Bernard Jenkin – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Bernard Jenkin on 2016-04-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate his Department has made of the Government’s (a) gross and (b) net contribution to EU institutions in 2014; and what the UK’s balance of payments with those institutions was in that year.

Mr David Gauke

Complete outturn figures, including receipts administered by public sector bodies and those received directly by beneficiaries, for the UK’s gross and net contribution to the EU Budget in 2014 can be found in Table 3B, page 16, of HM Treasury’s European Union Finances 2015 publication (Cm 9167) which is available from the House library and on gov.uk. No estimates are provided, as outturns for 2014 are available. The Government does not produce an estimate of the UK’s balance of payments with EU institutions.

The UK’s contributions fluctuate between years. Over the years 2010 to 2014, the UK’s contributions averaged around £7.1bn. This means that for every pound paid in tax, a little over 1p goes to the EU. An explanation of these figures can be found in Annex B of HM Treasury’s analysis of the long-term economic impact of EU membership and the alternatives.