---

Public Service Agreements

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans there are to monitor annual progress against long term targets set out in public service agreements. [71614]

Mr. Boateng [holding answer 19 July 2002]: Progress against all targets in public service agreements (PSAs) is set out in departmental reports and autumn performance reports. The Government will provide regular web-based reports on all the new PSA targets from next year.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what sanctions he will use against Departments which fail to deliver their public service agreements. [71615]

Mr. Boateng [holding answer 19 July 2002]: Departments are accountable to the public and Parliament for their performance against their public service agreement targets (PSAs). Performance is also one of a number of factors taken into account during a spending review, where performance can indicate where resources can best be deployed and the need for action and reforms to ensure delivery.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer why there is no public service agreement target for Customs and Excise in respect of the illicit market share for oils in Northern Ireland; and if he will make a statement. [71607]

John Healey [holding answer 19 July 2002]: As explained in "Measuring Indirect Tax Fraud", published in November 2001, the non-UK duty paid share of the road fuel sector in Northern Ireland is more complex than in the rest of the UK. Because of the long land border with the Republic of Ireland, Customs are unable to distinguish clearly between legitimate cross-border shopping and fraud there in the same way they are able to on the UK mainland.

As a consequence, while the Government have judged it right to set a PSA target for reducing the size of the illicit market for England, Scotland and Wales, it is not yet possible to set a comparable target for Northern Ireland.

The Government are, however, determined to tackle road fuel fraud in Northern Ireland and Customs have, over the last two years, enhanced its enforcement activity by increasing the number of officers tackling oils fraud in Northern Ireland from 25 officers to over 160. This has resulted in the first increase in the volume of UK duty paid fuel delivered into Northern Ireland for over four years.

The Government still consider the level of fraud to be unacceptable and Customs is pursuing, with other agencies and in addition to steps taken on mainland oils fraud, ways in which the impact on oils fraud in Northern Ireland can be increased.

Public Works Loan Board

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much money is on loan from the Public Works Loan Board, broken down by country or region of the United Kingdom; and how much money is available for lending from the PWLB. [72588]

24 Jul 2002 : Column 1194W

Ruth Kelly: The 127th Annual Report of the Public Works Loan Board, laid before Parliament on 8 July 2002, notes that at 31 March 2002 the following principal amounts were on loan:

	£ million
England	34,359.0
Scotland	9,254.4
Wales	3,267.6
Total	46,881.0

The Public Works Loan Board does not lend to Northern Ireland authorities.

The maximum amount of loans outstanding to the Public Works Loan Board at any one time should not exceed £55,000 million.

Inheritance Tax

Andrew Bennett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have applied for conditional exemption from inheritance tax in the last 12 months; and how this tax relief is being amended to take into account the implementation of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 about access to the countryside. [72185]

Ruth Kelly: In the last 12 months the Inland Revenue have received eight inheritance tax exemption claims involving land. Of these, only one covers land in England not associated with a building where access may in due course be available by virtue of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000; the remainder are outside the territorial scope of the Act, or relate to the land surrounding a historic building, or both. Given this limited overlap, and the other public benefits secured by inheritance tax exemption, we are not persuaded that early change to the inheritance tax rules is called for: but we will keep the matter under review.

National Insurance Numbers

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the number of employees working in the UK without national insurance numbers. [72124]

Ruth Kelly: No estimate has been made of the number of employees working in the UK without national insurance numbers.

Local Government Staff

Ms Drown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much he estimates would be saved on the working families tax credit and other benefits if local government staff were paid a rate of £5 an hour. [72220]

Ruth Kelly: No reliable estimate can be made except at disproportionate cost.

Identity Cards

Mr. Gibb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how fees for an (a) voluntary and (b) compulsory proposed entitlement identity card will be treated in the national accounts. [72115]

24 Jul 2002 : Column 1195W

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

Letter from Mr. Len Cook to Mr. Nick Gibb, dated 24 July 2002:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on treatment of identity cards in the National Accounts. (72115)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) will treat any fees relating to identity cards in the National Accounts according to established international guidelines. ONS have not been asked to offer advice on this subject and will not do so until requested and proposals are clearly specified.

Strikes

Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many strikes due to industrial dispute have occurred in the UK in the past 10 years; and what the (a) location and (b) duration was of those that went beyond six weeks. [71789]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 22 July 2002]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Hywel Williams, dated 24 July 2002:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question about the number and location of strikes due to industrial dispute in the UK over the last 10 years. (71789)
Figures for 1992–2001 are given below. They cover the number of days that strike action took place; not the number of days that the parties to the dispute were actually in disagreement. Data on the location of stoppages are not available.

Stoppages due to labour disputes in the UK in the last ten years

Year	Total number of stoppages	Of which, over 30 days duration
1992	325	28
1993	211	13
1994	205	4
1995	235	9
1996	244	15
1997	216	7
1998	166	8
1999	205	5
2000	212	5
2001	194	7

Special Advisers

Mr. Tyrie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) dates, (b) location and (c) sources were of attributable (i) articles, interviews or contributions for the media, books or other journals and (ii) speeches or presentations made in the public domain, by departmental special advisers since March 2001; who in his Department authorised the activity; and on what date this activity was recorded with the departmental Head of Information. [72244]

Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer the Prime Minister is giving him today.

Public Appointments

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action his Department has taken in

24 Jul 2002 : Column 1196W

response to the comments in the Seventh report by the Commissioner for Public Appointments concerning (a) an independent element in interviews undertaken by HM Treasury and (b) performance assessment systems; and if he will make a statement. [72676]

Ruth Kelly: (a) HM Treasury is already fully compliant with the Code of Practice issued by the Commissioner for Public Appointments that requires an independent member to form part of any appointments panel. In the past, we have used fully independent members who understand Treasury business, and who are familiar with the nature of the relationship between the Treasury and its public and other bodies. We will ensure—for the future—that such independent members receive formal training from the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

(b) We will consider whether it is appropriate to introduce more formal performance assessment processes for any bodies that currently have only informal systems in place.

---