---

Specialist Colleges

Mr. Flook: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will list the specialisms that specialist colleges will cover following the March 2002 round of funding; if the Government have a target number for (a) each of the specialisms and (b) each round of applications in future years; and what plans she has to increase the funding available for specialist colleges following the increase in the number of specialisms. [27492]

Mr. Timms: The March 2002 specialist school competition will cover all eight specialisms: business and enterprise, engineering, science, mathematics and computing, arts, languages, technology, and sport. As part of the Government's Sports Strategy there is a published target of 200 sports colleges by September 2004 but there are no target numbers for other specialisms. Our target is to have at least 830 specialist schools by September 2002, at least 1,000 by September 2003 and at least 1,500 by September 2005. The level of funding available for the specialist schools programme will take account of the Government's commitment to expand the number of specialist schools.

TREASURY

Public Corporations

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give for the end of each year from 1990 to 2000 totals for public corporations which were at the end of 2000 classified as within the public sector for tangible assets, financial assets and financial liabilities, breaking down figures for financial assets and liabilities between claims on or liabilities to central Government and other claims or liabilities. [26274]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The Treasury does not hold balance sheet information on individual public corporations. Such information can be found in the annual reports and accounts of the public corporations. "The

15 Jan 2002 : Column 223W

National Asset Register", Cm 5221, has information on the assets, but not liabilities, of individual public corporations as at end March 2000.

Tables 3.2.9 and 10.4 of "United Kingdom National Accounts", "The Blue Book", 2001 edition, and table 1.1D of "Financial Statistics", published by the Office for National Statistics, give balance sheet information for public corporations classified as such in each year shown in the tables.

Public Employee Salaries

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the earnings are of those public employees on top salaries as defined by the relevant pay review body. [26311]

Mr. Andrew Smith: The regular annual reports of the Review Body on Senior Salaries (SSRB) cover senior military officers, the judiciary and the senior civil service. Their current rates of pay, or pay ranges, are those recommended by the SSRB last year. Details of their recommendations are given in their 46th Report (Cm 4995) published on 9 February 2001. The main pay rates, produced by applying those recommendations, are as follows.

	Minima	Maxima
Senior military Officers
Four star—Range 8	130,000	152,517
Four star—Range 7	107,305	129,468
Four star—Range 6	95,000	119,128
Three star—Range 5	79,500	99,276
Three star—Range 4	77,625	88,902
Two star—Range 3	69,605	84,376
Two star—Range 2	68,610	81,134
Judiciary
Group 1	—	171,375
Group 1.1	—	163,213
Group 2	—	157,699
Group 3	—	149,897
Group 4	—	132,603
Group 5	—	107,346
Group 6.1	—	99,420
Group 6.2	—	95,666
Group 7 (London)	—	83,767
Group 7 (outside London)	—	79,767
Senior civil service
Permanent Secretaries	104,292	179,022
Pay band 9	92,696	131,276
Pay band 8	84,811	123,856
Pay band 7	77,635	116,904
Pay band 6	70,905	110,428
Pay band 5	64,768	104,292
Pay band 4	59,088	98,494
Pay band 3	53,534	87,598
Pay band 2	48,552	77,869
Pay band 1	44,038	69,178

From time to time, the SSRB also makes recommendations on other senior salaries that may be referred to them, including parliamentary pay and allowances (Cm 4997, 16 March 2001), the Greater London Authority (Cm 4547, 3 February 2000) and MEPs and the devolved Administrations (Cm 4188 and 4246, 31 March 1999) but these groups are not part of their regular annual process.

15 Jan 2002 : Column 224W

EU Budget Contribution

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the latest figures are for the United Kingdom contribution to the European budget in each year since 1973 at current prices. [26107]

Ruth Kelly: Details of the United Kingdom's net contributions to the EC budget for the period 1973–74 to 1999–2000 can be obtained from various departmental reports of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Departments or, prior to 1992, Government Expenditure Plans. The net contribution figure for 2000–01 can be found at footnote 2 to Table B13 of the November 2001 pre- Budget report (Cm 5318).

Personal Savings

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent assessment he has made of the level of personal savings. [26118]

Ruth Kelly: In recent years the stock of households' financial assets has been at record levels in relation to disposable income.

Private Finance Initiative

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list by Department the capital expenditure under the Private Finance Initiative in each of the last four years and his estimate for the next four years (a) in real terms and (b) in cash. [26101]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Detailed figures setting out estimates of capital investment by the private sector in support of PFI deals (both signed and those at preferred bidder) have been published annually in the Financial Statement and Budget report.

Public Expenditure

Matthew Taylor: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to his answer of 19 December 2001, Official Report, column 328W, on public expenditure, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the change between the projections for (a) Adjustments for Public Corporations and (b) Adjustments for expenditure financed by receipts for 2001–02 in Table 15 of the pre-Budget report 2001 and the projections made in Table B20 of the pre-Budget report 2000; and if he will make a statement. [26915]

Mr. Andrew Smith: Changes to the projections for these items, between the pre-Budget report 2001 and the pre-Budget report 2000, are partly due to a re-estimation of the size of these items in light of new outturn information and partly due to revisions to their definitions mirroring changes to various public sector national accounts aggregates made in the 2001 UK National Accounts Blue Book published on 25 September 2001. The largest of these changes is described in the footnotes to table B13 of the pre-Budget report 2001.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list for each of the nations and regions of the United Kingdom the amount of public money spent per capita in each of the last four years. [27932]

15 Jan 2002 : Column 225W

Mr. Andrew Smith: Information on identifiable public expenditure per head by country and region is given in Tables 8.2b to 8.6b, 8.10 and 8.12 of "Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2001–02" (Cm 5101) published in April 2001.

EU Budget

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of the EU budget is spent on (a) agriculture support, (b) the Social Fund and (c) the Regional Fund. [26106]

Ruth Kelly: The latest published outturn figures for total payments made from the General Budget of the European Communities relate to 2000. However, these do not include a breakdown of structural spending by instrument.

In the financial year 2000 agricultural expenditure (EAGGF Guarantee section) amounted to 40.4 billion euro and constituted approximately 48.4 per cent. of total payments.

In 2000 approximately 27.6 billion euro, or 33.1 per cent. of total payments, was spent on Category 2 (structural operations) which includes both the European Social Fund and the European Regional Development Fund.

Insider Dealing

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proposals he has to amend legislation in relation to the offence of insider dealing. [26270]

Ruth Kelly: The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 introduced a new civil market abuse regime to complement existing insider dealing and other criminal legislation. The Government have no further plans to amend the legislation in this area, although some adjustment of the UK legislation may be necessary when and if the proposed European Market Abuse Directive is agreed.

Mr. Bercow: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation relating to insider trading. [27444]

Ruth Kelly: The Government are committed to ensuring that UK financial markets are, and are seen to be, a safe and fair environment in which to trade. Insider dealing is a criminal offence under the Criminal Justice Act 1993. The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, which came into force on 1 December last year, introduced a new civil market abuse regime to complement existing insider dealing and other criminal legislation. Under the new provisions, the FSA can impose financial penalties on, and publicly censure, those who abuse markets, including through misuse of information. The FSA can also now investigate and prosecute insider dealing offences under the Criminal Justice Act 1993.

---