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15 Dec 2004 : Column 1087W—continued
Inland Revenue and Customs
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the topics are of the group litigation orders brought against the Inland Revenue and Customs which were resolved in the last 12 months; how many litigants participated in each group; what the name was of each corporate litigant; and whether each was registered (a) in the UK and (b) in another jurisdiction. [204606]
Dawn Primarolo: The Inland Revenue is dealing with six categories of company group litigation order as follows:
To the extent that litigants' names are in the public domain, they can be obtained from the High Court, where they are not in the public domain it would be inappropriate to disclose them.
Approximately 50 of the companies concerned are not resident in the UK; 24 cases were settled finally in 2004.
HM Customs and Excise have not received any group litigation orders.
Inland Revenue (Overpayments)
Dr. Kumar:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many requests have been made to the Inland Revenue Overpayments Dispute Team by claimants of
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tax credit for waiver of recovery due to (a) official error and (b) hardship; and how many such requests were accepted. [201564]
Dawn Primarolo: By the end of November about 67,000 taxpayers had returned Form TC846, or had otherwise been recorded as requesting the write-off of their overpayments on grounds of official error. In total about 1,100 families had their overpayments written off by the end of November for that reason. To date the Inland Revenue has had to consider very few requests for overpayments to be written off on ground of inability to pay.
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, (1) what the average time is from the receipt of a completed TC846 form, for a decision to be made by the Inland Revenue on an appeal against its decision to recover tax credit overpayments; [203283]
(2) how many completed TC846 forms have been received by the Inland Revenue requesting a reconsideration of its decision to recover tax credits for (a) the 2003–04 tax year and (b) the current tax year. [203284]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 7 December 2004]: For the number of forms received, I refer my right hon. Friend to my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Middlesbrough, South and Cleveland, East (Dr. Kumar) today.
Information on the average time taken to deal with these requests is not available.
International Finance Facility
Tom Brake: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will outline the positions taken by each of the G8 member countries in respect of the International Finance Facility. [204593]
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Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Banbury (Tony Baldry) on 7 December 2004, Official Report, column 442W.
Landfill
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much landfill tax has been paid by operators on (a) in-house and (b) merchant landfill sites in each year since 1997. [203688]
John Healey: Landfill tax receipts are routinely published by HM Customs and Excise at www.uktradeinfo.com in the Landfill Tax Bulletin.
Separate data on landfill tax paid by operators on (a) in-house and (b) merchant landfill sites are not available.
MRSA
Brian Cotter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many people have died of MRSA in care homes, as a proportion of total MRSA deaths, in each of the last five years. [204586]
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. Brian Cotter, dated 15 December 2004:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people have died of MRSA in care homes, as a proportion of total MRSA deaths in each of the last five years. (204586)
The latest year for which figures are available is 2002. Figures on deaths in care homes in England and Wales for the years 1998 to 2002, where MRSA was mentioned anywhere on death certificate, are given in the table.
Number | Percentage of all MRSA deaths | |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | 42 | 10.2 |
| 1999 | 38 | 7.8 |
| 2000 | 51 | 7.6 |
| 2001 | 53 | 7.2 |
| 2002 | 53 | 6.6 |
(4) Care homes were defined as NHS and non-NHS nursing homes, local authority residential homes and private residential homes
(5) Identified using the methodology described in Griffiths C, Lamagni TL, Crowcroft NS, Duckworth G and Rooney C (2004) Trends in MRSA in England and Wales: analysis of morbidity and mortality data for 1993–2002. Health Statistics Quarterly 21, 15–22,
(6) Figures are for deaths occurring in 1998 to 2002.
Office for National Statistics
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what account the Office for National Statistics intends to take of the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards. [204415]
Mr. Timms:
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
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Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Jim Cousins, dated 15 December 2004:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what account the Office for National Statistics (ONS) intends to take of the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards. (204415)
ONS has been addressing the issue of the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) through its membership of Eurostat's Taskforce on Accounting and Statistics since 2001, and has been considering the possible effects of the introduction of JFRS on UK statistical data through business contacts since 2003.
In 2004, ONS established a taskforce, to address the statistical implications of IFRS. The objectives of this taskforce include establishing the potential incidence and significance of any statistical discontinuities arising from the introduction of IFRS. The taskforce established a three-stage action plan for addressing the issue, involving initial direct contacts with significant data contributors, a survey of a broad range of 500 data contributors (early in 2005) and subsequent amendments, as appropriate, to data collections in respect of 2005 onwards.
Despite the proximity of the introduction of IFRS for EU listed businesses, little conclusive information has yet been available about the specific impacts of IFRS on business statistics. Of those businesses contacted to date by ONS, very few have yet been willing or in a position to comment on the effects of IFRS. Very recent contacts have indicated that businesses are beginning to address the IFRS issue with some urgency and it is hoped that much more specific information will be obtained from the survey in early 2005.
In. addition, ONS is planning for contingencies including any further special surveys necessary later in 2005, any changes to regular business surveys and the handling of any discontinuities in key surveys. As more specific information becomes available, ONS will keep key stakeholders informed.
ISA Savings
Mr. Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the outstanding stock of (a) cash ISAs, (b) insurance ISAs and (c) equity ISAs was on 31 March (i) 2001, (ii) 2002, (iii) 2003 and (iv) 2004; and what the net change in stock was for the years (A) 2002, (B) 2003 and (C) 2004. [204413]
Mr. Timms: Figures of outstanding stocks of cash, insurance and equity ISAs are available in table 9.6 of Inland Revenue Statistics published on the Inland Revenue website; http://newinternet.inrev.gov.uk/stats/isa/table9_6_september04.pdf
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