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22 Jun 2006 : Column 2028W—continued
NHS Deficits
Mr. Harper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance he has given to the Department of Health on the financial recovery of NHS deficits. [79620]
Mr. Timms: The Treasury agrees budgets with Departments and it is the responsibility of Departments to ensure they remain within these budgets.
Mr. Harper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Health on deficits in the NHS; and if he will make a statement. [79621]
Mr. Timms: Treasury Ministers and officials have regular discussions with Ministers and officials in the Department of Health as part of the process of policy analysis, development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such discussions.
NHS Funding
Mr. Harper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his spending plans are for the NHS in the next two years; and what he expects growth in spending on the NHS to be in each year to 2009-10. [79613]
Mr. Timms: As published in Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2006, the spending plans for the NHS are shown in the following table:
| £ million | ||
| 2006-07 | 2007-08 | |
As the then Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced on 19 July 2005, a second Comprehensive Spending Review, reporting in 2007, will set departmental allocations for the period 2008-09 to 2010-11.
Pension Contributions
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate (a) the number of people who received and (b) the amount of income tax relief granted on pension contributions given to (i) basic rate taxpayers and (ii) higher rate taxpayers in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [79309]
Ed Balls: Estimates of the annual cost of tax relief on private pensions are available on Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs website at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/pensions/7_9_sep05.pdf.
We estimate that around 55 per cent. of tax relief on pension contributions is received by around 2.5 million higher rate taxpayers. But it is not possible to give a time series for this split by taxpayer band.
Poverty Reduction
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps his Department has taken to reduce poverty in Coventry, South since 1997. [79028]
Dawn Primarolo: The Treasury has, in partnership with other Government Departments, tackled poverty and promoted economic opportunity through:
Promoting macroeconomic stability
Supporting work for those who can and ensuring that work pays, through the new deals, a national minimum wage and the working tax credit
Providing financial support for groups at particular risk of poverty, such as child benefit and the child tax for families, and the pension credit for pensioners.
Across the UK, these measures have helped lift more than a million people out of poverty since 1997. Tax credits are benefiting more than 420,000 families in the West Midlands region, and in Coventry, South claimant unemployment has fallen by over 30 per cent., youth unemployment has fallen by 63 per cent. and long-term unemployment has fallen by 82 per cent.
Science City Initiative
Dr. Blackman-Woods: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will consider how the city of Durham’s science expertise can be better recognised within the Science City Initiative. [79182]
John Healey: In the 2004 pre-Budget report and in Budget 2005, the Government supported plans by the regional development agencies (RDAs) to develop six “science cities” in Manchester, Newcastle, York, Birmingham, Nottingham and Bristol. It is for RDAs to take the lead role in identifying science cities and detailed implementation plans, in line with their wider strategies for regional economic development, science and innovation.
Smuggled Illegal Meat
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the total value of smuggled illegal meat seized by UK enforcement officials was in (a) the UK and (b) Scotland in each of the past five years. [79358]
John Healey: HM Revenue and Customs record seizures of illegal meat by the numbers and overall weight rather than by value. Information on the numbers and overall weight of illegal meat seizures is as follows:
| Great Britain | Scotland | |||
| Number of seizures | Weight in kilos | Number of seizures | Weight in kilos | |
Information on the number of seizures made prior to April 2003 can be found in DEFRA’s Annual Review of Controls on Imports of Animal Products last published in July 2005. Seizure statistics for 2005-06 will be included in the next DEFRA Annual Review of Controls on Imports of Animal Products due to be published next month.
Stakeholder Pensions
Gregory Barker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the average employee stakeholder pension contribution was in each year since its introduction. [79308]
Ed Balls: Estimates of the average employee stakeholder pension contribution by tax year since the introduction of stakeholder pensions in 2001 are published in Table 7.10, “Personal and Stakeholder Pensions: Number of individuals contributing and average contribution by status and earned income”, on the HMRC website at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/pensions/menu-by-year.htm.
Suicide
Mr. Paice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many farmers committed suicide in each of the last 10 years. [79499]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the national statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 22 June 2006:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many farmers committed suicide in each of the last 10 years. (79499)
The most recently available information is for deaths in 2004. Figures for deaths of farm workers and farm owners from suicide (intentional self-harm) or injury/poisoning of undetermined intent are shown in the table below for each year from 1995 to 2004.
| Number of deaths from intentional self-harm( 1) or injury/poisoning of undetermined intent( 2) in farm workers and farm owners( 3) , aged 20-74, England & Wales, 1995-2004( 4) | |
| Number of deaths | |
(2) The cause of death for injury/poisoning of undetermined intent was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes E980-E989 excluding E988.8for 1995 to 2000, and, for the years 2001 to 2004, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes Y10-Y34 excluding Y33.9 where the Coroner’s verdict was pending.
(3) The occupation coded at death registration is the last gainful occupation of the deceased, as supplied by the informant who registers the death. Occupation is not coded by ONS for deaths of persons aged over 74. ONS Standard Occupational Classification 1990 (SOC90) codes 900, 901 and 160 were selected for data from 1995 to 2000, and ONS Standard Occupational Classification 2000 (SOC2000) codes 8223, 9111, 1211 and 5111 were selected for data from 2001 to 2004.
(4) Data are for occurrences of death in each calendar year.
Mr. Paice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of suicide was among people in (a) areas with a population below 10,000 inhabitants and (b) England in each of the last 10 years. [79498]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 22 June 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the rate of suicide was among people in (a) areas with a population below 10,000 inhabitants and (b) England in each of the last 10 years. I am replying in her absence. (79498)
ONS does not produce suicide rates for areas smaller than local authorities as meaningful figures cannot be calculated for very small populations. The latest available suicide rates for local authorities in England and Wales are for the period 2000-2003 and these can be found on the National Statistics website: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=13618
The most recent year for which figures are available for England is 2004. The table below shows rates for deaths with a verdict of suicide or injury/poisoning of undetermined intent in England for the years 1995 to 2004.
| Death rates( 1) from suicide or injury/poisoning of undetermined intent( 2) , England, 1995 to 2004( 3) | |
| Rate | |
(2) The cause of death for suicide (intentional self-harm) and injury/poisoning of undetermined intent was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9) codes E950-E959 and E980-E989 excluding E988.8 for the years 1995 to 2000, and, for the years 2001 to 2004, the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes X60-X84 and Y10-Y34 excluding Y33.9 where the Coroner’s verdict was pending.
(3) Figures are for deaths occurring in each calendar year.
Teenage Pregnancies
Mr. Ruffley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many girls under the age of 16 years (a) became pregnant and (b) gave birth in (i) Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (ii) Suffolk county council area in each of the last 10 years, broken down by age. [79394]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 21 June 2006:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many girls under the age of 16 years (a) became pregnant and (b) gave birth in (i) Bury St. Edmunds constituency and (ii) Suffolk county council area in each of the last 10 years, broken down by age. (79394)
Numbers of conceptions in Suffolk County for the years 1995-2004 (the most recent year for which figures are available), and numbers of maternities in Suffolk County for the years 1995-2005 are shown in the table. Figures for 2004 are provisional.
Information on conceptions is routinely published for local authorities and strategic health authorities. Figures cannot be provided by parliamentary constituency because of the risk of
disclosing individual’s information, due to small differences between the parliamentary constituency and local authority boundaries.
ONS does not publish figures by single year of age below the age of 16 by either local or health authority because of the risk of disclosing individual’s information.
Maternity counts are for girls aged under 16 in each year at which either one or more live birth or stillbirth occurred.
Birth figures cannot be provided for Bury St. Edmunds parliamentary constituency for the same reason as provided for conceptions.
| Number of conceptions and maternities to girls aged under 16, Suffolk 1995-2005 | ||
| Conceptions | Maternities | |
(2) Conceptions data are not yet available for 2005.
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