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9 Mar 2006 : Column 1751W—continued
Local Government Finance
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what proportion of local government revenue expenditure was financed through council tax in each year since 1996–97; and what the estimate is for 2005–06. [56104]
Mr. Woolas: The percentage of local government revenue expenditure financed through council tax in England in each year since 1996–97 and the estimated figure for 2005–06 is listed in the following table.
| Percentage | |
|---|---|
| 1996–97 | 22 |
| 1997–98 | 24 |
| 1998–99 | 25 |
| 1999–00 | 25 |
| 2000–01 | 25 |
| 2001–02 | 25 |
| 2002–03 | 25 |
| 2003–04 | 25 |
| 2004–05 | 26 |
| 2005–06 | 25 |
Source:
Revenue Summary (RS) returns to 2004 05 and Revenue Accounts (RA) budget
returns for 2005–06.
The table is produced on a non-Financial Reporting Standard (FRS17) basis.
The definition of local government revenue expenditure used here is that expenditure funded from Aggregate External Finance (AEF), council tax and authorities' reserves. AEF is central government revenue funding that comprises Formula grant
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(Revenue Support Grant, Redistributed business rates and Police Grant), General Greater London Authority (GLA) Grant and specific grants inside AEF, i.e. revenue grants paid for council's core services.
Comparisons across years may not be valid due to changing local authority responsibilities.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the timetable is for (a) the last date for local authorities, including police and fire, to notify his Department of their budgets and council tax precepts for 2006–07, (b) the publication by his Department of outturn council tax figures for 2006–07 and (c) the notification and designation of local authorities for capping in 2006–07. [56180]
Mr. Woolas: The information is as follows:
(a) Local authorities are required, under section 52Y(3) of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, to provide a completed Budget Requirement return to the Department within seven days of setting their budget requirement. In practice, the deadlines for the returns being received by the Department are 7 March each year for major precepting authorities (including single-service police and fire authorities) and 17 March for billing authorities.
(b) The Department expects to publish budgeted council tax figures for 2006–07 in a statistical release on Monday 27 March. The figures should not change between budget and outturn unless a local authority subsequently sets a substitute budget under sections 31 or 49 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992.
(c) My right hon. Friend, the Deputy Prime Minister, intends to determine capping principles after authorities have set their budget requirements.
Local Government Pension Scheme
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what estimate he has made of (a) the valuation of the Local Government Pension Scheme in England and Wales and (b) the proportion of liabilities which were funded as of March 2005. [56101]
Mr. Woolas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 16 June 2005, Official Report, column 548W.
The most recent funding position was determined at the last actuarial valuation of the Local Government Pension Scheme funds on 31 March 2004. There will be no further update until the next actuarial valuation takes place on 31 March 2007.
Local Government Restructuring
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what the cost was of restructuring local government in the Humberside county council area. [49821]
Mr. Woolas:
Information on the costs of restructuring local government is not held centrally. However, resources in the form of unsupported Supplementary Credit Approvals (SCAs) were available to reorganised authorities to meet the one off indirect costs of reorganisation. In the Humberside county council area these were as follows.
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Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will list the meetings that the Minister for Local Government has had with local authority (a) officials and (b) representatives on local government restructuring in the last 12 months. [54532]
Mr. Woolas: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) on 2 March 2006, Official Report, columns 941–42W.
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the Answer to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman) of 22 November 2005, Official Report, column 1875W, on unitary local government, whether the Government has commissioned further research into the cost of local government restructuring since 22 November 2005. [50910]
Mr. Woolas: The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister is in the process of commissioning research into the cost and benefits of a potential local government restructuring.
Local Government Wages
Mr. Pickles: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister pursuant to the answer of 16 February 2006, Official Report, column 2240W, to the hon. Member for Meriden (Mrs. Spelman), on local government wages, what estimate he has made of the cost of the local government pay bill for other local government staff, including (a) national insurance employer contributions and (b) pension costs in each year since 1998–99. [56048]
Mr. Woolas: The estimated cost of (a) employer national insurance contributions and (b) employer pension contributions for other local government staff 1 since 1998–99 is tabled as follows:
(43)This figure is pay only, as reported by local authorities and excludes national insurance employer contributions, employers' pension contributions, and employee related costs, but including overtime payments, bonuses, golden handshakes etc.
(44)This covers employers' pension fund contributions for funded and notionally funded schemes, and should cover non-funded pension scheme payments, net of pension contributions made by employees. Net payments only in respect of commutations, refunds of contributions, and transfer values etc. relating to such schemes are also included.
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Figures are estimated from the Subjective Analysis Return (SAR), part of the Revenue Outturn (RO) suite of forms collected by ODPM from local authorities. The SAR is a sample survey and collects information from 121 authorities in England. The data have been grossed up to provide estimates for England as a whole.
Comparisons across years may not be valid due to changes in the method of reporting the information. In particular, the outturn data for 1996–97 to 2002–03 have been calculated on a non-FRS (financial reporting standard) 17 basis while the outturn data for 2003–04 and 2004–05 have been calculated on an FRS 17 basis. Hence, figures for different years may not be directly comparable.
All data are as published in local government financial statistics or in national statistics releases as available from http://www.local.odpm.gov.uk/finance/stats/index.htm.
All figures are for England only.
1 'Other local government staff' includes chief executives, chief financial officers, fire support staff, all non-teachers working in education as well as all other local government employees.
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