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Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 29 April 2003
TRANSPORT
Age Discrimination
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department is taking to address the issue of age discrimination. [109444]
Mr. Jamieson: My Department has a commitment to removing all unfair discrimination, which includes on the basis of age, and has integrated age into its Equal Opportunities Statement.
My Department adopted recommendations from the "Winning the Generation Game" report, including offering staff the opportunity of working until 65. In advance of the legislation coming in 2006, the Department has also adopted best practice in removing date of birth from the recruitment process and advertising vacancies in a range of press, aimed at all age ranges.
Airports
Bob Russell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to his answer of 20 January 2003, column 42W, when he will publish the consultation paper on night restrictions at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. [110081]
Mr. Spellar: I wrote to the hon. Member on 15 April referring to my written statement of 8 April 2003, Official Report, column 9WS, announcing publication of the consultation paper.
Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether the responses concerning Alconbury airfield to the first public consultation on The Future Development of Air Transport in the UK (South East) will be considered in the second public consultation. [109738]
Mr. Jamieson: All responses received so far, including those concerning Alconbury and all other options in the South East and UK will be considered, together with any responses that are submitted before the new closing date of 30 June 2003. The consultation has been extended from its original closing date of 30 November 2002; this is a continuation of the consultation launched on 23 July last year, not a separate consultation exercise.
Anyone who has already responded may, if they wish, add to, replace or amend their earlier response(s). We will consider all consultation responses before making decisions in the air transport White Paper, which we aim to publish later this year.
Public Service Agreement
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport (a) how many and (b) what grades of
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officials are responsible for the monitoring of progress towards the public service agreement targets of his Department. [109476]
Mr. Jamieson: Monitoring progress towards the Department's PSA targets is undertaken by a wide variety of staff at all levels of the organisation.
Road User Charging
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what representations he has received about the Road User Charging (Enforcement and Adjudication) (London) (Amendment) Regulations. [109436]
Mr. Jamieson: The Road User Charging (Enforcement and Adjudication) (London) (Amendment) Regulations came into force on 17 February 2003. The Department has not received any representations about them since that date.
TREASURY
Budget Surplus
Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cyclically-adjusted surplus on current budget is as a percentage of GDP for each year from 1999–2000 to 2002–03. [110229]
John Healey: The cyclically-adjusted surplus on current budget as a percentage of GDP for 1999–2000 is 1.9. Estimates for later years are shown in Table C1 of Budget 2003 (HC500).
Debt Relief
Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the total cost to the Exchequer of cancellation of the debts of the countries which have met the requirements for the qualification stage of the HIPC debt relief process. [109780]
John Healey: As at 31 March 2003, the amount of debt agreed multilaterally under the HIPC initiative as being unrecoverable and consequently written off by the Export Credits Guarantee Department, amounted to some £859.5 million. These debts resulted from insurance and guarantee claims paid out mainly in the 1980s. Additional relief given in accordance with the Government's 100 per cent. forgiveness policy for HIPCs totals £41.8 million. All aid debts to low-income countries had already been written off.
In addition the UK has so far pledged US $495 million to the HIPC Trust Fund to cover the costs of multilateral HIPC debt relief, and we hold all debt payments in trust for the day they can be returned to fund poverty reduction for all countries still to secure debt relief through HIPC because the absence of a poverty reduction programme.
The Government acknowledges that debt relief is not a panacea for broader economic development problems; even the provision of 100 per cent. debt relief to all low-income countries would still fall short of the resources needed to meet the Millennium Development Goals. That is why the Chancellor and the Secretary of State for International Development have proposed an
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International Finance Facility (IFF) that would seek to double the amount of development aid from just over $50 billion a year today to $100 billion per year in the years to 2015.
Departmental Running Costs
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the running costs in 2002 were of (a) his Ministers' private offices, separately identifying expenditure on staff, and (b) his Department. [105997]
Ruth Kelly: The administration costs of Ministers' private offices in the relevant financial years was as follows:
| Total | Of which: Staff | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 3.8 | 2.6 |
| 2002–03 | 3.9 | 2.8 |
Information relating to the Treasury's total administration costs is published in the Department's Estimates.
EU Accession Referendums
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list, by accession country, EU information money (a) assigned and (b) spent in the context of accession referenda, indicating the division of resources between the pro and anti campaigns. [110453]
Ruth Kelly: The commission provides information and funds information centres about accession and the EU in accession states and candidate countries. The commission does not fund referendum campaigns in any accession country.
Housing Market (USA)
Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what research he has commissioned into the current situation of the housing market in the United States of America; and if he will publish the results of such research. [110246]
Ruth Kelly: HM Treasury continually monitors developments in all the world's major economies. The Government's latest forecasts for G7 GDP growth, taking into account all relevant factors, were published in the Financial Statement and Budget Report (HC 500) on 9 April.
International Finance Facility
Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions officials from his Department have had with representatives of the business community on the issue of an International Finance Facility. [110245]
John Healey: The UK is working with its international partners, civil society and the business community to develop the International Finance Facility and to build support for it. The Government's proposal will provide development financing to create capacity for growth and business in some of the worlds' poorest countries, and business has a key role to play by investing in these countries. Accordingly, the
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Chancellor and the Secretary of State for International Development have written to industry leaders seeking to generate business support.
The Treasury has also been working in partnership with private sector experts on developing the technical details of the IFF proposal.
National Minimum Wage
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the estimated cost is in 2003–04 to his Department, agencies and the non-departmental public bodies for which he is responsible of the increase in the national minimum wage from £4.20 per hour to £4.50 per hour. [110432]
Ruth Kelly: The estimated cost in 2003–04 of the increase in the national minimum wage from £4.20 per hour to £4.50 per hour is zero. The Department, and associated agencies and non-departmental public bodies, all have pay ranges for their lowest paid staff that provide salaries exceeding the new level of the national minimum wage.
Variable Rate Mortgages
Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the share of the mortgage market occupied by variable rate mortgages in (a) the UK, (b) the USA and (c) member states of the EU, as referred to in paragraph 2.79 of the 2003 Budget (HC 500). [110244]
Ruth Kelly: Information on the USA and UK mortgage lending can be obtained respectively via the Federal Housing Finance Board and Council of Mortgage Lenders websites (http://www.fhfb.gov and www.cml.org.uk). Data for European countries can be obtained via the European Mortgage Federation (www.hypo-org).
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