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18 Dec 2008 : Column 936W—continued
Public Expenditure
Justine Greening: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) which Government departments will be exempt from the allocation of the £5 billion of additional recoverable savings under the increased cross-Government value for money target for 2010-11, referred to in paragraph 6.32, page 122 of the Pre-Budget Report 2008; [244423]
(2) by what criteria the £5 billion of additional recoverable savings under the increased cross-Government value for money target for 2010-11, referred to in paragraph 6.32, page 122 of the Pre-Budget Report 2008, will be allocated. [244424]
Yvette Cooper: HM Treasury will work with Departments between now and Budget 2009 to agree the departmental allocation of the additional £5 billion value for money target announced in the pre-Budget report.
Public Expenditure: Scotland
David Mundell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer for what reasons the factual paper on the Barnett Formula was not laid before Parliament in accordance with the timetable originally planned. [244596]
Yvette Cooper [holding 17 December 2008]: No decision has been made yet on the date of publication of the factual paper on the Barnett formula.
Public Finance
Chris Huhne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide a breakdown by principal policy decision of the increase in cyclically adjusted net borrowing by 4.3 per cent. of gross domestic product from the estimated outturn in 2007-08 to the estimate in 2009-10, as shown in the Pre-Budget Report table B4. [243507]
Yvette Cooper: The estimated cost of all policy decisions announced in the 2008 pre-Budget report can be found on Table B5 of Annexe B (p 194).
Public Sector Debt
Chris Huhne: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what changes there have been in projections of (a) gross public debt on a Maastricht treaty basis and (b) net public debt since the pre-Budget report projections resulting from (i) the use of automatic stabilisers, (ii) policy changes announced in the pre-Budget report and (iii) other causes. [244984]
Yvette Cooper: Projections for gross public debt on a Maastricht treaty basis and public sector net debt can be found in Table B10 in £ billion, and Table B11 as a percentage of GDP of the 2008 pre-Budget report.
The costs of policy changes announced in the 2008 pre-Budget report can be found in Table B5 in £ million. The effects of automatic stabilisers are shown in Chart 2.3 of the 2008 pre-Budget report.
In line with previous practice, the Chancellor of the Exchequer will provide an update on the public finances at Budget 2009.
Tax Avoidance
David Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent representations HM Revenue and Customs has received on the resources required to combat tax avoidance by major corporations. [244648]
Mr. Timms: The Department receives representations on a wide range of subjects.
As recommended by the Varney Review of Links with Large Business published in November 2006, the Department takes a risk-based approach to its largest customers, focusing resources on issues and businesses which are judged to be of higher risk.
The Department continues to monitor its assessments to ensure that sufficient resources are focused on the most important and difficult risks.
Taxation: Business
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will place in the Library a full copy of the advice produced by the Civil Service for Ministers dated 22 May 1997 on consideration of options - company taxation that was released in part by his Department on 30 March 2007. [241758]
Ian Pearson: The advice produced by officials to Ministers, dated 22 May 1997, was released by HM Treasury on 30 March 2007, in full response to a freedom of information (FOI) request. A subsequent parliamentary debate ensured that the matter received full consideration.
Taxation: Hotels
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he plans to announce a decision on the value added tax liability of unitised hotel projects following his review of the matter. [244697]
Mr. Timms: Officials are looking into the VAT treatment of various hotel investment schemes with a view to providing clarity and certainty for the parties involved. The arrangements are complex, they are not identical in nature, and this has required detailed analysis on the part of HM Revenue and Customs. Officials will be communicating their conclusions to hotel management companies and investors early in the new year.
Taxation: Small Businesses
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will extend the qualification period for the Business Payment Support Service to the third quarter of 2008. [243137]
Mr. Timms
[holding answer 15 December 2008]: The Business Payment Support Service will help businesses in temporary financial difficulties, as a result of the current economic conditions, spread their tax payments
over a timetable they can afford. There is no qualification period for the service. If HM Revenue and Customs has already contacted a business about an overdue payment or if they already have a payment arrangement with the Department, they should call the office which originally contacted them.
VAT: Small Businesses
Miss Kirkbride: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses have applied to defer their VAT payments in the latest period for which figures are available; and how many such applications have been granted. [244066]
Mr. Timms: I am able to provide data on cases handled by the new Business Payment Support Service. The information requested is not available for HMRC as a whole.
As part of a substantial package of support the Chancellor announced in PBR that HMRC had introduced a new Business Payment Support Service. Businesses in temporary financial difficulty will be offered a fast and streamlined service for arranging to pay their HMRC tax bill to a timetable they can afford.
The service has been up and running for just under three weeks. To 11 December, the service has taken over 15,000 calls and agreed over 6,200 time to pay arrangements worth over £108 million. Almost 60 per cent. of the cases relate to businesses being granted time to pay VAT debts worth over £71 million.
Mr. Hollobone:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effects on small businesses of administering the temporary
change to the rate of value added tax announced in the pre-Budget report. [244976]
Mr. Timms: The impact assessment for the temporary reduction in the standard rate of VAT can be found on the HM Treasury website at
This contains the small firms impact test.
Solicitor-General
Departmental Databases
Mr. Hoban: To ask the Solicitor-General what databases the Law Officers’ Departments (a) own and (b) maintain. [242227]
The Solicitor-General: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has a 10 year Public Finance Initiative Partnership with LogicaCMG to modernise information technology within the Service. This is known as the COMPASS Programme.
The contract with LogicaCMG covers the provision, support and maintenance of the hardware and software applications used by the CPS. This includes: the case management databases; the COMPASS Case Management System; the Management Information System; the Witness Management System; and the Payroll, Graduated Counsel Fee Scheme and the Corporate Information Systems. The corporate databases provided by suppliers outside of the COMPASS contract are the Finance and Human Resources databases.
The other databases in use by small numbers of HQ users are:
The suite of desktop applications provided to all users through the COMPASS contract includes Microsoft Access database software for the development of databases for individual use.
The CPS owns the data contained within its databases.
The following table shows the databases (a) owned and (b) maintained by the Serious Fraud Office:
The Treasury Solicitor’s Department:
(a) Owns the following databases :
| Database name | Function | Database management system |
|
Legacy data from FAIS (the old Bona Vacantia database) to be kept for 40 Years | ||
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