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Performance Reports

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the timetable is for publication of the performance reports as set out in the Pre-Budget Report, November 2002 (Cm 5664), paragraphs 6.49 to 6.54; and if he will make a statement on the performance of Government Departments on publication of their full reports; [86671]

(2) pursuant to the Budget Red Book, April 2002 (HC 592), box 6.3, what dates his Department uses to define each of the four seasons of the year; and what the publication dates are for each Department's report; [86669]

(3) pursuant to the Pre-Budget Report, November 2002 (Cm 5664), paragraph 6.32, what the timetable is for implementation of his Department's plans to provide links on its website to Departments' PSA progress reports. [86670]

Mr. Boateng: Departments are currently publishing their autumn performance reports, for which they are responsible. The page of links was established on the Treasury's website on 27 November 2002, and is being updated as reports are published. This page is available in the Public Spending and Services pages under the title, 'Links to Departmental Performance Documents'.

Public-Private Partnerships

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of Partnerships UK in ensuring successful development and implementation of public-private

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partnerships; what guidance has been given to Partnerships UK; and how this differs from guidance given to the Treasury Taskforce. [83134]

Mr. Boateng: Details of Partnerships UK's business strategy were outlined in the Information Memorandum issued prior to HM Treasury's capital raising exercise in early 2001. The company's progress measured against its business plan is covered in its latest Annual Report, a copy of which is also available from the House Library. Copies of the Information Memorandum and the Annual Report are both available from the House Library.

Partnerships UK is a public-private partnership with the majority of its shares held by private sector institutions. As a minority shareholder, HM Treasury does not exercise control over the company. Partnerships UK's board is responsible for the overall management of PUK on behalf of its shareholders which include HM Treasury. HMT also appoints PUK's Advisory Council which monitors the delivery of PUK's public sector mission.

The Treasury Taskforce as an arm of HM Treasury issued regular guidance to the public sector on the application of public-private partnerships. The taskforce was also responsible for PFI policy. Following the establishment of Partnerships UK, these roles have passed back to the Treasury and the Office of Government Commerce.

Research and Development

Rev. Martin Smyth: To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer how much research and development funds were provided by central Government to institutions in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland, in the last year for which figures are available. [84393]

Ms Hewitt: I have been asked to reply.

The Government publication XForward Look 2001" (Cm5338) shows that in 2000–01, UK government departments and devolved administrations were estimated to have spent #5006 million on R&D, including #1518 million on the Science Budget, much of which will have been spent with external institution. Within this total the direct expenditure by the devolved administrations was #104 million by the Scottish Executive, #21 million by the National Assembly for Wales, and #32 million by the Northern Ireland departments. No overall figures are available to indicate the geographical breakdown of the institutions who received funding from these sources, but so as far as the breakdown of Science Budget spending is concerned, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Strangford on 25 November, Official Report, column 33W.

Retirement

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer what incentives he is putting in place to encourage young people to save for their retirement. [86890]

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Ruth Kelly: The Government already provides generous tax relief, worth around #13 billion a year, to encourage saving in pensions for retirement.

The Government is publishing a consultation document, on 17 December, which includes proposals for the simplification of the taxation of pensions, thus enabling people to plan effectively for their retirement.

Royal Mint

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place a copy of the Royal Mint quinquennial prior options review in the Library. [86864]

Ruth Kelly: The 1999 review of options for the Royal Mint is commercially confidential, and therefore cannot be released in accordance with exemption 13 (third party's commercial confidences) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.

Targets

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the pre-Budget report, November 2002 (Cm 5664), paragraph 6.25, what the relationship is between the targets set, the outcomes departments are required to deliver and the money allocated by his Department to other Government Departments. [86672]

Mr. Boateng: Public Service Agreements are an integral part of our spending plans. PSAs set out the objectives and outcomes Departments are required to deliver within their resources.

Tax Processing

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 26 November, Official Report, column 159W, on Tax Processing, if he will place in the Library the underlying data for the basket of outputs for the previous two financial years; and if he will make a statement. [86909]

Dawn Primarolo: I have placed a copy of the information relating to financial year 2000–01 in the Library. This was the first year for which this data was collated.

Taxation (Non-domiciled Individuals)

Mr. Portillo: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his plans are for the UK taxation of non-domiciled individuals resident in the UK. [87512]

Dawn Primarolo: My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in his Budget last April that we are reviewing the residence and domicile rules as they affect the tax liabilities of individuals. We believe that any modernisation of these rules needs to be based on clear principles: the rules should be fair, clear, easy to operate and support the competitiveness of the British economy. Paragraphs 5.81–82 of the Pre-Budget Report published on 27 November set out the latest position on the review.

Taxes (Wales)

Ian Lucas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the amount of (a) income tax, (b) corporation tax, (c) inheritance tax, (d) capital

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gains tax, (e) national insurance and (f) VAT paid by organisations and persons in Wales in each year since 1997. [86897]

Dawn Primarolo: Available information is given in the table. Data on the regional distribution of inheritance tax are not collected regularly. A special survey estimated a yield of about #50 million for Wales in 2000–01. Figures for corporation tax are not available and it would only be possible to provide reliable estimates of national insurance contributions for Wales at disproportionate cost.

# million

	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01
Income tax(14)	2,670	2,630	2,990	3,230
Capital gains tax(15)	30	40	40	30
VAT(16)	2,470	2,260	2,500	2,480

⁽¹⁴⁾ Estimated income tax liabilities for Wales based on the Survey of Personal Incomes.

⁽¹⁵⁾ Estimated capital gains tax liabilities in Wales.

⁽¹⁶⁾ VAT is a centrally collected tax and the figure for receipts is only available for the UK as a whole (HM Customs and Excise Annual Report, Table A1). The tax share for Wales is estimated by apportioning the figures for household expenditure from the ONS publication, XFamily Expenditure", by the number of households in Wales from XRegional Trends".

Treasury Publications

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 2 December 2002, Official Report, column 506W, on Treasury publications, how many leaflets were distributed in the case of (a) the Budget and (b) the pre-Budget report; and if he will make a statement. [86896]

Ruth Kelly: The Treasury distributed 2.1 million Budget 2002 summary leaflets and 1.4 million leaflets summarising the 2002 pre-Budget report.

Trust Ports

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what adjustment he has made to the public sector borrowing requirement consequent upon the decision of the Office for National Statistics to classify major trust ports as public sector bodies; [87561]

(2) pursuant to his answer of 3 December 2002, Official Report, column 681W, on trust ports, what adjustments have been made to public sector accounts as a result; [87559]

(3) pursuant to his answer of 3 December 2002, Official Report, column 681W, on trust ports, when classification of major trust ports as public bodies became effective; and whether the classification has retrospective effect. [87552]

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. Christopher Chope, dated 16 December 2002:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent questions on trust ports. (87522, 87559, 87561)

The reclassification of major trust ports to public corporations in National Accounts became effective in September 2001. Available data were introduced retrospectively back to 1996. The

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National Accounts data are used for the public sector accounts. The Chancellor's fiscal measures are based on these and hence reflect the changes made to the National Accounts data.

Trust ports data appear in the public sector accounts and net cash requirement in many places. I am not able to give you a breakdown of this. However, trust ports are not particularly significant in the overall public corporations' accounts, for example their gross operating surplus and capital formation both account for about 0.6% of the sector total.

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