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8 Sept 2003 : Column 97W—continued
Child Tax Credit
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate how long it takes on average to (a) complete and (b) process the application form for child tax credit; and whether his Department has a target for the number of applications to be processed. [121581]
Dawn Primarolo: The time taken to complete a tax credits claim form will depend on the particular circumstances of the claimant. Claims for which no further information is required, and which pass the various pre-award checks, go through the stages of calculating the award quickly and will normally be in payment within a few days.
The form was subjected to rigorous usability testing before being introduced. This testing involved a sample number of existing tax credit recipients.
Credit Unions
Mr. Love: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussion is taking place with the credit union trade associations on the process of establishing a simple representative body for credit unions in Britain; and if he will make a statement. [127808]
Mr. Boateng: No such discussion is taking place. Credit unions are free to affiliate to any, or none, of the main trade associations, and to change their affiliation from time to time.
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Mr. Love: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many members of credit unions and assets of credit unions there were, broken down by (a) affiliation to each credit union trade association and (b) no affiliation to a credit union trade association for the year ended 30 September 2002. [127809]
Mr. Boateng: The latest available statistics on the credit union sector in Great Britain, for the end of 2001, have been published by the Financial Services Authority on its website, to which I refer the hon. Member. At the end of 2001, there were 365,934 members of credit unions in Great Britain, and their total assets were £263.4 million. Statistics for end of 2002 are not yet available, as not all the underlying returns have been received by the Financial Services Authority.
The Financial Services Authority does not at present aggregate credit union returns information according to the separate affiliation of individual credit unions, so the breakdown of information requested is not available.
Mr. Love: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to amend industrial and provident society legislation to bring it into line with company law; and if he will make a statement. [127818]
Mr. Boateng: The Government is keen to see, where appropriate, a level playing field between industrial and provident societies and companies. The Industrial and Provident Society Act 2002 enables the Treasury to update industrial and provident society law, via secondary legislation, in line with changes in company legislation. The "Modernising Company Law White Paper", published in July 2002, announced a wide-ranging review of company law. In order to provide for a strategic, consistent and up-to-date approach, the Government believe that the general modernisation of industrial and provident society legislation in this area should be considered in the light of that review.
Customs and Excise
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how he estimates the new investment announced for Customs will improve the service at (a) Newhaven, (b) Poole, (c) Isle of Wight, (d) Portsmouth and (e) Southampton; and if he will make a statement. [127148]
John Healey: The investment will be used by Customs to deploy new technology and extra operational activity at ports and airports to strengthen security at the UK frontier.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest assessment of the total cost per year is of employing mobile Customs teams to cover the ports of Newhaven, Poole and the Isle of Wight rather than a limited permanent presence; and if he will make a statement. [127150]
John Healey: For the fiscal year 2003–04, the current allocation of funds to cover travel and subsistence costs for Customs detection south region, which includes Newhaven, Poole and the Isle of Wight, is £1.7 million.
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what factors underlay the decision to remove the permanent Customs presence from Poole, the Isle of
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Wight and Newhaven ports; if he will perform a risk analysis of these plans; if he will overturn the decision; and if he will make a statement. [127151]
John Healey: To meet the challenge of modern smugglers, Customs across the UK are changing their tactics and becoming more intelligence-led and less predictable. While it is important to maintain a level of deterrence at all locations—both at high-traffic, high-risk ports or airports, and at smaller, lower-risk locations—Customs cannot provide an effective detection capability nor any meaningful deterrence with small numbers of staff on regular and predictable rotas. Flexible, mobile teams can be deployed in larger numbers and with greater impact. Customs managers use risk assessment when deploying these teams to locations in the south and south west where they will have the greater impact on smuggling.
Ms Atherton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff will be allocated to the flexible customs team to be located at Plymouth under the Customs and Excise Business Plan; what their terms of reference will be; and what the team's (a) average and (b) maximum response times are expected to be. [127301]
Mr. Hancock: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of days per year that the proposed mobile Customs teams will be able to have a presence in (a) Newhaven, (b) Poole and (c) Isle of Wight ports. [127149]
John Healey: Customs do not normally make available information concerning the deployment of operational law enforcement staff. Exemptions 4(b) and 7(b) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information apply.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement about HM Customs and Excise operations in (a) Chester, (b) Pembroke and (c) Swansea. [127408]
John Healey: Customs and Excise law enforcement operations in Chester, Pembroke and Swansea will be intelligence-led, supported by flexible, mobile teams. Customs also have offices in these locations undertaking a range of VAT, International Trade and Excise work.
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the use of mobile teams in the work of HM Customs and Excise. [127410]
John Healey: Experience demonstrates that flexible mobile teams allow Customs to deploy officers in larger numbers, less predictably and with greater impact, to any area of the UK, wherever intelligence identifies a risk.
Mr. Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the value of goods seized by HM Customs in (a) 2002 and (b) 2003. [127946]
John Healey: Customs record the goods they seize by quantity not value. Many seized goods do not have a specific monetary value and an aggregate figure for the value of all goods seized by Customs is therefore not available.
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Departmental Costs
Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost was to his Department for (a) ministerial cars and drivers, (b) taxis, (c) train travel, (d) the use of helicopters, (e) airline tickets and (f) chartered aeroplanes in each year since 1997. [123074]
John Healey: Information relating to the cost of ministerial cars and drivers and of planes chartered for ministerial travel is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office.
For expenditure by the Treasury on taxis up to 2000–01 I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given by the then Economic Secretary (Ruth Kelly) on 4 February 2002, Official Report, column 698W.
Information in respect of spending on taxis by the Treasury in 2001–02 and 2002–03, and on all other travel between 1997–98 and 2002–03, is set out in the table.
| Taxis | Other travel | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997–98 | — | 945,450 |
| 1998–99 | — | 1,320,078 |
| 1999–2000 | — | 1,510,944 |
| 2000–01 | — | 1,578,198 |
| 2001–02 | 120,189 | 1,508,016 |
| 2002–03 | 129,503 | 1,387,813 |
All official travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules contained in the Department's staff handbook. All ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the rules set out in the publication "The Ministerial Code and Travel by Ministers", a copy of which is available in the Library of the House.
ECOFIN
Mr. Connarty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the outcome was of the ECOFIN Council held on 16 July; what the Government's stance was on the issues discussed, including its voting record; and if he will make a statement. [127303]
Ruth Kelly: At the ECOFIN Council on 15 July, the UK was represented by our Permanent Representative to the EU and by the Treasury's Managing Director of Macroeconomic Policy and International Finance.
The Italian Presidency presented its work programme. Following an exchange of views on the Presidency's Action Plan for Growth, Council Conclusions were agreed that invited the Commission and the EIB to conduct a needs assessment and make proposals for a programme to support growth and integration by improving and/or increasing overall investment and private sector involvement in TENs and R&D projects.
EFC will assess these interim reports and prepare the Council discussion of the issue at the 7 October ECOFIN Council. The UK said that the highest priority was the Lisbon structural reform agenda and that the new initiative should be complementary.
The Council agreed without debate a recommendation on the Netherlands' Stability programme.
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The Council agreed, without discussion, to a recommendation that Jean-Claude Trichet be appointed the President of the European Central Bank for a term of office of eight years. Under the provisions of the EC Treaty, only the member states which have adopted the euro can be involved in the appointment of the president of the ECB. The UK Protocol makes it clear that the UK does not participate in such appointments.
The Council also agreed a mandate for the Financial Services Committee to prepare a report on the progress of financial integration and its economic benefits and to look further into areas where this integration might deliver significant increased economic benefits to the EU. This report will prepare a debate in the 2004 spring Council on key areas for further action.
ECOFIN agreed Conclusions on the adoption of International Accounting Standards (IAS), stressing the importance of their adoption from 2005, including the immediate adoption of all existing IAS except those on financial instruments and the adoption of standards on financial instruments as soon as possible. The UK supported the adoption of all the relevant existing IAS. Its concerns were fully covered by the Conclusions.
Under any other business, the Council exchanged views on the Commission's proposed VAT Reduced Rates Review. The UK welcomed the review, but noted that it would not accept any proposal which would remove its zero rates on children's clothes and shoes.
No votes were taken at the meeting.
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