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VAT-Exempt Goods and Services

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate total expenditure in the latest year for which figures are available on (a) food, (b) fuel, (c) children's clothes and shoes, (d) books, newspapers and periodicals and (e) bus, tube and train fares. [26615]

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

Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. John Bercow, dated 15 January 2002:

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The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question concerning household expenditure for the latest year for which figures are available. I am replying in his absence. (26615)
Expenditure by households is published quarterly as part of the National Accounts in 'Consumer Trends', available on the ONS website at www.statistics.gov.uk/products/p242.asp. The year 2000 is the latest complete calendar year for which figures are available. The information on children's clothing and footwear is not separately available. An approximate allocation between adults' and children's goods may be made using more detailed information on average weekly expenditure published in "Family Spending 1999–2000", Table 7.1.

Company Investment

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total level of fixed investment was in each of the last five years by industrial and commercial companies in plant and machinery, dwellings, company cars, other vehicles, other new buildings and works purchase less sales of land and existing buildings and all fixed assets. [26261]

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

Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. John Bercow, dated 15 January 2002:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question about the total level of fixed investment in each of the last five years. I am replying in his absence. (26261)

Fixed capital formation for the private sector, public non-financial corporations and general government can be found in the "United Kingdom National Accounts: Blue Book", which was last published by ONS in 2001 [ISSN 0267–8691], under tables 9.2 and 9.4 (pages 261 and 262). These tables contain most of the asset information as requested in the question. Separate estimates for company cars are not available. These are included in the transport equipment figures.

Further fixed capital formation data can be found in our business investment quarterly first release at the following website address:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/binv1201.pdf

Copies of the United Kingdom National Accounts: Blue Book is available in the House of Commons Library.

Dependent Children

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the average income of women of working age with (a) no dependent children, (b) at least one dependent child under five years and (c) children aged five to 16 years. [26257]

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

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Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. John Bercow, dated 15 January 2002:

The national Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question about the average income of working-age women. I am replying in his absence. (26257)

The Labour Force Survey (LFS) provides estimates of the gross hourly earnings of female employees of working age (ie. those aged 16–59 years) by age of youngest dependent child. The latest available estimates are for summer (June to August) 2001. These are given in the table overleaf.

Average gross hourly earnings of female employees of working age⁽³⁰⁾ by age of youngest dependent child⁽³¹⁾; United Kingdom; summer (June to August) 2001; not seasonally adjusted£

	Average gross hourly earnings
All female employees aged 16–59	8.0
With youngest dependent child aged:
Under 5 years	9.0
5–16 years	7.7
17–18 years	8.8
With no dependent children	7.9

⁽³⁰⁾ Women aged 16–59 years

⁽³¹⁾ Children under 16 years of age, or those aged 16–18 years who are never married and in full-time education

Source:

ONS Labour Force Survey

Personal Sector Deficit

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the financial deficit of the personal sector was in each year since 1997 in (a) constant and (b) cash terms, (i) in total and (ii) per household. [26284]

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

Letter from John Kidgell to Mr. John Bercow, dated 15 January 2002:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary question about what the financial deficit of the personal sector was in each year since 1997 in (a) constant and (b) cash terms, (i) in total and (ii) per household. I am replying in his absence. (26284)

The net lending/borrowing of the combined households and non-profit institutions serving households is available on the National Statistics website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk. The time series NSSZ is also available within table A41 of the release "United Kingdom Economic Accounts".

Information on the number of households in Great Britain is also available within the publication "Housing Statistics 2001" and is found in table 4.14. Data for the United Kingdom is not available.

Data for net lending/borrowing at constant prices are not available.

Suicide Rates

Dr. Fox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the death rate per 100,000 due to suicide and undetermined injury was in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [27402]

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

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Letter from John Kidgell to Dr. Liam Fox, dated 15 January 2002:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your question concerning the death rate per 100,000 due to suicide and undetermined injury in each of the last five years for which figures are available. I am replying in his absence. (27402)

The figures requested are given in the table below:

Calendar year	Death rate per 100,000 persons
1996	9.4
1997	9.5
1998	9.8
1999	9.8
2000	9.3

Note:

Suicide and undetermined injury is defined by ONS using the following codes from the International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision: E950-E959, E980-£989, excluding E988.8.

Source:

ONS

Cancer Deaths

Dr. Fox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the death rate per 100,000 among people under 65 due to cancer was in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what the death rates were in the age groups (a) 45–55 and (b) 55–65. [27401]

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

Letter from John Kidgell to Dr. Liam Fox, dated 15 January 2002:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your question concerning the death rate per 100,000 amongst people aged under 65 due to cancer in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what were the death rates in the age groups (a) 45–54 and (b) 55–64. I am replying in his absence. (27401)

The answer is given in the table below:

Death rate per 100,000 persons

Calendar year	All ages under 65	Ages 45–5455–64
1996	77.3	137.6	394.1
1997	74.8	134.0	378.9
1998	75.3	134.2	380.4
1999	73.9	130.8	369.5
2000	73.1	128.7	359.6

Note:

Cancer is defined by ONS using the following codes from the International Classification of Diseases Ninth Revision: 140–208.

Source:

ONS

Tax Credits

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer by what mechanism recipients of the proposed child tax credit and working credit will be able to recover underpayments of tax credit which arise through an over-estimate by the claimant of his income in the current year. [26794]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 14 January 2002]: If an underpayment of tax credit should arise because of a difference between estimated and actual income for a

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tax year, it would be identified as part of the end of year process of finalising claims and paid out by the Inland Revenue.

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer in cases where assessment for tax credit purposes is based only on that part of the increase in current year income which exceeds a threshold, whether subsequent assessments will take account of that part of increased income below the threshold. [26798]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 14 January 2002]: Decisions on what regulations to propose under the provisions of Clause 7(3) of the Tax Credits Bill have not yet been taken. But if it were the case that part of a rise in income in the current tax year, by comparison with the previous year, were to be left out of account in assessing tax credits for the current year, the full amount of the income would be relevant in deciding tax credit entitlement in the following tax year.

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