To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the total tax liability of taxpayers in 1993–94, excluding all tax reliefs and allowances other than personal allowance, married couples' allowance, age-related allowances, additional personal allowance, widow's bereavement allowance, blind person's allowance and qualifying interest on loans for purchase or improvement of owner-occupied property, broken down into the top and bottom (a) percentile, (b) 5 per cent., (c) decile, (d) quintile and (e) half of taxpayers.

Estimates of the tax liabilities are shown in the table. No account has been taken of any behavioural changes which might result from the restriction of the reliefs.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the total costs in 1991–92 of those tax allowances and reliefs listed in table 1.9 of "Inland Revenue Statistics 1992".

I regret that a reliable estimate cannot be made.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what, in the latest year for which information is available, is (a) the total number of people, (b) the number of people over state retirement age and (c) the number of one-parent families who pay (i) income tax and (ii) VAT.

It is estimated that in 1993–94 24·5 million individuals will be liable to income tax. Of these an estimated 3·0 million are aged 65 or over and 0·5 million are single parents.VAT is chargeable on a wide range of consumer expenditure and it is likely that everybody has to pay some in the course of a year.