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Departmental Annual Report

Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many copies of his Department's annual report were printed in each year since 1997; how many were sold in each year; and what the (a) publication costs and (b) sales revenue were. [183884]

Ruth Kelly: Publication of HM Treasury's Departmental Report is handled by The Stationery Office Ltd. (TSO), who are responsible for determining print runs and for selling copies of the report. Sales figures for the previous seven years are as follows:

Edition	Copies issued by TSO
1998	589
1999	524
2000	484
2001	547
2002	465
2003	426
2004	306

Printing and publication costs for the Treasury Departmental Report are met by The Stationery Office Ltd. (TSO) and in recent years the document has been designed in-house by members of the Treasury's publishing unit.

For information on direct publication costs incurred by the Treasury in previous years, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given by the former Financial Secretary to the Treasury, the right hon. Member for Brent South (Mr. Boateng), to the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith) on 24 July 2002, Official Report, column 1190W.

Employment (Over-65s)

Mr. Hepburn: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people over 65 years have been in work in (a) the Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) Tyne and Wear and (d) the UK in each year since 1997. [184519]

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

Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Stephen Hepburn dated 21 July 2004:

The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking about the number of people over 65 in employment in (a) the Jarrow constituency, (b) South Tyneside, (c) Tyne and Wear and (d) the UK in each year since 1997. I am replying in his absence. (184519)

The attached table gives estimates of the number of people aged 65 and over in employment in Tyne and Wear and the United Kingdom for the three months ending in May of each year from 1997 to 2004. However, the Office for National Statistics' Labour Force Survey (LFS) sample size is too small to give reliable estimates for the Jarrow Parliamentary Constituency and the South Tyneside Unitary Authority.

As with any statistical sample survey, estimates from the LFS are subject to sampling variability.

People 65 and over in employment £000

3 months ending May each year	UK	Tyne and Wear
1997	432	4
1998	444	3
1999	464	3
2000	459	4
2001	421	3
2002	477	3
2003	525	3
2004	540	6

Source:
ONS Labour Force Survey.

Fuel Taxation

Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will reduce fuel taxation. [185204]

John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 13 July 2004, Official Report, column 1014W.
 
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Mr. Wiggin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to use funds raised from road and fuel taxes specifically for road construction and improvement projects. [185205]

John Healey: Revenue from any particular tax is not generally earmarked to any particular part of the public spending programme. However, the Government have a commitment to ring fence any revenue from fuel duty increases above inflation to improving public transport and modernising the road network.

Government Offices (East Midlands)

Mr. Dorrell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many full-time equivalent employees of the Inland Revenue in the east midlands there were in each year since 1997. [185493]

Dawn Primarolo: The numbers of full-time equivalent employees of the Inland Revenue in the Government East Midlands region on 1 April each year since 1997 were:

	Number
1997	3,714
1998	3,807
1999	3,951
2000	4,010
2001	4,060
2002	4,080
2003	4,385
2004	4,368

The reasons for changes in staff numbers in a single Government region are difficult to accurately measure as they do not reflect organisational divisions within IR or changes in organisational design over the period. Nationally, Inland Revenue growth since 1997, of which a proportion will be reflected within East Midlands, can be attributed to workload growth, spend to save initiatives, programmes such as the Grabiner review of the informal economy, mergers with the contribution and benefit agencies and the introduction of new tax credits work.

Green Minister

Mr. Horam: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the activities of the Green Minister in the Department in financial year 2003–04. [185130]

John Healey: As the Treasury's Green Minister, I am committed to improving the environmental impact of the Department's operations, to integrating environmental considerations across policy areas, and to improving the economic analysis underpinning the Government's environmental initiatives.

In the financial year 2003–04, as the Treasury's Green Minister my work included the development of a range of environmental policy measures including those announced in the pre-Budget report on 10 December 2003 and Budget on 17 March. It also included membership of the Ministerial Sub-Committee on Green Ministers and the Sustainable Development
 
21 Jul 2004 : Column 312W
 
Taskforce, and meetings with representatives of non-governmental organisations and other key stakeholders on topics ranging from climate change to waste to aviation.

MRSA (Frimley Park Hospital)

Andrew Mackinlay: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will investigate the practice at Frimley Park Hospital of not recording MRSA on death certificates where it was the cause or a contributory cause of death; and if he will make a statement. [184667]

Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Registrar General for England and Wales, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Andrew Mackinlay, dated 21 July 2004:

As Registrar General for England and Wales, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking if the Chancellor will investigate the practice at Frimley Park Hospital of not recording MRSA on death certificates where it was the cause or a contributory cause of death. (184667)

The Births and Deaths Registration Act 1953 places an individual responsibility on the medical practitioner in attendance on the deceased to certify the cause of death to the best of his or her knowledge and belief, rather than on any organisation. The Registrar General has no specific power to instigate an inquiry into an accusation of this nature. Coroners can only investigate where a death is referred to them.

The Government published a position paper on death certification and Investigation in March 2004 outlining proposals for reform. In the interim, the General Register Office will be issuing guidance to all doctors on the best practice for death certification under current legislation. This will remind them of their duty to certify the cause of death to the best of their knowledge and belief, recording each condition which contributed to the death.

There were 7 deaths in Frimley Park Hospital in the years 2000 to 2002 where the cause of death was wholly or partly attributable to MRSA ¹ .

¹ Identified using the methodology described in Griffiths C, Lamagni TL, Crowcroft NS, Duckworth G and Rooney C (2004) Trends in MRSA in England and Wales: analysis of morbidity and mortality data for 1993–2002. Health Statistics Quarterly 21, 15–22.

Objections to Ministerial Decisions

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list occasions since 1992 when a Permanent Secretary in his or her role as accounting officer has lodged a note of dissent formally objecting to a ministerial decision. [185628]

Ruth Kelly: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Lewes (Mr. Norman Baker) on 24 March 2004, Official Report, column 839W.

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