of payments current account deficits in 1997 and the average of the forecasts made by the Panel of Independent Forecasters for 1997. [40728]

Mrs. Angela Knight: The latest Treasury forecast for the current account deficit in 1997 is £1½ billion, shown in the table 1.4 of the "Summer Economic Forecast". This lies within the range of forecasts provided by members of the Panel of Independent Forecasters, detailed in table 1A.1 of the same publication.

Self-assessment Computer System

Mr. Matthew Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to make sure that the self-assessment computer system will have the comprehensive technical support necessary to put right promptly any faults that may occur in live operation. [41231]

Mr. Jack: Electronic Data Systems Ltd.--the Inland Revenue's information technology partner--will ensure that full technical support is provided by all companies contracted to supply components of the self assessment computer system. In particular Oracle, the company

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supplying the software package for the database holding taxpayer records, will provide 24-hour support using its worldwide service network.

Such diagnostic and remedial work undertaken to support the system may at times necessitate specialist staff--either in the UK or, exceptionally, at Oracle facilities abroad--having access to copies of batches of taxpayer records. The handling of such confidential data will, as now, be governed by the strictest possible security arrangements to safeguard against misuse. The actual processing of individual's tax affairs and the development of the Inland Revenue's computer systems will continue to be undertaken wholly within the UK.

These comprehensive technical support arrangements will help ensure that the operation of the new self-assessment computer system is as trouble-free as possible.

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