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15 Nov 2005 : Column 1204W—continued
Child Trust Fund
Anne Moffat: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many children in East Lothian are eligible to receive the Child Trust Fund. [28836]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Battersea (Martin Linton) on 30 November 2004, Official Report, columns 87–88W. Information on the number of live births in East Lothian will be updated and placed in the House of Commons Library in due course. All children born and living in the UK since 1 September 2002 whose families receive child benefit will be eligible for the Child Trust Fund.
Anne Moffat: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much is being spent in 2005–06 on newspaper advertising to improve the take-up rate of the Child Trust Fund in the UK. [28837]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Gentleman for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 24 October 2005, Official Report, columns 47–48W.
15 Nov 2005 : Column 1205W
Anne Moffat: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much is being spent in 2005–06 on commercial radio in Scotland to improve the take-up rate of the Child Trust Fund. [28838]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: HMRC is not currently running any radio advertising about the Child Trust Fund.
Anne Moffat: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which companies are providing the Helpline for Child Trust Fund inquiries; and how many staff they employ. [28839]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Child Trust Fund Helpline is provided by 25 HM Revenue and Customs employees based at the Bathgate Call Centre.
Correspondence
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the tax credit office expects to be able to reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for Birkenhead regarding the problems affecting the tax credits of his constituent, Mr Longsdale. [25130]
Dawn Primarolo: The tax credit office sent a reply to my right hon. Friend on 9 November 2005.
Council Tax Rebate
Mr. Stephen O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Treasury has budgeted for the £200 council tax rebate. [27952]
Dawn Primarolo: The 2004 pre-Budget report and Budget 2005 both announced additional payments for pensioners to help with council tax bills and other living expenses. Further information on the cost of these measures can be found at table 1.2 of the 2005 Budget document and table 1.2 of the 2004 pre-Budget report document.
Damages
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the 10 largest amounts of damages paid out by his Department in the last year for which figures are available, indicating in each case the nature of the claim. [27735]
John Healey: The only amount of damages the Treasury paid in 2004–05 was one payment of £79 for damage to an official's clothing.
EU Corporation Tax
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether it is his policy to support the creation of a single corporation tax base within the European Union; what assessment he has made of the development of such a base through decisions of the European Court; and what his policy is on the Kovacs' measures on tax harmonisation within the EU. [28610]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government's view is that fair tax competition is the way forward for Europe, not proposals for tax harmonisation including company tax base consolidation.
Decisions of the European Court are considered, as a matter of course, to see whether there are any potential implications for the UK.
15 Nov 2005 : Column 1206W
Gershon Review
Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to ensure that no Inland Revenue and Customs office customer service offices in Cumbria are closed as part of the current review. [28265]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to my previous answer of 7 November 2005, Official Report, column 90W.
Gold Sales
Mr. Spring: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer on 26 October 2005, Official Report, column 366W, on gold sales, (1) what assumptions were used in measuring the risk, when calculating the value-at-risk reduction of approximately 30 per cent.; [27964]
(2) whether the Treasury conducted a value-at-risk calculation on the alternative structure of the foreign exchange reserves at that time for comparative purposes; [27965]
(3), what the total return from the reinvested proceeds of the sale were, including interest in pounds sterling, from the announcement in May 1999 to October 2005; and what estimate he has made of the likely total return over the same period if the gold had not been sold. [27966]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: Information on the value at risk calculations that were conducted and the assumptions made can be found at Annex B Review of the sale of part of the UK gold reserves" published in October 2002, which is available on the Treasury website at: http://www.hm-treasury.aov.uk/media//9EFEF/GoldReserves.PDF
The decision to rebalance the reserves portfolio by selling gold was a long-term investment decision not a short-term attempt to play the market. Reducing the riskiness of the portfolio can only be assessed meaningfully in the medium to long term because in the meantime short-term fluctuations in assets prices could mask the benefits of risk reduction.
Illegal Drug Deaths
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many deaths have been caused in West Lancashire by illegal drugs since 1997. [28093]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl to Rosie Cooper, dated 15 November 2005:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths have been caused in West Lancashire by illegal drugs since 1997. I am replying in her absence. (28093)
Figures readily available from death certification relate deaths due to drug poisoning, not the total number that were attributable to drug use. These figures are produced from a special database which contains deaths where the underlying cause was drug poisoning. Deaths that may be caused indirectly by drug use, for example HIV infection or road traffic accidents, are not included. Death registration data are not the best source of information on these indirect" deaths, because information on the role of drug use in the death may not be provided on the death certificate.
The most recent year for which figures are available is 2003. There were 14 deaths certified as due to drug poisoning 1 and involving drugs controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act to residents of West Lancashire 2 in the seven years 1997 to 2003 3 . We cannot provide a further breakdown by year due to possible individual disclosure resulting from the small numbers of deaths involved.
1 Defined using the following codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision for 2001–2003: F11-F16, F18-F19, X40-X44, X60-X64, Y10-Y14, X85 and the following codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision for 1997–2000: 292, 304, 305.2–305.9, E850-E858, E950.0-E950.5, E962.0 and E980.0-E980.5
Immunisation
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the potential debt liability arising from the International Finance Facility for Immunisation when it is drawn down. [28352]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: No debt liability will arise for the UK from the International Finance Facility for Immunisation (IFFIm). The UK has pledged 35 per cent. of the total resources required for a $4 billion IFFIm, equivalent to payments of $130 million a year, which will be recorded as government expenditure on an annual basis, in the year they are made.
This follows the decision on 2 August of Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Communities, which stated that the borrowing of the IFFIm should not be considered as a liability of donor countries, and that donations to the IFFIm should be scored as government expenditure in the year in which they are made.
The IFFIm, launched on 9 September, will provide an additional $4 billion over the next 10 years to fund immunisation in the world's poorest countries, saving an estimated 10 million lives.
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