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Statutory Publications Office

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many publications the Statutory Publications Office has in storage; and if he will list the buildings where they are stored. [33295]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Statutory Publications Office does not hold any publications in storage. All publications held by the Statutory Publications Office are held within the Statutory Publications Office, Lord Chancellor's Department, Selborne House central London. These publications include Acts of Parliament and Statutory Instruments that are used for the purpose of updating the Statute Law Database.

Judges

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many complaints he has received since taking office concerning the conduct of individual judges. [33353]

Mr. Wills: The principle of judicial independence, which is central to our constitutional arrangements, means that it is not open to the Lord Chancellor or his Department to consider complaints about judicial decision. However, as Head of the Judiciary the Lord Chancellor does consider complaints about the personal conduct of individual judges and other judicial office holders. The names of the complainant and the judge are confidential. However, in the period between August 1998

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(when new internal arrangements for handling such complaints came into force) and December 2001, the Lord Chancellor received a total of 6,679 complaints about members of the judiciary. The majority of these related to judicial decisions. Of the remainder, 1,227 related to personal conduct and were taken forward for investigation by seeking the complainant's consent for the complaint to be copied to the judge. In 1,034 cases consent was received and the Lord Chancellor then approached the judge concerned for his or her response to the allegations and relayed these to the complainant. On 23 occasions he saw fit to take further action, either by writing to the judge or by arranging for him or her to be seen by officials. Comparable figures for the period before August 1998 are unavailable.

Mr. Watts: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proposals she has to reduce the retirement age of judges. [33748]

Ms Rosie Winterton: There are currently no proposals to reduce the retirement age for judges.

Family Court Casework

Matthew Green: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many family court cases have been heard in (a) magistrates courts and (b) county courts in each of the last five years. [32998]

Mr. Wills: Figures relating to the total number of family court cases for the five year period 1996 to 2000 are provided in the table. Figures for 2001 are currently being compiled. The figures represent the numbers of orders made under the Children Act 1989, the Domestic Violence and Matrimonial Proceedings Act 1976 and the Family Law Act 1996 (Part IV). In addition the county court figures include the number of petitions for divorce filed.

Family court cases

	Magistrates courts(7)	County courts
1996	57,904	298,409
1997	56,233	278,605
1998	70,984	312,086
1999	56,112	290,506
2000	87,977	305,107

⁽⁷⁾ Estimated figures—contain imputed data

Official Visits

Mr. George Howarth: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department when a Minister from his Department last visited (a) the Isle of Man and (b) the Channel Islands on an official basis. [32405]

Mr. Wills: The dates of the last official visits by a Lord Chancellor's Department Minister were (a) the Isle of Man on 27 June 2001, (b) Guernsey on 20 September 2001, Alderney and Sark on 27 September 2001 and Jersey on 19 November 2001.

Auld Report

Mr. Watts: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what his policy is on the Auld proposal for district judges to sit with panels of JPs. [33723]

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Mr. Wills: The Government have taken no decisions on the report of Sir Robin Auld's Review. The period for comment closed on 31 January. The Government are now considering the recommendations in detail, taking account of the comments received. The Government will announce their conclusions by way of a White Paper in the spring.

Promotional Video

Mr. Watts: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much her Department has spent on (a) producing and (b) distributing the video to persuade people to become judges; and if she will list the people and organisations to whom it has been distributed. [33744]

Ms Rosie Winterton: On 1 February the Lord Chancellor released 'All Rise', a video showing the part-time judicial selection process from application through to appointment. It is aimed at encouraging the widest possible spectrum of qualified lawyers to apply for part-time judicial office across the range of offices in the courts and tribunals.

Copies of the video have been sent to local and regional law societies, barristers' chambers, lawyers' representative organisations, the media and individuals with an interest. Over 600 copies of the video have been distributed so far.

Production costs, including copying costs, to 1 February are expected to total £38,375.50.

Distribution costs, including the cost of postage and envelopes, to 1 February are expected to total approximately £445.00.

Leggatt Report

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will make a statement on the Government's response to the Leggatt report on tribunal justice. [31442]

Ms Rosie Winterton: The Government are currently considering their response to the Leggatt review and will make a statement at an appropriate time later in the year.

The Government's response will take into account the public consultation exercise completed in December 2001, which generated over 350 responses.

TREASURY

Income Tax Yield

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the (a) annual income tax yield in each year from 1975–76 to 2001–02 and (b) annual real increase in the income tax yield in each year from 1975–76 to 2001–02. [30559]

Dawn Primarolo: Income tax receipts for every year after 1977–78 are published in Inland Revenue Statistics 1.2. This is available on the internet at http:// www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/tax_receipts/g_t02_1.htm.

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Income tax statistics for 1975–76 to 1977–78 are as follows:

£ million

	Income tax receipts
1975–76	15,041
1976–77	17,014
1977–78	17,420

The Treasury publishes GDP deflators on the internet at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/Economic_Data_and_Tools/ GDP_Deflators/data_gdp_inde x.cfm.

Child Care Tax Credit

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans the Government have to extend the child care tax credit to parents in part-time work. [33013]

Dawn Primarolo: Child care tax credit is already available to parents who work part time. It can be claimed by lone parents who work at least 16 hours a week and by couples where both of them work at least 16 hours a week.

Tax Credits

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide a breakdown of his estimate in paragraph 11 of his summary of responses to the New Tax Credit Consultation (November 2001) of childless people in households with someone in work with household income below 60 per cent. of the median, between (a) childless couples, (b) single people over 25 years of age working 30 hours per week or more and (c) other single people. [32611]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 1 February 2002]: There are around 1 million single people or people in childless couples living in households with incomes below 60 per cent. of the median (after housing costs) who are working 16 hours or more a week. Around half of these are over 25 years of age and working 30 hours or more a week.

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out the basis for his calculation on replacement rates for childless couples, reported in paragraph 9 of his summary of responses to the New Tax Credit Consultation (November 2001); and if he will provide separate estimates for (a) renters and (b) homebuyers with mortgages. [32612]

Dawn Primarolo: The replacement rates referred to are based on a couple with someone working 35 hours a week at £5 an hour. Using this assumption, a couple without children paying rent is around £20 a week better off in full-time work than on benefit. A couple without children with a mortgage is around £55 a week better off in work than on benefit, (assuming they are not receiving any income support to cover mortgage interest). These gains to work correspond to replacement ratios before housing costs of 88 per cent. for the couple paying rent and 63 per cent. for the couple with a mortgage.

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many claims for working families tax credit and disabled persons tax credit have been (a) investigated, (b) dealt with by way of penalty or

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caution, (c) made the subject of a prosecution and (d) made the subject of a prosecution or conviction in each year since the WFTC and DPTC commenced. [25102]

Dawn Primarolo: The table gives the information requested on applications for WFTC and DPTC since the start of these tax credits in October 1999.

Period	WFTC	DPTC
	(a) Number of applications investigated
October 1999 to March 2000	3,893	110
April 2000 to March 2001	28,930	644
April 2001 to December 2001	14,361	657
Total	47,184	1,411
	(b) Number dealt with by Penalty
October 1999 to September 2000	106	1
October 2000 to September 2001	401	8
October 2001 to December 2001	128	1
Total	6335	10
	(c) and (d) Number of prosecutions
October 1999 to March 2000	0	0
April 2000 to March 2001	12	0
April 2001 to December 2001	16	0
Total	28	0

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance he has given to the Inland Revenue in respect of their compliance work on tax credits. [25101]

Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue approaches non-compliance relating to tax credits very seriously. It has issued extensive guidance to staff carrying out tax credit compliance work on individual applications and on employers who pay tax credits through the payroll.

The principal guidance on tax credit compliance for Inland Revenue officers is the Applicant Compliance Guide. This Guide has been published and the text is available to the public at all Inland Revenue inquiry centres. Guidance on tax credit aspects of employer compliance is being consolidated in an updated Employer Compliance Handbook. This will be published on completion. Specialist compliance sections within the Tax Credit Office and at Special Compliance Office operate under internal guidance not available to the public.

Inland Revenue officers carry out tax credit applicant compliance and employer compliance work in accordance with the relevant Codes of Practice. A Code of Practice is issued at the opening of an inquiry, explaining why the Inland Revenue inquires into some cases and what happens during an inquiry. It also sets out the rights and responsibilities of both the customer and the Inland Revenue.

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many appeals have been made to the High Court and the Court of Session under the provisions of (a) subparagraph (5) of paragraph 3 and (b) subparagraph (4) of paragraph 4 of the Tax Credits Act 1999 in each year since the commencement of the Act. [25983]

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Dawn Primarolo: From the information available, to date there have been no appeals to the High Court and the Court of Session under the provisions of Schedule 4 of the Tax Credits Act 1999 following Inland Revenue penalty proceedings.

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