§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions what consideration he has given to the future pension costs of English fire authorities; if he will list the total costs for the three financial years up to 2000–01; and what he estimates those costs to be in each of the three succeeding years. [20907]
§ Dr. WhiteheadTotal net expenditure under the firefighters' pension scheme is as follows:
£million 1998–99 214.5 1999–2000 221.6 2000–01 1249.9 1Provisional In its report for the period 2001–02 to 2003–04 the local authorities' Fire Service Expenditure Forecasting Group provided the following estimates of pensions expenditure under the Central/local Partnership process.
£million 2001–02 275 2002–03 302 2003–04 332