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16 Nov 2004 : Column 1271W—continued
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Department spent on (a) maintenance, (b) renovation, (c) council tax and (d) running costs of residential properties used by Ministers and officials in each year since 1997. [191408]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given by the former Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Ruth Kelly) on 19 November 2003, Official Report, column 1097W, giving the costs of residential properties used by Ministers and officials for the years 1997–98 to 2002–03. The costs for 2003–4 were £570 council tax and £162,858 running costs. 2003–04 running costs include £69,383 of rent paid to the Cabinet Office, based on capital charging which replaced Property Service assessed rents as the methods of accounting for Crown Freehold properties on 1 April 1998. There were no separate charges for maintenance and renovation.
New Jobs (Wandsworth)
Tom Cox: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new jobs have been created in the London borough of Wandsworth since 1997. [198189]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Tom Cox, dated 16 November 2004:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about jobs created in Wandsworth. I am replying in his absence. (198189)
While statistics of new jobs created are not available explicitly, statistics from surveys enable comparisons to be made of net changes, in numbers of jobs, from year to year.
The attached table shows the information requested, relating to jobs in Wandsworth, for 1997 and the latest year available, 2002.
| Total | |
|---|---|
| Number of employee jobs | |
| 1997 | 91,800 |
| 2002 | 105,600 |
| Change from 1997 to 2002(9) | 13,800 |
(8) Excludes self-employed jobs.
(9) The 1997 to 2002 change has been rounded to the nearest hundred separately from rounded levels for 1997 and 2002.
Source:
1997; Annual Employment Survey, rescaled 2002; Annual Business Inquiry.
Stamp Duty
Sue Doughty: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 2 November 2004, Official Report, column 154W, on stamp duty, how many residential property transactions between £60,000 and £150,000 have qualified for disadvantaged area relief in each year since the relief was introduced. [198614]
Mr. Timms:
The number of residential property transactions that have qualified for disadvantaged area relief in England and Wales are given in the following table.
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| Period | Number of residential transactions (thousand) |
|---|---|
| November 2001-March 2002 | 14 |
| April 2002-March 2003 | 60 |
| April 2003-March 2004 | 78 |
Tax Credits
Mr. Roy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will extend the tax credit system to parents of special needs young adults who move from five day a week schooling to two day a week college courses. [197767]
Dawn Primarolo: The child tax credit regulations do not impose any requirements regarding full-time education for children under the age of 16. Young people between the ages of 16–19 are required to engage in full-time education. The rules require a person to undertake on average at least 12 hours structured tuition during a week in normal term-time—there is no requirement to attend college for a specific number of days a week. There are no plans at present to review the rules defining full-time education for child tax credit purposes.
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average time between HM Inland Revenue receiving and responding to an appeal against a notice of decision on (a) child tax credit, (b) working tax credit and (c) pension tax credit has been in 2004; and if he will make a statement. [198084]
John Healey: The Inland Revenue usually acknowledges tax credits appeals within two working days of receipt.
Matters relating to pension credit are for the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Tripartite Social Summit
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the conclusions were of the Tripartite Social Summit. [197759]
Mr. Pond: I have been asked to reply.
The Tripartite Social Summit—co-chaired by Mr. Jan Peter Balkenende, President of the European Council and Mr. Romano Prodi, President of the Commission—was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, along with ministerial colleagues from Luxembourg and the Netherlands and representatives of the European Social Partners and the European Commissioner for Employment and Social Affairs. Wim Kok gave a presentation of key points from the recent report of the high level group he chaired, which was set up to identify priorities for action to meet the Lisbon targets for employment and economic reform. While there were no formal conclusions from the summit, the exchanges of
16 Nov 2004 : Column 1273W
views included agreement on the need to add a new impetus to the implementation of the Lisbon strategy, in line with the recommendations of the Kok report.
UK Competitiveness
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how his Department plans to promote UK competitiveness in the EU. [197822]
John Healey: The Government are committed to raising the rate of UK productivity growth over the economic cycle, improving competitiveness and narrowing the productivity gap with our major industrial competitors. Historically these have included the US, France and Germany, although on the output per worker measure, the gap with Germany has now closed. The Government's approach to achieving this target is set out in Productivity in the UK: The Evidence and the Government's Approach, which was published alongside the 2000 Pre-Budget Report.
The Government report on steps to increase productivity in every Budget and Pre-Budget Report.
VAT (Sports)
Mr. Reed: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received about the VAT liabilities of national governing bodies of sports; and if he will make a statement. [197432]
Dawn Primarolo: In the last year a small number of letters from hon. Members have been received by Treasury Ministers about the liability of affiliation fees paid by sports clubs to their governing body.
Supplies of services closely linked with, and essential to sport are exempt from VAT where these services are supplied by a non-profit making body to individuals. Subject to these same conditions, VAT exemption also applies to sports governing bodies and the services they supply in return for the affiliation fees they charge to their members.
Where membership of a sports governing body consists of sports clubs, affiliation fees are exempt where the individual sportsman or woman is the most direct beneficiary of the affiliation, and where this is reflected in the basis on which the affiliation fee is calculated by the governing body. When this is not the case the affiliation fee is taxable at the standard rate of VAT.
Working Parents
Mr. Wills: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the percentage of people who are in employment who are parents of children aged (a) under five and (b) over five. [196029]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr Michael Wills, dated 16 November 2004:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about parents in employment. I am replying in his absence. (196029)
Of the total population in employment in the three months ending May 2004: 12.3% had one or more children aged under five resident with them; 23.5% had one or more children over five; and among these two groups 5.2% of the total in employment had one or more children in both age groups.
Dependent children are those aged under 16 and those aged 16–18 who are in full-time education and have never married.
These estimates from the Labour Force Survey are, as with any sample survey, subject to sampling variability.
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