§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what assessment he has made of the value of judges' lodgings and associated expenditure as a benefit in kind for income tax purposes. [141350]
§ Mr. LockNone. On the Department's present understanding, tax liability is not considered to arise from the existing arrangements for the provision of such accommodation to High Court judges and associated expenditure.
§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department in respect of the Crown courts situated at(a) St. Albans, (b) Reading,(c) Chelmsford, (d) Colchester and (e) Maidstone, (i) how many sitting days were held at each court in each of the last five years, (ii) for how many nights the judges' lodgings were occupied in each of the last five years, 32W (iii) for how many High Court judges sitting at each of the courts (A) regularly made use of the lodgings and (B) habitually commuted from their own residence to court and (iv) what was the annual cost of each of the lodgings for each of the last five years. [141349]
§ Jane KennedyFor ease of reference I will answer each element of the question using the same numbering as the hon. Member. I should also point out that there is neither a Crown court centre nor judges' lodgings at Colchester.
Prior to 1997, lodgings were administered locally and it would incur a disproportionate cost to collect comparable cost information for 1995–96 and 1996–97. While sitting figures exist for the Crown court for these years, there are no readily available lodgings data against which to make a useful comparison and they have therefore been omitted from my answer.
(i) In the context of this question, I have interpreted the request for sitting day information as relating to High Court business only. On that basis, High Court judge sitting days in the Crown court are as follows:
Crown court 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 St. Albans 91 79 144 Reading 98 78 76 Chelmsford 61 84 111 Maidstone 124 149 82 (ii) The number of judge nights each lodging was occupied during the same periods are as follows:
Lodging 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 St. Albans 105 120 165 Reading 115 99 110 Chelmsford 68 98 113 Maidstone 140 165 120 The difference between sitting day figures and the days the lodgings were occupied can be attributed to a number of factors. For example, cases which settled or adjourned on short notice would not have been recorded as sitting days but would have resulted in the judge being at the lodgings doing paperwork. Similarly, time taken by the judge in writing judgments and decisions during and at the end of cases and on occasions when other High Court judges stayed at lodgings while on other official business would count as judicial occupation but not sitting days.
(iii) No information is held on how many of the High Court judges who sat at these courts resided at their homes rather than the lodgings.
(iv) The annual cost of each of the lodgings is set out below on three bases:
33W
Total cost of lodgings £ Lodging 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 St. Albans 157,962.00 203,369.00 216,451.00 Reading 157,152.00 127,811.00 112,420.00 Chelmsford 107,606.00 84,690.00 105,494.00 Maidstone 157,553.49 259,227.43 185,689.18
Total cost of lodgings (less the Treasury capital charge for freehold properties) £ Lodging 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 St. Albans 133,961.61 139,977.35 145,772.95 Reading 139,465.25 94,794.38 75,576.69 Chelmsford 107,606.00 84,690.00 105,494.00 Maidstone 121,555.49 217,433.54 139,051.68
Costs solely attributable to judicial occupation £ Lodging 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 St. Albans 50,440.95 52,863.60 74,563.50 Reading 84,661.85 55,293.48 55,169.40 Chelmsford 14,877.75 21,559.56 29,435.94 Maidstone 44,531.20 81,005.10 41,024.40