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21 Feb 2005 : Column 73W—continued
Local Government
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which Departments agreed to the reallocation of funds for the purpose of allocating additional funds to local authorities; how much was reallocated in each case; and if he will make a statement. [203988]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 13 December 2004]: As the Chancellor of the Exchequer set out in his evidence to the Treasury Select Committee on 16 December, full departmental spending allocations will be available through the publication of the Main Supply Estimates, which will take place in due course.
New Jobs (Scotland)
Mr. Moore: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new jobs have been created in (a) Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, (b) the Scottish Borders and (c) Scotland in each year since 2002. [216127]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Michael Moore, dated 16 February 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your parliamentary Question about the number of new jobs created in Scotland and selected regions. I am replying in his absence. (216127)
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 available information for the number of jobs and change in jobs in the parliamentary constituency of Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, the Scottish Borders and in Scotland, from 2001 to 2003.
(17)Excludes self-employed jobs.
(18)These figures are aggregates from which agriculture class 0100 (1992 SIC) have been excluded
(19)2003 Annual Business Inquiry estimates are currently not available by parliamentary constituency
Note:
Each table entry is independently rounded to the nearest hundred
Source:
2001–2003; Annual Business Inquiry.
21 Feb 2005 : Column 74W
Pensioners
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households with (a) only one adult aged over 65 years and (b) two or more adults aged over 65 years there were in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency in the latest year for which figures are available. [216228]
Mr. Timms: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mrs. Caroline Spelman, dated 16 February 2005:
The National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many households with (a) only one adult, who is aged over 65 years and (b) two or more adults aged over 65 years there were in (i) England and (ii) each parliamentary constituency in the latest year for which figures are available. I am replying in his absence. (216228)
Specially commissioned table C0453 has been run for each Parliamentary Constituency of England and Wales to identify the number of (a) single occupancy households which contain one resident who was aged 65 and over, and b) households containing two or more people where all residents were aged 65 and over on Census day (29 April 2001). This has been placed in the House of Commons Library and is also available from Census Customer Services. Table C0453 shows that there were 2,683,603 households in England which contained one resident who was aged 65 and over. The same table shows that there were 1,566,863 households in England which contained two or more residents who were aged 65 and over.
Pensions Selling
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pensions were sold in each of the past 10 years on the basis of (a) tied advice, (b) independent advice and (c) execution only; and if he will make a statement. [215709]
Mr. Timms: The information requested is not available in the format required. However, the First Report of the Pensions Commission" provides Individual Pension Sales by Channel for 2003 sourced from ABI new business statistics, 2003". The following figures include all Stakeholder, Group Personal Pension (GPP) and Free Standing Additional Voluntary Contribution (FSAVC) pensions.
| Distribution channel | Percentage of total sales |
|---|---|
| Independent financial advisers | 79 |
| Direct salesforce and tied agents | 18 |
| Direct marketing with no salesforce interview | 2 |
| Other | 1/<1 |
| Total | 100 |
More detailed statistics relating to premiums collected per annum by distribution channel dating from 1994 are available from the website of the Association of British Insurers.
Postage
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has been spent on postage by the Department in each year since 1997. [215029]
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Mr. Timms: The Treasury's postage costs were £62,000 in 2002–03 and £67,000 in 2003–04, being the costs incurred on the Department's franking machines. Letters are posted second class unless specified otherwise. Information in respect of the earlier years is not readily available.
Staff Vacancies
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on advertising staff vacancies in (a) 2002 and (b) 2003. [209572]
Mr. Timms: I would refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the then Financial Secretary (Ruth Kelly) to the hon. Member for Bromsgrove (Miss Kirkbride) on 14 January 2004, Official Report, column 810W, which stated that recruitment advertising costs were £126,000 in financial year 2002–03 and £173,000 in the first three quarters of financial year 2003–04. The estimated full year cost of advertising staff vacancies in 2003–04 was £210,000.
Targets
Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many targets have been set in each year since 1997 by the Department; and, of these, which have been (a) met, (b) nearly met, (c) not met, (d) changed and (e) dropped. [215800]
Mr. Timms: Public Service Agreement (PSA) targets have been set every two years as part of the Spending Review. Since 1997 there have been four reviews: the 1998 Comprehensive Spending Review, and the 2000, 2002 and 2004 Spending Reviews. A number of targets have been reinforced or refined by subsequent Spending Reviews, and an increasing number of PSA targets have been rolled forward between Spending Reviews. The number of PSA targets set during each Spending Review has fallen from over 250 in 1998 to 110 in 2004.
Performance against all PSA targets is reported in departmental reports. Since 2002, performance has also been reported in departments' autumn performance reports. A performance reporting website was introduced in 2003 (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/performance).
Tax Credits
Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints have been received by the MP tax credits complaints team (a) by post and (b) by telephone in each month since the service was set up. [215536]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 9 February 2005]: The information is as follows:
(a) Information on the number of letters received from hon. Members in 2003–04 is not available.
The Inland Revenue Tax Credit Office has a team that deals with all letters from hon. Members. The team received 4,285 such letters directly from hon. Members in the period 1 April 2004–31 December 2004 broken down as follows.
21 Feb 2005 : Column 76W
Month | Number of letters from hon. Members to TCO |
|---|---|
| April 2004 | 223 |
| May 2004 | 218 |
| June 2004 | 338 |
| July 2004 | 377 |
| August 2004 | 350 |
| September 2004 | 508 |
| October 2004 | 603 |
| November 2004 | 880 |
| December 2004 | 788 |
In addition to the letters received by Tax credit Office, Treasury Ministers and Inland Revenue Board members received around 1,650 letters from hon. Members in the same period.
(b) The MPs' Hotline in the Inland Revenue Tax Credit Office deals with calls from hon. Members about their constituents' tax credits claims. The number of calls received by the MP Hotline in 2003–04 and 2004–05 is as follows:
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