| Home Page |
Column 71
Written Answers to Questions
Tuesday 18 February 1992
ATTORNEY-GENERAL
Life Sentences
Mr. Edwards : To ask the Attorney-General if he will ask the Law Commission to consider the matter of life stentences ; and if he will make a statement.
The Attorney-General : The Law Commission's work on the criminal code will, in time, encompass the whole of the criminal law and will therefore necessarily include all those offences which may attract a life sentence. My right hon. and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor has, however, no plans to invite the Law Commission to embark upon a separate consideration of that penalty.
Mortgage Repossessions
Dr. Kim Howells : To ask the Attorney-General how many orders of repossession of property in favour of building societies or other lending institutions were made (a) by the Cardiff county court and (b) by the Pontypridd magistrates court in 1979, 1990 and 1991.
The Attorney-General : Mortgage possession actions are dealt with in the county court only. The 1979 figures are not available. The total number of mortgage possession actions entered, suspended orders and orders made during 1990 and 1991 in each county court in England and Wales is contained in two lists which have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. These figures do not indicate how many houses have been repossessed through the courts as not all the orders made will have resulted in the issue and execution of warrants of possession. At this stage, the 1991 figures are provisional and, therefore, liable to revision in the future.
Mr. Anderson : To ask the Attorney-General how many orders of repossession of property in favour of building societies or other lending institutions were made by the Swansea county court in 1979, 1990 and 1991.
The Attorney-General : The 1979 figures are not available. The total number of mortgage possession actions entered, suspended orders and orders made during 1990 and 1991 in each county court in England and Wales is contained in two lists which have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament. These figures do not indicate how many houses have been repossessed through the courts as not all the orders made will have resulted in the issue and execution of warrants of possession. At this stage, the 1991 figures are provisional and, therefore, liable to revision in the future.
Next Steps
Mr. Carrington : To ask the Attorney-General if he has identified any candidates within his Department for agency status under the next steps initiative.
Column 72
The Attorney-General : Following a feasibility study, I have selected the Treasury Solicitor's Department's property division as a candidate for executive agency status.
I am confident that a move to agency status will be beneficial, enabling the agency to operate with greater freedom and with more clearly defined responsibilities within an agreed framework of objectives, performance targets, and resources. The move will, I believe, lead to improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. Detailed discussions on an agency framework document have now been set in hand, and we will carry planning forward with a view to establishing the division as an executive agency on 1 April 1993.
THE ARTS
Items in Lieu of Tax
Mr. John Marshall : To ask the Minister for the Arts if there have been any items accepted in lieu of tax or allocated since the announcement was last made on the subject to the House.
Mr. Renton : I am pleased to inform the House that two offers in lieu of tax have been accepted since my announcement on 28 November 1991, Official Report, column 579.
The offer of the painting "Poele de l'Atelier" by Cezanne will satisfy £750,562 tax. It is offered on condition that it be allocated to the national gallery and it has therefore been allocated to that institution.
The offer of eight contemporary paintings will satisfy £108,920 tax. The contemporary paintings are :
Bomb Store' by David Bomberg
Self-Portrait, recto and verso' by David Bomberg
Ghetto Theatre' by David Bomberg
Women and Goat' by Robert Colquhoun
Two Figures Monotype' by Robert Colquhoun
Man Hosing Metal Fish Boxes' by Prunella Clough
Pears' by William Scott
An untitled work by Roger Hilton
Bomb Store' by David Bomberg and the Prunella Clough painting have been temporarily allocated to the Tate gallery and the remainder to the Wakefield city art gallery, pending a decision on the collection's permanent allocation.
ENVIRONMENT
Housing, Leicester
Sir John Farr : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what extra cost Leicester city council is to be required to meet in relation to the cost of removing houses built by the council on the Goodwood road part of the distributor road network.
Mr. Portillo : Leicestershire county council has not yet determined its preferred route for the Leicester eastern district distributor road from the city boundary to the A47. Therefore it is not certain whether houses owned by Leicester city council on Goodwood road would be affected. However if demolition were necessary, the county, and not the city, would be responsible for meeting the costs and those of replacement.
Column 73
Local Government Finance
Sir David Mitchell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list powers he has to control excessive expenditure by a parish or town council ; and if he will exercise them in the case of Tadley town council in the borough of Basingstoke.
Mr. Portillo : We have no such powers. We expect parish and town councils to budget prudently. We have, however, included a provision in the Local Government Finance Bill, currently before Parliament, which would allow my right hon. Friend, by order, to bring parish precepts within the budgets of districts for the purposes of capping.
Ultraviolet Light
Mr. Simon Hughes : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what arrangements exist for the monitoring of ultraviolet light in the United Kingdom and for making the data public ; and what research is undertaken to relate the data to the environmental and health impacts.
Mr. Baldry : Ultraviolet radiation is monitored continuously in the United Kingdom by the National Radiological Protection Board--NRPB--at three locations--Chilton, Oxfordshire ; Leeds ; and Glasgow. The data are published annually in NRPB reports. The Department of the Environment is funding improved ultraviolet radiation monitoring methods at Reading university. The results are disseminated as research publications.
The Department of the Environment funds research into the impact of increased ultraviolet radiation on vegetation. The NRPB advises the Department of Health on health effects of ultraviolet light and has established an advisory group which will review new studies and advise on the need for further research.
Council Tax
Mr. Ralph Howell : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, pursuant to his answer of 6 December, Official Report, columns 235-36, why he has decided not to publish any analysis of the impact of the council tax using the tax-benefit model ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Key : Modelling the possible impact of the council tax requires a large number of assumptions. Because of this, the results of any such modelling would be subject to wide and unquantifiable margins of error.
City Challenge
Mr. Brandon-Bravo : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what progress has been made with the city challenge initiative.
Mr. Key : My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State launched the first round of city challenge in May 1991 and invited 15 local authorities to submit bids for resources for 1992-93. Bids for 11 areas were successful in the competition and, subject to satisfactory implementation of action plans and the availability of resources, each area will be allocated £37.5 million in city challenge resources over five years.
The first of the 11 action plans, for the Sneinton and St Ann's area of Nottingham, was formally approved on
Column 74
17 February. It is hoped that the remaining plans, for areas of Manchester, Liverpool, Wirral, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Wolverhampton, Bradford, Lewisham, Tower Hamlets and Dearne Valley, will receive final approval shortly.My right hon. Friend announced today that for the second round of city challenge, starting in 1993-94, all 57 local authorities currently in the urban programme will be invited to bid for city challenge resources.
My right hon. Friend intends to make resources available for 20 winning areas. Again they should each benefit from funding for some £37.5 million over the five years of their action plan. These 20 winning areas will be in addition to the 11 which were successful in the first round of city challenge.
Mr. Blunkett : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment how many local authorities he expects to be awarded city challenge money in the next round of competition ; and on what date he will announce the winners.
Mr. Portillo : I refer the hon. Member to the answer given today by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (Mr. Key), to my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, South (Mr. Brandon-Bravo).
Ozone Depletion
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he has on the rate of development of ozone-depletion problems ; and if he proposes to take any further measures in response to such developments.
Mr. Baldry : Reports have been received from the European arctic stratospheric ozone experiment--EASOE--and the United States National Aeronautic and Space Agency--NASA--of low ozone levels over the mid- latitudes of the northern hemisphere and in the tropics. The answer given by my hon. Friend the Minister for the Environment and Countryside to my hon. Friend the Member for Bury, South (Mr. Sumberg) on 10 February, Official Report, column 430, sets out what further measures we have proposed.
Community Charge
Mr. Hardy : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment (1) if he will list those local authorities which received such grants from central funds which, together with other income or contributions from balances, were able to determine that the community charge for the current year would be less than £100 ;
(2) if he will list those authorities which have secured grants from central funds which together with other income and contributions from balances have been able to determine that the community charge for 1992-93 will be less than £100.
Mr. Key : The following authorities maintained a tight control over their expenditure and were able to determine a community charge in 1991-92 below £100 :
Rochester upon Medway
Wandsworth
Westminster
Information about the levels of community charges in 1992-93 is not yet available.
Column 75
Housing Investment, Liverpool
Mr. Wareing : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what was the level of the housing investment programme allocation awarded to Liverpool in each financial year since 1978-79 ; and what the changes amounted to, in real terms.
Mr. Yeo : Housing investment programme--HIP--allocation and gross capital expenditure figures are as follows :
£ thousands
HIP allocation Gross Expenditure<1>
|cash value|at 1991-92|cash value|at 1991-92
|prices |prices
------------------------------------------------------------------
1978-79 |35,460 |96,195 |30,832 |83,640
1979-80 |42,430 |98,651 |52,611 |122,322
1980-81 |47,230 |92,798 |40,277 |79,137
1981-82 |39,788 |71,293 |35,479 |63,572
1982-83 |49,337 |82,524 |55,076 |92,123
1983-84 |41,850 |66,901 |60,700 |97,034
1984-85 |38,499 |58,612 |65,169 |99,214
1985-86 |31,000 |44,727 |83,751 |120,837
1986-87 |27,500 |38,414 |69,323 |96,835
1987-88 |25,300 |33,518 |64,651 |85,652
1988-89 |20,588 |25,448 |45,151 |55,810
1989-90 |23,349 |27,103 |49,338 |57,271
New Capital Finance System<2>
1990-91 |38,037 |40,700 |55,194 |59,058
<3>1991-92 |31,620 |31,620 |<4>- |<4>-
Notes:
<1> Since 1981-82 local authorities have been able to augment the
borrowing power of their HIP allocations by using the
prescribed proportion of their capital receipts.
<2> From 1990-91, under the new capital finance system, the HIP
allocation does not convey borrowing approval directly. The
HIP allocation totals include supplementary credit approvals
for housing projects.
<3> Provisional estimate of final allocation.
<4> Not available.
An initial HIP allocation of £26.7 million--£25.6 million at 1991 -92 prices--has been issued for 1992-93 and additional resources-- supplementary credit approvals--may be allocated later.
Chorley Report
Mrs. Roe : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what action has been taken following the Government's response to the Chorley report on handling geographic information.
Mr. Baldry : Following the Chorley report and the Government's response, the Government established an inter-departmental working group on the tradeable information initiative. The working group, which is chaired by my Department, has collated a summary of actions taken by individual departments in response to the recommendations made by Lord Chorley's committee of inquiry. A copy of the summary has been placed in the Library of the House, and a copy given to the Association for Geographic Information--AGI--as part of the Government's contribution to the association's review of progress against the Chorley committee's recommendations. In addition, the working group has collected details about spatially referenced data sets held by Government Departments. These details have been given to the AGI which has used them to establish an information service to answer inquiries about the data sets. The information service went live in January 1992.
Column 76
Business Rates
Mr. Beith : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what estimates he has for the cost of allowing businesses in England to remain eligible for transitional relief from the uniform business rate although they move premises in 1992-93 ; and what would be the additional cost of returning eligibility for transitional relief in 1992-93 to those businesses that moved premises in 1990-91 and 1991-92.
Mr. Portillo [holding answer 17 February 1992] : Transitional relief does not attach to businesses but to the property they occupy. The relief for the property is lost when the occupier changes. I estimate that the cost for the period 1990-91 to 1992-93 of returning transitional protection to property where there was a change of occupier in 1990-91 or 1991-92 would be around £90 million. The cost of allowing protection where there was a change of occupier in 1992-93 would be around £10 million.
Local Authorities (Financial Difficulties)
Mr. Nicholas Brown : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what is his policy towards centre funding of local authorities which have financial difficulties due to (a) the collapse of BCCI and (b) late rating appeals and (c) interest rate swaps ; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. Portillo [pursuant to his reply, 17 December 1991, c. 108] : My right hon. Friend intends to issue directions permitting local authorities which have incurred losses in BCCI and the Chancery and Edington banks to treat those losses as capital expenditure, where these are substantial in relation to an authority's revenue budget and reserves. He does not propose to approve any of the applications he has received for supplementary credit approvals--SCAs--related to such losses.
However, my right hon. Friend is now minded, out of resources which are available as a result of certain SCAs not being taken up to the anticipated extent, to issue SCAs to provide some assistance to those authorities most affected in 1991-92 by late rating adjustments of which they could not have been aware with certainty when setting their 1991-92 budgets. He has today invited authorities to provide him with information about their late rating adjustments, after receipt of which he intends to decide the level of assistance which in all the circumstances would be appropriate.
Assisted and Development Areas
Mr. Speller : To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will list those areas in receipt of assisted or development area status, together with their working population.
Mr. Leigh : I have been asked to reply.
The following is the information :
Assisted Area Working Populations (April 1991)
Assisted |Travel-to-work Area |Workforce
Area
Status
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
South West
IA |Bodmin and Liskeard |28,793
IA |Bude |8,094
IA |Cinderford and Ross-on-Wye |30,241
DA |Falmouth |14,843
DA |Helston |9,247
DA |Newquay |12,946
DA |Penzance and St. Ives |23,425
IA |Plymouth |147,884
DA |Redruth and Camborne |24,910
West Midlands
IA |Birmingham |803,305
IA |Coventry and Hinckley |269,332
IA |Dudley and Sandwell |299,360
IA |Kidderminster |47,174
IA |Telford and Bridgnorth |85,166
IA |Walsall |172,542
IA |Wolverhampton |151,975
East Midlands
DA |Corby |38,346
IA |Gainsborough |14,460
Yorkshire and Humberside
IA |Barnsley |84,202
IA |Bradford |252,381
IA |Doncaster |115,628
IA |Grimsby |88,763
IA |Hull |222,670
DA |Rotherham and Mexborough |112,095
DA |Scunthorpe |68,932
IA |Sheffield |295,726
DA |Whitby |10,643
North West
IA |Accrington and Rossendale |60,224
IA |Blackburn |73,490
IA |Bolton and Bury |205,719
DA |Liverpool |485,553
IA |Manchester |823,726
IA |Oldham |98,289
IA |Rochdale |71,603
DA |Widnes and Runcorn |63,752
DA |Wigan and St. Helens |192,172
DA |Wirral and Chester |229,477
Northern
DA |Bishop Auckland |46,281
IA |Darlington |58,014
IA |Durham |69,686
DA |Hartlepool |40,488
DA |Middlesbrough |140,241
IA |Morpeth and Ashington |54,398
DA |Newcastle-upon-Tyne |395,649
DA |South Tyneside |56,603
DA |Stockton-on-Tees |84,814
DA |Sunderland |177,886
DA |Workington |33,752
Wales
DA |Aberdare |23,428
IA |Bangor and Caernarfon |35,256
DA |Blaenau Gwent and Abergavenny|37,587
IA |Bridgend |63,515
IA |Cardiff |231,791
DA |Cardigan |10,727
IA |Fishguard |4,577
IA |Haverfordwest |23,496
DA |Holyhead |21,972
DA |Lampeter and Aberaeron |8,254
IA |Llanelli |36,218
DA |Merthyr and Rhymney |58,740
DA |Neath and Port Talbot |45,537
IA |Newport |96,088
IA |Pontypool and Cwmbran |46,019
DA |Pontypridd and Rhondda |72,691
IA |Porthmadoc and Ffestiniog |8,844
IA |Pwllheli |8,493
DA |Shotton, Flint and Rhyl |93,693
DA |South Pembrokeshire |16,514
IA |Swansea |119,563
DA |Wrexham |60,645
Scotland
IA |Alloa |18,771
DA |Arbroath |11,426
IA |Ayr |55,447
IA |Badenoch |5,623
DA |Bathgate |53,122
IA |Campbeltown |4,887
DA |Cumnock and Sanquhar |15,570
DA |Dumbarton |32,472
DA |Dundee |100,479
IA |Dunfermline |54,846
IA |Dunoon and Bute |11,493
IA |Falkirk |68,369
IA |Forres |3,715
IA |Girvan |4,549
DA |Glasgow |664,038
DA |Greenock |42,758
IA |Invergordon and Dingwall |15,320
DA |Irvine |60,260
DA |Kilmarnock |35,135
IA |Kirkcaldy |67,663
DA |Lanarkshire |169,659
IA |Lochaber |9,714
IA |Newton Stewart |4,499
IA |Skye and Wester Ross |9,091
IA |Stewartry |9,563
IA |Stranraer |9,139
IA |Sutherland |5,545
IA |Western Isles |12,867
IA |Wick |5,440
Notes:
(1) The work force estimates are the sum of: estimated employees
in employment; the unemployed; the self-employed; the
armed forces; participants on work-related schemes.
(2) There are two forms of assisted area status; a more intense
form, development area (DA) and a less intense, intermediate
area (IA).
(3) The building block for the assisted areas map is the
travel-to-work area (TTWA), which is the best approximation
available to a self-contained labour market. TTWA
boundaries do not always correspond to regional boundaries,
so some of the TTWAs are listed above under one region,
while in fact belonging to several regions.
(4) Only half of the Manchester TTWA has assisted area status,
but the work force reported above relates to the whole
TTWA. This is because of the lack of availability of
post-census work force data for areas smaller than TTWAs.
ENERGY
Radiation
Mr. McGrady : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy what action will be taken to ensure that safety limits in relation to radiation exposure are lowered at nuclear establishments in Great Britain.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory: Dose limits and radiation protection standards apply to all workers across the European Community who work with ionising radiation, including those in the nuclear industry. The directive that sets these standards--European Community directive 80/836/EURATOM--as amended by 84/467/EURATOM, is implemented in the United Kingdom by the Ionising Radiations Regulations 1985--IRR 85--and
Column 79
the mirror Northern Ireland legislation. These contain both statutory limits and requirements to carry out investigations at lower levels.Last year, the Health and Safety Commission published part 4 of the approved code of practice supporting IRR 85 which contains additional guidance on restriction of exposure, but no change of statutory dose limit, to take account of recent revisions of the risk estimates from exposure to ionising radiation. This is an interim measure, pending revision of the European Community directive and subsequent revision of IRR 85 over the next few years.
Coal Production
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy how much coal is mined per head of population in each Organisation for Economic Co- operation and Development country and member state of the European Community.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : The information is as follows :
|Tonnes of
|coal produced
|per head of
|population in
|1990
----------------------------------------------
Australia |9.09
Austria |0.12
Belgium<1> |0.15
Canada |2.03
Denmark<1> |Nil
Finland |Nil
France<1> |0.21
Germany<1> |1.62
Greece<1> |1.05
Iceland |Nil
Ireland<1> |Nil
Italy<1> |0.01
Japan |0.05
Luxembourg<1> |Nil
Netherlands<1> |Nil
New Zealand |0.59
Norway |0.07
Portugal<1> |0.02
Spain<1> |0.44
Sweden |Nil
Switzerland |Nil
Turkey |0.30
United Kingdom<1> |1.64
United States |3.08
<1>Member states of the European Community (
NB Germany refers to
the (former) Federal Republic of Germany).
Source: Population-OECD Main Economic
Indicators.
Source: Coal data-International Energy
Agency.
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy how much coal is mined per head of population in Wales ; and what was the equivalent figure in 1976, 1981 and 1986.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : Coal production per head of population in Wales in the years 1976, 1981, 1986 and 1990 was :
|tonnes
---------------------
1976 |4.1
1981 |4.2
1986 |3.8
1990 |2.5
Atomic Energy Authority, Harwell
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy which materials in use at the Atomic Energy Authority establishment at Harwell are covered by Euratom safeguards.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : Uranium, thorium and plutonium are used at Harwell for civil purposes. In accordance with articles 77 and 197 of the Euratom treaty, all these materials are subject to Euratom safeguards.
Mr. Cohen : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy which buildings at the Atomic Energy Authority establishment at Harwell are covered by the tripartite International Atomic Energy
Agency/Euratom/UK safeguards agreement.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : For security reasons it is not our policy to disclose which buildings at nuclear establishments contain nuclear material. All civil nuclear material at Harwell and other establishments is subject to Euratom safeguards and to the terms of the UK-Euratom- International Atomic Energy Agency tripartite agreement.
Electricity Prices
Mr. Morgan : To ask the Secretary of State for Energy if he will make a statement on his meeting with the Major Energy Users Council as regards (a) the agenda, (b) the alternatives reviewed and (c) the outcome ; and what assessment he has made of the impact of electricity prices in the next financial year on the large electricity consumers.
Mr. Heathcoat-Amory : I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mr. Hunter) on Thursday 13 February 1992, Official Report, column 588.
NATIONAL FINANCE
Customs Allowances
Mr. Harry Greenway : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his most recent estimate of revenue losses the Treasury can expect from an increase in personal allowances from 300 duty-paid cigarettes to (a) 800 duty-paid cigarettes and (b) 800 duty-paid cigarettes and 1 km of hand- rolling tobacco and 400 cigars, following the relaxation of intra-Community customs barriers in 1993.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : Travellers' allowances are due to be abolished from 1 January 1993 as part of the single market programme. The quantities referred to in the question are minimum indicative levels which have been agreed by the Council as part of a set of rules to enable member states to help distinguish commercial from private importations.
Considerable uncertainty must surround any estimate of the revenue effect of such a large relaxation of constraints on duty paid shopping. We have no estimates for the likely revenue loss from individual tobacco products. However, on the basis of the little evidence that is available, we estimate an annual loss from cross border shopping for all excise products, including alcoholic drinks, to be in the region of £ billion. Most of this loss is associated with cigarettes.
Column 81
VAT Registrations
Mrs. Currie : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list for the past five years the number of new VAT registrations in south Derbyshire, taking into account changes in the VAT registration limit.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The local VAT office in Derbyshire covers, in addition to the constituency of Derbyshire, South, parts of Leicestershire and Staffordshire. The number of VAT registrations processed by that office in the last five years is as follows :
Year |New
|registrations
------------------------------------------
1987 |2,043
1988 |2,483
1989 |2,847
1990 |2,370
1991 |1,869
Foreign Fishing Vessels
Mr. Austin Mitchell : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will take steps to ensure that owners and crews of foreign fishing vessels, registered in Britain and catching fish on British quotas, pay tax.
Mr. Maude : In general, tax is already payable by the owners and crews of foreign fishing vessels on the British register if they are resident in the United Kingdom for tax purposes or, in the case of the owners, if their profits arise through a permanent establishment in this country.
The Inland Revenue has liaison arrangements with both the Registry of Shipping and Seamen and Companies House to ensure that, as far as possible, owners or crews pay any United Kingdom tax which may be due.
Customs
Mr. Redmond : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the security classification of Customs and Excise documents found in a desk bought from second-hand dealers in Scarborough in January ; and what other Customs and Excise documents were found on the premises when officers from his Department inspected other desks that had been sent for disposal by the Customs and Excise ; and if he will make a statement.
Mrs. Gillian Shephard : The documents were not classified. All of the remaining furniture sold to the second-hand dealer was immediately examined at his premises. No further documents were found.
Income Statistics
Mr. Allen : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in work and responsible for children will have earnings below the tax threshold in the current year.
Mr. Maude : It is estimated that approximately 0.5 million families with earned income and with children are not liable to income tax in 1991- 92. These estimates are based on a projection of the 1990 family expenditure survey and are therefore provisional.
Column 82
Personal Wealth
Mr. Wigley : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish the current level of personal wealth per head of population in (a) the United Kingdom and (b) Wales.
Mr. Maude : In 1989, the most recent year available, the average marketable wealth as defined in section 11 of "Inland Revenue Statistics 1991", for the adult population, was £35,800 for the United Kingdom. I regret that figures for Wales are not available.
Car Boot Sales
Mr. Steinberg : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has of the annual turnover of car boot sales ; and what representation he has received on their taxation.
Mr. Maude : Figures are not available, and I have not received any such representations.
EC (Net Contributors)
Mr. Allason : To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which countries were net contributors to the European Community in 1991, or the latest year for which figures are available.
| Next Section
| Home Page |