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10 July 2006 : Column 1638W—continued
Joan Walley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the most recent infant mortality rate was in (a) Stoke-on-Trent, (b) the west midlands and (c) England. [80606]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 10 June 2006:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the most recent infant mortality rate was in (a) Stoke-on-Trent, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England. I am replying in her absence. (80606)
The table below gives the infant mortality rate for the most recent year available.
| Infant mortality rate( 1) , Stoke-on-Trent, West Midlands and England, 2004 | |
| Rate | |
| (1) Rate per 1,000 live births. | |
HM Customs and Excise
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many officials were employed by HM Customs and Excise in each year since 1997; and how many were front-line staff in each year. [83576]
Dawn Primarolo: The following table shows the full-time equivalent numbers of staff employed by HM Customs and Excise at 1 April 1997 to 1 April 2005, split between those in “front-line” work (i.e. dealing with traders and customers) and those in support and policy work.
| Year at 1 April | Front line | Support and policy | Total |
HM Revenue and Customs Offices
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether local HM Revenue and Customs offices are meeting their targets for responding to postal enquiries; and if he will make a statement. [83380]
Dawn Primarolo: HMRC has a service standard which aims to deal with 80 per cent. of postal contact within 15 working days of receipt and 95 per cent. within 40 working days, against which the Department achieved cumulative results in 2005-06 of 79.2 per cent. and 91.7 per cent. respectively. Results for 2006-07 are not yet available.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the latest estimate is of the number of open cases at each HM Revenue and Customs office in each month since January 2005; and if he will make a statement. [83444]
Dawn Primarolo: HMRC does not have records of open cases at the level of each local HMRC office.
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people HM Revenue and Customs employs in collecting taxes; how many there were (a) 5, (b) 10 and (c) 20 years ago; what his estimate is of the cost of tax collection in 2006-07; and what it was (i) 5, (ii) 10 and (iii) 20 years ago. [83453]
Dawn Primarolo: The average number of HM Revenue and Customs staff employed in collecting taxes in 2005-06 was 93,574.
HM Revenue and Customs estimate for 2006-07 anticipates the cost of collecting taxes in that financial year to be £4,122 million.
The number of staff involved in collected taxes and the associated costs for 5, 10 and 20 years ago can be obtained from the annual reports of HM Customs and Excise and HM Inland Revenue for the financial years 1985-86, 1995-96 and 2000-01. These publications— Command Documents 9831, 5, 230, 3427, 3446, 5304 and 5309—can be obtained from the Library of the House.
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on plans for the future of the HM Revenue and Customs offices in Yeovil. [82888]
Dawn Primarolo: HMRC have no plans at present to alter their presence in Yeovil.
Income Statistics (West Lancashire)
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the income per head was in West Lancashire constituency in each of the last five years. [83549]
Dawn Primarolo: The latest estimates for the mean and median of total income (for taxpayers only) by constituency can be found in table 3.15 Income and tax by Parliamentary Constituency on HM Revenue and Customs website http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/income_distribution/menu-by-year.htm#315.
The information is based on the latest surveys of personal incomes (2003-04 and 2003-04).
Because sample sizes at constituency level are small and estimates can demonstrate a large variability from year to year, inference from the information in the table for 2003-04 should take into account the confidence intervals in table 3.15a Income and tax by Parliamentary Constituency, Confidence Intervals.
Similar information including non taxpayers is not available.
Income Tax
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the standard income tax reliefs are; and which attract relief at the (a) basic rate and (b) payer's marginal rates. [83801]
Dawn Primarolo: The standard income tax reliefs are the personal allowance, £5,035 in 2006-07, and the age related levels of the personal allowance, £7,280 in 2006-07 for people aged 65-74 and £7,420 for people aged 75 and over. All attract relief at the marginal rate.
Incomes (Tax Allowances)
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the loss of revenue to the Exchequer would be if allowances against tax on incomes were raised by (a) £50, (b) £100, (c) £150, (d) £200, (e) £250 and (f) £300; [83799]
(2) what increase in tax revenue would follow from raising the standard rate of income tax by (a) two pence and (b) six pence at current levels of income and with no changes in the income tax allowances and rates. [83800]
Dawn Primarolo: The information requested can be calculated from the figures shown in table 1.6 "Direct effects of illustrative tax changes" on HM Revenue and Customs website at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax_expenditures/menu.htm.
The cost of changing the personal allowance or the basic income tax rate is proportional to the changes to allowances and rates provided in the table.
Inheritance Tax
Rosie Cooper: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many residents in the West Lancashire constituency paid inheritance tax in each of the last five years. [83548]
Dawn Primarolo: Figures for estates paying inheritance tax are not available at local levels.
Judicial Review
Mr. Amess: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what occasions an (a) individual and (b) organisation has applied for a judicial review against his Department in each year since 1997; and what the (i) reason for the review and (ii) outcome was of each. [80167]
John Healey: Our records show that the number of occasions on which persons have written a letter before action or instituted a claim for judicial review against HM Treasury have been one each in 1997 and 1998, three in 1999, 0 in 2000, five in 2001, 0 in 2002, two in 2003, one in 2004 and four in 2005.
There were three applications for judicial review in 2005. Two of these were unsuccessful at permission stage and the other one was withdrawn on the basis of
a settlement agreed between the parties. The former cases concerned the award of a waste management contract and a refusal to permit the payment of taxes into a separate fund out of which military expenditure is not paid. The latter case concerned the operating and financial review for public companies. It is not possible to provide similar information for cases in earlier years without incurring disproportionate cost.
The Treasury has been involved in other litigation since 1997 in addition to the cases mentioned but it is not possible to distinguish those further cases which were judicial reviews without incurring disproportionate cost.
Local Government Workers
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost to the UK economy of the local government workers strike on 28 March. [82497]
Mr. Woolas: I have been asked to reply.
This information is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate costs.
Minimum Wage
Lynne Featherstone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people aged (a) 22 years and over, (b) 18 to 21 years and (c) under 18 years are receiving the minimum wage in each (i) London borough and (ii) constituency; and if he will make a statement. [82934]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 10 July 2006:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question to ask how many people aged (a) 22 years and over, (b) 18 to 21 years and (c) under 18 years are receiving the minimum wage in each (i) London borough and (ii) national constituency. (82934)
Estimates for the number of jobs paid at the minimum wage for Parliamentary Constituencies and Local Authorities are not available. However the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates the number of jobs paid less than national minimum wage rates for the United Kingdom and Government Office Regions. A guide to measuring low pay and associated articles and data can be found on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/StatBase/Product.asp?vlnk=5837 &Pos=1&ColRank=1&Rank=272
Named Day Questions
James Brokenshire: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (a) how many named day written parliamentary questions his Department received in each of the last three years; (b) what percentage of named day written parliamentary questions his Department answered within the requested time limit; and (c) what the average delay was for those questions which were not answered within the requested time limit. [83214]
John Healey: Information in respect of (a) and (b) for the 2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06 sessions is given in the following table:
| Session | Questions tabled | Percentage answered on the named day |
The information sought at (c) could only be calculated and related to the pattern of sittings of the House of Commons at disproportionate cost.
National Insurance Contributions
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people his Department calculated as being liable for payment of national insurance contributions in each year since 1997; and if he will make a statement. [83590]
Dawn Primarolo: Information on the estimated number of individuals making national insurance contributions is shown in Table CQY 1.0 on the Department for Work and Pensions internet website http://www.dwp.gov.uk/asd/asd1/dsu/contsandqualify/Conts_and_Qual_Years_tables05.xls
Official Visit (Nigeria)
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on which date the Prime Minister gave written approval for his trip to Nigeria on 22 May. [84093]
Mr. Gordon Brown: Arrangements were in line with normal procedures.
Orphan Funds
Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his most recent estimate is of the total amount of money held in orphan funds in banks and financial institutions. [82979]
Ed Balls: The term orphan funds can refer to unclaimed assets. The Government and the industry have agreed that the definition of an unclaimed asset should generally cover bank and building society accounts where there has been no customer activity for a period of 15 years as that will best identify those accounts that are genuinely unclaimed. On this basis, initial record searches by the industry suggest that several hundred million pounds may currently lie unclaimed.
Orphan funds may also refer to certain assets of insurance companies. The Treasury has made no official estimate of the value of these assets.
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