§ Mr. Dodsworthasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing the amount of subsidy and compensation given to each nationalised industry, specifying the purpose over the last 10 years and over the last 12 months.
§ Mr. Joel Barnett:Amounts paid by Central Government in the 10 financial years to 1973–74 are given in the first column of the table below. Payments in the 11 completed months of the current financial year are shown in the second column.
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£ million 1964–65 to 1973–74 April 1974 to February 1975 British Railways Board— Deficit grants … … … 675.4 — Infrastructure grants … … … 30.3 21.1 Grants towards costs of unremunerative services† … … … 344.6 142.9 Surplus track grants … … … 42.8 — Research and development … … … 6.3 1.6 Grants towards costs of installing automatic level crossings … … … 0.7 — Grants under Transport (Grants) Act 1972 … … … 27.0 — Cash flow shortfall grants … … … 137.0 182.0 Pension funding deposit grant … … … — 34.7 Compensation for Public Service Obligation … … … — 52.4 British Waterways Board— Deficit grants … … … 20.5 5.4 Grant towards capital expenditure on bridges … … … 4.8 1.3 London Transport Board—‡ Deficit grants … … … 41.2 — National Freight Corporation— Freight sundries grant … … … 42.7 — National Bus Company—§ New bus grants║ … … … 19.6 8.1 Rural bus grants║ … … … 0.8 — Grants under Transport (Grants) Act 1972 … … … 7.0 — Scottish Transport Group—§ Grants towards the deficits of David MacBrayne Ltd. in return for the provision of approved services … … … 3.1 0.6 New bus grants║ … … … 3.1 1.0 Rural bus and ferry grants║ … … … 1.5 0.3 Capital grants towards provision of ferry terminals … … … 0.2 — * These payments made in 1974–75 arc wholly in respect of 1973–74 deficits. † Payments to passenger transport executives in respect of their payments for BR services are included. ‡The LTB ceased to be a nationalised industry on 1st January 1970. § Grants towards bus fuel duty are excluded. Since this table covers specific central Government grants only, local authority subsidies to bus services are also excluded, except for the central Government contribution to local authority subsidies to rural bus services. ║ These grants are also available to other operators in the industry.