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6 Apr 2010 : Column 1305W—continued
Pakistan
Mr. Philip Hammond: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will place in the Library a copy of the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's itinerary for his recent official visit to Pakistan; [324694]
(2) whether the Chief Secretary to the Treasury's recent visit to Pakistan was wholly, exclusively and necessarily on Government business. [325111]
Mr. Byrne: Since 1999, the Government have published on an annual basis a list of all overseas visits by Cabinet Ministers costing in excess of £500 as well as the total cost of all ministerial travel overseas. From 2007-08 the list was expanded to include all Ministers. The list also provides information on the purpose of the visit and the number of officials who accompany Ministers. Copies are available in the Libraries of the House. Information for 2009-10 will be published as soon as it is available. All travel by Ministers and civil servants is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Code respectively.
Public Expenditure
Mr. Hurd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 803W, on Pre-Budget Report 2009, what estimate he has made of the value in cash terms of expenditure on (a) consultancies and (b) marketing and communications in 2009-10. [322877]
Mr. Stewart Jackson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 806W, on public expenditure, for what reason the marketing and communications spend is to be reduced against a 2009-10 baseline and the consultancy spend is to be reduced according to a 2008-09 baseline. [323531]
Mr. Byrne: Budget 2010 announced that over £11 billion of savings have now been identified by Department for the years from 2012-13. This includes the consultancy, marketing and communications cuts which were identified based on 2008-09 spending levels, currently the most recent financial year that spending levels are available for. The 2008-09 spend is set out in the "Public Sector Procurement Expenditure Survey 2009", published alongside Budget.
Grant Shapps: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the right hon. Member for Horsham of 26 February 2010, Official Report, column 806W, on public expenditure, what the reason is for the base year chosen to calculate savings on expenditure on (a) consultancy and (b) marketing and communications. [324478]
Mr. Byrne: Budget 2010 announced that over £11 billion of savings have now been identified by Departments for the years from 2012-13. This includes over £650 million by 2012-13 from reducing departmental consultancy spend by 50 per cent. and departmental marketing and communications spend by 25 per cent. from 2008-09 spending levels. These spending levels were chosen because they are the most recent financial year that spending levels are available for. The 2008-09 spend is set out in the "Public Sector Procurement Expenditure Survey 2009", published alongside the Budget.
Public Expenditure: Wales
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the Barnett consequentials are for Wales of the savings to be made by each Department following Budget 2010. [325145]
Mr. Byrne [holding answer 30 March 2010]: In Budget 2010 the Welsh Assembly Government received an additional £48 million in 2010-11 as Barnett consequentials of increases in spending of UK Departments. Budgets for 2011-12 onwards will be set in the next spending review in the usual way.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much money is available to the Welsh Assembly Government under the Barnett formula for financial year 2010-11. [325312]
Mr. Byrne: Budget 2010 announced an increase of £48 million for the Welsh Assembly Government in 2010-11. The Welsh Assembly Government's budget plans for 2010-11 are set out in Table C11 of the Budget 2010 Report (HC 451). The final outturn for 2010-11 will not be known until spring 2011.
Mrs. Gillan: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the consequential changes are to Government expenditure in Wales arising from the £11 billion savings announced by Government departments consequent on the Financial Statement and Budget Report. [325347]
Mr. Byrne: The departmental expenditure limits for the Welsh Assembly Government will be determined in the next spending review in the usual way.
Public Sector: Databases
John Thurso: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the Operational Efficiency Programme, what discussions his Department has had with private sector organisations on the role of common electronic standards for data analysis and exchange of information in the management of the public sector estate. [325169]
Mr. Byrne: Discussions have taken place last autumn between officials from the Office of Government Commerce and OSCRE (Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate, formerly known as PISCES). An electronic standard (Civil Estate Co-ordination Protocol) for the exchange of data within central Government is currently in place.
Revenue and Customs: Telephone Services
Lembit Öpik: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the (a) average time taken for a call to be answered, (b) average time spent waiting in a call queue, (c) average call duration, (d) number of unanswered calls, (e) average response time for a return call and (f) percentage of calls returned was in call centres operated by HM Revenue and Customs in (i) 2008, (ii) 2009 and (iii) 2010 to date; and if he will make a statement. [325152]
Mr. Timms: The information requested, where available, is provided in the following table.
| 2007-08 | 2008-09 | April 2009 to February 2010 | |
| (1) Defined as the time taken for a call to be answered by an adviser once a customer has selected an option from the call steering menu. (2) This includes the time the customer speaks to an adviser and any follow-up actions the adviser may need to take (e.g. updating customer's records). (3) Defined as the difference between the call attempts made to HMRC's telephone helplines and the call attempts answered by advisers, less calls answered with an automated message. | |||
In July 2009 HM Revenue and Customs introduced a range of automated information messages on its helplines whose purpose includes enabling customers to gain the information they need without speaking to an adviser. From April 2009 to February 2010, five million calls had been handled in this way, helping to reduce the 'unanswered calls' to 16.4 million.
HMRC's systems do not capture information on return calls.
Taxation: Domicile
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) if he will take steps to ensure that UK nationals may not be non-domiciled for income tax purposes if evidence shows that to all intents and purposes the UK is their main residence; [324333]
(2) if he will bring forward proposals to reduce the number of days spent in the UK for nationals who were non-domiciled for tax purposes. [324334]
Mr. Timms: The Government reformed the rules on the taxation of non-domiciled individuals in 2008 to make them fairer.
An individual's liability to UK tax on their worldwide income and gains is linked to their residence and domicile status.
Tax residence in part depends on the amount of time spent in the UK but the other connections an individual builds or maintains in the UK may also be significant.
Domicile is a general law concept that is used for some tax purposes. It is separate to residence and does not depend on the number of days spent in the UK. Someone who is UK resident has significant connections to the UK, the current rules act to ensure that they make an appropriate contribution to the UK tax system.
Further guidance is available at:
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of the number of UK nationals who are non-domiciled for income tax purposes. [324335]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 25 March 2010]: No such estimate has been made. Individuals are not required to indicate whether they are UK nationals on their self-assessment tax return.
Mr. Winnick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the loss to the Exchequer arising from UK nationals who are non-domiciled for tax purposes in the latest period for which figures are available. [324336]
Mr. Timms [holding answer 25 March 2010]: No such estimate has been made. Individuals, including those who are non-domiciled, are not required to declare any income and gains that are not taxable in the UK when completing their self-assessment tax return.
UK Membership of EC: West Midlands
Richard Burden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the effect on the economy of (a) Birmingham and (b) the West Midlands of the inclusion of the UK in the EU single market. [325247]
Ian Lucas: I have been asked to reply.
No estimate has been made in relation specifically to Birmingham or the West Midlands.
The benefit of free trade across the EU is estimated to boost GDP by over 2 per cent. For the UK that equates to benefits of around £25-£30 billion a year.
Valuation Office Agency
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 2 February 2009, Official Report, column 902W, on the Valuation Office, if he will place in the Library a copy of each of the user guidance and manuals for the Valuation Office Agency's (a) Digital Mapping User Guide, (b) RSA Induction Workbook and (c) Digital Photography User Guide, with information that could assist with unauthorised access redacted. [324323]
Ian Pearson: The Digital Mapping User Guide, RSA Induction Workbook and Digital Photography User Guide are technical instructions on the operation 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. The manuals have been written specifically to provide detail of accessing and operating these applications. Accordingly, it is not possible to redact only specific parts that could assist with unauthorised access.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff (a) there were and (b) were made redundant from the Valuation Office Agency in each year since 1999; what efficiency savings the agency made in each of those years; and how much the agency spent on legal advice in each of those years. [325557]
Ian Pearson: For the number of staff in the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) (a) I refer the hon. member to the answer given to him on 22 March 2010, Official Report, column 75W and (b) no staff have been made redundant since 1999.
Under the current spending review period the income the VOA receives from its statutory clients has been reducing year on year by at least 5 per cent. per annum, in 2010-11 the current assumptions are that the VOA income will reduce from clients by a range of 5 per cent. to 13 per cent. These savings are counted as efficiency savings for the departments providing funding to the VOA to avoid double counting.
Nevertheless the VOA tracks its efficiency record and using the HM Treasury basis for calculating these the efficiencies delivered in the current spending round are £13.3 million in 2008-09 increasing to a planned £24.0 million in 2009-10 (these figures are cumulative). In addition the VOA has completed the Revaluation 2010 project across England and Wales at no additional costs to the taxpayer whilst maintaining its performance targets creating a further efficiency of £52 million-a total of approximately £76 million.
In addition, as part of its commitment to value for money the VOA has also committed to £15 million savings in the Operational Efficiency programme over the next three years.
The VOA publishes its legal services costs in its annual report and accounts to Parliament and a copy for each financial year is available in the Library. From 2000 an electronic copy is available on the VOA's website at:
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) Solicitors advice is provided under a service level agreement, the fee for which is included within the service charge payment to HMRC. Counsel's opinion is obtained for the VOA via HMRC Solicitors and charged back to the agency together with other disbursements such as lodging and hearing fees, and any costs awarded against the VOA.
It is not possible to identify the element purely attributed to legal advice without incurring disproportionate costs.
Valuation Office Agency: Contracts
Robert Neill: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Peterborough of 4 February 2010, Official Report, column 522W, on the Valuation Office: contracts, what expenditure his Department incurred with (a) the Whitehall and Industry Group, (b) the Public and Commercial Services Union, (c) Prospect (ex IPMS), (d) Propaganda and (e) Making Change Happen in 2008-09; what goods and services were procured in each case; and what the purpose was of each such procurement. [323191]
Ian Pearson: Expenditure incurred by the Valuation Office Agency was as follows:
(a) Attendance for delegates at the Whitehall and Industry conferences in June and December 2008 and fees in recruiting non executive directors for the agency were £10,089.
(b) and (c) None. Payments to trade unions such as the Public and Commercial Services Union and Prospect represent subscriptions from staff who are members of those unions. The agency deducts these fees as part of its payroll processes and pays them to the unions on behalf of those staff who are members. As such this is not agency expenditure.
(d) Marketing material at the Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation conference, cost £475.
(e) Training material for performance and coaching, in relation to Making Change Happen in 2008-09, cost £352.
Valuation Office Agency: Pay
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what bonuses have been awarded to each board member and director of the Valuation Office Agency in each of the last three years. [324320]
Ian Pearson: To provide this information would require the personal consent of all individual board members. Some of these individuals are no longer with the agency. To obtain all the necessary consents would incur disproportionate cost. Remuneration information for board members is detailed in the VOA annual report and accounts.
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