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8 Nov 2005 : Column 327W—continued

Fairtrade Products

Mr. Pelling: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission how many Fairtrade products are (a) used and (b) for sale in the House; and what plans there are to increase this number. [26229]

Nick Harvey: A total of eight products approved by the Fairtrade Foundation are sold in the House of Commons restaurants on a permanent basis, and another 10 are available from time to time. Of these, coffee, tea and bananas are used throughout the Refreshment Department, although the last named are not always available. The Department is considering changing to the use of Fairtrade approved sugar. Other
 
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products are introduced for sale in response to consumer demand or as a result of becoming aware of new products available on the market.

Flowers (Expenditure)

David Taylor: To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what the House's expenditure on flowers was in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [24495]

Nick Harvey: Expenditure on flowers in the catering outlets was:
£
2000–017,497
2001–028,378
2002–038,081
2003–049,457
2004–0511,513

Flowers are also displayed elsewhere in the House and used at functions. These had a net cost of £8,196 in 2004–05, giving total expenditure of £19,709 in that year. The financial systems do not in every respect separately identify the cost of flowers, so that identifying total expenditure figures for earlier years would involve disproportionate cost.

TREASURY

Civil Service Relocation

Dr. Gibson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with local councils in Norwich on plans to relocate civil servants there; and how many jobs are involved. [25918]

Mr. Des Browne: As I stated in my answer on 1 November, 11 HM Treasury Group posts are planned to relocate to Norwich. Neither the Chancellor nor myself, as the Minister responsible for the relocation programme, have held discussions with local councils in Norwich on plans to relocate civil servants there. However, officials from the Office of Government Commerce, which is overseeing the implementation of the relocation programme, have attended relocation events hosted by Norwich City Council.

Expenditure/Revenue (Scotland)

Stewart Hosie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 12 July 2005, Official Report, column 889W, on expenditure and revenue in Scotland, what further information his Department would need to collect to produce a breakdown of aggregate (a) revenue and (b) borrowing by country and region. [24763]

Mr. Des Browne: Estimates of expenditure and revenue in Scotland are published by the Scottish Executive in Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland". The Treasury does not produce a breakdown of aggregate revenue and borrowing by country and region. The Scottish Executive's publication explains the methodological basis of the Scottish Executive
 
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research; that a wide range of indicators and assumptions were used; that regional budgetary accounts remain relatively undeveloped; and that there is no requirement for the compilation of UK regional budgetary accounts.

Forms (Duplication of Information)

Charles Hendry: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make changes to forms (a) V064, (b) V06003 and (c) V07012 in order to reduce duplication of required information; and what assessment he has made of the efficiency of these forms in their current format. [24957]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Valuation Office Agency keeps all its forms under review to take account of changes in the legislation and taxpayers' suggestions. The three forms concerned are thought to be fit for purpose.

Golden Rule

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce an independent monitoring system for the Golden Rule. [25952]

Mr. Des Browne: Progress against the golden rule is measured by the average annual surplus on the current budget as a percentage of GDP since the cycle began. The independent Office for National Statistics produces the public finance and national accounts statistics on which this measurement is based. These statistics are subject to the same safeguards and quality control procedures that apply to all statistics produced within the National Statistics framework. The Chancellor confirmed to the Treasury Committee on 19 July, the Comptroller and Auditor General has been invited to audit the end date of the previous economic cycle and give us his view as to whether the judgment is reasonable and cautious.

Budget 2005 projections show that the Government will meet the golden rule in the current economic cycle. These projections will be updated in the forthcoming pre-Budget report.

Hemel Hempstead

Mike Penning: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the average outstanding balance on mortgages for homes in (a) Hemel Hempstead constituency and (b) Hertfordshire; what the average month's interest payable on each of those balances would be at current interest rates; and what the average month's interest payable on each balance would have been (i) in May 1997 and (ii) immediately after the pound left the exchange rate mechanism in 1992. [26350]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: Data on mortgage balances outstanding is only available at a national level.

Pensions

Mr. Newmark: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total amount is of unfunded pension liabilities from former nationalised industries. [26221]


 
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Mr. Des Browne: Former nationalised industries did not generally participate in unfunded public service schemes, they usually used funded schemes. A small number of employees are believed to have been provided with unfunded pensions by their nationalised industry employer. Some industry employees became members of unfunded public service pension schemes at privatisation. Such pensions' liabilities as remain in the public sector cannot be separately identified (or could not be without disproportionate cost).

Mr. Willetts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) pursuant to the announcement on public sector pensions of 18 October, at what rate he assumed current members of public sector pension schemes would be replaced by new employees in each decade for the purposes of estimating the revised cost of public sector pensions; [24877]

(2) what the evidential basis was for the estimate of (a) gross savings on the cost of public sector pensions of £26 billion and (b) net savings of £13 billion over the next 50 years announced by officials on 19 October. [24878]

Mr. Des Browne: The figures were calculated by scheme actuaries on the basis of the data and assumptions they use for each scheme. The following table indicates the staff turnover assumed across the pension schemes for teachers, the NHS and civil servants that were the subject of the agreement at the Public Services Forum on 18 October:
Estimated proportion of the combined pensionable payroll relating to scheme members who join after April 2006

Percentage
20060
201333
201850
202364
202877
203386
203893
204397

Railtrack

Mr. George Osborne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the 10 conditions necessary for him to support the decision to transform Railtrack into a non-equity company limited by guarantee were. [16018]

Mr. Des Browne: Following the judgment in the Railtrack Private Shareholders' Action Group trial the Department for Transport has made available for public inspection a full set of the documents contained in the trial bundles. The trial bundles were compiled by the legal advisors to the Department and the claimants. Documents containing the conditions are included in the bundles.

Self-employment

Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of self-employed (a) women and (b) men in the UK; and how many are aged 16 to 45 years. [25949]


 
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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. Philip Hollobone, dated 8 November 2005:


Self-employed (5) people in the United Kingdom by age and gender not seasonally adjusted

Thousand
Three months ending August 2005All personsMenWomen
All aged 16 and over3,5692,596973
of whom aged 16–451,8101,304506


(5) Self-employed is based on the respondents self classification.
Source:
ONS Labour Force Survey





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