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8 May 2007 : Column 186W—continued
Excise Duties: Invalid Vehicles
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will introduce a moratorium on new duties imposed on mobility scooters imported to the UK to allow time for discussions with the wheelchair and scooter industry. [136365]
John Healey: Import duties are established by the European Commission and European Community law imposes obligations on member states to ensure that the correct amount of import duty is collected within prescribed time periods.
HM Revenue and Customs: Compensation
Mr. Evennett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many payments for (a) worry and distress and (b) complaint delay were made by HM Revenue and Customs in the last 12 months. [135459]
John Healey: The information requested is not available and could be obtained only at a disproportionate cost.
Individual Savings Accounts
Mr. Jamie Reed:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the likely effect on the number of people in Copeland who will
establish individual savings accounts as a result of the changes announced in the 2007 Budget. [135494]
Ed Balls: The Government announced in the pre-Budget report that it will simplify the Individual Saving Account (ISA) regime, making it more flexible for savers and providers and, in order to encourage further saving in ISAs, the Government announced in the Budget that the annual ISA investment limit will rise to £7,200 and the cash limit will rise to £3,600. All changes will come into effect from April 2008.
The changes to the investment limits announced in the Budget will benefit around 5.5 million individuals in the UK who are currently making full use of either their cash or overall investment limits.
Estimates of the number of individuals affected are not available at a constituency level.
International Monetary Fund
Jim Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his estimate is of the (a) gross and (b) net flows of remittances from the UK using IMF Balance of Payments Manual definitions for the most recent period for which figures are available; and what the principal countries are to which those remittances flow. [135728]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 8 May 2007:
The National Statistician has have been asked to reply to your question asking what the estimate is of the (a) gross and (b) net flows of remittances from the UK using IMF Balance of Payments Manual definitions for the most recent period for which figures are available; and what the principal countries are to which those remittances flow. I am replying in her absence. (135728)
ONS do not publish separate estimates for flows of workers' remittances, as defined by the IMF Balance of Payments manual. Estimates of remittance flows are included in the UK Balance of Payments “Pink Book”, table 5.1, within the published series for other receipts of and payments by households and non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH).
There are components produced at a lower level than these published data, which are close, in concept, to the IMF definitions of workers' remittances. However these estimates are highly uncertain which is why they are not published separately on a regular basis.
ONS estimate that in recent years on average remittances comprise around 75 per cent. of the series published in the Pink Book for total private transfers by households and NPISH. For 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, the component estimate for gross flows of remittances from the UK is £3.7 billion and the component estimate for net flows of remittances from the UK households, calculated as remittances from the UK less remittances received by the UK, is £1.4 billion. However it should be stressed that these estimates are highly uncertain.
The ONS do not produce a full breakdown of remittance flows from the UK based on the country of destination or publish regularly any breakdown of these flows. However ONS estimates of the main countries to which these remittances flow reflect the main diasporas communities in the UK, with the largest estimates of flows being to the Republic of Ireland, India and Pakistan.
Members: Correspondence
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he will reply to the letter from the hon. Member for Walsall, North of 29 March regarding a constituent, ref: 1/48830/2007. [136003]
Ed Balls: I have done so today.
Mortgages: Hemel Hempstead
Mike Penning: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his most recent estimate is of the average outstanding balance on mortgages for homes in (a) the UK, (b) Hertfordshire and (c) Dacorum; and what the typical month’s interest payable on each of those balances was at the latest date for which figures are available. [135327]
Ed Balls: The Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) publishes data on mortgage debt and the number of mortgages in the UK on their website at
It does not routinely publish data at the county or district levels.
Data on the average level of mortgage interest payments by Government Office Region are available from the ONS Expenditure and Food Survey, Table 2.11.
MRSA: Death
Philip Davies: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many deaths from MRSA contracted in NHS facilities there were in the period (a) 1987 to 1997 and (b) 1997 to 2007; and if he will make a statement. [136299]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 8 May 2007:
The National Statistician has have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many deaths from MRSA contracted in NHS facilities there were in the period (a) 1987 to 1997 and (b) 1997 to 2007. I am replying in her absence. (136299)
Special analyses of deaths involving MRSA are undertaken annually by ONS for deaths which occurred in England and Wales. Data are only available from 1993 onwards and the most recent year available is 2005.
Death certificates rarely specify the place where an infection was acquired. Numbers of deaths from MRSA contracted in NHS facilities can therefore not be provided. Death certificates do, however, record the place of death. The table below presents the number of deaths mentioning MRSA by place of death from 1993 to 2005.
Most deaths occur in hospital, and the majority of deaths involving MRSA therefore also occur in hospital. Many deaths involving MRSA are to patients who were admitted to hospital because they were already seriously ill with another condition. MRSA only tends to cause problems if a person is already unwell, or if their immune system is suppressed, or if it can get into the bloodstream (through broken skin). People with these characteristics are more likely to be in hospital than elsewhere. People who die in hospital are also more likely to have been tested for MRSA.
| Table 1: number of deaths mentioning MRSA( 1) by place of death, England and Wales, 1993 to 2005( 2) | ||||||||||
| Own home | NHS general hospital | Non-NHS general hospital | Hospice | NHS nursing home | Non-NHS nursing home | Private residential home | Local authority residential home | Other places | Total | |
| (1) Identified using the methodology described in Griffiths C, Lamagni TL, Crowcroft NS, Duckworth G and Rooney C (2004). Trends in MRSA in England and Wales: analysis of morbidity and mortality data for 1993-2002. “Health Statistics Quarterly” 21, 15-22. (2) Deaths occurring in each calendar year. | ||||||||||
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