§ Mr. Fieldasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will update the answer given to the hon. Member for Birkenhead on 13 June 1979, Official Report, c. 244, on the amount of outstanding and unrecovered tax.
§ Mr. Peter Rees[pursuant to his reply, 21 May 1981, c. 128]: Information about the collection of the assessed taxes dealt with by the Inland Revenue will be found in paragraphs 53–57 and table 7 of the Board of Inland Revenue's 123rd report (Cmnd. 8160). The figures for the accounting year to 31 October 1980 are not yet available.
The amounts of value added tax outstanding were: 267W
Year ending 31 March Amount outstanding 6 months after end of year (£ million) Amount recovered or written-off by 31 December 1980 (£ million) 1976 76.4 74.7 1977 56.5 54.2 1978 42.0 37.1 1979 71.7 56.0 1980 115.5 27.6