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2 May 2006 : Column 1437W—continued
TREASURY
Barker Review
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the Barker Review's inquiry into planning policy. [66692]
John Healey:
The Chancellor and the Deputy Prime Minister have invited Kate Barker, a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, to conduct a review of land use planning in England. An interim report is due to be published in the summer. Further information, including the formal terms of reference is available at www.barkerreviewofplanning.org.uk
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Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library copies of responses to the Barker Review. [66694]
John Healey: The responses to the call for evidence for the Barker Review of Land Use Planning will be available on www.barkerreviewofplanning.org.uk in due course. I have requested that Kate Barker make copies available to the House.
Benefit Eligibility
Michael Gove: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how long a national from another EU member state needs to have been resident in the UK before being eligible to receive child benefit; and what the residency period will be after directive 2004/38/EC comes into force; [66124]
(2) how long a national from another EU member state needs to have been resident in the UK before being eligible to receive (a) working tax credit and (b) child tax credit; and how long the residency periods will be after directive 2004/38/EC comes into force. [66135]
Dawn Primarolo: To claim tax credits or child benefit, irrespective of their nationality any person making a claim must be both present and ordinarily resident in the UK. This means that he or she must be physically present in the UK throughout the period of the award, although a temporary absence of up to eight, or in some cases, 12 weeks may be disregarded.
Since 1 May 2004, a person claiming child tax credit and child benefit must also have a right to reside in the UK under national or EC law. An EU national will generally only have a right to reside if they are working in the UK, or if they have been working in the UK for some time and ceased working. If they are not working in the UK, an EU national will generally only have a right to reside if they have sufficient resources or income to avoid becoming a burden on the social assistance system of the UK.
These rules will not change as a result of the introduction of the directive 2004/38/EC.
Business Investment
Chris Huhne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 25 April 2006, Official Report, column 1045W, on business investment, if he will give the page reference of the latest OECD Economic Outlook at which the requested data may be found. [67602]
John Healey: The data are available from the OECD database that supports the Economic Outlook through www.sourceOECD.org. This database is available through the House of Commons' Library. The following web address links to the Economic Outlook database within Source OECD, from where business investment and GDP data, in volume terms, can be downloaded for all OECD economies and the OECD as a whole. Business investment growth rates can also be determined using this data.
The Economic Outlook was published in late 2005, so 2004 is the latest year for which outturn data is available.
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Climate Change
Colin Challen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of when the measures set out in his speech to the UN ambassadors on 20 April will achieve a sustainable concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. [66416]
John Healey: The global nature of the causes and effects of climate change means that international action is crucial. The measures in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's speech to the UN ambassadors highlight how co-ordinated international action can bring significant emissions reductions. These proposals aim to drive forward effective multilateral action. In particular, the Multilateral Development Banks' Energy Investment Framework, and an extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism will have significant impacts in reducing global emissions, encouraging the development of a deeper and more liquid global carbon market. However, details of these proposals have not yet been finalised with international partners and institutions, so an assessment of their impact would be premature. Action is also needed to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from consumers, and the 1 Watt initiative which the Chancellor proposed has significant potential to reduce global emissions and should be accelerated.
Correspondence
Sir John Stanley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the Paymaster General will reply to the letter from the right hon. Member for Tonbridge and Malling regarding her tax credits statement made on 22 June 2005. [66363]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 27 April 2006]: I have replied to the right hon. Member.
Sir Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will answer the letter to him dated 14 February from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Julie Reid. [67484]
Dawn Primarolo: I have done so.
Council Tax
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost was of the one-off payment to pensioners towards their council tax bills in 2005–06; and what the estimated cost is for 2006–07. [66652]
Mr. Timms:
The cost of the £200.00 payment to pensioners to help with their council tax bills in 2005–06 was £1,067 million. There are no plans to make a similar payment for 2006–07.
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The tables can be viewed at DWP website at http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd4/expenditure.asp
Demographics
Shona McIsaac: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the population in each electoral ward in the constituency of (a) Cleethorpes, (b) Great Grimsby, (c) Scunthorpe and (d) Brigg and Goole based on (i) the 2001 census, (ii) electoral registers and (iii) patient registers. [67043]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 2 May 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your question regarding the population in each electoral ward in the constituencies of (a) Cleethorpes, (b) Great Grimsby, (c) Scunthorpe and (d) Brigg and Goole based on (i) the 2001 Census, (ii) electoral rolls and (iii) patient registers. (67043)
The table attached provides the information you have requested. The most recent population estimates for wards are for mid-2002. The ward population estimates have been published with the status of experimental statistics". Therefore the estimates should be treated with some care.
The latest available ward electorate counts are for December 2005. The ward electorate counts are for parliamentary electors, including attainers. Local government electorate counts are not available at ward level.
It should be noted that the number of people eligible to vote is not the same as the resident population aged 18 and over. There are numerous reasons for this. For example not everyone who is usually resident is entitled to vote (foreign citizens from outside of the EU and Commonwealth, prisoners, etc. are not eligible), some people do not register to vote and people who have more than one address may register in more than one place. Further, there is inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate as electoral registration officers vary in how quickly they remove people from the registers after they have moved away from an area or after they have died. These factors have a differential impact from area to area.
It should be noted that patient register counts differ from estimates of the usually resident population for a number of reasons. Patient registers include people who are in the country for at least three months, whereas population estimates are based on a usual residence definition requiring a stay of 12 months or more. The patient registers exclude individuals who are ineligible to be registered with a GP. People may be on a patient register after having left the country and not deregistered with their GP; similarly people may have moved to another area and not re-registered. Some patients may have more than one NHS number e.g. they may have been issued a temporary number for a short period. Again, these factors have a differential impact from place to place.
(23) Ridge ward falls within both Scunthorpe, and Brigg and Goole constituencies, data for the whole ward are shown.
Notes:
1. The mid-2002 ward population estimates are consistent with the published mid-2002 local authority estimates (September 2004 revisions) and have been rounded to the nearest hundred
2. Parliamentary electors are those people who are entitled to vote in parliamentary elections at Westminster and who meet the residence qualification. Those include overseas voters but exclude Peers and European citizens
Source:
Office for National Statistics
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