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14 Oct 2004 : Column 344W—continued

International Currency Transaction Tax

20. Mr. Barnes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has held with the Belgian Finance Minister about Belgium's support for an international currency transaction tax. [190557]

Mr. Timms: The Chancellor recently met with a range of finance Ministers, including the Belgian Finance Minister, at the Annual Meetings at which there was a discussion regarding an international currency transaction tax. The Government are open to exploring the full range of options for financing for development, and welcomes the recent reports of the French-Brazilian-Spanish-Chilean-UN and Landau working groups. The UK Government will continue to explore international taxes as potential long-term sources of development finance, but in the short-term the IFF remains the only workable proposal on the table to generate the resources urgently needed to help meet the MDGs.
 
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Third World Poverty

21. Linda Gilroy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on UK investment in tackling poverty in developing countries. [190558]

Mr. Timms: The Government are making a considerable and increasing investment in tackling poverty in developing countries. As announced in the 2004 Spending Review, the budget of the Department for International Development (DFID) will grow by an average of 9.2 per cent. a year in real terms over the three years of the Spending Review period, to more than £5.3 billion a year by 2007–08. Total UK official development assistance will reach nearly £6.5 billion a year by 2007–08. This is equal to 0.47 per cent. of Gross National Income (GNI) and represents a real terms increase in UK ODA of 140 per cent. since 1997.

Millennium Development Goals 2015

22. Jim Knight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his Department's involvement in progress towards the 2015 Millennium Development Goals. [190559]

Mr. Timms: HM Treasury works very closely with the Department for International Development towards our shared objective of making progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

We share a Public Service Agreement Target on progress for poor countries through the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative and on ensuring that our international partners work effectively towards meeting the MDGs.

We have massively increased aid since 1997 towards meeting the MDGs. Through Spending Review 2004, total UK Official Development Assistance (ODA) will reach nearly £6.5 billion a year by 2007–08, which represents a 73 per cent. real times increase in total UK ODA since 2001, and a 140 per cent. real terms increase since 1997.

We have been at the forefront of calls for additional debt relief, including the Chancellor's recent announcement that the UK will provide our share of up to 100 per cent. multilateral debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

And because we know that on current trends we will not meet the MDGs in 2015, we are calling for an International Finance Facility that would provide the additional funding needed immediately to make progress towards the MDGs.

Oil Price

23. Kevin Brennan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the macro-economic implications of recent oil price fluctuations on the UK economy. [190560]

John Healey: The Government will publish updated forecasts for the UK and world economies in Pre-Budget Report 2004 as usual, taking into account all relevant factors and developments, including oil prices.
 
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Tax/Pension Credits

24. Lynne Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues regarding the (a) tax credit and (b) pension credit systems. [190561]

Dawn Primarolo: Tax credits have been hugely successful in their prime aims of tackling child poverty and making work pay.

John Thurso: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new claims for tax credits have been received but not yet processed, broken down by region. [190164]

Dawn Primarolo: It is not possible to break down the number of claims for new tax credits that have been received but not yet processed by region. Over 150,000 new claims were received during September.

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much on average tax credits add to the income of a family with two children on a wage of (a) £10,000 and (b) £15,000 a year. [191226]

Dawn Primarolo: The figures requested are in the following table.

			£
Family wage	Child tax credit	Working tax credit (not including childcare element) 1	Total
10,000	3,803.30	1,935.35	5,738.65
15,000	3,803.30	85.35	3,888.65

⁽⁵⁾ This Working Tax Credit award assumes that the families qualify for the premium available for working at least 30 hours a week.

These families may also qualify for up to £7,300 a year through the Childcare element of Working Tax Credit, which covers up to 70 per cent. of eligible childcare costs (subject to cost limits of £200 a week for families with two or more children).

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many people in Yeovil constituency were (a) overpaid and (b) underpaid tax credits in (i) 2002–03, (ii) 2003–04 and (iii) 2004–05 to date; and if he will make a statement; [191316]

(2) what his latest estimate is of the number of overpayments of (a) working tax credit and (b) child tax credit in (i) 2001–02, (ii) 2002–03, (iii) 2003–04 and (iv) 2004–05 to date; and if he will make a statement; [191774]

(3) what his estimate is of the tax credit (a) underpayments and (b) overpayments for each year from 2001–02 to 2004–05; and what proportion of underpayments for (i) 2002–03 and (ii) 2003–04 have now been paid in full to those entitled; [191778]

(4) what his latest estimate is of the total costs of (a) overpayments and (b) underpayments of tax credits for each year from 2001–02 to 2003–04; and if he will make a statement. [191792]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to my answer to the hon. Member for Isle of Wight (Mr. Andrew Turner) on 11 October 2004, Official Report, columns 81–82W.
 
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Tim Loughton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many recipients of working tax credit have been refunded for underpayments in the last 12 months and subsequently told that the underpayment recalculations were wrong. [189432]

Dawn Primarolo: 6.1 million families are benefiting from one or both of the Child and Working Tax Credits. The treatment of overpayments arising from official error is described on page 8 of Code of Practice 26 "What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?". Figures for the number of Working Tax Credit recipients affected are not available.

Capital Gains Tax

Ms Buck: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the annual revenue from capital gains tax if the exemption of owner occupied housing were removed. [191570]

Mr. Timms: The latest estimated costs of exempting gains arising on a disposal of a main or only residence were given in Chapter A of Budget 2004.

These costs are not the same as the yield from abolition of the relief, as consequential effects on the housing market would substantially reduce the yield. Reliable estimates of the yield from imposing capital gains tax at present rates on the disposal by individuals of their only or main residences are available only at disproportionate cost.

Employment (Glasgow)

Mr. David Marshall: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his estimate is of the total number of jobs located in the City of Glasgow; and what percentage of the total number of jobs in Scotland this figure represents. [190996]

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. David Marshall, dated 14 October 2004:

As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about jobs located in the City of Glasgow. (190996)

In 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, there were 385,000 employee jobs located in the unitary authority of the City of Glasgow. This represented 17 per cent. of all employee jobs in Scotland.

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