Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what change there has been in the number of people paying income tax at the (a) basic and (b) higher rate in each constituency in Northern Ireland between January 2009 and January 2014.

Estimates of the number of individuals by Northern Ireland parliamentary constituency whose highest marginal rate of income tax was the basic rate or the higher rate for the 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12 tax years are provided in the following table.

Reliable estimates for later years are not available at the parliamentary constituency level due to greater uncertainties in making projections for smaller geographical areas.

By April this year this Government's increases in the personal allowance (for those born after 5 April 1948) are estimated to have taken 83,000 people in NI out of the income tax system altogether. The income tax cuts have benefitted 680,000 people who live in Northern Ireland.

These estimates are based on the 2011-12 Survey of Personal Incomes, projected to 2014-15 using economic assumptions consistent with the Office for Budget Responsibility’s March 2014 economic and fiscal outlook.

The cash increases in the personal allowance since 2010‑11 are worth £705 to a typical basic rate payer.