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2 Feb 2007 : Column 568W—continued


Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the performance against budget of (a) private finance initiative projects and (b) conventionally procured capital projects for (i) IT projects and (ii) buildings approved by the Office of Government Commerce. [107580]

John Healey [holding answer 4 December 2006]: The Office of Government Commerce does not have a projects approval role.

Progressive Beer Duty

Mr. Cameron: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment he has made of the market effects of the progressive beer duty on stimulating and encouraging growth for the brewery businesses of cask-conditioned beer; [109111]

(2) what response he has made to the representation made to him by a number of breweries enclosed in the letter to him from the right hon. Member for Witney dated 20 February on the impact of the progressive beer duty on their business. [109112]

Mr. Gordon Brown: I have replied to the right hon. Member's letter. Figures from the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) show that around 130 new breweries have opened since the introduction of small breweries relief, bringing with them over 1,000 new jobs, many in economically deprived rural communities.

A public consultation on the performance of the scheme was launched in July 2003, and led to the extension of relief to breweries producing between 30,000 and 60,000 per annum. The small breweries relief scheme, like all reliefs, is kept under constant review.

Public Sector Pensions

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cash equivalent transfer value is of the public sector pensions of the 10 highest paid members of staff in his Department and its executive agencies; and if he will make a statement. [113824]


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John Healey: Details of the cash equivalent transfer values of pensions for senior staff in HM Treasury and its agencies can be found in the relevant Resource Accounts:

Sir Nicholas Stern

Mr. Graham Stuart: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many times he has met Sir Nicholas Stern since the publication of his recent report; and if he will make a statement. [112939]

John Healey: The Chancellor has met Sir Nicholas Stern on numerous occasions and Sir Nicholas accompanied the Chancellor on his recent trip to India.

Third Sector Advisory Panel

Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what position Maeve Sherlock holds in his Department; and what remuneration she receives; [115390]

(2) who the members are of his Department's Third Sector Advisory Panel; what the date of appointment
2 Feb 2007 : Column 570W
was of each; and what (a) remuneration and (b) expenses each has claimed. [115391]

John Healey: Members of the independent Third Sector Advisory panel are from the sector representing young volunteers, third sector umbrella bodies and different faith communities. Annex C of the interim report on the Review of the Future Role of the Third Sector in Social and Economic Regeneration published in December 2006 lists the panel members. The panel chaired by Maeve Sherlock (who does not hold any position in the Treasury) has been constituted for 12 months as an ad hoc Government advisory panel. All current members were invited to join the group on a voluntary basis in September 2006. Members are not paid remuneration for attending meetings but all reasonable travel, accommodation and subsistence expenses are paid in line with Government guidance. To date, a total of £305 for travel has been claimed.

Translation Services

Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what documents his Department and its agencies translate for people in the UK who do not speak English; into which languages such documents are translated; and what the cost was of producing such translations in each of the last five years, broken down by language of translation. [113874]

John Healey: The following is a breakdown of the documents translated by the Treasury and it’s agencies over the last five years with costs shown where these are available without incurring disproportionate cost:


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Literature Translated and Languages Costs where available (£)

HMT

Welsh versions of:

Euro preparations leaflet

Spending Review, Budget and PBR leaflets

Budget and PBR regional leaflet—Wales

Costs unavailable

GAD

Nil

DMO

Nil

VOA

Provides translation services for all services provided on request

Costs unavailable

NS&I

All literature (brochures and after sales communications) including NS&I website into Welsh

2005-06

9,787

2004-05

19,255

2003-04

11696

2002-03

6,738

2001-02

12,583

Royal Mint

Translation of commercial documents and correspondence are provided on request for the Welsh language

Costs unavailable

OGC

PRINCE2 documentation into Dutch, Danish, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Chinese; IT Infrastructure Library Best Practice documentation into French, Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian-Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, German, Italian, Norwegian, Korean, Simplified Chinese

Products are self-financing and are produced at no cost to OGC

ONS

The Office for National Statistics and General Register Office produce translations of a number of different types of documents and forms relating to their statistical and registration business

Costs unavailable

Documents are translated into Welsh including: the Census of Population questionnaire, other Census documentation, Registration information leaflets, business survey questionnaires and responses to Welsh correspondence

The social survey generic information leaflet and generic advance letter are translated into: Welsh, Gujariti, Hindi, Greek, Bengali, Punjabi, Portuguese, Polish, Chinese, Turkish, Urdu, Somali, and Serbian (advance letter only)

The International Passenger Survey short self completion questionnaire is translated into: Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Japanese, Russian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Greek, German, French and Polish

The 2001 Census of Population information leaflets and Census questions documents were translated: Albanian/Kosovan, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Croatian, Farsi/Persian, French, German, Greek, Gujarati, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese

HMRC

The HMRC Translation Service has arranged translation of forms, leaflets and notices for internal customers to make available to people in the UK who do not speak English

Costs unavailable

The internal customers determine which language versions are required in accordance with their individual external customer requirements. Languages handled by the HM Revenue and Customs Translation Service have included: Albanian, Arabic, Bengali, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, Estonian, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Gujerati, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Ibo, Icelandic, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Kurdish, Lao, Latvian, Lingala, Lithuanian, Lugandan, Macedonian, Malay, Maltese, Moldovan, Mongolian, Norwegian, Papiamento, Philipino, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Pushtu, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sinhalese, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Thai, Tigrinya, Turkish, Twi, Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese and Yoruba

HMRC

The following literature is translated into Welsh:

Self Assessment, PAYE, End of Year, Employers, Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Sick Pay, Student Loans, Corporation Tax, Tax Credits, Child Benefit, Child Trust Fund, Construction Industry Scheme, National Insurance Contributions, on-line services for PAYE and Self Assessment

HMRC 2005-06

11,585.50

IR 2004-05

7,850.73

HMC&E 2004-05

34,891.81

IR 2003-04

19,801.16

HMC&E 2003-04

10,460.91

IR 2002-03

24,263.79

HMC&E 2002-03

11,357.50

Costs cover externally commissioned work and do not include internally translated materials


Mr. Ian Austin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what services provided by his Department and its related agencies translation services are provided. [113875]

John Healey: The Treasury and its related agencies provide translation services on request for the services it provides. Welsh language versions of literature are provided under the Welsh Language Act 1993. Specific services providing translation are:

Valuation Office Agency

The VOA provides translation services for all the services it provides.

HM Revenue and Customs

The HMRC Translation Service arranges and provides translation services internally for the whole Department and the Revenue and Customs Prosecutions Office (RCPO). The principal customers are:


2 Feb 2007 : Column 573W

Trend Growth Assumption

Mr. Gauke: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to paragraph A.34 of the pre-Budget report, what factors were taken into account in determining that the trend growth assumption remained at 2.75 per cent. of GDP. [110630]

John Healey: Analysis underpinning the revision made to the trend growth assumption in the 2006 pre-Budget report is set out in the paper ‘Trend growth: new evidence and prospects’, published alongside the pre-Budget report. This paper is available on HM Treasury’s website:

Scotland

British Food

Mr. Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what proportion of food served in buildings occupied by his Department was of British origin in (a) 2005 and (b) 2006. [111131]

David Cairns: The Scotland Office has no in-house catering facilities and the provision of food is generally limited to catering associated with official hospitality and supplied by external contractors. Information on the source of the food supplied is not held.

Freedom of Information

Jo Swinson: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland pursuant to the answer of 24 January 2007, Official Report, columns 1768-69W, on freedom of information, where the information that was released by his Department between March to December 2006 and not published on his Department’s website is available elsewhere in the public domain. [118266]

David Cairns: Between March and December 2006 there were eight FoI releases published on the Scotland Office website. We publish all responses to requests where information is actually released but we do not publish our response to requests where we either do not hold the information, where it is available elsewhere in the public domain, or where the information is withheld because exemptions apply. The location of any relevant information held in the public domain will depend on the nature of the request.


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