§ Mr. Tim Smithasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many copies of the Budget documents were printed in 1985; how many were sent to the Vote Office; how many were made available to commercial organisations and at what charge for each; what happened to the remainder; what was the cost to the Exchequer of producing the Budget documents; and what was the total amount recovered from commercial organisations.
§ Mr. Lawson[pursuant to his reply, 26 February 1986, c. 594.]: In 1985, Her Majesty's Treasury printed 800 copies of the Budget speech, 2,000 copies of a summary of the Budget and 2,072 copies of a press notice. In addition, 1,662 copies were produced of press notices from other Government Departments. One thousand copies of the Budget summary and press notices went to the Vote Office and 150 to the Printed Paper Office. Commercial organisations were sent 180 copies of the speech, summary and press notices. They were charged £2.00, plus the HMSO charge for the financial statement and Budget report. Unused Budget documents (excluding HMSO publications) were kept in stock for a few weeks and then destroyed.
The costs to the Treasury of producing the Budget documents are not readily indentifiable from the other printing costs of the Department, but are estimated to be in the region of £3,000. All moneys received by the
32WSecondly, our share of Community expeniture (particularly FEOGA guarantee expenditure) in 1985 was lower than expcted. In 1984, for example, our share of FEOGA guarantee receipts was about 11½ per cent.; in 1985, it was about 9½ per cent.
The United Kingdom's net contribution to the Community budget in 1986 should be very much lower than in 1985. Not only will the 1986 figure reflect the £439 million abatement received in the first few days of 1986, it will also be reduced by abatements payable in 1986 under the Fontainebleau system (and worth at least 1,400 mecu, some £900 million).
The Government's latest estimate of the United Kingdom's net payments to Community institution in 1985–86 remains at £800 million, the figure published in the latest public expenditure White Paper (Cmnd. 9702).