Chamber and committees

In-year changes to the Scottish Budget for the years 1999-2000 and 2000-01 are set out in the Autumn, Winter and Spring Revisions for both years.

The table sets out the employers' and employees' National Insurance Contributions (NICs) for the core Scottish Executive, Associated Departments and Agencies.

	1999-2000			2000-01 (estimate)
	Employees NICs	Employers NICs	Total NICs	Employees NICs	Employers NICs	Total NICs
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Scottish Executive Core	£4,173	£5,859	£10,032	£4,896	£6,979	£11,875
Other Agencies and Associated Departments*	£1,483	£1,776	£3,259	£1,561	£1,934	£3,495
Scottish Court Service	£864	£919	£1,783	£918	£1,031	£1,949
Scottish Prison Service	£6,662	£6,947	£13,609	£6,859	£6,265	£13,124
Historic Scotland	£760	£859	£1,619	£751	£882	£1,633
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service	£1,256	£1,670	£2,926	£1,343	£1,750	£3,093
Registers of Scotland	£1,366	£1,476	£2,842	£1,434	£1,587	£3,021

*Comprises: National Archives of Scotland, General Register Office for Scotland, Food Standards Agency, Scottish Agricultural Science Agency, Student Awards Agency, Scottish Public Pension Agency, Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency.

Excluded from the figures are contributions made in respect of Scottish Executive staff who are on loan or secondment to other bodies, e.g. CICA, Scotland office etc, but we can let you have these if you think they should be included.

There are no significant charges or taxes other than VAT and NICs that are paid to HM Treasury directly from the Scottish Budget.

The tangible fixed assets of the Scottish Executive, its associated departments and its agencies are valued in accordance with the principles set out in the Resource Accounting Manual.The annual accounts of each body state the detailed accounting policies, including the basis of valuation, of each class of fixed asset. The 1999-2000 annual accounts of agencies have been published. The resource accounts for the core department and associated departments will shortly be laid before the Parliament.

Non-departmental public bodies vary in their accounting procedures and many, such as Advisory NDPBs, have no budget responsibilities. Annual reports and accounts are the main vehicles by which NDPBs discharge their accountability functions to enable the Parliament, the taxpayer and customers to judge whether the NDPB is securing value-for-money in its operations. Annual reports and accounts are not held centrally. A compilation of NDPB financial information, including total gross expenditure and amount funded by Government can be found in the annual publication Public Bodies, the latest version of which was released in December 2000. This edition of Public Bodies is available from the Parliament's Reference Centre and this and previous editions are available from the Cabinet Office website at www.cabinet-office.gov.uk/quango/index/pubs.htm.

Amendments to the 2000-01 Scottish Budget are set out in the Autumn, Winter and Spring Revisions documents.

The table below sets out the latest available average class size in (a) primary one, (b) primary two, (c) primary three and (d) primary four from the 1999 school census. The figures relate to single stage classes in publicly funded schools.

Primary 1	24
Primary 2	25.4
Primary 3	26.4
Primary 4	27.0

The following table provides details of the Scottish Executive Accruing Superannuation Liability Charges to the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme for its core, Associated Departments and Agencies for 1999-2000 and 2000-01 and the estimated figures for 2001-02, 2002-03 and 2003-04.

ASLC COSTS FOR FINANCIAL YEARS 99-00 - 03-04
	1999-2000	2000-2001*	2001-2002	2002-2003	2003-2004
SE Core	£12,958,752	£14,197,437	£14,943,300	£15,764,900	£16,875,100
Other Agencies and Associated Departments	£4,599,644	£4,888,315	£5,158,286	£5,398,473	£5,696,227
Scottish Courts Service	£1,700,000	£1,840,000	£1,900,000	£1,950,000	£2,020,000
Registers of Scotland	£2,548,008	£2,550,179	£2,852,911	£2,964,742	£3,077,402
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service **	£3,188,365	£3,301,859	£3,672,056	£3,782,218	£3,895,684
Scottish Prison Service	£14,709,000	£14,268,000	£14,494,000	£14,932,000	£15,383,000

* the total has been projected to include an estimate for March 2001** 2000/01 total includes an estimate for Jan - Mar 01.

The first National Asset Register was published in November 1997 to inform on the assets owned by central Government departments, associated departments and their executive agencies. A second National Asset Register has been prepared and is due to be published this month. It will include a listing of all the properties and other assets owned by the core Scottish Executive and associated departments and its agencies as at 31 March 2000.

The annual accounts of the core Scottish Executive, its associated departments and its agencies, provide details on quantifiable contingent liabilities. At 31 March 2000, these are:

	Description	Amount £000
Scottish Executive	Indemnity cover to owners of objects lent under the National Heritage Act 1980 and the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985	824,300
Scottish Executive	Housing Act guarantees	5,700
Scottish Executive	NHS overdraft guarantees	4,800
Scottish Executive	Local Government Act - overdraft guarantees for Water Authorities	25,000
Scottish Executive	Indemnity on St Andrew's bus station title	1,500
Scottish Executive	Road Claims in respect of the M77 and M80	269
National Archives of Scotland	Indemnity cover on various collections held on deposit by the National Archives of Scotland	1,490
Scottish Prison Service	Compensation Claims in respect of staff, prisoners and third parties	564
Scottish Courts Service	Employers liability claim	15
Scottish Courts Service	Public liability claim	130
Scottish Courts Service	Lockerbie Trial Relocation costs at Camp Zeist	2,000
Scottish Courts Service	Lockerbie Trial Dilapidation costs at Camp Zeist	2,000