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28 Jun 2005 : Column 1422W—continued

TREASURY

Aid Provision

Tony Baldry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps are being taken to improve EU member states' targeting of aid to the poorest countries; and if he will make a statement. [7673]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The European Union has made an historic commitment to double EU aid by 2010, as part of a timetable to reach 0.7 oda/GNI by 2015. This agreement will raise aid from last year's levels of around US$40 billion to, by 2010, over $80 billion. The agreement also includes a commitment that at least 50 per cent. of new aid will go to Africa.

The European Commission is currently reviewing its international aid policy. The UK is lobbying to improve the poverty focus of EC aid, and to ensure that a greater proportion is spend in low-income countries.

Aviation Taxation

Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on the introduction of new taxes on (a) domestic and (b) international UK flights to fund development aid for Africa; and if he will make a statement. [5602]

 
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Mr. Ivan Lewis [holding answer 21 June 2005]: At the 10–11 June G8 Finance Ministerial, Ministers agreed:

"to continue our work programme on the IFF and its pilot, the IFF for Immunisation; some of the revenue proposals from the Landau report, including a pilot project, supported and led by France and Germany, for a contribution on air travel tickets to support specific development projects and to refinance the IFF".

 
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Burma (Imports)

Vera Baird: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what tonnage of goods has been imported to the UK from Burma through (a) Teesport, (b) Harwich, (c) Felixstowe and (d) London per year on average over the past five years. [7696]

Dawn Primarolo: The tonnage of goods imported to the UK from Burma through (a) Teesport, (b) Harwich, (c) Felixstowe and (d) London are shown in the table:
UK imports from Burma: general trade 2000–04 Tonnes

Port	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004(16)	Average (2000–04)
Teesport(17)	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Harwich	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Felixstowe	5,624.5	6,982.3	7,259.9	7,480.1	6,478.7	6,765.1
London seaport(18)	6,697.1	5,012.2	1,375.9	1,714.7	53.5	2,970.7
London airports(19)	404.8	409.5	810.4	930.5	104.8	532.0

⁽¹⁶⁾Figures for 2004 are provisional.
⁽¹⁷⁾Teesport includes Hartlepool and Middlesbrough.
⁽¹⁸⁾London seaport includes Tilbury.
⁽¹⁹⁾London airports includes Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton.
Source:
Overseas Trade Statistics, HM Revenue and Customs

Cost Recovery

Bob Spink: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he intends to update his guidance on full cost recovery for voluntary and community sector organisations; and what impact he expects this will have on (a) adult and (b) children's hospice funding. [7075]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Government will publish during 2005 a second edition of Guidance to Funders, which will include detailed guidance to those issuing public funds on how to implement full cost recovery.

The NHS should be working with both children's and adults' hospices towards agreed levels of service, ensuring that the price for the agreed level of service reflects the full cost of the service to be provided, including the legitimate portion of overhead costs.

Further information for the voluntary palliative care sector on the principles of full cost recovery, together with Healthcare Resource Groups and Payment by Results, is being prepared by The National Partnership Group for Palliative Care.

Customs and Excise (Fraud)

Gregory Barker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to review previous criminal investigations into cases of fraud by staff working for Customs and Excise; and if he will make a statement. [6644]

Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 23 June 2005]: The Internal Investigation Division of HMRC, together with the Professional Standards Unit of Law Enforcement Investigation, is currently reviewing a number of historic criminal cases involving officers of HM Customs and Excise. If the hon. Member has information pertinent to a specific case we would be pleased to look into the matter.

Customs and Excise Staff (Criminal Investigations)

Gregory Barker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the criminal investigations which have been undertaken by Customs and Excise in respect of which legal proceedings are not ongoing into allegations of fraud and other malpractice by staff working for Customs and Excise in the last 10 years; and what the dates were of each. [7574]

Dawn Primarolo: Over the last five years HMCE have conducted 12 criminal investigations where serving officers have been identified as potential suspects. Of these cases three have been put before the courts and have been finalized. The dates and outcomes of these cases is as follows:

2001—Officer acquitted of fraudulent evasion of VAT charge.

2004—Officer sentenced to two years and six months for conspiracy to cheat the Revenue.

2005—Officer sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for conspiracy to import controlled drugs.

Of the remaining cases:

Three have been concluded with no action being taken against the officers, as there was insufficient evidence.

One case was dealt with as a disciplinary matter.

Five cases are currently before the courts or awaiting trial.

Between 1995 and 2000 criminal investigations involving members of staff would have been undertaken by the national investigation service (NIS) of HMCE, or regional criminal investigation units (CIU). These investigations would have been restricted to matters assigned to HMCE, such as VAT or Excise duty evasion and the importation of prohibited or restricted goods.
 
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Finance Bill

Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the oral statement of 7 June 2005, Official Report, column 1133, on the Finance Bill, what model was used to estimate the VAT gap. [7707]

Dawn Primarolo: A detailed explanation of the technical approach for measurement of VAT losses was provided in Measuring Indirect Tax Losses", published in November 2002, alongside the pre-Budget report 2002. An updated version of this paper entitled Measuring and Tackling Indirect Tax Losses" was published in December 2003 and the latest update was published in December 2004. Copies of all these publications can be obtained from the House Library.

HM Revenue and Customs

Adam Price: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons HM Revenue and Customs has not yet announced its restructuring plans; and when these plans will be announced. [7356]

Dawn Primarolo: Details of the emerging structure and organisation of the new Department have been published in the spring departmental report 2005, which was published on 16 June 2005.

Adam Price: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much HM Revenue and Customs and its predecessor bodies spent on consultancy projects in each of the last four years for which figures are available. [7354]

Dawn Primarolo: Information is not available for 2001–02 and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost. In respect of 2002–03 and 2003–04, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer the former Financial Secretary (Mr. Timms) gave to the hon. Members for Stratford-upon-Avon and New Forest East on 25 October 2004, Official Report, columns 1055–6W. In 2004–05, expenditure by the Inland Revenue and HM Customs and Excise was £74 million and £61 million, respectively.

Hospital Infections

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many deaths have been recorded in each year since 2001 where (a) Clostridium difficile, (b) glycopoptide resistant enterococci, (c) small round structured viruses and (d) Acinetobacter was (i) mentioned on the deathcertificate and (ii) also the underlying cause of death. [7220]

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 28 June 2005:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths have been recorded in each year since 2001 where (a) Clostridium difficile, (b) glycopeptide resistant enterococci, (c) small round structured viruses and (d) Acinetobacter was (i) mentioned on the death certificate and (ii) also the underlying cause of death. (7220)

In the Tenth Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), deaths involving enterocolitis due to Clostridium difficile can all be identified from the code A04.7.
 

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Enterocolitis is the commonest illness caused by C. difficile infection. For causes other than enterocolitis that are also known to be associated with C. difficile, it is not possible to identify from ICD codes alone the number of deaths where C. difficile actually contributed to the death. For this reason, the only routinely available mortality statistics on C. difficile are those where it was associated with enterocolitis. These figures were provided in answer to a question from Mr David Lidington MP, Hansard Written Answer 3764, page 49W on 13 June.

Figures for glycopeptide resistant enterococci, small round structured viruses and Acinetobacter are not available from routine death certification data. These are laboratory classifications of microorganisms. Such microbiological detail is rarely used in describing the illnesses from which patients suffer or die. Furthermore, as the ICD is not designed to capture microbiological detail, there are no specific codes in ICD-10 to check whether there are any deaths for which these conditions were mentioned on the death certificate.

Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) remit, (b) time scale and (c) reporting date are for the special study the Office for National Statistics is undertaking with the Health Protection Agency to identify the total number of deaths where Clostridium difficile was mentioned on the death certificate. [7221]

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Paul Burstow, dated 28 June 2005:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking about the remit, timescale and reporting date for the special study the Office of National Statistics is undertaking with the Health Protection Agency to identify the total number of deaths where Clostridium difficile was mentioned on the death certificate.

The remit of the special study currently being undertaken is to assess whether information on the number of deaths associated with C. difficile, beyond that available routinely, can be obtained by examining the text of death certificates with mention of illnesses other than enterocolitis that may be caused by this organism. This work is likely to take several months.

Initial identification of the likely number of deaths requiring manual checking will be completed in July. Only when this is complete will it be possible to estimate the timescale for the manual checking and subsequent release of the results of the study.

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