VAT is intended to fall on a wide range of consumer expenditure. Moreover, our obligations under European Community VAT law preclude our introducing any new relief. To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has any plans to remove value added tax from boatway and slipway refurbishments needed for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. Such refurbishments have been zero-rated for VAT since 1984. My right hon.
Friend has no plans to vary the position.
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the proportion of loans given to industry by Britain's main clearing banks which had repayment periods longer than four years for each year since 1979. Figures are not collected centrally by the Government. Work on investigating avoidance schemes is continuous and widespread. Departmental Ministers announce their own decisions on relocation venues once the essential processes of assessment and consultation have been completed. However, I refer the hon.