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Tax Compliance Costs
Lord Taylor of Warwick asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What estimate they have made of how much tax compliance cost British business in the past financial year.[HL1119]
Lord Davies of Oldham: Reliably estimating the level of tax compliance costs is difficult, in part because it is often not possible to separate these from the costs that would be incurred anyway for financial management purposes.
But the Government are committed to reducing tax compliance costs where this can be done consistently with their other objectives and are reducing such costs through means such as simplificiation and by providing better support or guidance and well targeted exemptions.
Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise both have public service agreement targets to reduce compliance costs. They assess the impact of proposed changes to tax policy and its implementation that could impact on compliance costs. For major measures this is quantified using regulatory impact assessment methodology following Cabinet Office guidelines and the results are published.
Thalidomide Victims: Payments and Taxation
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Why the compensation to some thalidomide victims is not tax exempt; and whether this is in line with other personal injury payments.[HL1238]
Lord Davies of Oldham: Payments to thalidomide victims are made from the Thalidomide Trust, which was set up in 1973 under the agreement with Distillers (the manufacturers of the drug). Income payments from this trust are taxable on the beneficiaries under the normal trust income tax rules.
Payments following a settlement of a claim or action for damages for personal injury can be made in a number of ways, some where the payments are taxable in the hands of the recipient and some where they are not. For instance, it is possible for regular payments made under a structured settlement to be exempt from tax under legislation introduced in 1996, provided the settlement meets the conditions of that legislation.
Devolution and Regional Assemblies: Electors in England
Lord Patten asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether electors in England experience a democratic deficit compared with those in Scotland, when there is no English Parliament.[HL928]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin): No. Following devolution, the UK Parliament remains sovereign for the whole of the UK although it has delegated some of its authority to the Scottish Parliament. Devolution in respect of Scotland represents the settled will of the Scottish electorate. The Government's policy for establishing elected assemblies in those English regions that want them have been set out in the White Paper Your Region, Your Choice, published in May 2002. The Deputy Prime Minister announced in June 2003 that the north-east; north-west; and Yorkshire and the Humber regions will be the first regions to progress towards a referendum for an elected assembly.
Human Rights and Devolution Legislation: Interpretation of Statutes
Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether they consider that there are some enactments, such as the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Acts devolving government within the United Kingdom which, by reason of their constitutional importance, are to be regarded as having a particular strength which place them beyond the doctrine of implied repeal.[HL1138]
Lord Filkin: Parliament's will has been expressed in the Human Rights Act, and the other Acts concerning devolution. The interpretation of statutes is a matter for the courts, not Ministers.
Employers' Liability Compulsory Insurance: Small Businesses
Lord Chadlington asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What steps they are taking to help small businesses with the rising cost of employers' liability insurance premiums.[HL1130]
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Hollis of Heigham): The department's second stage and final report of its review of employers' liability compulsory insurance (ELCI) published on 4 December 2003 set out a range of initiatives to help small businesses. These included:
- action on longer renewal periods by insurers and brokers;
- a scheme called "Making the Market Work", to help trade associations and others to access the insurance market more easily;
- reviewing the need to insure for 300,000 of the smallest single owner-employer companies; and
- providing improved guidance and information on the new Small Business Service (SBS) website, currently being developed.
Lord Chadlington asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the estimate that there are 210,000 small and medium-sized companies operating illegally without employers' liability insurance premiums is correct.[HL1131]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: No. While precise numbers are impossible to calculate we believe that the 210,000 estimate—extrapolated from a telephone poll conducted on behalf of AXA in August–September 2002—overstates non-compliance.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recently commissioned a survey of 18,000 businesses. This showed:
- 0.9 per cent of micro firms (1 to 10 employees) reported non-compliance;
- 0.37 per cent of small firms (11 to 49 employees) reported non-compliance;
- 0.6 per cent of large-sized firms (250 plus employees) reported non-compliance.
Northern Ireland: Disability Living Allowance
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What percentage of people living in each of the 18 Northern Ireland constituencies, and in Northern Ireland overall, and in Scotland, England, and Wales, receive disability living allowance.[HL1262]
Baroness Hollis of Heigham: The information requested is shown in the tables below.
| Parliamentary Constituency | DLA Allowances | % of Population |
| Belfast East | 6,742 | 8.6 |
| Belfast North | 11,608 | 13.7 |
| Belfast South | 6,740 | 7.1 |
| Belfast West | 15,225 | 17.5 |
| East Antrim | 5,723 | 6.8 |
| East Londonderry | 6,070 | 6.8 |
| Fermanagh and South Tyrone | 7,728 | 8.4 |
| Foyle | 12,620 | 11.9 |
| Lagan Valley | 6,863 | 6.7 |
| Mid Ulster | 8,393 | 9.6 |
| Newry and Armagh | 10,349 | 10.1 |
| North Antrim | 6,730 | 6.6 |
| North Down | 4,816 | 5.6 |
| South Antrim | 7,019 | 7.0 |
| South Down | 9,318 | 8.8 |
| Strangford | 6,716 | 6.8 |
| Upper Bann | 10,378 | 10.0 |
| West Tyrone | 10,676 | 12.2 |
| Missing Postcode(2) | 1,581 | |
| Totals | 155,295 | 9.2 |
Source:
NISRA 2002 mid year estimates (Demography & Methodology Branch).
(2) Constituency is assigned using the claimant's postcode, if a postcode is missing then we cannot assign a constituency.
IAD Information Centre, 50 per cent sample
Note:
Figures are in thousands and rounded to the nearest hundred.
Percentages are based on 2002 population estimates from ONS.
Lord Moynihan asked Her Majesty's Government:
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Lord McIntosh of Haringey): As at 31 January 2004, the English Institute of Sport employed 81 full-time equivalent staff and 14 full-time equivalent contractors, and with an annual salary budget for 2003–04 of £4.5 million. The annual administration budget for the same period was £0.9 million.
Lord Moynihan asked Her Majesty's Government:
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The actual and budgeted total running costs for the English Institute of Sport for 2002–03 and 2003–04 were £6.1 million and £7.9 million respectively. The £6.1 million funding for 2002–03 was solely provided from the lottery by Sport England. There was no exchequer funding or additional income generated from national governing bodies, other users or the private sector.
Total DLA Recipients Recipients as a percentage of the population
All 2,526.7 4.39
England 2,040.4 4.12
Scotland 281.2 5.56
Wales 205.0 7.02
Source:
How many people are employed, and at what total annual salary costs, by the English Institute of Sport; and what are the institute's total annual administration costs.[HL1057]
What were the total running costs for 2002–03, and what was the budgeted cost for 2003–04, of the English Institute of Sport; and, for 2002–03, what was its annual public subsidy from the national lottery and the Treasury; and what was the annual fee income generated from (a) national governing bodies of sport, (b) other users, and (c) the private sector.[HL1058]
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