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Inland Revenue

Mr. Hancock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many tax return forms were submitted with inaccuracies in 2001–02; what the cost of follow-up work on inaccurate returns was; and if he will make a statement. [102510]

Dawn Primarolo: The Revenue does not have this information.

Iraq

Llew Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much money has been (a) set aside for military activities in respect of Iraq and (b) spent to support (i) peacemaking, (ii) peacekeeping, (iii) non proliferation and (iv) disarmament inspections carried out by the United Nations in 2002–03. [102071]

Mr. Boateng: The Chancellor has allocated a contingency reserve of £1.75 billion to meet our international defence responsibilities in this respect.

National Insurance

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what research he has commissioned into a recalculation of National Insurance contributions. [102000]

Dawn Primarolo: Each year the Government Actuary's Department are required by legislation to estimate the likely effects on the National Insurance Fund of changes to benefit rates and contribution rates.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation andDevelopment

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment HM Treasury has made of the future expansion in membership of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; and if he will make a statement. [102002]

John Healey: Since its foundation in 1960 10 countries have joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's original membership of 20. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs is responsible for the Government's institutional relationship with the OECD. Treasury officials will be working with the FCO to assess the impact of possible enlargement of the OECD. There is no automatic process through which countries can become eligible to join the OECD, but the UK's view is that the OECD should establish a coherent strategy encompassing potential enlargement, requests

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for observership status, and its approach to non-members though Outreach programmes. The strategy should ensure that the OECD enhances its ability to perform its core tasks.

Public Documents (Foreign Languages)

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost of providing public documents issued by his Department in languages other than English. [101986]

John Healey: The Treasury does not have a specific budget for producing Treasury publications in languages other than English.

The documents most regularly produced in languages other than English are the Budget and pre-Budget report leaflets, which are also made available in Welsh. Documents are very occasionally produced in other European languages, such as the pamphlets associated with the paper "Realising Europe's Potential: Economic Reform in Europe" (February 2002), which were produced in French, Spanish and Italian.

Tax Credits

Mr. Prisk: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates his Department has made of the costs of the provision of (a) public and (b) hon. Member helplines following the introduction of the new tax credit. [102417]

Dawn Primarolo: The full costs incurred in the current year (2002–03) on the provision of helplines for new tax credits, including setting up, live running and staff costs, are estimated at £53 million. There are no separate figures for the hon. Member helpline, but these will be minimal in the context of the overall costs.

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families in the City of York council area have been helped by each of the tax credits since they were introduced. [102647]

Dawn Primarolo: The number of recipients of WFTC and Disabled Person's Tax Credit in each local authority and each constituency are shown in "Working Families' and Disabled Person's Tax Credit Statistics: Geographical Analyses" for each quarter. Copies are on the Inland Revenue website, www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk. Information about the numbers eligible for the Children's Tax Credit is not available by local authority, but it is estimated that about 400,000 families in Yorkshire and The Humber will benefit from it.

Tax Evasion

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates he has made of the total amount of tax evaded in each year since 1997. [102003]

Dawn Primarolo: There is no reliable measure of the total tax and other duties lost to evasion. In his report, published in March 2000, Lord Grabiner QC commented on the scale of the hidden economy and said:

"By its nature, the size of the informal economy is hard to measure. Most estimates are based on analysing high-level economic aggregates, such as labour market statistics or income

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and expenditure surveys, and calculate the result as a percentage of GDP. However there is research which suggests that these estimates tend to be exaggerated.


It would be impractical to arrive at a precise and meaningful figure as to the scale of the problem without a considerable investment of time and resources."

VAT (Welfare Services)

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the impact of the introduction of VAT exemptions for welfare services provided by state-regulated private welfare agencies on (a) the costs, (b) the revenue and (c) the profitability of such agencies. [102126]

John Healey: As a result of these changes, the 60,000 sick, elderly or disabled people who pay for home care services could see a reduction in costs of up to 13 per cent. No specific estimate has been made for the impact on state-regulated private welfare agencies. The impact of the changes on their revenue and profitability will depend upon the price charged for their services. In setting their prices, agencies will take a range of commercial factors into account, of which the exemption for welfare services is only one.

Voluntary Sector

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will publish the Government's future plans for the voluntary sector. [102011]

Mr. Boateng: Following the publication of the "Next Steps on Volunteering and Giving in the UK" discussion document in December, we are now consulting a wide range of stakeholders in the voluntary sector and beyond on the Corporate Challenge to develop a package to encourage businesses to support their communities; and on the Gap Year Pilots to encourage young people to volunteer. The results will be publicised in due course. In addition, a consultation document on futurebuilders will be published soon and will be available in the House Library.

Young People

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of 16 to 18-year-olds were not in education, training or employment in (a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999, (d) 2000, (e) 2001 and (f) 2002 in (i) Coventry and (ii) the UK. [101188]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 10 March 2003]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from L Cook to Jim Cunningham, dated 12 March 2003:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about 16 to 18 year olds who are not in education, training or employment. (101188)

The attached tables give the information requested for the United Kingdom and West Midlands Metropolitan County, for the three month period ending November of each year from 1997 to 2002. These estimates are from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and are subject to sampling variability from year to year. They are not seasonally adjusted. The LFS sample size is too small to give reliable estimates for Coventry Local Authority District.

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Table 1: Percentage of 16 to 18 year olds who are not in education, training or employment⁽⁶⁾; United Kingdom; 1997 to 2002

September to November	Per cent. not seasonally adjusted
1997	10.8
1998	11.5
1999	11.4
2000	11.3
2001	12.0
2002	12.8

⁽⁶⁾ People aged 16–18 who are not in education, training or work as a percentage of all aged 16–18.

Note:

These Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates have not yet been adjusted to take account of the Census 2001 results.

Source:ONS Labour Force Survey

Table 2: Percentage of 16 to 18 year olds who are not in education, training or employment⁽⁷⁾;West Midlands Metropolitan County; 1997 to 2002

September to November	Per cent. not seasonally adjusted
1997	16.7
1998	13.6
1999	14.6
2000	16.0
2001	11.7
2002	16.1

⁽⁷⁾ People aged 16–18 who are not in education, training or work as a percentage of all aged 16–18.

Note:

These Labour Force Survey (LFS) estimates have not yet been adjusted to take account of the Census 2001 results.

Source :

ONS Labour Force Survey

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