House of Commons Hansard Written Answers for 1 Apr 2004 (pt 41)

1 Apr 2004 : Column 1697W—continued

Tax

Mr. McFall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is regarded by his Department as (a) legitimate and (b) illegitimate avoidance of tax. [161858]

Dawn Primarolo: The Government take steps to close down tax avoidance schemes as they become aware of them, particularly where they create economic distortions, provide commercial advantages over compliant taxpayers, redistribute tax revenues in an unfair and arbitrary manner, or represent an abuse that conflicts with or defeats the will of Parliament.

Mr. McFall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action his Department has taken to establish best practice in international approaches to tackling tax avoidance. [161859]

Dawn Primarolo: The UK has a long, and well-established, history of working with other countries, both bilaterally and multilaterally, on a range of tax issues. We are leading participants in a number of international tax fora and continue to share experience and best practice in international approaches to tackling tax avoidance.

1 Apr 2004 : Column 1698W

Mr. Letwin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax that should have been paid is outstanding from each of the last five financial years.[R] [149812]

Dawn Primarolo: Reliable information is not available in the form requested. I refer the hon. Member to the NAO report, "The Recovery of Debt by the Inland Revenue", published on 24 March 2004.

Lynne Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the Answer of 23 February 2004, Official Report, column 122W, on tax credits, what proportion of the expected £300 million per annum overhead costs of administering the child and working tax credits will be paid to private contractors. [163691]

Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue paid £107 million (excluding VAT and payments in respect of capital purchases) to private contractors during the financial year 2002–03 for the delivery of the tax credits programme. The equivalent figure for the financial year 2003–04 is not yet available.

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much tax he estimates has been uncollected in the past five years. [162467]

Dawn Primarolo: In respect of the Inland Revenue, I refer the hon. Member to the NAO report "The Recovery of Debt by the Inland Revenue", which reflects the position in March 2003. Comparable data for earlier years are not available.

Customs' latest estimates of tax losses were published in "Measuring and Tackling Indirect Tax Losses" in December 2003, a copy of which is available in the Library of the House.

Unemployment (Crosby)

Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of unemployment in each (a) region and (b) nation of the United Kingdom was in each month since 1995; and if he will make a statement. [151829]

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. Stephen O'Brien, dated 1 April 2004:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question on unemployment rates. (151829)

The information requested is available from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) on a monthly basis for rolling three-month periods starting with December 1996 to February 1997 and ending with September to November 2003. As with any sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to sampling variability.

It is not practicable to print a table of this size in the Official Report. However, these data are published on the Office for National Statistics website as part of Table 18 of the Labour Market Statistics First Release Historical Supplement. This may be accessed via the House of Commons Library; the web page address is: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme labour/LMS FR HS/Table18sa.xls.