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31 Oct 2005 : Column 725W—continued
Customs and Excise (Northern Ireland)
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people worked for HM Customs and Excise in Northern Ireland in each year between 1998 and 2004. [22889]
Dawn Primarolo: HM Customs and Excise do not maintain a record of the total number of people who worked for the Department during any one year. The full-time equivalent numbers of staff in post in Northern Ireland at 1 April in each of the years requested are:
| As at 1 April each year | FTE staff in post |
|---|---|
| 1998 | 581 |
| 1999 | 560 |
| 2000 | 548 |
| 2001 | 578 |
| 2002 | 574 |
| 2003 | 628 |
| 2004 | 694 |
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will seek to put in place a permanent dog detector deployment for Customs and Excise in Northern Ireland. [22892]
Dawn Primarolo: Throughout the UK, Customs seek to deploy their resources where they will have the greatest impact on international smuggling. Detector dogs are available to support frontier activity in Northern Ireland, but Customs experience so far suggests that the permanent location of detector dogs in Northern Ireland would not be the most effective use of these resources.
Mr. Peter Robinson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how long each deployment of a detector dog team lasted in Northern Ireland since April 2004; and what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the deployments. [22893]
Dawn Primarolo: Since April 2004, there have been 14 deployments of detector dogs in Northern Ireland, as follows:
| Length of deployment, including travelling time (days) | Number of deployments |
|---|---|
| 2 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 6 | 3 |
| 7 | 1 |
| 15 | 1 |
Departmental Energy Consumption
Norman Lamb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much energy has been consumed by his Department in each of the last five years; and how much was spent on energy in each year. [22465]
John Healey:
The information is as follows.
31 Oct 2005 : Column 726W
| Energy consumption (weather corrected kwh) | Energy spend (£) | |
|---|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 10,094,672 | 674,288 |
| 2001–02 | 10,659,265 | 654,363 |
| 2002–03 | 15,745,199 | 786,735 |
| 2003–04 | 12,329,020 | 589,009 |
| 2004–05 | 12,126,079 | 799,037 |
Departmental Policies
Mrs. Hodgson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will set out, with statistical evidence relating as closely as possible to Gateshead, East and Washington, West constituency, the effects in Gateshead, East and Washington, West of changes to his Department's policies since 1997. [22287]
John Healey: The Government have put in place a broad programme of both macroeconomic and microeconomic reform since our election in 1997 designed to improve the economic performance of all parts of the UK. Since these policies were implemented, the economic performance of the Gateshead East and Washington West constituency has improved considerably. For example, since May 1997, claimant unemployment in Gateshead, East and Washington, West has fallen by 54 per cent. while both long-term youth and adult unemployment have fallen by over 90 per cent.
The Neighbourhood Statistics Service provides a wide range of statistical information at parliamentary constituency level, taken from the 2001 census and other sources. This service is available on the National Statistics website at http://neighbourhood.statistics. gov.uk./
Direct Taxation
Mr. Andrew Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of direct taxation was paid by women in the last period for which figures are available. [22667]
Dawn Primarolo: The information is provided in the table.
| Source | Percentage of tax paid by women |
|---|---|
| Income Tax(7) | 26.3 |
| Capital Gains Tax(8) | 26.9 |
| Inheritance Tax(9) | 60.9 |
(7) Based on 2002–03 survey of personal incomes (SPI) and projected in line with Budget 2005 assumptions.
(8) Based on capital gains reported on the 2003–04 self assessment (SA) return.
(9) Based on a 2001–02 sample of cases where an IHT liability arose on death.
Employees
Mr. MacShane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of employees were in the (a) public sector and (b) private sector, on the latest date for which figures are available, broken down by region. [22062]
31 Oct 2005 : Column 727W
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. Dennis MacShane, dated 31 October 2005:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about public and private sector employment. [22062]
For countries and regions of the UK, the attached table shows estimates of the percentages of total employment in the public and private sectors. These figures, which cover the twelve months to June 2005, include self-employment in the private sector. They were published, on 28th October in the Public Sector Employment Trends 2005" report which is available from the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp?id=1293
Notes:
1. The figure for the United Kingdom is derived from estimates in the ONS Public Sector Employment Quarter 2 First Release (published 30 September 2005).
2. Northern Ireland data are based on information from the Quarterly Employment Survey and relate to the number of public sector jobs not the number of people working in the public sector. Data are expressed as a percentage of the total workplace employment level from the LFS in Northern Ireland. HM forces data are not included.
3. Figures for the regions and countries within Great Britain have been produced using estimates from the Labour Force Survey. These have been constrained to the total UK public sector employment total so that estimates are in-line with National Accounts definitions of the public sector.
Sources:
Labour Force Survey, returns from public sector organisations (ONS) and Quarterly Employment Survey (DETINI).
Enterprise Management Incentives
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to have completed the review of the Enterprise Management Initiative policy; and if he will make a statement. [22703]
John Healey:
An evaluation programme has begun which aims to assess the economic impact and cost effectiveness of the Enterprise Management Incentives (EMI) against its stated policy objectives of helping
31 Oct 2005 : Column 728W
smaller higher risk companies to recruit and retain the people they need to grow and succeed. With share options, the incentive clearly takes time to work because share prices need time to grow to generate gains for employees.
We are continually analysing EMI information received by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) from companies and their representatives. We also commission research from external contractors to gather further EMI evidence as part of the HMRC research programme. National statistics on EMI are annually updated on the HMRC website. Findings of qualitative research that gathered early evidence on the attitudes and experiences of companies using EMI are also available on the HMRC website. Based on these results, a more comprehensive quantitative study of the policy is planned for 2006–07.
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