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SOCIAL SECURITY
Incapacity Benefit
Mr. Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what additional costs there will be for the pensions schemes for the Police and Fire Services as a result of the changes contained in the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill to incapacity benefit for claimants with occupational pensions; and what other public service schemes will be similarly affected. [84043]
Mr. Bayley [holding answer 13 May 1999]: Currently Police, Fire and other public service pensions awarded on injury grounds are abated to take account of benefits. The Regulatory Impact Assessment published with the Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill made it clear that there may be some additional costs for such schemes from the proposal to take pension income over £50 a week into account for future Incapacity Benefit claims. But until the schemes consider the implications in detail, the scale of these costs cannot be assessed.
ICL Pathway Project
Mr. Rendel: To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security (1) what compensation his Department has (a) sought and (b) received as a result of the delays to the ICL Pathway Project; [84250]
- (2) what the original timetable was for automation of post offices for computerised delivery of social security payments under the ICL Pathway Project; and what delays are now forecast; [84252]
(3) what savings have occurred under the pilot scheme for the ICL Pathway Project; [84254]
(4) what estimate he has made of the savings as a result of the ICL Pathway Project once all post offices are automated as planned. [84251]
Angela Eagle: The Benefits Agency, Post Office Counters Ltd. and ICL Pathway continue to work together to progress the project. Contractual and commercial matters remain confidential to the parties.
When the project was let in May 1996, it was assumed that all post offices would be automated by the end of 1998. To date, 204 post offices have been automated in the North East and South West of England. On current plans, automation will be completed int he next two years.
The payment card is estimated to have resulted in £91,000 fraud savings up to the end of March 1999. The order book control service, which enables bar-coded order books to be identified by the system, has resulted in £1.6 million in fraud savings over the same period.
It is estimated that when paper based methods of payment are fully automated, £189 million savings per annum will be achieved.
Mr. McNamara:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if she will investigate the statements
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made by her Department on the (a) extent and (b) thoroughness of the original inquiries of the RUC into Mr. Finucane's murder. [83405]
Marjorie Mowlam:
A summary of Mr. Steven's first inquiry, indicating the extent and thoroughness of that inquiry, was published. In light of this, my hon. Friend may wish to direct my attention to any statements by my department which he thinks I should investigate.
Mr. McNamara:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what discussions (a) she and (b) officials in her Department have had with the Chief Constable of the RUC concerning Mr. John Steven's statement on his authority in relation to investigating the murder of Mr. Patrick Finucane. [83406]
Marjorie Mowlam:
Operational policing, including the request to Mr. Stevens to investigate the murder of Mr. Finucane, is a matter for the Chief Constable. The Chief Constable keeps me informed about important developments by discussions with me and with my officials.
Mr. Gordon Prentice:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many occasions since 11 November 1998 he has met the hon. Member for Gordon (Mr. Bruce) to discuss matters within his remit which might be taken forward in policy development terms through the Joint Cabinet Consultative Committee mechanism. [69335]
Mr. Gordon Brown
[holding answer 4 February 1999]: None.
Ms Lawrence:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes are to take place in the treatment for stamp duty purposes of leases under which the rent is to be adjusted in the light of changes in the retail prices index; and if he will make a statement. [84623]
Ms Hewitt:
In the light of recent legal advice given to the Inland Revenue, the treatment of these leases for Stamp Duty is to be changed.
When a new lease is taken out, Stamp Duty is charged by reference to both the premium and the rent under the lease. The premium attracts duty at the same rates as the selling price on the sale of a freehold interest. The premium gets the benefit of the £60,000 nil rate band provided that the rent does not exceed a ceiling, currently £600 per annum. The average annual rent is charged at rates of between one per cent. and 24 per cent., depending on the length of the lease.
Many leases provide that the rent is to increase by a fixed percentage at annual or other intervals--or they lay down the actual amounts of the increases. The average annual rent, and therefore the Stamp Duty, is straightforward to calculate in these cases. But if future rent levels are expressed in terms of future movements in an index, like the RPI, it is less clear how a figure for the average annual rent can be calculated at the time the lease is taken out. In the light of representations, the then
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Economic Secretary made a statement to this House by way of Written Answer on 6 November 1996, Official Report, columns 541-43, setting out how the Stamp Office would apply Stamp Duty in such cases for the future, on the basis of legal advice. Broadly, where the rent under a lease was to be adjusted by reference to future changes in an index, Stamp Duty would be calculated by reference to changes in that index during the year ending with the date of execution of the lease.
However, the legal validity of this approach has been challenged. Further legal advice given to the Inland Revenue is that the current system of applying a formula to allow for increases in an index number after the date of execution of a lease is not appropriate. So this practice will cease.
In future, where there is a formula expressed in the lease for rent reviews based on the RPI, only any change in the RPI up to the date of its execution will be taken into account for Stamp Duty purposes. This is expected to result, in most cases, in the average rent being little more than the initial rent.
This change means that people who have paid Stamp Duty on this type of lease may have paid more duty than they should have done. The Inland Revenue will invite those who paid duty on a lease of this kind to contact the Stamp Office and claim any repayment due to them. Details of the arrangements for repayments are set out in an Inland Revenue Press Release and on the Inland Revenue website.
Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what factors decided which Labour candidate's photograph to use as demonstrative of the UK electoral process in the section rights and responsibilities of his departmental publication "People in Britain". [83948]
Mr. Robin Cook:
A picture researcher is appointed to find pictures to illustrate the text. A selection of suitable photographs is supplied to the designer who picks the best quality shots for reproduction. The only political consideration is balance. The booklet was produced in 1996.
Mr. Bercow:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what will be the (a) role, (b) budget and (c) fees for the pre-accession advisers funded under the EU twinning programme with candidate countries in central Europe; who will select them; on what criteria; and if he will make a statement. [83928]
Ms Quin:
The UK is actively involved in the European Commission's new twinning programme under which experts from Member States are seconded to Central European Candidate Country Ministries to help them prepare for accession to the EU.
The role of Pre-Accession Advisers (PAAs) is to help Central European (CE) Ministries adopt the legislative and administrative changes that are necessary in order to
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join the EU. PAAs work full-time for at least one year within a CE Ministry to implement a twinning project. This includes the support and co-ordination of any short-term expert missions and training activities within the project.
Funding for PAAs is set as part of the individual budget for each twinning project. The Commission estimates an approximate budget of 200,000 euro per year for each PAA.
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