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10 Oct 2005 : Column 276W—continued
Burmese Goods
Vera Baird: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer at which (a) ports, (b) airports and (c) other entry points imports of goods from Burma enter the UK; and by what means of transport. [15638]
Dawn Primarolo: The list of (a) ports, (b) airports and (c) other entry points through which imports of goods from Burma enter the UK, including their means of transport, are shown in the following table.
(86)Figures for 2004–05 are provisional
Source:
Overseas Trade Statistics, HM Revenue and Customs
Capgemini Contract
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the projected cost of Capgemini's contract to deliver the external routing interface component system for Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs was at the time of its signing. [15094]
Dawn Primarolo:
The external routing interface component system (ERIC) is being delivered as part of the ASPIRE contract that HM Revenue and Customs has with Capgemini. This was signed on 5 January 2004
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and commenced on 1 July 2004. Work on ERIC was started by EDS under the Inland Revenue's previous IT contract. ERIC is part of the Modernising PAYE Processes for Customers (MPPC) programme. MPPC is a phased programme and the total business and IT projected costs for phase one, which incorporates ERIC, were £164 million, over six years which includes both the set up and ongoing maintenance costs.
The business case showed positive savings arise from the take up of on-line filing where staff will be released to work in other areas and make a very significant contribution to the Department's efficiency saving targets.
Carers
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) carers and (b) young carers of school age there are in (i) Suffolk and (ii) the parliamentary constituency of Bury St. Edmunds. [15126]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell to Mr. David Ruffley, dated 10 October 2005:
As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many (a) carers and (b) young carers of school age there are in (i) Suffolk and (ii) the Parliamentary Constituency of Bury St Edmunds (15126)
Table 1 below shows the number of people in Suffolk and Bury St Edmunds who were providing unpaid care on Census day (29 April 2001). the data for the county of Suffolk has been taken from table KS08 in Census 2001 Key Statistics for local authorities in England and Wales". The data for the Parliamentary Constituency of Bury St Edmunds has been taken from table KS08 in the 2001 Census Report for Parliamentary Constituencies". Both of these publications are available in the House of Commons Library.
We have interpreted the phrase 'young carers of school age' to mean any person providing unpaid care who was aged between 11 and 16 on Census day (29 April 2001). These figures, shown in Table 2 below, were not readily available in published Census data and were therefore drawn directly from the 2001 census databases.
Sources:
Table KS08 Census 2001 Key Statistics for local authorities in England and Wales and Table KS08 2001 Census Report for Parliamentary Constituencies
Source:
2001 Census data.
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Civil Servants
Stephen Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what he forecasts the net change in civil service staffing levels to be by April 2008. [16669]
Mr. Des Browne: The 2004 Spending Review announced that efficiency measures would deliver a gross reduction in civil service and military posts in administrative and support functions of 84,150 posts by April 2008, of which 13,550 posts will be transferred to frontline service delivery. Civil service statistics are also affected by the Government's determination to increase staffing where needed, to deliver key frontline public services such as policing, criminal justice, teaching and healthcare, and by classification changes, such as the recent reclassification of Magistrates Courts Service employees as civil servants rather than local government employees.
Correspondence
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many overpayments of tax credits in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06 to date, have been (i)disputed and (ii) written off; and what the value of the overpayments (A) disputed and (B) written off was in each year. [13876]
Dawn Primarolo: For the number of requests received in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06, I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave him and the hon. Member for Member for Lanark and Hamilton, East (Mr. Hood) on 4 July 2005, Official Report, columns 100W and 107W. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) received around 23,000 requests to write off overpayments of tax credits on the grounds of Official Error in June 2005. Because of the volume of new requests received recently, and the fact that cases are taking longer to deal with than expected, HMRC has been unable to respond to claimants as quickly as it would like, and it is now unlikely that the backlog will be cleared by the end of the summer.
As to overpayments written off, I refer to the reply I gave the hon. Gentleman on 6 July 2005, Official Report, column 437W. HMRC wrote off around 49,000 overpayments in June 2005 on the grounds of Official Error.
Information on the value of disputed tax credits overpayments is not kept.
For the amounts written off in each year, I refer to my answer's of 4 July 2005, Official Report, column 101W to the hon. Gentleman. HMRC wrote off around £55,734,000 in June 2005.
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what his Department's policy is for dealing with and responding to correspondence received in (a) Welsh, (b) Scots Gaelic and (c) Irish Gaelic; [14728]
(2) what facilities his Department has to deal with telephone inquiries in (a) Welsh, (b) Scots Gaelic and (c) Irish Gaelic. [14729]
John Healey:
The Treasury uses translation services for correspondence received in languages other than English. The Department is able to deal with telephone calls only in English.
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