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5 Jun 2007 : Column 476W—continued
Post Office Card Account
Jim Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the successor to the Post Office card account will be able to pay tax credits. [140180]
Mr. Timms: Tax credit and child benefit customers will be able to receive their payments through the successor to the existing Post Office card account.
Private Finance Initiative
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what research he has commissioned on costs of closure of (a) hospitals and (b) schools financed by (i) Government debt and (ii) private finance initiative schemes. [140050]
John Healey: The Treasury has not commissioned research into the costs of closure of schools and hospitals that have been procured through PFI or through conventional procurement.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to monitor information on sales of equity stakes in private finance initiative contracts; and if he will make a statement. [140616]
Mr. Timms: The Treasury does, and will continue to, examine developments in the secondary equity market both through its relations with other Departments and key participants in the PFI market.
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he plans to discuss with the National Audit Office increasing the transparency of private finance initiative schemes; and if he will make a statement. [140617]
Mr. Timms: “Standardisation of PFI Contracts 4”, published alongside Budget 2007, gives the NAO the right to examine such documentation as it may reasonably require from companies involved in PFI contracts. The terms in “Standardisation of PFI Contracts 4” are mandatory for all contracts still in a competitive stage of procurement on 1 April 2007.
HM Treasury will continue to work closely with the NAO to explore ways to further enhance transparency in PFI.
Public Sector: Females
Julia Goldsworthy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect efficiency savings measures are having on the participation of women in the public-sector work force; and if he will make a statement. [139487]
Mr. Timms: Departments are responsible for monitoring and managing the impact of their work force reduction and efficiency programmes.
The latest Office for National Statistics figures for Q4 2006 show that 54 per cent. of Britain's civil servants are women.
Revenue and Customs: Great Yarmouth
Mr. Anthony Wright: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many HM Revenue and Customs staff in Great Yarmouth have been declared pre-surplus; and for how long they have continued to be employed as pre-surplus. [134319]
John Healey: A total of six staff have been declared pre-surplus in Great Yarmouth, five in July 2004 (pre-dating HMRC) and one in September 2006. All six staff have continued to be employed by HMRC.
Smith Institute: Publications
Mr. Francois: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 9 May 2007, Official Report, column 283W, on the Smith Institute: publications, how many copies of Smith Institute publications (1) are held by his Department; [140000]
(2) have been given to his Department since May 1997. [140001]
John Healey: The Treasury receives a number of publications from charities and other organisations on a daily basis. We do not hold records of what has been sent.
Taxation
Mr. Laurence Robertson:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue was collected (a) in total and (b) per head of the population by HM Revenue and Customs from residents of (i) London, (ii) Wales, (iii) Northern Ireland and (iv) Scotland in the most recent year for which figures are available; and what Government spending was in each area (A) in
total and (B) per head of population in the same period. [139490]
John Healey: Total and per capita tax revenue and Government expenditure data is not available at a regional level. Sources of the most relevant and available data are shown as follows.
The Office National Statistics publishes estimates of income tax, council taxes and vehicle taxes paid by households by region, available at:
The relevant data can be found under “D.5 Current taxes on income, wealth etc.” in table 2:8.
Regional stamp duty receipts attributable to residential property are published by HMRC, available at:
No corresponding information is available on taxes paid by companies and other organisations, or on other taxes paid by households. Total public spending that can be identified as benefiting a particular country or region is published in table 9.1 of Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) 20075 available at:
The equivalent per capita information can be found in table 9.2. Public spending can be split into that which can be identified as benefiting a particular country or region and that which is for the benefit of the UK as a whole, for example defence spending. Therefore, the figures in PESA do not represent total public spending, which is not available by region.
The Scottish Executive also produces an annual publication ‘Government Expenditure and Revenue in Scotland’. This is available at:
Taxation: Alcoholic Drinks
Julie Morgan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much was received by his Department from tax on alcohol products in each of the last five years. [140464]
John Healey: The duty receipts for alcohols products can be found in the HM Revenue and Customs “Beer & Cider Bulletin”, “Made Wine Bulletin”, “Spirits Bulletin” and “Wine of Fresh Grape Bulletin”, which are available from the HM Revenue and Customs website addresses at:
HM Revenue and Customs does not collect data on VAT from individual goods and services.
Taxation: Arts
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance has been given to local authorities on the deduction of tax at source from the remuneration payable to self-employed contractors in the arts field; and if he will make a statement. [140101]
John Healey: Self-employed contractors in the arts field can come within the terms of the construction industry scheme if the work they undertake constitutes construction operations which are not wholly artistic in nature, such as stained glass windows. Unless contractors have gross payment status under the scheme, payments to them must be made subject to a deduction on account of their liability to income tax and national insurance contributions. No guidance on this point has been issued specifically to local authorities, but guidance on the matter is publicly available on the HM Revenue and Customs website at:
Taxation: Aviation
Dr. Kumar: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effect of the recent tax increase on flights on the number of flights being made from the UK. [139802]
John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling) on 2 February 2007, Official Report, column 557W.
Taxation: Bingo
Mr. Betts: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what assessment he has made of the impact on the bingo industry of charging both gross profits tax and value added tax on bingo clubs since 2003; [139605]
(2) if he will take steps to provide temporary rate relief to bingo clubs to assist in their transition to becoming smoke-free on 1 July 2007. [139606]
John Healey: The Government’s policy of applying VAT and duty on bingo participation fees is consistent with our treatment of other player-to-player gaming in licensed premises, such as poker played in casinos.
Revenues from gambling taxes are published in the HM Revenue and Customs betting, gaming and lottery duties bulletin, available at: http://www.uktradeinfo.com/index.cfm?task=bullbett and total VAT receipts are published in the financial statement and Budget report, but are not broken down by industry.
Taxation: Domicile
Mr. Meacher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which Ministers and officials from his Department conducted the review of the non-domicile tax regime. [139277]
Mr. Timms: The Paymaster General is the Government Minister with strategic oversight of the UK tax system.
It is not Government policy to disclose the names of individual civil servants working on individual issues.
Taxation: Environment Protection
Mr. Dai Davies:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what response the Government have made to the European Commission’s proposals on the use of
market-based instruments for environment and related policy purposes, (reference Com (2007) 140 final). [139957]
John Healey: The Government are considering their response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on the use of market based instruments for environment and related policy purposes. They will provide their views to the Commission by the 31 July deadline. The Green Paper is a consultation document and does not contain any specific legislative proposals.
Taxation: Fuels
Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what guidance is provided to (a) port authorities and (b) the operators of local authority pier facilities on the tax and duty regimes applied on the sale of marine fuel at each category of location. [140099]
John Healey: HM Revenue and Customs publishes the requirements on suppliers of marine fuels in various public notices which are available at http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/, the most relevant being:
Notice 263, Marine Voyages
Notice 192, Registered dealers in controlled oils
Notice 172, Excise duty drawback—ships and aircraft stores.
Port authorities and the operators of local pier facilities will be subject to these requirements if they supply fuel. However, no distinction is made between these locations.
Taxation: Trusts
Jim Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how the tax residence of trustees was defined (a) before and (b) after the Finance Act 2006; when the new rules took effect; and what estimate he has made of the expected effect on revenues. [140182]
Mr. Timms: Up to 5 April 2007, separate definitions of trustee residence applied for income tax and capital gains tax.
For income tax purposes a trust was a UK resident trust if:
all the trustees were UK resident or
some trustees were UK resident and some trustees were non-UK resident; and
the settlor of the trust was domiciled, resident or ordinarily resident in the UK when the trust was made or assets were added to it.
For capital gains tax purposes a trust was a UK resident trust unless:
the general administration of the trust was ordinarily carried on outside the UK and
the trustees or a majority of the trustees were for the time being not resident or not ordinarily resident in the UK.
Where the trustees included professional trustees and all the property was provided or derived from property provided by a person who, at the time the property was provided, was domiciled and resident outside the UK, the professional trustees would be deemed not to be UK resident. Where, deeming such trustees to be non-UK resident, all the trustees, or a majority of them, were non-UK resident, the general
administration of the trust was deemed to be carried on outside the UK so that the trust was non-resident for capital gains tax purposes.
As part of the trust modernisation programme, which aimed for a greater consistency of approach between income tax and capital gains tax in relation to the taxation of trusts, a common residence test has been adopted for the purposes of both income tax and tax on chargeable gains.
With effect therefore from 6 April 2007, for both income tax and capital gains tax purposes, a trust is treated as resident and ordinarily resident in the UK at any time if:
all the trustees are resident in the UK; or
at least one trustee is resident in the UK, at least one trustee is not resident in the UK and any settlor was resident, ordinarily resident or domiciled in the UK when the trust was made or assets added to it.
A trustee who is not resident in the UK shall be treated as if he were resident in the UK at any time when he acts as a trustee in the course of a business which he carries on in the United Kingdom through a branch, agency or permanent establishment.
The estimate of the expected effect on revenues of this change is negligible.
Tolls
Mr. Paterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether commercial and business drivers and operators will be able to offset road pricing payments against their tax liabilities as normal business expenses. [139844]
Ed Balls: Commercial and business drivers and operators will be able to offset road pricing payments against their taxable business income in the same way as any other business expense.
Unemployment: Peterborough
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of youth unemployment was in Peterborough constituency at the end of each month since January 2005; and if he will make a statement. [139244]
John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 5 June 2007:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking what the rate of youth unemployment was in Peterborough constituency at the end of each month since January 2005. I am replying in her absence. (139244)
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