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Agricultural Wages
Mr. Sawford: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects to announce the results of the consultation on the future of the agricultural wages boards. [125170]
Mr. Paul Marsden: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the Government's consultation on the future of the agricultural wages boards. [125398]
Ms Quin: The consultation period closed on 31 March and some 250 comments have been received. Independent research was also commissioned to complement the consultation exercise and the results are due later this month. We will announce the outcome of the review as soon as possible when we have considered all the responses and issues raised.
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will estimate the present proportion of farm costs which are represented by labour costs. [125196]
Ms Quin: In 1998-99, labour costs are estimated to have represented an average of 16.2 per cent. of the total farm costs of full-time farm business in England. These labour costs include an imputed estimate of the wholly or mainly unpaid labour carried out on the farm, principally by farmers, spouses and other family workers. Estimates for 1999-2000 will be published early in 2001.
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on rates of pay in the horticulture industry. [125355]
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Ms Quin: Minimum rates of pay for the horticulture industry are set by the Agricultural Wages Board, which is an independent body. The most recent Agricultural Wages Order came into force on 1 June 2000.
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the role played by Agricultural Wages Board rates of pay in the rural economy. [125197]
Ms Quin: As part of the quinquennial review of the Agricultural Wages Board, announced in December 1999, independent research is being undertaken to evaluate the impact of the provisions in the Agricultural Wages Order. The results will be made available when the outcome of the review is published.
Mr. Pickthall: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what assessment he has made of the effect of Agricultural Wages Board rates of pay on rural pay levels generally. [125199]
Ms Quin: We have made no special assessment of the effect of the Agricultural Wages Board on rural rates of pay in general. Over the years some rural employers have based the pay for non-agricultural workers on the rates set by the Agricultural Wages Board.
Bovine Tuberculosis
Mr. Baker: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when the final draft of the second report of the Independent Scientific Group on cattle TB will be published. [125172]
Ms Quin [holding answer 9 June 2000]: The report was published on 7 February this year and copies were placed in the Library of the House, as set out in the reply, 7 February 2000, Official Report, column 80W.
Mr. Baker: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food how many and what proportion of badgers trapped and killed in the TB trial in Wiltshire, in May, were lactating females; and if he will make a statement. [125258]
Ms Quin [holding answer 9 June 2000]: Of the badgers trapped and killed in the recent trial operations in Wiltshire, 35 (5.8 per cent.) were lactating females.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what resources have been allocated (a) within the public sector and (b) as grants to private sector research for the development of a prophylactic bovine TB treatment. [125175]
Ms Quin [holding answer 9 June 2000]: We are spending about £1.4 million a year on developing a vaccine against bovine TB. Research at the Veterinary Laboratory Agency accounts for approximately 70 per cent. of this expenditure; work at the Institute of Animal Health, Compton, accounts for the rest. This research also draws on significant amounts of work being undertaken in related fields internationally.
Mr. Drew: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what risk analysis has been carried out on (a) the provision of a prophylactic bovine TB treatment and (b) the proposals advanced by the Krebs/Bourne Study. [125177]
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Ms Quin [holding answer 9 June 2000]: Risk assessments on TB vaccines will be carried out as part of the normal regulatory process if and when suitable candidate vaccines have been developed. Proposals which emerge from the epidemiological investigation into TB in cattle being undertaken by Professor Bourne's Independent Scientific Group will be assessed against a range of factors including the impact on public health, on animal health and welfare, on the environment and on the economy.
Mr. Baker: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will make a statement on the intended timescale for making publicly available information arising from an audit assessing the effectiveness of the surveying and social group delineation of badger culling. [125257]
Ms Quin [holding answer 9 June 2000]: We intend to publish the report, together with the Government's response, as soon as possible after the final report is received from the independent auditor. On current expectations, this will be during the summer.
Fisheries Multi-annual Guidance Programme
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what reduction in British fishing effort has been achieved so far in MAGP IV; and what reduction he hopes to gain by the end of that programme. [124453]
Mr. Morley: Between 1 January 1997 and 31 December 1999 the capacity of the UK fleet was reduced by 3.2 per cent. in tonnage and 7.7 per cent. in engine power.
Between 1997 and 1999 the effort of those segments of the fleet for which there are MAGP effort objectives (that is, pelagic, beam trawl, demersal, seines, nephrops and distant water vessels), has been reduced by 5.7 per cent. (tonnage effort) and by 8.5 per cent. (power effort).
The UK has achieved its intermediate effort objectives and is on course in most segments to achieve its full capacity and effort objectives under the programme. However, capacity of the pelagic segment is currently some way outside its MAGP IV objective.
TREASURY
Top-rate Taxpayers
Mr. Portillo: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many top rate income tax payers (a) there were in (i) 1996-97, (ii) 1997-98, (iii) 1998-99 and (iv) 1999-2000 and (b) he expects there to be in (i) 2000-01 and (ii) 2001-02. [120351]
Dawn Primarolo: Latest published estimates for the number of higher rate income taxpayers are in table 2.1 of Inland Revenue Statistics (IRS). The latest version of table 2.1 consistent with the March 2000 Budget is available on the Inland Revenue website at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/table2-1.htm.
Estimates for 2000-01 will be published in the 2000 edition of IRS, which will be available around October 2000.
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Working Families Tax Credit
Mr. Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the expenditure on the Working Families Tax Credit was (a) for each month since October 1999 and (b) for the period April to October 1999, (i) in total, (ii) minus the projected expenditure on Family Credit, (iii) minus the savings on Council Tax Benefit and (iv) minus the savings on Housing Benefit; [122392]
- (2) pursuant to his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Glasgow, Maryhill (Mrs. Fyfe) 15 May 2000, Official Report, column 47W, what is the average amount by which other benefits have been reduced for families with incomes of less than £12,000 as a result of the Working Families Tax Credit. [122988]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answers 16 and 19 May 2000]: Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) and Disabled Person's Tax Credit (DPTC) were introduced on 5 October 1999. Total expenditure on these tax credits in 1999-2000 is estimated at £0.9 billion, but reliable estimates for each month are not available.
Given the difference in income rules in relation to maintenance, and the fact that it is not possible to isolate behavioural effects (such as the number of families who may have entered work or increased their hours because WFTC provides a more generous work incentive than Family Credit), it is not possible to determine how much would have been spent on FC in 1999-2000 had WFTC not been introduced.
The receipt of Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) cannot be determined from information processed for applications for WFTC. The receipt of WFTC by families in receipt of HB and CTB, and hence the saving in HB and CTB for these families, can be determined from the information processed for claims for those benefits. However, for some families the award of WFTC, together with other income available, will mean that there is no entitlement to HB or CTB. The general level of saving on HB and CTB for these families can only be estimated using household survey data on families receiving WFTC. Such data will become available, in sufficient sample numbers to yield reliable estimates, at some time from the second half of 2001.
Mr. Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out for each financial year between April 1999 and April 2002 the gross actual and planned expenditure on (a) the working families tax credit and (b) the working families tax credit minus the savings on housing benefit and council tax benefit attributable to the working families tax credit. [123780]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 25 May 2000]: The total expenditure on Working Families' Tax Credit (WFTC) and the Disabled Person's Tax Credit (DPTC) in 1999-00, and the Budget projections of expenditure on these credits for 2000-01 and 2001-02, are shown at Table C12 of the March 2000 Financial Statement and Budget Report (FSBR).
No estimate for 1999-00 of the saving on Housing Benefit (HB) and Council Tax Benefit (CTB) is yet available, for the reason given in a separate answer I am today giving my right hon. Friend. I understand from the
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Department of Social Security that the projections of expenditure on HB and CTB in the FSBR were net of the following savings attributable to WFTC.
| £ million | |
|---|---|
| 2000-01 | 100 |
| 2001-02 | 115 |
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of recipients of the child care tax credit in WFTC who do not use eligible child care. [124937]
Dawn Primarolo: The child care tax credit in Working Families' Tax Credit can only be claimed by people who pay for eligible child care.
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the child care tax credit will relate to the reformed employment tax credit and integrated child credit. [124938]
Dawn Primarolo: The child care tax credit is an integral part of the Working Families' Tax Credit, and provides help with child care costs for parents who are working. It will continue to provide help with child care costs for working parents in the new generation of tax credits. The precise position of the child care tax credit within the new tax credits depends on detailed design of the new generation of credits, on which decisions have not yet been made.
Jackie Ballard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families are in receipt of the child care tax credit in the Working Families Tax Credit and Disabled Person's Tax Credit in each (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority. [124986]
Dawn Primarolo: It is estimated that about 103,000 families benefited from the child care tax credit among the 1.03 million families with awards of the Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) made to the end of March in the United Kingdom.
There are too few cases in the 5 per cent. sample used for the analysis of WFTC awards to provide reliable estimates for each parliamentary constituency or local authority. However, estimates of the total number of WFTC awards made to the end of March in each parliamentary constituency are in tables which have been deposited in the Library following my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Shrewsbury and Atcham (Mr. Marsden) on 17 April 2000, Official Report, column 370W.
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