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UK Budget
Baroness Noakes asked Her Majesty's Government:
- When they first defined the "golden rule" by reference to the average annual surplus on the current budget as a percentage of gross domestic product over the economic cycle.[HL1276]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Since 1997, the Government have consistently presented figures for the current budget as a percentage of GDP when commenting on performance against the golden rule in Budget and Pre-Budget Reports. Page 10 of Budget 1997, Equipping Britain for our long-term future, [HC85], sets out figures for the current budget as a ratio of GDP from 1985–86 to 1996–97. Page 47 of the Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report 1998, Stability and investment for the long-term, [Cm 3978] outlines progress against the golden rule from 1997–98 to 2003–04.
Baroness Noakes asked Her Majesty's Government:
- For each of the years 1999–2000 to 2005–06, what the annual surplus or deficit on the current budget has been or is expected to be in (a) nominal terms and (b) 2003–04 prices.[HL1277]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The information requested is to be found in table B5 on page 213 of the 2003 Pre-Budget Report.
Ulster Scots
Lord Laird asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether the Office for National Statistics treats Ulster Scots as a distinct ethnic group; and if not, why.[HL1326]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from the National Statistician, Mr Len Cook, to Lord Laird, dated 23 February 2004.
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question about whether the Office for National Statistics treats Ulster Scots as a separate ethnic group (HL1326).
There is no single ethnic classification which is used throughout the UK. National Statistics guidance "A guide for the collection and classification of ethnicity data" has recently been published and this recommends ethnic group classifications based on those used in the 2001 Census. However, both Scotland and Northern Ireland used different ethnic group classifications on their censuses from that used in England and Wales and this is reflected in the guidance. This reply relates to the classification used in England and Wales only. The classifications used in Scotland and Northen Ireland are the responsibility of the Scottish Executive and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency respectively.
The guidance does not recommend the use of a separate "Ulster Scots" category when asking questions on either ethnicity or national identity in England and Wales. However, it does recommend that there is always an option for people to describe their ethnicity or national identity in their own words.
A central principle of the National Statistics guidance on ethnicity and identity is that people should be able to choose a category that adequately describes them. However, it would be impossible to list every possible ethnic category in our classification, since the list would become too long and unwieldy. Moreover the data collected from any sample survey would not be useable in practice because each category would contain too few people for us to be able to carry out meaningful statistical analyses. Instead we have listed a limited number of categories which reflect and distinguish between the significant groups present in England and Wales today.
The 2001 Census in England and Wales did not include a separate tick box for "Ulster Scots" at the ethnicity question. There was however the opportunity for people to write in their own answers if they felt none of the tick box options were suitable. Everyone who wrote in "Ulster Scots" was counted separately. In England and Wales a total of 56 people described their ethnicity in this way.
Productivity
Lord Patten asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Further to the Written Answer by Lord McIntosh of Haringey on 5 February (WA 116) and the letter from the National Statistician, why the average annual percentage growth rate from 1997 to 2002 has dropped below trend at 1.6 per cent when the average annual percentage growth rate in the whole country output per job from 1961 to 2002 was 2.1 per cent.[HL1354]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: Productivity growth is subject to cyclical variation, and so comparisons of productivity performance over time are better made over complete economic cycles rather than arbitrary time periods. The 2003 Pre-Budget Report (Cm 6042, table A2) judged that trend growth in output per hour worked over the last economic cycle between 1997H1 and 2001Q3 was 2.44 per cent a year. This compares with a figure of 2.05 per cent over the previous cycle (1986Q2 to 1997H1).
Tourist Accommodation:Inspection and Regulation
Lord Harrison asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What action they are taking to encourage local authorities to take a more co-ordinated approach to
- the inspection of tourism and hospitality businesses and to discourage fire officers, environmental healthofficers, trading standards officers and health and safety officers from using separate databases.[HL1363]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My department, in partnership with the Local Government Association, the tourism industry's Best Practice Forum and other government departments and agencies, have been working on Fitness for Purpose for the past 18 months.
Fitness for Purpose promotes better inspection and regulation of tourist accommodation as a way of tackling poor safety and trading standards to ensure that minimum legal requirements are met. It is targeted at hotels (and the restaurants within them) guesthouses, pubs with accommodation and bed-and-breakfast establishments that are failing to meet minimum legal requirements, in order to help them to improve. It aims to take a lighter regulatory enforcement touch to well-run businesses that are already complying with the necessary regulations.
Six local authorities piloted the scheme last year. These were: Blackpool, Bournemouth, LB Camden, Canterbury, LB Greenwich and West Sussex. Each pilot took a tailored approach to the needs of their area. All the authorities concentrated on better working between different parts of local authority enforcement activity and tourism officers and sharing of information. Canterbury's pilot resulted in the pooling of information held on eight different databases.
Richard Caborn, Minister for Sport and Tourism, expects to receive the final evaluation report of the pilots shortly and will be considering how best to take the project forward, based on these results.
National Savings and Investments:Ordinary Accounts
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many National Savings Ordinary Accounts are in existence.[HL1374]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: There were 17.9 million National Savings and Investments Ordinary Accounts (excluding dormant accounts with balances of less than £1), to a total value of £1.4 billion as at December 2003.
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- What proportion of National Savings Ordinary Accounts have a balance of more than £100, less than £50 and less than £10.[HL1375]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The proportion of National Savings and Investments Ordinary Accounts
with a balance of more than £100, less that £50 and less than £10 is as follows:| Proportion of Ordinary Accounts | Percentage |
| Balances more than £100 | 8 |
| Balances less than £50 | 90 |
| Balances less than £10 | 79 |
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government: What proportion of the National Savings Ordinary Accounts with a balance of less than £100 have remained untouched for: a) more than three months; b) more than six months; and c) more than one year.[HL1376]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The proportion of National Savings and Investments Ordinary Accounts that have a balance of less than £100 that have remained untouched is as follows:
| Percentage | |
| a) for more than three months | 98 |
| b) for more than six months | 97 |
| c) for more than one year | 96 |
Baroness Byford asked Her Majesty's Government:
- How many National Savings Ordinary Accounts are held by depositors under 18 years of age.[HL1377]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: The number of National Savings and Investments Ordinary Accounts (where we have the date of birth) held by depositors under 18 years of age is as follows:
| Age Group | Number of Accounts |
| Under 18 | 345,898 |
UK Public Funds and EU
Lord Tebbit asked Her Majesty's Government:
- Whether any organ of the European Union has power to require expenditure out of United Kingdom public funds without the consent of the Government.[HL1378]
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: No: the European Communities Act 1972, as amended, provides the framework within which the UK makes payments required by or under the treaties listed in Section 1(2) of that Act. The Government have consented to these payments by agreement to those treaties and by virtue of the 1972 Act as amended.
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