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26 Apr 2006 : Column 1200W—continued
Valuation Office Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his Answer of 30 November 2005, Official Report, column 587W, on the Valuation Office Agency, what the (a) start point and (b) estimated termination point of the contract with Cole Layer Trumble are; and whether the contract is ongoing. [46993]
Mr. Woolas: The contract between EDS (now managed by Aspire, IT suppliers to HMRC and the Valuation Office Agency) and Cole Layer Trumble (CLT) commenced on 1 September 2003. As the Government have made clear, the VOA will ensure that the country has an up-to-date electronic property database, available as a source of accurate data. It is therefore anticipated that there will be an ongoing contract while the software supplied by CLT (the OASIS modelling software) is in use. A termination point of the contract cannot be estimated.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his Answer of 30 November 2005, Official Report, column 587W, on the Valuation Office Agency, how many meetings his officials and staff from the Valuation Office Agency have had with Cole Layer Trumble since the signing of the contract. [46994]
Mr. Woolas: No meetings involving officials of the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister have been held with Cole Layer Trumble (CLT). Staff from the Valuation Office Agency have had regular liaison with representatives of CLT during development of the Agency's Automated Valuation Model (AVM), which is an essential part of ensuring best value for money is delivered from the investment being made in the AVM. No formal count has been kept of the number of meetings held.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his Answer of 30 November 2005, Official Report, column 587W, on the Valuation Office Agency, if he will publish the make and model of the cameras bought in each year. [46995]
Dawn Primarolo: I have been asked to reply.
The VOA has used cameras since the late 1980s. Details of the cameras bought in each year is as shown in the following table: All are standard retail models for amateur photographer use. These replaced circa 1,400 conventional cameras held by the VOA. Digital cameras were introduced on cost savings grounds i.e. to reduce running costs expended on film development costs.
| Number and make | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| 2001–02 | 150 x Fuji | 150 |
| 2002–03 | 11 x Fuji 645 x Olympus | 656 |
| 2003–04 | None purchased | — |
| 2004–05 | 1,270 x Olympus | 1,270 |
| 2005–06 | 50 x Olympus | 50 |
Mrs. Spelman:
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the Answer of 9 January 2006, Official Report, column 273W, on the Valuation Office Agency,
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if he will place in the Library a copy of the Valuation Office Agency's document, Dwellinghouse Coding—an Illustrated Guide, or provide a weblink if it is available on the Agency's website. [46999]
Mr. Woolas: In order to protect privacy the document cannot be made publicly available.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if the Valuation Office Agency keeps photographs of properties for (a) business rates and (b) council tax valuation purposes. [47143]
Mr. Woolas: Some photographs are kept on the Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) secure central database. Photographs are rarely taken inside a person's home and only with the express permission of the occupier e.g. to record a poor state of repair where the occupier believes it affects the value for taxation purposes. VOA policy is to delete photographs taken inside a person's home once they have served their purpose.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the individual datasets are part of the Valuation Office Agency's Automated Valuation Model. [47146]
Mr. Woolas: No. The Valuation Office Agency's (VOA) dataset is independent of the Automated Valuation Model (AVM).
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what use the Valuation Office Agency makes of (a) property and (b) individual-related data from Experian. [47147]
Mr. Woolas: The information requested is as follows.
(a) The Valuation Office Agency purchases Goad plans and shopping centre reports including footfall information from Experian.
Goad plans are used for identifying occupiers of retail units when undertaking rating valuations and considering proposals.
Footfall count information is used to monitor the impact on rental value of physical changes to the layout of shopping centres.
(b) The Valuation Office Agency does not use individual-related data such as credit ratings from Experian.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what account the Valuation Office Agency takes of the presence of (a) fixed kennels, (b) stables and (c) animal hutches in making a valuation of a domestic property. [47150]
Mr. Woolas: The banding of a domestic property for council tax purposes is based on the valuer's estimate of the capital value of that property. The items referred to would only be taken into account if they form part of a larger property which is itself a dwelling and to the extent which they add to the capital value of the dwelling.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will place a copy of the Valuation Office Agency guidance on the definition and assessment of a fixture for council tax valuation purposes in the Library. [47434]
Mr. Woolas:
Guidance on the definition and assessment of a fixture for council tax valuation purposes is contained in the VGA's Council Tax Manual, which is available on the VGA's website www.voa.gov.uk
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Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 5 December 2005, Official Report, column 963W, on the Valuation Office Agency, how many public conveniences were registered for business rates by the Valuation Office Agency in each Government office region in 1998 or the closest year for which figures are available. [47933]
Mr. Woolas: As at 31 March 1998 there were 6,224 public conveniences included in the 1995 Rating List.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his answers of 23 November 2005, Official Report, column 2063W, and 6 December 2005, Official Report, column 1138W, on the Valuation Office Agency, whether the Agency intends to collate dwelling house code data for the remaining homes in England; and whether the agency expects that the number of homes with value significant code data will increase. [48153]
Mr. Woolas: The intention is to continue to develop a database to support the legitimate duty of the Valuation Office Agency's listing officers to compile and maintain valuation lists for council tax purposes, and to do so in a manner that ensures fairness and consistency between taxpayers.
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to his answer of 28 November 2005, Official Report, column 197W, on council tax revaluation, what targets the Valuation Office Agency has set for collecting dwelling house codes or value significant codes for more domestic properties to maintain valuation lists. [48160]
Mr. Woolas: The Valuation Office Agency has set an internal minimum standard for its newly digitised database so that data on the six main dwelling house codes (group, type, age, area, number of rooms and number of bedrooms) are held in electronic, not paper, form for 97 per cent. of dwellings by 30 June 2006.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden, of 20 January 2006, Official Report, column 1699W, on the Valuation Office Agency, how many properties Valuation Office Agency inspected to determine whether the property is used for both business and domestic purposes in the most recent year for which figures are available. [50912]
Mr. Woolas: The Valuation Office Agency does not hold this information.
Mr. Pickles:
To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 19 January 2006, Official Report, column 1546W, on
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the Valuation Office Agency, if he will place in the Library a copy of the full ruling of the Lands Tribunal of Tully v. Jorgensen. [50951]
Mr. Woolas: A copy of the full ruling of the Lands Tribunal of Tully v. Jorgensen is published and can be obtained from the Lands Tribunal website www.landstribunal.gov.uk.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Meriden of 19 January 2006, Official Report, column 1546W, on the Valuation Office Agency, what changes have been made to the criteria applied by valuation officers since May 1997. [50960]
Mr. Woolas: The criteria applied by valuation officers of the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), as set out in the council tax manual published by the VOA on its website at www.voa.gov.uk, remained unchanged until the update, in 2004, which reflected the decision of the Lands Tribunal in the case of Tully v. Jorgensen.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister whether the Valuation Office Agency has produced proposals on the sale of its council tax datasets for commercial purposes in the last five years. [51071]
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Mr. Woolas: The Valuation Office Agency has not produced any proposals on the sale of its council tax datasets for commercial purposes.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister into how many localities the Valuation Office Agency divided England to assist the valuations of individual properties as part of the council tax revaluation preparations. [56184]
Mr. Woolas: As part of the council tax revaluation preparations, the Valuation Office Agency divided England into approximately 10,000 localities.
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