§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment how much his Department spent on the development of grant-related expenditure (a) for 1981–82 and (b) for 1982–83; and how much of this expenditure was undertaken by private contractors.
§ Mr. KingIt is not possible to separate work on the development of grant-related expenditure from work on grant distribution generally. In the two divisions within my Department primarily responsible for grant distribution, there were 47 staff at the time of the 1981–82 RSG settlement and 46 at the time of the 1982–83 settlement. Staffing costs of specifically GRE-related work for the two years are not available. For the 1981–82 settlement, £282,000 was paid to private contractors for computer time—usage and storage—on GRE-related work; for the 1982–83 settlement, £196,000.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the grant-related expenditure assessments broken down by individual services for each local authority in England used in the 1982–83 rate support grant settlement.
§ Mr. KingThe local authority associations have advised me that publication at this time of these figures would give undue significance to them as constituents in the calculation of an unhypothecated block grant and would undermine local authorities' discretion individually to determine expenditure priorities between services. I shall, however, be providing these figures to the local authority associations as a contribution to our continuing discussions on the development of the GRE assessments. At that time I shall place copies of the figures in the Library, as I did this year with the figures for 1981–82.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the national total of grant-related expenditure in total and broken down by individual services (a) in 1981–82 and (b) in 1982–83.
§ Mr. KingThe figures requested are as follows:
212W
1981–83* I982–83† £million £million Education 9,132 9,893 Libraries 246 284 Museums and art galleries 41 40 Personal social services 1,654 1,943 Police 996 1,085 Fire 431 465 Probation and after-care 23 25 Magistrates courts 28 26 Coroners courts 10 13
1981–82* 1982–83† £ million £ million School crossing patrols 16 14 Civil defence 2 3 Registration of electors 18 19 Transport 1,302 1,373 Careers 45 48 Sheltered employment 10 9 Consumer protection 45 49 HRA housing 322 330 Other housing 66 81 Rent rebates and allowances 216 180 Recreation: parks and parish precepts 340 370 sport 236 230 Refuse collection 436 410 Refuse disposal 161 183 Planning 200 303 Environmental health 257 309 Rate collection 128 147 Rate rebates 26 39 Land drainage 87 93 Registration, births, marriages, deaths 13 14 Other services 246 256 Contributions to trading services 64 51 Leasing charges — 95 Interest receipts and contributions to special funds 69 ‡–337 Financing of capital expenditure after 1 April 1981 341 472 Total England** 17,203 18,515 * Figures for the purposes of the Rate Support Grant Supplementary Report (England) 1982.
† Figures for the purposes of the Rate Support Grant Report (England) 1982–83
‡The definition of total expenditure for block grant purposes is different in 1982–83 from that used in 1981–82. In 1982–83 interest receipts on revenue balances are to be netted off authorities' total expenditure.
** Figures do not add precisely due to rounding.
§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will publish the total of grant-related expenditure allocated to (a) non-metropolitan counties, (b) non-metropolitian districts, (c)metropolitan counties,(d)metropolitan districts, (e)inner London boroughs,(f) outer London boroughs, (g) the Greater London Council, (h)the Inner London Education Authority and (i) the Metropolitan Police in 1981–82 and 1982–83.
§ Mr. KingThe figures requested are as follows:
*1981–82 †1982–83 £ million £ million (a) Non-metropolitan counties 8,377 8,934 (b) Non-metropolitan districts 1,263 1,400 (c) Metropolitan counties 803 864 (d) Metropolitan districts 3,529 3,762 (e) Inner London boroughs 596 660 (f) Outer London boroughs 1,455 1,562 (g) Greater London Council 436 480 (h) Inner London Education Authority 470 516 (i) Metropolitan Police 274 338 Total England 17,203 ‡18,515 * Figures as determined in the Rate Support Grant Supplementary Report (England) 1982.
† Figures as determined in the Rate Support Grant Report (England) 1982–83.
‡ Figures do not add due to rounding.