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Government Documents

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what documents comparable to Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland are published for regions of the UK. [89427]

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

Letter from John Pullinger to Alex Salmond dated 13 January 2003:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your parliamentary question on what documents comparable to Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland (GERS) are published for regions of the UK. I am replying in his absence.

GERS is unique, and there are no directly comparable publications for the English regions, or for Wales and Northern Ireland. Comparable information on Wales used to be published by the Welsh Office, but this was last published in 1996 and related to the financial year 1993/94.

There is, however, information published by the office for National Statistics (ONS) and other Government departments on Government expenditure and revenue within the regions of the UK that can provide a partial comparison on some aspects of the data for Scotland presented in GERS, as described below.

HM Treasury published a comprehensive account of regional (NJTS1) Government expenditure in its annual publication Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (HM Treasury (2002)) or PESA. The estimates show identifiable Government expenditure by function of government for Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the nine Government Office Regions of England. The PESA estimates do not cover Government revenue.

On 31 October 2002, the ONS published experimental sub-national estimates of Government accounts for the calendar year 1998. The estimates show by region (NUTS1) where General Government output is produced, which regions and sub-regions have contributed to Government revenue and which regions and sub-regions have received Government expenditure. The ONS work, however, is not intended to give a complete picture of Government finances and certain aspects of revenue and expenditure are excluded from the analyses and hence the estimates are not directly comparable with GERS.

Finally, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned a project to identify the flow of Public expenditure (UK and European) into the English regions (NUTS1) and the allocative mechanisms that underpin those flows. The project has close links with the PESA estimates and with the ONS Government accounts work, but is not looking at Government revenue. The project is expected to be completed by the middle of 2003.

Landfill Levy

Dr. Whitehead : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the calculations his

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Department has made concerning the value of the tax arising from the landfill levy that would have been forgone in 2002–03 if all the available tax credits had been claimed by landfill operators. [88582]

John Healey: Based on the predicted quantity of taxable waste going to landfill, the total tax liability of landfill operators in 2002–03 is estimated to be #675 million. Landfill operators can divert up to a maximum of 20 per cent. of this amount to the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. Therefore, if all available tax credits are claimed in 2002–03, then approximately #135 million of potential landfill tax revenue will be foregone.

Minimum Wage

Pete Wishart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the impact of increasing the minimum wage (a) in line with average earnings, (b) to #4.17 per hour, (c) to #4.87 per hour, (d) to #5.00 per hour and (e) to #5.30 per hour, on the cost of salaries of departmental employees (i) in total and (ii) for each nation of the United Kingdom in the next financial year. [90596]

Ruth Kelly: Increasing the minimum wage by (a), (b), (c), (d), (e) will have no impact on the cost of salaries for HM Treasury.

New Export System

Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what representations he has received from trade associations and other business interests regarding the New Export System; [89130]

(2) what the target time period is for Customs and Excise to clear applications under the New Export System. [89129]

John Healey: Customs and Excise's New Export System (NES) went live at all Maritime and Inland locations (including Inland Clearance Depots) throughout the UK on 27 October 2002. NES is an electronic- based system, which enables exporters and agents to send their export declarations to Customs electronically. It replaces the current paper-based system, facilitates legitimate trade and helps combat VAT and Excise fraud.

NES provides a number of tailored models and procedures to meet the needs of different trade sectors. It allows Customs to target their controls more effectively, minimise disruption to legitimate trade and reduce the time it takes to process an export declaration.

In order to utilise NES simplified procedures exporters must apply to Customs for specific authorisation. This involves completion of a form, possibly a visit from a Customs Officer and, depending on the electronic transmission route chosen, registering to use the Government Gateway. Each application is considered on its merits; there is no specific time frame for completion of individual applications. Customs make every effort to complete their part of the procedure as swiftly as possible. Exporters who need to obtain a digital certificate from the Office of the e-Envoy (to enable Government Gateway access) may wait approximately 7 days for delivery of access data.

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The Paymaster General received one representation on NES from the British International Freight Association (BIFA) on 20 December 2001, to which the Financial Secretary replied on 24 January 2002. A series of Questions relating to the use and provision of digital certificates was laid and answered in October 2002.

Office of National Statistics

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the budget of the Office of National Statistics was in each year from 1992. [89389]

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

Letter from Karen Dunnell to Mr. Alex Salmond, dated 13 January 2003:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on what the budget of the Office for National Statistics was in each year from 1992. I am replying in his absence. (89389)
The requested information is shown in the attached table.
Office for National Statistics Spending⁽¹⁵⁾# million

Financial year	Expenditure(16)
1992–93	97
1993–94	90
1994–95	93
1995–96	103
1996–97	110
1997–98	95
1998–99	102
1999–2000	110
2000–01	156
2001–02	212
2002–03(17)	163




⁽¹⁵⁾ The Office for National Statistics was created as a Government Department and an Executive Agency on 1 April 1996 by merging the Central Statistical Office (CSO) and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS). The figures for 1992–93 to 1995–96 reflect the combined outturn for CSO and OPCS.

⁽¹⁶⁾ Expenditure figures from 1998–99 are presented on a resource basis. Figures for earlier years are in cash terms. Figures from 1998–99 onwards include additional provision for planning, fieldwork and initial processing of the 2001 Census of Population in England and Wales.

⁽¹⁷⁾ Planned expenditure.

Pensions

Mr. Frank Field : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have informed his Department that they wish to (a) contract out of the state pension and (b) contract back in to the state additional pension in each three month period in the last three years for which figures are available. [87995]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 19 December 2002]: The information is only available for those individuals with Appropriate Personal Pensions (APP) and Stakeholder Pensions (SHP) for complete tax years. The table shows the number of APP and SHP applications and cancellations for complete tax years.

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Number of appropriate personal pension and stakeholder pension applications and cancellations received

	Number of applications(18)	Number of cancellations(18)
1999–2000	116,600	77,600
2000–01	143,300	20,000
2001–02	207,000	53,000

⁽¹⁸⁾ Rounded to the nearest hundred

Scorecard Approach

Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will make a statement on the scorecard approach based on departmental information used by his Department to measure Spending Review 2000 PSA Target 4, as described on page 26 of the HM Treasury Departmental Report 2002; [89266]

(2) if he will make a statement on the scorecard approach based on departmental information used by his Department to measure improvements to the quality and cost-effectiveness of public services, as set out on page 58 of the HM Treasury Departmental Report 2002. [89269]

Mr. Boateng [holding answers 7 January 2003]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Truro and St. Austell (Matthew Taylor) on 21 June 2002, Official Report, column 586W.

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