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Parliamentary Questions
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 4 July 2000, Official Report, column 178W, if he will list his Department's targets for answering (a) named day parliamentary questions, (b) ordinary written parliamentary questions and (c) Lords written questions; and if he will make a statement. [130279]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave him on 11 July 2000, Official Report, columns 507-08W.
"Adding It Up"
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action is being undertaken to implement the recommendations of the Performance and Innovation Unit report entitled "Adding It Up"; and if he will make a statement. [130314]
Mr. Andrew Smith: An implementation group, chaired by the Chief Economist in the Treasury Public Service Directorate, and including experts from different departments and from academia, is being set up to promote and follow up the 41 conclusions of the "Adding It Up" report. Action falls to HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office, the Office for National Statistics, and to departments; good progress is being made.
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which stakeholders will be involved in decisions made on allocations of resources from the Evidence-Based Policy Fund; when he will announce the detailed use of the first tranche of funding; and if he will make a statement. [130315]
Mr. Andrew Smith: An implementation group, chaired by the Chief Economist in the Treasury Public Service Directorate, and including experts from different departments and from academia, is being set up to promote and follow up the conclusions of the "Adding It Up" report, and to advise upon the allocations of the Evidence-Based Policy Fund. Successful bids from the first tranche of funding will be announced in the autumn.
Civil List
Mr. Alan Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the estimated surplus will be at the end of 10 years on the Civil List, assuming an average price increase of 2.5 per cent. per annum and a yearly 3 per cent. rate of return on the invested surplus. [130316]
Mr. Timms: The precise outcome would depend on the exact profiles of wage and price inflation, and of interest rates. If the assumptions stated applied uniformly across the period, and assuming that earnings growth is uniform and consistent with the 2.5 per cent. per annum increase in prices, the surplus at the end of 2010 can be calculated to be £8 million.
UK Growth Rate
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the standard deviation of the United Kingdom's growth rate over the previous economic cycle; and if he will make a statement. [130261]
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Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 12 July 2000]: Over the economic cycle between 1986 Q2 and the first half of 1997, the Treasury estimates the standard deviation of the quarter on quarter growth of GDP (in 1995 prices and seasonally adjusted) was 0.62.
Since the first half of 1997 GDP growth in the UK has been less variable than over the previous economic cycle, with an estimate standard deviation to date of 0.27.
Bank Closures
Mr. Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the proportion of bank closures in the past year which have been in Objective 1 areas. [129711]
Miss Melanie Johnson [holding answer 7 July 2000]: The information is not available.
Road Fuel Testing
Mr. Alasdair Morgan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many days HM Customs and Excise road fuel testing units were operational within Dumfries and Galloway region during (a) 1997, (b) 1998 and (c) 1999; how many prosecutions were brought for illegal use of red diesel during those years; and what the total value was of penalties and duty recovered during each of those years. [129801]
Mr. Timms: Detection figures are not available for regions. For the 1998 and 1999 figures, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 27 June 2000, Official Report, column 476W. For 1997 the vans were operational for a combined 367 days. 194 detections were made leading to penalties and duty recovered of £374,871. Two cases are pending prosecution.
Telephone Steering Systems
Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many of his Department's telephone lines used by the general public are responded to by touch tone telephone steering systems; [129623]
- (2) how many agencies of his Department use touch tone telephone steering systems when dealing with telephone inquiries from the general public. [129641]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Treasury has one such system. Of the Chancellor's seven agencies, Customs and Excise, Inland Revenue and National Savings use touch tone steering systems.
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Endowment Policies
Mr. Truswell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will make a statement on (a) the position of mortgage holders with endowment policies whose paid-up value has not covered or is not anticipated to cover the full repayment of their mortgage, (b) the consequences for those mortgage holders left with such a shortfall and (c) discussions he has had with the providers of such policies regarding assistance to customers in this position; [130081]
- (2) if he will make a statement on (a) the extent to which mortgage endowment policies have been mis-sold on the basis that their eventual paid up value could not reasonably be expected to cover the full amount of the mortgage and (b) the redress available to those who believe they have been mis-sold such a policy. [130082]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Monmouth (Mr. Edwards) on 23 May 2000, Official Report, columns 415-16W.
New Deal
Mr. Brady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees of his Department and its agencies have been recruited from the New Deal; and what percentage of total staff this represents. [129141]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office to my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford, North (Mr. Rooney) on 6 July 2000, Official Report, column 286W.
Third-world Debt
Mr. Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proposals he will make at the G8 Summit in July to obtain better financial arrangements for the world's poorest countries. [129088]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have both informed the Japanese Presidency of the G7 that they wish to use the opportunity of the Okinawa Summit to review and encourage progress on the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt initiative. The UK Government want to see as many countries as possible qualify for debt relief by the end of the year, in line with the G7 target set at Cologne.
The Chancellor also took the opportunity at a meeting of G7 Finance Ministers at Fukuoka last weekend to set out specific UK proposals on providing assistance for those HIPC countries where conflict is undermining the process of developing an effective commitment to poverty reduction which is needed in order to qualify for debt relief.
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