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Personal Computers
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the Office of Fair Trading will publish its
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research, undertaken last year, into the retail market for home personal computers. [131682]
Dr. Howells: The Office of Fair Trading is currently considering with the providers of the research data the copyright and confidentiality implications of disclosure of some or all of the information to a complainant.
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what plans the Office of Fair Trading has to meet representatives of Dixons, Compaq and Packard Bell in the next three months in relation to the market for home personal computers. [131683]
Dr. Howells: The Office of Fair Trading will meet representatives of Dixons, Compaq and Packard Bell in relation to the market for home personal computers, if and when necessary.
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the Office of Fair Trading has met representatives of Dixons, Compaq and Packard Bell in the last three months in relation to the market for home personal computers. [131681]
Dr. Howells: The Office of Fair Trading has not met representatives of Dixons, Compaq or Packard Bell in the last three months in relation to the market for home personal computers, but has had correspondence with some of these companies.
Dr. Palmer: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if the Office of Fair Trading will reopen its inquiry into the competitiveness of the retail market for home personal computers. [131684]
Dr. Howells: The Office of Fair Trading is actively considering a complaint in this area.
Coal Industry
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry on what date he expects to start paying the recently announced grants to the coal industry. [131821]
Mr. Byers: As I indicated to the House on 17 April 2000, Official Report, columns 697-712, we expect funds to be made available during the course of this financial year.
Shipbuilding
Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will list those who attended the meeting he held on 13 July to discuss shipbuilding. [131192]
Mr. Byers [holding answer 18 July 2000]: Those attending the Shipbuilding Meeting on 13 July were:
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Officials from the respective Departments also attended.
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TREASURY
Personal Data
Mr. Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 19 April 2000, Official Report, column 582W, how many licence applicants, grant applicants and other data subjects described in his answer the Revenue had obtained personal data about from the London Borough of Waltham Forest; what steps his Department has taken to inform applicants for licences and grants and recipients of payments of this disclosure to the Revenue; and if the arrangements for the London Borough of Waltham Forest apply to all local authorities within London. [129188]
Dawn Primarolo: The personal data supplied by the London Borough of Waltham Forest to the Inland Revenue are supplied under legal obligations. These obligations arise from the issue of statutory notices which require the Borough to make returns. The Inland Revenue does not normally disclose information about the returns made by a person or a body. Whether the London Borough of Waltham Forest is prepared to make this information public in response to a direct request is a matter for the Borough.
The Inland Revenues does not inform data subjects individually about any disclosure of their personal data. It complies with its obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998 to process personal data fairly and lawfully by publishing a Data Protection Act statement which is widely reproduced on its forms and guidance notes.
All London Boroughs are required to produce similar information.
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Employment Tax Credit
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 19 April 2000, Official Report, column 588W, what estimate he has made of total expenditure on the Employment Tax Credit under the illustrative system outlined in the Treasury paper, Supporting Work Through an Employment Tax Credit, including that part which is currently included in the Working Families Tax Credit; and if he will make a statement. [130647]
Dawn Primarolo: The illustrative employment tax credit outlined in the Treasury paper "Tackling Poverty and Making Work Pay--Tax Credits for the 21st Century" includes an estimate of around £300 million a year as the cost of extending support to people without children. This is based on extending the adult credit in the Working Families Tax Credit under certain specified assumptions. These assumptions, and the modelling involved, apply only to people without children.
As noted in paragraph 3.22 of the paper, details of eligibility and the relative size of the credits for singles and couples do not have to be the same for parents and non-parents. The precise design parameters are under consideration and will not be finalised until nearer the time of the introduction of the new credits.
Children's Tax Credit
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will outline the measures taken by his Department to publicise the new Children's Tax Credit in (a) Scotland and (b) the United Kingdom. [130957]
Dawn Primarolo: The campaign to publicise the new Children's Tax Credit began on 19 June 2000 and ran throughout both (a) Scotland and (b) the United Kingdom
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for a total of four weeks. The measures taken comprised national, ethnic and women's press, local radio, and direct mail.
Working Families Tax Credit
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proposals he has to improve the method by which the Working Families Tax Credit is calculated. [130958]
Dawn Primarolo: The findings from the current evaluation of the Working Families Tax Credit and the Disabled Person's Tax Credit will inform the design of the employment tax credit and the integrated child credit which will be introduced from 2003.
Land Settlement Association
Mr. Gummer: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when (a) he and (b) his Ministers consulted with the Board of Inland Revenue on the Land Settlement Association's compensation arrangements. [131474]
Dawn Primarolo: Treasury Ministers have received representations about the raising of tax changes by the Inland Revenue in respect of out of court compensation paid by MAFF to a number of former tenants of the Land Settlement Association. However, Ministers do not intervene in individual cases. The Inland Revenue's independence from Treasury Ministers in the handling of individuals' tax affairs and the application of the tax law must be scrupulously observed.
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