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5 Feb 2004 : Column 1000W—continued
Wind Farms
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many miles of new power lines will be needed in (a) Yorkshire and (b) other parts of England as a result of the planned development of wind farms; and what estimate she has made of the costs. [152450]
Mr. Timms: The plan for remodelling the transmission grid to accommodate new renewable energy generation is currently being prepared by National Grid Transco, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Electricity. They are upgrading the initial estimates prepared for, and published by, the Transmission Issues Working Group in June 2003. (a) There are no planned upgrades of the transmission system required in Yorkshire. (b) For the rest of England there will be a need to upgrade transmission lines but the final plans have not been presented. The costs of adding an additional 6 GW of wind energy in England were estimated at £605 million.
TRANSPORT
Airport Expansion
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what evidence he has collated on the effect of airport expansion on foreign direct investment. [152846]
Dr. Howells [holding answer 4 February 2004]: We recognise the importance of aviation to the economic prosperity of the United Kingdom. The effects of airport expansion on foreign direct investment were considered in the studies which led to the publication of our recent White Paper, 'The Future of Air Transport'.
Our work suggested that net inflows of foreign direct investment in 1999 were estimated to be almost 50 per cent. of total investment in the UK, and that the strategy set out in the White Paper—including two additional runways in the South East and expansion in the regions—would meet 95 per cent. of foreign business demand. Although our economic appraisal of airport options focused on direct benefits for airport users,
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enabling more foreign business travellers to fly to and from the UK will only have a positive effect on foreign direct investment.
Road Accidents (Wales)
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many people (a) were killed, (b) were seriously injured and (c) suffered less severe injuries on roads in Wales, broken down by (i) police force, (ii) constituency, (iii) safety camera partnership and (iv) local authority area, for each year since 1997. [151749]
Mr. Touhig: I have been asked to reply.
Since 1999, this is a matter for the National Assembly for Wales. Some of the information requested has been published by the Welsh Office and the Assembly in the annual series of "Road Accidents: Wales" publications, copies of which are available in the Libraries of the House.
TREASURY
Alcohol-related Deaths
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many alcohol-related deaths there were in each year since 1980. [152822]
Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from L. Cook to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 5 February 2004:
- As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question concerning the number of alcohol-related deaths in each year since 1980. (152822)
- The table shows numbers of deaths certified as due to alcohol abuse, dependence and poisoning, and diseases directly related to alcohol use from 1980 to 2002, the latest year for which figures are currently available. Information on the part that alcohol may have played in deaths from other causes, including other accidents and violence, is not available from death certificates.
(2) For the years 1980–2000 the cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9). The codes used by ONS to define alcohol-related deaths are as follows:
291—Alcoholic psychoses
303—Alcohol dependence syndrome
305.0—Non-dependent abuse of alcohol
425.5—Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
571—Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis
E860—Accidental poisoning by alcohol.
For the years 2001–2002 the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) was used. To maintain comparability with earlier years the following codes were used:
F10—Mental and behavioural disorders due to use of alcohol
142.6—Alcoholic cardiomyopathy
K70—Alcoholic liver disease
K73—Chronic hepatitis, not elsewhere classified
K74—Fibrosis and cirrhosis of liver
X45—Accidental poisoning by and exposure to alcohol.
The selection of codes to define alcohol-related deaths is described in:
Baker A. and Rooney C. (2003). Recent trends in alcohol-related mortality, and the impact of ICD-10 on the monitoring of these deaths in England and Wales. "Health Statistics Quarterly" 17, pp 5–14.
(3) Deaths registered in each calendar year.
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Barnett Formula
Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes have been made to the Barnett Formula with regard to the updating of population statistics; and when he expects the Barnett Formula to equalise spending per head between England and Scotland. [151762]
Mr. Boateng: The Barnett formula is updated periodically to take account of population estimates produced by the Office for National Statistics. As set out in the Statement of Funding Policy, the latest mid-year estimates are used; the ONS published mid-year estimates for 2002 in September 2003. Spending plans for Scotland were published in the "2002 Spending Review: New Public Spending Plans 2003–06" (Cm 5570, July 2002) and plans for the 2004 spending review period will be published later this year.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish for each year from 1998–99 to 2005–06 a table showing the levels of expenditure in England comparable to that expenditure in (a) Northern Ireland, (b) Scotland and (c) Wales that is both within the assigned budget and within the scope of the Barnett formula, at the same level of programme detail as is provided in the analysis of 2002–03 provision in Annex C of the third edition of Funding the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly: A Statement of Funding Policy. [152446]
Mr. Boateng: The Barnett formula is used to determine increases in spending of the devolved Administrations, rather than the previous levels of spending in England or the devolved Administrations. Information on subprogrammes for earlier years was published in Annex C of the first and second editions of the Statement of Funding Policy in 1999 and 2000.
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Child Care Tax Credit
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many and what proportion of claims for the child care tax credit have been subject to follow-up checks in each year since its introduction to establish whether the child or children are being cared for by (a) registered childminder, nursery, play scheme, or out of school club, (b) a child care scheme run on Crown property which does not need to be registered, (c) schools and other establishments exempt from registration, (d) providers of care for children aged eight years and over which is approved by specifically accredited organisations and (e) an approved home child care provider; and how many of those checks resulted in (i) investigations, (ii) penalties, (iii) prosecutions, (iv) convictions, (v) end of year overpayment recovery and (vi) cessation of the award; [152739]
- (2) what assessment he has made of the level of fraud in the child care tax credit element of the working tax credit; [152740]
(3) how many allegations of non-compliant application for child care tax credit have been reported to (a) the childminder's hotline and (b) his Department; and how many of those allegations resulted in (i) investigations, (ii) penalties, (iii) prosecutions, (iv) convictions, (v) end-of-year overpayment recovery and (vi) cessation of the award; [152741]
(4) how many calls have been made to the childminder's hotline in each of the last 12 months; [152743]
(5) if he will estimate the cost of running the childminder's hotline in the last year; and how many full-time equivalent staff are employed to deal with calls. [152744]
Dawn Primarolo: The child care tax credit was part of the working families and disabled person's tax credits (WFTC and DPTC), which were available between October 1999 and April 2003. It contributed to the cost of eligible child care for working families. It was replaced in April 2003 by the child care element of working tax credit (WTC).
Applications for WFTC and DPTC could be investigated for a number of reasons, including where there were concerns about claims for the child care tax credit within the applications. However, this was only one component part of the award. An inquiry may involve more than one element of non-compliance, and it is not possible to say how many investigations related only to this particular aspect. However, the Inland Revenue successfully prosecuted and convicted 14 cases where child care was a consideration. Of these, six were solely concerning child care.
For WTC, the Inland Revenue will be able to arrive at an error rate for the tax credit population when it is in a position to carry out a full random inquiry programme on a complete set of finalised awards for 2004–05.
A dedicated telephone line was set up in February 2000 for child care providers as a result of consultation with the National Child Minders Association. This gave child care providers the opportunity to tell the Inland Revenue about any concerns regarding claims for child care costs. Up until 31 March 2003, over 2,100 allegations were received in respect of WFTC and DPTC.
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With the introduction of working tax credit (WTC) in April 2003, a new service, the Childcare Provider Helpline, was set up to deal with queries about the scheme and receive information about specific concerns relating to claims to child care costs. Between then and the end of January the helpline has handled over 3,800 calls. It is run as a very small part of the tax credits helpline and it is therefore not possible to isolate the number of staff handling these calls, or the cost.
It is not possible to identify the number of allegations that have been reported outside of the Childcare Provider Helpline. Every allegation received is given careful consideration and, where there is sufficient reason, steps are taken to examine the circumstances more closely.
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