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TREASURY

Personal Pension Schemes

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people with personal pension schemes are owed outstanding national insurance contribution rebates;

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how much these rebates are worth in total; and when the Government expects to have paid all the outstanding rebates. [135725]

(2) how many people with personal pension schemes have already received national insurance contribution rebates that were previously outstanding; and how much these rebates are worth in total. [135723]

Dawn Primarolo: There are approximately 119,000 people awaiting rebates for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 tax years. About £80.75 million of rebates remain to be paid.

Approximately 4 million people have received rebates that were previously outstanding and these rebates amount to about £2.1 billion.

We expect to have reached the normal situation in relation to payment of outstanding rebates by March 2001.

Labour Force Inactivity

Mr. Win Griffiths: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the labour force inactivity rates were for each of the last 10 years in each standard planning region. [140683]

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. Win Griffiths, dated 29 November 2000:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question about the labour force inactivity rates for the last 10 years.

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) is the main source of labour market data on individuals used by National Statistics. Government Office Regions (GORs) have only been used by the LFS since 1992. Previous to 1992 the Standard Statistical Regions (SSRs) were used. For comparability, only data from spring 1992 has been supplied. The table overleaf shows the inactivity rates in each of the GORs in the UK since spring 1992.

People aged 16 or over are classed as economically inactive by the LFS if they are neither employed or ILO unemployed. This group includes for example all those who were looking after a home or retired.

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Economically inactive rates⁽⁴⁷⁾ by regions (GORs)⁽⁴⁸⁾, spring (March to May) 1992-2000

	Spring
	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000
United Kingdom	36.9	37.3	37.4	37.6	37.5	37.3	37.5	37.1	36.9
Great Britain	36.8	37.2	37.3	37.5	37.4	37.2	37.4	37.0	36.7
England	36.5	36.7	37.0	37.1	36.9	36.9	37.0	36.5	36.3
North East	40.9	41.3	41.8	42.3	41.5	41.5	42.8	42.8	41.3
North West	38.7	39.1	39.3	40.4	39.6	40.0	40.9	39.7	38.7
Yorkshire and Humberside	37.6	37.5	38.2	37.9	38.4	38.9	38.5	38.5	37.6
East Midlands	35.9	35.8	36.8	36.5	35.9	35.8	36.1	36.3	35.3
West Midlands	37.2	37.4	36.8	37.4	37.3	37.5	37.0	36.8	37.7
East	34.2	34.2	34.7	34.5	35.2	35.6	34.6	34.8	34.9
London	36.2	35.5	36.4	36.4	35.9	35.3	36.4	35.0	35.4
South East	33.7	35.0	34.6	34.6	34.0	34.0	33.7	33.4	33.0
South West	37.5	37.6	37.4	37.3	37.9	36.7	36.8	36.1	36.3
Wales	42.3	43.6	42.8	42.5	42.7	41.8	43.6	42.6	42.5
Scotland	36.6	38.2	37.3	38.0	38.5	38.0	38.1	38.5	37.5
Northern Ireland	39.9	41.6	42.3	41.3	40.8	40.3	40.6	40.5	42.2

⁽⁴⁷⁾ Total economically inactive as a percentage of all persons in each region

⁽⁴⁸⁾ Government Office Regions (GORs) only available since 1992

Source:

ONS--Labour Force Survey

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Overseas Assets

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total value is of the United Kingdom's overseas assets; and if he will give a breakdown of the countries in which they are held. [139477]

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. John Bercow, dated 29 November 2000:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the total value of UK assets held abroad and the countries in which they are held. (139477)

The latest estimates for UK assets held abroad are shown in the following table.

	£ billion
1989	942.8
1990	896.4
1991	938.8
1992	1,144.9
1993	1,351.2
1994	1,337.9
1995	1,539.4
1996	1,634.4
1997	1,942.2
1998	2,112.5
1999	2,343.2

Source:

Table 8.1, UK Balance of Payments Pink Book 2000

The Office for National Statistics does not compile a geographical breakdown of the United Kingdom's assets held abroad.

National Insurance

Mr. Edwards: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the increase in revenue to the Exchequer in the financial year 2001-02 as a result of (a) raising the upper earnings limit on employee national insurance contributions to the threshold of the higher rate of income tax of £629.28 per week and (b) removing the upper earnings limit on employee national insurance contributions. [140208]

Dawn Primarolo: The estimated full year effects for 2001-02 are in the table:

£ million

	2001-02 full year effects
Raising the upper earnings limit to the weekly equivalent of the higher rate threshold for income tax of £652.60 per week	+700
Abolishing the upper earnings limit	+3,050

Scottish Taxpayers

Mr. Swinney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how much (a) income tax and (b) national insurance contributions was raised from the (i) top 1 per cent., (ii) top 5 per cent., (iii) top 10 per cent. and (iv) bottom 50 per cent. of taxpayers in Scotland in the last year for which figures are available; [139819]

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(2) how many people in Scotland paid no income tax in the last year for which figures are available. [139820]

Dawn Primarolo: [holding answer 24 November 2000]: The amount of income tax and National Insurance contributions raised from the different quantile groups of taxpayers in Scotland in 2000-01 are given in the table.

Estimated liability of income taxpayers

		£ billion
Quantile group(49)	Income tax	National insurance contributions
Top 1 per cent.	1.12	0.26
Top 5 per cent.	2.34	0.79
Top 10 per cent.	3.13	1.30
Bottom 50 per cent.	0.93	0.75

⁽⁴⁹⁾ Quantiles are in terms of income tax liabilities

In 1999-2000 about 2.8 million people in Scotland paid no income tax including children.

Budget Council

Mr. Hood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the outcome was of the Budget Council held in Brussels on 23 and 24 November; and if he will make a statement. [140782]

Miss Melanie Johnson: The Budget Council gave its second reading to the Draft EC Budget for 2001 on 23 and 24 November. This was consistent with UK objectives. Council was firmly against any reopening of the financial perspective agreed at Berlin. The Council fully respects the EU's obligations with respect to needs in Serbia, and it is clear that the EU's share of reconstruction activity in Serbia can be met without revising the financial perspective ceiling.

Mortgage Lending Regulation

Mr. Gareth R. Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action she is taking to regulate the giving of advice on the selling of mortgage products. [140900]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I refer my hon. Friend to the answer I gave on 27 January 2000, Official Report, column 263W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Stevenage (Barbara Follett) on the question of regulation of mortgage lending.

Royal Mint

Mr. Ian Stewart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what performance target he has set for the Royal Mint for the financial year 2000-01. [141163]

Miss Melanie Johnson: I have set the Royal Mint the target of achieving a rate of return on net assets of 7 per cent. for 2000-01. This is a decrease from the target of 14.6 per cent. set for 1999-2000, owing to the operational problems the Royal Mint has recently been experiencing.

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Some of the Royal Mint's other performance targets (for customer service) have been tightened, while others remain as before. The targets for 2000-01 are:

97 per cent. of accepted orders from UK banks and the Post Office for UK circulating coin to be delivered within 11 working days.

95 per cent. of UK collector coin orders from individual UK customers to be delivered within 25 days.

97 per cent. of medals orders to be delivered by the agreed delivery date;

99.7 per cent. of collector products accepted by individual UK customers.

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