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9 Mar 2004 : Column 1474W—continued

Child Care Vouchers

Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps his Department has taken to publicise information on childcare vouchers to small and medium sized enterprises. [159268]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 5 March 2004]: The Inland Revenue will ensure that information and guidance to support the new tax exemption on child care vouchers is available to all employers before the changes are introduced in April 2005. Naturally, this will include all small and medium sized enterprises.

And, of course, the Chancellor himself has publicised the exemption by writing to all MPs on 16 December last year, and including an information sheet for Members to pass on to businesses in their constituencies.

Child Tax Credit

Mr. Goodman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost to his Department of administering (a) child care credit and (b) child tax credit was (i) in total and (ii) per claimant in the last year for which figures are available. [158078]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) on 28 April 2003, Official Report, column 161W. On 30 January 2004 there were £6 million families in total benefiting from tax credits.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the additional cost would be of raising the first threshold for those entitled to Child Tax Credit only for the year 2004–05 from £13,480 to £13,600; [159759]

(2) what the additional cost would be of raising the second income threshold for tax credits from £50,000 to £51,380; [159760]

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(3) what the additional cost would be of raising the first income threshold for tax credits from £5,060 to £5,200; [159761]

(4) what the cost would be of raising the family element of the Child Tax Credit from £545 to £565 for 2004–05; [159762]

(5) what the cost would be of raising the family element of the Child Tax Credit to £1,130 for 2004–05. [159763]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to table 4 "Direct effects of illustrative tax changes" on the HM Treasury website at http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/media//AAB24/pbr03 trr.pdf

The figures exclude any estimate of behavioural response to the tax credits changes.

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how much a family with a joint income before tax in 2004–05 of £52,000 will receive in child tax credit; and how much they would receive in child tax credit if the second income threshold was £51,380; [159764]

(2) how much a family with a joint income before tax of £14,000 in 2004 will receive in child tax credit; and how much they would receive if the first threshold for those entitled to child tax credit only was increased to £13,600; [159765]

(3) how much a family with a joint income before tax of £5,200 in 2004–05 will receive in tax credits; and how much they would receive if the first income threshold was £5,200. [159766]

Dawn Primarolo: The tax credit award a family receives depends on a variety of factors relating to their particular circumstances, not just their level of income.

Company Car Tax

Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reason a liquefied petroleum gas-powered vehicle is classified as a luxury option within the P11D form under the company car tax regime; and if he will make a statement. [157754]

John Healey: A liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) powered vehicle is not classified as a luxury option under the company car tax regime.

Competitive Tendering

John Mann: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of best practice in the use of competitive tendering by Government departments. [159453]

Mr. Boateng: OGC is working with Departments to produce and update Best Practice and has provided extensive advice on the use of competitive tendering, in particular on evaluation using whole lifecycle cost approaches.

Council Tax

Mr. Beggs: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce a non-means-tested council tax and rates relief scheme for over 70-year-olds. [159197]

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Mr. Boateng: There are no plans to introduce a non-means-tested council tax relief and rates scheme for over 70-year-olds.

Debt Relief/Trade Justice

Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has held with (a) churches and (b) church leaders on debt relief and the campaign for trade justice. [159049]

John Healey: On 16 February, Lord Carey and Lord Griffiths hosted a conference on "Making Globalisation Work For All: The Challenge of Delivering the Monterrey Consensus" at the Treasury. The Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Secretary of State for International Development were among the keynote speakers at the conference which was attended by a number of church leaders and faith groups.

The conference brought together leaders from faith groups, NGOs, governments, businesses and universities to discuss how to make progress in meeting the Millennium Development Goals and eliminating global poverty. Debt relief and trade justice are central to improving growth and reducing poverty in developing countries, and the UK continues to call for the full implementation of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and for a strengthened commitment to ensure that trade liberalisation delivers poverty reduction.

The conference also focused on the need for extra resources to provide further debt relief, and for additional aid to improve the investment climate and help the private sector in developing countries respond to the new opportunities and challenges created by trade liberalisation. The UK's proposal for an International Finance Facility would provide the much-needed substantial increase in resources that debt relief alone would not achieve and that could be disbursed byway of grants and additional debt relief.

Departmental Buildings (Asbestos)

Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of buildings occupied by (a) staff of the Department and (b) staff of the Department's executive agencies have been surveyed for the purpose of identifying the presence of asbestos prior to implementation of the Control of Asbestos at Work Regulations 2002. [159375]

Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. gentleman to the answer given by my hon. friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury on 10 June 2003, Official Report, column 745W.

Departmental Secondments

Mr. Drew: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many officials from his Department have been seconded in each of the last five years to work in less developed countries, broken down by country. [159050]

Ruth Kelly: According to our records, since 1999 the Treasury has seconded one official to work for the Azerbaijan Finance Ministry. As part of our interchange programme, our officials also go on loan to other Government Departments and may be posted to other countries.

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Economic Activity (Lancashire)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the economic activity rate in (a) Lancashire and (b) Chorley was in (i) 2002–03 and (ii) 1996–97. [157691]

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. Lindsay Hoyle dated 9 March 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary Question on economic activity rates in Lancashire and Chorley. (157691)

The attached table shows the working age economic activity rates for Lancashire and the Chorley Local Authority District. The Chorley Parliamentary Constituency is identical to the Local Authority. The data cover the 12month period ending February 1997 and February 2002. Information for the 12 month period ending February 2003 is not yet available.

As with any statistical sample survey, estimates for the Labour Force Survey are subject to sampling variability.

Working age⁽¹⁶⁾ economic activity rates⁽¹⁷⁾ for Lancashire and the Chorley LAD12 month period ending February each yearPercentage

	1996–97	2001–02
Lancashire	78.5	76.8
Chorley LAD	78.5	80.3

Source:ONS Labour Force Survey

⁽¹⁶⁾ Includes men aged 16–64 and women aged 16–59

⁽¹⁷⁾ Economic activity rate is the percentage of the working age population who are either in employment or unemployed

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