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Stock Exchange

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the growth rate of the London Stock Exchange in comparison to the other major stock exchanges of the world in the last three years. [92984]

Mr. Boateng: Between 1999 and 2002 the number of UK equity transactions conducted on the London Stock Exchange's main market rose by 78 per cent. Other major stock exchanges have also experienced a rise in transactions.

Student Loans

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the annual cost is to the Inland Revenue of the collection of student loan repayments; and if he will make a statement. [91724]

Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue operates the collection of student loans scheme on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills. All costs are met by DfES.

Tax Evasion (Construction Industry)

Phil Sawford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he is taking to combat tax evasion in the construction industry. [93386]

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Dawn Primarolo: Since April 2002, the Inland Revenue has increased the number of specialist units which deal with industry compliance with the construction industry scheme from nine to 12.

In addition, there are around 70 Employer Compliance Units that review businesses' compliance with their PAYE obligations and carry out employment status reviews. Each unit has staff specialising in status and construction industry work. These units are:

participating in a national project which is examining all contracts between a sample of contractors and sub-contractors to ensure proper compliance with tax obligations;

ensuring that a minimum percentage of resource is deployed on construction industry reviews (6 per cent.), including those identified by the national project; and

ensuring that a minimum percentage of reviews relate to cases with a significant construction industry element (6.5 per cent.).

A consultation paper, "The Inland Revenue and the Construction Industry: Working Together for a New Scheme", was published alongside the Pre-Budget Report. The paper outlines proposals for a replacement scheme that would reduce the burden of the scheme on the industry while providing the Revenue's compliance officers with new systems to enable them to tackle non-compliance quickly and effectively.

Treasury Building (PFI Deal)

Mr. Bacon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total professional fees were for the Treasury Building PFI deal, broken down by (a) payer and (b) payee. [93404]

Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on 27 June 2002, Official Report, columns 1051–52W.

Treasury Expenditure (Parliamentary Bodies)

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of his Department's spending on the (a) Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, (b) British American Parliamentary Group, (c) Inter-Parliamentary Group and (d) British-Irish Parliamentary Body in each year from 1997–98; and if he will make a statement. [93451]

Mr. Boateng: The annual amounts of grant-in-aid paid to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), the British American Parliamentary Group (BAPG), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the British-Irish Parliamentary Body are set out in the table.

£

	CPA	BAPG	IPU	BMP
1997–98	88,750	70,170	843,899	149,601
1998–99	888,750	82,124	785,000	149,000
1999–2000	868,300	73,350	785,000	201,700
2000–01	2,498,683	84,600	853,000	218,000
2001–02	93,750	85,420	0	95,000
2002–03(18)	362,710	96,250	294,000	0

⁽¹⁸⁾ Forecast

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Vehicle Excise Duty

Mr. Syms: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to change the exemption date for vehicle excise duty on classic cars to vehicles made before 1 January 1973. [92805]

John Healey: The Chancellor announced in his 1998 Budget speech that rolling forward exemption for vehicles over 25-years-old would stop so that only vehicles manufactured before 1 January 1973 remained eligible for the exemption. Continuing the rolling forward exemption was difficult to justify on environmental grounds. Any changes to taxation policy will be announced by the Chancellor in the context of his Budget judgment.

Working Families Tax Credit

Jeff Ennis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average length of time is which it takes for a new applicant to receive Working Families Tax Credit; and how much back-dating of Working Families Tax Credit is allowable. [92892]

Dawn Primarolo: Specific figures are not available giving average UK processing times for new Working Families Tax Credit applications. But the Inland Revenue aims to decide 91 per cent. of all Working Families Tax Credit (WFTC) applications within 30 days of receiving them, and for the period from 1 April 2002 to 31 December 2002, the Inland Revenue assessed 97 per cent. of all WFTC applications within 30 days of receipt.

Entitlement to Working Families Tax Credit is generally based on a family's circumstances at the date they make their application. Where a late application is made, there are prescribed circumstances in which back-dating of up to a maximum of three months may be allowed.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Affordable Housing

Helen Southworth: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will take action to ensure that housing designated as affordable housing when planning consent is given is (a) affordable in relation to the market in the planning authority area rather than solely in relation to the specific site land values and (b) retained within the affordable housing sector for a reasonable period. [93005]

Mr. McNulty: Circular 06/98 "Planning and Affordable Housing" advises that local planning authorities should define in their local plans what they regard as affordable housing, based on up-to-date surveys and other data of local need. The circular explains that definitions should be framed to endure for the life of the plan, for instance, through references to the level of local incomes and their relationship to house prices or rents, rather than to a particular price or rent.

Circular 06/98 also provides guidance on the securing and controlling of the occupancy of such housing by, for example, the involvement of a registered social landlord or through the use of appropriate planning conditions

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or obligations. The Government are looking at circular 06/98 and whether it needs to be revised. An announcement will be made shortly.

Annual Report

Norman Lamb: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much producing his Department's latest annual report cost; how many copies were printed; how many copies of it were sold at its cover price; to whom copies of the report have been provided free of charge; and how many copies were provided free of charge. [90876]

Mr. Leslie: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister was created as a separate Department on 29 May 2002 and will publish its first annual report in the spring of 2003. Material which is relevant to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's responsibilities can be found in the annual reports of the former Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions and the Cabinet Office.

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when he expects to publish his Office's annual report for 2002–03. [91619]

Mr. Leslie: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister expects to publish its first Annual Report in April 2003.

Contaminated Land

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what steps his Office is taking to promote (a) the decontamination of contaminated land and (b) its development in preference to development of green field sites; and if he will make a statement. [91623]

Mr. McNulty: As my right hon Friend the Deputy Prime Minister said in his statement on sustainable communities, housing and planning on 18 July 2002, Official Report columns 438–442. the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister needs to make better use of land. The Government target that 60 per cent. of additional homes should be on brown-field land is being met but the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister needs to keep up the pressure.

English Partnerships have been appointed as the Government's expert advisors on brown-field land. They are currently working with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister to draw up a National Brown-field Strategy to be presented to the Deputy Prime Minister for approval in Spring 2003.

In addition, The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister consulted in February 2002 on new technical planning advice on the development on land affected by contamination. This emphasised the positive role of planning in bringing about the remediation of contaminated land. It recognised particularly that much of the contaminated land identified under Part IIA of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 will be subject to voluntary remediation through the planning system as part of the process of redevelopment. This revision of the contaminated land aspects of Planning policy guidance note 23 will be incorporated later this year in a new Planning policy statement, accompanied by a technical annexes on development on land affected by contamination.

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