To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will calculate the revenue impact of imposing an additional 1 per cent. annual tax on individuals whose assets exceed £1 million. [17040]

It is not possible to assess precisely the number and wealth of millionaires in the United Kingdom at any one time. The only available estimates are derived from inheritance tax data on a year-of-death basis. On this basis it is provisionally estimated that living individuals with net marketable wealth—that is, excluding pension rights—exceeding £1 million in 1994, the latest available year, owned assets totalling £116 billion, of which 1 per cent. represents just over £1 billion.