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11 May 2006 : Column 447W—continued
Number of conceptions to girls aged under 14 by single year of age are not published by ONS to protect the confidentiality of individual's information due to small number of events at
younger ages. It is therefore not possible to provide conception rate for girls aged 13-14; we can instead provide information for all aged under 14 combined.
Conception figures for women aged under 14, 14 and 15 to 16 for England and Wales are given in the following table.
| Conceptions at ages under 14, 14 and 15-16, England and Wales, 2004 | ||
| Age | Number | Rate( 1) |
| (1) Rates for women aged under 14, 14 and 15-16 are based on the female population of women aged 13, 14 and 15-16 respectively. |
Public Expenditure
Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will update Table 8.17 of the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2005 to show (a) current and (b) capital expenditure for each year from 1999-2000 to 2005-06. [69916]
Mr. Timms: We do not have any plans to modify Table 8.17 of the Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) 2005 to show current and capital expenditure or for the table to cover a run of years. Updated estimates of expenditure analysed by country and region, including an update of Table 8.17 to cover 2004-05, will be published in PESA 2006 (Cm8511), on 15 May 2006.
Stamp Duty
Mr. Gray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what projections he has made for the revenue from stamp duty on (a) property and (b) share transactions in each of the next three financial years. [69837]
Ed Balls: Projected revenues for total stamp taxes in 2006-07 were published in Table C8 of the Budget 2006 report. The breakdown between stamp taxes on land and property and stamp taxes on shares is as follows:
| £ billion | |
| Taxes | 2006-07 |
Projections of total stamp taxes are only shown in the Budget 2006 report up to 2006-07 and this is therefore the last year for which forecast receipts are currently given in replies to parliamentary questions.
Tax Credits
Danny Alexander: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress has been made in response to the ombudsman's recommendation of an independent right of appeal on decisions to recover tax credit overpayments; and if he will make a statement. [67258]
Dawn Primarolo: HMRC are exploring with the adjudicator whether her office could provide an independent review of disputed overpayment decisions.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he has taken to prevent abuse of the new £25,000 income disregard rule in tax credit assessments. [69160]
Dawn Primarolo: The tax credit regulations already contain anti-avoidance provisions which HMRC would seek to deploy in the event of an attempted abuse of this kind.
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many additional staff have been brought in to the tax credit call centres to deal with the current annual declarations. [69161]
Dawn Primarolo: HMRC keep the demand and service levels of the Tax Credit Helpline under constant review and have the flexibility to adjust resources as and when needed.
Trade Statistics
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the UK's balance of trade was with (a) the USA, (b) China, (c) India, (d) Japan, (e) the remainder of South East Asia and (f) South America in each of the last eight years; and what assessment he has made of the trends over this period. [69937]
Ed Balls: The Office for National Statistics publishes trade in goods and services data by country in their annual Pink Book publication (http://www.statistics.gov.uk /StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=1140&Pos=1&ColRank=1 &Rank=272). Trends in the UK's trade with the rest of the world vary significantly across regions. For example, the UK runs a substantial trade surplus with the United States, while it is currently running a trade deficit with the majority of south-east Asian and south American economies.
These trends are likely to partly reflect broader global trends, with emerging economies accounting for an increasing share of global output, trade and investment. These changes have significant implications for the world's advanced economies, bringing with them new challenges and opportunities.
Unemployment
Mark Pritchard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the level of unemployment in the West Midlands in 2004-05. [69727]
Ed Balls: In 2004-05, claimant unemployment in the West Midlands reached a record low, and was 243,000 lower than its peak in March 1986.
Between May 1997 and March 2006, claimant unemployment in the West Midlands has fallen by 40,000 (27.1 per cent.) and the rate is now 5.2 per cent.
Vehicle Excise Duty Forms
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps were taken following the changes announced in the Budget to ensure that correct renewal information was included on vehicle excise duty renewal forms despatched in April for renewal in May. [69827]
Dr. Ladyman: I have been asked to reply.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) issues around 3 million V11s every month. This volume means that they are printed up to eight weeks in advance and are timed to arrive with the registered keeper of a vehicle about three weeks before the licence is due for renewal. Because the forms have to be printed so far in advance it was not possible to print the post budget rates of vehicle excise duty (VED) on most forms for May dates of liability. The rates of duty shown were correct at the time of printing.
When the date of the next Budget is known, DVLA will ensure that the warning message will be placed on all reminders that may show out of date rates of VED to prevent confusion arising in the future.
Electoral Roll
Chris Ruane: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what was the size of the total electorate for the (a) Vale of Clwyd and (b) Denbighshire in each of the last 10 years; [65905]
(2) what the (a) size of the electorate and (b) registration rate was in each local authority in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland in each of the last 10 years. [68582]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 11 May 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Questions regarding (1) the size of the electorate and the registration rate in each local authority in (i) England, (ii) Wales, (iii) Scotland and (iv) Northern Ireland in each of the last 10 years; (2) the percentage of those eligible to vote who were registered to vote in each local authority in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland in each of the last 10 years and (3) the total electorate for (a) the Vale of Clwyd and (b) Denbighshire in each of the last 10 years. (68582, 64195 and 65905)
Firstly, please allow me to explain why it has taken a little while to reply to your questions. I understand from the House of Commons Library that you are most interested in Parliamentary electorate by local authority. This is not a standard output so it has taken some time to collate the data and ensure it is on an equivalent basis. This is further complicated by different data being available for England & Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Electoral data are held locally by the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), the Electoral Office Northern Ireland (EONI) and for England & Wales the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Regarding the question on total electorate for Denbighshire and the Vale of Clwyd, we do not normally publish data on total electorate (rather we publish local/European electorate and separately Parliamentary electorate data). For years up to and including 2001, data are not held electronically in a form that enables us to calculate 'total electorate'. Therefore, in
order to obtain the data you requested we have referred to the annual paper returns from Denbighshire to collate the necessary data.
Historical UK Electorate by LA
Electoral data are available on the number of people registered to vote in Parliamentary elections and also on the number of people registered to vote in local/European elections. Annual population data are only available on a "usual residence" basis: the mid-year population estimates. Since population data are available by age, the mid-year population aged 18 and over can be calculated. Thus it is possible to calculate an estimate of the 'registration rate’ using "the percentage of the usually resident population, aged 18 and over who are registered to vote” as either Parliamentary or local/European electors).
It is not possible to 'split' estimates of the usual resident population in order to give estimates of the population entitled to vote. We do not hold data (e.g. populations of non-EU citizens) that enable us to produce such a ‘split’.
The attached tables (one for each year), therefore, provide information, for each local authority in the UK, on (i) the annual ‘usual resident’ mid-year population; (ii) the size of the (a) Parliamentary electorate and (b) local/European electorate; and (iii) the percentage of the "estimated usually resident population" aged 18 and over who are registered to vote as (a) Parliamentary electors and (b) local/European electors. These are labelled as ‘registration rates’ on the tables and this term is used in the remainder of this reply. These data provide the closest available approximation to the information you requested. It is not possible to calculate the percentage of the eligible population who are registered to vote: the resident population aged 18 and over is not the same as the number of people eligible to vote.
This 'registration rate' is not a published National Statistic: there are a number of issues that mean care needs to be taken when interpreting the data. In particular care needs to be taken when considering local authorities where the usually resident population differs radically from the population eligible to vote. An example of such a local authority is Forest Heath. There are a large number of United States Air Force personnel, contractors, and dependants in Forest Heath who, as American citizens, are not eligible to vote. These people are however included in the population estimates as they are usually resident. Therefore, the estimated 'registration rate' calculated for Forest Heath is considerably reduced. However, the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in order to aid comparisons of the resident population of voting age and the number of people who are registered to vote, does calculate 'registration rates' on occasion in the manner outlined above.
The attached tables give comparisons between the number of registered electors and annual mid-year population for the ten years up to mid-2004 (the latest available population estimates for the UK) for all local authorities in the UK. Each table shows a comparison against Parliamentary electorate (where available) and against local/European electorate. The availability of Parliamentary electorate by LA differs by country as this is a non-standard output. Data availability also differs from year to year. Recent improvements to the way the data are held for England and Wales mean these data can now be calculated for more recent years. For England and Wales data on Parliamentary electorate by LA, for years prior to 2002, could only be calculated by reference to individual paper LA annual returns and would involve disproportionate cost. For Scotland, 2004 data on Parliamentary electors by LA will be available shortly and we will provide you with an update of these tables when they become available. For Northern Ireland data on Parliamentary electors by LA are not currently available.
In order to give an estimate of the number of electors at the mid-year point, 30 June, a weighted average is taken of the two closest sets of electoral data. This gives the best possible comparison with the population estimates. Footnotes to the tables indicate the formulae used to calculate these weighted comparisons.
Attainers have been excluded from the electorate data to give the best possible comparison. Therefore, the data may differ to that published elsewhere.
We have also updated the data where there are known (small) errors in or updates to previously published data. This means that the attached data provide the best possible comparison.
The local/European electorate gives a better comparison than parliamentary electorate to the usually resident population as EU citizens are included and UK citizens resident abroad are excluded from the local/European electorate. However, a number of other difficulties remain when comparing these sources. 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) and people who have more than one address may register in more than one place (e.g. students may register at parental and term-time addresses). These factors may have a differential impact from place to place.
There is also inevitably some double counting of the registered electorate (both parliamentary and local/European) 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. This is the main reason some areas show apparent rates in excess of one hundred per cent.
In order to aid comparison two further tables are attached that show the estimated 'registration rates’ for all ten years. Table A shows these rates for Parliamentary electors and Table B for local/European electors. However, any comparison of these data across years should be made carefully as electoral legislation and other changes (such as EU expansion) can change the size of the electorate.
A copy of the tables will be placed in the House of Commons Library.
The tables provide as comprehensive as possible comparisons between historic local authority population and electorate numbers. I understand from the House of Commons Library that you are also interested in the percentage of residents who are registered to vote on a Parliamentary constituency basis. Official Report number 82 column 1719, 12 December 2005, provides the best possible consistent UK comparison for Parliamentary constituencies. For England and Wales we hope to investigate the possibility of producing population estimates by Parliamentary constituency in the future using Small Area Population Estimates. For Northern Ireland, population estimates by Parliamentary constituency are already available from the Northern Ireland Statistical and Research Agency (NISRA). You may also be interested in the Electoral Commission study "Understanding electoral registration": http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/templates/search/document.cfm/13545.
Total Electorate for Denbighshire and Vale of Clwyd
The table below provides the requested 'total electorate' information for Denbighshire and the Vale of Clwyd, for the past 9 years. The total electorate figures shown here are those who are registered to vote as either Parliamentary electors, or local/European electors., or both.
Data for 1996 are not readily available. The data are derived from data as reported by Denbighshire, and for years up to and including 2001, have been collated from the original paper returns.
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