§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what has been the annual expenditure on the National Health Service in each of the past six years; and what has been the yearly percentage increase or decrease in real terms.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeThe following table shows total capital and gross current expenditure on health authorities' hospital and community health services, the family practitioner services and centrally financed health services from 1976–77 and the percentage real growth in services from one year to the next. The growth figures for 1981–82 includes the service growth health authorities were asked to provide through increased efficiency in the hospital and community health services, which was equivalent to 0.3 per cent. of overall expenditure in NHS in that year.
Year Gross expenditure on NHS, £ million cash Real increase/decrease in services, (percentage) 1976–77 5,149 — 1977–78 5,689 0.9 1978–79 6,455 2.2 1979–80 7,712 -0.1 1980–81 9,917 1.2 1981–82 *11,193 3.8 * Provisional figure.