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18 Jan 2006 : Column 1360W—continued
Valuation Office Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions the Valuation Office Agency has had with the EU Permanent Committee on Cadastre; and if he will make a statement. [42833]
Dawn Primarolo:
The Valuation Office Agency was invited to participate in the Plenary Meeting of the EU Permanent Committee on Cadastre held on 26 October 2005 at the Southampton offices of Ordnance Survey.
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The main objective of the EU Permanent Committee on Cadastre is to facilitate the exchange of information, expertise, and best practices among member states.
In England and Wales, the bodies that contribute to the cadastre are Land Registry, Ordnance Survey and the Valuation Office Agency. That is why these three bodies were represented at the Plenary Meeting of the EU Permanent Committee on Cadastre.
The Valuation Office Agency was invited to make a presentation to the Plenary Meeting of the EU Permanent Committee on Cadastre to explain how its valuation work contributed to the cadastre" in England and Wales.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many cases the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has considered in relation to the Valuation Office Agency and council tax since May 1997; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the ruling in each case. [42834]
Dawn Primarolo: The Parliamentary Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, is an independent office-holder. She operates under the provisions of the Parliamentary Commissioner Act 1967 (as amended). The Parliamentary Ombudsman publishes information about the number of investigable complaints she has received in her annual report to Parliament. Her 2004–05 Annual Report, HC 348, was published on 20 July. Copies of the Parliamentary Ombudsman's annual reports are available in the Library of the House.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many appeals the Valuation Office Agency has processed to date in relation to the council tax revaluation in Wales; and how many appeals are outstanding. [42835]
Dawn Primarolo:
As at 31 December 2005 the Valuation Office had received 12,406 formal appeals of which 5,386 have been processed and 7,020 are still outstanding.
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Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many cases the Adjudicator's Office has considered in relation to the Valuation Office Agency and council tax since May 1997; and if he will place in the Library a copy of the ruling on each case. [42837]
Dawn Primarolo: The Adjudicator has considered 69 cases in relation to the Valuation Office Agency and council tax since 1 April 1997.
The rulings relate to an individual taxpayer's affairs and are, therefore, confidential.
Westmorland and Lonsdale
Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) private sector jobs broken down by (i) agricultural, (ii) manufacturing and (iii) service sector and (b) public sector jobs there were in Westmorland and Lonsdale in each year since 1997. [43148]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the national statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 18 January 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about private and public sector employment. (43148)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics for the United Kingdom of public sector employment from a quarterly survey of public sector organizations. However, estimates at local area level are not available.
Information at local area level is available from the annual local area Labour Force Survey (LFS) of individual people in households. However, in this source, the categorization of employment in the public or private sector depends upon the responses from the individuals interviewed. As reported by ONS in October 2005 in the publication Public Sector Employment Trends", some individuals tend to misreport private sector employment as being in the public sector hence leading to overestimates of the share of public sector employment.
With this reservation about the data quality, the attached table shows the number of persons in private sector employment, by the specified splits, and for the public sector, for people resident in the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency as shown by the annual local area LFS for the 12 month periods ending February 1998 to February 2004.
These estimates, as with any from sample surveys, are subject to a margin of uncertainty. Changes in the estimates from year to year should be treated with particular caution.
n/a = Not available.
(12) Public/private sector split based on responses from individuals responding to the annual local area labour force survey—generally overestimate public sector employment.
(13) Services are Standard Industrial Classification (1992) divisions G-O.
(14) Other industries are divisions B, C, E and F.
Source:
Annual local area labour force survey.
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Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in (a) the North West and (b) the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency earn (i) £3.60 per hour, (ii) £3.61 to £3.80 per hour, (iii) £3.81 to £4 per hour and (iv) £4 to £4.50 per hour; and what percentage of total employees this constitutes in each case. [43149]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 18 January 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question to ask how many people in (a) the North West and (b) the Westmorland and Lonsdale constituency
- earn (i) £3.60 per hour (ii) £3.61 to £3.80 per hour, (iii) £3.81 to £4.00 per hour and (iv) £4.00 to £4.50 per hour; and what percentage of total employees this constitutes in each case. (43149)
We cannot provide data for Westmorland and Lonsdale as the sample count for this area was too small to carry out the required proportion analysis.
Currently average earnings are estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), and are provided for full time employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence. This is the standard definition used for ASHE. The ASHE does not collect data on the self employed and people who do unpaid work.
The ASHE, carried out in April of each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. It is a one per cent sample of all employees who are members of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) schemes.
| Proportions earning between | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2005 | Number of jobs (thousand) | £3.60 and under | £3.60-£3.80 | £3.81-£4.00 | £4.00-£4.50 |
| North West | 2,578 | **0.4 | X | **0.3 | *1.2 |
a Employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence.
Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, Office for National Statistics.
* Guide to quality:
The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality.
The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV eg for an average of 200 with a CV of 5 per cent., we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220.
Key:
CV < = 5 per cent.
* CV>5 per cent. and< = 10 per cent.
** CV> 10 per cent. and< =20 per cent.
X unreliable—CV > 20 per cent. or unavailable
Background notes:
(a) The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, (ASHE), carried out in April of each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. It is a one per cent sample of all employees.
(b) Average gross hourly earnings for All Employees whose pay for the survey period was not affected by absence.
(c) The median replaces the mean as the headline statistic. The weighted mean is the sum of the weighted values divided by the sum of the weights. The median is the value below which 50 per cent. of employees fall. It is preferred over the mean for earnings data as it is influenced less by extreme values and because of the skewed distribution of earnings data.
Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much council tax was paid as a proportion of gross income by households in each income quintile group in Westmorland and Lonsdale in the latest year for which data are available. [43151]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 18 January 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how much council tax was paid as a proportion of gross income for households in each income quintile group in Westmorland and Lonsdale in the latest year for which data is available. (43151)
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