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Fees

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the fees his Department, its agencies and associated public bodies collect; how much has been raised or it is anticipated will be raised from each of these fees from 1989-90 to 2004-05; and which of these fees count as negative expenditure. [106001]

Mr. Timms: The following fees and charges are collected by the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Departments and can be used to offset the relevant expenditure.

£000

Department/Fee	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000
HM Treasury
Insurance Supervisory Service	8,258	9,787	12,204
HM Customs and Excise
To prohibit the release of counterfeit goods	126	137	137
Registry of Friendly Societies
General charge on building societies	2,258	3,753	2,881
General charge on friendly societies	863	1,006	1,300
Statutory fees from mutual societies	1,546	1,740	1,350
Government Actuary's Department
Actuarial advice	6,232	6,486	7,178
Office for National Statistics
Sale of registration certificates(22)	4,806	(23)5,191	4,700
National Investment and Loans Office
Public works Loan Board	1,934	2,048	2,000
National Debt Office	581	546	500

(22) Fees count as income rather than negative expenditure

(23) Forecast outturn

Information for the full requested spread of years prior to 1997-98 could not be gathered without disproportionate cost. Fee levels for 2000-01 and later are not available.

Parliamentary Questions

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many questions to his Department tabled for ordinary written answer during Session 1998-99 were answered (a) within two weeks of tabling, (b) within one month of tabling, (c) within three months of tabling and (d) after three months of tabling. [106489]

Mr. Timms: The information is as follows (a) 1,170; (b) 1,245; (c) 1,286 and (d) none.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many questions to his Department tabled for written answer on a named day during Session 1998-99 were answered (a) on or before a named day, (b) within one week of a named day, (c) within one month of a named day, (d) within three months of a named day and (e) after three months of a named day. [106482]

27 Jan 2000 : Column: 266W

Mr. Timms: The information is as follows (a) 288; (b) 665; (c) 780; (d) 813; and (e) none.

Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many questions to his Department were tabled for written answer during session 1998-99; and how many of these he replied to (a) by means of a letter placed in the Library rather than by substantive answer in the Official Report, (b) by stating that a substantive answer could not be given due to information not being held centrally and (c) by stating that a substantive answer could not be given due to disproportionate cost. [106485]

Mr. Timms: 2,099 written questions were tabled to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1998-99.

The other information sought by the hon. Member is not held in an accessible form. However, Treasury Ministers seldom reply to Parliamentary questions by letter rather than by substantive answer printed in the Official Report, and would normally do so only in the case of questions tabled shortly before the Summer Recess or Prorogation which could not be answered before the House rose.

Public Debt

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he plans to amend his net public debt target to a target of public sector net wealth following the introduction of resource accounting. [106775]

Mr. Andrew Smith: No.

Northern Ireland

Mr. Walker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much funding from the Capital Modernisation Fund will be allocated to Northern Ireland in the next financial year; and how the amount will be determined. [106806]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Northern Ireland's share of funding from the Capital Modernisation Fund is determined by applying the Barnett formula to successful bids to the Fund for projects in England. In the 1999 Budget Northern Ireland was assigned a minimum allocation from the Capital Modernisation Fund of £50 million from 1999-2000 to 2001-02, which represents an indicative allocation of £19.5 million in 2000-01. The funding will be reviewed when final allocations are made from the fund.

Public Investment

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the base year is from which he intends to double net public investment by 2002; and which year is the final year. [106777]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Comparisons over the Comprehensive Spending Review period take a baseline of 1998-99 and a final year of 2001-02.

Departmental Budgets

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if departments will be allowed to exceed their expenditure limits in 2000-01 and 2001-02 if they receive budgetary transfers from other departments that have spent below their departmental expenditure limits. [106776]

27 Jan 2000 : Column: 267W

Mr. Andrew Smith: Details of planned transfers in 2000-01 and 2001-02 between departmental expenditure limits, reflecting transfers of financing responsibility between Departments or spending sectors or machinery of government changes, are set out in Chapter 2 of "Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 1999-2000," published in March 1999 (Cm 4201).

Farming

Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many farming businesses paid corporation tax (a) in the last year for which information is available and (b) five years ago. [106536]

Dawn Primarolo: Only a small minority of farmers run their businesses as incorporated concerns subject to corporation tax with the majority being self employed and paying income tax. An estimated 10,500 farming incorporated businesses had a corporation tax liability for accounting periods ending in 1997-98 compared with 12,200 such businesses in 1992-93.

Electronic Business

Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of the Treasury's business is undertaken electronically at present; and what target has been set. [106801]

Dawn Primarolo: The Treasury has already met its target, due to be achieved in 2002, to increase the proportion of business undertaken electronically, in accordance with Government targets, to more than 25 per cent. of external communications.

Specific targets have been set for non-ministerial correspondence, where the Treasury now has 100 per cent. capability, and for electronic procurement of goods and services, where the current achievement of 55 per cent. exceeds the 40 per cent. target.

The Treasury carries out a very high proportion of its internal business electronically. The principal constraint to carrying out more external business electronically is the capability of external contacts.

Small Companies (Employee Incomes)

Mr. Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees working in companies employing fewer than five people have earnings between (a) the lower earnings limit and £5,000, (b) £5,001 and £7,000, (c) £7,001 and £8,000, (d) £8,001 and £9,000, (e) £9,001 and £9,500, (f) £9,501 and £10,000, (g) £10,001 and £12,000, (h) £12,001 and £14,000, (i) £14,001 and £16,000, (j) £16,001 and £18,000 and (k) £18,001 to £18,500 for each of the past five years. [106709]

Miss Melanie Johnson: 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. Frank Field, dated 27 January 2000:

As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question regarding the number of people working in companies which employ fewer than 5 people, and receive earnings in various earnings bands above the lower earnings limit.

27 Jan 2000 : Column: 268W

The New Earnings Survey (NES), carried out in April of each year, is a one per cent. sample of all employees who are members of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) schemes. However, I am only able to provide estimates of the percentage of employees whose earnings lie within specified ranges, rather than numbers, because appropriate factors to gross the survey results to accommodate this sample frame are not currently available. Additionally, I am unable to provide data for years prior to 1998 since estimates of annual earnings and enterprise size are not available.

The available information, from the 1998 and 1999 New Earnings Surveys, is attached.

I will arrange for a copy of this letter to be placed in the House of Commons Library.

New Earnings Survey, April of each year (GB)


Employees on adult rates, who have been in the same job for at least 12 months ¹ . Companies employing between 1 and 4 employees.

Percentage of employees with gross annual earnings in the range

1999	Full-time employees	Part-time employees	All employees
£3,432(25)-£5,000	1.6	18.7	6.1
£5,001-£7,000	5.8	18.4	9.1
£7,001-£8,000	4.7	6.8	5.2
£8,001-£9,000	5.6	4.2	5.2
£9,001-£9,500	2.5	1.7	2.3
£9,501-£10,000	3.3	1.5	2.9
£10,001-£12,000	14.4	3.5	11.5
£12,001-£14,000	10.7	2.0	8.4
£14,001-£16,000	10.9	1.5	8.4
£16,001-£18,000	8.7	1.0	6.6
£18,001-£18,500	1.6	0.1	1.2

Percentage of employees with gross annual earnings in the range

1998	Full-time employees	Part-time employees	All employees
£3,328(25)-£5,000	1.9	21.3	7.0
£5,001-£7,000	7.5	17.9	10.2
£7,001-£8,000	5.2	7.1	5.7
£8,001-£9,000	6.6	3.2	5.7
£9,001-£9,500	2.8	1.7	2.5
£9,501-£10,000	3.9	1.2	3.2
£10,001-£12,000	14.6	2.8	11.5
£12,001-£14,000	11.0	2.6	8.8
£14,001-£16,000	9.9	1.5	7.7
£16,001-£18,000	7.3	1.0	5.6
£18,001-£18,500	1.5	0.0	1.1

(24) Annual earnings have been calculated only for those employees that have been in the same job for at least 12 months. Employees with less than 12 months attachment may have relevant annual earnings from another employer but these would not be identified in the NES. Consequently, taking annual earnings for all employees would give a misleading (under) estimate.

(25) The lower earnings limit was £3,328 in April and £3,432 in April 1999.

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