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Defence Estate Review

Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when he will publish the conclusions of his Department's review of the Defence Estate in Greater London. [119317]

Dr. Moonie: I refer the hon. Member to the answer my right hon. Friend the then Under-Secretary of State gave the hon. Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key) on 18 January 2000, Official Report, columns 405-06W.

Mr. Wilkinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the future of the Lime Grove site owned by his Department in Eastcote, Middlesex. [119319]

Dr. Moonie: The Eastcote site was formally transferred to my Department by the Department of Trade and Industry on 31 March 2000. Its future is being considered as part of our wider review of the Department's estate holdings in London. If it is determined that the Eastcote site is surplus to defence needs, the property will be disposed of.

Married Quarters

Mr. Cox: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many military married quarters were sold in the UK during 1999; and how much revenue was raised by the sales. [118833]

Dr. Moonie: The majority of Service Families Accommodation (SFA) in England and Wales was sold to Annington Homes Limited (AHL) on 5 September 1996, on a 999-year lease. The Ministry of Defence leases back those properties it requires to house Service families on a 200-year lease. Those properties not required for Service use are released to AHL, as they become available. 1,472 properties were disposed of in this way in 1999 calendar year. The amount raised from these sales is a matter for AHL.

In addition, Defence Estates remains responsible for a small number of SFA's in England and Wales and all of those in Scotland. Of these, 478 have been disposed of in the period providing revenue of £10,437,516.

17 Apr 2000 : Column: 369W

RAF Neatishead

Mr. Prior: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the future of RAF Neatishead. [119283]

Mr. Spellar: As I explained in my letter of 5 April to the hon. Member, work in relation to the future of RAF Neatishead is ongoing. It is hoped that this work will be completed by late spring, when I will write to the hon. Member again. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

US-licensed Anthrax Vaccine

Mr. Dalyell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his letter of 19 March, Ref. D/Min/(AF)JS/0906/00/P, what conclusions he has drawn from his scrutiny of the report of the Congressional Committee on National Security which reviewed the US Department of Defense's policy on the use of US-licensed anthrax vaccine and the way in which that policy had been implemented. [117973]

Mr. Spellar: We have studied the Committee's report and a response by the US Department of Defense refuting the Committee's findings. These concerned both the safety and efficacy of the US anthrax vaccine and the scope of the US Department of Defense's mandatory immunisation programme. The anthrax vaccine produced in the UK differs from the US product and is administered in a different way. Independent advice in both the UK and the US has confirmed that vaccination against anthrax is safe and effective. Against this background, it remains our policy that vaccination against anthrax has an important part to play as one of a range of measures to provide protection against biological weapons for our armed forces.

RAF Bruggen

Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what has been the expenditure on (a) runway resurfacing, (b) hardened bunkers and (c) other capital expenditure at RAF Bruggen over the past five years. [119182]

Mr. Spellar: No expenditure at RAF Bruggen has been incurred on the provision of runway resurfacing or hardened bunkers over the past five years. Other capital expenditure on facilities at Bruggen over this period amounts to £9.295 million, including VAT. These facilities will be used by the Army, who will be transferring units there when the RAF withdraw.

TREASURY

Minimum Wage and Working Families Tax Credit

Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when definitive estimates on the number of people who have benefited from (a) the national minimum wage and (b) the working families tax credit by parliamentary constituency will be available; and if he will make a statement. [114569]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested on the national minimum wage falls within the responsibility of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). I understand from ONS that definitive estimates by constituency of the

17 Apr 2000 : Column: 370W

number of people that have benefited from the national minimum wage are not yet available. Up to the end of March 2000, there had been 1.03 million awards made of the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) in the United Kingdom. Available figures by constituency are given in the tables which have been deposited in the Library.

C154 Certificates

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many C154 certificates have been issued since the start of the scheme; and how many requests for C154 certificates have been rejected. [118605]

Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue has issued 781,742 registration cards. This includes not only permanent cards but also temporary cards and replacement cards. The Inland Revenue does not keep a record of applications where registration cards are refused.

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what checks on eligibility are made in respect of an applicant before a C154 certificate is issued. [118604]

Dawn Primarolo: Where a person works as a subcontractor on a contract to which the Construction Industry Scheme applies they must register with the Inland Revenue if the contractor is to comply with the rules of the scheme when paying them for the work they do. If the contractor does not comply with the rules of the scheme they may incur a penalty.

Subcontractors who are not eligible to receive a certificate entitling them to receive payment gross will be issued with a registration card. This card must be presented, in person, to the contractor before payment can be made. Payments to registration card holders are made after deduction of 18 per cent. on account of tax and Class 4 National Insurance. Under the old scheme, only those who wished to receive payment gross needed to apply to the Inland Revenue for a card. The registration card has been successful in ensuring that 50,000 subcontractors, who were previously unknown to the Inland Revenue, have now registered with a tax office.

In order to register for the scheme an individual must take a completed application form, together with a recent passport size photograph and two proofs of identify, one of which must carry a photograph and one must show their current address, to a tax office.

An individual who also has proof of their National Insurance number, which can be validated by the Inland Revenue through the NIRS system, will be issued with a permanent registration card--CIS4(P). An individual who is unable to provide proof of their National Insurance number, or whose number cannot be validated, is issued with a temporary registration card--CIS4(T) which is only valid for up to three months. The temporary registration card is replaced once the Inland Revenue has validated the individual's National Insurance number.

To date the Inland Revenue have issued approximately 61,000 temporary registration cards, of which over 54,000 have now expired.

Working Families Tax Credit

Mr. Stevenson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people will receive the Working

17 Apr 2000 : Column: 371W

Families Tax Credit from 18 April (a) in the Stoke-on-Trent, South constituency and (b) in Stoke-on-Trent as a whole. [118591]

Dawn Primarolo: For the Stoke-on-Trent, South constituency, I refer my hon. Friend to my answer today, Official Report, column 370W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Mr. Marsden). It is estimated that 6,200 families in Stoke-on-Trent have been awarded the Working Families Tax Credit by the end of March 2000.

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families are in receipt of the working families tax credit in the Crosby constituency; and what percentage they constitute of the total number of families in the constituency. [118685]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 11 April 2000]: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer today, Official Report, column 370W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Mr. Marsden) for the number of Working Families Tax Credit awards in Crosby. Estimates of the number of families at constituency level are not available.

Dr. Stoate: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in Dartford will benefit from the increase in the under-16 child credit in the working families tax credit. [118823]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer today, Official Report, column 370W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Mr. Marsden). Almost all families having new awards, or renewing awards, from June 2000 will benefit from the increase in the under 16 child credit.

Helen Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families are in receipt of the working families tax credit in (a) Warrington and (b) Warrington North constituency. [118856]

Dawn Primarolo: The information is contained in the table relating to the answer I have today given my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Mr. Marsden), Official Report, column 370W.

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