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Islamic Home Finance Initiatives

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what regulation there is to protect Muslims from mis-selling of housing finance that complies with Sharia law. [145720]

Ruth Kelly: I understand that some Islamic home finance arrangements may already fall within the definition of a regulated mortgage contract under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 (SI/2001 No. 544) and would therefore be covered by the regime that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will be implementing from 31 October 2004.

However, as explained in paragraph 36 of the consultation document 'Regulating home reversion plans', we are seeking information on arrangements that are not reversion plans but which might nevertheless be caught by any legislative definition of a reversion plan if we decide to regulate home reversion plans. These might include alternative property financing arrangements that may be used by banks to provide housing finance which complies with Sharia law.

Gershon Review

Mr. Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether savings expected from implementation of the findings of the Gershon Review have been taken into account in the public expenditure totals for future years published in the pre-Budget report 2003. [145945]

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Mr. Boateng: Paragraph B27 of the pre-Budget report sets out the assumptions on which the fiscal projections, including public expenditure projections, are based.

National Statistics

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many deaths from (a) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and (b) lung cancer were recorded in each year since 1996, broken down by age; and how many deaths per 100,000 population there were in each case. [146210]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 7 January 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths from (a) chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and (b) lung cancer were recorded in each year since 1996, broken down by age; and how many deaths per 100,000 population there were in each case. 1 am replying in his absence. (146210)

All the figures requested can be found in the annual series, published by ONS, Mortality Statistics: Cause. Series DH2. Copies of these publications are available from the House of Commons Library. This publication is also available on the internet at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ST ATBASE/Product. asp?vlnk=618

The most recent volume in the series, DH2 No. 29, contains the latest available data, for 2002. Table 5 of this publication shows death rates for 1996 to 2002 for lung cancer (1CD-10 C33-C34; 1CD-9 162) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (1CD-10 J40-J44; ICD-9 490–492, 496). The number of deaths by sex and age can be found in Table 2 of each annual volume.

Home Reversion Products

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what support he has received from consumer organisations for his plan for the Financial Services Authority to require a valuation of properties used as collateral for home reversion plans; [145721]

(2) if he will draw up tables of guidance on the amount of money people should expect when taking out home reversion products; and if he will discuss this with (a) consumer groups, (b) mortgage companies and (c) financial advisers. [145722]

Ruth Kelly: The Government are carrying out an open consultation on whether the Financial Services Authority (FSA) should regulate home reversion plans. We published a consultation paper 'Regulating home reversion plans' on 11 November and responses are due to be returned by 13 February 2004.

The issue of property valuation and pricing of reversion plans is considered in paragraphs 21 to 23 of the consultation document. If it is decided that the Financial Services Authority (FSA) should regulate home reversion plans, the details of the regime will be decided by the FSA on the basis of a separate consultation and cost/benefit analysis.

IT Contracts

Mr. Sayeed: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list information technology contracts in his

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Department with a value of above £20 million in each of the last 10 years; what the inception date for each system was; when it became fully functional; when it became fully debugged; and what the cost of over-runs has been. [146200]

Mr. Boateng: HM Treasury has never had an information technology contract above £20 million.

HM Customs and Excise has let two IT Contracts in excess of £20 million in the past 10 years. An outsourcing contract was signed on 25 August 1999 with Fujitsu C&E Services Ltd., for the provision of IT and telephony infrastructure services. Because this was a services contract, there was no debugging. The Transfer of Undertaking was achieved to target without any overrun. A second contract was awarded to BT/Syntegra in 1989 for the provision of the CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export freight) service. The contract was extended to January 2007 to recognise new strategic business requirements and allow sufficient time for the CIPR (Customs Information Processing Requirement) procurement process. To date, there have been no cost overruns.

The Inland Revenue has three IT contracts whose budgets exceed £20 million. First, it has a strategic contract with EDS, which commenced on 1 July 1994. This contract covers all IT services for Inland Revenue systems, their enhancement, day to day maintenance and new systems development. It is not a fixed price contract. Major systems are delivered within their own individual internal budgets, and the contract with EDS has supported the development and delivery of these systems since 1994.

The contract was extended to January 2007 to recognise new strategic business requirements and allow sufficient time for the CIPR (Customs Information Processing Requirement) procurement process. To date, there have been no cost overruns. The Inland Revenue has three IT contracts whose budgets exceed £20 million. First, it has a strategic contract with EDS, which commenced on 1 July 1994. This contract covers all IT services for Inland Revenue systems, their enhancement, day to day maintenance and new systems development. It is not a fixed price contract. Major systems are delivered within their own individual internal budgets, and the contract with EDS has supported the development and delivery of these systems since 1994.

In 1998 the Inland Revenue inherited a contract from the Department of Social Security for the provision of the NIRS2 Services run by Accenture (formerly Andersen Consulting). The system went live in July 1998 and has been stable since April 2000. The NIRS2 service was provided under a PFI contract which has since been adjusted to allow for the unprecedented level of change required of the system by new legislation. There were some well documented delays in introducing the NIRS system, involving extra development costs, paid for by Andersen Consulting. The Inland Revenue has also incurred business recovery costs, enabling the introduction of more modern and automated business processes.

The E-IROS contract was awarded to Computacenter in June 2000 for the provision of desktop hardware, software and related services. This is not a fixed price

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contract and consequently the value of the contract depends on the annual demand for desktop services. It has, however, exceeded £20 million in each of the last four years.

Economic Activity (Leeds, North-West)

Mr. Best: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of economic activity was in the Leeds North-West constituency in (a) 1997 and (b) 2002–03. [146204]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Harold Best, dated 7 January 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about economic activity rates. I am replying in his absence. (146204)

The attached table shows the working age economic activity rates for the Leeds North West constituency in successive twelve month periods ending from February 1998 to February 2002. These estimates are from the annual local area Labour Force Survey (LFS). Comparable information for the twelve month period ending February 2003 is not yet available. Working age is defined as ages 16–64 for men and 16–59 for women.

The series of annual activity rates from 1997/98 to 2000/01 is fairly stable, and the sharp fall in the estimate for 2001/02 may have arisen partly from sampling variability. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to this source of variation.

Working age⁽¹⁾ economic activity rates⁽²⁾ in the Leeds North West constituency

March to February	Percentage
1997–98	83.5
1998–99	79.9
1999–2000	82.0
2000–01	84.0
2001–02	73.9

⁽¹⁾ Men aged 16–64 and women aged 16–59

⁽²⁾ Economically active as a percentage of the working age population

Note:

These Labour Force Survey estimates have not been interim-adjusted to reflect the 2001 Census results

Source:

ONS Labour Force Survey

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