| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
11 Jul 2005 : Column 688W—continued
Bedfordshire (Statistics)
Mrs. Dorries: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue was raised from personal taxation in the constituency of Mid-Bedfordshire in the last financial year for which figures are available. [11010]
Dawn Primarolo: The information on revenue raised from personal taxation by parliamentary constituency is not available therefore I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member Reading, East (Mr. Wilson) on 21 June 2005, Official Report, column 940W.
Conferences
David T.C. Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Department has spent on organising or sponsoring conferences in each of the last five years. [10245]
John Healey: Records of the cost of activities such as conferences are not held centrally and so the information requested could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Corporation Taxes
Chris Huhne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the potential mobility of corporations on the yield of corporation taxes to the Exchequer. [11041]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are committed to maintaining a modern, fair and competitive corporation tax system. The UK compares favourably to other major economic partners and tax is only one factor in businesses' location decisions.
Corruption (Procurement)
Malcolm Bruce: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the definition is of general interest as used by his Department in the draft regulations to implement Article 45 of the EU procurement directive 2004/18/EC; and if he will make a statement on the overriding requirements through which a contracting authority can disregard the duty not to select an economic operator that has been convicted of corruption or bribery as described in that directive. [10081]
11 Jul 2005 : Column 689W
John Healey: The Government believes that Article 45 of the new procurement directive is very helpful in the fight against fraud and corruption by requiring, for the first time under the EU procurement rules, contracting authorities to exclude suppliers convicted of such offences. At present, such exclusions are voluntary. The article only enables member states to derogate from this requirement for overriding requirements in the general interest", which is designed to cover exceptional circumstances of national emergency, for example related to the protection of life and security. Our proposed guidance on this article will cover these matters and will provide additional advice to authorities on when the derogation should be invoked. This guidance will be informed by the current consultation exercise on the regulations to implement the new directive.
Electoral Registration
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people of voting age were (a) registered to vote and (b) resident in each ward in each constituency in each region in 2001. [10941]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Mr. Chris Ruane, dated 11 July 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your question concerning how many people of voting age were (a)registered to vote and (b) resident in each ward in each constituency in each region in 2001.1 am replying in his absence. (10941)
The ward electorate counts are for February 2001 parliamentary electors, including attainers (persons attaining the age of 18 after 16 February 2001 but before 16 February 2002). The counts relate to England and Wales only. There are a number of wards which are split by parliamentary constituency i.e. they fall within two or more parliamentary constituencies. The ward electorate and population counts are repeated for each parliamentary constituency which they fall within, and are indicated by an asterisk * alongside their ward name, electorate and population figures for the whole ward are shown. Some wards will therefore be double counted. Split ward electorate and population counts by parliamentary constituency are not available.
The electorate counts are not necessarily consistent with the statutory electoral register return RPF 29, due to the need for population estimation purposes to use and convert historic electorate counts on different ward geographies to a consistent ward geography i.e. the Census Area Statistics (CAS) ward geography (CAS wards were used for 2001 Census outputs).
The electorate counts therefore do not necessarily relate to wards which were in existence in February 2001, and some wards which were in existence in February 2001 may have had subsequent boundary changes.
The ward population estimates for persons aged 18 and over relate to mid-2001 i.e. 30 June 2001 and are for CAS wards. Due to their small population size, population estimates for wards in City of London and Isles of Scilly are shown for the local authority
- areas only. For comparative purposes, the electorate counts for wards within these local authorities have been similarly aggregated.
The parliamentary electorate excludes European Union citizens and includes overseas electors. The former will be included in the population estimates and the latter excluded. Comparable ward counts of local government electors are not readily available.
There is inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate as electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or after they have died. In addition, people can register in more than one place.
There is a relatively small number of wards (44) where the electorate counts are more than 10 per cent. greater than the population estimate, the majority of such cases are likely to be attributable to a limitation in the methodology used to convert electorate counts from a non-CAS ward geography onto a CAS ward geography. There may however also be valid reasons why the electorate count may exceed the estimated population, as described above.
Flexible Service Delivery Programme
Mark Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will make a statement on the implications of Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs flexible service delivery programme for employment levels within the Department; [10340]
(2) what account is being taken of rurality issues within Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs flexible service delivery programme. [10341]
Dawn Primarolo: HM Revenue and Customs is preparing business plans to meet its efficiency savings target for 2005–08. The Department's targets are to reduce the number of its staff by 12,500 net of re-deployments. The Department is also developing its plans to meet its targets under 'Lyons' to move 1,950 posts from London and the South East by 2008 and a further 2,300 by 2010.
In developing its plans HM Revenue and Customs is assessing and taking account of their potential social and economic impact in the local area.
Fuel Duty
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment he has made of the impact of increases in fuel duty on those (a) on low incomes and (b) without access to alternative modes of transport; [10393]
(2) what research his Department has evaluated on the effects of rises in fuel duty on the growth of carbon dioxide emissions; and if he will place in the Library copies of such research; [10394]
(3) what research his Department has evaluated on the effects of the cost of petrol on use of vehicles; and if he will place in the Library copies of such research. [10417]
John Healey: I have been asked to reply.
When taking decisions on fuel duty rates, the Chancellor of the Exchequer takes account of all relevant economic, environmental and social considerations.
11 Jul 2005 : Column 691W
No specific research has been published on the impact of increases of fuel prices on those on low incomes; however, some reports have been published by the Department for Transport analysing the relationship between fuel costs, vehicle use and carbon emissions, which are relevant. These are:
Review of Income and Price Elasticities in the Demand for Road Traffic" by Mark Hanly, Joyce Dargay and Phil Goodwin, UCL, March 2002;
Development of an Aggregated Transport Forecasting Model (ATFM)" by Joyce Dargay, Phil Goodwin and Mark Hanly, UCL, September 2002; and
Review of income and price elasticities of demand for road traffic" by Daniel Graham and Stephen Glaister, Imperial College, July 2002.
These reports are all available on the Department's website (www.dft.gov.uk) and copies have been placed in the House.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |