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Departmental Staff

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff left the service of his Department and its agencies in the year ended 31 March 2001; how many left before attaining the formal retirement age of 60 years; and in respect of how many his Department and its agencies assumed responsibilities for making payments until retirement age. [37552]

Ruth Kelly: The information is as follows:

Number of leavers in the year ended 31 March 2001

Department/Agency	Total number of leavers	Before retirement age	Early retirement
HM Treasury	126	117	10
Inland Revenue	3,451	2,965	46
Customs and Excise	1,081	858	168
Office of Government Commerce/ Buying Agency	73	64	7
Debt Management Office	3	3	0
National Savings	21	20	6
Office for National Statistics	520	493	0
Royal Mint	39	39	2
Valuation Office	272	36	20
Government Actuary's Department	9	8	0

Non-Governmental Organisations

Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list non-governmental organisations operating in the south-west region that receive public funds from his Department; and what amount of annual funding they received in the most recent year for which figures are available. [39192]

Ruth Kelly: None that I am aware of.

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EU Directives

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the European Union directives and regulations relating to his Department that have been implemented in each of the last four years, specifying (a) the title and purpose of each, (b) the cost to public funds of each and (c) the cost to businesses of each. [39123]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested is not held centrally and providing it would involve disproportionate cost. Regulatory impact assessments are produced for all proposals, including those originating in European legislation, likely to impose significant costs on businesses in the UK and are generally made available in the Libraries of the House. We do not hold information on the costs to public funds of implementation.

VAT

Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects HM Customs and Excise to (a) complete, (b) submit to Ministers and (c) publish their estimate of VAT losses and their strategies to tackle them. [38595]

Mr. Boateng [holding answer 4 March 2002]: The Government will prepare and publish any such estimates within the framework set out in Paragraph 2.4 of its "Tackling Indirect Tax Fraud" paper, published alongside the pre-Budget report.

Mr. Stevenson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much VAT was paid by (a) further education colleges and (b) schools in the state sector in the last year for which figures are available. [46661]

Mr. Boateng: The information requested is not available.

Pension Schemes

Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, in the case of a small, self- administered pension scheme with one member who is also the managing trustee, the existence of a pensioner trustee takes the situation outside the exemption granted by section 36 of the Data Protection Act 1998. [41673]

Mr. Wills: I have been asked to reply.

In the first instance, responsibility for interpreting the Data Protection Act 1998 lies with the Information Commissioner. I understand that her view is that small, self-administered pension schemes do not benefit from the exemption provided by section 36 of the 1998 Act. I shall consider the case for providing an exemption for such pension schemes from the requirement to give a notification to the Information Commissioner under section 18 of the 1998 Act.

Health Expenditure

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will announce his plans for health spending in 2004–05 and 2005–06. [44693]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The Government have said that they will set out the details of departmental spending allocations up to 2005–06 in this year's spending review.

10 Apr 2002 : Column 246W

Unpaid Advisers

Mr. Beith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the names of the unpaid advisers appointed by him since June 1997, stating in each case (a) the date of their appointment, (b) the duration of their appointment and (c) the project or projects on which they have been engaged. [43375]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 25 March 2002]: Sue Nye was appointed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in accordance with the requirements of paragraph 51 of the Ministerial Code.

For details of unpaid appointments made by the Treasury to task forces, review groups and other ad hoc advisory groups, I refer to the answer provided by my hon. Friend the Member for Shipley (Mr. Leslie) on 16 November 2001, Official Report, column 958W.

Children's Tax Credit

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has been spent, broken down on an annual basis, on advertising and promoting the children's tax credit. [46468]

Dawn Primarolo: The annual spend on advertising and promoting the children's tax credit is as follows.

£

Financial year	Expenditure
2000–01	6,958,527
2001–02	363,625

In this, the third phase of children's tax credit, applications were driven from 2.7 million up to 3.8 million, reflecting the success of this advertising. The response can be measured by the fact that following the advertising we took over two million telephone calls.

Working Families Tax Credit

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total cost was of administering the working families tax credit in the last year for which figures are available. [46465]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer that I gave to the hon. Member for Roxburgh and Berwickshire (Mr. Kirkwood) on 9 November 2001, Official Report, column 438W.

Tobacco Smuggling

Mr. Lazarowicz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many officers are allocated by Customs and Excise to control the entry of contraband tobacco into the UK. [46271]

Mr. Boateng: The Law Enforcement arm of Customs comprises just under 7,500 staff, divided primarily between Detection, Intelligence and Investigation units. Many staff, particularly those in Detection, are multi- functional, working across the broad range of Customs responsibilities including tackling indirect tax fraud, the supply of Class A drugs and other import/export prohibitions and restrictions.

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In March 2000, the Government published the "Tackling Tobacco Smuggling" strategy. This strategy included funding for an additional 955 Customs officers throughout the UK. This represented a broad doubling of Customs resource dedicated to tackling tobacco smuggling.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of growth of tobacco smuggling in 2000–01 was. [47692]

Mr. Boateng: The estimated number of cigarettes smuggled in 1999–2000 and 2000–01 can be found in the xvi report by the Comptroller and Auditor General—Departments of the Chancellor of the Exchequer: HM Customs and Excise Appropriation Accounts 2000–01, paragraph 5.31.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the level of smuggling in 2002–03, as shown by illicit market share, will be reduced. [47694]

Mr. Boateng: The "Tackling Smuggling" strategy published in March 2000 set out targets for the illicit market share of smuggled cigarettes. These targets have been incorporated into a PSA target for Customs. For 2002–03, the aim is for the illicit market share of smuggled cigarettes to be 21 per cent. or less.

Information about the achievement of this PSA target will be published in Customs annual report for 2002–03.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what have been the measurable effects in the financial year 2001–02 of HM Customs and Excise targeting the organisers of tobacco smuggling. [47682]

Mr. Boateng: The "Tackling Tobacco Smuggling" strategy published in March 2000 set out targets for the number of smuggling gangs Customs aim to break up or disrupt. These targets have been incorporated into a PSA target for Customs. For 2001–02, the aim is for Customs to break up or disrupt at least 55 tobacco smuggling gangs.

Information about the achievement of this PSA target will be published in Customs annual report for 2001–02.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what increases in the inland activity of HM Customs and Excise took place in 2001–02 to tackle tobacco smuggling. [47669]

Mr. Boateng: As part of the "Tackling Tobacco Smuggling" strategy published in March 2000, Customs have developed a comprehensive approach to tackle all aspects of the tobacco smuggling problem.

Customs approach inland is to carefully plan and target their activities to inflict maximum disruption to the illicit inland distribution networks for smuggled tobacco.

Customs have also introduced new penalties and sanctions designed to disrupt inland supplies of smuggled tobacco. For example, in July 2001, Customs introduced a system for prominent marks to be placed on packs of cigarettes and tobacco indicating UK duty has been paid. This measure makes smuggled cigarettes very easy to

10 Apr 2002 : Column 248W

identify and provides sanctions designed to hit those who sell smuggled tobacco or allow their premises to be used for selling.

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