---

10 May 2004 : Column 97W—continued

Mold Flood Alleviation Scheme

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with the National Assembly for Wales Government about providing exceptional costs to implement the Mold Flood Allevation Scheme; and if he will make a statement. [169774]

 
10 May 2004 : Column 98W
 

Mr. Touhig: I understand that the National Assembly has made £3.713 million available to the Environment Agency, this financial year, to support flood defence works within its approved programme. It is up to the Agency to determine priorities within its budget. The Agency is currently reviewing its capital programme, to see how it can maximise the funding available for the Mold scheme.

Parliamentary Questions

John Thurso: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales (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; [170762]

(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. [170763]

Mr. Touhig: The information is not available in the format requested. However, during session 2002–03 the following parliamentary questions were tabled:

290 (Ordinary Written Questions) of these 41 per cent. were answered within five sitting days.

42 (Named Days) of these 61.9 per cent.were answered on the specified date.

For 2003–04:

91 (Ordinary Written Questions) of these 52.7 per cent. were answered within five sitting days.

6 (Named Days) of these 100 per cent. were answered on the specified date.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Business Rate

Harry Cohen: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what plans he has to take steps to enable business rate income to remain with local authorities; how much business rate was collected by the London Borough of (a) Waltham Forest and (b) Redbridge in the last year for which   figures are available; and if he will make a statement. [171445]

Mr. Raynsford: The amounts of business rates collected in 2002–03, the most recent year for which figures are available, are:

            (a) London Borough of Waltham Forest: £35.412 million

            (b) London Borough of Redbridge: £38.511 million

These figures are taken from the QRC4 return from each authority.

The Office of Deputy Prime Minister is planning to introduce the Local Authority Business Growth Incentives scheme from April 2005. This scheme will allow retention of some business rates revenue by local authorities whose areas experience business rates
 
10 May 2004 : Column 99W
 
growth above a predetermined threshold. We shall issue a consultation paper about the preferred scheme in the summer.

The Balance of Funding Review, which I chair, has received evidence for and against the complete return of business rates to local authority control. The Review is due to report in the summer.

Business Rates (Chorley)

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how much was collected in business rates in Chorley in each of the last three years. [172108]

Mr. Raynsford: The figures for National Non Domestic Rates (NNDR) collected in Chorley in each of the last three years are tabled as follows:
£

	In year collection
2001–02	16,300,841
2002–03	16,824,868
2003–04	16,672,318

The figures for 2003–04 have been calculated, but as yet not audited and certified by the Audit Commission.
 
10 May 2004 : Column 100W
 

Committee of the Regions

Ann Winterton: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the representatives to the Committee of the Regions will come from the elected members to the proposed regional assemblies. [171782]

Mr. Raynsford: At present, in addition to nominations received from the Local Government Association, each English regional chamber and the Greater London Authority nominate one member and one alternate to be proposed by the Government as English members of the Committee of the Regions.

As stated in the White Paper, Your Region, Your Choice: Revitalising the English Regions (Cm 5511—May 2002), the Government intends that in those regions where an elected regional assembly is established, the assembly will take the role for its region currently exercised by the regional chamber. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister will consult on the detail of the nomination process in advance of nominations for the committee to be instituted in 2006.

Council Tax (Greater London)

Simon Hughes: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of the total of unpaid council tax in Greater London, broken down by borough, in each year since 1997. [170502]

Mr. Raynsford: Tabled are figures for the amounts of council tax payable for each financial year from 1996–97 to 2002–03 that had not been collected by the end of the year to which they related.
Amounts of council tax uncollected at the end of the financial year £ thousand

	1996–97	1997–98	1998–99	1999–2000	2000–01	2001–02	2002–03
Inner London
City of London	27	40	49	37	38	41	66
Camden	6,100	6,082	5,220	4,700	4,610	4,389	5,215
Greenwich	3,448	3,410	3,725	4,324	4,019	4,331	4,146
Hackney	5,997	6,435	8,371	11,859	13,085	11,301	9,652
Hammersmith and Fulham	5,075	5,084	3,627	3,425	3,363	3,156	2,916
Islington	6,431	4,509	4,542	4,269	4,441	3,869	5,664
Kensington and Chelsea	2,007	2,123	2,068	2,085	2,079	2,550	2,842
Lambeth	8,694	8,729	9,186	7,377	9,012	7,864	6,373
Lewisham	5,846	3,817	4,134	3,849	3,593	3,834	4,183
Southwark	6,259	7,934	9,126	10,324	7,168	5,905	5,141
Tower Hamlets	2,712	3,016	2,976	3,244	3,493	3,397	3,215
Wandsworth	4,937	3,637	2,730	2,668	2,478	2,597	2,175
Westminster	2,009	2,145	1,981	2,471	3,186	3,027	3,010
Total inner London	59,542	56,961	57,735	60,632	60,565	56,261	54,598
Outer London
Barking and Dagenham	1,043	1,134	1,208	1,466	1,848	1,840	2,966
Barnet	3,798	3,691	3,944	3,908	4,019	4,008	4,223
Bexley	1,575	2,486	2,914	2,803	2,737	2,866	2,804
Brent	3,833	4,069	3,591	4,664	4,363	5,314	6,897
Bromley	1,724	1,795	2,181	2,942	3,037	3,440	3,829
Croydon	4,954	5,096	5,390	6,961	7,236	5,592	5,070
Haling	2,723	2,765	3,037	3,737	4,838	4,738	4,642
Enfield	4,204	4,445	3,775	4,015	3,878	4,225	4,597
Haringey	9,177	8,314	7,488	7,915	6,290	5,867	4,526
Harrow	1,502	1,496	1,674	2,187	1,151	963	2,091
Havering	1,466	1,142	1,757	2,669	2,344	2,905	3,258
Hillingdon	2,639	2,491	2,399	3,098	2,985	2,641	3,964
Hounslow	3,095	3,683	3,173	3,541	3,536	4,064	4,398
Kingston upon Thames	921	2,118	3,127	2,727	2,906	2,166	2,059
Merton	2,201	1,932	2,319	2,396	2,420	2,697	2,319
Newham	4,703	4,881	4,926	5,342	5,475	5,298	4,294
Redbridge	1,840	1,763.	1,937	2,403	2,748	2,869	3,073
Richmond upon Thames	1,564	1,507	2,187	2,100	2,134	1,886	2,040
Sutton	720	1,039	1,323	1,303	1,366	1,553	1,673
Waltham Forest	3,378	3,738	5,659	6,066	6,357	5,313	4,141
Total Outer London	57,060	59,585	64,009	72,243	71,668	70,245	72,864
Total Greater London	116,602	116,546	121,744	132,875	132,233	126,506	127,462

⁽³⁸⁾ Amounts relate only to the financial year shown: arrears carried forward from earlier years are not therefore included.



 
10 May 2004 : Column 101W
 

In addition, the total level of council tax arrears includes amounts uncollected from previous years. Reliable figures for these are not currently available for individual local authorities. It is estimated, however, that nationally, the level of arrears carried forward from previous years is currently equal to approximately twice the amount not collected in-year.

---