Pensions (Hansard, 14 July 2003)

§ Miss McIntosh
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on his further plans for tax treatment of pension funds. [125891]

§ Dawn Primarolo
On 17 December the Government published a consultation document, "Simplifying the taxation of pensions: increasing choice and flexibility". This proposed that the current eight pension tax regimes would be replaced by a single lifetime allowance on tax relieved pension savings.
The Government are currently considering the responses to the consultation and a further paper, setting out the detail of the proposed regime, will be published in the autumn.

§ Mr. Sanders
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many pensionable age persons live in each constituency in the UK. [124760]

§ John Healey
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Adrian Sanders, dated 14 July 2003: As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking how many pensionable age persons live in each constituency in the UK (124760) The numbers of persons of pensionable age in each parliamentary constituency in the United Kingdom is not yet available from the 2001 Census, although the figures are available for every local authority in England and Wales in Table KS02 of the Census 2001 Key Statistics for local authorities in England and Wales published on 13 February. A copy of this report was placed in the House of Commons Library and is available on the ONS website at http://nswebcopy/StatBase/Product.asp?vink = 10150 The same table will be available for UK Parliamentary Constituencies. It is planned to release this in August or September and a copy will be placed in the House of Commons Library. In addition a printed volume will provide a brief statistical summary of each current UK Parliamentary constituency, including some comparative measures. Electronic supplements will in addition provide Key Statistics and Census Area Statistics, and reference maps for each constituency. It is the intention to issue a further report based on any new constituency boundaries adopted for the next General Election. Information from the Censuses in Scotland and Northern Ireland is available from the Registrars General for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.

§ Mr. Swire
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how much revenue was produced from direct taxation on pensions in the past five years. [125141]

§ Dawn Primarolo
Available estimates of the amount of income tax paid on private pensions from 1997–98 to 2001–02 are contained in table T7.9 of Inland Revenue Statistics. The latest version is on the Inland Revenue website: http://www.inlandrevenue.gov.Uk/stats/pensions/p_t09_1_.htm.