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9 Jan 2006 : Column 309W—continued
Private Finance Initiative Projects
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list private finance initiative projects signed since 1 January, broken down by Department; who the commissioning body is in each case; and what the (a) location, (b) capital value and (c) date of the financial close is in each case. [40382]
John Healey: A list of signed PFI projects is published on the HM Treasury website (www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/documents/public_private_partnerships/ppp_pfi_stats.cfm). The list is updated annually, and the next update is scheduled to take place during January 2006.
The PFI project list can be disaggregated according to Department, and it also sets out the procuring authority, location, capital value and date of financial close for each signed PFI project. The updated PFI project list will include all PFI projects that had reached financial close by September 2005—the date of the last HM Treasury PFI data collection.
Public Works Loan Board
Mr. Weir: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much money is on loan from the Public Works Loan Board (PWLB), broken down by country or region of the United Kingdom; and how much money is available for lending from the PWLB. [39624]
John Healey:
The 130th Annual Report of the Public Works Loan Board, laid before Parliament on 20 July 2005, notes that at 31 March 2005 the following principal was outstanding:
9 Jan 2006 : Column 310W
| Country | £ million |
|---|---|
| England | 32,222.9 |
| Scotland | 6,750.4 |
| Wales | 3,096.6 |
| Total | 42,069.9 |
The Public Works Loan Board does not lend to Northern Ireland authorities.
The maximum amount of outstanding loans, at any one time, from the Public Works Loan Board should not currently exceed £55,000 million.
Research and Development Tax Credits
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many companies have been convicted of research and development tax credit fraud in each year for which information is available; and if he will make a statement. [38347]
John Healey: Since the introduction of the research and development tax credit in April 2000, no companies have been convicted of research and development tax credit fraud.
Sir Robert Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses in Scotland have successfully applied for the research and development tax credit in each year since it was introduced. [39120]
John Healey: The information requested for Scotland is not available.
Information on the total number of companies that have claimed research and development tax credit data under the small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
9 Jan 2006 : Column 311W
scheme is published on the HM Revenue and Customs website at www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/corporate_tax/randdtcmenu.
Voter Registration
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of the population of 18 to 24 year-olds are registered to vote broken down by constituency. [39160]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 22 December 2005:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question concerning the percentage of the population aged 18 to 24 who are registered to vote. (39160)
Only very limited age information is collected on electoral returns. Information is collected and collated on the number of attainers, i.e. those aged 16 and 17 who will be entitled to vote when they reach 18. Information is also collected on the elderly (because of exemption from jury duty), though these data are not collated centrally.
Mr. Iain Wright: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of the population is registered to vote in each ward in the Tees Valley, broken down by constituency. [39171]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 22 December 2005:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question concerning what percentage of the population is registered to vote in each Ward in Tees Valley. (39171)
The estimated percentages vary considerable between wards. They are calculated by taking ward electorate counts for December 2002 parliamentary electors as a percentage of population estimates for Census Area Statistics (CAS) wards. There are a number of limitations with the data that means that some care should be taken with interpretation of the results. See also the footnotes.
The CAS wards are the closest available geography to electoral wards, for which population estimates are available. They were created for outputs from the 2001 Census and are based mainly on 2003 electoral wards. It is necessary to convert electorate counts to the CAS ward geography and therefore the electorate counts in the table are not necessarily consistent with data published elsewhere. The latest available population data available at ward level is for mid-2002, published in April 2005. The ward electorate counts are for December 2002 parliamentary electors, including attainers. No adjustment has been made to reflect the difference between these two timepoints.
There are a number of wards that are split by parliamentary constituency i.e. they fall within two or more parliamentary constituencies. These are shown by an asterisk * alongside their ward name, and appear under both constituencies (except where the split is not in Tees Valley). Electorate and population figures for the whole ward are shown. Some wards will therefore be double counted. It is not possible to split the data for these wards.
There is inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate as electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or after they have died. In addition, people can register in more than one place.
There are a relatively small number of wards (2) where the electorate counts are more than 10 per cent. greater than the population estimate.
The majority of such cases are likely to be attributable to a limitation in the methodology used to convert electorate counts to a CAS ward geography, though the other limitations set out will also have an affect.
NORTHERN IRELAND
Administration Costs
Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland which functions of his core Department are carried out in (a) England and (b) London; and what administration costs were associated with these functions for each area in the last year. [39823]
Mr. Woodward: The Northern Ireland Office Core Department has only one location in England that carries out functions for the Department. This is in London.
The functions and administrative costs for 2004–05 for functions carried out in London were as follows:
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