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30 Nov 2004 : Column 95W—continued
Life Expectancy
Mr. Lansley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the life expectancy at birth of (a) a male and (b) a female belonging to social class (i) I, (ii) II, (iii) IINM, (iv) IIIM, (v) IV and (vi) V has been in each of the last 25 years for which figures are available. [199454]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Dennis Roberts to Mr. Andrew Lansley, dated 30 November 2004:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the life expectancy at birth of (a) a male and (b) a female belonging to social class (i) I, (ii) II, (iii) IIINM, (iv) HIM, (v) IV and (vi) V has been in each of the last 25 years for which figures are available. I am replying in his absence. (199454)
Available figures are from the ONS Longitudinal Study, a one per cent. sample of the population. The most recently available estimates were published in Health Statistics Quarterly 15 1 for the period 1972 to 1999. The attached table presents life expectancy at birth by social class for males and females for five-year periods from 1972 to 1996, and for 1997–1999.
1 Donkin, A., Goldblatt, P. and Lynch, K. (2002) Inequalities in life expectancy by social class, 1972–1999. Health Statistics Quarterly, 15:5–15.
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Mortgage Income Tax Relief
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Government abolished mortgage income tax relief; and what the estimated change in taxation for a typical household with a mortgage over £30,000 in 2004–05 is due to its abolition. [200138]
Dawn Primarolo: The MIRAS scheme was abolished in April 2000. The value of relief payable on £30,000 of loans in 2004–05 would depend on the rate of interest charged on the loan.
Ms Emma Bowers
Helen Jones: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the Inland Revenue's handling of tax credits claimed by Ms Emma Bowers of Glazebury, Warrington. [200193]
Dawn Primarolo: I understand that the Inland Revenue has made a thorough investigation of Miss Bowers' case and has written to my hon. Friend about it.
Office for National Statistics
Mr. Arbuthnot: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the calculations of the (a) RPI and (b) CPI made by the Office for National Statistics take into account changes in the standard quantities of the representative commodities contained in the indices. [200591]
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. James Arbuthnot, dated 30 November 2004:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question asking how the calculations of the RPI and CPI made by the Office for National Statistics take into account changes in the standard quantities of the representative commodities contained in the indices. (200591)
Within each year, the RPI and CPI are fixed quantity consumer price indices. That is, changes in prices as measured by both indices are calculated as the change in the total cost to the average consumer of a basket of goods and services of fixed composition, quantity and quality.
In practice, this is achieved by (a) holding constant each year the sample of representative goods and services for which prices are collected each month in estimating price changes more generally; and (b) applying a fixed set of weights to price changes for each of the items such that their influence on the overall index reflects their importance in the typical household budget. In this way, changes in the RPI and CPI indices from month to month reflect only changes in prices, and not ongoing variations in consumer purchasing patterns.
However, the contents of the RPI and CPI baskets of goods and services and associated expenditure weights are updated annually so that the indices remain representative of consumer spending patterns over time. This is important in helping to avoid potential biases in consumer price indices that might otherwise arise, for example, due to the development of entirely new goods and
- services, or the tendency for consumers to substitute purchases away from those particular goods and services for which prices have risen relatively rapidly.
For the RPI, changes to the items and weights are introduced in February each year, but with an overlapping collection of prices in January. This means that the figures for each year can be 'chain linked' together to form a long-run price index spanning many years. This procedure ensures that the annual changes to the basket and weights have no impact on estimated changes in prices as measured by the RPI. The same basic approach is likewise adopted in the CPI although, for technical reasons, it is necessary to chain link the published index twice each year rather than only once as in the RPI.
These issues are described in greater detail in a range of articles published by ONS, which are available on the National Statistics website. The basic principles underlying the construction of the RPI and CPI are described in:
David Roe and David Fenwick (2004) 'The New Inflation Target: the Statistical Perspective', Economic Trends No 602, http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp?id=688
The basket of goods and services employed in the calculation of ONS consumer price indices and the associated weights are described respectively in:
David Roe (2004), 'Consumer Prices Index and Retail Prices Index: the 2004 Basket of Goods and Services', http://www.statistics.gov.uk/CCI/article.asp?ID=864
David Baran (2004), 'Consumer Prices Index and Retail Prices Index: Updating weights for 2004', http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp?id=891
Redundancies
Paul Holmes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many redundancies have been notified in each quarter of each year since June 2001, broken down by nation and region; what these figures represent as a percentage of the total work force, broken down by nation and region; and if he will make a statement. [199620]
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. Paul Holmes, dated 30 November 2004:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about redundancy. (199620)
The Labour Force Survey provides estimates of redundancies experienced by survey respondents in the three month period before their survey interviews. The attached table gives Labour Force Survey estimates for number of redundancies in each nation and region of the UK for each three month period from 2001 to 2004. The table also shows redundancy rates, i.e. redundancies as a proportion of the number of employees in each area.
The estimates for the Labour Force Survey are, as with any statistical sample survey, subject to sampling variability.
(7) These estimates are based on small sample sizes and are therefore subject to a higher than usual degree of sampling variability. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Source:
ONS Labour Force Survey
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(8) The redundancy rate is the ratio of the redundancy level for the given quarter to the number of employees in the previous quarter, multiplied by 1,000.
(9) These estimates are based on small sample sizes and are therefore subject to a higher than usual degree of sampling variability. They should therefore be treated with caution.
Source:
ONS Labour Force Survey
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