Community Charge (Hansard, 5 April 1989)

§ 13. Mr. Ron Brown
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on arrangements for paying the community charge in respect of official ministerial residences in Scotland.

§ Mr. Rifkind
The only residence available for Ministers in Scotland is Bute house in Edinburgh. I understand that Lothian region's community charges registration officer has determined that, with the exception of the caretaker's flat in the basement, the property is non-domestic in nature and will therefore be subject to non-domestic rates. Bute house will be considered as a Crown property for this purpose.

§ 20. Mr. Douglas
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will make a statement on the criteria which are being used by community charge registration officers to remove individuals from their register for limited periods.

§ Mr. Lang
Community charge registration officers will remove the name of an individual from the register in a particular local authority area only if he is no longer liable to pay the community charge there. In addition, a registration officer may exclude an individual's register entry from the publicly available parts of the register if that individual has applied for anonymous registration. In every case, registration officers will base their decisions on all the relevant circumstances.

§ 23. Mr. Strang
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what are the latest estimates for the costs of administration of the poll tax in the coming year.

§ Mr. Lang
The latest estimate by regional and islands councils of the cost of administering the community charge in 1989–90, including costs of registration and collection, but excluding the cost of the rebate scheme, is £31.73 million.

27. Mr. Siliars
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had since the 1 April with poll tax levying authorities.

§ Mr. Lang
None.

§ Mr. Barry Field
To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland when he expects to be able to report on the levels of payment of the community charge.

§ Mr. Lang
Although I expect it to be some time before reliable information becomes available, I would expect the level of payment to be broadly the same as it has been for domestic rates.