§ Mr. Ridleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish estimates for 1970, 1974 and the latest year for which figures are available of (a) the total payments of maintenance to divorcees, and an indication of the loss of tax revenue involved in the tax deductibility of such payments and (b) the number of individuals in receipt of such payments.
§ Mr. Robert SheldonI regret that the information requested is not available, but for 1976–77 the amount of alimony and maintenance payments payable to both divorced and separated spouses and deducted for income tax purposes was about £150 million. The loss of tax revenue on account of these deductions658W would be about £50 million without allowing for any tax paid by the recipients.