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TRADE AND INDUSTRY
Social Chapter
Mrs. Clwyd: To ask the President of the Board of Trade at what cost to public funds the booklet, "The Social Chapter, The British and European Approaches", has been produced by his Department; for what reasons his Department produced it; and to whom it has been circulated. [14233]
Mr. John M. Taylor: The total cost incurred to date for design, external translation, printing, storage and distribution of the booklet is around £27,000. It is not possible to quantify the staff costs arising from internal preparation of the text.
The purpose of the booklet was to explain the Government's policy on social affairs in the EU. Copies of the booklet were sent to business organisations, the largest UK-based companies, Members of Parliament, British Members of the European Parliament and the
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media. It has also been distributed to interested parties in other EU member states. Further copies have been supplied on request.
Mr. Gunnell:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade what consultations were carried out by the DTI-funded committee for middle east trade before deciding to encourage British firms to bid for the Iraqi contracts sanctioned under United Nations Security Council resolution 986. [14244]
Mr. Nelson
[holding answer 4 February 1997]: The committee for middle east trade consulted my Department, which is in close touch with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on this issue. SCR 986 is a one-off humanitarian measure to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people and it is proper that British firms should compete for business under it.
Mrs. Roche:
To ask the President of the Board of Trade how many small businesses in rural development areas are currently receiving assistance from business links. [13890]
Mr. Page
[holding answer 31 January 1997]: This information can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Business Links are not required to collect information on the number of small businesses in rural development areas receiving assistance. The information could be provided only by checking the records of each business link that includes a rural development area within its catchment area.
Publicity
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list (a) his Department's budgeted expenditure on (i) advertising, (ii) publicity and (iii) public information campaigns for the period January to March 1997 and (b) the actual expenditure on (1) advertising, (2) publicity and (3) public information campaigns in the period January to March in each of the past five years. [13461]
Mr. Hanley: Budgeted expenditure on (i) advertising, (ii) publicity and (iii) public information campaigns in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office diplomatic wing for the period January to March 1997 is as follows:
| £ | |
|---|---|
| Advertising | 25,000 |
| Publicity | 22,638 |
| Information campaigns | 43,325 |
| 1996 | 1995 | 1994 | 1993 | 1992 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| Advertising | 6,032 | 3,196 | 15,780 | 33,064 | 1991-92 |
| Publicity | 159,414 | 305 | 36,487 | 130,176 | breakdown |
| Information campaigns | 91,000 | 67,442 | 255,979 | 112,058 | not available |
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Overseas Development Administration aid wing can provide annual figures only for advertising. There is no annual budgeted figure as such, as the costs arise from each project. The expenditure in 1996-97 to date is £590,995.
Actual annual ODA expenditure for advertising in the past five years was as follows:
ODA cannot separate figures for publicity and public information campaigns. Budgeted expenditure for both for the period January to March 1997 is £350,000.
Actual ODA expenditure on publicity and public information campaigns for the period January to March in the past five years was as follows:
Mr. Alfred Morris:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to his answer of 29 January, Official Report, columns 226-27, what is his estimate of the cost of informing the House of visa fees charged by other European countries since 1 April 1996, as compared with those charged for entry to the United Kingdom since that date. [14350]
Dr. Liam Fox:
I understand that a number of European countries use a differentiated system of visa fees, whereas the UK levies flat rate fees worldwide for each category of visa. It would therefore be possible to provide the information sought only following detailed research in those countries to establish current levels of visa fee applied in various countries/regions, and any revisions which have taken place during the period in question. It is not possible to estimate in advance the costs of such research.
Mr. Pearson:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the cost to the Exchequer in 1995-96 and the estimates available of likely costs in 1996-97 of (a) profit sharing schemes, (b) save as you earn share option schemes and (c) company share option plans; and
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if, for each of the above, he will list (i) the number of schemes registered and (ii) the number of people covered by these schemes. [13386]
1996: £580,000
1995: £727,000
1994: £241,136
1993: £406,296
1992: £251,695
Publicity/information campaigns
1996: £318,794
1995: £518,737
1994: £683,115
1993: £456,491
1992: £94,664
| £ million | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1995-96 | 1996-97 | |
| Approved profit sharing schemes | 90 | 110 |
| Approved savings related share option schemes(4) | 180 | 200 |
(3) Figures are particularly tentative and subject to a wide margin of error. Estimated costs are the effects on tax liabilities for each year, and not the receipts in each year.
(4) Excluding cost of tax-free bonus on interest received under SAYE contract.
| 1995-96 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Number of schemes approved in year | Estimated number of live schemes at year-end(5) | |
| Approved profit sharing schemes | 43 | 868 |
| Approved savings related share option schemes | 116 | 1,174 |
| Approved discretionary share option schemes/company share option plans | 347 | 4,339 |
(5) Excludes schemes where no further appropriations/grants of options were thought likely to occur.
| 1994-95 | |
|---|---|
| Number of employees receiving share allocations or to whom options were granted during the year (thousands) | |
| Approved profit sharing schemes | 640 |
| Approved savings-related share option schemes | 550 |
Company share option plans are not expected to have any costs until 1998-99.
The exact number of employees in each of these schemes cannot be precisely estimated because the available figures show only numbers of employees to whom shares were allocated or options granted in a particular year, and some employees may be allocated shares or granted options in successive years.
Estimates for take-up for 1995-96 are not yet available.
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Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list for each county in England and for the relevant areas in Wales and Scotland the number and percentage of taxpayers with taxable incomes over (a) 50,000, (b) £60,000, (c) £70,000, (d) £100,000 and (e) £150,000. [13795]
Mr. Jack:
Estimates of the number of taxpayers in each country and their average incomes are derived from the survey of personal incomes, and the latest available figures are in table 3.13 of "Inland Revenue Statistics
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1996." It is not possible to provide estimates for numbers in these income bands because of limitations in the size of the sample used in the survey.
Mr. Llwyd:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total (a) value added tax collected and (b) income tax recovered in each tax office in Wales in each year since 1990. [13868]
Mr. Jack:
The table details the amounts of income tax recovered by each of the collection offices in Wales. Information relating to 1990 and 1991 are no longer available in the format requested.
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| Office | Account 1992 £ | Account 1993 £ | Account 1994 £ | Account 1995 £ | Account 1996 £ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aberystwyth | 9,005,460.89 | 11,445,083.72 | 14,610,060.80 | 14,111,903.11 | 13,649,345.56 |
| Bangor | 22,670,830.88 | 23,487,869.38 | 22,509,841.89 | 24,675,193.38 | 31,025,119.11 |
| Cardiff | 83,115,908.62 | 76,517,319.52 | 109,099,560.22 | 130,429,444.81 | 83,231,425.26 |
| Haverfordwest | 9,804,817.94 | 6,087,883.51 | 6,725,811.05 | 8,272,308.66 | 7,411,620.03 |
| Merthyr Tydfil | 11,564,843.61 | 37,105,739.71 | 15,576,610.66 | 24,416,896.29 | 25,976,216.50 |
| Newport (Gwent) | 41,643,865.57 | 44,133,490.22 | 47,092,833,43 | 62,901,887.02 | 63,414,502.67 |
| Swansea | 37,048,096.31 | 30,177,721.28 | 28,633,271.20 | 35,737,250.47 | 26,810,007.40 |
| Wrexham | 26,378,979.37 | 23,019,889.34 | 31,091,353.89 | 45,664,975.27 | 48,924,179.41 |
The figures quoted above are the amounts of tax collected by each of the offices included in the table in respect of cases referred to them by the Inland Revenue accounts office Shipley for local action because a sum remained unpaid after the issue of requests and reminders for payment.
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