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29 Oct 2003 : Column 313W—continued
Para-professional Staff
Ms Walley: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what discussions he has had with (a) local authority associations and (b) trade union representatives on national conditions of service for para-professional staff and those on term-time only contracts; and if he will make a statement. [132499]
Yvette Cooper: Ministers of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have no discussions with local authority associations or trade union representatives on these issues. Pay and contractual arrangements for support staff are determined at local level.
Pensioners (Council Tax)
Tim Loughton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many pensioners pay council tax in the UK; and what estimate he has made of the total tax they pay in England. [134794]
Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Tim Loughton, dated 29 October 2003:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many pensioners pay council tax in the UK and for an estimate of the total tax they pay in England. (134794)
- Estimates for council taxes are based on the analysis "The effects of taxes and benefits on household income 2001–02" produced by the ONS and published on the National Statistics website on October 21st 2003. The analysis can be obtained from the House of Commons library or from the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/taxesbenefits. It includes measures of income inequality for the United Kingdom as a whole based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. This is a
29 Oct 2003 : Column 314W
- sample survey covering about 7,500 households in the UK and sample sizes for pensioner households are only sufficient to give very approximate estimates.
- Pensioner households have been defined as those where the Household Reference Person is retired or unoccupied and aged 65 or more and male, or 60 years of age or more and female, and economically inactive.
- Detailed information on the definition of the Household Reference Person can be found in Appendix D of the document at the following address:
- http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme social/Family Spending 2001–02 revised/Family Spending revised.pdf
- Estimates for 2001–02 suggest that there were about 6 million pensioner households (single and couples) in Great Britain and that about 5 million of those paid council tax (i.e. their net council tax was greater than zero). Council tax is not paid in Northern Ireland. Net council tax is defined as gross council tax less benefits and discounts, where a household reports taking up a council tax benefit entitlement.
- The data suggests that single and couple pensioner households in England paid about 3 billion in council tax net of benefits and discounts. However, these estimates of numbers and payments will not match population data or administrative payments data because of sample size and weighting issues as well as possible inaccurate reporting by respondents.
Street Warden Scheme
Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to provide funding to extend the street warden scheme to Romford. [133998]
Yvette Cooper: There are no Office of the Deputy Prime Minister funded warden schemes operating in Romford. No application was made to set up a scheme in Romford during the initial bidding round in 2001.
At present, there are no plans for a further round of Office of the Deputy Prime Minister funding for new warden schemes beyond March 2005, however, if the constituents of Romford wish to start up a warden scheme in their area, we would suggest that funding would need to be secured from sources such as the local authority, Registered Social Landlords or from the private sector, as many other neighbourhood warden programmes have done.
Mr. Spring: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans the Government has to fund further street warden schemes in Suffolk. [134407]
Yvette Cooper: In the County of Suffolk, Street Warden Schemes funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister are operating in Lowestoft, Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's funding for Street Warden Schemes is a four year programme which concludes in March 2005 and there are no plans to extend funding past this date.
The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is actively working with existing schemes to help them secure mainstream funding from sources such as local authorities and the private sector. Support and guidance is also being provided to areas wishing to set up schemes with their own resources.