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Euro

Lady Hermon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received from (a) business leaders and (b) mortgage providers in Northern Ireland regarding the proposed use of fiscal regulators instead of monetary policy with regard to the United Kingdom joining the euro. [121913]

Mr. Boateng: None

Euro Roadshow

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the events he plans to attend as part of the Government's euro roadshow. [121392]

Mr. Boateng: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Economic Secretary to the right hon. and learned Member for Folkestone and Hythe (Mr. Howard) on 20 June 2003, Official Report, column 459W.

Income Tax

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the revenue impact would be of extending the 22 per cent. income tax rate bracket to include yearly incomes of (a) £40,000, (b) £45,000, (c) £50,000, (d) £55,000, (e) £60,000, (f) £65,000, (g) £70,000, and introducing an additional income tax bracket of (i) 45 per cent. (ii) 46 per cent. (iii) 47 per cent. (iv) 48 per cent. (v) 49 per cent. (vi) 50 per cent. (vii) 51 per cent. (viii) 52 per cent. (ix) 53 per cent. (x) 54 per cent. (xi) 55 per cent. (xii) 60 per cent. and (xiii) 65 per cent. for yearly incomes above (a) to (g) starting at (A) £50,000, (B) £55,000, (C) £60,000, (D) £70,000, (E) £75,000, (F) £80,000, (G) £85,000, (H) £90,000, (I) £95,000, (J) £100,000, (K) £105,000, (L) £110,000, (M) £115,000, (N) £120,000, (O) £125,000, (P) £130,000, (Q) £135,000,

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(R) £140,000, (S) £145,000 and (T) £150,000; and what he estimates the administrative costs would be of each of these changes. [121663]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Labour Force Statistics

Jon Cruddas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the 10 fastest growing occupations were (a) in the UK and (b) in each of the English regions between 2000 and 2003, using Labour Force Survey Standard Occupational Classification 2000 by way of minor group and unit group level of analysis; [121428]

(2) what the 10 fastest growing occupations were (a) in the UK and (b) in each of the English regions between (i) 1992 and 1997 and (ii) 1997 and 1999, using Labour Force Survey Standard Occupational Classification 1990 by way of minor group and unit group level of analysis. [121429]

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

Letter from Len Cook to Jon Cruddas, dated 26 June 2003:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about the fastest growing occupations in the United Kingdom and the regions of England between 1992 and 1997; 1997 and 1999; and 2000 and 2003. (121428, 121429).

I have arranged for the information requested to be placed in the House of Commons Library. The data are compiled from the Labour Force Survey (LFS).

The Standard Occupation Classification 2000 was first used in the LFS in the three month period ending May 2001. Information for 2003 is not yet available. Therefore, estimates of change between 1992 and 1997; 1997 and 2000; and 2001 and 2002 have been given. These estimates relate to the three month period ending May of each year. They exclude those occupations for which the LFS sample size is too small to provide reliable estimates, and are not seasonally adjusted.

Pensions

Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to tax lump sum payments payable to the spouses of the pensioners who do not live for five years after their retirement. [121796]

Dawn Primarolo: The Government's consultation paper, 'Simplifying the taxation of pensions: increasing choice and flexibility for all' proposes a consistent set of rules governing the payment and taxation of benefits from tax privileged pension schemes. These rules will replace several sets of current rules, which are neither consistent nor coherent.

The simplification proposals were issued for consultation so people could put forward their views before final decisions are taken. The Government are now considering the responses received and will announce further details of the proposed new tax regime in the autumn.

RAF Logistic Support Services

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the reasons for the treatment

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of RAF Logistic Support Services as a conventional management grouping for financial year 1999–2000; and why no accounts direction was given. [121494]

Mr. Boateng: The RAF Logistics Support Agency was under the control of the Chief of Defence Logistics from 1 April 1999 and was integrated with other Defence logistics organisations in 1999–2000 to form the Defence Logistics Organisation. It ceased to be a Defence agency on 31 March 2000. In the light of these changes, and with the agreement of the NAO, the Agency was treated as a conventional management grouping in 1999–2000. No accounts directions were or are given by HM Treasury to such management groupings which are, therefore, not required to produce separate accounts. However, the Agency was included in the Department's Resource Accounts for 1999–2000 which were subject to an accounts direction and were audited by the NAO.

Regulatory Impact Assessments

Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the Treasury's regulatory impact assessment procedure; and how many regulatory impact assessments have been reviewed in respect of the department over the last year. [120753]

Dawn Primarolo: A Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA) must be completed for all policy proposals that have a potential impact on businesses, charities or the voluntary sector. It includes details of the arrangements for monitoring and evaluating policy proposals and their impact.

Information on the number of RIAs that have been reviewed by the Treasury, Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise in the last year is not held centrally.

From this year the National Audit Office (NAO) has a new role in independently evaluating a selection of RIAs. In their Annual Report, published in February 2003, the Better Regulation Task Force put forward suggestions of RIAs for the NAO to review. The NAO review will focus on the quality of analysis in the RIAs and the thoroughness with which the RIAs have been undertaken. The findings and recommendations of best practice will be fed back to departments and aims to improve the standards of RIAs across Government.

Tax Credit Fraud

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many suspected cases of working families tax credit fraud there were in the last year for which figures are available, broken down where possible into cases where there appears to be (a) understated income, (b) understated or undeclared capital, (c) undeclared subsidiary income, (d) an undeclared partner, (e) undeclared employment or self-employment, (f) overstated hours, (g) misrepresented child care, (h) fictitious children and partners and (i) fictitious employment. [121216]

Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue undertake investigations into tax credit claims where there are grounds for believing that the claim may not be compliant. I refer the hon. Gentleman to my response of 14 April 2003, Official Report, column 536W, for details of the number of Working Families Tax Credit cases identified for investigation in 2002–03.

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As non compliance may cover a range of circumstances and involve more than one reason for suspicion, a breakdown of the additional information requested is not available.

FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

GCHQ

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what investigations have been carried out into unverified prepayments by GCHQ in respect of procurement of projects and services since the Intelligence and Security Committee's investigation; what the nature of the accounting misapplications and unverified monies was; and if he will make a statement. [121598]

Mr. Straw: GCHQ has worked closely with the National Audit Office to establish the cause of past problems. There was no question of money going missing.

The past problems have now been resolved and regular reconciliations put in place to ensure GCHQ's prepayment balances are properly recorded and can be reconciled to other organisations' records.

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps have been taken to ensure that GCHQ will be able to produce resource accounts that reflect a true and fair record of expenditure. [121600]

Mr. Straw: The main areas of weakness identified by the National Audit Office in GCHQ's accounts have related to asset accounting. GCHQ is taking appropriate measures to address these issues, closely consulting HM Treasury and the National Audit Office.

Harry Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps have been taken to establish that equipment missing from the GCHQ Fixed Asset Register did not contain classified material. [121601]

Mr. Straw: Analysis of the accounts has produced no evidence of any financial loss or security problems relating to classified material arising out of the discrepancies in the Register.

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