§ Mr. AllasonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will take steps to give relief to those who enter residential nursing accommodation but experience delay in selling their homes thereby incurring liability for a standard community charge.
§ Mr. ChopeWe have already prescribed that no standard charge is payable where less than 12 months has elapsed since the date on which a patient became solely or mainly resident in a hospital, residential care home, nursing home, mental nursing home or hostel. We have proposed that from 1 April 1991 this limit should be removed.
§ Mr. AllasonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will end the liability of executors of wills for a standard charge on the home of someone who has died.
§ Mr. ChopeWe have already prescribed that no standard charge is payable on unoccupied property where the person subject is acting in his capacity as personal representative, and with respect to which either no grant of probate or letters of administration has been made, or less than three months have elapsed since either of those events. We have proposed that this period should be extended to six months as from 1 April 1991.
§ Mr. AllasonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he has any plans to exclude non-working mothers from the community charge.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) whether he will introduce legislation to60W prevent charging authorities from using community charge information for purposes that are not directly relevant to the management or collection of the community charge; and whether he will make a statement;
(2) whether he will introduce legislation to prevent a community charge registration office or charging authority from disclosing community charge information for purposes that are not directly relevant to the management or collection of the community charge; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has for regulations concerning the disclosure of anonymous poll tax data; what advice he intends to give to community charges registration officers on how to ensure that the identity of individuals is guaranteed; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChopeI have nothing to add to the answer that I gave the hon. Member on 15 January 1990, at column100.
§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will introduce regulations to prevent the disclosure of information by charging authorities, whenever the information disclosed relates to community charge debts and the recipients of information are not acting as agents of the authority with respect to debt recovery; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. ChopeNo such regulations are necessary. I refer the hon. Member to my reply to him of 15 January 1990, at column99.
§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is the average community charge bill in Great Britain net of transitional relief.