§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the revenue received by the Government from taxes paid by different modes of transport that are designed to have an environmental impact(a) as a proportion of total UK environmental tax revenue and (b) in relation to the contribution made to UK GDP by each transport mode. [124766]
§ John HealeyThe Chancellor considers a range of relevant economic, social and environmental factors when deciding all taxation policy. Determining a definition of what is an environment tax is therefore difficult as: some taxes have been specifically designed to help achieve environmental goals, such as the aggregates levy, landfill tax and the climate change levy; some have been restructured to reflect environmental impacts, such as fuel duty differentials, company car tax and reforms to capital allowances to provide tax incentives for environmentally-friendly technologies; and some taxes were introduced for non-environmental reasons, but can have some environmental impact—for example, air passenger duty.
302WA number of these environmental taxes, such as landfill tax, climate change levy and aggregates levy, were introduced alongside offsetting tax cuts and recycling of revenue into environmental spending programmes, making them broadly revenue neutral.
This Government has also demonstrated a commitment to using alternatives to taxation to protect and improve the environment, for example tradeable permit schemes as well as regulation and spending programmes.
A modern economy could not function properly without an effective transport system. Figures are not readily available disaggregating the contribution of transport to the economy into different transport modes.
In addition, many of the outputs of transport, such as the benefits from journeys by car, are not fully captured in national measures of UK GDP. The table below sets out revenues from the main taxes with a strong environmental dimension in 2002–03.
Other environmental taxes £ Climate Change Levy 0.9 billion Landfill Tax 0.7 billion Aggregates Levy 0.3 billion Fuel Duties Ultra low sulphur petrol 12.7 billion Ultra low sulphur diesel 9.2 billion Road gases: 8.0 million Biodiesel 0.9 million Vehicle excise duties Cars 4.2 billion Lorries 0.28 billion Buses 29 million Company car tax 3.6 billion