PMQT Written Answers – 31 January 1992
Below is the text of the written answers relating to Prime Minister’s Question Time from 31st January 1992.
PRIME MINISTER:
Departmental Management
Mr. Allen : To ask the Prime Minister if he will list (i) for those Departments with a financial management initiative management system (a) the name in each case, (b) when it was established and (c) the name of the Minister who has direct supervision of the system; and (ii) those Departments which do not have a financial management initiative management system.
Mr. MacGregor : I have been asked to reply.
This information is not held centrally and the question should be addressed to individual Ministers.
Western Sahara
Mr. Fatchett : To ask the Prime Minister whether he intends to discuss the future status of the western Sahara during his forthcoming meeting at the United Nations; and if he will make a statement.
Mr. MacGregor : I have been asked to reply.
The subject may arise in discussion in the margins of the special meeting of the United Nations Security Council, but there is unlikely to be time for any detailed discussions of regional issues at the meeting itself.
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
Mr. Flynn : To ask the Prime Minister if he will make it his policy at the forthcoming special meeting of the United Nations permanent members of the Security Council on proliferation (a) to establish agreed criteria for the completion of a comprehensive nuclear test ban treaty, (b) to urge President Mitterrand to finalise French membership of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty and to halt nuclear testing in the Polynesian islands in the Pacific and (c) to establish the basis for the United Kingdom to fulfil its obligations under article VI of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty to negotiate nuclear disarmament with other treaty signatory states.
Mr. MacGregor : I have been asked to reply. The main purpose of today’s special meeting of the UN Security Council is to reaffirm the importance of the UN’s role in maintaining international peace and security. This may include discussion of arms control agreements. However, we have no plans to raise the issues referred to in the question.
Tax (Wales)
Mr. Gwilym Jones : To ask the Prime Minister what is the total tax paid by the people of Wales, including to local councils; what is the total expenditure from that taxation in Wales by Government, local councils and all other bodies so financed including the relevant proportion for Wales of any expenditure on a wider basis; and what these figures are per head of the Welsh population.
Mr. Mellor : I have been asked to reply. Information on the total tax paid by people in Wales is not available. Information is, for example, not available for capital gains tax. Data is available on income tax payments and the latest information, which relates to 1988-89, is given in table 2.10 of the 1991 issue of Inland Revenue Statistics. Precise figures for receipts from indirect tax payments paid by people in Wales are not available but it is estimated that the Welsh share of United Kingdom taxes collected by HM Customs and Excise in 1990-91 was about £2 billion. The latest information on community charge and non-domestic rate payments indicates that at 31 March 1991 local authorities had received an estimated £360 million (£125 per head) in community charges for 1990-91 and that payments of non-domestic rates by businesses for 1990-91 were an estimated £430 million (£150 per head) at the same date. Information on general government expenditure in Wales in 1990-91, other than that incurred for the benefit of the UK as a whole, is given in tables E6a and E6b of appendix E of the statistical supplement to the 1991 Autumn Statement (Cm. 1920).