Results 1-20 of 2,718 for speaker:Mr Howard Flight

Written Answers — Treasury: Stamp Duty (22 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what projections he has made of revenue from stamp duty on (a) property and (b) share transactions in each of the next three financial years.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: I echo the sympathy for the Minister's colleague expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Sussex (Mr. Soames). The plans for a new hospital at Pease Pottage were effectively shelved some time ago, so it is crucial that the Princess Royal hospital should remain viable. It serves the east end of my constituency and is shared with Mid-Sussex and Wealden. It is an excellent hospital and is...

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: Could I put it to the right hon. Gentleman that, rather than imploding, the next thing to happen will be that China's currency will be forced to appreciate dramatically, making it much less competitive? The alternative is for China to have more and more huge dollar balances.

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: May I add my congratulations to the Chancellor on his Budget speech? But I feel that he might be congratulating himself, too. It is irritating that under this Chancellor's stewardship, the Budget speech, which should be a fair survey of the economy and the outlook for the country, has become increasingly selective. The right hon. Member for Dumbarton (Mr. McFall) correctly upbraided the...

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: Even if companies have benefited, members of pension schemes have suffered. I discovered only recently—something that I found most disturbing—that when the Treasury was examining the issue in 1997, the argument was made that British equities were over-valued in relation to European equities because of the ACT credit, and that it would be a convenient opportunity to get rid of that...

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: I think that we are all aware of the 2 or 5 per cent. reduction in the ACT credit during the time when Lord Lamont was Chancellor. The right hon. Lady will be aware, however, that that was part of a plan to reduce the level of taxation and to bring the two into line; there was nothing secret about it. But that really misses the point, which is that a modest reduction was nothing in comparison...

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: I thank my hon. Friend for his comment; he is precisely right. Members may have looked at the OECD's analysis of the UK economy. Extraordinarily, it says that the public sector now consumes 45 per cent. of GDP, not 40 per cent., and that the deficit is 3.4 per cent. Those figures are very different from those that the Chancellor reports. The main reason is that they are calculated on the same...

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: I do not believe that anyone would. [Interruption.] I have done some very interesting jobs in my life. However, as the hon. Gentleman will know, it was Conservative Governments in the 19th century who started to introduce health and safety measures to protect people. It miscasts the issue to argue that our party has not supported such measures. However, if he is involved in any business at...

Budget Resolutions — Amendment of the Law (16 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: I hope that the hon. Gentleman will not mind my saying that such questions are rather silly. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development puts the current UK figure at 45 per cent., so no one really knows whether we are at 39, 41 or 45 per cent.—it depends on which measure is being used. It is a fact, however, that the higher it is, the lower the growth rate. We therefore...

Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury: Environment (10 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: Do the Government believe in the implicit principle of their environmental taxes—that fiscal incentives and disincentives drive behaviour in this and other areas?

Written Answers — Health: A and E (3 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) how many people attended an accident and emergency department in England in each quarter since March 2000; (2) what the average percentage of patients seen in under four hours from arrival at an accident and emergency department to admission, transfer or discharge has been in each quarter since March 2000.

Written Answers — Treasury: Savings (1 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the cost of the SavingsGateway in each of the first five years after itslaunch.

Written Answers — Treasury: Savings (1 Mar 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to the answer of 4 February 2005, Official Report, column 1186W, on savings plans, what methodology was used to calculate (a) that the estimated current cost of tax-exempt savings plans with an annual premium limit of £300 is around £70 million per year and (b) that increasing the limit to £600 per annum would cost an extra...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Incapacity Benefit (23 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) what the average time taken to process a claim for incapacity benefit was in each year since 1975; (2) what the average time taken to process a claim for income support was in each year since 1975; (3) what the average time taken to process a claim for income-based jobseeker's allowance was in each year since 1975; (4) what the...

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Benefit Claims (21 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average time taken to process a claim for council tax benefit was in each year for which figures are available.

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Housing Benefit (21 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how the processing of housing benefit by local authorities is measured in terms of (a) efficiency, (b) accuracy and (c) fraud.

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Housing Benefit (21 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how much housing benefit expenditure was overpaid by local authorities due to fraud and error in each year for which figures are available.

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Housing Benefit (21 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the average time taken to process a claim for housing benefit was in each year since 1975.

Written Answers — Work and Pensions: Jobcentre Plus (21 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what measures are in place to assess the speed, efficiency and accuracy of the provision of benefits at Jobcentre Plus.

Written Answers — Health: Accident and Emergency Services (21 Feb 2005)

Mr Howard Flight: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment he has made of the impact of the introduction of (a) the new general practitioner contract and (b) the four-hour waiting time target for accident and emergency attendances on the demand for accident and emergency services.