§ Lord HALEasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will state the various amounts of public and local expenditure on social security, education and libraries, science and arts, health and personal social services, housing, other environmental services, law, order and protective services, food and transport subsidies and concessionary fares used in estimating the social wage for 1976–77 in such detail as is available and giving comparable figures for 1966–67 computed at 1976–77 prices.
§ Baroness BIRKThe social wage in 1976–77 was £1,460 per head of the United Kingdom working population. The amounts of public expenditure used in estimating that figure are shown below. The earliest year for which comparable figures are readily available is 1969–70, and these are shown in the table expressed at 1976–77 prices.
2263WA
PUBLIC EXPENDITURE INCLUDED IN THE SOCIAL WAGE—£ MILLION AT 1976–77 PRICES 1969–70 1976–77 Social security 8,596 11,509 Education and libraries, science and arts 6,156 8,191
Health and personal social services 5,717 7,349 Housing 3,162 5,100 Other environmental services 2,088 2,723 Law, order and pro-services 1,358 2,083 Food and transport subsudies, including concessionary fares 311 1,178 Total 27,388 38,132 The figures are independently rounded and may not sum to total.