Category: Chief Secretary (1987-1989)

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Public Expenditure on 21st July 1988.

Sir Richard Body To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the percentage increases or decreases on expenditure since 1979 in real terms of each of the 17 programmes of public expenditure.

Mr. Major The information requested can be derived from either table 5.8 (Planning total in real terms by Department, 1978-79 to 1990-91) or table 5.12 (Planning total in real terms by function, 1978-79 to 1990-91) in Volume I of “The Government’s Expenditure Plans 1988-89 to 1990-91” (Cm. 288).

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Empty Government Properties on 20th July 1988.

Mr. Caborn To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has any new proposals to use empty Government-owned residential properties.

Mr. Major No. It remains Government policy for dwellings that are identified as being surplus to operational requirements to be sold as quickly as possible.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Government-Owned Companies on 18th July 1988.

Mr. Gordon Brown To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table in cash terms showing, for each of the years 1979–80 to 1988–89 for each of the organisations which has been included in at least one year in the equivalent of table 4.1 of Cm. 288, all write-offs of loans, public dividend capital or other liabilities, and equivalent information on Government-owned companies.

Mr. Major Write-offs of Government loans and debt for public corporations are given in the table for the calendar years 1979-87. It is not possible to forecast write-offs for 1988-89.

Similar information for all companies that have been Government-owned in at least one year from 1979 is not held centrally and could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.

Year | Organisation Write-off (at outturn prices) | £ million
1980 | National Freight Corporation | 100
1980 | British Airways Board | 160
1981 | British Steel Corporation | 3,509
1981 | Scottish Development Agency | 2
1981 | Welsh Development Agency | 1
1982 | British Steel Corporation | 1,000
1982 | British Transport Docks Board | 81
1983 | Port of London Authority | 24
1983 | National Dock Labour Board | 24
1984 | British Telecom | 40
1986 | New Town Development Corporation | 1,591
1986 | Development Board for Rural Wales | 33

Note: There were no write-offs in 1979, 1985 or 1987.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Public Expenditure on 18th July 1988.

Mr. Gordon Brown To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for the period 1982–83 to 1990–91 (a) the public expenditure planning total on the definitions of each of the public expenditure White Papers published since 1979, (b) the general Government expenditure total on the basis of the definitions of each of the White Papers, (c) gross domestic product on the basis taken in each of the White Papers and (d) the public expenditure gross domestic product ratio in the basis of the definitions of each of the White Papers, indicating whether the numerator was based upon the planning total or general Government expenditure.

Mr. Major There have been no significant changes to the definition of the public expenditure planning total or general Government expenditure since 1979. Though the basic concepts have remained unchanged, there have been a number of detailed reclassifications, which are noted in each year’s public expenditure White Paper, which provides a nine-year span of data on consistent definitions. Tables in section 5 of the “Government’s Expenditure Plans 1988–89 to 1990–91” (Cm. 2881) include longer runs of data on a consistent basis. An article in the August 1985 issue of Economic Trends provided detailed information on “Measuring Public Expenditure” and in particular gave long runs of data for public expenditure as a percentage of GDP on the various different bases which had been used in the past. It also explained and gave figures for general Government expenditure as a percentage of GDP, the concept which has been in use by the Treasury since the 1985 Autumn Statement. Further information on “Long term trends in public expenditure” was given in the October 1987 issue of Economic Trends. It would involve a disproportionate amount of work to show for each year in the period requested what the planning total or general Government expenditure would have been using the precise classifications in force for each year’s White Paper.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Voted and Consolidated Fund Receipts on 18th July 1988.

Mr. Gordon Brown To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for 1988–89 (a) voted receipts and (b) Consolidated Fund extra receipts by Department, in a form consistent with (i) Cm. 288 and (ii) the revised basis for 1988–89.

Mr. Major Details of voted receipts and Consolidated Fund extra receipts by Department are shown in the main supply estimates for 1988–89 published on Budget day – HC 339-I-XX. The estimates booklets provide tables reconciling the supply expenditure being sought with the provision in Cm. 288 for most Departments.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on European Economies on 15th July 1988.

Mr. Wray To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will list the 10 fastest growing economies in Europe in descending order and with their corresponding percentages of growth for each year since 1979.

Mr. Major [holding answer 14 July 1988]: Information on the growth rates of Western European countries for the years in question can be found in the June 1988 OECD Economic Outlook, table RI.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on the Confederation of British Industry on 14th July 1988.

Mr. Tony Banks To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he next expects to meet the director general of the Confederation of British Industry; and what matters will be discussed.

Mr. Major My right hon. Friend meets the director general of the CBI from time to time, and a wide range of subjects are discussed. He has no specific plans to meet him in the foreseeable future.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Economy (Supply Side) on 14th July 1988.

Mr. Dykes To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he has any plans to improve the capacity of the supply side of the United Kingdom economy.

Mr. Major We have introduced a number of reforms to improve the supply performance of the economy by increasing competition and flexibility and sharpening incentives to enterprise and effort. These complement the medium-term financial strategy which sets the macro economic framework needed to control inflation and give business the confidence to expand.

Since 1979 we have cut personal tax rates sharply, bringing the basic rate down from 33p to 25p and sweeping away all higher rates above 40p; cut the main corporation tax rate to 35 per cent., one of the very lowest in the industrialised world; privatised nearly 40 per cent. of the state-owned commercial sector; trebled the number of shareholders; abolished credit controls and created one of the world’s most open, competitive capital market centres; strengthened trade union democracy; ended incomes policies; increased value for money in the public sector; and swept away a battery of bureaucratic controls and regulations. We will continue to bring forward measures of this kind.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Economic Output on 14th July 1988.

Mr. Hanky To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give the latest figures for the growth of economic output in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Major Provisional CSO estimates suggest that the output-based measure of GDP increased by 5 per cent. between the first quarter of 1987 and the first quarter of 1988.

Below is the text of Mr Major’s written Parliamentary Answer on Manufacturing Profitability on 14th July 1988.

Mr. Jack To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the rise in manufacturing profitability in 1987.

Mr. Page To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what is his estimate of the rise in manufacturing profitability in 1987.

Mr. Major I refer my hon. Friends to the reply I gave earlier today to my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Mr. Hunter).