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EU Economic Reform

Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the United Kingdom is doing to promote the Lisbon Agenda. [193075]

Mr. Timms: The Government are committed to economic reform at home and in Europe, and my recent answer of 4 October 2004, Official Report, columns 1790- 1791W summarised the measures the Government are taking to increase employment and productivity in the UK. These issues were also debated on the Floor of the House on 13 September 2004.
 
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As set out during that debate, the UK Government remain a strong advocate of economic reform in Europe, and continue to work closely with other member states and the European Commission to promote structural reform, including by taking forward the January 2004 Four Presidencies initiative on regulatory reform and the principle recommendations contained in the spring 2004 joint statements with France and Germany on promoting enterprise and innovation. The Government's priorities were set out in their February 2004 Progress Report on economic reform and in their recently published submission to Wim Kok's high-level group providing a mid-term review of the Lisbon strategy.

Gangmaster Licensing Authority

Jim Sheridan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was (a) the total number of 46ACU forms returned to the Inland Revenue Agricultural Compliance Unit during the last three financial years, (b) the total number of ACU2 forms returned to the Inland Revenue Agricultural Compliance Unit during the last three full financial years, (c) the total amount of payments made to gangmasters and employment agencies as declared by the users of gang labour and employment agency labour on their returned 46ACU forms for each of the last three financial years and (d) the (i) estimated amount of tax and national insurance contributions that should have been paid and (ii) the actual amount of tax and national insurance contributions paid by the gangmasters and employment agencies detailed in the 46ACU forms and the ACU2 forms returned to the Inland Revenue Agricultural Compliance Unit during the last three financial years. [192583]

Dawn Primarolo: The information requested is as follows:

(a) In the year ended 5 April 2004, approximately 800 completed forms 46ACU were returned to the Inland Revenue. Details are not immediately available for earlier years and it would be disproportionately costly to obtain this information.

(b) The completion and return of forms ACU2 is voluntary. The Inland Revenue do not have a record of the total number of forms returned for the year ended 5 April 2004, but as they are sent with forms 46ACU they estimate it to be at least 800. Details are not immediately available for earlier years and it would be disproportionately costly to obtain this information.

(c) The totals of payments shown on forms 46ACU were £184.2 million for 2002–03 and £243.8 million for 2003–04. Details are not available for 2001–02.

(d) It would be disproportionately costly to provide this information.

Inheritance Tax

Sir John Butterfill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the cost of raising the upper limit of the inheritance tax nil rate band to (a) £500,000, (b) £526,000 and (c) £1,000,000. [192568]

 
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Dawn Primarolo: The full year cost of raising the inheritance tax nil rate band threshold to (a) £500,000, (b) £526,000 and (c) £1 million would be £1.6 billion, £1.7 billion and £2.5 billion respectively in 2004–05 terms.

Marine Stewardship

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what future levels of expenditure the Crown Estate plans to spend on marine stewardship programmes. [192711]

Mr. Timms: Future levels of Crown Estate expenditure are a matter for the Crown Estate Commissioners. I am however informed by the Chief Executive that the Crown Estate has allocated around £800,000 for the Marine Stewardship Fund this year (2004–05), which does not include £300,000 per annum earmarked for this year and next to support salmon farming in Scotland.

Ministerial Travel

Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total cost was of his journey to and from the North East on 12 October. [192975]

Mr. Gordon Brown: My visit to the North East was not made in an official capacity. There was no cost to the public purse.

DEFENCE

Allan Sharples

Mr. McNamara: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what obstacles remain to the establishment of a board of inquiry into the death of Private Allan Sharples at Catterick Barracks on 30 April 2000. [190266]

Mr. Ingram: A Board of Inquiry is convened into all unnatural deaths in the services unless there are particular reasons why this might not be necessary. The Director of Personal Services (Army) granted authority to dispense with a Board of Inquiry into the death of Private Allan Sharples as it was determined that, following the Coroner's inquest, no further information would be learned through its convening. There are no plans to convene a Board of Inquiry into this case.

Angola

Mike Gapes: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has to provide assistance for the training of the Angolan armed forces. [192608R]

Mr. Ingram: The United Kingdom provides a small amount of training annually to the Angolan armed forces. This training is targeted at military education designed to increase national capacity to conduct peace support operations. The Ministry of Defence is currently examining proposals for 2005–06.

Astute Class Attack Submarines

Mr. Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will make a statement on the proposed Astute Class attack submarines. [191744]

 
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Mr. Ingram: There are three Astute Class Submarines currently on contract with BAE Systems. Further orders for the Astute Class Submarine are being considered and an announcement will be made at the appropriate time.

Bowman Radios

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what changes (a) have been made and (b) are planned to (i) the Warrior, (ii) the Challenger II main battle tank and (iii) the Land Rover to allow them to be fitted with the Bowman Radio; and what estimate he has made of the cost in each case. [191016]

Mr. Ingram: The aim of the Bowman programme is to install this battle winning tactical communications capability in a wide range of military platforms at minimal disruption to their current configuration. The work necessary to achieve this is contained within the contracted firm price secured through competition and cannot be separately identified.

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many incidents of minor radiofrequency burns have been reported by servicemen and women involved in the trials of the Bowman Radio. [191017]

Mr. Ingram: From our experience with the Clansman PRC320 man-portable radio we were already aware of the possibility of radio frequency burns inherent in all high frequency radios. A combination of minor modifications and acceptable operating limitations has reduced the risk within the Bowman man-portable radio to a negligible level. Although reports from early trials mention that a few soldiers have received minor burns, none states that medical treatment was required.

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether operation of the Challenger II main battle tank has been impaired by noise interference to tank crews as a result of installing Bowman radios. [191018]

Mr. Ingram: Following well-established incident reporting procedures, Challenger 2 tank crews have reported intermittent failures of the internal intercom since installation of the Bowman communications system. The system's designers are working to establish the cause conclusively and to determine a cost-effective solution. Until this is resolved, we have issued an advisory safety instruction that, with immediate effect, Challenger 2 tank crews are to exercise extreme caution when safe operations would be compromised by even a brief loss of commander or driver communications.

Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what problems have been experienced with the software included in the Bowman Radio Communications Programme; and what he estimates the cost of correcting these problems to be. [191019]

Mr. Ingram: Bowman is a software intensive programme that contains over 10 million lines of bespoke source code. With a system of this complexity, it is typical for errors to be encountered following the integration of sub-systems, especially as it is often operated in a manner not predicted in its original design. The programme is continuing within its approved schedule, cost and performance, and the costs of
 
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software development cannot be separately identified within the contract firm price secured through competition.

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