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MMR

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the percentage of eligible infants in the South Cheshire health authority receiving the MMR vaccine was in each of the last four years. [33085]

Yvette Cooper: The percentage of children in South Cheshire health authority immunised against MMR by their second birthday and fifth birthday is shown in the table.

Percentage of children in South Cheshire health authority immunised against MMR

		By their fifth birthday(102)
At 31 March	By their second birthday	First dose	First and second dose
1998	92	—	—
1999	89	—	—
2000	88	90	65
2001	89	90	72

⁽¹⁰²⁾ Information about uptake of MMR immunisation at age five was collected for the first time in 1999–2000

Source:

Department of Health, Statistics Division SD2B

TREASURY

Fuel Duties (Northern Ireland)

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what volume of (a) petrol and (b) diesel he estimates is imported annually from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland without UK excise duty being paid. [36803]

Mr. Boateng: Customs estimates of revenue loss in the Northern Ireland oils sector were included in the "Tackling Indirect Fraud" paper which the Government published as part of the pre-Budget report in November 2001.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what volume of heating oil he estimates is sold annually in Northern Ireland for use in the Republic of Ireland. [36804]

Mr. Boateng: HM Customs and Excise do not have estimates of the volume of heating oil sold annually in Northern Ireland for use in the Republic of Ireland.

Carbon Tax

Mr. Key: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons he decided not to implement a carbon tax. [36791]

Mr. Boateng: The climate change levy (CCL) was introduced in April 2001 following extensive consultation, and in accordance with the recommendations of Lord Marshall's report on Economic Instruments and the Business use of Energy.

As recommended by Lord Marshall, the Government believe that a downstream tax on energy such as the CCL is the best approach to take to the taxation of energy products, as it allows the Government to balance the need to encourage improvements in energy efficiency with

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other policy considerations. The extent of fuel poverty in the UK is well established, and the Government do not propose taxing energy use in the domestic sector.

Child Support Agency

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what activities are carried out by the Inland Revenue with regard to the Child Support Agency; what the costs of these activities are; and if he will make a statement. [37519]

Dawn Primarolo: The Child Support Act 1991 permits the Inland Revenue to disclose information to assist the Child Support Agency in tracing non-resident parents. Amendments under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 enabled earnings information to be passed to the Child Support Agency.

Amendments under the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999 enabled the Inland Revenue to provide the Child Support Agency with information about the earnings or other income of the self employed.

Under the terms of this legislation the Inland Revenue provides the Child Support Agency with the relevant information on request. The approximate estimated amount involved is £165,000 per annum, for which the Inland Revenue is reimbursed by the Child Support Agency.

10-year Transport Plan

Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total level of public expenditure allocated for the 10-year transport plan was as of (a) the launch of the plan in July 2000, (b) 2 April 2001, (c) 14 January 2002 and (d) 12 February 2002. [37093]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The totals are as follows:

(a) At the launch of the plan the total funding envelope over the plan period was £179.7 billion, of which £129.1 billion was assumed to be public money.

(b) As a result of the 2 April 2001 agreement with Railtrack, the total rose to £181.2 billion, which includes £1.5 billion of advanced grants to Railtrack. The total public element of this is therefore £130.6 billion.

(c) On 14 January 2002, the total stood at £181.9 billion, which includes the grants to Railtrack as shown, a freight adjustment of £462 million agreed in principle in April 2001, but only quantified in October 2001 following completion of the regulator's freight charges review, and £285 million of 2000–01 EYF, allocated in the summer and winter supplementaries. Public sector funding accounts for £131.4 billion of this total.

(d) As of 12 February 2002, the total figure remained £181.9 billion. A detailed breakdown of the total is provided in an updated version of Table A3 from the 10-year plan, copies of which will be placed in the Library.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 12 February 2002, Official Report, column 243W, on the 10-year transport plan, if the unused rail provision in 2000–01 was available for use in 2001–02 under the rules on end of year flexibility. [37052]

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Mr. Andrew Smith: Yes, the unused rail provision from 2000–01 is available for use this year.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 12 February 2002, Official Report, column 243W, on the 10-year transport plan, if the Treasury gave permission for the allocation of additional funding to the 10-year transport plan from the unused rail provision in 2000–01. [37053]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Yes, Treasury did give permission. The transfer was made through the normal supplementary arrangements.

Gross Domestic Product

Pete Wishart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will (a) set out for each of the last five years and (b) provide forecasts where available for the next two years of GDP per head for each nation and region of the UK, and as a proportion of UK GDP per head; and what the GDP per head was for each nation of the UK assuming (i) 70 per cent., (ii) 80 per cent. and (iii) 90 per cent. allocation of continental shelf GDP to Scotland. [37569]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Gross domestic product (GDP) per head data for each English region, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are reported annually in "Economic Trends" and "Regional Trends", copies of which are available in the House of Commons Library. The 2001 edition of "Regional Trends" (ISSN 0261–1783) shows the latest available data in "Chapter 12: Regional Accounts". The latest data are also available in electronic form on the ONS database, which can be accessed via the House of Commons Library.

Extra-region GDP—which includes 'continental shelf' activity relating to offshore oil and gas extraction, UK embassies overseas and armed forces stationed abroad—comprises compensation of employees and gross operating surplus that cannot be assigned to regions. It is reported in "Regional Trends" alongside regional GDP.

The Treasury does not produce forecasts of GDP for the English regions, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Correspondence

Mr. Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average response time was for responding to departmental correspondence; what percentage of letters took longer than one month for a response; and what percentage took longer than three months for a response in each of the last five years. [37453]

Mr. Boateng: Information for 2000 and 2001 and average response times for 1999 in relation to ministerial correspondence only are as follows:

HM Treasury	1999	2000	2001
Average response (working days)	27	24	19
Percentage over 1 month	n/a	(103)25.0	(103)18.0
Percentage over 3 months	n/a	(103)2.0	(103)1.3

⁽¹⁰³⁾ Sample based

Information for earlier years and on other types of correspondence are not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

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Tax Credits Bill

Mr. Clappison: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects the provisions of Part 2 of the Tax Credits Bill to be commenced. [35167]

Dawn Primarolo: As I said in the debate at Report Stage of the Tax Credits Bill on 7 February 2002, Official Report column 1060, the Government plan to introduce the new tax credits from April 2003. The date will be confirmed in the Budget.

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