A 68 per cent. increase in national museum visits from 1998-99 to 2008-09—10 per cent. of which were by adults from lower socioeconomic groups.
£416.6 million in grants allocated by English Heritage since 1997.
48 per cent. of buildings on the original 1999 Buildings at Risk Register having their future secured.
90 per cent. of all pupils taking part in at least two hours of high quality PE or sport per week in 2008 from an estimated 25 per cent. in 2003-04—exceeding our target.
Swimming: Concessions
Mr. Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much funding his Department has allocated for its free swimming schemes in (a) 2010-11 and (b) 2011-12. [316731]
Mr. Sutcliffe: The Free Swimming Programme (FSP), launched in April 2009, is a £140 million package comprising contributions from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department of Health, the Department for Children, Schools and Families, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Communities and Local Government.
The scheme is guaranteed to run for at least two years—the period covered by the Government's current spending review (2009-10 and 2010-11) and applies in England only.
For 2010-11, the DCMS has allocated £5 million in resource funding and £10 million in capital funding.
Decisions on the extent of future spending on the programme have not yet been made.
Treasury
Child Care Vouchers
Mr. Paul Murphy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest assessment is of the effectiveness of the Childcare Voucher scheme; and if he will make a statement. [316224]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: Research by the National Centre for Social Research, available at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/research/research-report23.htm
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1001W
estimates the proportion of employers that offer employer supported childcare (ESC) and the proportion of eligible employees that were using ESC at the end of 2005.
Departmental Training
Grant Shapps: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many sessions of media training were organised for Ministers in his Department in each of the last three years. [309910]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: HM Treasury provides training to Ministers on a range of issues, including handling the media if required, in order to carry out their duties effectively under the ministerial code.
Inheritance Tax: Greater London
Clive Efford: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) pursuant to the answer of 2 February 2010, Official Report, columns 215-6W, on inheritance tax: Eltham, how many estates paid inheritance tax in (a) Greenwich, (b) each other London borough and (c) the area most closely corresponding to the parliamentary constituency of Eltham in each of the last five years; [316415]
(2) how many estates would have been required to pay inheritance tax had the threshold been set at (a) £1 million and (b) £325,000 in (i) Greenwich, (ii) each other London borough and (c) the area most closely corresponding to the parliamentary constituency of Eltham in each of the last five years; [316416]
(3) how many estates in Eltham constituency for which the postcodes in respect of completed inheritance tax returns are available would have been required to pay inheritance tax had the threshold been set at (a) £325,000 and (b) £1 million in each of the last five years; [316417]
(4) how many estates in Eltham constituency for which the postcodes in respect of completed inheritance tax returns are available paid inheritance tax in each of the last five years. [316418]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: HM Revenue and Customs estimates that in 2007-08 around 5,000 estates paid inheritance tax in the Government office region (GOR) of London. Information at a sub-regional level is available only at disproportionate cost.
Reliable information for other years is not available due to the large proportion of missing postcodes on inheritance tax returns.
Information on how many estimates would be required to pay inheritance tax if the threshold were £1 million is available at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/foi_inheritance_costing.pdf
Information on the impact of this policy other than at a national level is not available.
PAYE
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the outcomes were of the HM Revenue and Customs annual review of errors in respect of automatically-processed Pay-As-You-Earn in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009; [312150]
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1002W
(2) what the all-cases accuracy rate was for (a) self-assessment and (b) Pay-As-You-Earn for (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009; [312323]
(3) how many (a) self-assessment and (b) Pay-As-You-Earn cases were processed manually in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009; [312324]
(4) what the accuracy rate was for (a) Pay-As-You-Earn and (b) self-assessment cases processed (i) automatically and (ii) manually in (A) 2006, (B) 2007, (C) 2008 and (D) 2009; [312325]
(5) what the tax effect accuracy rate was for (a) self-assessment and (b) Pay-As-You-Earn for (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009; [312326]
(6) what the causes were of the tax effect errors in the (a) self-assessment and (b) Pay-As-You-Earn system in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009; [312327]
(7) how many P35s were manually processed in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009; [313960]
(8) what the tax effect error percentages for the collection of national insurance through PAYE were in (a) 2006, (b) 2007, (c) 2008 and (d) 2009. [313968]
Mr. Timms: The number of self assessment (SA) and Pay as You Earn (PAYE) returns processed manually is set in the following table.
| Tax return year | PAYE End of year returns | SA | |
|
| P35 | P14 | Individuals |
| (1) Not yet available | |||
The requested information on accuracy rates is set out in the following table. HM Revenue and Customs do not use the concept of ‘tax effect errors’ in the context of national insurance contributions.
| Percentage | ||||
| PAYE | All cases accuracy | Automatic process accuracy | Manual process accuracy | Tax effect accuracy(1) |
| (1) The PAYE tax effect accuracy results relate to those cases which require a manual intervention and which have been accurately processed to within £1. | ||||
Many of the SA cases recorded as not processed accurately will be due to the coding number not being reviewed. In the majority of cases, the coding error is corrected when the SA return is submitted and the taxpayer's tax calculation will ensure the correct amount of tax has been paid.
| Percentage | ||||
| SA | All cases accuracy | Automatic process accuracy(1) | Manual process accuracy | Tax effect accuracy(2) |
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| (1) There is no information available for SA cases processed automatically because the assumption is that they process with near 100 per cent. accuracy. (2) The self-assessment tax effect accuracy relate to those self-assessment taxpayers whose tax bill is accurate to within £1. | ||||
The main causes of tax effect errors is provided on page 20 of the National Audit Office publication “Accuracy in processing Income Tax”, available at:
http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0607/accuracy_in_processing_income.aspx
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has made an assessment of the merits of collecting income tax from state pensions through the PAYE system. [316502]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: No such assessment has been made.
The majority of pensioners have their state pensions appropriately taxed through the operation of Pay-As-You-Earn on their other sources of income.
Public Finance
Dr. Cable: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish his long-term projections based on principal projections made by the Office for National Statistics in the same terms as those set out in table 4.1 of the 2008 Long-term public finance report. [316369]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: The 2009 Long-term public finance report sets out long-term spending projections, using most recent 2008-based population projections made by the Office for National Statistics. This can be found on the HMT website:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/prebud_pbr09_longtermfinances.htm
Revenue and Customs
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if HM Revenue and Customs will publish its roadmap to show how component programmes contribute to the achievement of its strategic objectives, with reference to paragraph 3.6 of the National Audit Office's 2008 Report on HM Revenue and Customs Transformation Programme. [316115]
Mr. Timms: HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) Business Plan for 2009-10 was published on April 2009, and is available at:
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/about/business-plan-vision.pdf
The Business Plan sets out how the Department intends to deliver its corporate Vision and to achieve the six strategic objectives that underpin it. It also sets out details of HMRC's major change and transformation programmes and explains how these contribute to the delivery of both the strategic objectives and other legislative and policy commitments.
10 Feb 2010 : Column 1004W
Steve Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether his Department has carried out research to establish the reasons for the reduced demand for face-to-face interviews at HM Revenue and Customs enquiry centres; and if he will make a statement. [316250]
Sarah McCarthy-Fry: HM Revenue and Customs' (HMRC) analysis suggests that a range of factors are leading to a reduction in customers using the face-to-face channel. These include:
increasing take-up of online filing services (around 75 per cent. of self assessment customers filed online this year); and
increasing use of HMRC’s website (with over 80 million hits in 2009-10 compared to around 44 million hits in 2006-07).
HMRC has supported this trend, for example by encouraging customers to renew their tax credits over the telephone and by pointing customers who are able to do so to use the telephone and online services as their first point of call for advice.
Taxation
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many (a) P45s and (b) P46s HM Revenue and Customs received from employers in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009; [316117]
(2) how many user errors occurred in filling out (a) P45s and (b) P46s during (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009; [316118]
(3) how many employment history enquiries relating to P46s were (a) sent to individuals and (b) received back by HM Revenue and Customs in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009. [316120]
Mr. Timms: The information requested is available only at disproportionate cost, as the data are not centrally held by HM Revenue and Customs' systems.
Taxation: Self-assessment and PAYE
Mr. Liddell-Grainger: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people were on (a) self-assessment and (b) Pay-As-You-Earn in (i) 2006, (ii) 2007, (iii) 2008 and (iv) 2009. [312151]
Mr. Timms: The information requested is provided in the following table. Some individuals may be in both Pay as You Earn (PAYE) and self assessment.
| Estimated number of individuals (million) | ||
| Tax year | Self assessment | PAYE |