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5 May 2004 : Column 1505W—continued

Income Tax

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many senior citizens in Wirral, South qualified for the 10p rate of income tax in each year since its introduction. [170275]

Ruth Kelly: All income taxpayers benefit from the 10p starting rate. The Survey of Personal Incomes estimates there were around 10,000 state retirement pension age taxpayers in the Wirral South constituency in 2000–01 and 2001–02. Figures for 1999–2000 are currently not available.

IT Equipment (Tax Exemption)

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses in the Huntingdon constituency have benefited from 100 per cent. tax exemption for the purchase of computer and internet equipment. [170843]

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses in Oldham West and Royton have benefited from the 100 per cent. tax exemption for the purchase of computer and internet equipment. [170901]

Ruth Kelly: We regret that the information is not available to estimate the number of businesses in a given constituency which have benefited from the 100 per cent. first year capital allowances for the purchase of information and communication equipment.

Mr. Ben Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses in Wirral, South have benefited from the 100 per cent. tax exemption for the purchase of computer and internet equipment. [170301]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested is not available.

Job Creation (Huntingdon)

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many jobs have been created in the Huntingdon constituency since 1997; [170850]
 
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(2) what the (a) change and (b) percentage change was in full-time permanent jobs in the Huntingdon constituency from 1997 to 31 December 2003. [170851]

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

Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. Jonathan Djanogly, dated 5 May 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about full-time jobs and jobs created in Huntingdon. I am replying in his absence.

While statistics of jobs created are not available explicitly, statistics from surveys enable comparisons to be made of net changes, in numbers of jobs, from year to year.

The attached table shows the information requested, relating to all jobs and full-time jobs, in Huntingdon, for 1997 and the latest year available, 2002. No information is available about whether the jobs were permanent.

Number of full-time employees and total number of employees⁽¹³⁾in Huntingdon parliamentary constituency: 1997 and 2002

	Full-time	Total
Number of employees
1997	36,900	50,000
2002	36,900	52,500
Change from 1997 to 2002
Absolute	0	2,500
Percentage	0.0	5.0

⁽¹³⁾   Employee jobs only, not self-employed jobs.
Source:
1997; Annual Employment Survey, rescaled 2002; Annual Business Inquiry (ABI).

Ministerial Meetings

Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list (a) the official meetings he has had with the Mayor of London since July 2000 and (b) the dates and subject of each meeting. [170570]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 4 May 2004]: The Chancellor has had no official meetings with the Mayor since July 2000.

Mr. B. Bentley (Child Benefit)

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how long it took to finalise the claim for child benefit submitted by Mr. B. Bentley of Quigley Street, Birkenhead; and if he will make a statement on his policy of transferring child benefit to grandparents when they become the main carer of the child. [170656]

Ruth Kelly [holding answer 4 May 2004]: The Inland Revenue is statutorily debarred from disclosing information relating to the affairs of individuals. Exemption 15 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information applies.

The rules governing the transfer of child benefit from one person to another are contained in the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. Where a
 
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child's parent voluntarily relinquishes entitlement to child benefit in favour of the child's grandparent, the grandparent will be entitled from the day following the last day the benefit was paid to the parent.

National Minimum Wage

Simon Hughes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many young people aged 16 or 17 he expects will be entitled to the national minimum wage in (a) Greater London, (b) each London borough and (c) the United Kingdom in 2004–05. [170495]

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

Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. Simon Hughes, dated 5 May 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about national minimum wage. I am replying in his absence. (170495)

Information about entitlement to the national minimum wage is not available. However, estimates for the number of employees aged 16 and 17 from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) provide an upper limit for the number of people entitled to the national minimum wage.

The table below gives estimates of the number of employees aged 16 and 17 in the United Kingdom and in Greater London for the three month period ending February 2004. They include a small, but not measured, number of people enrolled on apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship schemes who are not entitled to the minimum wage.

 
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Number of employees aged 16 and 17 in the United Kingdom and in Greater London

	Three month period ending February 2004
		Employees aged:
Area	16 and 17	16	17
United Kingdom	602,000	227,000	375,000
Greater London	34,000	11,000	23,000

Source:
Office for National Statistics

As with any statistical sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to sampling variability and the sample size is too small to provide comparable estimates for London Boroughs with any reliability.

Parliamentary Questions

John Thurso: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many (a) Ordinary Written and (b) Named Day Questions his Department received in (i) the 2002–03 and (ii) this parliamentary session up to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by month; [170764]

(2) what proportion of (a) Ordinary Written Questions to his Department were answered within five sitting days of tabling and (b) Questions for a Named Day received a substantive answer on that day in (i) 2002–03 and (ii) this parliamentary session up to the most recent date for which figures are available, broken down by month. [170765]

John Healey: The information is given in the following table:

	Ordinary written questions tabled	Answered within a working week(14)	Named day questions tabled	Answered on the nominated day
2002–03
November 2002	203	158	67	54
December 2002	168	138	108	73
January 2003	476	360	62	45
February 2003	295	210	58	47
March 2003	442	363	43	31
April 2003	277	176	52	29
May 2003	298	246	37	24
June 2003	340	248	58	35
July 2003	253	164	31	20
August 2003	0	0	0	0
September 2003	181	139	39	30
October 2003	253	205	40	32
November 2003	160	143	25	18
Total	3,346	2,550	620	438
2003–04
November 2003	53	50	7	7
December 2003	245	205	60	52
January 2004	304	253	43	27
February 2004	252	201	46	37
March 2004	346	267	102	55
April 2004	139	102	19	10
Total	1,339	1,078	277	188

⁽¹⁴⁾   The Treasury's database records whether ordinary written questions are answered within a working week rather than five sitting days, which can be several days longer.

John Thurso: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will reply to question 163123 tabled on 18 March, on meetings with the Chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority. [170870]

Mr. Boateng: I did so on 28 April 2004, Official Report, column 1114W.

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