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6 Mar 2008 : Column 2799W—continued
Tax Yields: East Sussex
Mr. Waterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue the Government raised in tax in (a) Eastbourne constituency and (b) East Sussex in each year since 1997. [192126]
Angela Eagle: Information on the total amount of tax raised in Eastbourne and East Sussex is not available.
Taxation: Exports
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost to the Exchequer of value added tax export relief was in each of the last three years. [191785]
Jane Kennedy: No estimate has been made of the cost of the zero rate for the export of goods. The relief implements basic VAT principles that goods consumed outside the EU are not subject to EU VAT, so there is no actual exchequer cost.
Taxation: Landlords
Jim Cousins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many cases have been brought by HM Revenue and Customs against buy-to-let landlords alleged to have (a) claimed too much tax relief on mortgage payments and (b) under-stated rental income or capital gains in 2007-08. [191628]
Angela Eagle: The information is available only at disproportionate cost.
Tonnage Tax: Ferries
Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what changes he plans to introduce to the tonnage tax regime for passenger ferry services operating in UK waters; and which (a) vessels and (b) ferry services will be affected; [191822]
(2) what estimate he has made of the effects of the withdrawal of the tonnage tax regime on the costs of ferry operators operating (a) Isle of Wight and (b) other internal UK ferry services. [191883]
Jane Kennedy [ h olding answer 5 March 2008]: The Government have been engaged in discussions with the European Commission to ensure that the UK's tonnage tax regime is compliant with EU state aid guidelines. Those discussions are still ongoing. Apart from any changes which may be required as a result of those discussions, the Government have no plans to change the tonnage tax rules.
Ferries operating across harbours, rivers or estuaries have always been specifically excluded from tonnage tax and since 1 July 2005 ferries have had to be operating at sea to qualify for tonnage tax. HMRC has published guidance on the interpretation of “sea” for tonnage tax purposes.
We cannot provide data relating to the impact of this change on shipping companies because it is under review and because of the need to protect taxpayer confidentiality.
Welfare Tax Credits
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many households with dependent children, where those children were classified as being in poverty, were eligible for tax credits in the latest period for which figures are available. [192158]
Jane Kennedy: Latest available data, consistent with DWP's “Households Below Average Income” publication, shows that there were 1.5 million households with children in relative low income poverty in 2005-06 (household income less than 60 per cent. of median on a before housing costs basis). Nearly all these 1.5 million households have positive entitlements to tax credits.
Welfare Tax Credits: Administration
Stewart Hosie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what proportion of people in receipt of tax credits are being dealt with clerically. [191573]
Jane Kennedy: Out of the six million households in receipt of tax credits, around 22,700 are being dealt with clerically. This represents around 0.3 per cent. of households currently benefiting from tax credits.
Winter Fuel Payments
John Barrett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he had with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on funding for the winter fuel allowance as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review process. [191847]
Jane Kennedy: The Chancellor has discussions with his Cabinet colleagues on a wide range of issues on a regular basis.
Tax rates and benefit payments are kept under review as part of the annual Budget process. However, the pre-Budget report 2005 announced that winter fuel payments will be paid at their current levels for the rest of this Parliament.
Work and Pensions
Child Support
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the longest repayment schedule agreed by the Child Support Agency is. [185879]
Mr. Plaskitt: The information requested is not available.
Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many individual debts written off by the Child Support Agency were worth (a) over £1 million, (b) between £500,000 and £999,999, (c) between £250,000 and £499,999, (d) between £100,000 and £249,999, (e) between £50,000 and £99,999, (f) between £20,000 and £49,999, (g) between £10,000 and £19,999, (h) between £5,000 and £9,999 and (i) between £1,000 and £4,999. [185880]
Mr. Plaskitt: The Administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 6 March 2008:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individual debts written off by the Child Support Agency have been worth (a) over £1 million (b) between £500,000 and £999,999 (c) between £250,000 and £499,999 (d) between £100,000 and £249,999 (e) between £50,000 and £99,999 (f) between £20,000 and £49,999 (g) between £10,000 and £19,999 (h) between £5,000 and £9,999 and (i) between £1,000 and £4,999. [185880]
The Agency does not have the power to write off debt and has never done so. The Agency does, however, undertake an annual Debt Analysis Exercise which consists of a random, statistically valid sample of new and old rules cases, to distinguish between debt which is deemed collectable, and that which is deemed possibly uncollectable and probably uncollectable. The results of this sample exercise are applied to the total Agency debt balance and are subject to review by the National Audit Office as part of their audit of the Agency’s accounts. Classing a debt as possibly or probably uncollectable does not mean the Agency has waived its discretion to take action in the future to collect any outstanding money. The Agency may reassess the status of a debt if it receives new information about the case to which it relates.
Figures concerning collectable and uncollectable debt can be found in the Agency’s Annual Report and Accounts. In the most recent debt analysis exercise in March 2007, 49% of debt was classed as collectable.
The Agency takes the collection of outstanding debt very seriously. The focus of the current year of the Operational Improvement Plan is enforcement and compliance, as the Agency strives to increase its debt collection and get more money for more children. Every effort is made to ensure the non-resident parents fulfill their financial responsibility to their children.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Child Support Agency: Bolton
Chris McCafferty:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effectiveness and efficiency of the Vertex-contracted Child Support Agency (CSA) office in Bolton in (a) communicating with (i) hon. and right hon. Members,
(ii) Ministers and (iii) other CSA offices and (b) operating efficiency. [184447]
Mr. Plaskitt [holding answer 6 February 2008]: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 6 March 2008:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Vertex-contracted Child Support Agency (CSA) office in Bolton in (a) communication with (i) hon. and right hon. Members (ii) Ministers and (iii) other CSA offices and (b) operating efficiently. [184447]
Vertex Data Science Ltd. manages the CSA Bolton site, a unit we have established to deal with those cases which for technical reasons can not be progressed on the computer system and therefore need to be administered clerically. By moving all the clerical work undertaken by the Agency to this one site from September 2006, the Agency was able to release people to focus on other improvement work outlined in the Operational Improvement Plan, including reducing the number of uncleared applications and strengthening enforcement.
While the arrangement has been generally beneficial, we have experienced some operational issues including expressions of concern from some clients, MPs and the Independent Case Examiner about how the Agency has managed its service to clients and delays in resolving complaints. The Agency has now taken steps to ensure that our service to clients improves in the future. In October 2007 the Agency renegotiated the contract to allow Vertex to focus on keeping maintenance flowing to children, and increased the resource dedicated to progressing clerical cases by retaining responsibility for new clerical cases until first payment stage.
In addition, all complaints with MP or Independent Case Examiner involvement as well as those cases that require a review are now also being dealt with by specialist caseworkers within the Agency. Clerical cases represent less than three per cent of all assessed cases. The administration of these cases will continue to present a challenge, however the Agency is continually working with its contractors to improve the service to these clients.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Child Support Agency: Finance
Danny Alexander: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the staffing cost of each staff grade of the Child Support Agency was in each of the last 10 years. [185123]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 6 March 2008:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the staffing cost of each staff grade of the Child Support Agency was in each of the last 10 years. [185123]
The Child Support Agency is a part of the Department for Work and Pensions. The Agency uses the Department’s payroll and accounting system to record and report expenditure.
Whilst the payroll system does have the functionality to report employee costs by grade, in order to fully respond to this and capture all elements of employee costs, a number of scans would
need to be commissioned. This would be at disproportionate cost in terms of both IT development and employee time.
However, the table below provides the total Agency spend on employees for the last ten financial years as recorded in the Child Support Agency Annual Report and Accounts.
| Financial year | Total employee spend (£ million) |
I hope you find this answer helpful.
Child Support Agency
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) how many Child Support Agency cases remain suspended pending the opening of new clerical team centres; [180770]
(2) how many Child Support Agency (CSA) cases were dealt with by the CSA’s clerical team in each month since January 2007; [180771]
(3) how many Child Support Agency (CSA) cases were transferred to the CSA clerical team in each month since January 2007. [180772]
Mr. Plaskitt: The administration of the Child Support Agency is the matter for the chief executive. He will write to the hon. Member with the information requested.
Letter from Stephen Geraghty, dated 6 March 2008:
In reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about the Child Support Agency, the Secretary of State promised a substantive reply from the Chief Executive.
You asked the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Support Agency cases remain suspended pending the opening of new clerical team centres. [180770]; and
How many Child Support Agency cases were dealt with by the CSA's clerical team in each month since January 2007. [180771]; and
How many Child Support Agency cases were transferred to the CSA clerical team in each month since January 2007. [180772]
The Agency contracted out the management of its clerical cases to Vertex Data Science Ltd in September 2006. They initially managed all aspects of the clerical case-load at the Bolton site on our behalf and to date have administered more than £30m to parents with care. In October 2007 the Agency renegotiated the contract to allow Vertex to focus on keeping maintenance flowing to children, and increased the resource dedicated to progressing clerical cases by retaining responsibility for new clerical cases until first payment stage.
Child maintenance applications are processed clerically where, due to technical issues, they cannot be advanced on our computer system. Unfortunately the process of identifying, transferring and assessing these cases can add significant delays. In addition the Agency's success in reducing the number of outstanding applications uncovered a larger than expected number of cases needing to be processed clerically.
New clerical cases are now progressed to first payment stage at our Stockport and Cumnock sites, with new clerical cases being referred to these sites to be assessed before referral to Bolton to be maintained. All cases identified as being appropriate for clerical handling have been moved, or are currently in the process of being moved to the dedicated clerical teams for progression, with the transfer due to be completed by 15 February 2008.
Clerical cases represent less than three per cent of all assessed cases. The Agency is continually working with its contractors to improve the service to these clients. In addition an upgrade to the computer system (CS2) due to be completed by the end of March 2008, will reduce the need for the Agency's clerical teams.
Information on the number of new clerical cases and the total number of clerical cases being dealt with each month is set out in the attached table.
I hope you find this answer helpful.
| Child Support Agency: Clerical cases | ||
| Month (2007) | Number of new clerical cases | Number of clerical cases |
| Note: Each month the number of clerical cases increases to reflect new cases that are referred for clerical progression. Similarly, each month a number of existing clerical cases are closed and so are removed from the total number of clerical cases. | ||
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