RT HON ALISTAIR DARLING, MR DAVE RAMSDEN AND MR MARK BOWMAN

29 APRIL 2009

  Q360  Ms Keeble: Well, is it?

  Mr Bowman: We can clarify that.

  Mr Darling: I was concerned when I read the exchange yesterday because I had always understood that it was the JSA that everybody was entitled to after 13 weeks, and my strong advice from my officials, and I have no reason to believe they are not right, is that you do. I will put it this way, that, were that not to be the case, then I will almost certainly tell you, but I believe that after 13 weeks, if you are on JSA, you can apply for this help.

  Q361  Ms Keeble: I think that is going to be news for my Jobcentre Plus. I notice, on page 152, that next year the extra spend on that is not in any longer. Is that because it is only a temporary measure or is it because you do not expect any increase in the cost to the Exchequer?

  Mr Darling: I will ask Mark, but what the table shows is changes on year.

  Q362  Ms Keeble: Yes, and I was not sure whether that was just because you do not expect it to cost any more in 10/11 or if that is because it is only a temporary measure, the 13 weeks, and whether you have not budgeted it in for the future year.

  Mr Bowman: The measure that is costed in here is the cost of maintaining the interest rate at a higher level.

  Mr Darling: That is the 6%.

  Q363  Ms Keeble: To ask one question on the Asset Protection Scheme, yesterday you will have seen the exchange when your officials said that they did not know yet how much the losses might be on the Asset Protection Scheme. I wondered if you were concerned about that because the potential knock on the public finances, which I understand colleagues have been asking about earlier, could be very considerable.

  Mr Darling: I did not take that from the exchange. We have made an estimate of what we think the losses are.

  Q364  Ms Keeble: The global losses?

  Mr Darling: No, our losses.

  Mr Ramsden: The global losses to the Exchequer from all the schemes are in the range of 1.5 to 3.5% and we have provisioned for 3.5% in our debt projections.

  Q365  Ms Keeble: That is right, yes, that is for all of them, but what was also said specifically on the Asset Protection Scheme was that there was not a separate disaggregated figure just for that.

  Mr Darling: I know what you are getting at.

  Q366  Ms Keeble: I wondered what the concerns were, if you had particular concerns about that, and when you expect to have some more concrete figures specifically for that scheme.

  Mr Darling: I think the answer to that is that I announced the Asset Protection Scheme in January. We announced that RBS and Lloyds would be taking up the scheme and I indicated the order of magnitude of the extent of their taking it up in March, and you will remember that I gave a statement to the House in relation to both of these. We are now going through in absolute detail the assets which are to be insured. Now, inevitably, when you are trying to insure an asset at the moment, the price changes quite a lot and there is a lot of diligence to be done, and there is also a fair amount of work to be done yet and, when that is completed, obviously we will know a lot more. The point that, I think, was being made yesterday is that, because we got into this before many other countries, we are a lot further down the line and we have a further idea. Of course, I will keep the House informed as to what the position is, consistent also with the fact that I do not want to get into a situation where I am commercially disadvantaging the banks in which we happen to have shareholdings.

  Q367  Chairman: Chancellor, this is just a technical question. Your revenue projections of what will be raised with the 50 pence tax, does that include any impact on the revenues from indirect taxes and the high earners spending less? If you do not have that answer right now, which I do not think you will have, maybe your officials can convey it to us.

  Mr Darling: You asked for a note yesterday and we will of course oblige. [4]

  Q368 Chairman: Your first question again in terms of the money for the banking bail-out, the automatic stabilisers and the other discretionary spending, I was not too sure with absolute clarity on that, so could you provide us with some answers on that again?

  Mr Darling: On the?

  Q369  Chairman: On the figures for the banking bail-out and the automatic stabilisers because we want that for our Report.

  Mr Darling: On the banking support, I think we had better send you a note on that because there are a number of schemes and they are not all spending, some of them are guarantees. [5]

  Chairman: Well, we need it for our Report, Chancellor. On that very point, can I thank you for your attendance.

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