Customs and Excise regional trade statistics : a note

United Kingdom Regional Trade In Goods Statistics, pro- duced by HM Customs and Excise, (Customs and Excise: Quarterly) provide up-to-date quarterly information on exports and imports and were introduced in 1999 “to support the economic decision-making of the devolved Scottish Parliament, Assemblies, and regional bodies within the UK.” Probing and analysis of the data which we undertook indicated a number of problems with the data, not least the wrongful inclusion in the Scottish data of a “catch all” UK category which for some industrial sectors represented almost 70% of the published Scottish data. The data, produced in the scope of National Statistics and “to high professional standards set out in the National Statistics Code of Practice”2 were therefore unusable for the stated purpose. In July 2003, a new methodology was introduced by Customs and Excise with the purpose of clearing up earlier data problems. This article considers whether the data are now fit for purpose, and concludes that many problems still exist

A policy response to the e-commerce revolution: the case of betting taxation in the UK

Several environmental changes in the 1990s – including the introduction of a national lottery, the rise of Internet gambling, and the reduction of trade barriers within the EU – induced the UK government to initiate a large-scale review of betting duty. As a result of this review, the government recently announced a significant reduction in betting taxes. They also decided to replace the current general betting duty (GBD), levied as a proportion of betting stakes, with a gross profits tax (GPT), based on the net revenue of bookmakers. We examine the economic rationale behind these decisions and demonstrate how these tax changes have broad implications regarding optimal levels of taxation for other sources of government revenue

The 2003 Money Laundering Regulations

The Money Laundering Regulations 2003 came into force in the early part of 2004 in order to implement the EU Second Money Laundering Directive. They are much wider-ranging than the 1993 Regulations, which had preceded them: in addition to banks and other financial institutions, which were already covered, and bureaux de change and money transmission offices, added in 2001, they also apply to, inter alia, lawyers, accountants, estate agents, casinos and dealers in high value goods, such as jewellers and art dealers. Dealers in high value goods, however, are only covered in respect of transactions which are of a value of at least €15,000 and, moreover, in cash. That customers will be dealt with differently, in respect of the same transaction, depending on how payment is made, is unfortunate. A threshold stated in sterling would also be preferable: jewellers are often less well used to dealing in other currencies than financial institutions. More generally, if particular care is seen as required in relation to cash transactions, the threshold should arguably be lower. The actual requirements imposed have, however, changed little: the only major change is that certain types of business now need to be registered with Customs & Excise

Circular 01/07 : quality improvement : Standards Fund 2001/02 : independent specialist colleges for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and dance and drama schools in receipt of DfES bursaries

"This circular provides information on categories of funding and the Council’s intended use of the standards fund for 2001/02 for independent specialist colleges for students with learning difficulties and/or disabilities and dance and drama schools in receipt of DfES bursaries. The circular indicates the initiatives that are being funded. These are: provider improvement; professional development; and dissemination of good practice.Application forms are attached at annexes B, C, D and E respectively. The circular also provides information about administrative arrangements for applications and the allocation of funds" -- front cover

Does it work? evaluating a new pay system

This report focuses on the evaluation of the impact of new pay systems in large, unionised multi-site organisations by the organisations themselves. Evaluation of the effectiveness of a pay system, however, does not take place in a vacuum and relates to the aims and objectives of the pay system concerned. Moreover, evaluation is not an end in itself. It is, therefore, relevant to consider if any further steps were taken as a result of evaluation. Accordingly our research questions were: • What were the aims and objectives of organisations when introducing new pay arrangements? • What data did organisations collect and review to inform their evaluation? • What steps have organisations taken as a result of their evaluation? We re-appraised our data from 10 NHS trusts in England which had introduced some innovations in pay and grading in the 1990s. Additionally, we looked at seven multi-site unionised organisations outside the NHS in both the public and private sectors, which had recently made changes to their reward systems, carrying out interviews and inspecting documents. The main output is a template for the evaluation of Agenda for Change by NHS organisations

Bringing it all back home: alcohol taxation and cross-border shopping

Taxes on alcohol are among the oldest in the UK and are still an important source of tax revenue. In 1992, for example, just prior to the completion of the Single European Market, revenues from excise duties on alcohol totalled over £5 billion, equivalent to 2 per cent on value added tax or 2.5 pence on income tax. Recently, the future of this source of revenue has become uncertain with the relaxation of limits on personal imports of excisable goods by domestic consumers and the increase in cross-border shopping. In this paper, we investigate the effect of increased cross-border shopping on the revenue return to alcohol taxation.

Report on parallel proceedings

Report of a Working Group considering the problems that arise from parallel proceedings, particularly in City fraud cases, within the national jurisdiction and ways in which those problems could be addressed. The Working Group was chaired by George Staple QC