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Self-assessment

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many individual taxpayers who file self-assessment tax returns have registered for the Inland Revenue service for filing tax returns on the internet in each month since the service became available; how many have used the system to submit returns; and if he will make a statement. [99392]

Ruth Kelly: The Registration service for the Internet service for Self Assessment became available on 3 April 2000. Figures of the number of users registered for the service from April 2000 to June 2001 were given the Paymaster General's answer of 19 July 2001, Official Report, column 382W. The Filing service became available on 3 July 2000. The number of registrations and filers in each month since the service became available is as follows:

Month	Registrations	Cumulative	Filers	Cumulative total
April 2000	32,927	32,927	—	—
May 2000	14,877	47,814	—	—
June 2000	10,677	58,491	—	—
July 2000	11,703	70,194	6,765	6,765
August 2000	11,700	81,894	7,546	14,311
September 2000	16,557	98,451	9,628	23,939
October 2000	2,736	101,187	2,101	26,040
November 2000	1,697	102,884	1,063	27,103
December 2000	2,902	105,786	1,573	28,676
January 2001	14,162	119,948	10,305	38,981
February 2001	595	120,543	180	39,161
March 2001	522	121,065	129	39,290
April 2001	13,485	134,550	1,098	40,388
May 2001	5,208	139,758	2,878	43,266
June 2001	4,021	143,779	3,959	47,225
July 2001	2,618	146,397	6,887	54,112
August 2001	13,755	160,152	7,707	61,819
September 2001	3,994	164,146	12,977	74,796
October 2001	226	164,372	8,988	83,784
November 2001	4,775	169,147	1,760	85,544
December 2001	104,282	273,429	1,646	87,190
January 2002	86,849	360,278	23,404	110,594
February 2002	56,950	417,228	4,711	115,305
March 2002	31,550	448,778	222	115,527
April 2002	3,614,720	4,063,498	1,031	116,558
May 2002	32,912	4,096,410	9,897	126,455
June 2002	5,031	4,101,441	1,611	128,066
July 2002	13,113	4,114,554	26,051	154,117
August 2002	15,470	4,130,024	24,829	178,946
September 2002	38,742	4,168,766	81,982	260,928
October 2002	88,834	4,257,600	14,578	275,506
November 2002	40,901	4,298,501	13,454	288,960
December 2002	50,098	4,348,599	23,329	312,289
January 2003	60,957	4,409,556	127,948	440,237

Senior Civil Servants (IT Qualifications)

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what IT qualifications each of the senior civil servants within his Department possesses. [98111]

Ruth Kelly: Twenty-five per cent of Treasury senior civil servants have declared they hold qualifications in IT. These range from degree level computer science to in-house training. Senior civil servants are also expected to gain IT skills through a range of internal and external training.

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Stamp Duty

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many commercial stamp duty exemptions have been claimed in disadvantaged electoral wards; and what estimate he has made of the value of these exemptions. [100362]

John Healey: There have been 758 commercial transactions in disadvantaged electoral wards which have been exempted from stamp duty between the introduction of the relief at the end of November 2001 and the end of January 2003 . The value of the stamp duty relief given amounts to £749,010.

Relief for all transactions (including commercial) in exempted wards is currently restricted to those where the value of the transaction is £150,000 or below. The Chancellor stated in the pre-Budget report that the Government intended to exempt all commercial property transactions in these wards from stamp duty, irrespective of value.

Tax Credits

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with the National Statistician on the different accounting practices that will be followed for the new tax credits by (a) his Department and (b) the Office of National Statistics. [100798]

Dawn Primarolo: There is no difference in the accounting treatment of the Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit between the Office for National Statistics and HM Treasury.

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in receipt of the working families tax credit receive it via their employer. [100790]

Dawn Primarolo: All current awards of Working Families' Tax Credit are now being paid direct by Inland Revenue.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Afghanistan

Dr. Tonge: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the level of involvement of women is in the administration in Afghanistan. [100000]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Afghan Transitional Administration includes two female Cabinet Ministers and a female State Minister in the President's Office. In addition there are four female Deputy Ministers, five Generals and over a dozen division chiefs in various Ministries. Two of the nine-member Constitutional Drafting Group, five of the 11-member Human Rights Commission and one of the nine-member Judicial Commission are women.

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what investigations have been undertaken by United Kingdom officials in Afghanistan of the deaths of Taliban prisoners held by the forces of the Northern Alliance. [100516]

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Mr. Mike O'Brien: UK officials have no authority to undertake investigations of this nature. However, British Embassy staff in Kabul are in frequent contact with the ICRC, which monitors closely the situation and welfare of all prisoners in Afghanistan.

Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Afghans are under training to form an Afghan National Army. [100987]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Seven battalions of between 300 and 600 men each have so far completed initial training. Five of these are currently engaged in continuation training or preparing for operations. An eighth battalion is half way through its initial training course.

Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans exist for the (a) decommissioning of weapons and (b) demobilisation of men in the private armies of Afghan warlords. [100988]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: At a conference on Afghanistan held in Tokyo on 22 February, President Karzai said that he intended to announce the start date for a programme of demobilisation, disarmament and reintegration of former combatants on 21 March. The programme involves establishing disarmament centres for the collection of weapons and holding former combatants in transit centres. The former combatants will then either be selected for Afghan National Army training or transferred to a second stage that will provide education, vocational training or work programmes. This will be financed from a UN Trust Fund to which the UK has pledged US$3.5 million.

Joan Ruddock: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many Afghan police officers have been trained as part of the international community's commitment to rebuild Afghanistan. [100989]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Approximately 2,500 students, including 60 women, are under training in the recently refurbished police academy in Kabul. A further 60 Afghan police instructors have been trained by Germany, which coordinates international assistance on police reform. Some training has also been carried out in India. The UK ran a two week training course in Kabul in January for five senior Afghan police officers, two of whom are now under training at the International Police College in the UK.

British Antarctic Territory

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make an assessment of the practicability of using the services of Vivendi Environmental to help clean up British Antarctica. [100363]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The British Antarctic Survey (BAS), the UK's Antarctic operator, is undertaking a major clean-up of its abandoned bases and waste dumps in British Antarctic Territory.

The clean-up work being carried out by BAS of British wastes in British Antarctic Territory will be completed by 2005, as required by the permit issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under the

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Antarctic Act 1994. It is being undertaken in partnership with a British civil engineering company, Morrison International, and has been very successful. For further information see the BAS web site (www.antarctica.ac.uk/environment).

The BAS has not been contacted by Vivendi Environmental regarding clean-up in Antarctica.

Clean up of stations operated by other countries in the British Antarctic Territory is the legal responsibility of those foreign operators. The practicability of Vivendi Environmental removing the wastes of foreign operators would therefore be for those foreign operators to assess.

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what systems are in place (a) to prevent the depositing of waste and (b) to secure the removal of deposited waste in British Antarctica. [100364]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The UK has a comprehensive system of legal and practical measures to ensure that wastes are not deposited in British Antarctic Territory (BAS) and instead are removed for safe disposal outside of the region.

The Antarctic Act 1994, together with the Antarctic Regulations 1995, regulate all UK activities in Antarctica by way of a permit system administered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. This ensures that all UK expeditions to Antarctica, including the British Antarctic Survey, are legally obliged to remove all wastes, other than biodegradable wastes (e.g. sewage), arising from their activities.

The BAS is one of the leaders in environmental and waste management in Antarctica. It has effective systems in place on its research stations and vessels to separate, compact and remove all solid and hazardous wastes. The wastes are re-used, recycled or disposed of safely in the Falkland Islands or in the UK. The BAS is currently in the final stages of building a biological sewage treatment plant at its Rothera Research Station.

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