Written Answers to Questions
Thursday 1 February 2007
Treasury
11 Downing Street
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much 11 Downing street spent on photography in the last year for which figures are available. [112171]
John Healey: Photography is not recorded as a separate category of expenditure, so the information on spending, if any, is not held.
Charity and Third Sector
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what role Rod Aldridge plays in the Office of Charity and Third Sector Finance. [115204]
Dawn Primarolo: Rod Aldridge does not play a role in the Charity and Third Sector Finance Unit in HM Treasury.
Departmental Expenditure
Mr. Newmark: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department spent on buying, operating and supporting (a) all commercial software products and (b) software products produced by Microsoft in each of the last three years. [112602]
John Healey: Expenditure on buying, operating and supporting all commercial software products in the last three years is as follows:
| £ | |
Expenditure on software products produced by Microsoft is not available, as current Treasury records do not hold the information in this way.
The additional expenditure in 2004-05 resulted from the purchase of software to support the Treasury’s electronic document and records management system.
Departmental Offices
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what area of office space his Department and its agencies used in central London in (a) 2004 and (b) 2006; and if he will make a statement. [112177]
John Healey:
The area of office space used by the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s Department and
agencies in central London in (a) 2004 was 234,971 square metres, and in (b) 2006 was 233,400 square metres.
HMRC
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the change in the levels of tax collection resulting from the centralisation of HM Revenue and Customs' risk team. [111601]
Dawn Primarolo: Our initial estimates are that there could be a potential increase of 10 to 30 per cent. in cost to yield ratios.
Knowledge Economy
Mr. Todd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he has taken to implement the recommendation of the Cross-cutting review of the Knowledge Economy that research be undertaken on the economies of pricing of Government information. [112018]
Mr. Timms: Many of the recommendations of the Review have been implemented. HM Stationery Office (now the Office of Public Sector Information) introduced an innovative Click-Use on-line Class Licence for easy application for a licence to re-use information covered by Crown copyright. In 2001, the Treasury issued guidance to Government Departments and other Crown bodies on charging for government information.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 provided significant access to information while the Government’s Wider Markets Initiative and the implementation of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Directive into UK law further opened up public sector information to commercial re-use.
Given the degree of development in the public sector information market since the Cross-cutting review, the Government have no plans to undertake research into the economies of pricing of government information at this stage.
Licensing Fonts
Mr. Heald: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much his Department has spent on licensing fonts since 1997. [112165]
John Healey: This information is not available.
Local Enterprise Growth
Kerry McCarthy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether there will be a third round of Local Enterprise Growth Initiative funding. [112286]
John Healey: Sustained investment in LEGI is important. Any confirmation of a third round of LEGI funding, however, is subject to the decision process of the next spending review.
Manufacturing
Mr. Hollobone: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 25 January 2007, Official Report, column 1982W, on manufacturing, if he will clarify which part of the information provided indicates how many jobs there were in manufacturing in (a) 1997 and (b) 2006. [112505]
John Healey: The UK economy is restructuring away from manufacturing towards services, like other advanced economies around the world. According to the Office for National Statistics Labour Force Survey, manufacturing jobs have fallen from 4.51 million in 1997 to 3.32 million jobs now. This has been balanced by a growth of 3.77 million jobs in other sectors.
Reviews
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 18 January 2007, Official Report, column 1344W, on reviews, how many copies of the report of each review which published a report were (a) printed and (b) distributed; which companies were involved in the design, publishing, printing and distribution of each report; what the (i) commissioning and development costs, (ii) publishing and printing costs, (iii) distribution costs and (iv) other media costs associated with each report were; and how many pages comprised the (A) interim and (B) final report of each review. [111911]
John Healey: The information requested is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Smith Institute
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) Smith Institute events and (b) events hosted in conjunction with the Smith Institute have been held at No. 11 Downing street in the last 12 months. [102754]
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what events have been organised by the Smith Institute and hosted by his office since May 1997. [109568]
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what public funds have been given by his Department to the Smith Institute since 1997; [109987]
(2) how many events his Department and the agencies for which it is responsible have hosted with the Smith Institute since 1997; [110080]
(3) how many events hosted by the Smith Institute he has held at No. 11 Downing street in the last 12 months; [110081]
(4) what remuneration was received for the use of No. 11 Downing street from the Smith Institute or SI Events Ltd. for its seminar on positional goods held on 21 September 2006. [111954]
Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many occasions the Smith Institute has (a) organised and (b) participated in the organisation of meetings in (i) his Department and (ii) No. 11 Downing street in each of the last two years. [110196]
Mr. Keith Simpson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many occasions since December 2005 the Smith Institute has held meetings at No. 11 Downing street; and who attended each. [113338]
John Healey: No. 11 Downing street is used as a venue for Government meetings, official meetings, meetings with external stakeholders and events by charities. This is fully in accordance with the Ministerial Code and long standing conventions governing the use of Downing street as operated by this and previous Governments.
Every external organisation who uses No. 11 does so on the same basis: the organisers of events at No. 11 meet all additional costs associated with holding the event. This is to ensure no public funds are used for events held by external organisations.
Since 1997, 67 separate charities have used No. 11 of which the Smith Institute is one—a list of these charities is included on the Treasury website.
The Smith Institute was set up in the memory of the late John Smith. It asked in 1997 to use the facility for seminars on a once a month basis and sometimes, when they are conducting a series of seminars, on a more regular basis. As previously reported, the Smith Institute held 27 seminars in the last 12 months. Any charities who use or want to use No. 11 Downing street can apply for more extended access if this is their wish and subject to availability.
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) date and (b) amount was of each payment made to (i) the Smith Institute and (ii) its subsidiary SI Events Ltd. by his Department in each of the last three years. [115930]
John Healey: Neither organisation has ever received any direct payments from the Treasury.
Every external organisation who uses No. 11 does so on the same basis: the organisers of events at No. 11 meet all additional costs associated with holding the event. This is to ensure no public funds are used for events held by external organisations.
However, we have established that the independent, Government-funded Myners review of the “Governance of Life Mutuals” commissioned a number of research and other organisations including SI Events Ltd., who in November 2004 organised two seminars to inform the work of the review, neither in No.11 Downing street. The Treasury has asked Mr. Myners to provide details of these seminars, including their cost. He has written today to the Permanent Secretary and I have placed a copy of his letter in the Library of the House.
Tax: Electronic Submissions
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what factors led to the increased expenditure in incentive payments for electronic filing from the initial estimate for 2004-05; and if he will make a statement. [111105]
Dawn Primarolo:
The actual expenditure for 2004-05 filings was higher than the initial estimate for online
filing incentives because substantially more small employers than anticipated filed online.
The assumption was that online filing take-up by small employers (fewer than 50 employees) for 2004-05 would be 10 per cent., which equates to a cost of £37 million. These figures reflected the hesitation and reluctance expressed by small employers over the introduction of electronic filing. In fact, 51 per cent. of small employers filed online for 2004-05 at a cost of £225 million.
Tax Credits
Jon Trickett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in Hemsworth constituency owe money due to overpayments of tax credits; and if he will make a statement on the ability of low income families to pay arrears created by the system. [112248]
Dawn Primarolo: Estimates for 2003-04 and 2004-05 of the numbers of families with tax credits awards, including information on overpayments and underpayments, based on final family circumstances and incomes for 2003-04 and 2004-05 by constituency are published in “Child and Working Tax Credits. Finalised Awards 2003-04. Supplements on Payments in 2003-04. Geographical Analysis.” and the “Child and Working Tax Credits. Finalised Awards 2004-05. Supplements on Payments in 2004-05. Geographical Analysis”. These publications and provisional estimates for the number of in-work families with tax credit awards as at selected dates in 2005-06 are available on the HMRC website at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-geog-stats.htm
Information on the current number of outstanding overpayments is not available.
HMRC’s policy on tax credits overpayments is set out in their Code of Practice 26 “What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?”
Tax Evasion
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees of (a) HM Revenue and Customs and its predecessors and (b) the Valuation Office Agency have been investigated for tax evasion in each of the last three years. [111876]
Dawn Primarolo: HM Revenue and Customs expects its staff to keep their tax affairs in good order and applies appropriate checks carefully to ensure that they do so. There have been no investigations into tax avoidance by the staff of HM Revenue and Customs (including the Valuation Office Agency) and its predecessors in any of the last three years.
Tourism
Geraldine Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many tourism related jobs there are in (a) Morecambe and Lunesdale, (b) Lancashire and (c) the UK. [112640]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 1 February 2007:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about tourism-related jobs. (112640)
In 2005 there were 3,900 tourism-related jobs in Morecambe and Lunesdale, 49,800 in Lancashire and 3,042,900 in Great Britain.
These estimates are the latest available from the Annual Business Inquiry and, as with any sample survey, they are subject to a margin of uncertainty. They have been obtained by combining figures for employee jobs in the following industries, as identified by Standard Industrial Classification 2003:
Hotels and other tourist accommodation
Restaurants, bars and canteens
Transport
Travel agencies/tour operators
Recreation services.
Valuation Office Agency
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what privacy impact assessments have been produced by the Valuation Office Agency in the last five years. [112082]
Dawn Primarolo: No Privacy Impact Assessments have been produced.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |