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Charrington Case
Mr. Stuart Bell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to announce the findings and recommendations of the inquiry under the chairmanship of Sir Gerald Hosker into the Charrington case; and if he will make a statement. [82148]
Dawn Primarolo: Sir Gerald Hosker is still working on his Inquiry. I will announce the findings as soon as possible after he has presented his report to the Chairman of the Commissioners of HM Customs and Excise.
Debt Relief
Ms Drown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what response his Department has given to the proposal of Jubilee 2000 for a concordat on levels of debt cancellation and how funds released should be spent; and if the Government will discuss this proposal with other creditors to secure agreement for substantial debt cancellation by the end of 1999. [82003]
Ms Hewitt: Departmental officials have attended several discussions of Jubilee 2000's proposals, including a round-table seminar organised by Jubilee 2000 and a HIPC Review Consultation Meeting held by the World Bank. We shall certainly take part in any future discussions with other creditors on these proposals.
Ms Drown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the progress of the Commonwealth debt initiative, set out in his Mauritius speech, indicating which countries have received debt relief and the level of that relief. [82005]
Ms Hewitt:
Seven countries have qualified for debt relief packages under the World Bank/IMF's Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative and three countries--Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania--would be expected to qualify based on preliminary discussions. Uganda and Bolivia have received assistance at completion point, of $347 million and $448 million respectively. Assistance has been committed for Burkina
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Faso ($115 million), Guyana ($253 million), Cote d'Ivoire ($345 million), Mozambique ($1,442 million), and Mali ($128 million), and is predicted for Guinea-Bissau ($300 million), Ethiopia ($636 million) and Mauritania ($271 million).
Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 21 April 1999, Official Report, column 588, on household leaflets, if he will break down the £1.5 million cost referred to between (a) printing and (b) postage. [82203]
Dawn Primarolo:
Printing costs would be approximately £0.5 million. Other costs, including distribution and postage would account for the remainder of the cost.
Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 21 April 1999, Official Report, column 588, if civil servants reviewed the Red Book to ensure objectivity. [82188]
Dawn Primarolo:
I refer the hon. Member back to the reply I gave on 21 April.
Mr. Denzil Davies:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what response the Government have made to the European Commission's proposal to extend the provisions of Directive 76/308/EEC to allow the recovery between member states of unpaid taxes on income and capital. [81789]
Dawn Primarolo:
An Explanatory memorandum on the European Commission's proposal to extend the provisions of Directive 76/308/EEC was laid before Parliament on 24 July 1998. European Council working group meetings, at which the proposal would be discussed, have not yet commenced.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the additional public expenditure items which the Government have announced for (a) Scotland and (b) Wales since January 1998. [80884]
Mr. Milburn:
Public expenditure allocations were made to Scotland and Wales for 1999-2000 to 2001-02 in the Comprehensive Spending Review and published in "Modern Public Services for Britain: Investing in Reform" (Cm 4011), a copy of which is available in the Library.
Further increases to the Departmental Expenditure Limits for Scotland and Wales have been made following successful bids to the Invest to Save Budget (ISB) and the Capital Modernisation Fund (CMF). A breakdown of ISB and CMF awards to Departments can be found in tables 1.8 and 1.9 respectively of Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 1999-2000 (Cm 4201).
Mr. John M. Taylor:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if that part of section 9.21 of the Open
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Government White Paper of 1993 (Cm 2290) relating to the closure of census returns for England and Wales represents current Government policy. [81791]
Ms Hewitt:
The legislation covering the closure of census returns represents current Government policy. Census Returns form 1901 and 1911 are closed to the public for 100 years by virtue of Instrument 12 dated 1966 of the Public Records Act 1958. Censuses from 1921 onwards were taken under the terms of the Census Act 1920 as amended by the Census (Confidentiality) Act 1991 which gives protection to personal census information given by the public.
The Open Government White Paper section 9.21 accurately describes the position with respect to those census returns in the custody of the Public Record Office.
Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many section 9A Taxes Management Act 1970 inquiry notices relating to 1996-97 dated prior to 31 January were sent to taxpayers on or after 31 January; [80251]
Dawn Primarolo:
Approximately 20 per cent. of all inquiries into 1996/97 self-assessment tax returns were taken up during January 1999. The Inland Revenue do not record the actual dates on which notices are posted to taxpayers and it is therefore not possible to say whether any notices dated before 31 January 1999 were sent on or after that day. However, notices are normally posted on the date which they bear.
Mr. Gibb:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the number of businesses with fewer than 17 employees. [81706]
Ms Hewitt:
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 26 April 1999:
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Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office if he will publish an annual estimate of the total costs of compliance with statutory regulations to (a) all United Kingdom businesses and (b) United Kingdom businesses with fewer than 100 employees. [81645]
Mr. Kilfoyle:
No. The Government do not, and do not intend to, publish estimates in the form requested. Individual Regulatory Impact Assessments are already placed in the Libraries of the House.
(2) what proportion of section 9A Taxes Management Act 1970 inquiry notices relating to 1996-97 were issued in January. [80252]
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question on employment.
There are 1.75 million VAT and PAYE based businesses in the UK with less than 17 employees, as at April 1999. It is estimated that there are a further 1.8 million smaller businesses without employees and with low turnovers.
Information is provided from the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is administered by the ONS. The register contains details for all businesses in the UK that are traders registered for VAT and/or employers with PAYE schemes.
The ONS annual employment survey is the main source for the number of employees. For businesses that are not selected for this inquiry, employee estimates are obtained through employer PAYE returns. If the business is registered only for VAT, the business will generally have no employees. Such businesses without employees are included in the above counts. Smaller businesses without employees and not registered for VAT are excluded from these counts.
More detailed information on businesses registered for VAT is published annually by the ONS in Size Analysis of UK Businesses -(PA1003), most recently for 1998. Broad estimates for all businesses are published by the Department of Trade and Industry, based on the IDBR, in Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Statistics for the UK, latest version for 1997. Both publications are available in the House of Commons Library.
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