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9 Feb 2006 : Column 1392W—continued
TREASURY
Better Regulation Action Plan
Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the Financial Services Authority's Better Regulation Action Plan. [50083]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
The Financial Service Authority's (FSA's) Better Regulation Action Plan, which sets out how the FSA is planning to continue improving the regulation of financial services, was published on 2 December. The Government welcome the FSA's Better Regulation Action Plan. On 1 February 2006 the FSA published its Business Plan for 2006–07, which includes further information on how it will deliver its better regulation initiatives. The Business Plan also commits the FSA to publish an update to its Better Regulation Action Plan in November 2006.
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Condoms
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will reduce the current level of VAT on condoms to five per cent. [49239]
Dawn Primarolo: All taxes are kept under constant review and the Government are fully aware of the importance that has been attached to this issue by hon. Members and policy stakeholders.
Domestic Property Surveys
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether VAT is levied on a surveyor's report produced on a domestic property. [49812]
Dawn Primarolo: The supply of a surveyor's report on a domestic property is VAT standard-rated.
Employment Statistics
Mr. Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) private sector jobs in (i) agriculture, (ii) manufacturing and (iii) the service sector and (b) public sector jobs there were in (A) Ribble Valley and (B) Lancashire in each of the last 10 years. [49795]
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John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell dated 9 February 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your parliamentary question about private and public sector employment. (49795)
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 only available from the annual local area Labour Force Survey (LFS)/Annual Population Survey (APS) 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, table 1 shows the number of persons in private sector and public sector employment for people resident in the Kibble Valley parliamentary constituency, as shown by the annual local area LFS for the 12 month periods ending February 1999 to February 2004, and from the APS for the 12 months ending December 2004. Table 2 shows data for people resident in Lancashire. Estimates are not available for earlier years.
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.
(14) Public/private sector split based on responses from individuals responding to the annual local area Labour Force Survey and the Annual Population Survey. This generally results in overestimates of public sector employment.
(15) Other industries are 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; Annual Population Survey
(16) Public/private sector split based on responses from individuals responding to the annual local area Labour Force Survey and the Annual Population Survey. This generally results in overestimates of public sector employment.
(17) Other industries are 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; Annual Population Survey.
Financial Services Authority
Anne Main: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters he has received from members of the public regarding the Financial Services Authority in each year since its creation. [50228]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: HM Treasury does not record this information. It could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
HM Revenue and Customs Estate
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his oral answer of 26 January 2006, Official Report, column 1505, on HM Revenue and Customs Estate, what clawback clauses were included in the contract awarded to Mapeley in 2001 regarding properties included in his Department's estate. [46914]
Dawn Primarolo: The STEPS contract provides HMRC with rights to leave properties during the 20-year life of the deal. On leaving a property HMRC is entitled to share in certain gains in the value of the property. These are described as development gains.
The development gain is calculated by reference to the price obtained by Mapeley unless there is no disposal within two years at which point the gain is calculated by reference to the market value of the property.
Income Tax
Jim Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what additional rate of standard income tax would have been required to raise revenue of (a) £17.4 billion in 2004–05 and (b) £16.4 billion in 2003–04. [48821]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 8 February 2006]: A basic rate of 27½ per cent. on earned income in both 2003–04 and 2004–05 would have raised an additional £16.2 billion and £17.0 billion respectively in each year.
These estimates assume the basic rate on savings and dividends remain unchanged at 20 per cent. and 10 per cent. respectively.
The 2003–04 estimates are based upon the 2003–04 Survey of Personal Incomes (SPI), and the 2004–05 estimates are based upon the 2003–04 SPI projected forward in line with December 2005 pre-Budget HM Treasury assumptions.
The figures exclude any estimate of behavioural response to the tax change, which could be significant given the scale of the changes.
Insurance Premium Tax
Gregory Barker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations he has received from organisations representing leaseholders with concerns about alleged fraud regarding the insurance premium tax. [49465]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
Some allegations of underpayment of insurance premium tax have been received from one organisation and these have been investigated by HM Revenue and Customs.
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