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Cross-border Payments
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to establish an infrastructure for cross-border payments in euros. [63056]
Ruth Kelly: Developing cross-border payments infrastructure is the responsibility of the banks. I am aware that UK banks are fully participating in the European banking industry's co-ordinated initiative to produce a single European market for payments, and welcome this action which should improve the current, sometimes poor, level of cross-border payments service which consumers receive.
Mr. Sheerman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the impact of not including sterling in the EU regulation on cross-border payments in euros. [63055]
Ruth Kelly: The UK believes a competition-based approach to the problem of market failure in cross-border payments is the right one. The EU regulation could result in banks having to charge less for a service than it costs them to provide and may well give rise to perverse (potentially counter-productive) effects that harm consumers. For example, some banks may withdraw from offering the service altogether, or alternatively attempt to off-set losses made on cross-border payment transactions by increasing the cost of domestic payment costs. Thus, by not including sterling denominated payments in the scope of the regulation, these counter-productive effects are minimised.
It is too early to quantify the full impact of not including sterling denominated payments in the scope of the regulation. The main aspect of the regulation, article 3, which requires institutions to charge the same for euro cross-border payments as for euro domestic payments, does not take effect until July 2002 and July 2003 for electronic payments and credit transfers respectively. However, we will keep the situation under review.
Curry Report
Mrs. Helen Clark: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will make available the funds to support the implementation of the Curry report proposals; and if he will make a statement. [63049]
Mr. Boateng: As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has announced, the Government will be producing a new strategy for sustainable farming and food in England in the early autumn, which will incorporate a definitive response to the Policy Commission's recommendations.
Bank Notes
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost of the
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withdrawal of £5 notes announced by the Bank of England on 27 May; by what means he reached the figure; and if he will make a statement. [63208]
Ruth Kelly: Following reports that it is possible to remove the serial number from some of the new issue £5 notes, the Bank of England took the precautionary measure of asking the commercial banks and the Post Office to suspend issuance. The Bank is continuing to carry out tests and investigative work on the notes to establish the cause of the fault, how widespread it is and the best way to rectify it. At present it is too early to estimate the potential cost of the exercise.
Divorce
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of marriages have ended in divorce in each of the last 30 years in the UK. [62405]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. David Laws, dated 19 June 2002:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question on the proportion of marriages which have ended in divorce in each of the last 30 years. (62405)
- Estimates have been made, from time to time, of the proportion of marriages solemnised in a given year in England and Wales which would end in divorce, were the divorce rates to continue unchanged into the future at the levels observed in that year.
- The estimates are as follows:
- 1971–73: 22%
- 1979–80: 34%
- 1987: 37%
- 1993–94: 41%
Family Statistics
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the percentage of dependant children living in lone-parent families in the UK in each of the last 30 years; and if he will make a statement. [62404]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. David Laws, dated 19 June 2002:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your question on the percentage of dependent children living in lone-parent families. (62404)
- Historical estimates of the percentage of all dependent children who live in one-parent families are available from the General Household Survey which covers Great Britain. The proportions—based on three year averages—are as follows:
| Percentage | |
|---|---|
| 1971(18) | 8 |
| 1981 | 11 |
| 1990 | 17 |
| 1991 | 18 |
| 1996 | 21 |
| 1998 | 23 |
| 2000(18) | 25 |
(18) Based on a single GHS year's data only.
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Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what proportion of children in the UK have been born outside marriage in each of the last 30 years; and if he will make a statement; [62403]
- (2) what his estimate is of the proportion of babies born to teenage women in the UK in each of the last 25 years; and if he will make a statement. [62402]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. David Laws, dated 19 June 2002:
- As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent questions on the proportion of children born outside marriage in each of the last 30 years in the UK , and the proportion of babies born to teenage women in each of the last 25 years in the UK. A single reply has been used to answer your questions. (62403 and 62402)
- The information for the first question is given in the attached table A, and for the second question in the attached table B.
| Year | Proportion of births outside marriage |
|---|---|
| 1972 | 84 |
| 1973 | 84 |
| 1974 | 87 |
| 1975 | 90 |
| 1976 | 90 |
| 1977 | 95 |
| 1978 | 100 |
| 1979 | 106 |
| 1980 | 115 |
| 1981 | 125 |
| 1982 | 141 |
| 1983 | 154 |
| 1984 | 170 |
| 1985 | 189 |
| 1986 | 210 |
| 1987 | 229 |
| 1988 | 251 |
| 1989 | 266 |
| 1990 | 279 |
| 1991 | 298 |
| 1992 | 308 |
| 1993 | 317 |
| 1994 | 320 |
| 1995 | 336 |
| 1996 | 355 |
| 1997 | 368 |
| 1998 | 376 |
| 1999 | 388 |
| 2000 | 395 |
| 2001 | 401 |
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Pension Annuities
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of the new pension annuities are on an (a) indexed and (b) flat basis, and based on a (i) single and (ii) joint life in the last three years; and what proportion of the stock of pension annuities was in those categories. [37033]
Mr. McCartney: I have been asked to reply.
The information is not available.
Tobacco and Alcohol Taxes
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax revenue has been collected from the sale of (a) tobacco and (b) alcohol in each of the last three financial years. [62370]
John Healey: Excise duty and estimated VAT receipts from tobacco and alcohol for the financial years 1999–2000 and 2000–01 can be found in HM Customs and Excise "Tobacco" and "Alcohol Factsheets", copies of which can be found in the House of Commons Library.
Provisional receipts of excise duty from tobacco and alcohol in the financial year 2001–02 are published in the national statistics publication "Financial Statistics" table 2.1D, a copy of which can be found in the House of Common Library.
An estimate of the VAT received in 2001–02 from the sale of tobacco and alcohol is not available.
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