| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
29 Mar 2007 : Column 1744W—continued
Women’s Prisons
Jenny Willott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) how many UK institutions held adult female prisoners in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement; [129703]
(2) how many prison places were available for adult female prisoners in each year since 1992; and if he will make a statement. [129022]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Home Secretary is responsible only for prisons in England and Wales. Responsibility for prisons in Scotland and Northern Ireland lies with the Scottish Assembly and the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland respectively.
The following table shows the number of prisons in England and Wales that held adult women prisoners in June each year since 1992.
| Number of prisons | |
The number of prison places available for adult women prisoners in each year since 1992 is shown in the following table:
| Adult female CNA( 1) places( 2) | |
| (1) CNA—Certified Normal Accommodation, or uncrowded capacity, is the Prison Service’s own measure of accommodation. (2) Operational capacity figures for adult female prisons only are not available. Operational capacity is determined for the whole prison, and cannot be sub-divided for different population groups, such as adult female prisoners. | |
Licensed Premises: Safety Measures
Mr. Swire: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what representations he has received on the use of plastic glasses in licensed premises. [130126]
Mr. Coaker: Other than previous debates in the House and representations made by individual MPs on behalf of their constituents, no specific representations have been made by the drinks industry or other stakeholders on the use of plastic in licensed premises. The Licensing Act 2003 already provides for the police to apply for licence reviews and for conditions to be attached to licences. For example, that the licensed premises should use toughened drinks glasses and bottles. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 will in due course also provide a new fast track alcohol licence review process that could lead to such conditions being applied in cases of serious crime and disorder. We are also committed to reviewing the Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England that was published in March 2004, later this year.
Treasury
Occupational Pension Schemes
15. Mr. Robathan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on the cost of compensating those affected by occupational pension wind-ups. [130453]
Ed Balls: The Chancellor meets the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on a regular basis to discuss a wide range of issues including, in recent weeks the Chancellor’s Budget announcement that the Government would triple the long-term money available for the Financial Assistance Scheme from £2.3 billion to £8 billion in cash terms, so that all members of pension schemes that were wound up under-funded due to employer insolvency will receive significantly more assistance from the taxpayer.
G8 Summit
17. Mr. Gray: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he is planning to attend the G8 Summit of Finance Ministers in Germany in 2007. [130456]
Ed Balls: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer given to the hon. Member for Bromley and Chislehurst (Robert Neill) earlier today, Official Report, col. 1636.
Taxation
18. Mr. Fallon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his most recent estimate is of the proportion of income a household on average earnings will spend on taxes in 2007-08. [130457]
19. Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his most recent estimate is of the proportion of income a household on average earnings will spend on taxes in 2007-08. [130458]
Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his most recent estimate is of the proportion of income a household on average earnings will spend on taxes in 2007-08. [130454]
Ed Balls: I refer the hon. Gentlemen to the answer given to the hon. Members for Broxbourne (Mr. Walker) and Hammersmith and Fulham (Mr. Hands) earlier today, Official Report, col. 1619.
21. David Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the burden of taxation following his recent financial statement. [130460]
Mr. Timms: Net taxes and national insurance contributions as a proportion of gross domestic product are shown in Chapter C of Budget 2007. The projections for the next five years are broadly unchanged from those in the 2006 pre-Budget report, and remain well below the peaks reached in the early 1980s.
Ann Winterton: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he has taken to redistribute the tax burden. [130438]
Ed Balls: The net tax burden faced by a single earner couple with two children on male mean earnings has fallen from 21.2 per cent. in 1997-98 to 20.5 per cent. in 2007-08. After the reforms announced in Budget 2007 the net tax burden faced by this family will fall further to 20.0 per cent. by April 2009. Figures for the same family on half male mean earnings are 2.4 per cent. in 1997-98 falling to -14.6 per cent. by April 2009.
Financial Assistance Scheme
20. Mike Penning: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the net present value is of the additional contribution to the Financial Assistance scheme announced in the Budget. [130459]
Ed Balls: The net present value of the additional contribution to the FAS is £1 billion. This represents an extra £5.6 billion when expressed as long-term cash expenditure. The extension more than triples the previous level of support, raising the total long-term cash expenditure on FAS to £8 billion from a previous £2.3 billion, or to £1.8 billion from a previous £830 million in terms of net present value. This is an extremely generous package of support that will ensure that everyone who has lost out will receive the vast majority of the pension they had originally expected to receive, and will benefit an additional 85,000 people.
Tax Credits
22. Peter Viggers: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer In how many cases of tax credit administration the computer system has been incapable of producing a result and the case has been transferred to manual management. [130461]
Mr. Timms: Around 34,500 households are currently receiving manual payments representing around half of one per cent. of households currently benefiting from tax credits.
There have been around 86,000 cases in total to the end of February 2007.
Children's Centres
23. Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what funding he has allocated to children’s centres in each of the next five years. [130462]
Ed Balls: Budget 2007 announced significant extra funding for Sure Start, childcare and early years over the next spending period. This will amount to at least an additional £340 million by 2010-11 compared with 2007-08 levels—over £1.6 billion by 2010-11. This is in addition to the extra resources that the Government provided at Budget 2007 to meet the commitment in the ten year strategy for childcare to increase the free early education offer to three and four year olds from 12.5 hours to 15 hours by 2010.
Assets
Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether (a) he and (b) his officials have held discussions with (i) the Financial Services Authority and (ii) representatives from major insurance corporations on the treatment of orphan assets, with particular reference to distribution and reattribution; and if he will make a statement. [130482]
Ed Balls:
Treasury Ministers and officials hold regular meetings with the Financial Services Authority and representatives of the financial sector on a range of topics. Treasury officials have met representatives of Aviva and with the policyholder advocate appointed to represent policyholder interests. The Treasury also issued a consultation on 29 December 2006 on the role of the policyholder advocate and has received a
number of responses. However, day-to-day supervision of reattribution of inherited estate is the responsibility of the Financial Services Authority.
Harry Cohen: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to ensure that shareholders in major insurance corporations do not receive dividends based on the release of orphan assets at a higher percentage than on the distribution basis; and if he will make a statement. [130499]
Ed Balls: I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave on 29 November 2006, Official Report , column 729W.
Cost-effective Energy: Households
Mr. Dai Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on what date he assumes the next decade to end; and how he will judge the practical cost-effective energy efficiency potential of each household as referred to in paragraph 7.68 of the Budget 2007 Red Book, HC 342. [130021]
John Healey: The Budget set out a series of measures Government are taking to help householders improve their energy efficiency, with the overarching aim that by the end of the next decade—the end of 2017—where practically possible, all homes will have achieved their cost-effective energy efficiency potential.
Cost-effective action on household energy efficiency refers to those measures that soon pay for themselves in reduced fuel bills for example, this includes where applicable hot water tank insulation, cavity wall insulation, loft insulation, heating controls and draught proofing (see, for example, analysis in the Review of the Sustainability of Existing Buildings, November 2006, available on the Communities and Local Government website).
Customs Officers: Manpower
Mr. Jim Cunningham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many customs officers were employed in the UK in each year since 1995. [130151]
Dawn Primarolo: The number of staff in HM Customs and Excise from 1995 to 2005 were published in the tables to the Civil Service Statistics, available in printed form in the House of Commons Library and online at:
After this time, no statistics are available for HM Customs and Excise as a separate Department, and the figures refer to HM Revenue and Customs.
Departments: Air Pollution
Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of (a) the carbon footprint of his Department, (b) carbon dioxide emissions from his Department’s buildings and (c) carbon dioxide emissions from air travel by his Department’s (i) Ministers and (ii) officials for each year between 1999 and 2006. [130290]
John Healey: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 7 February 2007, Official Report , column 1027W, to the hon. Members for St. Albans (Anne Main) and Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling).
Departments: Ministerial Policy Advisors
Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer on how many occasions he was accompanied on official business abroad by (a) a special adviser, (b) one of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s special advisers and (c) a member of the Council of Economic Advisers; and at what cost in each year between 1997 and 2006. [130286]
John Healey: Since 1999 the Government have published, on an annual basis, the total costs of all ministerial overseas travel and a list of all visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500. Copies of the lists are available in the Library of the House. Information for the financial year 2005-06 was published on 24 July 2006, Official Report, column 85WS.
Records for 2005-06 show the Chancellor was accompanied on official business abroad by special advisers or members of the Council of Economic Advisers on eight occasions, and the costs of their overseas travel is included in the annual list of overseas travel by Cabinet Ministers.
For information on special advisers’ overseas travel for years previous to 2005-06 I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave to my right hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Keith Vaz) on 16 March 2006, Official Report, columns 2411-12W.
Mrs. May: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the relevant requirement of the Ministerial Code, paragraph 2.11, if he has more than two special advisers. [130289]
John Healey: All special advisers are appointed under terms and conditions set out in “Code of Conduct for Special Advisers”.
As set out in the Prime Minister’s statement to the House of 24 July 2006 the Chancellor has two paid special advisers.
The Prime Minister’s statement also sets out that the Chancellor has one unpaid special adviser and has appointed a Council of Economic advisers, who are employed on special adviser terms, a commitment in the 1997 Labour party business manifesto. The Council is made up of individual policy experts who will bring their specialist experience to work on the Government’s key policy priorities.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |