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Written Answers to Questions

Wednesday 30 April 2003

PRIVY COUNCIL

Age Discrimination

Mr. Bercow: To ask the President of the Council what steps the Department is taking to address the issue of age discrimination. [109450]

Dr. John Reid: My Department has a commitment that there should be no unfair treatment of staff on the basis of age. The Privy Council Office has implemented the recommendations of the Performance and Innovation Unit report, "Winning the Generation Game", in particular that permanent staff can stay on up to the age of 65 subject to operational requirements.

My Department currently employs two staff who are beyond retirement age. Both are fee paid and employed for their skills and to meet the needs of the Department. My Department has also taken advantage of the New Deal for Over 50s.

Sickness Absence

Mr. Bercow: To ask the President of the Council how many staff in his Department were on long-term sick leave in each of the last five years. [109252]

Dr. John Reid: The Privy Council Office is fully committed to Government targets on reducing sickness absence. The sickness levels of all staff are monitored monthly to ensure that the Department is on target to meet, and maintain, this commitment.

Due to the size of my Department, I am unable to provide the hon. Member with the information requested as it may lead to the identification of individuals.

TREASURY

Accountancy Services

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total cost to his Department was for accountancy services in 2002–03. [109487]

Ruth Kelly: This information is not held in the format required and any further examination would be of a disproportional cost.

Benefits Uprating

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to adjust the index by which pension and other benefit levels are uprated. [110236]

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Ruth Kelly: The Government made a commitment to raise the full basic state pension by the higher of the September RPI or 2.5 per cent., based on the RPIX, for the remainder of this Parliament.

Budget Data Sources

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a file of Budget data sources. [110230]

Dawn Primarolo: The "Budget 2003 technical annex: data sources, and economy charts and tables", is in both Libraries of Parliament, and is available on the Treasury website.

Charitable Organisations

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which charitable organisations his Department has funded in each year since 1997. [105684]

Ruth Kelly: The Government supports causes of a charitable nature (such as international development, help for elderly people and animal welfare) through the relevant Departments, whose programmes include work through the voluntary sector. The Government has also demonstrated its support through the Budget 2000 'Getting Britain Giving' package of tax reliefs to encourage charitable giving, and further reforms in Budget 2002. Tax reliefs are now worth £2 billion a year to charities.

The Treasury itself supports charities through practical means. Both Treasury and the Inland Revenue have provided secondments to the Giving Campaign which is also funded jointly by the Inland Revenue and the charitable sector; we have opened the Payroll Giving scheme to our own staff; and we are considering donating life-expired computer equipment for use in developing countries.

Furthermore, on Wednesday 30 April HM Treasury will—in conjunction with the Compact Working Group on relations between Government and the Voluntary and Community Sector-publish a consultation on the use of the £125 million fttfi/rebuilders fund announced as part of the 2002 Spending Review. The fund is intended to enable the voluntary and community sector to help deliver public services, and as such the proposals were developed jointly with the voluntary and community sector.

Corporation Tax

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out the basis for his calculations of increased corporation tax receipts, as summarised in paragraph C46 of Budget 2003. [110228]

Mr. Boateng: The increase in corporation tax receipts shown in Budget 2003 is largely due to the expectation that financial company profits will return to their medium-term trends as recovery in the world economy becomes more firmly established and gathers pace.

Early Retirement

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on economic

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modelling conducted by his Department to show the impact of early retirement on the economy for the next 10 years. [110405]

Ruth Kelly: No macroeconomic modelling has been done of the impact of early retirement on the economy over the next 10 years. Increased early retirement in the near future would tend to reduce the supply of labour available to employers and so, all other things equal, potentially reduce the growth of employment and output in the near future. However the recent pensions Green Paper explained that the average UK age of withdrawal from the labour force of retirement is relatively high compared to most other EU member states, and set out a range of measures to enable those wishing to work for longer to do so.

Energy Efficiency

Mr. Yeo: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement, in relation to his Department and each agency and non-departmental public body for which his Department is responsible, on (a) the amount of energy consumed, (b) spending on (i) energy and (ii) energy efficiency measures, (c) the amount saved through energy efficiency measures, and (d) energy policy in each of the last five years. [108856]

Ruth Kelly: The information has been placed in the Library.

EU Committees

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list (a) the names, titles and grades of the officials who sit on the EU committee on the harmonisation of the compilation of gross national product at market prices, (b) the number of times, and the dates, on which it has met since January 2002, (c) the agenda items it has considered since January 2002, (d) the decisions it has made since January 2002 and (e) the means used to communicate the decisions to the House. [110275]

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

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. John Bercow, dated 30 April 2003:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the GNP Committee of the EU. (110275)

The GNP Committee is made up of representatives from each member state and chaired by the Commission. The UK is usually represented by the Director of National Accounts Coordination Division of the Office for National Statistics (Senior Civil Service Band 1) accompanied by the Head of Europe and Dissemination Branch (SEO equivalent grade).

Since January 2002 the Committee has met twice; on 24 June 2002 and 5 November 2002.

The main work of the Committee is in ensuring the harmonisation of GNP for Member States and consistency with the conventions of the European System of Accounts (ESA). During 2002, the Committee received reports on the progress of the Commission's work on their detailed examination of the methods for estimating GNP in each member state. It also considered the best approach to complying with the ESA in the areas of consumption of fixed capital, insurance, reinvested income on foreign direct investment, artistic originals and illegal

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activities. The committee also gave its opinion on the completion of the questionnaires on annual GNP estimates completed by member states.

The Committee took a range of procedural decisions in 2002 which did not require communication to the House of Commons.

Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent consultations he has had with (a) the Governor and (b) officers of the Bank of England on the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices. [110232]

Ruth Kelly: The Chancellor regularly meets with the Governor of the Bank of England to discuss a wide range of issues. The Treasury representative to the MPC and other Treasury officials also regularly discuss economic issues with counterparts in the Bank of England.

Income Tax Regulations

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received about the Income Tax (Sub-contractors in the Construction Industry and Employments) (Amendment) Regulations. [109971]

Dawn Primarolo: No representations have been received regarding these Regulations.

Inflation Indicator

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on (a) the progress and (b) the scope of the Treasury's review of the detailed implications of changing the indicator of inflation from RPIX to HICP; and whether the Treasury's review will consider the implications of replacing RPIX with an adapted version of HICP. [110235]

Ruth Kelly: There are several measures of inflation published monthly by the ONS, including RPIX and HICP. The Chancellor made clear in his Budget statement that the Treasury would continue to examine the detailed implications of adopting the HICP. The Government intends that measures of inflation based on the RPI will continue to be published.

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the (a) current and (b) future use of the Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices as a measure of inflation in the United Kingdom. [110233]

Ruth Kelly: The Chancellor said in his Budget statement that the Treasury would continue to examine the detailed implications of changing the inflation target to an HICP basis. He reaffirmed the symmetrical inflation target based on the current RPIX measure for this financial year of 2.5 per cent.

Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what contingency plans he has to adjust the inflation target for the Monetary Policy Committee in the event of a move from RPIX to HICP. [110234]

Ruth Kelly: The Chancellor reaffirmed the inflation target for this financial year at 2.5 per cent. on the current RPIX measure.

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Mr. Howard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions officials from his Department have had with representatives of (a) the European Union, (b) EU member states and (c) the European Central Bank regarding a possible change from using RPIX as the indicator of inflation to using HICP. [110237]

Ruth Kelly: While Treasury officials have regular discussions with counterparts in the European Commission, other member states and the European Central Bank on a wide range of issues, the Bank of England Act (1998) gives the Treasury responsibility for specifying what price stability is taken to consist of in relation to the monetary policy objectives of the Bank of England.

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