§ Mr. Skeetasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what are the accumulated losses of State corporations since 1946.
§ Mr. HigginsI take my hon. Friend's reference to the State corporations to mean the nationalised industries as listed in Table 2.8 of last year's Public Expenditure White Paper, Cmnd. 5778, and their predecessor bodies.
The annual accounts of these bodies to the end of 1971–72—end-December 1971 for transport industries—as pre- 326W sented to Parliament, show that over the whole period since 1946, after excluding grants from the Government to meet deficits incurred on current account, they made a total surplus of £1,750 million, offset by total deficits of £2,430 million, giving a net deficit of £680 million.