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Enterprise Investment Scheme

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the cost of reducing the minimum holding period for (a) investments under the Enterprise Investment Scheme and (b) for venture capital trusts, as announced in the March 2000 Budget, for each year from 2000–01 to 2005–06; what economic benefits have resulted from these changes; and if he will make a statement. [130127]

Dawn Primarolo: The forecast cost of reducing the minimum holding period for investment in the Enterprise Investment Scheme and Venture Capital Trust scheme was given in the Financial Statement and Budget Report 2003 (HC 500).

In April 2003, the Inland Revenue published research into the EIS and VCT schemes carried out by PACEC and the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge (available at http://home.inrev.gov.uk/inlandrevenue/research/report.pdf). This research concluded that both schemes have met their objectives of encouraging more investment by individuals in smaller, high risk trading companies, which in turn has increased their potential to grow and become successful. The research did not measure the benefits of the holding period change specifically, but found that, of those existing investors that were aware of any changes made to the schemes, up to half would be more likely to invest through the schemes in future as a result.

Enterprise Management Incentives

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what his estimate is of the total revenue cost of

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introducing enterprise management incentives in the March 2000 Budget to allow smaller high risk companies to issue the tax-advantaged share options to key staff, for each year from 2000–01 to 2005–06; what assessment has been made of the economic benefit of this scheme; and if he will make a statement; [130128]

(2) what the total cost of the Enterprise Management Incentives is for each year from 2001–02 to 2005–06; what assessment has been made of the benefits of this scheme; and if he will make a statement. [130131]

Dawn Primarolo: Estimates of the exchequer cost of tax and national insurance relief on options granted under Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) were published in Budget 2000 for 2000–01 to 2002–03 (Table A.13). The additional costs of subsequent changes to the EMI rules were published in Budget 2001 (Table A.13) and the pre-Budget report 2001 (Table B4). These estimates are of the taxable salary sacrificed in lieu of EMI option grants and no further estimates have been made on this basis.

Each year, estimates of the tax and national insurance relief cost of gains made by employees upon exercise of their EMI options are published in Inland Revenue Statistics on the Revenue's website at www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/emp share schemes/menu.htm. Only a very small number of employees exercised their options in the early years of EMI, so the estimated costs were negligible for 2000–01 and 2001–02. These costs will rise as the scheme matures.

As stated in the Full Regulatory Impact Assessment (RIA), published in March 2000, a full review of the success of EMI will take place during 2005. In the meantime, the Inland Revenue continues to monitor the administration, take-up, and exchequer costs of the initiative. To date, around 4,000 companies have granted EMI options to around 60,000 employees.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the cost of the expansion of the Enterprise Management Incentives announced in the 2001 Budget for each year from 2000–01 to 2004–05; and if he will make a statement. [130133]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is contained in the Financial Statement and Budget Report 2001.

Household Debt

Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to tackle the levels of household debt in the UK. [129935]

Mr. Boateng: I refer the hon. Member to the answers I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Tamworth (Mr. Jenkins) on 16 June 2003, Official Report, column 40W and 30 June 2003, Official Report, column 52W.

Individual Learning Accounts

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the total cost of tax reliefs on individual learning account contributions for each year from 2000–01 to 2005–06; and if he will make a statement. [130141]

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Dawn Primarolo: Information on which to base up-to-date estimates of the cost of these exemptions is not available.

Inheritance Tax

Mr. Tynan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to make changes to the inheritance tax regime to reflect recent trends in property price inflation, with particular reference to the value of the principal residence of the deceased. [129719]

Dawn Primarolo: My right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer considers all taxes as part of his annual Budget judgment.

Lung Cancer

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people died as a result of lung cancer in (a) England and (b) Northern Ireland in 2002. [129481]

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

Letter from Colin Mowl to Mrs. Curtis-Thomas, dated 15 September 2003:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your question concerning lung cancer deaths in (a) England (b) Northern Ireland in 2002. I am replying in his absence. (129481) The latest year for which data are available is 2001, whose figures are shown in the table below.

Mortality for malignant neoplasm of trachea, bronchus or lung⁽³⁶⁾, (a) England (b) Northern Ireland, 2001⁽³⁷⁾

	Northern Ireland	England
Number of deaths	26,894	782
Age-standardised rate(38) per 100,000	40.4	41.4

⁽³⁶⁾ Selected using code C33-C34 from the International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision.

⁽³⁷⁾ Data are for occurrences of death per calendar year for England and registrations of death per calendar year for Northern Ireland.

⁽³⁸⁾ Directly age-standardised to the European Standard Population.

National Insurance Fund

Paul Flynn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the surplus expected in the National Insurance Fund in March 2004. [129717]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer my hon. Friend to Table 2 on page 7 of the Report by the Government Actuary on the drafts of the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2003 and the Social Security (Contributions) (Re-rating and National Insurance Funds Payments) Order 2003.

North Sea Fiscal Regime

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the cost of abolishing the North Sea royalty for each year from 2003–04 to 2005–06; what the reasons were for this decision; and if he will make a statement. [130235]

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Dawn Primarolo: North Sea Royalty was abolished from 1 January 2003 as part of the package of measures introduced by the Chancellor in his 2002 Budget to modernise the North Sea fiscal regime. Along with the other measures in the package its abolition will promote long-term investment in the North Sea, make the tax regime more closely linked to profits and ensure a fairer return for the nation from profits derived from a national resource. The estimated cost of abolition is given in the table A2 of the Financial Statement and Budget Report 2003 [HC 500].

Customs Detector Dogs

Michael Fabricant: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 6 March by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Official Report, columns 952–53, how many food sniffer dogs are available at (a) airports and (b) seaports. [129143]

John Healey: I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answer I gave him on 10 September. The additional information requested on the deployment of detector dogs is not available; exemption 4 (Law Enforcement and legal proceedings) of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information applies to all such information about Customs anti-smuggling activities.

Premium Bonds

Sir Teddy Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many unclaimed prizes from premium bonds there are; and what their cumulative value is. [128876]

Ruth Kelly: There are 390,352 ¹ bonds outstanding that amount to £23 million ¹ unclaimed Premium Bond prizes.

¹ Figure correct as of the 1 September 2003.

Regional Pay

Mr. Salmond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which public sector workers will be affected by his plans on regional pay. [127214]

Mr. Boateng: All departments and agencies across the public sector are expected to consider how regional and local pay flexibilities apply to their workforce, except where an exemption has been specifically allowed, or where responsibility lies with the devolved administrations.

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