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17 Jul 2003 : Column 462W—continued
Special Shares
Mr. Challen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 9 July 2003, Official Report, column 867W, in which companies the Government holds special shares; what the value is of those special shares; and which departments are responsible for them. [125849]
Mr. Boateng: Responsibility for individual special shares lies with the relevant Secretary of State, as set out in the table. It is not possible to estimate the value of these shareholdings, which are not tradable.
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Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his plans for disposing of the Government's golden shares. [125832]
Mr. Boateng: The Government hold special shares in 25 companies. Of these companies, HM Treasury is responsible for special shares in Troika Ltd. and Partnerships UK Ltd. Each Department responsible for individual special shares is examining the ECJ's judgments carefully, to ensure that its special shares comply with EC law and continue to be in the public interest. The outcome will depend on the detail of each individual special share.
Strokes
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people died from (a) strokes and (b) stroke-related diseases in each year since 1997, broken down by age group. [126506]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Paul Burstow dated July 2003:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning how many people died from (a) strokes and (b) stroke-related diseases each year since 1997, broken down by age group. (126506)
I refer you to the answer given in Hansard on 18th July 2001, column 213 to Linda Perham MP indicating that figures are to be found in the annual reference volumes 'Mortality Statistics: Cause DH2.' The latest publication in this series contains figures for stroke for 2001 and is available on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme health/Dh2 28/DH2No28.pdf
Causes of death in England and Wales were coded to the Ninth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-9) from 1979 to 2000. Cerebrovascular diseases, which includes stroke and related conditions, were coded to 430–438. In the Tenth Revision (ICD-10), introduced in 2001, the same conditions are coded to 160–169. However, the way in which the underlying cause of death is selected from the conditions written on the certificate changed in ICD-10. This led to an increase of approximately 13% in the number of deaths attributed to cerebrovascular diseases in men and 9% in women. Time trends should therefore be interpreted with caution. The effects of the change in classification has been described in detail in ONS publications.1, 2
1 Office for National Statistics. Results of the ICD-10 bridge-coding study, England and Wales, 1999. Health Statistics Quarterly 14 (2002), 75–83.
2 Rooney C, Griffiths C, Cook L. The implementation of ICD-10 for cause of death coding—some preliminary results from the bridge coding study. Health Statistics Quarterly 13 (2002), 31–41.
Tax Credits
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many requests for (a) compensation, (b) back costs and (c) compensation for worry and distress due to mishandling of child and working tax credit applications have been received in each of the last six months; of that number how many have been paid; and how much the average award was. [126389]
Dawn Primarolo:
I refer the hon. Member to what I said during the debate in the House on 7 July 2003, Official Report, column 860.
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John Barrett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 10 June 2003, Official Report, column 746W, on child/working tax credit, whether the statistics on awards in August will be broken down by (a) local authority and (b) parliamentary constituency. [119731]
Dawn Primarolo: Following earlier statements on this subject, I can update the House to say that statistics on child and working tax credit awards will be published on 10 September. This will include estimates for each local authority and parliamentary constituency.
Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the average claim for (a) the child tax credit and (b) the working tax credit is expected to be worth in the current financial year. [119920]
Dawn Primarolo: Statistics on average awards will be published after the end of the tax year, when awards have been finalised.
Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance has been given to officers on settlement of arrears in payment of working tax credits. [115804]
Dawn Primarolo: As soon as a claim has been processed and a decision made, any arrears payable are generally paid immediately in one lump sum. Where for any reason this does not happen automatically, claimants should contact the Inland Revenue.
Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the numbers of outstanding claims for (a) working tax credit and (b) child tax credit; and how many of these were submitted before 4 April 2003. [116826]
Dawn Primarolo: There is a single application form for the two tax credits. As I said in the adjournment debate on 7 July the Inland Revenue have now put in payment claims from more than 4.25 million families. There were also a further 186,000 claims where the further information was required or were being verified (sixty per cent. of which have arrived since 1 June 2003).
I also stated before the Treasury Select Committee on 2 July 2003 that 130,000 claims had been rejected because the claimants were ineligible or because the necessary information had not been supplied despite requests to do so.
Mr. Peter Duncan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what penalties are enforceable against the provider of computer equipment to implement the change in the system of tax credits. [118315]
Dawn Primarolo: I have asked the Inland Revenue to open discussion with the IT contractor on the question of redress. The contract provides that the Inland Revenue can seek redress to recover additional business costs which are attributable to the failings of the IT services.
Mr. Webb:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many claims for emergency interim payments relating to child tax credit applications have been made; and of that number how many have been paid; and what the (a) average and (b) total value of those payments is; [122696]
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(2) how many claims for emergency interim payments relating to tax credits have been made in each of the last 12 months; how many have been paid; and what the (a) average and (b) total value is of those payments. [123021]
John Thurso: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many claims for emergency interim payments relating to tax credits have been made in each of the last 12 months; how many have been paid; and what the (a) average and (b) total value is of those payments, broken down by region; [124527]
(2) how many claims for emergency interim payments relating to child tax credit applications have been made; of that number how many have been paid; and what the (a) average and (b) total value of those payments is, broken down by region. [124528]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of individual same day interim payments made through local offices to claimants of child tax credit (CTC) and working tax credit (WTC) in each month is shown in the following table. Also shown is the number of automatic direct payments made centrally to these claimants in each month.
| 2003 | Number of same day interim payments made through local offices | Number of automatic direct payments made centrally (million) |
|---|---|---|
| April | 25,000 | 8.5 |
| May | 175,000 | 9 |
| June | 75,000 | 9.5 |
| Total to June | 275,000 | 27 |
The interim payments cover both CTC and WTC, where appropriate, so no separate figures are available for CTC.
Very few similar payments were made for working families' and disabled person's tax credits from July 2002.
No figures are available for the average or total value of these payments, or for the number of claims for such payments that have been refused.
Andrew Selous: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Inland Revenue will pay compensation for (a) bank charges and (b) mortgage penalty payments incurred as a result of the late or non-payment of tax credits. [125195]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to what I said during the debate in the House on 7 July 2003, Official Report, column 860.
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer where a person is owed tax credit back-payments, what mechanism there is for paying it in one lump sum rather than in weekly instalments; and if he will make it his policy to ensure that all eligible claims are paid arrears in a lump sum. [125478]
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer over what period of time and at what intervals backdated child tax credit awards will be paid; and if he will make a statement. [126386]
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Dawn Primarolo: As soon as a claim has been processed and a decision made, any arrears payable are generally paid immediately in one lump sum. Where for any reason this does not happen automatically, claimants should contact the Inland Revenue.
Mr. Denis Murphy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many persons in the Wansbeck constituency are in receipt of (a) child tax credit and (b) working tax credit; and how many claims are waiting to be processed. [126724]
Dawn Primarolo: Statistics on awards of these tax credits will be published. For progress in processing claims, I refer my hon. Friend to my remarks during the debate on 7 July 2003, Official Report, column 859. Breakdowns by constituency of the figures that I gave are not available.
Bob Russell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters to the Inland Revenue from right hon. and hon. Members about working families tax credit applications are awaiting a reply. [123368]
Dawn Primarolo: As at 30 June 2003 there were 35 letters from right hon. and hon. Members to the Inland Revenue about working families tax credit applications that were awaiting a reply.
Bob Russell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide extra resources to help the Inland Revenue in responding to correspondence from right hon. and hon. Members about working families tax credit applications. [123369]
Dawn Primarolo: Extra resources are not required to help the Inland Revenue to respond to letters from right hon. and hon. Members about working families tax credit applications.
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