HC Deb 05 February 2004 vol 417 cc1009-10W
Mr. Flight

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff of(a) the Inland Revenue and (b) its contractors have been allocated to work on tax credits for each year since their introduction. [145947]

Dawn Primarolo

The following table shows the number of staff (full-time equivalents) working in the tax credit office or in the Inland Revenue contact centres dealing with new tax credits.

Number of staff (full-time equivalents)
As at TCO TCO (NI) NTC contact centres
1 October 1999 3,656 1— —
1 April 2000 3,568 134 —
1 April 2001 3,455 163 —
1 April 2002 3,357 173 —

£000
Grants by area of activity 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03
Audience Development/New Audiences 4,442 5,289 5,151 1,262 493
Collaborative Arts/Cross Artform 16,541 16,866 42,092 41,711 46,119
Dance 23,236 25,521 17,982 17,634 24,729
Drama/Theatre 27,165 29,987 29,947 30,289 71,670
Literature 1,551 1,707 1,498 1,469 3,408
Music1 43,348 47,790 29,924 29,911 48,549
Visual Arts 5,148 9,599 6,067 5,483 22,279
1 The figure for music includes Opera—a separate figure is not available.

Number of staff (full-time equivalents)
As at TCO TCO(NI) NTC contact centres
1 April 2003 3,532 296 1,954
1 January 2004 3,157 231 2,301
1 n/a

There are also a significant number of staff working on tax credits in other areas of the Inland Revenue and for its contractors, either full-time or as part of a wider role. However full information is not held centrally and could not be collated without incurring disproportionate cost.

Mr. Webb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what elements of the new tax credits IT system will require systems testing before April; and when that systems testing will(a) commence and (b) conclude. [150533]

Dawn Primarolo

[holding answer 26 January 2004]: The new tax credits IT system will be upgraded in April 2004 to allow awards for 2003–04 to be finalised and awards for 2004–05 to be renewed. This will require both new software and changes to existing software. The first stage of IT testing started in September. Further stages of testing have subsequently followed and are planned to be completed for April.