HC Deb 14 April 2003 vol 403 cc546-7W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many staff in his Department, agencies and non-departmental public bodies receive paid leave to undertake union duties; how many days they are allocated; and what has been the cost to public funds in 2002. [106735]

Ruth Kelly

The information relating to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Departments is set out in the table.

Dawn Primarolo

I refer the hon. Member to my answer to the hon. Member for Havant (Mr. Willetts) on 19 March 2003,Official Report, column 760W.

Mr. Webb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many child and working tax credit application reminder notices were issued in each of the last six months. [108482]

Dawn Primarolo

3.6 million reminders to claim were sent out in November 2002, 2.2 million in February 2003 and 2.2 million in March 2003.

Mr. Spring

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people he estimates in Suffolk are eligible for(a) the Child Tax Credit and (b) the Working Tax Credit; and how many people he estimates will take up these credits in 2003–04. [108628]

Dawn Primarolo

It is estimated that(a) 460,000 families are expected to receive the Child Tax Credit and (b) 90,000 families are expected to receive the Working Tax Credit in the Eastern region in 2003–04.

Mr. Willetts

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many tax credit application forms have been sent out and how many completed application forms have been received, broken down by month. [106484]

Dawn Primarolo

[holding answer 1 April 2003]: The cumulative monthly figures to the end of February 2003 are as follows.

Child tax credit and Working tax credit: claim forms issued and claims received—cumulative monthly figures
Thousands
Month1 Claim forms issued Claims received2
August 2002 500 <503
September 2002 2,300 3003
October 2002 4,000 1,1003
November 2002 4,500 1,4003
December 2002 4,700 2,0003
January 2003 5,100 2,6003
February 2003 5,500 3,200
1Final Friday in month.
2Including on-line.
3Estimated.
Note:
All figures are quoted to the nearest 100,000.

Mr. Webb

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many families(a) were entitled to and (b) received the children's tax credit. [108484]

Dawn Primarolo

For the number of benefiting families, I refer the hon. Member to paragraph 5.11 of the April 2002 Economic and Fiscal Strategy Report. HC 592.

Department Site address Costs (£) Visits
HM Customs and Excise www.hmce.gov.uk 388,577 2,715,850
HM Customs and Excise www.uktradeinfo.com 284,000 439,693
HM Customs and Excise www.hmce-recruitment.org.uk/ 4,970 No figures. Site closed March 2003
HM Treasury http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/ 140,634 excluding staff costs, year 18 million year ending 31 January
ending 31 January 2002 2002
Inland Revenue www.inlandrevenue.gov.uk/ 247,000 45,575,672
Government Actuary's Department www.gad.gov.uk 18,400 246,000
Royal Mint www.royalmint.com/ 86,251 952,953
National Savings and Investments www.nsandi.com 165,000 estimated cost (excluding SBS payments) (3) 12.6 million since July 2002
Office for National Statistics www.statistics.gov.uk/ 672,542 2,675,833 since July 2002
Debt Management Office www.dmo.gov.uk 63,000 (estimated) 91,255 projected visitors
www.pwlb.gov.uk
www.crnd.gov.uk
Office of Government Commerce www.ogc.gov.uk 397,145 1244,560 (estimated visitors)
www.sds.ogc.gov.uk
www.gps.ogc.gov.uk
www.cot.ogc.gov.uk
www.pfi.ogc.gov.uk
www.supplyinggovernment.gov.uk
Office of Government Buying www.ogcbuyingsolutions.gov.uk 87,376 2298,527
Solutions www.gcat.gov.uk
www.scat.gov.uk
www.watermark.qov.uk
Valuation Office www.voa.gov.uk/ 95,332 698,000 projected visitors
1Office of Government Commerce (OGC) (1) figures for visitors are estimated on the basis of available data because OGC have no facility to accurately measure discrete visits to publicly accessible websites due to the use of security firewalls and proxy servers that disguise the identity of individual computers connecting to a website. (2) Visitor data is unavailable for some of OGCs websites prior to June/July 2002.
2Office of Government Buying Solutions visitor data is unavailable for some of OGCbuying, solutions websites prior to May 2002.