§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish a table indicating, as far as possible, the cost to the Exchequer of civil expenditure by Her Majesty's Government in Northern Ireland for the current financial year; and how this compares with such expenditure for each of the past five years.
§ Mr. ButlerI have been asked to reply.
The identifiable cost of civil public expenditurre by Her Majesty's Government in Northern Ireland for the current year and each of the past five years is as follows:
Year Amount £ million 1978–79 2,167 1979–80 2,490 1980–81 2,953 1981–82 3,263 1982–83 3,647 1983–84 *3,887 * Estimated. These figures include public expenditure for which my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is responsible, the details of which were published in the Government's Public Expenditure White Paper, Cmnd. 8789, in February 1983. They also include expenditure in Northern Ireland by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, by the Lord Chancellor's Department on court services, and by the Property Services Agency on behalf of civil departments. Excluded is expenditure in Northern Ireland by the intervention board for agricultural produce, which cannot be attributed to particular territorial areas within the United Kingdom, expenditure incurred in Northern Ireland 342W by or on behalf of the Ministry of Defence, and expenditure by other United Kingdom Departments which is not territorially disaggregated.