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Royal Prerogative
Mr. Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will list the occasions in the last three months when powers under the Royal Prerogative were exercised on the advice of ministers. [113281]
Mr. Mike O'Brien [holding answer 7 March 2000]: I regret that this information is not held centrally.
Asylum Seekers
Miss Widdecombe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr. Lidington) of 23 March 2000, Official Report, column 672W, on asylum seekers, (a) for what reasons local authorities (i) claimed more than their gross expenditure and (ii) did not claim the full amount of their gross expenditure and (b) what estimate he has made of the cost to each local authority in the (1) 1999-2000 and (2) 2000-2001 financial years of
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providing support to asylum seekers which they are unable to claim from the Home Office under the grant rules and which has been or will be met from their own funds; and if he will make a statement. [116691]
Mrs. Roche
[pursuant to her reply, 23 March 2000, c. 672W]: The gross expenditure figure for East Sussex should read £279,979.
Data are available for the 1999-2000 financial year only in relation to the period 1 April 1999 to 5 December 1999. The data for 6 December 1999 to 31 March 2000 are not yet available in full, as not all claims have been received from local authorities. For the period 1 April 1999 to 5 December 1999, those local authorities who received more than their gross expenditure (as defined in the grant report rules) did so as a result of allowable commissioning costs. The grant rules covering this period entitle local authorities to claim the costs involved in commissioning premises to be used to accommodate asylum seekers. At the discretion of the Secretary of State, payment of up to £10 per week for each person supported in such premises was available. The provision was taken up only by a small number of authorities. In some cases, local authorities could not be reimbursed the full amount of their identified gross expenditure for a number of reasons--for example, because they incurred expenditure on items which were not covered by the grant rules or had exceeded the unit costs limits set by the grant report. No estimate has been made for the whole of 1999-2000 and 2000-01 of the cost to each local authority of providing support to asylum seekers for which they are unable to claim from the Home Office under the grant rules.
Miss Widdecombe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department for what reason, in his Department's monthly asylum statistics published on 24 March, the number of asylum applicants (a) granted asylum or exceptional leave to remain and (b) refused, was listed as not available; on what data the figure for decisions in total was based, and for what reasons this could not be broken down by category; if monthly asylum statistics have been published previously without such a breakdown; and if he will make a statement. [116693]
Mrs. Roche:
The figure for total asylum decisions in February was obtained from a manual count by caseworkers and is consistent with figures provided in previous months. A breakdown of decisions, by type, was not available in February due to the transition to a new computer system, the Asylum Cases Information Database (ACID). Although information on asylum decisions is satisfactorily recorded on this system for operational purposes, further quality checks are being carried out to ensure accurate statistical information is published.
It is expected that a full breakdown of the decisions will be published in due course. A preliminary analysis has shown that the breakdown of decisions, for cases considered under normal procedures, in February was consistent with that seen in recent months with a high proportion of refusals of asylum. Monthly asylum statistics have not been published previously without such a breakdown.
Miss Widdecombe:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to his answer of
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22 March 2000, Official Report, column 559W, on release of prisoners, if he will provide a breakdown by type of offence of the additional prisoners he estimates would be released earlier than now as a result of the electronic monitoring provisions of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Bill. [116690]
Mr. Boateng:
It is not possible to give such a breakdown at this stage. The new powers will be carefully tested in pilot schemes before they are made available, and it would be premature to judge the possible outcomes of those pilots. However, there is no question of electronic monitoring being used to facilitate the early release of sex offenders or other high risk offenders. The availability of electronic monitoring for such offenders will not influence the Parole Board when making decisions or recommendations on release. The Secretary of State will be issuing Directions to the Parole Board to make this clear, using the powers available to him under section 32(6) of the Criminal Justice Act 1991.
The measures in the Criminal Justice and Courts Services Bill will not change any prisoner's eligibility for release, and any discretionary release decision will continue to be subject to careful risk assessment. These proposals should provide additional protection for the public. High risk offenders--when eventually released at the end of their term in custody--could be made subject to electronic monitoring as a means of reinforcing curfew or exclusion conditions in their licences.
Dr. Godman:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what was the (a) average working families tax credit and (b) average child care tax credit payment per week for persons in (i) Inverclyde and (ii) Scotland in the past year; [115950]
(3) if he will estimate the number of families with children in (a) Inverclyde and (b) Scotland who are eligible for the working families tax credit; [115952]
(4) how many persons in (a) Inverclyde and (b) Scotland are in receipt of (i) working families tax credit and (ii) the child care tax credit. [115953]
Dawn Primarolo:
It is estimated that 83,900 families in Scotland had been awarded the working families tax credit (WFTC) by the end of February 2000, of which 1,700 were in Inverclyde.
About 8,900 of the awards in Scotland included a child care tax credit. There are too few cases in the 5 per cent. sample used for these analyses to provide a reliable estimate of the number of these in Inverclyde.
The average value of WFTC awards made by the end of February 2000 in Scotland is estimated at £69.91 per week. For families with eligible child care costs, the average extra
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amount of WFTC arising from the child care tax credit is estimated at £28.63 per week. It is not possible to provide reliable corresponding estimates for Inverclyde.
WFTC was introduced on 5 October 1999. It is estimated that expenditure in 1999-2000 on awards in Scotland will be about £80 million. Recalculating the awards excluding the child care tax credit would reduce this by about £5 million. It is not possible to provide corresponding estimates for Inverclyde.
Ms Harman:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what was the average (a) working families tax credit and (b) child care tax credit payment per week for people in Southwark in the last 12 months; [114836]
Dawn Primarolo:
The working families tax credit (WFTC) was introduced in October 1999. It is not possible to provide reliable estimates of the average award, or expenditure, for Southwark. However, for the United Kingdom as a whole, the average value of WFTC awards made up to the end of February 2000 was £71.48 per week, and for London the average was £73.92 per week. For the United Kingdom as a whole, for those with eligible child care costs, the average extra amount of WFTC arising from the child care tax credit was £31.04 per week.
Ms Buck:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many claims for working families tax credit have been received in each region; [110544]
Dawn Primarolo:
The estimated number of awards of the working families tax credit made by the end of February 2000 by region are given in the table. Estimates of the average weekly gain for families in receipt of WFTC compared with Family Credit in a full year were given to my hon. Friend on 14 July 1999, Official Report, column 245W. Full year figures made on actual awards are not yet available.
(2) what was the annual expenditure by Her Majesty's Government on (a) the working families tax credit and (b) the child care tax credit in (i) Inverclyde and (ii) Scotland in the past two years; [115951]
(2) what was the annual expenditure by Government on (a) working families tax credit and (b) child care tax credit in Southwark in each of the last five years. [114837]
(2) what has been the average gain to working families from the working families tax credit in each region. [110545]
| Government office region | Number of WFTC awards made to end February 2000 |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 879,400 |
| England | 712,300 |
| North East | 52,300 |
| North West | 127,700 |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | 96,900 |
| East Midlands | 70,100 |
| West Midlands | 89,900 |
| East of England | 59,200 |
| London | 64,900 |
| South East | 80,100 |
| South West | 71,100 |
| Wales | 52,400 |
| Scotland | 83,900 |
| Northern Ireland | 30,700 |
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Ms Kelly: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate he has made of the impact of the working families tax credit on the income of a couple, both earning the minimum wage, and with two children under 11 years, where one parent works full-time and the other (a) full-time and (b) 16 hours per week; [106100]
(2) what assessment he has made of the impact of the working families tax credit on the income of a couple, both earning the minimum wage, with two children under 11 years, where one parent works full-time and the other works (a) full-time and (b) 16 hours per week if the income were divided equally and the credit calculated on each half; [106101]
(3) what estimate he has made of the impact of the working families tax credit on the income of a single parent, with two children under the age of 11 years, earning the minimum wage and working (a) full-time and (b) 16 hours per week. [106099]
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Dawn Primarolo: The amounts of working families tax credit for 1999-2000 payable to those earning the minimum wage and with two children under 11 are given in the table.
| £ per week | |
|---|---|
| Couple: | |
| both working full-time | 25.13 |
| one working full-time, one working 16 hours per week | 56.12 |
| Lone Parent: | |
| working full-time | 87.80 |
| working 16 hours per week | 92.00 |
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