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29 Nov 2006 : Column 717W—continued
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what the co-efficient value of values given to each of the property attributes for (a) window glazing, (b) gardens, (c) garage spaces and (d) off-street parking spaces are in the Valuation and Land Agency’s calibrated Multiple Regression formula used in the domestic rates revaluation in Northern Ireland. [104218]
Mr. Hanson: In Northern Ireland, window glazing, gardens, garage spaces and off-street parking were not value significant in any of the models used by the Valuation and Lands Agency and hence no co-efficient values were given to them.
Treasury
Child Care
Sarah Teather: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the employer-supported child care measures first announced in the 2003 pre-Budget report. [106084]
Dawn Primarolo [holding answer 28 November 2006]: Since the introduction of the income tax and national insurance contributions exemptions on employer-supported child care in April 2005, employers and employees have not been required to report tax-free employer-supported child care vouchers provided to employees. Therefore information on the marginal tax rate of participants, overall numbers participating, or cost to the exchequer is not available.
HMRC have recently commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), an independent social research organisation, to monitor the initial impact of reforms to employer-supported child care. They conducted a survey of employer perception of employer-supported child care as a whole, and not just child care vouchers.
Civil Servants
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many civil servants have been made redundant since the submission of the Gershon review; and what the total cost was of the redundancies. [104511]
Mr. Timms: Departments are responsible for implementing their work force strategies and the information requested is not held centrally. However care is taken to ensure that compulsory redundancy is only used a last resort.
As a result of the Government’s efficiency programme, by the end of September 2006 54,963 posts
had been removed, of which 9,412 have been re-allocated to front-line roles resulting in a net work force reduction of 45,551 posts.
Climate Change Levy
Anne Milton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received about the charging of VAT on the Climate Change Levy. [103232]
John Healey: Representations are regularly made to Treasury Ministers and officials on a wide range of issues.
VAT has always been due on the total amount payable for fuel and power for commercial use inclusive of any charges, including the climate change levy.
Correspondence
John Barrett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when the parliamentary business unit of the Tax Credit Office will reply to the facsimile of 27 September 2006 from the hon. Member for Edinburgh West in relation to a constituent, Ms Cathie Maison. [104153]
Dawn Primarolo: The Tax Credit Office wrote to the hon. Member on 24 November 2006 about his constituent’s tax credits claim.
Data Protection
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans the Valuation Office Agency has to review its procedures on the secondary use of personal information held for the collection and administration of council tax. [103910]
Departmental Estate
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which offices (a) owned and (b) rented by his Department in Greater London are not currently occupied by departmental staff; and what the (i) annual cost of maintenance, (ii) value, (iii) length of time for which they have been unoccupied and (iv) total area of office space is for each such unoccupied office. [103549]
John Healey: The Treasury rents 350 square metres of space in a building in London which is used as an emergency back-up site. The current cost of maintaining this facility amounts to £305,000 which covers rent, business rates, maintenance costs, utilities and communications costs.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department has spent on external media trainers in each year since 1997, broken down by supplier. [103542]
John Healey: The information requested is not held centrally and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on organising and hosting press conferences in each of the last 24 months. [103546]
John Healey: The Treasury's accounting system does not record press conferences as a separate category of expenditure, so the information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Mr. Francois: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how much was spent on overseas travel for staff of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies other than when accompanying Ministers in each year since 2001-02; [103550]
(2) how much was spent on travel costs within the UK by staff of (a) his Department and (b) its agencies in each year since 2001-02. [103552]
John Healey: For total travel costs for the years 2001-02 to 2003-04 inclusive, I refer to the answer given by the then Financial Secretary the right hon. Member for Bolton, West (Ruth Kelly) to the hon. Member for Twickenham (Dr. Cable) on 19 July 2004, Official Report, column 44W. Further analysis in relation to those years could now be provided only at disproportionate cost. Figures for 2004-05 and 2005-06 are set out in the following table.
For the former HM Customs and Excise, the Royal Mint and the Office for National Statistics, travel cannot be disaggregated from travel and subsistence.
| £000 | |||
| Department/agency | Basis of figures | 2004-05 | 2005-06 |
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department paid in pension contributions for (a) his special advisers and (b) the Council of Economic Advisers in each of the last three years. [103558]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answers given by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister on 24 July 2006, Official Report, column 86WS, 21 July 2005, Official Report, column 161WS and 22 July 2004, Official Report, column 466W.
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of (a) bonuses awarded and (b) overtime payments made to (i) his special advisers and (ii) the Council of Economic Advisers was in each of the last three years. [103559]
John Healey: None. Staff employed on special adviser terms are not eligible for overtime or bonus payments.
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of providing staff subsidies for food in his Department has been in each of the last three years. [103566]
John Healey: The costs of food subsidies in each of the last three years is as follows:
| £ | |
The subsidies will be phased out by 2007-08.
Departmental Staff
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether people employed (a) through employment agencies and (b) on a consultancy basis are included in the calculations for the full-time equivalent staff mentioned in his Department’s annual report. [102985]
John Healey: Staff employed through employment agencies or on a consultancy basis were not included in the calculations for FTE staff mentioned in the departmental report.
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his Department’s annual budget is for employing workers on a consultancy basis; and how much of this budget was used in each of the last five years for which records are available. [103025]
John Healey: The Treasury’s overall budgets for the remaining years of the current spending review period and outturn for past years are shown in the departmental report, available from
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/about/departmental_reports/deptreport_index.cfm.
The Treasury does not have a fixed, recurrent, annual budget for consultants. Budgets for line items such as consultants are allocated internally on an annual basis, as part of the business planning process, and flexed in year to accommodate changes to priorities and circumstances. The budgets for similar line items, such as consultancy and contracted out services, may be aggregated within the accounting system.
For the Treasury’s actual spend on consultants for the years up to 2004-05, I refer to the answer given to my hon. Friend the member for Newcastle-Upon-Tyne Central (Jim Cousins) on 14 March 2006, Official Report, column 2128W. The Treasury’s actual spend on consultants in 2005-06 was £6.10 million. Treasury’ spending on consultants includes, since 2002-03, fees to
Partnerships UK for their work providing project and policy support to the Treasury and other public bodies on the development, procurement and implementation of public private partnerships.
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the pay bands are of the officials who work for his Department’s Director of Policy and Planning. [103560]
John Healey: As part of their duties, two officials provide support to the Treasury’s Director of Policy and Planning. One is in the Treasury’s pay range E and one in pay range C.
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what away days have been undertaken by his Department’s ministerial support team in the last 12 months; and what the (a) location, (b) date, (c) activities undertaken and (d) cost was of each away day. [103590]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban) on 18 October 2006, Official Report, columns 1252-53W.
Excess Winter Deaths
Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many excess winter deaths there were in each Government office region in each year since 1997. [103978]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 29 November 2006:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the number of excess winter deaths was in each Government Office Region in each year since 1997. (103978)
Estimates for winters from 1991/92 to 2004/05 (with provisional figures for 2005/2006) can be found in the report, “Excess Winter Mortality—By Age Group and Region” on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=70894&More=Y
External Employment Notices
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the notices of external employment given by his (a) special advisers and (b) the Council of Economic Advisers in the past 12 months. [103563]
John Healey: Dr. Stewart Wood gave notice of external employment in this period, following the guidance set out in the Model Contract and Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, and this was approved by the permanent secretary.
During the 2006-07 academic year, Dr. Wood will be teaching at Magdalen college, university of Oxford, from where he has been on extended leave while a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. Over this period his Treasury hours and remuneration have been reduced accordingly.
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