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14 Feb 2006 : Column 1846W—continued
Post Office Card Account (West Lancashire)
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in West Lancashire use a Post Office Card Account to access child benefit. [51123]
Dawn Primarolo: Approximately 950 recipients in the parliamentary constituency of West Lancashire used a Post Office Card Account to access child benefit in November 2005.
Press Coverage
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many occasions since 1 April 2003 he has complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the coverage in the press of (a) Ministers or officials and (b) his Department; and how many of these complaints were upheld. [47083]
Public Contracts
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce regulations to ensure that no Government department or public body will be able to award public contracts to any organisation or firm without checking that it has paid the taxes due to HM Treasury. [50570]
John Healey:
Decisions on awarding public contracts are for contracting authorities to make consistent with their legal obligations and responsibility for achieving value for money.
14 Feb 2006 : Column 1847W
The Public Contracts Regulations 2006, which implement the EU Public Procurement Directive, permit contracting authorities to exclude from a public procurement, any candidate who has not fulfilled obligations relating to the payment of taxes in any part of the United Kingdom. The Regulations also include a new provision requiring the mandatory exclusion of companies who have been convicted of fraud and corruption offences including offences relating to cheating the Revenue, defrauding the Customs and taxation in the European Community.
Public Information
Mr. Gale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was spent on the Department's public relations and information services in each of the last five years for which figures are available. [48952]
Mr. Ivan Lewis: The Treasury's only spending on public relations and information services in the financial years 2002–03, 2003–04 and 2004–05 has been the costs of its Press Office and the costs of its main external website. The totals for the three years are 2002–03 £1,234,000; 2003–04 £1,268,000; and 2004–05 £1,167,000. Information in respect of earlier years could be provided only at disproportionate cost due to a change in accounting system in 2002–03.
Self-assessment Awareness Campaign
Anne Milton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2006, Official Report, column 1208W, on the self-assessment awareness campaign, what the results of the value for money audit carried out by Billetts have been to date. [50603]
Dawn Primarolo: The conclusion of the Billetts value for money audit is that costs were better than their industry standard measure—and on a par with industry standard in terms of the quality of airtime bought. In conjunction with a cheaper channel mix this represents very good value for money.
Student Loans
Tim Farron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what mechanisms are in place for HM Revenue and Customs to inform the Student Loans Company when graduates' income exceeds the threshold above which loans must be repaid. [50838]
Dawn Primarolo: The Student Loan Company is sent details of student loan deductions taken from the annual return that the employer makes to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for each employee. HMRC notifies the employer that they should start making student loan deductions where the employee's earnings exceed the annual threshold.
Syngenta
Mr. Crabb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when (a) he and (b) his officials last met representatives of Syngenta. [50554]
Mr. Ivan Lewis:
To the best of my knowledge, no meetings have taken place between the Chancellor or Treasury officials and representatives of Syngenta for at least the last three years.
14 Feb 2006 : Column 1848W
Tax Credits
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters the Office of the Paymaster General has received from hon. Members concerning problems with tax credits since 2003; and how many were replied to within (a) one, (b) two, (c) three, (d) four, (e) five and (f) six months or over. [23684]
Dawn Primarolo: I very much regret the delay in replying to the right hon. Member, the more so since it is not possible to provide a breakdown of correspondence by subject matter except at disproportionate cost. TCO aims to deal with 80 per cent. of tax credits correspondence within 15 working days and 95 per cent. of correspondence within 40 working days.
Lady Hermon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate has been made of the extent of involvement of organised crime in the tax credit system in Northern Ireland since its introduction; [44586]
(2) how many applications for tax credits have been halted in Northern Ireland in each month since their introduction due to suspicion that organised criminals have tried to obtain tax credits; [44587]
(3) how many staff within HM Revenue and Customs in Northern Ireland have been tasked with investigating (a) fraud and (b) other criminal activity by organised gangs in each of the last three years, broken down by grade; and if he will make a statement; [44588]
(4) how many staff within HM Revenue and Customs in Northern Ireland have been tasked with investigating (a) fraud and (b) other criminal activity by organised gangs in each of the last three years, broken down by grade; and if he will make a statement. [48712]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 20 January 2006]: I refer the hon. Lady to the statements made in the House on 18 January 2006, Official Report, column 1358W and 23 January 2006, Official Report, column 1736W.
To disclose detailed information about the deployment of staff investigating fraud and other criminal activity would prejudice the prevention, investigation and detection of crime or the prosecution of offenders.
Tax Credits
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost of changing the tax credits income increase disregard from £2,500 to £25,000. [46043]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to my response to the hon. Member for Ludlow (Mr. Dunne) on 26 January 2006, Official Report, column 2246W.
Mr. McGrady: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will establish a fully staffed tax credits office in Belfast. [47644]
Dawn Primarolo
[holding answer 2 February 2006]: The Tax Credit Office is located in three cities; Belfast, Liverpool and Preston. These offices deal with aspects of tax credit claims made by claimants from across the UK.
14 Feb 2006 : Column 1849W
Mr. Gale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many appeals against repayments of tax credits were outstanding at 1 February 2006. [50216]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 13 February 2006]: At 31 January 2006, around 44,000 disputed overpayments were awaiting a decision.
Mr. Gale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total value was of outstanding repayments of tax credits at 1st February 2006. [50217]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 13 February 2006]: The information is not available in the format requested.
Information on the value of 2003–04 overpayments, the amount of 2003–04 overpayments that was recovered in 2004–05 and the expected recovery of 2003–04 overpayments in 2005–06, 2006–07, 2007–08 and 2008–09 were published in part two of the 'Comptroller and Auditor General's Standard Report on the Accounts of the Inland Revenue 2004–05'.
This can be found on the HMRC website at:
Information on the levels of overpayments incurred by 2004–05 awards will be published in May 2006.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the technical issues affecting the tax credit system; on what date each was (a) identified and (b) resolved; and what the cost of rectification of each was. [50600]
Dawn Primarolo: This information is not available in the format requested.
Mr. Carmichael: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many tax credit payments were made to bank accounts outside the UK in each of the last 12 months. [51457]
Dawn Primarolo: I refer to the reply given to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws)on 10 January 2006, Official Report, column 556W.
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