§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if trust ports classified as public corporations are required to remit an annual dividend to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. [100699]
§ Ruth KellyIt is for the Department for Transport to determine whether any trust ports classified as public corporations should be required to remit an annual dividend. Any dividend would be payable to the Department for Transport.
§ Mr. ChopeTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer pursuant to his answer of 16 December 2002,Official Report, column 597W, if he will place in the Library the information held by the Office of National Statistics concerning the retrospective classification of trust ports as public corporations. [100702]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from John Pullinger to Christopher Chope, dated 4 March 2003:
The National Statistician has been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question regarding information held by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) concerning the retrospective classification of Trust Ports as public corporations. I am replying in his absence. (100702)The ONS has been working on the basis of published Annual Accounts and legislation on individual Trust Ports supplied by the Department for Transport. ONS does not hold any information of its own on Trust Ports. As stated in earlier replies, major Trust Ports have been reclassified as public corporations in National Accounts. We are continuing to examine the information about smaller ports to identify whether they should be private and public corporations.