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23 Mar 2009 : Column 93W—continued
Tax Allowances: Cultural Heritage
Mr. Don Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the arrangements are for access to each heritage (a) property, (b) object, (c) group and (d) collection in respect of which conditional relief from tax has been granted; [263984]
(2) when the database of tax-exempt heritage assets was last updated to include access arrangements; when he expects it next to be updated; and if he will make a statement. [263985]
Mr. Timms: Details of the public access arrangements for land, buildings and chattels granted conditional exemption from tax are shown on a database on the HM Revenue and Customs Heritage website at:
The website was last updated on 21 August 2008 and is expected to be updated again in April 2009.
Tax Credit Office: Costs
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the administration costs of the Tax Credit Office were in each of the last five years. [264511]
Mr. Timms: HM Revenue and Customs delivers tax credits through a number of its business units including tax credit office (TCO). For information relating to the full costs of managing and paying the child and working tax credits, I refer the hon. Member to the annual departmental trust statements published at:
and the Comptroller and Auditor General’s standard reports available at:
TCO staffing costs for the last five years are shown in the following table.
| £ million | |
| (1) Staff costs increased from 2006-07 when operational support staff transferred to TCO. | |
Taxation: Arms Trade
Sarah Teather: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) monetary value and (b) revenue to the Exchequer from taxation of British arms exports to Israel was in each of the last five years. [264700]
Mr. Timms: There are no export taxes, duties or levies in force on goods exported from the UK.
The value of exports of military equipment to all destinations is published in the UK’s Strategic Export Controls Annual Reports, which are available on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s website at:
Taxation: Overpayments
Robert Key: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) target time and (b) average time taken was for the repayment of overpaid tax by HM Revenue and Customs in the last 12 months. [264574]
Mr. Timms: HMRC do not have a target time specifically for repayments of overpaid tax. HMRC do not hold information on time taken to repay overpaid taxes.
Taxation: Pensioners
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the answer of 11 February 2004, Official Report, columns 1489-90W, on pensions (taxation), if he will estimate the number of pensioners paying income tax at the (a) higher and (b) basic rate in each year since 2001-02; and what percentage of (i) all pensioner taxpayers and (ii) all pensioners these figures represent in each year. [264595]
Ian Pearson: The information requested is in the following tables.
| Higher rate taxpayers | |||
| Number of pensioners paying HR income tax (Thousand) | Proportion of all pensioner taxpayers (Percentage) | Proportion of all pensioners (Percentage) | |
| Non-h igher rate taxpayers | |||
| Number of pensioners paying non- HR income tax (Thousand) | Proportion of all pensioner taxpayers (Percentage) | Proportion of all pensioners (Percentage) | |
| Notes: 1. Figures up to 2006-07 are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes in that year. 2. Figures for 2007-08 are based on the Survey of Personal Incomes in 2006-07 projected forward one year in line with pre-Budget 2008 report. 3. Figures for the number of pensioners paying income tax have been rounded to the nearest 10,000. 4. Pensioners have been defined as men aged 65 and over and women aged 60 and over. 5. All pensioners figures are mid-year population estimates supplied by the Office for National Statistics. | |||
VAT: Clothing
Mr. Oaten: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects a decision to be taken on the possible inclusion of school uniforms in the list of goods and services on which reduced value added tax rates may be applied in Annex III of Directive 2006/112/EC. [265610]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 20 March 2009, Official Report, column 1414W.
VAT: Stationery
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what estimate he has made of the savings which accrued to his Department as a result of the withdrawal of pre-paid envelopes for value added tax returns in the last 12 months; [262724]
(2) how many pre-paid business reply envelopes for value added tax returns were issued in each of the last three years; [262725]
(3) what his estimate is of the number of businesses that used pre-paid business reply envelopes for value added tax returns in each of the last three years. [262726]
Mr. Timms: HMRC stopped issuing pre-paid business reply envelopes (BREs) with VAT returns and assessments (and for most other tax functions) from 1 October, when it introduced its National Direct Debit Service for payments.
HMRC estimates that in the period 1 November 2008 to 28 February 2009, it achieved savings of £1,060,358 as a result of the withdrawal of pre-paid BREs, of which £170,000 related to pre-paid envelopes issued with VAT returns or assessments. It is not possible to disaggregate the savings on VAT returns from those on assessments.
HMRC issued 19,538,704 VAT returns during the last three years, and approximately 47,500 assessments a year, and a business reply envelope would have been included with each up to 30 September 2008.
HMRC does not keep a record of the number of businesses that use pre-paid BREs to submit their VAT returns.
Welfare Tax Credits: Death
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what procedure is followed by the Tax Credit Office in the recovery of tax credits paid in respect of claimants who have died; [264650]
(2) how much has been reclaimed from tax credits overpaid to deceased claimants in each year since tax credits were introduced; and what proportion of this sum was (a) child tax credit and (b) working tax credit; [264651]
(3) what the policy of the Tax Credit Office is on recovery of tax credits overpaid as a consequence of the death of a child included in the claim. [264658]
Mr. Timms: Tax Credit Office has a dedicated team to handle notifications of bereavement. Procedural guidance for HM Revenue and Customs processing staff can be found at:
Guidance for Debt Management staff is published at:
For information about HMRCs approach to recovering tax credits overpayments when a customer has died, I refer the hon. Member to the answer my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool Wavertree (Jane Kennedy), gave the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) on 6 December 2007, Official Report, column 1501W.
For information about the amount of overpaid tax credits, attributable to deceased claimants, I refer the hon. Member to the answers my predecessor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Jane Kennedy), gave the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr. Hammond) on 8 October 2007, Official Report, column 244W and on 10 July 2008, Official Report, column 1786W. Information for 2007-08 will be available in May 2009.
In order to allow bereaved families more time to notify the Department, HMRC pay child tax credit for up to eight weeks following the death of a child.
Welfare Tax Credits: Overpayments
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether the Tax Credit Office IT system records the reason for overpayment of tax credit awards. [264652]
Mr. Timms: The tax credits IT system does not have the facility to record the reason(s) why HMRC believe an overpayment has arisen.
Working Families Tax Credit
Mr. Jenkins: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much in working families tax credit a family of two working adults with two children under the age of 15 years would receive in 2008-09 if the combined annual income of the adults was (a) £20,000, (b) £30,000, (c) £40,000, (d) £50,000 and (e) £60,000. [264530]
Mr. Timms: I refer the hon. Member to page 19 of the HMRC publication “WTC2—Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits—A Guide” which is available on the HMRC website at:
Working Tax Credit
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many recipients of working tax credit do not claim the childcare element. [264597]
Mr. Timms: Latest estimates of the number of tax credit recipients, including those families receiving working tax credits, are available in Table 1.1 of the HMRC provisional awards snapshot publication, "Child and Working Tax Credits Statistics" as at December 2008. Table 2.4 also gives the number of families benefiting from the child care element of working tax credit. The publication is available on the HMRC website at:
Children, Schools and Families
Children: Databases
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many local authorities did not meet the shielding policies deadline for ContactPoint of 13 March 2009. [264634]
Beverley Hughes
[holding answer 19 March 2009]: We continue to take a prudent and incremental approach to delivering ContactPoint. Local authorities have been doing preparatory work around shielding for several months, which included assessing how much time would
be required to undertake initial shielding activity. We asked local authorities to provide a progress update by 13 March including whether they have robust arrangements in place to deal with shielding requests on an ongoing basis.
Two-thirds of local authorities have reported, as part of this progress update, that they have undertaken the required shielding actions. We continue to work closely with local authorities in order to help them to complete this first phase as soon as possible.
Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what protocols his Department has put in place for records of details of adopted children on ContactPoint. [264636]
Beverley Hughes [holding answer 19 March 2009]: In cases where a child's adoptive arrangement may be at risk or the child may be at risk of significant harm if their whereabouts was identified there is a facility to shield the ContactPoint record, i.e. to hide from view information relating to the whereabouts of the child. Shielding decisions should be made on a case by case basis and it would not be appropriate automatically to shield a ContactPoint record simply because a child was in the process of being adopted or had been adopted.
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