Inheritance Tax Exemptions (Hansard, 13 December 1994)

§ Mr. Tipping
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 30 November,Official Report, column 760, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the publicity to make the public aware of access arrangements.

§ Sir George Young
The level of publicity to be given to the agreed public access arrangements required in return for conditional exemption is negotiated on a case-by-case basis by the heritage advisory agencies which have the appropriate experience and expertise. Owners of conditionally exempt land are required to 589W submit annual reports to the responsible heritage body covering the undertakings they have given, including the publicity given to the public access arrangements. In addition, the heritage advisory agencies make on-site visits to conditionally exempt land. The Inland Revenue also separately reviews all such cases at five-yearly intervals. There is no evidence that publicity given to public access arrangements is deficient.

§ Mr. Tipping
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the number of countryside sites where public access has been granted by the landowner in return for exemption from inheritance tax in(a) 1992–93, (b) 1993–94 and (c) 1994–95 to date.

§ Sir George Young
I refer to the answer I gave the hon. Member on 30 November,Official Report, column 760. As I explained, figures for designations of land alone on a year-by-year basis are not available at acceptable cost.

§ Mr. Tipping
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 30 November,Official Report, column 760, if he will list the counties where public access has been granted by landowners in return for exemption from inheritance tax.

§ Sir George Young
A list for conditionally exempt land alone is not available at acceptable cost. The counties in England where public access has been granted by owners of land and buildings in return for conditional exception from inheritance tax or capital transfer tax are as follows:

Berkshire

Buckinghamshire

Cheshire

Cornwall

Cumbria

Derbyshire

Devon

Dorset

Essex

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Herefordshire and Worcestershire

Hertfordshire

Humberside

Isle of Wight

Kent

Lancashire

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Merseyside

Norfolk

Northamptonshire

Northumberland

North Yorkshire

Nottinghamshire

Oxfordshire

Shropshire

Somerset

Staffordshire

Suffolk

Surrey

Sussex

Warwickshire

West Yorkshire

Wiltshire