§ Mr. William Wilsonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what action he proposes to take to increase the supply of Jubilee crowns so that all who wish to buy these coins can receive them by 7th June.
§ Mr. Denzil DaviesThe Royal Mint is already achieving the maximum output possible from the plant available and I regret that I therefore cannot offer any prospect that more than about 20 million 35W cupro-nickel jubilee crowns will be available by 7th June. Production will continue after that date however and everyone who wants to obtain one of these coins should be able to do so in the following weeks.
§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the cost of the proposed reliefs of taxation relating to incomes at which rates above the standard rate become payable; and how much of this relates to investment income.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldon, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 9th May 1977], gave the following information:
It is not possible to give a breakdown by range of income for the £43 million tax relief relating to the treatment of foreign earnings, retirement annuities and savings bank interest, but of the remaining £2,250 million it is estimated that £635 million is in respect of those who are higher rate taxpayers or who would have been higher rate taxpayers but for the increase in the threshold to £6,000. An estimate is not available of the amount of the relief relating to investment income and would in any case rest on arbitrary assumptions as to which part of a mixed income forms the top slice, but the amount of relief relating to the investment income surcharge going to higher rate taxpayers is about £25 million.