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11 Oct 2004 : Column 80W—continued

Self-Employed Taxpayers (Leeds)

Mr. Battle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department's latest estimate is of the number of self-employed taxpayers in the Leeds, West constituency. [189946]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer my hon. Friend to table "3.13 Income and Tax By County and Region, 2001–02", on the Inland Revenue website: www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/stats/income distribution/table-313–2001–02.pdf Figures for 2002–03 will be published in November.

Small Businesses (Leeds)

Mr. Battle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the number of registered small businesses in the Leeds, West constituency. [189947]


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

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. John Battle, dated 11 October 2004:

Tax Credits

Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new claims for tax credits have been received but not yet processed. [188898]

Dawn Primarolo: As at 31 August 2004, there were around 55,000 claims that were waiting for further information or were being verified. Over 100,000 new claims were received during August.

Mr. Dhanda: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects the Inland Revenue to adjust the levels of repayment for individuals who have been overpaid tax credits. [189724]

Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue's Code of Practice 26 "What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?" confirms the maximum amounts by which the Inland Revenue would reduce the current year's tax credits to recover overpaid tax credit from 2003–04. A copy of the Code of Practice has been placed in the Library of the House and the text can be found on the Inland Revenue website on www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk. The content of the code is kept under review.

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many recipients of tax credits were found to have been overpaid in each year since 2001, broken down by (a) type of credit and (b) bands of overpayments; [189743]

(2) how many recipients of tax credit overpaid in each year since 2001 have been (a) subject to attempts at recovery of overpayment, (b) subject to no such attempts and (c) subject to such attempts which have now been abandoned, broken down by type of credit; [189744]

(3) how much tax credit overpaid was or is anticipated to be recovered in each year since 2001, broken down by type of credit; [189745]

(4) what the value is of tax credit overpaid in each year since 2001 which have been (a) subject to attempts at recovery of overpayment, (b) subject to no such attempts and (c) subject to such attempts which have now been abandoned, broken down by type of credit. [189746]


 
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Dawn Primarolo: For working families' and disabled person's tax credits, I refer the hon. Member to my answer to the hon. Member for Eddisbury (Mr. O'Brien) on 12 November 2003, Official Report, column 394W.

For child and working tax credits, complete figures for overpaid 2003–04 awards will not be available until these awards are finalised.

Mr. Stunell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many working tax credit back-dated payment claims were outstanding on (a) 1 January and (b) 1 June by more than six weeks; and if he will make a statement. [186322]

Dawn Primarolo: This information is not available. Claims for tax credits are normally put into payment quickly unless the Inland Revenue needs more information to process them. At any date, there are always some claims for which additional information is being sought, and in some circumstances this can delay the claim being put into payment.

Mr. Stunell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he plans to take to ensure software upgrades to the working tax credit system are installed; what impact he expects the upgrades to have on the outstanding back-dated payment claims; and if he will make a statement. [186326]

Dawn Primarolo: There are regular, planned, upgrades and releases of software to add new functionality for the tax credits cycle—for example, in April 2004 there was increased functionality in connection with finalisation and renewal of tax credits claims for 2003–04 and 2004–05. Upgrades to software are not expected to have a significant effect on the numbers of claims awaiting processing.

Tobacco Consumption

Mr. Dobson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact on the economy of reduced tobacco consumption. [189822]

John Healey: Isolating the impact on the economy of a particular public health trend, such as declining tobacco consumption, is very difficult. However, the Wanless Report, "Securing Good Health for the Whole Population", presents a range of evidence about the impact of smoking on public health, indicating that smoking kills 120,000 people in the UK every year, costing the NHS up to £1.7 billion a year and has wider costs such as productivity losses from ill health and absenteeism.

ENVIRONMENT, FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Agricultural Wages

Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on this year's Agricultural Wages Board announcement. [189919]

Alun Michael: The Agricultural Wages Board is an independent body and the Agricultural Wages Act 1948 gives the Secretary of State no authority to intervene in,
 
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or seek to influence, Board decisions. Its decisions are announced by public notices in the farming press and by a press release whose wording is agreed by the Chairman of the Board and the leaders of the two sides (the lead representative of the National Farmers Union and the Transport and General Workers Union). In view of this it would not be appropriate for me to comment on the outcome of the recent pay negotiations.

Arable Farmers

Mr. Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) what assessment she has made of the difficulties facing arable farmers in the UK following the poor weather this summer; [188560]

(2) if she will compensate arable farmers badly affected by this summer's bad weather. [188561]

Alun Michael: Our latest assessment is that this year's harvest is now largely complete, despite very substantial delays and difficulties in many parts of the country as a result of the extremely wet weather during the summer. Total yield is likely to be higher than last year, when output fell because of excessive heat and drought. But the majority of crops will be of poorer quality than expected, reducing farmers' returns in a weaker market, in addition to more expensive field and drying operations. There will also be some knock-on effects in relation to plantings and establishment of following crops.

Having considered the position very carefully in close contact with farmers' representatives and following discussions between my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State, and the NFU President on 16 September, it has been concluded that it would be more effective to devote special efforts to making full payments in the worst affected areas at the start of the payment window on 16 November, rather than attempting to make partial payments a few weeks earlier that would have to be topped-up in a separate operation later. The areas in question are likely to include Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, North and East Yorkshire, North Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire.

We are continuing to work closely with farming organisations to ensure the most effective targeting of these efforts and to explore other ways in which existing schemes and resources can be used to help to mitigate the problems that we accept many arable farmers are facing.

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