§ Mr. Roebuckasked the Minister of Housing and Local Government what percentage of local authority spending on education and police services, respectively, is met by national funds.
§ Mr. MacCollGrant towards revenue expenditure on the police service is at the rate of 50 per cent., except for the City of London where the rate is 33⅓ per cent. Education expenditure, except that for school milk and meals which is met by 100 per cent. grant, is taken into account in fixing the aggregate amount of the general grants payable in aid of local authority revenues generally. For the current financial year these grants represent 54.7 per cent. of the aggregate estimated relevant expenditure on general grant services; but the grants are distributed by reference to objective factors such as numbers of population and schoolchildren, and not by reference to expenditure.
In both cases further assistance is given to authorities which qualify for rate deficiency grants. For England and Wales as a whole rate deficiency grants represent on average about 14 per cent. of the aggregate expenditure of local authorities falling to be met by rates after crediting other grants.