Community Charge (Hansard, 28 June 1989)

§ 6. Dr. Goodson-Wickes
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he has any plans to harmonise the design of community charge registration forms.

§ The Minister for Local Government (Mr. John Gummer)
My right hon. Friend produced a model form in consultation with local authority associations last autumn. He has no powers to prescribe the form.

§ Dr. Goodson-Wickes
Does my right hon. Friend agree that several local authorities have, by ignoring the guidelines issued by his own Department, fallen foul of the Data Protection Act 1984? Who is expected to pick up the bill for those forms which will now have to be processed manually?

§ Mr. Gummer
My hon. Friend is right in saying that local authorities have the right and the powers to produce their own forms, which is perfectly proper. Local authorities often say that they want more independence and this is one area in which they have it. If they decide to do differently they must also take the advice of the Department which is that they should check whether their forms comply with the Data Protection Act. If they do not, that is their responsibility and they must pay the bill.

§ Mr. Nellist
Is not the Minister deluding himself if he thinks that any cosmetic changes made to the forms will minimise the hatred of the poll tax felt throughout the country? Is it not a fact that despite any design changes which his hon. Friend the Member for Wimbledon (Dr. Goodson-Wickes) may propose, the tax is a savage attack on the living standards of the low paid, young, old and women who are presently living in low-rated properties? Almost 1 million people in Scotland have not paid the poll tax and it is likely that by next April, four or five times that number will not be paying the poll tax in England and Wales, notwithstanding any suggestions from the hon. Member for Wimbledon.

§ Mr. Gummer
No. The facts are that first, the poorest group of the population will pay 25 per cent. less towards the community charge than they presently pay towards the rates, so there will be a cut in the cost of rates or community charge to the poorest. Secondly, the top 10 per cent. of earners will pay 15 times as much towards local authority costs than the bottom 10 per cent. Thirdly, one in four of the population will receive a rebate. Fourthly, 5 million people will, in effect, not pay the community charge because they will receive an 80 per cent. rebate and sufficient to cover a sensible community charge in their area. The policy of the hon. Member for Coventry, South-East (Mr. Nellist), which was originally to support the rates, would hit the poorest much more than the community charge.

§ Mr. Dykes
Would it not be a good idea to have different coloured forms for the three different kinds of tax? We could have a blue form for the personal community charge, a green form for the standard community charge, which is a classic property tax, and a red form for the collective community charge.

§ Mr. Gummer
I prefer to keep the red form for any area that tries to bring in the Labour party's two-tax proposals.

§ Mr. Blunkett
As the Minister has already said this afternoon that poll tax registration officers have already breached the Data Protection Act 1984 with the intrusive and non-statutory questions that they have asked, what advice would he give to people who think that they have a form that includes intrusive questions?
Does the right hon. Gentleman accept that these officers are not responsible to local authorities but are directed under the Act by the Minister? Is it not time that the Government accepted responsibility for the chaos in registration?

§ Mr. Gummer
I know that the hon. Gentleman wants to create chaos out of a system that is working rather well. Labour authorities are saying how well it is working, in the sense that they are getting the forms back. I was in Ipswich—a Labour-controlled authority—only last week. The council there compliments itself on the degree to which it is obtaining results—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman can take it from me—[Interruption.]

§ Mr. Speaker
Order. This all very entertaining but it takes up a great deal of time. We are making very slow progress.

§ Mr. Gummer
Anyone who is asked a question for which there is no statutory backing need not respond to it and if he does not want to answer it he should not.