| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
25 Jan 2006 : Column 2218W—continued
Franked Investment Income
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take into account group litigation orders in the European Court of Justice on franked investment income tax rules in his next budget report. [44992]
Dawn Primarolo: The Government are confident that the current Franked Investment Income (FII) legislation is fully conformant with both its domestic and international legal obligations.
Fuel Duty/RPI
Mr. Chaytor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the annual percentage change in (a) fuel duty and(b) the retail price index was in each of the last 10 years. [43050]
John Healey: Historical fuel duty rates can be found in Hydrocarbon Oils Bulletin published by HM Revenue and Customs and available on UK Trade Info website: www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=statindex. Historical retail prices index can be found in Pocket Data Bank published by HM Treasury and available on HMT website: http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/economic_dat a_and_tools/data_index.cfm.
Incomes/Savings
Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the change in the differential in the (a) income and (b) savings of the rich and poor since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [44785]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 25 January 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of the change in the differential in the income and savings of the rich and poor since 1997. (44785)
Estimates of differential income are based on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) analyses 'The effects of taxes and benefits on household income'. The latest analysis for 2003–04 was published on the National Statistics website on 7th July 2005 edition of 'Economic Trends'. The analysis includes measures of income inequality for households in the United Kingdom based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey. This is a sample survey covering approximately 7,000 households in the UK. The analysis for 2004–05 is due to be published on the National Statistics website in April 2006.
Disposable household income is a commonly used indicator of living standards. Table 26 in Appendix 1 shows the percentage share of total disposable income for each quintile group. The quintile groups are based on a ranking of households by disposable income, with the bottom quintile containing the bottom fifth of households, the 2nd quintile containing those households between the 20th and 40th percentile and so on. Figures are available from 1981 to 2003–04. In 1997–98 the bottom quintile received 8% of total disposable income and the top quintile received 42%. In 2003–04 the bottom quintile still received 8% of total disposable income and the top quintile 42%.
Comparable figures for household savings are not available. ONS is currently developing the Household Assets Survey to improve the availability of information on savings and wealth.
Insurance Companies (Additional Fees)
Gregory Barker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will make a statement on the tax liability of additional fees charged by insurance companies; [44978]
(2) what fees charged by insurance companies are liable to tax; and how much revenue was raised by taxes on these charges since 1997. [44993]
John Healey: Insurance companies do not generally charge fees. They charge premiums, on which insurance premium tax (IPT) may be due either at the standard rate of 5 per cent. or the higher rate of 17.5 per cent., depending on the type of insurance. IPT receipts since 1997 are published by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and can be found at:
Any other services supplied by insurance companies which are not exempt from VAT under Group 2 Schedule 9 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 will be
25 Jan 2006 : Column 2220W
liable to VAT at the standard rate of 17.5 per cent. HMRC does not collect data on VAT for individual goods and services.
Maternity Services
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many births there were to women resident in West Lancashire at (a) individual maternity hospitals, (b) midwife-led units, (c) home and (d) other locations in each year since 2000. [45126]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the national statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 25 January 2006:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your request for the number of births to women resident in West Lancashire at (a) individual maternity hospitals, (b) midwife-led units, (c) home and (d) other locations in each year since 2000. (45126)
The table below gives place of occurrence for live births or stillbirths occurring in England and Wales to women usually resident in the West Lancashire Local Authority area at the time of the birth. Information is not available centrally on which institutions are midwife-led units, so figures are presented for categories (a) and (b) combined, (c) and (d).
(28) Hospital not providing maternity services during the year.
(29) Annual counts of less than five. There were seven births, all live, during the period 2000–04.
Stakeholder Pensions
Gregory Barker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to revise stakeholder pension tax relief levels in 2006. [43956]
Mr. Des Browne: From 6 April 2006 stakeholder pensions will, like all other registered pension schemes, enjoy the tax reliefs and advantages set out in Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004. This new regime, which has been widely welcomed, will help introduce greater choice, flexibility, transparency, clarity and cost-efficiency.
The Chancellor keeps all tax matters under review as part of the normal Budget process.
Private/Public Sector Employment (Coventry)
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) private sector jobs in (i) manufacturing and (ii) the service sector and (b) public sector jobs there were in Coventry South in each year since 1997. [44632]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 25 January 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions about private and public sector employment. I am replying her absence. (44632)
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) compiles statistics for the United Kingdom of public sector employment from a quarterly survey of public sector organisations. 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 categorisation 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 Coventry South constituency as shown by the annual local 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.
(30) Public/private sector split based on responses from individuals responding to the annual local area Labour Force Survey—generally overestimate public sector employment.
(31) Other industries are Agriculture, Fishing, Energy and Water and Construction.
Note:
Estimates are subject to sampling variability. Changes from year to year should be treated with particular caution.
Source:
Annual local area Labour Force Survey.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |