HC Deb 19 May 2004 vol 421 cc988-9W
Miss McIntosh

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of the climate change levy on the construction industry. [174252]

John Healey

Climate Change Levy (CCL) revenue receipts and forecast revenues are provided for the UK as a whole and are not available by individual industry sector. The CCL is broadly revenue neutral for business as a whole. CCL revenues are recycled back to business by means of a 0.3 percentage point reduction in employers' national insurance contributions, introduced at the same time as the levy in April 2001, and by support for energy efficiency and low carbon technologies. CCL has not led to any net gain to the public finances.

Monitoring of the climate change levy takes the form of a rolling programme of research and analysis of data as they become available, encompassing all sectors of industry. It takes account of data from specific research as well as information from business organisations, individual companies, environment groups and site visits by officials.