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2 Feb 2006 : Column 743W—continued
Regulatory Reform Orders
Mr. Prisk: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many regulatory reform orders his Department has laid before Parliament in each of the last five calendar years. [46812]
John Healey: HM Treasury has laid one regulatory reform order before Parliament since their introduction in 2001. This was the Credits Union Order in 2003. Further information on this can be viewed at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/regulation/regulatory_reform/orders_made/2003/credun.asp
Tax Credits
Anne Main: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the letter from the hon. Member for St. Albans of 14 October and the answer of 13 October 2005, Official Report, column 428, on tax credits, what steps he is taking to expedite the repayment of the overpayment relating to the constituents of the hon. Member, Mr. and Mrs. Keys; if he will send to the hon. Member his Department's calculations used in the assessment of the case; and if he will investigate the case further. [42623]
Dawn Primarolo: I have further examined this case, and have written to the hon. Member to explain the calculations used.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what measures are in place to ensure that the risk of companies fraudulently claiming research and development tax credits is minimised; and if he will make a statement. [47332]
John Healey: HM Revenue and Customs manages non-compliance through a process of risk assessment and deploys resources according to the risks identified.
'Supporting growth in innovation: next steps for the R&D tax credit', published in December 2005, announced that HMRC will set up specialist R and D units. These units will develop specialised expertise to ensure more consistent handling of claims, together with an effective focus on non-compliance.
Tax Investigations
Mr. Bone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2006, what estimate he has made of the cost of providing the information sought; what information he would need to collect to be able to answer the question at a proportionate cost; how many officials within (a) his Department and (b) HM Revenue and Customs spent some or all of their working day on tax investigations in 2004–05; and what estimate he has made of public expenditure on tax investigations for that year. [45676]
Dawn Primarolo: In 2004–05 resourcing data within the Inland Revenue (now HMRC) was kept by reference to the operational directorates dealing with a mix of processing, customer support, compliance and corporate support work. To calculate the figures requested for investigation work it would be necessary to:
Reconstructing the figures required for the historical period in the original question would have taken a considerable amount of research and analysis of disparate and, in the earlier years, paper based records.
Our best estimate of staff employed on all Inland Revenue investigation work in 2004–05 is 14,800 at a cost of £424 million, this will include tax investigations.
Tourism (Wales)
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many new jobs have been created in the tourism sector in Wales since 1997. [47650]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the national statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 2 February 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about tourism-related jobs in Wales. I am replying in her absence. (47650)
While statistics of new jobs created are not available explicitly, statistics from surveys enable comparisons to be made of net changes, in numbers of jobs, from year to year.
The attached table shows the number of employee jobs in tourism-related industries in Wales for each year from 1997 to 2004, the latest year for which information is available. This total is obtained by combining figures for employee jobs in the following industries, as identified by Standard Industrial Classification 2003:
These estimates are from the Annual Business Inquiry and, as with any sample survey, are subject to a margin of uncertainty.
(26) Annual change is calculated using unrounded data.
Source:
ABI (1998–2004) and rescaled AES (1997).
UK Financial Regulation
Mr. Carswell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much central funding was spent on UK financial regulation in each year since 1995. [46220]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
The following table shows Government expenditure on the Registry of Friendly Societies and on insurance supervision from 1995 to 31 November 2001. Other forms of UK financial regulation were not funded by the Government over this
2 Feb 2006 : Column 745W
period. After 31 November 2001 the Financial Services Authority (FSA) assumed full responsibility for UK financial regulation. The FSA is funded via an industry levy and not by the Government.
(27) Government expenditure plans 2000–01 to 2001–02 CM 4615
(28) Government expenditure plans 1997–99 lo 1999–2000 Cm 3605
(29) DTI expenditure plans 1998–99 CM 3905
(30) Expenditure plans 2000–01 to 2003–04 CM 5116
(31) Expenditure plans 2001–02 t o 2003–04 CM5116
Unpaid Pay-as-you-earn Tax
James Duddridge: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much has been collected by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs in unpaid pay-as-you-earn tax since the leverage exercise began in 2004. [47260]
John Healey:
It is not possible to say how much pay-as-you-earn tax has been collected by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs since the leverage exercise began. Of the cases selected for review under the exercise, many remain under inquiry and are not expected to be concluded until later this year and in some cases beyond.
2 Feb 2006 : Column 746W
Valuation Office Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library a copy of the staff manual for the Valuation Office Agency. [46963]
Dawn Primarolo: The Valuation Office Agency's staff handbook The Guide" has been placed in the Library of the House.
VAT
Mr. Weir: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 20 December 2005, Official Report, column 2808W, on VAT, what the total cost to his Department of the VAT reduction on the specified schemes was in each of the last five years. [48230]
Dawn Primarolo: HM Revenue and Customs do not collect data on the revenue cost of this VAT reduction.
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much VAT fraud has been reported in each region of the UK in descending order in the last year for which figures are available. [48013]
Dawn Primarolo: A regional breakdown of VAT fraud is not available.
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