§ Mr. Meacherasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will publish a table showing the comparison between the public expenditure plans for social security for 1979 to 1984 published in the spring of 1979 and the actual spending on each of the main components of the social security budget for each year from 1979 to 1984 expressed in 1979 prices.
§ Dr. BoysonThe public expenditure plans published in January 1979 (Cmnd. 7439) did not allocate all the384W planned expenditure to individual benefits; the comparison requested cannot therefore be provided. The following figures compare the planned total of benefit expenditure with actual outturn for the years up to 1982–83: the period covered by Cmnd. 7439.
£ million in 1978–79 prices Year Plan in Cmnd. 7439 Actual Outturn 1979–80 15,197 15,805 1980–81 15,479 16,367 1981–82 15,712 17,812 1982–83 15,910 18,698 The figures in Cmnd. 7439 are at 1978–79 prices; the comparison has therefore been made on this basis.