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6 Dec 2005 : Column 1132W—continued

Public Sector Pensions

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the current level of public sector pension liability. [34151]

Mr. Des Browne: We do not hold information centrally on the whole public sector pensions liability. The total liabilities of unfunded public service pension schemes as at 31 March 2004 were estimated to be £460 billion. This estimate is based on figures published in 2003–04 Resource Accounts. The Resource Accounts for all these schemes for 2004–05 are not yet ready.

The liabilities of the funded Local Government Pension Schemes across the UK at the latest valuation dates, mostly March 2004, were around £120 billion with assets of around £90 billion.

Tax Credits

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer in respect of what proportion of tax credit claimants who have a reduced tax credit award due to the recovery of an overpayment the reduction is in response to an overpayment occurring in (a) 2003–04, (b) 2004–05 and (c) 2005–06. [35338]

Dawn Primarolo: This information is not available.

Unregulated Products

Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans his Department has (a) to protect consumers from unregulated products sold by banks and (b) to ensure that consumers are made fully aware of which products are regulated and which are not; and if he will make a statement. [33852]

Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Financial Services Authority (FSA) regulates all banks and financial services providers operating in the UK. The FSA has a statutory obligation to protect consumers and is responsible for policing the regulatory perimeter and for drawing attention to where the boundary lies. FSA rules require banks to explain to customers that a particular product or service is regulated by the FSA.

The FSA Handbook includes requirements that firms must ensure that they should not make any misleading statements to a client, whether expressly or by implication, that its affairs, or any aspect of them, have the approval of the FSA. This does not, of course, prevent firms from indicating that they are authorised and regulated by the FSA, in conjunction with selling products regulated by the FSA.

In addition to FSA regulation, the Banking Code is a voluntary code which applies to the large number of banks that subscribe to it. It covers some regulated services, such as deposit-taking, and some unregulated services, such as foreign exchange services. The existence of the Banking Code is one of the reasons why the FSA has not introduced significant additional conduct of business regulation except where required by European legislation.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

Council Property Discounts

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many local councils in England no longer give a 50 per cent. council discount for (a) empty homes and (b) second homes. [33502]

 
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Mr. Woolas: As at November 2004, the latest date for which data are available, 209 local authorities in England did not give a 50 per cent. council tax discount for empty homes and 158 local authorities did not give a 50 per cent. council tax discount on second homes.

The data are as reported on CTB1S forms submitted by billing authorities to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister each year.

Council Tax

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate the Government have made of the effects on revenue of council tax collection rates being less than 100 per cent. in the most recent year for which figures are available. [33498]

Mr. Woolas: In 2004–05, the latest year for which data are available, local authorities in England collected in-year £17.1 billion of council tax out of a possible £17.7 billion. This represents a collection rate of 96.6 per cent. and is the fifth consecutive annual improvement in this figure. However, collection continues once the financial year to which council tax relates ends. In 2004–05 for instance, authorities collected £368 million that related to previous years.

Councillors (Pensions/Income)

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many councils offer pensions for their councillors. [33485]

Mr. Woolas: The information requested is not held centrally, and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. I understand that the Local Government Pensions Committee of the Employers' Organisation for local government conducted a survey of English local authorities in 2004, seeking details of their decisions on giving councillors access to the local government pension scheme. The results of the survey can be found in LGPC Circular 155 dated April 2004, available on the Employers' Organisation website at: www.lg-employers.gov.uk.

Fire and Rescue Services

Justine Greening: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many fire and emergency call-outs were handled from fire stations based in the London borough of Wandsworth in each year since 1997, broken down by fire station location. [34997]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Information on emergency call-outs to fires and other incidents broken down by London borough and fire stations within boroughs is not available centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Justine Greening: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many fire and rescue emergency call-outs took place in the London borough of Wandsworth in each year since 1997, broken down by parliamentary constituency. [34999]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Information on emergency call-outs to fires and other incidents broken down by London borough and parliamentary constituency is not available centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
 
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Justine Greening: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the total cost was of fire and rescue services based in London in each year since 1997, broken down by London borough; how much of that expenditure was accounted for by manpower costs in each case; and if he will make a statement. [35000]

Jim Fitzpatrick: The information requested for London is tabled as follows. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister does not collect or hold this information broken down by London borough.
£000

	Total expenditure on fire services by London fire and civil defence authority/Greater London authority 1997–98 to 2003–04	Cost of fire service employees
1997–98	290,323	257,558
1998–99	303,660	267,725
1999–2000	308,179	273,865
2000–01	318,516	281,350
2001–02	339,680	292,611
2002–03	364,517	314,814
2003–04	349,940	295,998

Source:
ODPM Revenue Outturn (RO) data

John Mann: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many call-outs for fires there were at each fire station in (a) Nottinghamshire, (b) South Yorkshire and (c) Derbyshire in the last three years. [35094]

Jim Fitzpatrick: Information on emergency responses at fire stations within fire and rescue service areas is not available centrally, and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Local Government Employees

Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister when his Department plans to publish the conclusions of its review of political restrictions of employees in local government. [33487]

Mr. Woolas: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister intends to publish these conclusions shortly.

Local Strategic Partnerships

Bob Russell: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what monitoring he undertakes of the operation of local strategic partnerships; and if he will make a statement. [32515]

Mr. Woolas: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has commissioned an extensive independent research programme to evaluate the operation of Local Strategic Partnership (LSPs). The main LSP research has been running for over three years and it includes a survey of all LSPs in 2002 and 2004 and in-depth case studies in different areas across the country. The full research programme can be found in the ODPM's website at: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1136876. The final report of this phase of the evaluation will be published in the new year.

In addition, since 2004 all LSPs in receipt of Neighbourhood Renewal Fund resources have been required to develop a performance management framework. This is a self assessment process based on a framework of three core requirements—the review of outcomes, partnership working and improvement
 
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planning. To ensure the process is robust, regional Government offices have undertaken annual reviews with those LSPs, challenging their assessments to ensure they are an accurate reflection of performance. Government offices provide the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister with a report on each of the 87 LSPs in September each year.

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