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22 Oct 2003 : Column 622W—continued

Russia

Norman Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on what date the Department last made representations on seal clubbing to the Russian authorities. [131828]

Mr. Rammell: The British Embassy in Moscow last raised the issue of seal clubbing with the Ministry of Natural Resources on 22 April and followed by a letter to the Ministry on 23 April. The Embassy also raised the issue through letters to the Russian Fisheries Committee on 23 February and to the All-Russia Scientific Research institute under the Fisheries Committee on 13 February.

The issue of seal clubbing is also regularly raised with the Russian Embassy in London.

Syria

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the US imposition of sanctions on Syria. [132507]

Mr. Rammell: The imminent passing of the Syrian Accountability Act through Congress is an internal matter for the US. The UK remains committed to a policy of constructive and, where necessary, critical engagement with Syria. This allows us to support change for the better while clearly communicating our views on issues of concern.

UN Security Council

Mr. Spring: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the Government's policy on the representation of the (a) United Kingdom and (b) European Union on the UN Security Council. [131513]

Mr. Rammell: We support continued British Permanent membership of the Security Council. Britain supports enlargement of the Security Council, but we do not support a European Union seat.

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Vietnam

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on relations with Vietnam. [132841]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: 2003 marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the UK and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Visits to the UK in September by the Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister, Vu Khoan, and four other Vietnamese Ministers are testimony to the growing breadth and depth of relations. We have regular engagement with the Vietnamese Government on a range of issues: development, trade and investment, and education, as well as political issues, including human rights. The UK is a major investor in Vietnam and DFID's aid programme to Vietnam, currently £25 million, is its fastest growing aid programme in the world.

TREASURY

Correspondence

Mr. Kaufman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will reply to the letter to him dated 27 August from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton, with regard to Mr. M. Galian, passed to him by the Department for Transport. [133841]

John Healey: The letter from my right hon. Friend arrived in the Treasury on 21 October. I have replied.

EU Constitution

Mrs. Dunwoody: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether direct taxation will remain the responsibility of Her Majesty's Government if the draft EU Constitution is ratified by the UK. [132558]

Dawn Primarolo: Any changes to the provisions of the existing EU Treaties, including in relation to direct taxation, require the unanimous agreement of all member states. The Government have made it clear in their White Paper, "The British Approach to the European Union Intergovernmental Conference 2003", that they will insist that tax matters continue to be decided by unanimity.

European Constitution

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the implications of the proposed European Constitution on the UK's ability to set corporation tax. [133414]

Dawn Primarolo: Any changes to the provisions of the existing EU Treaties, including in relation to corporation tax, require the unanimous agreement of all member states. The Government have made it clear in their White Paper, "The British Approach to the European Union Intergovernmental Conference 2003", that they will insist that tax matters continue to be decided by unanimity.

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National Insurance

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the cost to the Treasury of removing the obligation on those who have paid or been credited with 44 years of national insurance contributions to make further payments prior to their retirement. [133532]

Dawn Primarolo: Reliable information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Mr. Chope: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people aged under 65 who have contributed for 44 years and have qualified for a 100 per cent. retirement pension paid employee national insurance contributions in the last year for which figures are available. [133533]

Dawn Primarolo: Reliable information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Unused Airline Tickets

Richard Ottaway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what procedures are in place for refunding taxes on unused airline tickets; and if he will make a statement. [133038]

John Healey: Air passenger duty (APD) is payable by aircraft operators. Nearly all airlines pass on the duty charge to their passengers via fares, though whether or not they do so is a decision for the airlines, and it is normal commercial practice for them to charge their customers at the time of ticket sale.

No liability to APD arises if a flight is cancelled, or a passenger is unable to travel on a pre-booked flight. Whether the airline makes a refund to the passenger in such circumstances is a commercial matter between them. If passengers consider that they have been misled, they can contact their Local Trading Standards Office, who can investigate and prosecute traders in such circumstances.

Working Tax Credit (Scotland)

John Barrett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people are in receipt of working tax credit in Scotland, broken down by (a) parliamentary constituency and (b) local authority; and what percentage each of these figures represents of the number of people eligible for the credit. [133000]

Dawn Primarolo: The number of families in each constituency and local authority who were receiving child and working tax credit at 11 July 2003 are shown in "Child and Working Tax Credit Statistics. Geographical Analyses. July 2003." This is available on the Inland Revenue website at: www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/geog-analysis-jul03.pdf

No estimates are available of the number of families eligible by local constituency or local authority.

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WORK AND PENSIONS

Workplace Stress

Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what plans his Department has to introduce regulations on businesses in relation to the reduction of stress in the workplace. [133412]

Malcolm Wicks: Existing legislation (Health and Safety at Work, etc Act 1974. and the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999) places a general duty on employers to protect the health and safety of their employees and to carry out an adequate risk assessment. These duties apply equally to work-related stress as any other work-place hazard.

Following public consultation during 1999 the Health and Safety Commission decided that a legislative approach would be hard to define. Consequently there are no plans to introduce further legislation, although the need for an Approved Code of Practice will be kept under review.

To assist employers to tackle the problem of work-related stress the Health and Safety Executive are currently piloting draft management standards with the intention of launching them in late 2004. The standards will have the status of guidance and will provide a yardstick against which employers can measure their progress in measuring work-related stress.

Bereavement Payment

Mr. Robathan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claims for Bereavement Payment were made in tax year 2002–03; and what estimate he has made of how many people (a) failed to make claims for Bereavement Payment and (b) there were whose claims were made after the three month deadline. [133493]

Mr. Pond: 64,000 claims for Bereavement Payment were received in 2002–03. We have made no estimate of the number of people who have failed to make a claim, or whose claims were made outside the time limit.

We have extended the time limit for claiming a Bereavement Payment from three to 12 months for all cases where death occurred on or after 1 April 2003.

Note:Rounded to nearest thousand

Source:DWP Data

Child Poverty

Mr. Wray: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what progress has been made in eradicating child poverty; what assessment has been made identifying further work that needs to be done; and if he will make a statement. [132945]

Mr. Pond: Poverty is a complex and multi-dimensional problem. We published 'Opportunity for all—Fifth Annual Report' (Cm 5956) in September 2003, which sets out the Government's strategy for tackling poverty and social exclusion and presents information on the indicators used to measure progress against this strategy.

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In April 2002, we published 'Measuring child poverty: a consultation document' to gather views on an appropriate measure of child poverty for the long term. We published the preliminary conclusions of our consultation on 14 May 2003. The report states that further technical work is necessary before finalising any new measure of child poverty and that we intend to publish final conclusions by the end of 2003.

Both reports are available in the Library.

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