§ Mr. Frank FieldTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what extra revenue would be raised for the National Health Service if the weekly contribution from those in work were raised to its 1962–63 level of 17.2 per cent. of the National Health Service budget; and to what level weekly national insurance contributions would have to rise to meet this level of funding.
§ Mr. Newton[holding answer 21 January 1988]: An increase to 17.2 per cent. in the proportion of National Health Service net spending in Great Britain funded by the NHS contribution would have involved an extra £715 million being met from this source in 1987–88. The proportion of net spending funded by general taxation would have fallen correspondingly to 79 per cent. of the total. Such a change, if applied equally to employees and employers, would have required class 1 contribution rates in each case to be 0.2 per cent. higher.