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ALSL
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (1) if he will publish the bids received for construction of the four vessels under the ALSL performance; indicating how successful and unsuccessful bidders (a) met and (b) failed to meet his Department's selection criteria; [136744]
- (2) what reasons underlay the increase in the budget for ALSL vessels from two to four ships; [136818]
(3) what the final bid prices were for tenders for the ALSL design and build contracts received from (a) Appledore/BMT, (b) Swan Hunter and (c) BAe Systems, Govan. [136819]
Mr. Hoon [holding answer 6 November 2000]: Four new Alternative Landing Ships Logistics (ALSL), replacing four LSLs, therefore represents a significant increase in capability. The current Landing Ships Logistic (LSLs) are mostly over 30 years old and of decreasing utility. The new ships will each have double the capacity of the old versions, and be able to offload troops into a potentially hostile environment twice as quickly, at a safer distance, in significantly worse sea conditions. We have always known that the LSLs would need replacing at some point; buying four ALSLs in this manner represents better value for money that running a fleet of two ALSLs and three LSLs and then buying more ALSLs closer to the LSLs' Out of Service Dates.
The bids received, the assessment markings and the prices are commercially sensitive and I am therefore withholding these details under Exemption 7 (effective management and operations of the public service) and Exemption 13 (third party's commercial confidences) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Navy Training Budget
Ms Squire: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the budget for training all ranks of Royal Navy personnel in (a) 1997-98, (b) 1998-99, (c) 1999-2000, (d) 2000-01 and (e) 2001-02. [136939]
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Mr. Spellar: The figures provided are the training budget in cash terms for the delivery of training at all the shore establishments of the Naval Recruiting and Training Agency. This encompasses initial training (i.e. new recruits) and aspects of career training and Pre-Joining Training, i.e. courses immediately prior to a particular draft/appointment. These figures do not include costs of projections for Royal Marines or Naval Reserves but does include the NRTA HQ costs as these are considered to be a training overhead cost or projection.
The following are the actual expenditure figures for 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000, the cash allocation figure for 2000-01 and the Short Term Plan (STP 01) projected Cash Control Total (CCT) for 2001-02:
| Year | Actual expenditure | Cash allocation | Project CCT |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997-98 | 179.902 | -- | -- |
| 1998-99 | 192.263 | -- | -- |
| 1999-2000 | 192.990 | -- | -- |
| 2000-01 | -- | 200.342 | -- |
| 2001-02 | -- | -- | 196.133 |
AWE Stewardship Programme
Mr. Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the stewardship programme at AWE Aldermaston and indicate its annual budget. [135406]
Mr. Spellar: The stewardship programme at AWE comprises work, including research, necessary to ensure the continued safety and operational effectiveness of the Trident warhead. The current annual cost is broadly £120 million at 2000-01 prices.
Ordnance Safety
Dr. Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the ability of bombs and missiles currently in service to withstand repeated take-offs by the aircraft carrying them. [136235]
Mr. Spellar: An initial assessment of the life of a weapon, taking into account all operational factors including take-offs and landings, is made by the Design Authority when the weapon enters service. Further testing and evaluation is carried out while the weapon is in-service to identify any requirement to extend air carriage life.
Overarching Personnel Strategy
Mr. Key: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of the Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy. [137068]
Mr. Spellar: Copies of the Armed Forces Overarching Personnel Strategy were placed in the Library of the House on 14 April.
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Rights of the Child
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what measures he will take to ensure compliance with the United Nations Optional Protocol on the Rights of the Child. [136954]
Mr. Spellar: We are currently considering detailed administrative guidelines within the armed forces to implement the Optional Protocol. These guidelines will reflect the practical position set out in the UK's declaration on signing the Protocol.
TREASURY
Tax Statistics
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people paid more than £1 million in tax in (a) 1997-98, (b) 1998-99 and (c) 1999-2000. [134724]
Dawn Primarolo: There are around 500 and 550 people who had income tax liabilities greater than £1 million in 1997-98 and 1998-99 respectively. These estimates are based on the Self Assessment computer system. I regret that information for 1999-2000 liabilities is not yet available.
Tobacco
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much contraband rolled tobacco was seized by HM Customs in each of the past 10 years for which figures are available. [134411]
Dawn Primarolo: Prior to this year, separate figures for seized rolled tobacco have not been kept centrally. The figures for revenue on all types of tobacco detections for 1993-94 to 1996-97 were given in my answer to the hon. Member for Beckenham (Mrs. Lait) on 16 February 1998, Official Report, column 478W; similar figures for 1997-98 are contained in HMCE Cross Channel Excise Smuggling 1998, a copy of which is in the Library.
For 1998-99 and 1999-2000, the amounts seized were £60.6 million and £297.8 million respectively.
Tax (Wales)
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax was raised in Wales broken down by (a) income tax, (b) VAT, (c) corporation tax and (d) other tax in the last year for which figures are available. [135237]
Dawn Primarolo: For 1998-99: (a) the figure for income tax liability from people living in Wales will be included in the next edition of "Inland Revenue Statistics 2000", a copy of which will be placed in the Library of the House;
(b) VAT is a centrally collected tax and the figure for receipts is available only for the UK as a whole (HM Customs and Excise Annual Report, Table A1). However it is possible to estimate tax shares using figures for household expenditure (published by ONS in "Family Expenditure"), apportioned by the number of households (published by ONS in "Regional Trends", or available from the DETR);
(c) corporation tax figures are not available; and
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(d) all other Customs and Excise taxes are collected centrally, and figures for receipts are available only for the UK as a whole (HM Customs and Excise Annual Report, Table A1). It is possible to estimate tax shares using household expenditure figures and household numbers (see (b)), or per capita of the adult population.
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much (a) value-added tax, and (b) income tax was collected in each tax office in Wales in each year since 1995. [135238]
Dawn Primarolo: Meaningful figures are not available.
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Self-assessment
Mr. Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 28 July 2000, Official Report, column 1022W, concerning tax returns, if he will publish the monthly number of self assessment forms (a) issued, (b) received, (c) sent back, (d) waiting to be processed and (e) processed for each month since the introduction of self assessment. [135872]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave him on 31 October 2000, Official Report, columns 412-13W. The figures for 1999-2000 are as follows:
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| Date | Issued(1) | Received(1) | Sent back(1) | Processed(1) | Waiting to be processed(1) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 2000 | 8,763,125 | 202,063 | 3,170 | 0 | 202,063 |
| May 2000 | 111,723 | 450,747 | 7,156 | 33 | 652,777 |
| June 2000 | 80,792 | 668,360 | 21,613 | 536,927 | 784,210 |
| July 2000 | 48,707 | 689,542 | 17,589 | 575,802 | 897,950 |
| August 2000 | 50,490 | 875,041 | 18,526 | 739,180 | 1,033,811 |
| September 2000 | 41,072 | 1,314,559 | 27,309 | 740,604 | 1,607,766 |
(1) Monthly SA returns
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