§ Mr. Nigel GriffithsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the total unearned income of taxpayers living in each region of Britain for 1979, 1987 and 1988, giving the number of tax units living in each region.
§ Mr. Norman Lamont[holding answer 8 December 1988]: The readily available information covers tax units with income above the pay as you earn threshold regardless of whether or not they are liable to income tax; it relates to years ended 5 April rather than to calender years. Only the investment income in the records of tax offices is covered in the table: where liability at basic rate is satisfied at source, the tax office may have no record of the income. The latest available year is at present 1985–86.
Year Ratio of staff unit to cases settled Yield per staff units £ 1980 1:42 81,600 1981 1:39 84,600 1982 1:40 119,900 1983 1:40 129,400 1984 1:38 164,700 1985 1:31 162,000 1986 1:28 193,500 1987 1:26 201,100 1988 1:24 201,700 Figures are not available for earlier years.
Although the number of cases settled per staff unit has decreased since 1980, the yield per staff unit has in money 27W terms more than doubled over the same period. This reflects a policy of using a greater proportion of resources on the larger, more complex cases.