| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Plant Viruses
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of recent research from the Research School of Biological Sciences at the Australian National University concerning plant viruses recombining with vertebrate-infecting viruses; what evaluation he made of the risks of parts of the HIV virus being used as carriers in the context of his risk assessment of GM crops; and if he will make a statement. [115200]
Ms Quin: We will be studying the research referred to carefully. No parts of the HIV virus have been used in the construction of GM plants assessed for safety in the UK. If any such GM plants were to come forward for assessment they would be subject to stringent scrutiny.
Field Boundaries
Mr. Paice:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will defer for 12 months the alteration to Integrated Administrative and Control System rules regarding the width of field boundaries; and if he will make a statement on his discussions with the European Commission regarding these rules. [116688]
3 Apr 2000 : Column: 328W
Ms Quin
[holding answer 29 March 2000]: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given to the hon. Member for Southport (Mr. Fearn) on 29 March 2000, Official Report, column 172W.
Personal Tax Allowance
Mr. Ottaway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the full-year cost to the Exchequer from April 2000 of transferring an unused personal tax allowance to an earning spouse. [116067]
Dawn Primarolo: The estimated cost for 2000-01 of allowing a married person to transfer an unused personal allowance to their earning spouse is £2,000 million. The estimated cost of allowing a married person to transfer a personal allowance in the way most beneficial to the couple, regardless of whether it would be otherwise unused, or either or both spouses are earning, is £4,250 million.
Child Care Tax Credit
Ms Kelly:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what would be the additional cost to the Exchequer of replacing the child care tax credit with a non-means-tested
3 Apr 2000 : Column: 329W
parenting allowance of £70 a week for one child, £105 a week for two or more children, available to all families with a child under the age of three years, regardless of the parents' employment status or the form of child care used and assuming that the child care tax credit still applied to families with children where the youngest child was over the age of three years and the parenting allowance did not apply to Statutory Maternity Pay recipients. [116642]
Dawn Primarolo
[holding answer 28 March 2000]: If a weekly, non-means-tested allowances of £70 were to be given to all families with a single child under the age of three years and of £105 to families with two or more children, at least one of whom is under the age of three years, then the current full-year cost, based on data from the Family Resources Survey, would be about £8.5 billion.
Mr. Welsh:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the impact of his budget proposals on the value of sterling. [116522]
Mr. Andrew Smith
[holding answer 28 March 2000]: Sterling's exchange rate is affected by many factors and events, both here and abroad. It is not possible to isolate the impact of the Budget on the value of sterling with any degree of precision.
Mr. Welsh:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the value of sterling for (a) 2000, (b) 2001 and (c) 2002 using Treasury models. [116523]
Mr. Andrew Smith
[holding answer 28 March 2000]: The Treasury does not forecast movements in the exchange rate.
Mr. Kidney:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what arrangements are in place to help with the transition from weekly to monthly payments for those recipients of Working Families Tax Credit who will receive the credit through a monthly pay packet from April. [116701]
Dawn Primarolo:
Tax credits will start being paid through the pay packet from 18 April and this will help to demonstrate the rewards of work and to make work pay for families on low incomes. Tax credits will be paid at the same intervals as pay--weekly for employees paid weekly, fortnightly for those paid fortnightly and monthly for those paid monthly.
In the first few weeks of a 26-week tax credit award, the Inland Revenue will pay the tax credit direct to the employee--either direct to a bank account or by Girocheque. These initial payments will be made fortnightly (one week in arrears and one week in advance). The guidance notes for tax credit applicants make it clear that tax credit payments by employers will be made at the same frequency as wages or salary.
Mr. Sanders:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the travel to work areas in order of the fall in unemployment during the past (a) 12 months, (b) 24 months and (c) 36 months for which figures are available. [116720]
3 Apr 2000 : Column: 330W
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. Adrian Sanders, dated 3 April 2000:
Mr. Brady:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the subjects of the parliamentary questions which have been transferred to his Department from other Departments in each session since 1 May 1997. [117222]
Mr. Timms:
The Treasury, in common with other Departments, does not keep records relating to transferred questions.
Mr. Brazier:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the take-up of the child care credit in the Working Families Tax Credit. [115876]
Dawn Primarolo:
The childcare tax credit component of the Working Families Tax Credit has been particularly successful, with over 90,000 recipients at the end of February. At its peak, in August 1999, 47,000 families claimed the child care disregard in Family Credit.
Mr. Field:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he proposes to take to stimulate development of credit unions following the Cruickshank report. [117106]
Miss Melanie Johnson:
The Government announced moves to encourage credit unions to develop on 16 November 1999, including the creation of a new central services organisation and regulatory changes designed to help them to deliver a more consistent and flexible service to members.
Mr. Don Foster:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) number and (b) percentage of properties in his charge are empty; and what steps are being taken by his Department to reduce the number of such properties. [116921]
Mr. Timms:
None of the properties owned or leased by the Treasury are empty.
Barbara Follett:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress he has made in implementing
3 Apr 2000 : Column: 331W
the recommendations of the Review of Civil Procurement in Central Government; and if he will make a statement. [117778]
Mr. Andrew Smith:
From 1 April 2000, the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) will be operational. Peter Gershon has been appointed Chief Executive and Brian Rigby deputy Chief Executive. The Chief Executive will be responsible to Treasury Ministers on both policy and executive matters. The OGC will include the Private Finance Policy Team, and staff dealing with Procurement Policy and Procurement Practice and Development.
As Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the fall in unemployment in travel-to-work areas (TTWA's).
The ONS publish a monthly count of claimants of unemployment-related benefits. The claimant count consists of all people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or National Insurance credits at Employment Service local offices. They must declare that they are out of work, capable of, available for and actively seeking work during the week in which the claim is made.
Information on the falls in the levels of the claimant count by TTWA during the past 12 months, 24 months and 36 months can be obtained from the Nomis database at the House of Commons Library.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |