The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated February 2009:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what consideration the Office for National Statistics has given to the classification of (a) local and (b) national road pricing schemes for the purposes of taxation statistics (252473).
ONS produces the United Kingdom’s National Accounts. The National Accounts are an internationally comparable accounting framework that describes the activities in a national economy, including the transactions that take place between sectors of that economy. The relevant international manuals are the System of National Accounts 1993(SNA93) and the European System of Accounts 1995 (ESA95) in particular.
As part of the process of producing the National Accounts, ONS decides on the classification of institutions and transactions within the economy. This well-established process is set out in Annex A of the National Statistics Protocol on Statistical Integration and Classification available at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/about-statistics/ns-standard/cop/protocols/index.html
Whilst ONS has not considered the classification of any proposed national road charging scheme, some other government schemes have been examined. Those examined include the London Low Emission Zone (LEZ); the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames emissions based parking charge, the London congestion charge and road/bridge toll charges.
Government revenue is mainly divided into taxes or service charges. Taxes are compulsory unrequited payments, where unrequited means that the payer does not receive anything directly in return. Service payments are requited in that they include the delivery of a service in exchange for a payment. In some instances the classification of these receipts can be difficult to interpret and the international statistical manuals recognise that “the borderline between taxes and payments for services rendered is not always clear cut in practice”. As a result ONS consider the nature of the receipts carefully before reaching a decision.
The London congestion charge and road/bridge toll charges are payments made for vehicles to use the roads within a defined zone. The charges are judged to be requited payments in line with international guidance and are therefore classified as payments for a service.
The LEZ and the London Borough of Richmond Upon Thames emissions based parking charge are classified as taxes. The LEZ charge is a compulsory payment for specific vehicles to drive within the LEZ. Although the vehicles gain access to roads within the LEZ. the charging policy relates to vehicles polluting the air within the zone rather the use of the roads. The LEZ charge on the use of the non-compliant vehicle is judged to be unrequited and classified as a tax on pollution.
Similarly, the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames's charge for a permit to park in a Controlled Parking Zone, which was implemented on 2 April 2007, is based on the emissions of the vehicle concerned. The decision to classify the charge as a tax on pollution is similar to the LEZ: the charge relates to the vehicle emissions rather than the direct consumption of a service.