HC Deb 08 February 1979 vol 962 cc266-7W
Mr. Knox

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for each year since cash limits were introduced (a) the percentage of each of the main spending programmes listed in the public expenditure White Papers subject to cash limits, and (b) the percentage of the cash limit that was in fact spent under each main spending programme.

Mr. Joel Barnett

The information relating to part (a) of the question is as follows: A list of principal exclusions from cash limits in 1978–79 has been published as appendix nine of the Fourteenth Report from the Expenditure Committee, Session 1977–78, Financial Accountability to Parliament (HC661-1978). Significant changes in the coverage of cash limits have been reported in successive cash limits White Papers. On the basis of the principal exclusions, adjusted for changes in coverage between years, the percentages of the main spending programmes listed in the public expenditure White Papers subject to cash limits for each year since cash limits were introduced are as follows:

Percentage subject to cash limits
Programme 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79
1 … … 95 94 94
2 … … 76 66 58
3 … … 23 46 46
4 … … 41 43 48
5* … … 90 86 88
6 … … 98 98 99
7 … … 56 54 55
8 … … 100 100 100
9 … … 95 95 95
10 … … 95 93 92
11 … … 83 83 83
12 … … 5 5 4
13† … … 98 103 103
14 … … 60 57 57
15 … … 50 65 61
* The external borrowing requirements of the nationalised industries as set out in Table 13 of the Financial Statement and Budget Report, excluding the British National Oil Corporation, are treated as a form of cash limit. The figures for programme 5 therefore represent the total of external borrowing requirements treated as cash limits as a percentage of the total of all nationalised industries external borrowing requirements.
† The figures for this programme and other include receipts which are not subject to cash limits.

So far as concerns part (b) of the question, individual cash limits have not coincided with public expenditure spending programmes, and outturns cannot therefore be satisfactorily related to programmes. Outturns of expenditure for cash limits in the years 1976–77 and 1977–78 are to be found in the White Papers Cmnd. 6902 and Cmnd. 7295. It is the intention to publish the outturns for 1978–79 in a White Paper in July-August this year.