| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
31 Jan 2008 : Column 672W—continued
Natural England: Databases
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Valuation Office Agency has access to Natural England's MAGIC database. [183272]
Jane Kennedy: The MAGIC database is freely available to anyone over the internet.
Northern Rock: Nationalisation
Mr. Duncan Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost of nationalising Northern Rock. [179803]
Jane Kennedy: I refer the right hon. Gentleman to the statement made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer on 21 January 2008, Official Report, column 1207. The cost of taking Northern Rock into public ownership would depend on the approach taken.
Official Residences
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what monetary value was assigned to (a) each of the ministerial residences in Admiralty House and (b) the Government House in Pimlico in the most recent edition of the Government's National Asset Register. [183407]
Yvette Cooper: The National Asset Register separately identifies assets above a £1 million de minimis threshold, but the boundary of what constitutes a single asset is determined by the Department that owns the asset. No breakdown of the value of the assets in question by individual residence is available in the National Asset Register.
Passengers: Surveys
Damian Green: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) at which points of entry interviews are conducted as part of the international passenger survey; [178678]
(2) what percentage of inbound (a) flights, (b) ferries, (c) coaches and (d) trains arrived at points of entry where the international passenger survey is conducted in the latest period for which figures are available. [178681]
Angela Eagle: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 31 January 2008:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Questions asking what percentage of inbound (a) flights, (b) ferries, (c) coaches and (d) trains arrived at points of entry where the international passenger survey is conducted in the latest period for which figures are available (178681), and at which points of entry interviews are conducted (178678).
The International Passenger Survey (IPS) does not have information relating to the number of inbound flights, ferries, coaches or trains sampled as a proportion of all arrivals. However, the number of passengers passing through ports of entry as a proportion of the total number of passengers by each mode of transport is shown below. It should be noted that coaches are identified via the route they arrive in the UK, either by ferry or by Eurotunnel.
| Number of international passengers arriving at ports in the UK by mode of transport, 2006 | |||
| Total passengers through all ports (thousand) | Total passengers through IPS sampled sites (thousand) | Proportion through IPS sampled sites (percentage) | |
| Source: CAA, Department for Transport, Eurotunnel, Eurostar | |||
The IPS is carried out at the following points of entry:
London Heathrow;
Gatwick;
Stansted;
Manchester;
Edinburgh;
Glasgow;
Prestwick;
Newcastle;
Liverpool;
Leeds/Bradford;
East Midlands;
Birmingham;
Luton;
Bristol;
Cardiff;
London City.
Dover-Calais;
Dover-Dunkirk;
Portsmouth-Caen;
Portsmouth-St Malo;
Portsmouth-Cherbourg;
Portsmouth-Le Havre;
Poole-Cherbourg;
Plymouth-Santander;
Plymouth-Roscoff;
Harwich-Hook of Holland;
Harwich-Esbjerg;
Newcastle-Stavanger/Haugesund/Bergen;
Newcastle-Amsterdam;
Hull-Rotterdam;
Hull-Zeebrugge;
Pembroke-Rosslare
Fishguard-Rosslare;
Holyhead-Dublin;
Holyhead-Dun Laoghaire;
Rosyth-Zeebrugge;
Southampton-New York QM2.
Waterloo (up to November 2007);
St Pancras (from November 2007);
Ashford;
Ebbsfleet (from November 2007);
Cheriton-Coquelles.
In addition, from April 2008 interviewing will be introduced at Southampton, Bournemouth and Doncaster airports.
Property Information Systems Common Exchange Standard
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much the Valuation Office Agency's membership of the Property Information Systems Common Exchange Standard cost in the most recent financial year for which figures are available. [183263]
Jane Kennedy: The VGA's membership of the Property Information System Common Exchange Standard cost £10,000 plus VAT in the most recent year, 2007-08.
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what use the Valuation Office Agency is planning to make of the Property Information Systems Common Exchange Standard in relation to (a) the transfer of data on domestic properties and (b) residential valuations including the automated valuation model. [183265]
Jane Kennedy: The Valuation Office Agency has no plans to make use of electronic standards published by PISCES for (a) the transfer of data on domestic properties, or (b) residential valuations including its automated valuation model.
Property Information Systems Common Exchange Standard: Internet
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Property Information Systems Common Exchange Standard XML schema includes provision for the inclusion of the Valuation Office Agency's unique address reference number. [183262]
Jane Kennedy: The address component of the PISCES developed XML schema has the provision to hold any unique reference, along with the additional data needed to identify who owns that unique reference. The Valuation Office Agency has been identified as being one of these unique reference owners for addressing within the standards published by PISCES.
Public Bodies: Standards
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's most recent edition of its guidance on regularity and propriety in force for public authorities and accounting officers. [183406]
Yvette Cooper: The most recent Treasury guidelines on regularity and propriety are contained in ‘Managing Public Money’, which is available in the Library of the House. The information is also available on HM Treasury's website at:
Public Sector: Pensions
Danny Alexander: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Government Actuary's Department has completed reviews of or reports into the pension schemes in (a) the NHS, (b) the police force, (c) local government and (d) the Civil Service in the last five years. [182926]
Yvette Cooper: The Government Actuary has completed the following reports on actuarial valuations of the NHS pension schemes in the last five years:
| NHS Pension Scheme in | Valuation date | Completion date |
In July 2004, the Government Actuary also completed a report on the actuarial valuation of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (Northern Ireland) as at 31 March 2003.
Assessments by the Government Actuary's Department of the liabilities of each of the NHS pension schemes and the Principal Civil Service Pensions Scheme (Northern Ireland) are published annually within the schemes' resource accounts; the last such assessments completed were as at 31 March 2007.
During the last five years the Government Actuary has not completed any actuarial reviews of pension schemes for the police force or local government.
Revenue and Customs: Data Protection
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether HM Revenue and Customs has designated an official as responsible for data security; and if he will make a statement. [173354]
Jane Kennedy: As the Principal Accounting Officer for HMRC the chairman has ultimate responsibility for data security.
In addition a senior HMRC Director was appointed as Director of Data Security on 23 November 2007 with responsibility for overseeing all of the department’s data security issues.
A data guardian role has also been created in each HMRC Business Unit to monitor data handling and transfer arrangements in all of HMRC's business areas.
Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services
Martin Horwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his most recent estimate is of the revenue received from customers telephoning on telephone numbers beginning 08 by HM Revenue and Customs in the last five financial years. [183042]
Jane Kennedy: I refer the hon. Member for Cheltenham to the answer given by my hon. Friend the Exchequer Secretary on 5 July 2007, Official Report, column 1183W.
In addition no revenue has been received by HM Revenue and Customs in respect of customers telephoning their 08 (non-geographic) telephone services in the current financial year.
Revenue and Customs: Welshpool
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will break down by subheading the effect on costs of the restructuring of the Welshpool HM Revenue and Customs office; and if he will make a statement. [183305]
Jane Kennedy: The Welshpool office has not yet been reviewed.
More generally, HM Revenue and Customs is restructuring all its business operations in order to provide a better service at a lower cost to the taxpayer. Most of its business units can work more efficiently by consolidating in a smaller number of offices. The cost savings, to the Department as a whole, from that increased efficiency, cannot realistically be apportioned to any one office.
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects the staff in the HM Revenue and Customs office in Welshpool to be informed of the future status of and plans for that office; and if he will make a statement. [183310]
Jane Kennedy: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has too much office space and has been engaged in a review programme to decide which offices best suit its future business needs and should therefore be retained.
The programme has been paused while HMRC considers how best to take forward the recommendations of the capability review of the Department published in December. When it resumes, all staff will be notified of the revised timetable for their office reviews including consultation.
| Next Section | Index | Home Page |