§ Mr. David Huntasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many questionaires, statistical inquiries or investigations have been carried out, either wholly or partly at public expense, on behalf of or by his Department or by any public bodies for which he is responsible in 1976, 1977 and in 1978 to date, specifying their nature and purpose and their estimated total cost.
§ Mr. Robert Sheldonpursuant to his reply [Official Report, 12th April 1978], gave the following information:
The Review Board for Government Contracts submitted its report on the second general review of the profit formula for non-competitive Government contracts in July 1977. In the process of preparing the report and earlier reports, the board received evidence from Government, CBI, trade associations, and so on. As is made clear in the report this included statistical information on non-competitive Government contracts, obtained from the Ministry of Defence and selected contractors.
Three statistical surveys, two quarterly and one annual, are carried out regularly by the Board of Inland Revenue, requesting 582W information which is supplied voluntarly. They are:
- (a) a quarterly inquiry into pay and tax, in which a panel of employers gives estimates of the total wages and salaries paid in the preceding quarter and of the PAYE tax deducted;
- (b) a quarterly inquiry into company profits, in which a panel of large companies provides estimates of their gross trading profits in the preceding quarter;
- (c) an annual inquiry in January of each year in which businesses whose profits have previously exceeded a specific figure and who have not already supplied the information are invited to provide estimates of their gross trading profits in their latest complete accounting period.
The results of these inquiries are used in the provision of quarterly and annual estimates of wages and salaries and company profits for the national income accounts, and in the estimation of tax due thereon for the purpose of budgetary forecasting.
The cost to public funds of these three surveys is estimated at £37,000 for 1976, £39,000 for 1977 and £13,000 for 1978 up ft. 31st March.
Her Majesty's Customs and Excise contacted a sample of holders of licences to operate gaming machines in a one-off survey during 1976 to estimate the effect of taxation changes on the average net take of holiday season licenced gaming machines.
In 1977 Customs and Excise asked a selection of freight forwarders and carriers, importers and exporters for their requirements if the Customs ADP entry system was extended and enhanced to provide for direct input of data by traders.
Customs and Excise carry out a continuing survey to check that the correct values have been declared on Customs export documents and to estimate the effect of errors for the calculation of the balance of payments.
The total cost of the Customs and Excise's three surveys is estimated at £73,000 for 1976, £90,000 for 1977, and £23,000 for the first three months of 1978.
In the normal course of their duties Customs staff frequently address inquiries to traders and the cost of this cannot be separately identified from the costs of their other work.