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6 May 2003 : Column 614W—continued
Imperial Defence
Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps are being taken to investigate Imperial Defence for possible breaches of UK sanctions against Iraq. [111265]
John Healey: HM Customs & Excise are responsible for enforcing UK sanctions against Iraq. Customs are aware of a recent press report concerning Imperial Defence, in which there has been no suggestion of illegal acts.
It is not Customs' general practice to comment publicly about the existence or nature of any investigations of individuals or companies not yet accused of criminal offences, as to do so could risk prejudicing any investigations (whether actual or likely) or future legal proceedings; Exemption 4 (Law enforcement and legal proceedings) of the Open Government Code applies.
Air Passenger Duty
Jim Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on offering lowered rate of air passenger duty to European countries; and on what basis (a) Switzerland is included and (b) Belarus is excluded. [111545]
John Healey: Since 1 November 2002, the lower rates of air passenger duty (£5 for the lowest class of travel and £10 for all other classes) apply not only to flights to European Economic Area (EEA) countries and certain European Union Member States' dependent territories, but also, as part of our policy of supporting EU enlargement, to all EU applicant countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, the Slovak
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Republic, Slovenia, and Turkey). The lower rates were also extended to flights to all airports in Switzerland. This corrected the anomaly that two Swiss airports—Basel and Geneva—qualified for the lower rates of duty (because passengers can exit from them directly to EEA territory), while other Swiss airports did not.
Flights to Belarus do not qualify for the lower rates of air passenger duty because Belarus is not part of the EEA nor is it an EU applicant country, nor is there any anomaly such as existed in Switzerland prior to the November 2002 changes.
Annuities
Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his Answer of 10th March, Official Report, column 17W, on annuities, if he will establish an independent charitable trust charged with offering consumers non-compulsory free advice on the purchase of annuities. [111266]
Ruth Kelly: Help is already available to those buying an annuity in a variety of forms, and from a variety of sources. For example, many annuity providers and intermediaries offer information and advice to those buying annuities.
As the Pensions Green Paper "Simplicity, Security and Choice: Working and Saving for Retirement" (Cm 5677) explained, action has already been taken to encourage consumers to shop around for the best annuity. As part of that process the Financial Services Authority has produced a fact sheet designed to supplement other guidance, and to help consumers assess what type of annuity would best suit their circumstances, or whether they need to seek further advice.
Asylum Seekers
Mr. Soames: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what adjustment for asylum seekers has been made to the International Passenger Survey Data in each of the years 1995 and 2002 to arrive at the net immigration estimates. [111274]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Nicholas Soames dated 6 May 2003:
- The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question on the adjustment forAsylum Seekers made to International Passenger Survey data in the years 1995 to 2002 to arrive at the net immigration estimates. I am replying in his absence. (111274)
- The adjustments made to the Intern In November 2002 ONS published interim revised net international migration estimates for the UK for 1992–2001. These superseded the previously published international migration estimates. The results of the 2001 Census showed that net migration to the UK had been overestimated between 1991 and 2001. The interim estimates include an adjustment equivalent to the average annual overestimation of net migration since 1991 indicated by the Census results, approximately 76,000 each year. The adjustment has been made to the overall net migration figures, so there is no separate adjustment for asylum seekers currently available.
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- Revised international migration estimates for the years 1992 to 2001 will be published shortly. The methodology used to derive the number of Asylum Seekers, and other types of migrants not covered by the IPS, in the revised estimates will be made available at the same time. International migration estimates for 2002 will be published in late Autumn 2003.
Child Tax Credit
Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many advertisements the Inland Revenue have placed on (a) local commercial radio broadcasting in Worcestershire and (b) local newspapers circulating in Worcestershire to promote the take-up of child tax credit and working tax credit. [110155]
Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue's national campaign to encourage take-up of child tax credit and working tax credit has used a variety of media including television, radio, online and national newspapers and magazines. There has also been some targeted local publicity to encourage claims for the child and working tax credits, although there has been no advertising on local commercial radio or in local newspapers specifically in the Worcestershire area.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families have made a successful application for the children's tax credit for (a) 2001–02 and (b) 2002–03. [110900]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to the hon. Member for Northavon (Mr. Webb) on 14 April 2003, Official Report, columns 547–548W.
An estimate of the total number of families benefiting from the Children's Tax Credit in 2001–02 will be available from the Survey of Personal Incomes. This will be compiled towards the end of this year.
Construction Industry
Mr. Laxton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact on the Construction Industry Scheme of the introduction of the CIS 4/5/6 scheme in August 1999. [110911]
Dawn Primarolo: The introduction of the Construction Industry Scheme in August 1999 was successful in bringing in at least 75,000 previously unknown subcontractors and around £280 million additional Exchequer yield in 1999–2000. None the less complaints persist about the cumbersome processes and the costs to business of complying with the rules and requirements.
As a direct consequence of these representations the Inland Revenue consulted on alternative proposals in November 2002 ("The Inland Revenue and the Construction Industry: Working together for a new scheme"). Following this consultation the Government announced in this year's Budget that a new scheme based on these proposals will be introduced from April 2005.
Mr. Laxton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department plans to replace the Construction Industry Scheme's Registration Card (CIS4), Construction Tax Certificate (CIS5) or Subcontractor's Tax Certificate (CIS6) with a simplified and single certificate. [110916]
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Dawn Primarolo: The Government announced in this year's Budget that the Construction Industry Tax Scheme will be replaced in April 2005 in order to reduce the regulatory burden on the Industry. The key features are:
- To replace the Registration Cards (CIS4) and Gross Payment Certificates (CIS5 and CIS6) with an Inland Revenue verification service to tell contractors whether to pay net or gross of tax. This will mean that there will no longer be cards or certificates and therefore subcontractors will not have to spend time in travelling to present them.
To replace vouchers with periodic returns to the Revenue of payments to subcontractors thus reducing the amount of paperwork required by the scheme.
To introduce an employment status declaration to encourage the Industry to get the employment status of its workers right.
Customs Officers
Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many customs officers were permanently based at each of the UK's airports on 1 January 2003. [111120]
John Healey: Customs' law enforcement staff are deployed on the basis of risk assessment and intelligence, and regularly move between ports and airports and inland locations. No details can be given of the number of officers deployed in individual locations at particular times; Exemption 4 (Law enforcement and legal proceedings) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information applies.
Earnings
Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what analysis he has made of whether the assessment of earnings levels for (a) Worcestershire, (b) Dudley, (c) Walsall and (d) Sandwell in the New Earnings Survey are reliable and stable. [109363]
Mr. Raynsford: I have been asked to reply.
The criteria used by the Office for National Statistics to establish whether estimates of gross weekly pay from the New Earnings Survey are sufficiently reliable to publish are that the sample response should be at least 30 and the relative standard error of the mean should be less than 5 per cent. The published estimates for Worcestershire, Dudley, Walsall and Sandwell fully meet these criteria, as indicated in the following table.
| Sample response | Relative standard error of the mean (Percentage) | |
|---|---|---|
| Worcestershire | 890 | 1.9 |
| Dudley | 559 | 2.4 |
| Walsall | 394 | 2.8 |
| Sandwell | 601 | 3.1 |
(13) For full-time adults whose pay was unaffected by absence during the pay period.
Source:
New Earnings Survey, ONS
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In terms of the stability of New Earnings Survey estimates over time, the survey is based on a 1 per cent. sample of employees comprising all those whose National Insurance numbers end with a specified pair of numbers (the same pair of numbers has been used since 1975). Those individuals for whom completed questionnaires are received in successive surveys constitute about 80 per cent. of the total. As such, the estimate of the change in average weekly pay between successive years is based largely on the changes in pay for individuals who were in the sample in both years.
However, for small areas, the stability of estimates of mean pay over time can be more volatile, reflecting in part the underlying volatility of earnings, but also the variability associated with sampling.
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