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Written Answers to Questions

Wednesday 28 January 2004

PRIME MINISTER

East Midlands Airport

14. David Taylor: To ask the Prime Minister, when he next plans to use East Midlands Airport on official business. [151111]

The Prime Minister: I have no current plans to do so.

TREASURY

Bribery

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many reports of evidence of overseas bribery or suspected bribery by a UK company have been passed to the Inland Revenue's Special Compliance Officer by Inland Revenue staff since November 1997; and how many of these reports were passed on by Inland Revenue to the (a) prosecution and (b) law enforcement agencies. [151442]

Dawn Primarolo: Section 19 of the Anti-Terrorism (Crime and Security) Act 2001 provides a gateway for the Revenue to pass information about a possible criminal offence of bribery to other agencies where the evidence warrants such a disclosure. No such gateway existed before.

The Inland Revenue does not keep central records of cases referred to other agencies, but does not believe that the section 19 gateway has been used to date to refer a case of suspected bribery.

Currency Speculation

Mrs. Curtis-Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the implications of taxing currency speculation. [150783]

John Healey: The Government remain to be convinced that a tax on currency speculation would be particularly effective in stabilising international capital flows. Indeed, a report by the European Commission—"Responses to the Challenges of Globalisation", February 2002—concludes that a currency transaction tax may actually increase volatility, since trading volumes would be likely to fall significantly following its introduction.

There are also a number of practical issues concerning the coverage and enforcement of a currency speculation tax that would need to be resolved before, as is often suggested, it could become a feasible source of development finance. In particular, the Government are concerned that it would be almost impossible to achieve global coverage for such a tax, creating huge scope for evasion. Even if we could secure agreement among the

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G7, without global application speculative foreign exchange transactions would gravitate to those jurisdictions which did not enforce the tax. This would make poorly regulated offshore financial centres more attractive to speculators, increasing the threat of instability in the financial system.

The Government are open to exploring the full range of options for raising finance for development and the Chancellor has proposed the International Finance Facility, a new mechanism which would raise significant additional resources. The Facility would be built on developed countries' long-term commitments to increased aid flows and, on this basis, would leverage additional resources from international capital markets. The Facility would seek to double aid from US$ 50 billion a year today to $100 billion a year in the years up to 2015—the sum needed to meet the internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.

Ivory

Mr. Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list (a) ivory and (b) ivory products seized by HM Customs and Excise in each of the last five years. [150961]

John Healey: Customs has made the following seizures of ivory and ivory products in each of the last five years.

	Ivory tusks		Other items containingivory
Calendaryear	Number of seizures	Number of items seized	Number of Seizures	Number of items seized	Total number of seizures
2003	7	22	23	3324	30
2002	4	5	18	74	22
2001	6	8	27	649	33
2000	6	19	19	84	25
1999	7	12	11	13	18
Total	30	66	98	4,144	128

Tax Credit

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff will be employed in each of the two new tax credit contact centres; where they will be located; and when they will become operational. [147655]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 13 January 2004]: The two new Tax Credit Contact Centres—in Newcastle upon Tyne and Bathgate (West Lothian)—will each employ the equivalent of 500 new full time staff dedicated to answering tax credits calls. The Bathgate Contact Centre will, in addition, house the equivalent of a further 300 existing full time staff. The tax credits staff will be taking calls in time to support the continued delivery of tax credits from April 2004.

Andrew Selous: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the habitual residence test in regard to child and working tax credits will apply to nationals of the EU accession states if they come to live in the United Kingdom. [151070]

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Dawn Primarolo: No, the habitual residence test does not apply to tax credits just as it has never applied to Child Benefit. However, to qualify for tax credits, a person must be both present and ordinarily resident in the United Kingdom.

Tax Deductibility

Mr. Simon Thomas: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many times staff at the Inland Revenue have denied tax deductibility on payments, under section 577A of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988, on the basis that the payment was (a) a suspected bribe and (b) business entertainment on an overseas contract, since November 1997. [151441]

Dawn Primarolo: Section 577A of the Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 denies, for the purpose of computing business profits, a deduction on expenditure incurred on any payment, the making of which constitutes an offence in the UK, or would do so if the payment were made in the UK. The onus is upon the taxpayer not to claim a deduction on any such expenditure. The Inland Revenue does not keep central records of expenditure disallowed from deduction by its inspectors under this provision.

TRANSPORT

Advanced Driving Instructor Exams

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the introduction of the new Advanced Driving Instructor part 1 examination; and what skills the examination will assess which are not covered by existing tests. [150015]

Mr. Jamieson: The driving instructor registration scheme involves periodic re-assessment of competence. We intend to use modern technology to assess instructor standards in an effective and efficient manner, as part of their supervision arrangements.

The new computer-based assessment will comprise a multiple-choice question test of knowledge and understanding of driving theory and instruction, plus a moving-image hazard perception test. The knowledge and understanding test draws on a bank of over 900 questions and is more comprehensive than when most instructors qualified.

Hazard perception testing has been a key part of the qualification process for learner car drivers, lorry drivers, bus drivers, motor cyclists, potential instructors and driving examiners since November 2002. Extending it to driving instructors who have not been assessed in this key skill will help their standards maintenance and professionalism and result in a driving instructor profession better placed to deliver high-quality instruction.

We want to ensure that when the public, often young people, buy driving lessons they can have confidence that the instructor they choose will have kept up to date with developments in the learning-to-drive syllabus and be familiar with how the hazard perception test works.

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Central Railway

Mr. Peter Ainsworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will publish the findings of the Strategic Rail Authority's latest study on the Central Railway proposal; and if he will make a statement. [151250]

Mr. McNulty [holding answer 27 January 2004]: We have no plans to do so at present given the commercial sensitivity.

Civil Service (Disabled People)

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will set out the number of employees in his Department who have a disability, broken down by disability type. [148993]

Mr. McNulty: Employees in the Department for Transport, who have informed the Department that they have a disability, are recorded in the following table. The figures given are at April 2003.

Type of disability	Count
Hearing	13
Learning difficulties	(1)—
Mental illness	(1)—
Mobility impairment	12
Physical co-ordination difficulties	18
Visual	10
Unspecified(2)	8
Total	62

⁽¹⁾ Indicates that the number is less than 5.

⁽²⁾ Where a person has informed the Department that they are disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act definition but chosen not to inform the Department about the nature of their impairment/s.

While employees are encouraged to inform the Department that they have a disability, especially where an adjustment may better enable them to work to the best of their ability, they are not required to do so. It is likely that the numbers of disabled employees is actually higher. The Department is actively involved in the Cabinet Office run Disability Working Group. The group seeks to improve information on disabled civil servants both by, examining why employees are reluctant to pass on information on their impairments and, the approaches used to collect information.

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