Excise Duties: Alcoholic Drinks
Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps his Department has taken to tackle alcohol fraud since the allocation of funding for that purpose in the comprehensive spending review. [61910]
Justine Greening: Spending Review 2010 announced that HMRC would reinvest £900 million to address the tax gap and tackle tax avoidance and evasion, bringing in additional revenues of £7 billion a year by 2014-15. This includes strengthening HMRC's enforcement operations within their "Tackling Alcohol Fraud" strategy.
Excise Duties: Wines
Mel Stride: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has any plans to adjust rates of duty on wine production. [62817]
Justine Greening: Budget 2010 stated that
“the Government will continue with the plans it inherited to increase the alcohol duty rates by 2 per cent above inflation each year to 2014-15”.
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Foster Care: Finance
Gordon Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what discussions he has had on financial support for children in kinship care; [62974]
(2) what assessment he has made of the adequacy of levels of financial support for children in kinship care; [62975]
(3) if he will consider the merits of introducing a single UK-wide financial payment for children in kinship care. [62976]
Justine Greening [holding answer 30 June 2011]: Where carers have the primary responsibility for bringing up a child, there is UK-wide financial provision through child benefit and child tax credit, which can be paid on the same terms as to a parent. Child benefit and child tax credit guarantee support for the first child of over £4,000 a year for carers on very low incomes. Guardian's allowance can also be paid where both parents are deceased or, in prescribed circumstances, where only one parent is deceased. In order to prevent double provision, this support is not provided where the accommodation or maintenance of a looked-after child is provided from public funds.
Support for children through the care system is a devolved matter. Statutory guidance that came into force on 1 April 2011 requires English local authorities to have clear and transparent published policies about how they support family and friends carers of children in need in different legal circumstances.
The Government's welfare reforms will build a simpler, fairer system that protects the most vulnerable and makes work pay. The Department for Work and Pensions is keen to ensure that the varied needs of kinship carers are reflected in policy design and implementation, and to this end they are engaging with kinship carers to understand their priorities.
Gordon Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the adequacy of (a) decision-making on provision and (b) delivery of financial support for children in kinship care. [63479]
Justine Greening: Support for children through the care system is a devolved matter. In England, family and friends carers of looked after children must be approved as foster carers and receive support as other foster carers do. Responsibility for maintaining a looked after child lies with the child's local authority and therefore the cost to the foster carer of caring for the child is paid to them in the form of a fostering allowance. The Government set a national minimum fostering allowance. The fostering allowance should be calculated according to criteria that do not discriminate against foster carers that are related to the child.
Family and friends carers of children who are not looked after by the English local authority may be eligible for child-related benefits, such as child benefit and the child tax credit. In order to prevent double provision, this support is not provided where the accommodation or maintenance of a looked after child is provided from public funds.
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The Children Act 1989 also allows local authorities in England to provide support, including financial support, to family and friends carers of children who are not looked after, if the child is assessed as being in need. Local authorities may also provide financial support to family and friends carers who hold a residence or special guardianship order or who become adopters. Statutory guidance that came into force on 1 April 2011 requires English local authorities to have clear and transparent published policies about how they support family and friends carers of children in need in different legal circumstances.
Foster Care: Guardian’s Allowance
Gordon Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has received any representations on extending the availability of guardian's allowance to cover children in kinship care. [62973]
Justine Greening [holding answer 30 June 2011]: The Government receive a range of representations on a wide range of topics, including guardian's allowance.
Money: Counterfeit Manufacturing
Mr Offord: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of counterfeit £1 coins in circulation. [63186]
Justine Greening: The Royal Mint and the Treasury are working with banks, the Post Office, cash handling and sorting businesses, the police and the vending industry to remove counterfeit £1 coins from circulation before they reach the pockets of members of the public. Coin handling businesses, such as banks and the Post Office, handle over 3 billion £1 coins every year. They use high-speed, automated systems to process customer deposits and prepare coin for reissue. These automated systems are capable of detecting and withdrawing a significant number of counterfeit coins. All counterfeit coins detected from coin processing are sent to the Royal Mint for disposal. The Royal Mint is also working with other validator and coin sorting manufacturers to help improve the counterfeit detection rate.
The Royal Mint holds regular briefings to educate the public and the coin handling industry on how to identify counterfeits, and has issued educational leaflets and posters.
Mortgage Express: Complaints
George Eustice: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints his Department has received about Mortgage Express since 29 September 2008. [63330]
Mr Hoban: Treasury Ministers and officials received representations from a wide variety of individuals and organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. As was the case with previous Administrations, it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of all such representations.
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Public Sector: Pensions
Mr Winnick: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of those who were employed full-time in the public sector receive an annual occupational pension in respect of their public sector employment of (a) £4,000 or less, (b) £4,000 to £6,000 and (c) £6,000 to £8,000. [63361]
Danny Alexander: HM Treasury does not hold data on the pension benefits payable to those who were employed full-time in the public sector. This information may be available from departments that lead on individual public service pension schemes.
Table 1.C of the Independent Public Service Pensions Commission's interim report, published on 7 October 2010 provides a breakdown of the median pensions in payment for the largest public service pension schemes, along with the proportion of pensioner members who receive benefits of less than £1,000. The table can be found on the HM Treasury website:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/hutton_pensions interim_071010.pdf
Revenue and Customs: Debts
Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 14 June 2011, Official Report, column 703W, on Revenue and Customs: debt collection, whether he plans to transfer HM Revenue and Customs' powers of distraint to its appointed debt collection agencies; and if he will make a statement. [63366]
Mr Gauke: HMRC does not currently refer cases to debt collection agencies for distraint action. This work is undertaken directly by HMRC.
There are no current plans to change this approach but, as with many aspects of its work, this is something that HMRC is keeping under active review.
Road Fuel Testing Unit
Mel Stride: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the cost was of the Road Fuel Testing Unit in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11. [62815]
Justine Greening: The total cost of the Road Fuel Testing Unit was £8.1 million in 2009-10, and £11.5 million in 2010-11.
Mel Stride: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the monetary value was of fines given by the Road Fuel Testing Unit for the misuse of red diesel in (a) 2009-10 and (b) 2010-11. [62816]
Justine Greening: The total revenues collected as a result of the imposition of civil penalties and restoration fees combined were £1 million in 2009-10, and £1 million in 2010-11.
Taxation
Bridget Phillipson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will (a) prepare and (b) publish an assessment of the impact of the Government's tax and benefit policies on (i) women and (ii) men, using all available data. [63075]
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Mr Gauke: HM Treasury, HMRC and DWP consider the equality impact of individual tax and welfare policy changes as they are developed and implemented, making use of the best evidence available to them.
The Government have taken significant steps to improve tax policy making since coming into office. This has included a new approach to impact analysis for tax measures. The Government now publish a Tax Information and Impact Note for individual tax policy changes. These explicitly include an assessment of the equalities impact of individual measures.
It is very difficult to produce robust gender analysis of the overall tax and benefit system. Breaking down the impact of overall tax and welfare changes by gender requires making assumptions about how income is shared within the household. The uncertainties involved are such that results based on such assumptions are not proper and valid policy making tools.
VAT: Sports
Teresa Pearce: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent discussions he has had with sports governing bodies on the treatment for VAT purposes by HM Revenue and Customs of sports league block bookings. [63037]
Mr Gauke [holding answer 30 June 2011]: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 24 May 2011, Official Report, column 512W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie).
Working Tax Credit
Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) how many households where one adult is a carer he estimates will be affected by the change in the working hours qualification for couples with children who claim working tax credit in April 2012; [63031]
(2) what estimate he has made of the number of children affected by the increase in the working hours qualification for couples with children to claim working tax credit in April 2012; [63042]
(3) what estimate his Department has made of the number of households in each constituency to be affected by the change in working hours qualification for couples with children to claim working tax credit in April 2012. [63044]
Mr Gauke: The measures referred to in these questions are part of a range of reforms to the tax credits system announced at the spending review.
Estimating the number of households impacted by an individual measure does not give a clear indication of the full monetary impact on an individual household.
The Government published estimates of the distributional impact of the packages of announced tax and benefit measures which can be found at:
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/junebudget_annexa.pdf
http://cdn.hm-treasury.gov.uk/sr2010_annexb.pdf
Jonathan Reynolds: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the likely effect on the number of children living in poverty of the change in working hours qualification for couples with children to claim working tax credit in April 2012. [63045]
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Mr Gauke: It is the impact of the tax and benefit system as a whole that is important for child poverty.
The Government increased the child element of the child tax credit by £180 above indexation in April 2011
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and will increase it by £110 above indexation in April 2012. As a result, modelled tax and benefit reforms announced since Budget 2010 may have a small reduction in child poverty in 2011-12 and 2012-13.