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Arthur Andersen

Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the names of the Arthur Andersen employees seconded to the Treasury between 1997 and 2001; and what their duties were. [33042]

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Ruth Kelly: Four people were seconded to HM Treasury from Arthur Andersen during the period 1997 to 2001. Details of current secondees from all sectors outside central Government can be found on the Treasury website.

Private Sponsorship

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the events which have been sponsored by a private organisation in (a) his Department, (b) the Office of Government Commerce, (c) the Inland Revenue and (d) Customs and Excise since May 1997 and the names of the sponsoring organisations; and if he will make a statement. [32512]

Ruth Kelly: Records are not maintained centrally. Information in the format required could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Parliamentary Questions

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will answer the question of 31 January 2002 from the hon. Member for Truro and St. Austell concerning sponsorship. [38299]

Ruth Kelly: I have replied to the hon. Gentleman today.

Tim Loughton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham can expect an answer to his Question tabled on 28 January, ref 31887. [42310]

Ruth Kelly: I very much regret that the hon. Member's earlier question has not yet been answered. I hope to be in a position to reply to him very soon.

Teenage Pregnancies

Tim Loughton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many teenage pregnancies there were in each of the last five years, broken down by (a) age and (b) region. [42329]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Tim Loughton, dated March 2002:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many teenage pregnancies there were in each of the last five year, broken down by (a) age and (b) region. (42329)

Figures for the latest available five years, 1996–2000, are shown in the table.

Teenage conceptions: numbers by age and health region 1996–2000

	Age at conception
Year of conception and health region(11)	<14	14	15	16	17	18	19
1996
Northern and Yorkshire	60	317	887	2,052	2,840	3,228	3,569
Trent	58	210	790	1,535	2,051	2,440	2,597
Eastern	25	137	485	1,049	1,661	1,998	2,336
London	71	278	823	1,852	2,919	3,563	4,490
South East	57	225	810	1,907	2,685	3,306	3,618
South West	39	160	447	1,061	1,553	1,798	2,021
West Midlands	57	225	821	1,694	2,327	2,811	3,131
North West	54	256	921	2,168	2,991	3,438	3,867
Wales	30	153	461	966	1,322	1,568	1,604
1997
Northern and Yorkshire	57	309	907	1,996	2,924	3,459	3,595
Trent	34	217	647	1,460	2,134	2,605	2,598
Eastern	25	149	457	1,135	1,721	2,138	2,351
London	57	285	799	1,938	2,896	3,796	4,489
South East	47	262	774	1,823	2,898	3,436	3,553
South West	34	142	422	1,072	1,532	1,927	1,975
West Midlands	52	239	721	1,635	2,574	3,020	3,031
North West	45	245	781	2,059	2,959	3,666	3,818
Wales	14	116	434	940	1,391	1,570	1,621
1998
Northern and Yorkshire	63	301	856	1,884	2,975	3,777	3,909
Trent	56	241	672	1,480	2,317	2,885	2,936
Eastern	28	156	451	1,108	1,849	2,298	2,519
London	64	280	808	1,852	3,038	4,157	4,762
South East	54	236	773	1,855	2,997	3,755	4,005
South West	35	144	474	1,065	1,642	2,130	2,213
West Midlands	56	227	752	1,567	2,483	3,116	3,380
North West	39	263	826	2,009	3,113	4,095	4,099
Wales	28	140	429	982	1,451	1,726	1,746
1999
Northern and Yorkshire	53	260	806	1,908	2,787	3,515	4,011
Trent	39	204	623	1,428	2,078	2,748	3,055
Eastern	27	145	455	1,037	1,756	2,295	2,477
London	71	257	730	1,896	3,021	4,075	4,894
South East	63	256	737	1,754	2,768	3,570	4,019
South West	28	161	469	1,000	1,513	1,959	2,229
West Midlands	49	206	635	1,550	2,398	2,980	3,445
North West	50	258	826	1,904	3,041	3,746	4,182
Wales	26	119	392	857	1,387	1,739	1,820
2000(12)
Northern and Yorkshire	43	250	805	1,785	2,667	3,537	3,794
Trent	40	181	590	1,366	2,042	2,573	3,024
Eastern	30	153	430	1,113	1,605	2,157	2,424
London	87	303	856	1,892	2,900	4,057	5,085
South East	47	268	792	1,766	2,736	3,363	4,043
South West	40	153	450	984	1,464	1,966	2,167
West Midlands	49	234	709	1,512	2,355	3,021	3,521
North West	38	229	840	1,903	2,983	3,826	4,192
Wales	21	119	354	828	1,327	1,666	1,851

⁽¹¹⁾ Boundaries as at 1 April 2001

⁽¹²⁾ Provisional

Source:

Office for National Statistics

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Insurance Premiums

Mr. Truswell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has evaluated the effect on the competitiveness of British businesses of increases in (a) employer liability insurance premiums and (b) other insurance premiums; and if he will make a statement. [39962]

Ruth Kelly: The Government do not intervene in the setting of insurance premiums. These are currently increasing worldwide, not just in the UK.

Export Licences

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer who in his Department is responsible for co-ordinating export licence applications between the Department of Trade and Industry, the Ministry of Defence and the Foreign Office. [40255]

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Mr. Andrew Smith: Responsibility for co-ordinating export licence applications does not rest with the Treasury or any other department of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Relevant Treasury teams may provide advice on the countries in question or on issues relating to international financial institutions.

Pension Funds

Mr. Mark Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with the managers of pension funds about the impact of the new accounting standard FRS 17; and what assessment his Department has made of the effect of FRS 17 on pension funds. [40196]

Ruth Kelly: I meet representations of the pensions industry regularly and discuss a number of issues. However, the application of accounting standards, FRS 17 included, is a matter for the independent Accounting Standards Board.

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Independent School Fees

Mr. Lansley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to extend the scope of VAT to include independent school fees. [40793]

Mr. Boateng: The Government have no such plans.

Office for National Statistics

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what information is provided by information on business turnover collected by the Office for National Statistics which is not available to the Government from information collected by Customs and Excise; [40834]

(2) for what reason the Office for National Statistics is required to collect turnover information from businesses. [40835]

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

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. David Lidington, dated 11 March 2002:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent questions on information collected on business turnover. (40834, 40835).

The ONS collects monthly turnover data directly from businesses in the production, retail and services industries. These statistics are key inputs to monthly short-term indicators of economic activity such as the Index of Production, the Retail Sales Index and the Experimental Index of Services. The same data are used to give timely measures of quarterly Gross Domestic Product. These economic indicators are used by government and the public to help monitor the performance of the UK economy, and by the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England to help set interest rates. Other key users of the data are the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the European Union.

Turnover information is also collected on an annual basis via the Annual Business Inquiry. Here it is one of a set of data items needed on a coherent basis from the annual accounts of a business and cannot be taken in isolation. This set of data is used to compile the National Accounts (including estimation of Gross Domestic Product and Investment) and for other important statistics such as Productivity. Key users again include the Treasury, the Department of Trade and Industry and the European Union.

VAT returns made by businesses to Customs and Excise do include data on turnover. However VAT sources are far from ideal for the purposes of producing national statistics. The data are for the most part collected on a quarterly basis and they are less timely. Also, some businesses are exempt from VAT so that coverage is incomplete.

The possible use of these returns to replace or partially replace directly collected survey data is part of ONS' long term strategic development programme. In 2000 a feasibility study suggested that it might be possible to use VAT sources more directly. In 2001 ONS piloted and introduced a secure system for transmitting VAT turnover data from Customs and Excise to ONS and confirmed that there would be no legal barriers to such data transfer. We plan to further develop the methodology adopted in the 2000 feasibility study, to prepare inputs to the Index of Production and Index of Services in parallel with those based on business surveys and to quality assure the alternative sources with key users. If this is successful ONS will then move to the much greater use of VAT returns.

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