§ Mr. Nicholas BrownTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people presently have cars registered for ownership in a company's name; and if he will give a comparable figure for each year since 1973–74.
§ Mr. MaudeI assume that the hon. Member is interested in the numbers of employees with cars provided by their employers which are available for private use. It is estimated that in 1991–92 there were just under 2 million such employees. There are also about 2 million cars used by self-employed people for which relief is claimed against schedule D income tax liability. Available information on the numbers of employees who were taxed on the benefit of the provision of a car for private use for earlier years is as follows. Information for earlier years of numbers of self-employed people with cars used for business is not readily available.
Numbers with taxable car benefit (thousands) 1978–79 560 1980–81 650 1981–82 790 1983–84 850 1985–86 1,070 1987–88 1,550 1988–89 1,750 1989–90 1,850 1990–91 1,950