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Corporation Tax

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are his latest estimates of the level of non-North Sea corporation tax for each of the years 1997–98 to 2002–03; how these estimates vary from those made at the time of Budget 2001; and if he will make a statement. [20301]

Dawn Primarolo: Current and Budget 2001 estimates of non-North Sea corporation tax receipts in each of the years 1997–98 to 2002–03 are:

£ billion

	Current	Budget 2001
1997–98	29.5	29.5
1998–99	29.1	29.1
1999–2000	33.2	33.2
2000–01	30.2	29.8
2001–02	29.8	34.1
2002–03	31.6	35.6

Employment Credit

Mr. Webb: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will estimate the number of (a) single childless people and (b) childless couples who will be entitled to the proposed employment credit. [21100]

Dawn Primarolo: The number of people eligible for the working tax credit will depend on the rates and thresholds, which will be set as part of the Budget 2002 process.

Government Receipts

Mr. Frank Field: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the total receipts from income tax were in each year since 1989; [20490]

(2) what were the total Government receipts from all sources minus national insurance contributions in each year since 1989; [20491]

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(3) what the total Government receipts from national insurance contributions were in each year since 1989. [20492]

Dawn Primarolo: Estimates for all the components of public sector receipts are available from the Office for National Statistics databank, which is available in the House of Commons Library.

National Insurance

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will provide a breakdown in current prices of the total sum raised in (a) employers' national insurance and (b) employees' national insurance in each year since May 1997. [20470]

Dawn Primarolo: Estimates for all the components of public sector receipts are available from the Office for National Statistics databank, which is available in the House of Commons Library.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the impact of levels of (a) employers' and (b) employees' national insurance contributions on labour productivity. [20465]

Dawn Primarolo: No specific assessment of the impact of levels of employers' and employees' national insurance contributions on labour productivity have been made. However, the Government have implemented a number of recent reforms in this area designed to ensure work pays, which should promote labour supply and employment, and thus also help improve the economy's long-term growth potential.

Chris Grayling: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the amount of money that would be raised by abolishing the upper earnings limit on national insurance contributions. [20772]

Dawn Primarolo: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave the hon. Member for Buckingham (Mr. Bercow) on 19 November 2001, Official Report, column 135W.

Uncertificated Securities Regulations

Barbara Follett: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what use has been made of the powers in the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 2001 to delegate functions to the Financial Services Authority. [21847]

Ruth Kelly: Following Parliament's approval, the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 2001 (SI 2001–3755) have replaced the Uncertificated Securities Regulations 1995. Continuing the approach under the 1995 Regulations, the Treasury has delegated to the Financial Services Authority its powers under part 2 of the Regulations, except—as required—those functions conferred on the Treasury by regulation 11 and regulation 12. This re-confirms the FSA role as supervisor of CREST as operator. The FSA is also supervisor of CREST as a recognised clearing house.

Vocational Training

Mr. Willis: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make a statement on the removal of tax relief on self-funded vocational training. [20824]

Dawn Primarolo: I have no plans to make a statement.

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PFI Projects

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what steps he is taking to increase value for money in private finance initiative projects. [20464]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Public-private partnership (including private finance initiative) projects are used where they offer better value for money than alternative procurement approaches. By providing better value (through innovation and better management of risks), the Government can deliver more public services, more quickly and to a higher standard than with public sector investment alone.

Significant improvements have been made to PFI since 1997, and the process is kept under review to ensure that lessons learned (including from NAO and PAC reports) are disseminated to Departments and other public authorities. The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), supported by Partnerships UK (PUK), is currently revising the guidance on Standardisation of PFI Contracts first published in 1999. The OGC is working with Departments to improve their delivery of all procurement projects, while PUK support is available for PPP projects in particular.

National Health Service

Laura Moffatt: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what impact the additional costs resulting from measures taken in response to the events of 11 September have had on plans for funding the expansion of the national health service. [18689]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The Department of Health in liaison with other Departments have been reviewing their contingency plans in the light of the events of 11 September. There is no impact on planned investment to deliver the NHS Plan. The Chancellor announced in the pre-Budget report an extra £1 billion for health to help ensure delivery of the NHS Plan.

Borrowing

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer which assumptions underlying his forecasts for public borrowing have been designed to be deliberately cautious, due to high levels of uncertainty; and if he will make a statement. [20217]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Box B1 on page 169 of the pre- Budget report sets out the cautious assumptions, audited by the National Audit Office, underlying the public finances projections.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his latest estimate is of public sector net borrowing for the fiscal year 2001–02 to date; what the position was at the same stage of the fiscal year 2000–01, excluding the proceeds of the sale of mobile (Spectrum) phone licences; and if he will make a statement. [20215]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The latest monthly data for public sector net borrowing in 2000–01 and 2001–02 are available in the joint HM Treasury/Office for National Statistics public sector finances first release, issued on 20 November. As explained in the background notes in the release, the receipts by Government for allowing use

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of the spectrum by mobile phone companies are treated as rent in the UK national accounts and spread evenly over the whole of the license period.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assumptions and calculations he has made in order to derive the lower estimates for financial company profits which are used to calculate the new public borrowing estimates in Table B7, page 173, of the pre-Budget report; and if he will make a statement. [20312]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The pre-Budget report describes the path of financial company profits assumed in the public finances projections in paragraph B44.

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimates of the growth of total managed expenditure for 2004 to 2007 underlie the forecasts for public borrowing as set out in Table B2, page 165, of the pre-Budget report; and if he will make a statement. [20216]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Forecasts for Total Managed Expenditure for 2004–05 to 2006–07 are determined by the assumptions for current expenditure in DEL and AME and for public sector net investment set out in paragraph B20 on page 168 of the pre-Budget report.

Public Service Agreements

Mr. Laws: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish his latest assessment of each Government Department's performance in relation to its public service agreement targets; and if he will make a statement. [20334]

Mr. Andrew Smith: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave him on 25 October 2001, Official Report, column 373W.

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