§ Mr. KirkwoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland if he will list the capital and current costs and budgets incurred by central Government Departments and local authority departments to cover the planning, implementation and enforcement of the poll tax for each year since 1986–87 until the end of 1992–93 in respect of expenditure on(a) transitional grants and other transitional arrangements, (b) additional members of staff, (c) capital costs of administrative systems, (d) collection and enforcement costs, (e) expenses involved in diligence, (f) additional payments of benefits and (g) additional costs of administration for benefit systems, together with total costs incurred in any advertising or promotion relating to new poll tax procedures.
§ Mr. Allan StewartThe available information is as follows:
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Local Authority Costs Current expenditure—administration of community charge Based on local authorities' returns to the Scottish Office, the costs of administering the community charge for the years 1989–90 and 1990–91 are as follows: 1989–90 Budget estimate 1989–90 Provisional outturn 1990–91 Budget estimate £ million £ million £ million Community charge collection 23.3 17.2 38.9 Community charge registration 8.5 8.7 14.3 Total 31.8 25.9 53.2 Notes:
1. Any current expenditure costs incurred in the years 1986–87, 1987–88 and 1988–89 were included within the cost of the running of the rating system and are not separately identifiable.
2. The information for 1991–92 will not be received before mid-February. Information about 1992–93 will not be received before mid-February 1992.
3. Although these figures include staffing costs as well as expenditure incurred in the recovery of arrears, these costs are not identified separately in local authorities' returns.
Current Expenditure—Administration of Community Charge Benefit Scheme
Again based on local authorities' returns to the Scottish Office, the costs of administering the Community Charge Benefit Scheme are as follows:
£ million 1989–90 Budget Estimate 1989–90 Provisional Outturn 1990–91 Budget Estimate 9.60 9.45 11.02 Note: These figures include the cost to the 3 Islands Councils of administering the Housing Benefit Scheme. In the case of these authorities the figures for the Community Charge Benefit Scheme are not identified separately.
Current Expenditure—Administration of Community Charge Transitional Relief Scheme
Information about the costs incurred by local authorities in administering the Community Charge Transitional Relief Scheme is not yet available centrally.Capital Expenditure
No information is held centrally on the capital costs actually incurred by local authorities in connection with the administration of the community charge, but additional capital consent amounting to £21 million was provided in the years 1988–89 and 1989–90 for this purpose.Central Government Costs
Costs in connection with the Community Charge Benefit Scheme are a matter for the Department of Social Security. So far as the Scottish Office is concerned, the costs do not vary greatly from those incurred in connection with the domestic rates system.Publicity Costs
Costs incurred by the Scottish Office on publicity in relation to the community charge system are as follows:
1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 £ £ £ 481,000 524,000 74,000 10,000
§ Mr. MaxtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what percentage of local government income in Scotland came from(a) domestic rates/poll tax, (b) non-domestic rates and (c) rate/revenue support grant and specific grants, in each year since 1973–74.
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§ Mr. Allan StewartFigures are not available for 1973–74 and 1974–75. The information for later years is given in the table.
Domestic rates/ Community charge per cent. Non-domestic rate per cent. Rate/Revenue support grant and specific grants per cent. 1975–76 15.55 19.63 64.82 1976–77 14.23 18.62 67.15 1977–78 14.80 19.72 65.48 1978–79 12.01 22.48 65.51 1979–80 12.11 22.89 65.00 1980–81 13.14 24.54 62.32 1981–82 15.58 28.23 56.19 1982–83 16.12 28.57 55.31 1983–84 15.48 27.64 56.88 1984–85 16.19 28.36 55.45 1985–86 17.62 28.34 54.04 1986–87 18.92 29.83 51.25 1987–88 19.47 29.94 50.59 1988–89 19.22 29.19 51.59 1989–90 21.52 25.77 52.71 1990–91 21.73 23.82 54.45 Notes:
1. The figures for domestic and non-domestic rates are derived from data published in the Rating Review for the relevant years up to 1988–89. For 1989–90 and 1990–91 the amounts for the community charge and non-domestic rate income are taken from the Provisional Outturn/Budget Estimate returns made by local authorities to the Scottish Office.
2. The forecasts for rate and revenue support grants and specific grants are final amounts or those applying to the most recent Order.
3. Domestic rates figures are net of domestic rate relief.
4. All figures of domestic rate and community charge income are inclusive of rebates.