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Departmental Minutes

Richard Ottaway: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it is his Department's policy to make notes of (a) meetings and (b) telephone conversations involving Ministers; and under what circumstances no notes would be made. [149803]

Ruth Kelly: HM Treasury follows the central "Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers" which makes clear that good record management procedures are necessary not least to ensure accountability and provide an audit trail. Among the records covered by the guidance are Ministers' meetings and telephone conversations.

Financial Services

Mr. Love: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what research has been undertaken to estimate the impact of Basel 2 on (a) the UK lending industry and (b) those lenders with assets of less than £1 billion; and if he will make a statement. [155861]

Ruth Kelly: The new Basel Accord will be an international agreement on prudential capital, applying mainly to internationally active banks. Implementation of the new Basel Accord in Europe will be through a new Capital Adequacy Directive, which is expected to apply to all UK credit institutions and investment firms (as was the case for the implementation of the existing Basel Accord). The Treasury is currently consulting on the expected impact on all UK lenders ahead of a formal proposal from the European Commission expected later in the year.

Gold Reserves

Mr. Swire: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to sell more of the Bank of England's gold reserves. [155676]

Ruth Kelly: The Government currently have no plans to sell holdings of gold from their International Currency Reserves. We remain firmly committed to transparency so, if our plans were to change in the future, we would announce this publicly.

Illegal Meat Imports

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment has been made of the

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effectiveness of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise illegal meat enforcement strategy, with particular regard to the number of prosecutions that have been pursued; [155685]

(2) how many prosecutions there have been as a result of illegal meat seizures by Her Majesty's Customs and Excise in the last 12 months; [155686]

(3) what Her Majesty's Customs and Excise's policy is on prosecuting people caught in possession of illegal meat at United Kingdom ports of entry. [155689]

John Healey: Customs' illegal meat enforcement strategy aims to deter and detect illegal imports and thereby reduce the risk of disease from such imports. The strategy delivers this aim through:

(a) increasing passengers' awareness of the rules and regulations, encouraging the voluntary surrender of any illegal meat on arrival and increasingly discouraging the public from embarking on their journey to the UK with illegal meat in their possession;

(b) anti-smuggling checks to detect illegal imports on the basis of risk assessment and intelligence;

(c) seizing imports surrendered by passengers in the Red Channel or detected in the possession of passengers in the Green Channel;

(d) issuing a seizure notice and warning letter to the owner where the illegal meat was not declared or surrendered;

(e) responding flexibly to formal notifications by Defra or the Food Standards Agency by imposing additional restrictions in the event of an outbreak of animal disease or other circumstances which may present a risk to animal or human health.

Within that overall policy, Customs consider cases for investigation and prosecution where suitable evidence is available, and in particular:

serious cases involving repeat offenders;

large scale imports;

commercial smuggling;

other aggravating circumstances.

Customs have not undertaken any prosecutions since taking on responsibility for these anti-smuggling controls on 11 April 2003.

The effectiveness of Customs' strategy is kept under continual review.

Mr. Gardiner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what trials Her Majesty's Customs and Excise has undertaken of x-ray equipment to detect illegal meat imports; and when they took place. [155690]

John Healey: Customs have undertaken a number of informal trials using their own x-ray equipment as well as external trials involving developments in x-ray technology offered by other manufacturers. The most recent trials took place in June last year.

This is a constantly developing area and Customs remain committed to working with other UK and overseas agencies as well as manufacturers to make the most of new technology where it can provide good value for money.

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Inland Revenue

Mr. Dodds: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people are employed by the Inland Revenue in Northern Ireland. [155484]

Dawn Primarolo: At 1 April 2003, the number of people employed by the Inland Revenue in Northern Ireland was 1,840, which represents 1,727 Full-Time Equivalent Units.

Iraq

Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what sums in United Kingdom claims on Iraq have been notified to the Paris Club, including interest, broken down by (a) government and (b) non-government claims. [154556]

John Healey: The Government have notified to the Paris Club unrecovered claims of £623 million arising from commercial export contracts with Iraq signed prior to the first Gulf conflict in 1991 insured by the Export Credits Guarantee Department. This amount does not include interest, which it is estimated could bring the figure to around £1.15 billion. The Paris Club deals only with claims arising out of government loans or government-insured commercial credits.

The Government believe that Iraq's external debt is unsustainable and that creditors will need to agree a significant reduction through a clear multilateral process in order to restore Iraq to sustainability. That is likely to involve writing off the vast majority of Iraq's external debt.

Labour Statistics

Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the unemployment rate was in England and Wales on the latest date for which figures are available; what the unemployment rate was in each ward in each principal seaside town of England and Wales on the latest date for which figures are available, listed in descending order, with figures for Welsh seaside town clusters disaggregated; and if he will make a statement. [154962]

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

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Chris Ruane dated 23 February 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on what the unemployment rate was in England and Wales on the latest date for which figures are available; what the unemployment rate was in each ward in each principal seaside town of England and Wales on the latest date for which figures are available, listed in descending order, with figures for Welsh seaside town clusters disaggregated. (154962)

The unemployment rate in England and Wales for the period October-December 2003, the latest date for which information is available, was 4.8 per cent. This rate is seasonally adjusted and calculated using the standard International Labour Organisation (ILO) definition of unemployment.

The most recent data on unemployment rates by ward are taken from the 2001 Census. They are based on the number of people aged between 16 and 74 who were unemployed and seeking work at April 2001 as a proportion of all economically active people aged 16–74, apart from full-time students, at that date. This

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measure is not directly comparable with the rate using the ILO definition of unemployment above. The average unemployment rate at April 2001 for England and Wales as a whole was 5.2 per cent. on this basis.

Data on the number of unemployed people who were seeking work in England and Wales was released in Table KS09a of the Census Key Statistics. The table showing information for wards in England and Wales can be viewed from the National Statistics web site at: http//neighbourhoodstatistics.gov.uk/Downloads.asp?nsid==false&CE=True&SE=Tme&T:=D&d sid=2891

I am placing in the House of Commons Library a table, which shows the figures for all wards which are situated on the coast, and ordered by the unemployment rate as measured by the 2001 Census.

Land Transactions

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if the Inland Revenue will prioritise the delivery of land transaction (a) forms and (b) certificates to Scottish solicitors to ensure that they meet the time limits to secure title to land imposed by Scottish law. [155814]

Ruth Kelly: The Inland Revenue is committed to issuing certificates within five working days of receipt of a properly completed return. It would not be practicable to give priority to the issue of certificates to Scottish addresses. However, in certain circumstances certificates in respect of transactions in Scotland can be obtained by personal attendance at Edinburgh Stamp Office. Return forms can be obtained in advance of settlement of land transactions so I see no reason why obtaining a return form should delay matters. In addition the Inland Revenue, and some software suppliers, offer the scope for forms to be completed on-line or on-screen and then printed off for signature.

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the reasons for delay in the Inland Revenue's distribution of land transaction (a) returns and (b) certificates to Scottish solicitors. [155815]

Ruth Kelly: The Inland Revenue is committed to issuing certificates within five working days of receipt of a properly completed return. This target has been achieved across the United Kingdom. In addition, in certain circumstances certificates in respect of transactions in Scotland can be obtained by personal attendance at Edinburgh Stamp Office.

Return forms have been and are being sent out to all those who ask for them.

Mrs. Lait: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received from Scottish solicitors about the effect of changes in stamp duty land tax on their work. [155816]

Ruth Kelly: The Inland Revenue has received many representations on several aspects of stamp duty land tax, including some from Scottish solicitors. In addition Inland Revenue officials are in regular discussion with the Law Society of Scotland on all aspects of stamp duty land tax.

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