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14 July 2009 : Column 358W—continued
Treasury
Quantitative Easing
17. Mr. Jenkin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effects on the economy of the Bank of England's decision to implement quantitative easing measures. [286207]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Bank of England has operational responsibility for monetary policy, including use of the Asset Purchase Facility.
The Bank publishes quarterly reports on the APF, the first of which was published on 27 April. The Bank also reports on the APF in its Inflation Report and Quarterly Bulletin and regularly publishes operational information for the APF on its website.
Comprehensive Spending Review
18. Bill Wiggin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to commence the next Comprehensive Spending Review. [286208]
Mr. Byrne: Departmental budgets are set until April 2011. The exceptional economic uncertainty we now face means that it would not make sense to set budgets now for 2014, less than half way through the current spending review period. The Chancellor will set out economic and fiscal forecasts at the time of the Pre-Budget report, when he will return to this issue.
21. Stephen Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps his Department is taking in preparation for the next Comprehensive Spending Review. [286211]
Mr. Byrne: Departmental budgets are set until April 2011. The exceptional economic uncertainty we now face means that it would not make sense to set budgets now for 2014, less than half way through the current spending review period. The Chancellor will set out economic and fiscal forecasts at the time of the Pre-Budget report, when he will return to this issue.
Departmental Expenditure Limits
22. Mr. Whittingdale: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans have been made for total Departmental Expenditure Limits in real and cash terms for 2010-11 and 2013-14. [286213]
Mr. Byrne: Departmental budgets are set until April 2011. The exceptional economic uncertainty we now face means that it would not make sense to set budgets now for 2014, less than half way through the current spending review period. The Chancellor will set out economic and fiscal forecasts at the time of the Pre-Budget report, when he will return to this issue.
Departmental Databases
Jenny Willott: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what categories of personal information about members of the public are contained on each relevant database managed by his Department and its agencies; on what date each such category of information began to be collected; and if he will make a statement; [285880]
(2) what categories of personal information on members of the public will be held on each database expected to become operational in the next five years which will be managed by his Department or one of its agencies; what estimate he has made of the likely number of individuals' details each such database will hold when fully operational; and if he will make a statement; [286151]
(3) what databases which will be managed by his Department or one of its agencies and which will contain personal information are (a) under construction and (b) expected to be operational in each of the next five years; and if he will make a statement. [286508]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: I refer the hon. Member to the answer that I gave to her on 8 July 2009, Official Report, column 877W. For those databases, managed by the Treasury and its agencies, containing personal information about members of the public, the following categories of data are held:
Financial Sanctions (all categories collected since October 2007):
Personal identification information, contact information, information related to financial sanctions.
Gilts Register (all categories collected since December 2004)
Personal identification information, contact information, information related to gilts registration.
DMO Job Applicants (all categories collected since 2004):
Personal identification information, contact information.
All data stored on Treasury databases are managed in accordance with the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998.
There are currently no new databases managed by the Department, or its agencies, which will contain personal information of any kind, either under construction or expected to become operational over the next five years.
Following the publication of the cross-Government data handling review in June 2008, any new projects or programmes that propose to hold significant amounts of personal data will be obliged to conduct privacy impact assessments.
Departmental Electronic Equipment
Jenny Willott: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many (a) photocopiers, (b) scanning devices and (c) fax machines, excluding multi-function devices, there are in his Department; how many there were in each of the last three years; and if he will make a statement. [286164]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Treasury currently has no stand-alone photocopiers. Photocopying is carried out on multi-function devices. The other information requested is not held centrally and could be provided only at a disproportionate cost.
Banks: Regulation
Keith Vaz: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what further plans he has for the reform of banking regulation. [286212]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: As set out in the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement to the House on 8 July, the Government's plans for the reform of banking regulation are presented in the document 'Reforming financial markets.' Legislation will follow, where necessary, in the next session.
Banks: Remuneration of Senior Employees
Tony Lloyd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions he has had with banks in public ownership on remuneration packages for their senior employees. [286210]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Government have been clear that any rewards for senior employees in the banks must be based on solid, long-term performance which rebuilds the bank and delivers a good return for the taxpayer. As a shareholder, UKFI has worked closely with the bank to ensure these principles are adhered to. The implementation of this is for the banks' boards, in consultation with UKFI.
Economic Growth
Mr. Binley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent assessment he has made of the future rate of growth of the economy. [286209]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: As set out in the Budget:
"GDP is forecast to contract sharply in the first half of 2009, by 4 per cent. on a year earlier, to stabilise in the second half of the year, and then to pick up progressively through 2010 and 2011".
Equitable Life Assurance Society
Sandra Gidley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what reports he has received of the progress made by Sir John Chadwick in the formulation of his advice on an Equitable Life ex-gratia payment scheme. [286196]
Mr. Byrne: Sir John provides regular updates to the Government on the progress of his work. Sir John has already established his Office, appointed its key members and actuarial advisers, and has established a website.
On 16 June Sir John issued a document setting out his proposed approach and he has requested comments to this by 17 July.
Financial Action Task Force
Andrew Stunell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) whether the Government has received warnings from the Financial Action Task Force for non-compliance with its recommendations on combating the laundering of corrupt funds; [285378]
(2) on how many occasions the Government has delivered a progress report to the Financial Action Task Force for non-compliance with its recommendations on (a) requiring banks to perform enhanced due diligence for politically exposed persons and (b) preventing the unlawful use of legal persons by money launderers; [285379]
(3) whether the Government has received representations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) on the Government's compliance with FATF recommendations on tackling money laundering. [285799]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The anti-money laundering and countering the finance of terrorism regime of the UK was last evaluated by the FATF in 2007. The UK achieved one of the highest overall compliance ratings of any country evaluated so far and was required to report in two years on progress in addressing the deficiencies the report identified.
That progress report was delivered in June this year. The report detailed all the action that had been taken in addressing each deficiency identified in the FATF mutual evaluation and will shortly be published on the FATF website.
In the follow up report, the UK detailed the changes made to its regime since 2007, including the implementation of a requirement for banks to carry out enhanced due diligence when conducting business with politically exposed persons, thereby rectifying the identified shortfalls that led to the non-compliant rating against the recommendation on combating the laundering of corrupt funds.
Financial Ombudsman Service: Complaints
Adam Afriyie: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what information his Department holds on the average time taken by the Financial Ombudsman Service to respond to complaints by members of the public in the last six months. [285677]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) is operationally independent from Government. The steps taken by the Financial Ombudsman Service to deal with the demands it faces are detailed in its Corporate Plan and budget 2009-10 published in March 2009.
Interest Rates
Mr. Sanders: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will assess the effect of lower interest rates on (a) the income and (b) retail spending levels of those over 65 years of age whose income is largely dependent on their savings. [285208]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The Government recognise that historically low interest rates have particularly impacted on pensioners. Budget 2009 announced a package of support for pensioners who receive an income from savings.
In order to help those pensioners who may have been affected by lower interest rates, the Government will be increasing the annual ISA investment limits for people aged 50 and over to £10,200, up to £5,100 of which can be held in cash, from October 2009.
To provide additional support, the capital disregard in pension credit and pensioner-related housing and council tax benefit will increase in November 2009, meaning the first £10,000 of savings will not be included when calculating someone's entitlement for these income-related benefits. This is expected to increase the income of 540,000 low-income households by an average of £4 a week.
The Government are also launching a new tax back campaign, through which pension credit recipients will be contacted to encourage them to claim back tax they may have overpaid on their savings income and, where possible, register to receive interest on their savings tax-free in future.
The Government have also committed to maintain the standard interest rate used to calculate support for mortgage interest at 6.08 per cent. for a further six months until the end of December 2009, to provide continued support for home owners on pension credit who receive help with their mortgage.
Personal Income
Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the net cost to the public purse of increasing personal allowances to provide a (a) £2 and (b) £3 rise in net income per week if the whole of the value of the increase in income were clawed back through national insurance contributions from those earning more than £18,000 per year. [286911]
Mr. Timms:
£2 per week rise in net income would require an increase in the personal allowance of £520.
£3 per week rise would require an increase of £780 The national insurance contributions (NICs) system in its present form has no facility that would allow the increase in net income to be clawed back from those who earn over £18,000 and pay primary Class 1 or Class 4 NICs.
To do so would require each individual affected to have a different rate of NICs dependent on their income to ensure the income rises are exactly clawed back by the increase in NICs.
Public Expenditure
Miss McIntosh: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on that Department's departmental expenditure limits for the next three years. [286538]
Mr. Byrne: The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Treasury ministers have regular discussion on a range of issues in the conduct of their duties including the Departmental Expenditure Limits of the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA).
DEFRA's Departmental Expenditure Limits for 2009-10 and 2010-11 were published on 19 June 2009 in Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis 2009.
Departmental expenditure limits for all Departments for the period after 2010-11 will be set at the next Spending Review.
Public Services: Finance
Hywel Williams: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department undertook a needs assessment of the cost of provision of public services in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1994. [285812]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 13 July 2009]: The Treasury produced an update of the 1979 Needs Assessment for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in 1994.
Revenue and Customs
Dan Rogerson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what requests received by HM Revenue and Customs under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in 2008 were (a) classified as not resolvable and (b) refused in full. [286132]
Mr. Timms: In 2008 HMRC received 1,288 Freedom of Information requests. Of these, 174 were classified as not resolvable in that HMRC either did not hold the information requested, or asked the requestor to clarify the information they were seeking.
Of the remaining requests, HMRC fully withheld the information in 312 cases. The most frequent reason for withholding information is in response to requests for customer information, relating to either individuals or companies.
The text for these 486 requests could be located and extracted only at disproportionate cost.
Taxation: Bingo
Mr. Bellingham: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what recent representations his Department has received on changes to the taxation regime for bingo; [286054]
(2) what representations his Department received from representatives of the bingo industry on estimates made by his Department in relation to the effects on that industry of recent changes to the taxation regime for bingo; and if he will make a statement; [286058]
(3) whether he has had discussions with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on his Department's proposals in relation to the introduction of a gross profit tax system to replace amusement machine licence duty; [286078]
(4) whether he has had discussions with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport on his Department's proposals in relation to the introduction of a gross profit tax in place of amusement machine licence duty; and if he will make a statement; [286085]
(5) what representations he has received on his Department's planned consultation on proposals to introduce a gross profit tax in place of amusement machine licence duty; [286086]
(6) what representations his Department has received on changes to the amusement machine licence duty regime by means other than the introduction of a gross profits tax. [286103]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Treasury Ministers and officials meet with a wide range of organisations and individuals in the public and private sectors as part of the usual policymaking process. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such discussions.
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