§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have claimed tax relief for vocational training in each of the last four years; and what has been the cost to public funds in each year. [24823]
§ Mr. Andrew Smith[pursuant to his reply, 8 January 2002, C.810W]: The table unfortunately contained a number of errors. The correct information is as follows:
Cost of tax relief2 Year Claims received1 £ million 2000–01 125,000 30 1999–2000 250,000 60 1998–99 300,000 50 1997–98 300,000 45 1 Number of claims received and not the number of trainees as an individual could make more than one claim in a tax year. It was estimated that there were probably about 200,000 people claiming VTR in 1997–98 and 1998–99. 2 On an accrued basis.