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9 Jul 2003 : Column 867W—continued
Butterfield Report
Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has received the Butterfield report in respect of the Customs and Excise bonded warehouse prosecutions; when he expects to publish it; and if he will make a statement. [124258]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the Written Statement I made to the House on 4 July 2003, Official Report, column 40WS).
Child Tax Credit
Jane Griffiths: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will extend the baby element of the child tax credit to each baby under a year old from a multiple birth; and if he will make a statement. [123674]
Dawn Primarolo: The 'baby element' is a higher rate of the family element; an amount paid to recognise the responsibilities taken on by all families with children and which also provides additional support where there is one or more very young child in the family. It is not intended to reflect the number of children in the family, as the individual child elements already do so.
Children's Trust Fund
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the introduction of the Childen's Trust Fund; and when money will be received from the Children's Trust Fund. [124470]
Dawn Primarolo: The Child Trust Fund will ensure that all children, regardless of family background will benefit from access to a stock of financial assets when they start their adult lives.
Child Trust Fund accounts are expected to be available from 2005. Full proposals for the Child Trust Fund will be published later in the summer.
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Competitiveness
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the Government have done (a) to improve competition, (b) to promote enterprise, (c) to support science and innovation, (d) to raise UK skills and (e) to encourage investment in the last five years. [124208]
John Healey: The Government's approach to raising productivity centres on tackling historic microeconomic weaknesses in five areas that can drive productivity growth: competition, enterprise, science and innovation, skills, and investment.
It is precisely to address these areas that the Government have:
- Introduced the Enterprise Act 2002 to strengthen competition in the economy, creating a new proactive role for the Office of Fair Trading;
Reduced corporation tax rates and made major reforms to capital gains tax to enhance the UK as an internationally competitive location for business;
Introduced the R&D tax credit for small and large firms, as well as provide the largest sustained increase in the Science Budget for more than a decade;
Launched six new Employer Training Pilots and made improvements to the UK Migration system to make it better address the needs of the economy;
Made new proposals to promote greater flexibility in the housing market, and to streamline and simplify the planning regime.
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent steps have been taken by the Government to remove obstacles to, and raise the levels of, enterprise and investment in the UK's most disadvantaged areas. [124218]
John Healey: The Government's approach to raising levels of enterprise throughout the UK, and specifically in disadvantaged areas, is described in detail in "Enterprise Britain: a modern approach to meeting the enterprise challenge", published alongside the 2002 pre-Budget report, and in the appendix to the recently published "Productivity in the UK 4: the local dimension".
A range of specific measures are now being focused on approximately 2,000 enterprise areas—the most deprived communities across the UK.
Specific measures that will help to raise levels of enterprise and investment in these areas include: an exemption from stamp duty for all non-residential property transactions, and for residential property transactions of up to £150,000; the provision of £16 million over two years to fund Enterprise Advisers in around 1,000 secondary schools in deprived areas; community investment tax relief, enabling accredited
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community development finance institutions to raise new capital for investment in disadvantaged areas; and the £40 million Bridges Community Development Venture Fund, backed by a £20 million Government investment.
DWP Public Service Agreement
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to revise the Department for Work and Pensions 2002 Spending Review Public Service Agreement target that 85 per cent. of customers should have their benefit paid into their bank accounts by 2005; and if he will make a statement. [124015]
Mr. Boateng: There are no plans to revise the Department for Work and Pensions 2002 Spending Review Public Service Agreement target that 85 per cent. of customers should have their benefit paid into their bank accounts by 2005. Performance against this target can be viewed on the Treasury Public Services Performance website (www.treasury.gov.uk/performance).
Economy
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the growth rate of the economy in (a) England and (b) Liverpool was in 2001. [124204]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mrs Curtis-Thomas dated, 9 July 2003:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on growth rate of (a) England and (b) Liverpool in 2001.
- Growth rates are normally calculated on the basis of data at constant prices. However, regional Gross Value Added (GVA) data are only available on a current price basis, in the absence of regional deflators. The growth rates shown in the table below will therefore include the effects of inflation.
- The latest GVA estimates for the countries of the United Kingdom and the English regions are available up to 1999, and for the sub-regions (NUTS-2 areas) up to 1998. These data form the basis for the growth rates shown in table 1 below.
- Data up to 2001 will be published at NUTS-1 (Country) level in August 2003 and at NUT3 (sub-regional) level in October 2003.
- The data referred to in this answer are available in the House of Commons Library and on the National Statistics website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/regionalaccounts.
| 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| England | 6.1 | 7.1 | 6.2 | 3.9 |
| Liverpool | 1.4 | 6.8 | 4.3 | (28)— |
(28) not available
Employment
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he has taken to remove barriers to people taking up work in the UK. [124210]
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John Healey: The Government have implemented a comprehensive strategy to advance its long-term goal of employment opportunity for all, including tackling the range of barriers that can stand in the way of people taking up work.
Delivered through Jobcentre Plus, the jobseeker's allowance regime provides individuals who are out of work and actively seeking employment with the advice and support they need to find jobs. For those who remain unemployed for longer, the Government's Welfare to Work strategy seeks to equip people with the skills and opportunities they need to compete successfully in the labour market, and this approach includes extending help to groups that may face particular barriers to work. For example, the New Deal for lone parents provides a comprehensive package of support including help with training, education and child care, and the New Deal for partners of benefit claimants will be enhanced from April 2004 to provide the same package of support. Participants in the New Deal for over 50s, who may have been out of the labour market for some time, are eligible for training grants to help update their skills. The New Deal for disabled people provides a national network of innovative job brokers to help disabled people locate and move into secure employment.
Support has also been extended to local areas with high levels of worklessness where residents may face multiple barriers to work. For example, Employment Zones in 16 areas of England, Scotland and Wales allow jobseekers and their personal advisers to use funds with complete flexibility to overcome individual barriers to work.
The Government have also reformed the benefits systems to improve work incentives and ensure that individuals are rewarded as they move into, and progress within, employment. The national minimum wage (NMW) provides fair minimum incomes from work, and the working tax credit, introduced in April 2003, is designed to tackle poor work incentives and persistent poverty among working people, providing support on top of the guarantee provided by the NMW.
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