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HIPC
Ms Walley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the World Bank's refusal to include (a) Haiti, (b) Bangladesh and (c) Nigeria in the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries programme. [130992]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The list of countries eligible for debt relief under HIPC is not fixed, nor does the UK Government regard it as fixed. Any country which is eligible for concessional lending from the IMF and World Bank, which has established a track record of reform and sound programmes and which faces an unsustainable debt burden, beyond available debt relief mechanisms, can qualify for debt relief under the HIPC Initiative. It is then, of course, a matter for the country itself to chose to opt for HIPC debt relief.
Working Families Tax Credit
Mr. Fraser: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the rate of up-take of the Working Families Tax Credit in Dorset. [130836]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of families in receipt of Working Families Tax Credit at the end of May 2000 is provisionally estimated at 1,056,000. The number in receipt of Family Credit at the end of May 1999 is estimated at 821,000.
Mr. Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families receive the Working Families Tax Credit. [132625]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of families in receipt of the Working Families Tax Credit at the end of May 2000 is provisionally estimated at 1,056,000.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many recipients of the Working Families Tax Credit work in the (a) public and (b) private sectors. [132698]
Dawn Primarolo: Estimates could not be made without incurring disproportionate cost. Information on the sector of the employer is not relevant for determining eligibility for Working Families Tax Credit or calculating the value of the award, and is not captured to the computer system used for the statistical analysis of these awards.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide a breakdown by region of the number of recipients of the Working Families Tax Credit. [132700]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of families in receipt of Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) at the end of May 2000 is provisionally estimated at 1,056,000. The breakdown by country and Government Office Region is as follows:
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Lost Working Days
Mr. Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many working days were lost to individual action in (a) 1996, (b) 1997, (c) 1998 and (d) 1999. [131116]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 26 July 2000:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the number of working days lost to industrial action.
- The table below shows the number of working days lost to labour disputes in the United Kingdom for each year since 1996.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| 1996 | 1,303,300 |
| 1997 | 234,700 |
| 1998 | 282,400 |
| 1999 | 241,800 |
Source:
Office for National Statistics
National Minimum Wage
Mr. Sarwar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the average take-home pay of workers benefiting from the National Minimum Wage (a) before the Budget in March and (b) following the measures announced in the Budget. [130956]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are pursuing a comprehensive strategy to ensure that every individual shares fairly in the increasing prosperity of the nation. As a result of personal tax and benefit changes announced in Budget 2000 and previous Budgets, households will be, on average, £460 a year better off. Households with an individual in receipt of the National Minimum Wage will be, on average, £1,500 a year better off.
Mr. Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) men and (b) women have benefited from the introduction of the national minimum wage to date. [132107]
Miss Melanie Johnson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 26 July 2000:
I have been asked to reply to your recent question regarding the number of men and women who have benefited from the introduction of the National Minimum Wage (132107). I am replying in the absence of the National Statistician.
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Definitive estimates on the number of people that have been affected by the national minimum wage are not yet available. Currently available estimates for assessing the effect draw on data from both the New Earnings Survey and the Labour Force Survey, and recognise the particular value that each survey adds to the quality and analytical details that can be provided. However, the latest adjusted estimates are mainly based on data for the Spring (March-May) 1999 Labour Force Survey. The reference period spans the implementation date for the National Minimum Wage Act on 1 April 1999. This means adjusted estimates are unlikely accurately to measure the effect of this legislation since there are employees who could have been earning below the minimum wage rates in March 1999, before the law took effect.
The currently available estimates for March-May 1999 were published in an Office for National Statistics (ONS) First Release on 14 October 1999 and show that the number of people earning below the minimum wage rates set in April 1999 had fallen significantly between 1998 and 1999. A copy of this first release is available in the House of Commons Library.
ECOFIN Council
Mr. Hood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the outcome was of the ECOFIN Council held in Brussels on 17 July; and if he will make a statement. [131570]
Miss Melanie Johnson: I attended the meeting of the Economic and Finance Council of Ministers.
Draft conclusions on the taxation of savings and the Code of Conduct were circulated by the Presidency and adopted without amendment.
The Presidency concluded that it was not possible to adopt the draft conclusions on Money Laundering because the question of how broad a definition of predicate offences to include in the Directive would need to be discussed further. The extent to which lawyers and accountants should be included in the scope of the directive also requires further consideration. It was hoped political agreement would be possible at the September ECOFIN meeting.
Conclusions were adopted without discussion on Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) and Accounting Standards.
The Commission presented its communication on a Global Strategy for the Protection of the Community's interests, noting it intended to resubmit to InterGovernmental Conference its proposal for a European Public Prosecutor (EPP). The Council agreed conclusions to maintain momentum on fight against fraud, but did not support the Commission on the EPP.
On Lisbon follow-up it was agreed that ECOFIN would discuss in November reports on the Quality and Sustainability of Public Finances and Structural Performance indicators.
A mandate for the Group of Wise Persons was agreed unanimously. A copy has been placed in the House of Commons Library.
Conclusions on enlargement were adopted. ECOFIN agreed to discuss exchange rate policy and economic and financial stability in EU candidate countries at a future meeting.
Household Incomes
Mr. Berry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 12 July 2000, Official Report,
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column 592W, on the effect of the minimum wage on household income of different income deciles, what estimate he has made of the percentage effect on the population estimated in (a) 1997-98, (b) 1998-99 and (c) 1999-2000 to have below half average household income. [132020]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are implementing a comprehensive strategy to tackle the causes of child and pensioner poverty. The National Minimum Wage, in providing a statutory level beneath which pay cannot fall, forms part of that strategy.
The National Minimum Wage was introduced in April 1999. It is therefore not possible to estimate its effect on incomes in 1997-98 and 1998-99. Income information for 1999-2000 will be available next year in "Households Below Average Income" which is produced by the Department for Social Security.
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