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Departmental Expenditure Limits
Mr. George Howarth: To ask the President of the Council whether there are any plans to change (a) the departmental expenditure limit and (b) administration costs limits for 2001–02. [19405]
Mr. Robin Cook: The Privy Council Office DEL will be decreased by £444,000 from £3,405,000 to £2,961,000 and the administration costs limits will be decreased by £444,000 from £3,445,000 to £3,001,000. Within the DEL change there is no impact on capital; the impact on resources is set out in the table.
| Number | |
|---|---|
| Resources | |
| Change | -444 |
| New DEL | 2,961,000 |
| of which: | |
| Voted | -444 |
| Non-voted | 0 |
The change in the resource element of the DEL arises from:
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1. A transfer of £320,000 to the Cabinet Office, following the transfer of the Business Co-ordination Unit under machinery of government changes.
2. A transfer of £177,000 to DEFRA, who have assumed responsibility for an official residence in Admiralty House.
3. £53,000 allocated to the Office from the Invest to Modernise Fund.
LORD CHANCELLOR'S DEPARTMENT
Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
Mr. Chope: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many formal notices his Department has received in the last year from the Parliamentary Ombudsman expressing an intention to carry out an investigation; and in respect of each notice how long it took to respond. [18762]
Mr. Wills: Information on the outcome of statutory investigations which were concluded during 2000–01 are set out in the Parliamentary Ombudsman's Annual Report for 2000–01, copies of which are available in the Library of the House, or on the Parliamentary Ombudsman's website at www.ombudsman.org.uk/pca/document/part01/ index/htm.
Between 1 April 2001 and 31 October 2001, the Lord Chancellor's Department received 15 new statutory statements of complaint from the Parliamentary Ombudsman and the details for each department are set out in the table.
| Department | Number received | Number responded to | Working days to respond to each notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lord Chancellor's Department(20) | 2 | 2 | 16, 17 |
| Court Service | 10 | 10 | 10, 13, 15, 16, 23, 27, 34, 45, 55, 91 |
| Public Guardianship Office | 2 | 1 | 26 |
| HM Land Registry | 1 | 1 | 19 |
| Northern Ireland Court Service | 0 | 0 | — |
| Public Record Office | 0 | 0 | — |
(20) Letter of 27 February 2001 not received until 30 April 2001
Complaints
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what progress is being made with the case of a complaint by Mr. Paul Bayliss of Lloyds & Cooper. [18005]
Mr. Wills: The Lord Chancellor as head of the judiciary has personally instructed a full investigation into all the circumstances relevant to this complaint and is not
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yet in a position to respond. It is the Lord Chancellor's intention to bring this investigation to as prompt a conclusion as possible.
TREASURY
National Enterprise Campaign
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the progress of the National Enterprise Campaign. [18309]
Nigel Griffiths: I have been asked to reply.
The National Enterprise Campaign, now known as Enterprise Insight, is a 10-year private sector-led national campaign for enterprise. The campaign has strong support within Government and works in partnership with enterprise programme providers including Young Enterprise, Shell LiveWIRE and the Prince's Trust to promote enterprise by fostering an entrepreneurial sprit across the UK through four key initiatives: Enterprising Education; Enterprising Communities; Enterprising Media; Enterprising Business.
The campaign has made steady progress over its first 18 months. Since the launch of the Enterprising Education Campaign in July 2001, 246 business have registered their interest in promoting enterprise within schools with a further 750 expected by 2002. The aim over the next two years is to get 40,000 more young people engaged in enterprise learning in schools and 5,000 new business people to support its delivery. This will be done through a number of activities including hosting road shows and the development of a website which will enable businesses to register their interest on-line. In addition, the Entrepreneurs in Residence scheme, which matches businesses to local enterprise projects, is also well under way—so far the first five matches have already been made. Enterprise Insight also aims to promote enterprise more positively across society and, in particular, plans to work with the media using case studies and role models to help spread more positive attitudes about entrepreneurship and business.
Tourism
Mrs. Calton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what analysis his Department has undertaken on the impact of the slow down in the world economy on tourism. [18047]
Mr. Caborn: I have been asked to reply.
In addition to world economic conditions, there are a number of factors currently affecting tourism, including the impact of foot and mouth disease and the 11 September terrorist attacks. It is as yet too early to conduct a detailed assessment of the impact of world economic conditions in isolation.
Mortgages
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average income multiple for mortgages agreed in the last financial year was for (a) individuals and (b) couples. [15927]
Ms Keeble: I have been asked to reply.
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The average income-to-advance ratio for mortgaged house purchases during the last financial year is estimated to have been (a) 2.49 for individuals and (b) 2.17 for couples.
Mortgage repayments as a percentage of income for those buying homes during the last financial year are estimated to have been (a) 17.4 per cent. for individuals and (b) 15.4 per cent. for couples. During the third quarter of 2001 these figures were (a) 15.4 per cent. for individuals and (b) 13.3 per cent. for couples.
Youth Unemployment
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people aged 18 to 24 years were unemployed for more than six months in each year since May 1992 in the constituency of Arundel and South Downs. [18312]
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. Howard Flight, dated 28 November 2001:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the number of people aged 18 to 24 years who were unemployed for more than six months for each year since May 1992 in the constituency of Arundel and South Downs (18312).
- The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics for unemployment from surveys following the internationally standard International Labour Organisation definition. However, for the Arundel and South Downs parliamentary constituency the survey sample size is too small to provide estimates. ONS also compiles statistics of claimants of unemployment-related benefits. The claimant count consists of all people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance or National Insurance credits at Employment Service local offices. They must declare that they are out of work, capable of, available for and actively seeking work during the week in which the claim is made.
- Prior to January 1996 comparable figures for earlier years are not available on the same geographical basis. Information on computerised claims by age and duration for parliamentary constituencies from January 1996 were based on the ward boundaries of the 1981 census and are available from June 1985 to January 1996.
- The information requested is given in the table overleaf.
| Number of claimants of unemployment benefit | |
|---|---|
| May 1992 | (21)418 |
| May 1993 | (21)529 |
| May 1994 | (21)447 |
| May 1995 | (21)345 |
| May 1996 | 110 |
| May 1997 | 40 |
| May 1998 | 19 |
| May 1999 | 9 |
| May 2000 | 8 |
| May 2001 | 3 |
(21) These figures refer to the Arundel parliamentary constituency
Tax Credits
Mr. Russell Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rates and thresholds of the (a) working families tax credit and (b) disabled person's tax credit will be from April 2002. [19625]
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Dawn Primarolo: The main WFTC and DPTC rates and income thresholds will be increased in line with indexation from April 2002. There will be further increases aimed at helping families with children with disabilities.
Ms Buck: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place a copy of the responses to the tax credits consultation document in the Library. [18598]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are very grateful for the many responses we have received to the consultation document and will be responding in due course.
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