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Profit-related Pay Schemes

Mr. Mike O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what evaluation his Department has undertaken of profit-related pay schemes during the last two years; and what is his evaluation of the success of the scheme in achieving the objectives intended for it. [8309]

Mr. Jack: An independent survey of the tax relief for profit-related pay was commissioned by the Inland Revenue, the Department of Employment and the Treasury and was published in May 1995. The survey suggested that tax relief had stimulated significant additional take-up of profit-related pay.

17 Jan 1996 : Column: 606

Save-as-you-earn Share Options Schemes

Mr. Mike O'Brien: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many employees were involved in save-as-you-earn share option schemes in each year since 1980; how many employees use the savings and bonus to purchase shares and at what cost to public funds; and how many employees take out the savings and bonus without buying shares and at what cost to public funds. [8308]

Mr. Jack: Estimates of the cost of income tax relief for options exercised under approved savings-related share option schemes, and the number of employees to whom options were granted are published in table 6.1 of "Inland Revenue Statistics 1995", a copy of which is the Library.

The number of employees who exercised options is given in the table.

Year	Number exercising options (thousands)
1984-85	20
1985-86	25
1986-87	65
1987-88	60
1988-89	70
1989-90	100
1990-91	175
1991-92	165
1992-93	190
1993-94	240

An estimate of the number of employees who take out their savings and bonus without buying shares is not available, but the cost of tax relief for the related save-as-you-earn accounts is included in the estimated cost of SAYE shown in table B.1 of "Inland Revenue Statistics".

Labour Statistics

Mr. Meacher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list (a) the total number of adults of working age, (b) the total in employment, (c) the total who were unemployed and (d) the total in employment as a percentage of the total number of adults for each year since 1966. [8528]

Mrs. Angela Knight: Available information relating to 1971-95 is given in the following table.

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United Kingdom (seasonally adjusted)

	Population(2)	Workforce in employment(3)	Unemployed (claimant count)	Workforce in employment as a percentage of the population(2)
June of each year	Thousands	Thousands	Thousands	Percentage
1971	32,548	24,661	859	76
1972	32,558	24,636	727	76
1973	32,580	25,209	534	77
1974	32,583	25,280	513	78
1975	32,626	25,183	780	77
1976	32,757	24,946	1,095	76
1977	32,945	24,970	1,159	76
1978	33,173	25,115	1,150	76
1979	33,436	25,492	1,067	76
1980	33,607	25,445	1,274	76
1981	33,780	24,477	2,176	72
1982	33,934	24,039	2,521	71
1983	34,199	23,758	2,805	69
1984	34,480	24,412	2,897	71
1985	34,676	24,692	3,019	71
1986	34,846	24,719	3,120	71
1987	35,029	25,248	2,836	72
1988	35,166	26,137	2,294	74
1989	35,292	26,945	1,786	76
1990	35,391	27,198	1,615	77
1991	35,469	26,313	2,301	74
1992	35,533	25,738	2,735	72
1993	35,589	25,348	2,920	71
1994	35,689	25,478	2,645	71
1995	35,760	25,722	2,314	72

Notes:

(2) Men aged 16 to 64 and women aged 16 to 59 years.

(3) Includes employees in employment, self-employed, HM forces and those on work-related Government training programmes.

Source:

CSO (LMSG) and OPCS.

17 Jan 1996 : Column: 607

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Unemployment Benefit (Seaham and Peterlee)

Mr. Cummings: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in the Seaham and Peterlee areas are in receipt of unemployment benefit. [9505]

Mrs. Angela Knight: In November 1995, the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits--unemployment benefit, income support or national insurance credits--numbered 1,303 in the Employment Service local office area of Seaham and 1,833 in the Peterlee local office area. These figures are not seasonally adjusted.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Fisher: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the use of the private finance initiative in the purchase of information technology by Government Departments. [7896]

Mr. McAllion: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the use of the private finance initiative in the purchase of information technology by Government Departments. [7918]

Mr. Jack: On 22 December, my right hon. Friend the Deputy Prime Minister announced the appointment of Graham Jordan as head of the new unit set up to co-ordinate a strategic approach to information technology across Government. At the core of this approach will be the use of the private finance initiative. With Government spending over £2 billion a year on IT, there are many exciting opportunities to improve public services in this area through the involvement of the private sector. The private finance panel has already identified around 150 potential IT private finance initiative projects.

17 Jan 1996 : Column: 608

Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood

Mr. Tony Banks: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give an itemised breakdown of the costs of maintaining the Central Chancery of the Order of Knighthood in 1994-95. [8913]

Mr. Kenneth Clarke: The breakdown for 1994-95 is shown in the table.

	£000
Insignia	204
Staff	201
Printing	92
Capital equipment	16
Maintenance	12
Stationery	8
VAT	53
Less receipts	(26)
Total	560

Extra-statutory Concessions

Mr. Tim Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many extra-statutory concessions will remain in effect following enactment of clause 186 and schedule 35 of the Finance Bill. [9292]

Mr. Jack: There are 207 published extra-statutory concessions. Clause 186 and schedule 35 of the Bill will enact 11 of these. A further five will be enacted by other provisions in the Bill.

Local Government Finance

Mr. Llwyd: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what is the estimated level of Government financial support for each local authority, for England and for the United Kingdom in constant prices for (a) 1994-95, (b) 1995-96 and (c) 1996-97, indicating the percentage yearly change in each case and the overall cumulative

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change (i) net of community care and the estimated cost of local government reorganisation and (ii) including community care and where appropriate the estimated cost of local government reorganisation; [8886]

(2) what is the estimated level of Government financial support for each of the new unitary local authorities and for Scotland as a whole in constant prices for (a) 1994-95, (b) 1995-96 and (c) 1996-97, indicating the percentage yearly change in each case and the overall cumulative change (i) net of community care and the estimated cost of local government reorganisation and (ii) including community care and the estimated cost of local government reorganisation. [8887]

Mr. Waldegrave: Central Government support to local authorities comprises:

17 Jan 1996 : Column: 610

grants within aggregate external finance, which represent central Government's contribution towards the cost of core local authority services such as education and community care. They include revenue support grant, non-domestic rates redistributed to authorities from the national pools and certain grants in respect of specific services;
current specific grants outside AEF, notably in respect of housing benefit and mandatory student awards;
capital grants; and
credit approvals.

Table 6.7 of the "Financial Statement and Budget Report 1996-97" (HC 30) set out the Government's plans for total support to local authorities and their components. The table shows those figures in the form requested, including and excluding Department's latest plans for support in respect of local government reorganisation and the current costs of community care. The capital costs of community care are not separately identified.

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Table 1: Central Government support to local authorities at 1994-95 prices: United Kingdom

				Yearly change		Cumulative
	1994-95	1995-96	1996-97	1995-96 per cent.	1996-97 per cent.	change per cent.
Including reorganisation and community care	61,254	60,438	58,725	-1.3	-2.8	-4.1
Excluding reorganisation and community care	59,771	58,239	56,074	-2.6	-3.7	-6.2

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Some of these elements are distributed by Departments with responsibilities spanning Great Britain. Not all of these Departments have yet allocated their spending plans for 1996-97 between the countries of the Union. It is therefore not presently possible to break down the United Kingdom figure for support for that year. This information will be included in the statistical supplement to the "Financial Statement and Budget Report", to be published in February.

The table shows the figures which are available.

Table 2: Central Government support to local authorities at 1994-95 prices

	1994-95	1995-96(4)	Change
	£	£	Per cent.
England
Including reorganisation and community care	50,218	49,074	-2.3
Excluding reorganisation and community care	48,939	47,237	-3.5
Scotland
Including reorganisation and community care	7,292	7,219	-1.0
Excluding reorganisation and community care	7,174	7,017	-2.2

(4) Figures shown in this column are not necessarily consistent with table 1 above, which is based on later information which was not broken down between the countries of the Union.

Grants and credit approvals are distributed to local authorities by a number of different Departments. Figures for the total support provided to each authority could therefore only be collated at disproportionate expense.

17 Jan 1996 : Column: 610

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