---

Stamp Duty

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost was of administering and collecting (a) stamp duty on shares, (b) stamp duty on property and (c) inheritance tax in the last financial year. [15926]

Ruth Kelly: Figures for collection costs per £ collected, for stamp duty and inheritance tax in 2000–01, will appear in the Board of Inland Revenue's next report.

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of stamp duty on shares on the competitiveness of the UK financial services industry. [15918]

Ruth Kelly: There is no convincing evidence that stamp duty on shares harms the competitiveness of the UK financial services industry. Stamp duty applies to shares in UK companies wherever they are traded so there is no discrimination between London markets and foreign markets.

Mr. Swire: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what additional revenue he raised in 2000–01 from property and land transactions in the East Devon constituency as a result of the increases in stamp duty in the March 2000 Budget. [17273]

Ruth Kelly: I regret that this information is not available.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what additional revenue he raised in 2000–01 from property and land transactions in the Buckingham constituency as a result of the increases in stamp duty in the March 2000 Budget. [17840]

Ruth Kelly: This information is not available.

26 Nov 2001 : Column: 640W

Economic Growth

Peter Bradley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the growth rate was of the (a) urban and (b) rural economy (i) in the last financial year, (ii) in the last five years and (iii) in the last 10 years; [17147]

(2) what the per capital GDP was in the last financial year for people in (a) inner city, (b) urban, (c) towns with population of less than 10,000 and (d) rural areas. [17146]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Peter Bradley, dated 26 November 2001:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your two recent questions on estimates of economic growth and GDP per head in rural and urban areas of the United Kingdom (17146/7).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not currently produce estimates of GDP per head on an urban/rural basis. ONS is aware of the growing need for statistics and information to be available on rural and urban geographies. To this end, we are playing an active role on a cross government group being led by officials from the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, which is developing guidance on common definitions of rural and urban areas. These definitions will then form the basis of developing statistics for those geographies.

ONS currently compiles and publishes estimates of GDP and GDP per capita by Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) areas. There are five levels of NUTS in the UK and GDP estimates are produced for the first three. NUTS level 3 is the geography that is most closely aligned to county councils, unitary authority and metropolitan areas and is also the lowest geographical level that data are available.

ONS last published estimates of GDP at the NUTS level 3 in April 2001, providing annual (calendar year) estimates for 1993 to 1998. These data are available through the House of Commons library. ONS plans to publish estimates for 1999 in the first half of 2002.

Suicides

Paul Flynn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the (a) total and (b) percentage of suicides in each year since 1988, broken down by (i) teenage men, (ii) teenage women, (iii) doctors, (iv) chemists, (v) farmers and (vi) clergymen. [16894]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Paul Flynn, dated 26 November 2001:

As National Statistician I have asked to reply to your question concerning the total number and percentage of suicides in each year since 1988 broken down by (a) teenage men, (b) teenage women, (c) doctors, (d) chemists (e) farmers, and (f) clergymen (16894).

The data requested can be found in the table below:

Mortality from suicide and undetermined injury (E950-E959, E980-E989 excluding E988.8) selected age, or by selected occupation, persons in England and Wales, calendar years 1988–2000

	All suicides	Teenaged men		Teenaged women		Doctors		Chemists		Farmers		Clergymen
Year	No.	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
1988	5933	191	3.22	52	0.88	14	0.24	8	0.13	88	1.48	6	0.10
1989	5316	160	3.01	57	1.07	19	0.36	3	0.06	71	1.34	6	0.11
1990	5543	163	2.94	40	0.72	25	0.45	8	0.14	79	1.43	5	0.09
1991	5479	157	2.87	49	0.89	26	0.47	3	0.05	77	1.41	2	0.04
1992	5484	138	2.52	34	0.62	18	0.33	5	0.09	70	1.28	2	0.04
1993	5250	127	2.42	32	0.61	18	0.34	3	0.06	78	1.49	5	0.10
1994	5142	109	2,12	28	0.54	25	0.49	4	0.08	67	1.30	3	0.06
1995	5157	97	1.88	46	0.89	13	0.25	6	0.12	57	1.11	4	0.08
1996	4892	104	2.13	44	0.90	13	0.27	10	0.20	65	1.33	1	0.02
1997	4981	137	2.75	39	0.78	16	0.32	2	0.04	59	1.18	2	0.04
1998	5154	129	2.50	36	0.70	17	0.33	5	0.10	72	1.40	4	0.08
1999	5188	125	2.41	43	0.83	17	0.33	2	0.04	67	1.29	2	0.04
2000	4921	140	2.84	47	0.96	22	0.45	3	0.06	48	0.98	3	0.06

26 Nov 2001 : Column: 641W

European Commission

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his policy towards European Community support for the (a) A Soul for Europe project and (b) Ecumenical Centre in Brussels. [17619]

Ruth Kelly: The managers of any project or centre can make a case to the European Commission for support from the EC budget. The European Commission implements the EC budget in accordance with the Treaty, EC legislative decisions, and the amounts agreed in the annual EC budget by the budgetary authority (Council and European Parliament).

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the nature of the (a) United Kingdom and (b) European Community support for (i) Caritas Europe, (ii) the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe, (iii) the Commission of the Bishops' Conference of the European Community, (iv) the Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissioners, (v) the Jesuit Refugees Service Europe and (vi) the Quaker Council for European Affairs. [17623]

Ruth Kelly: Any body or organisation can make a case to the European Commission for support from the EC budget. The European Commission implements the EC budget in accordance with the Treaty, EC legislative decisions, and the amounts agreed in the annual EC budget by the budgetary authority (Council and European Parliament).

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what European Community funds have supported the organisation 200 Jeunes pour une citoyenneté Européenne de l'an 2000; and what is the UK share thereof. [17618]

Ruth Kelly: The UK contributes to the EC budget as a whole and not to individual programmes. For the 2000 EC budget the UK gross contribution after abatement was 15.09 per cent.

EU Economic Reform Proposals

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement listing the United Kingdom's progress in implementing each of the economic reform proposals agreed at the Lisbon Summit. [17741]

Ruth Kelly: The Government are committed to implementing the economic reform proposals agreed at the Lisbon Summit. We have made progress in numerous areas, including: an integrated and liberalised EU telecoms market; the e-Money Directive; research networks; the Small Firms Charter; the Multi-Annual Programme for Enterprise; and the legal framework for unbundling of the

26 Nov 2001 : Column: 642W

local shop. European economic reform will be the subject of a forthcoming White Paper, which will be published for the Spanish Presidency.

EU Fraud and Waste

Mr. Spring: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on combating fraud and waste in the EU's budget following the Court of Auditors report of 12 November. [17384]

Ruth Kelly: The Government's policies and actions taken to combat fraud and waste are set out in the latest White Paper on European Community Finances which was published in July. The Government are considering carefully the European Court of Auditor's (ECA) report and will send their detailed comments to the Commission by 20 December as part of the normal follow-up procedure, ensuring that both Houses receive an advance copy. Any amount of fraud or waste in the EC budget is unacceptable. That is why the Government are a strong supporter of Commission reform and why they advocated the creation of the new anti-fraud office, OLAF. It is important to note however, that the irregularities reported by the ECA are not all fraud and waste; the majority are small administrative errors which are corrected at a later date.

---