To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what progress has been made in implementing the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Ombudsman in her report “Tax Credits: Putting Things Right” (June 2005); whether the Government have (a) accepted and (b) implemented each recommendation; and if he will make a statement. (118841)

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the reply I gave him on 7 November 2006, Official Report column 1041W.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate his Department has made of the levels of (a) fraud, (b) customer error and (c) official error relating to tax credits in each year since 2001 in (i) percentage terms and (ii) cash terms; and if he will make a statement. (117936)

I refer the hon. Gentleman to the ‘Comptroller and Auditor General's Standard Report on the Accounts of the Inland Revenue 2002-03’ available at www.nao.org.uk and to the ‘Child and Working Tax Credits, Error and Fraud Statistics 2003-04’ available at www.hmrc.qov.uk. Estimates for future years will be published annually.

Amounts written off due to official error are included in the remissions figure in HMRCs accounts.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will instruct Mr. Richard Summersgill, director of the Tax Credit Office, to take telephone calls from hon. and right hon. Members, and to respond personally to their letters. (119282)

The director of the Tax Credit Office (TCO) and his deputies are always ready to take personal calls from hon. and right hon. Members. TCO has no record of any such approaches.

TCO provides a hotline facility which hon. Members are encouraged to call to discuss matters relating to their constituents’ tax credits claims

Correspondence about constituents’ tax credits affairs are normally dealt with by technical experts who are best suited to deal with individual cases based in Liverpool, Belfast or Preston who usually respond directly to hon. Members.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many inquiries the Tax Credit Hotline has received in each month since its inception. (119283)

For the number of calls answered by the Tax Credit Office MP Hotline up to the end of 2005 I refer the hon. Gentleman to the answer I gave the hon. Member for St. Albans (Anne Main) on 21 March 2006, Official Report, column 348W. The MP hotline answered around 17,000 calls in 2006. Figures for January 2007 are not yet available.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people have received overpayments of tax credits in Morecambe and Lunesdale since the beginning of the scheme. (118017)

Estimates for 2003-04 and 2004-05 of the numbers of in-work families with tax credits awards, including information on overpayments and underpayments by constituency, based on final family circumstances and incomes for 2003-04 and 2004-05 are published in “Child and Working Tax Credits. Finalised Awards 2003-04 Geographical Analysis” and the “Child and Working Tax Credits. Finalised Awards 2004-05 Geographical Analysis”. These publications and provisional estimates for the number of in-work families by constituency with tax credit awards as at selected dates in 2005-06 are available on the HMRC website at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/personal-tax-credits/cwtc-geog-stats.htm.

Information on number of in-work families, with overpayments in 2005-06 will not be available until May 2007, after circumstances and incomes have been finalised.

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on recovering tax credit overpayments from individuals and households who are no longer in receipt of credits when the overpayment is identified; and if he will make a statement. (118636)

HMRC’s policy on tax credit overpayments is set out in their code of practice 26 “What happens if we have paid you too much tax credit?”