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21 Jan 2008 : Column 1563W—continued
Child Benefit: Personal Records
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the statement of 20 November 2007, Official Report, columns 1110-18, on HM Revenue and Customs, whether the package contained material other than the two missing computer discs. [179642]
Jane Kennedy: Given that the facts of the case remain the subject of investigations by the police and the IPCC, and are also being looked into by Kieran Poynter's review of HMRC data handling procedures, it would be inappropriate to comment at this stage.
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cell field structure was of the data on the two child benefit data missing discs. [179656]
Jane Kennedy: For security purposes, it would not be appropriate to provide the information requested.
Death: Lincolnshire
Shona McIsaac: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in (a) the North East Lincolnshire and (b) North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust areas died from (i) stroke-related illnesses, (ii) lung disease and (iii) heart disease in each of the last five years. [179713]
Angela Eagle: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 21 January 2008:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many people in (a) the North East Lincolnshire and (b) North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust areas have died from (i) stroke-related illnesses, (ii) lung disease and (iii) heart disease in each of the last five years. I am replying in her absence. (179713)
The table attached provides the number of deaths where (i) stroke, (ii) chronic lung disease and (iii) coronary heart disease was the underlying cause of death in (a) North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus, and (b) North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust, for 2002 to 2006 (the latest year available).
| Table 1: Number of deaths with an underlying cause of stroke, chronic lung disease or coronary heart disease( 1) , North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus and North Lincolnshire Primary Care Trust (PCT)( 2) , 2002 to 2006( 3) | ||||||
| Deaths (persons) | ||||||
| Cause | Area | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 |
| (1) Cause of death was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10) codes I60-I69 for stroke, J40-J47 for chronic lung disease and I20-I25 for coronary heart disease. (2) Based on boundaries as of November 2007. (3) Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year. | ||||||
Departmental Freedom of Information
Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of Freedom of Information requests received by his Department have given rise to responses that have been published by his Department. [180223]
Angela Eagle: The number of requests to HM Treasury, along with those of other central Government bodies, is published by the Ministry of Justice in quarterly and annual reports. Information has so far been published up to September 2007 and shows that HM Treasury had received 3,260 requests.
HM Treasury website includes a disclosure log which publishes those disclosures judged to be of wider public interest. For the aforementioned period, the Treasury has published 78 disclosures on their website—2.4 per cent. of all requests received.
EC Trade: Job Creation
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many jobs have been created as a result of trade with the EU in the last two years; and how many are expected to be created in the next two years. [180267]
Angela Eagle: The Government estimate around 500,000 jobs in the UK are linked, directly or indirectly, to the growth in the export of goods and services to the European Union since 2004. The Government have no estimate on future job creation from trade with the EU.
Mr. Clifton-Brown: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of UK jobs which are contingent upon UK exports to the EU. [180268]
Angela Eagle: The Government estimate around 3.5 million jobs in the UK are linked, directly and indirectly, to the export of goods and services to the European Union.
Employment: Wirral
Ben Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the employment rate in Wirral is; and if he will make a statement. [179628]
Angela Eagle: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 21 January 2008:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about employment in the Wirral. I am replying in her absence. (179628).
The Office for National Statistics compiles employment statistics for local areas from the Annual Population Survey (APS) following International Labour Organisation definitions.
There were an estimated 134,000 people, aged 16 and over, in employment, resident in the Wirral unitary authority, for the 12 months ending March 2007, from the latest available data from the APS. The corresponding headline employment rate, for persons of working age (males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59) was 70.2 per cent for the 12 months ending March.
As these estimates are for a subset of the population in a small geographical area, they are based on small sample sizes, and are therefore subject to large margins of uncertainty.
Income Tax
Mr. Redwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people paid income tax on an earned income of £50,000 or more for each of the last 15 years in (a) the private sector and (b) the public sector. [179371]
Jane Kennedy: Information in the form requested is not available. Information on the distribution of earnings by total income is shown in table 3.6 for the years 1999-2000 to 2004-05 on the HMRC website at:
A split between public and private sector employments is not available.
Loans
Mr. Paice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what research his Department has undertaken on the conversion by the courts of unsecured to secured loans against borrowers’ wishes; and what plans he has to bring forward proposals to amend the regulatory regime affecting such cases. [180476]
Maria Eagle: I have been asked to reply.
The courts do not convert unsecured to secured loans, therefore the Government have not undertaken any research on the conversion by the courts of unsecured to secured loans against borrowers’ wishes.
Courts do use charging orders. These are not the same as converting an unsecured loan into a secured loan. The purpose of charging orders is set out in section 1 (1) of the Charging Orders Act 1979 which provides that where a creditor is owed money under a judgment or order of the High Court or county court, a charging order may be made “for the purposes of enforcing that judgment or order” in order to secure payment of “any money due or to become due under the judgment or order”. There are no plans to amend section 1 (1) of the Charging Orders Act 1979.
Lone Parents
Mr. Fallon: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what representations he has received from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on lone parents and mini-jobs; and if he will make a statement. [180102]
Jane Kennedy: Representations are regularly made to Treasury Ministers and officials on a wide range of issues.
Low Incomes: Social Security Benefits
Ben Chapman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps the Government are taking to support people who are on low incomes and working full-time. [179629]
Jane Kennedy: The Government support people who are on low incomes and working full-time primarily through the working tax credit (WTC). Together with the national minimum wage, tax credits have enabled the Government to guarantee minimum levels of income and tax credits entitlement for full-time workers.
This means, for instance, that from April 2008, a single person, aged 25 or over, who is in full-time work will have a combined weekly income and tax credit entitlement of at least £187. A household with one adult in full-time work, with one child, will have a combined weekly income and tax credit entitlement of no less than £290, while for a couple with no children and one adult in full-time work the equivalent minimum will be £221.
The Government also offer support for low-income workers through the child care element of WTC. This ensures that workers can keep more of their earnings by paying for up to 80 per cent. of child care costs up to a maximum of £175 per week for one child and £300 for two or more children.
National Debt
Mr. Hayes: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of servicing the national debt was in the latest period for which figures are available; and what it was in 1997. [180437]
Angela Eagle: Figures for central Government debt interest payments in current prices are published monthly by the Office for National Statistics and can be found in Table 1.1C: Central Government (series NMFX), available at:
Central Government debt interest payments form approximately 97 per cent. of the total public sector debt interest payments.
As a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), total public sector debt interest payments have fallen from 3.6 per cent. in 1997-98 to 2.2 per cent. in 2006-07.
Pay
Mr. Redwood:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the annual percentage increase was in
(a) public sector salaries and (b) private sector salaries in each of the last 15 years. [179372]
Angela Eagle: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Colin Mowl, dated 21 January 2008:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what the annual percentage increase was in (a) public sector salaries and (b) private sector salaries in each of the last 15 years. I am replying in her absence. (179372)
ONS estimates growth in public and private sector earnings using the Average Earnings Index, which is the ONS’s measure of short term changes in earnings. I attach a table that provides these figures.
However, ONS’s source of information on annual salary rates is the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE). Annual levels of earnings have been estimated from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) since 1999, and are provided for employees on adult rates of pay, who have been in the same job for more than a year. The ASHE, carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom.
ASHE results can be obtained on the National Statistics website at:
| Average Earnings Index: All employee jobs, main industrial sectors, seasonally adjusted—Great Britain | ||||
| Public sector (including bonuses, excluding arrears) | Private sector (including bonuses, excluding arrears) | |||
| 2000=100 | Index | Annual growth (percentage) | Index | Annual growth (percentage) |
| LNNJ | LNKY | |||
| Note: All figures based upon the calendar year. Source: Annual Earnings Index, Office for National Statistics | ||||
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