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27 Feb 2009 : Column 1180W—continued
Construction Industry Scheme
Mr. Lidington: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many businesses formerly registered for gross payment under the Construction Industry Scheme have ceased to hold that status in each year since the scheme’s inception. [258307]
Angela Eagle: There has been a special compliance scheme for the construction industry since 1972. Information over that period could be provided only at disproportionate cost. For the period of the current scheme, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 27 October 2008, Official Report, column 777W to the hon. Member for Hyndburn (Mr. Pope).
Council Tax: Parking
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 5 March 2008, Official Report, column 2498W, on council tax: parking, how many domestic dwellings in England have been assigned the dwellinghouse coding for parking of (a) G1, (b) G2, (c) G3, (d) G4, (e) G5, (f) G6, (g) G7, (h) G8 and (i) G9 according to records held by the Valuation Office Agency. [258477]
Mr. Timms: As at 1 February 2009 the relevant numbers were:
| Number | |
A comprehensive exercise to capture information about parking for all domestic properties has not been undertaken, nor is one planned.
Council Tax: Valuation
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 12 January 2009, Official Report, column 329W, on council tax: valuation, if he will place in the Library a copy of each of the two manuals. [258500]
Mr. Timms: No. These guidance manuals are technical instructions on the use of Valuation Office Agency (VOA) internal IT applications. It is not appropriate to publish information which might assist unauthorised access to VOA systems or databases.
Debt Collection: Powers of Entry
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many times bailiffs hired by HM Revenue and Customs used their powers of forced entry in the last year for which figures are available; [258645]
(2) in how many cases HM Revenue and Customs has commissioned bailiffs to recover tax arrears in the last year for which figures are available; and what HM Revenue and Customs' gross expenditure on bailiffs was in that period. [258646]
Mr. Timms: HMRC does not currently commission bailiffs to recover tax arrears and has no plans to do so.
HMRC has a statutory power of distraint which is exercised directly by HMRC Officers.
Departmental Catering
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what (a) directly-operated and (b) franchised catering outlets his Department and its agencies provide for staff. [249084]
Angela Eagle: Catering facilities in 1 Horse Guards Road are provided as part of the PFI contract for servicing the building. These facilities are used by both staff and visitors to the building.
Departmental Correspondence
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many letters received by his Department were not replied to within four weeks in the last 12 months. [253156]
Angela Eagle: The information requested is not held.
Departmental Data Protection
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make it his policy for his Department to sign the Information Commissioner’s Personal Information Promise. [258970]
Angela Eagle:
The Government welcomed the Promise as a commendable initiative to raise awareness of the
importance of effective data protection safeguards, particularly for those organisations with no similar commitments already in place.
The Government take data protection very seriously. Following the Cabinet Office Review of Data Handling Procedures in Government, Departments have implemented a raft of measures to improve data security.
The Ministry of Justice is considering actively with the ICO how the Promise might add additional value to those measures we have already signed up to. These include the Information Charters, the recommendations of the Data Handling Review and the Thomas/Walport Review and, of course, our legal obligations under the Data Protection Act and other legislation and regulations.
Anne Main: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department uses WPA2 encryption protocol on all its wireless networks. [259713]
Angela Eagle: HM Treasury has no wireless networks
Departmental Databases
Mrs. Laing: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost of maintaining the databases owned and managed by (a) his Department and (b) its agencies was in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007 and (iii) 2008. [256152]
Angela Eagle: This information can be provided only at disproportionate cost.
Departmental Public Consultation
Mr. Vara: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many public consultations his Department has conducted in the last 12 months; how long each consultation was open for; how many responses were received in each case; and what the cost of conducting each consultation was. [259700]
Angela Eagle: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 22 July 2008, Official Report, column 1392W, to the hon. Member for Fareham (Mr. Hoban).
Departmental Temporary Employment
Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer from which companies his Department sourced temporary staff in each of the last five years; and what the monetary value of contracts with each such company was in each of those years. [251660]
Angela Eagle: Details of companies’ sourced for temporary staff and the amounts paid to each company are shown in the following table:
| £ | |||||
| Company | 2003-04 | 2004-05 | 2005-06 | 2006-07 | 2007-08 |
Departmental Written Questions
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of parliamentary Questions to his Department received a response referring the hon. Member to a website in (a) 2008, (b) 2007 and (c) 2006. [260049]
Angela Eagle: The information requested is not available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
It has been the practice of successive Administrations to refer Members to publications and other source documents from which information they are seeking can be extracted.
Economic and Monetary Union
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether each Government department is required to appoint a designated Euro Minister as part of the Euro Changeover preparations. [258367]
Ian Pearson: The requirement on Departments to have a designated Euro Minister remains unchanged.
Financial Inclusion
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many financial inclusion strategies his Department has had since May 1997; what the (a) title and (b) date of each was; and what recommendations each made to increase levels of financial inclusion in areas of high financial exclusion. [258624]
Ian Pearson: HM Treasury has published three documents setting out the Government’s policy and commitments on financial inclusion. The first was ‘Promoting financial inclusion’, in December 2004. In March 2007 HM Treasury published ‘Financial inclusion: the way forward’. The most recent document was ‘Financial inclusion: an action plan for 2008-11’, published in December 2007. All these documents can be found on HM Treasury’s financial inclusion pages at:
Foreign Exchange
Mr. Maude: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the effect of recent changes in the value of sterling on the cost of the United Kingdom’s contributions in euros to the European Union. [258369]
Ian Pearson: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 15 December 2008, Official Report, column 430W to the hon. Member for Rayleigh (Mr. Francois).
Housing: Sales
Mr. Burstow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the number of houses sold in (a) 2007, (b) 2008 and (c) 2009 to date. [258558]
Angela Eagle: Based on data from HM Revenue and Customs, there were 1.63 million transactions of houses valued at £40,000 or more in 2007, and 927,000 in 2008. In January 2009 there were 56,000 transactions under the same definition, (seasonally adjusted).
Council Tax: Valuations
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether (a) localities and (b) locality groups are used by the Valuation Office Agency to assist with council tax valuations in England. [258401]
Mr. Timms: The Valuation Office Agency's (VOA's) council tax banding support tool makes use of localities and locality groups to help identify properties that are most closely comparable to a given subject property. These outputs are available to assist the VOA's caseworkers in making council tax banding judgements.
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