HC Deb 05 July 1989 vol 156 cc166-7W
Mr. Beith

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if he will give the cash and constant price figures for funds made available to the UFC for current grants, excluding changes in the home student fee levels, compensation for redundancy and early retirement, information technology and new blood programmes deflated by the gross domestic product deflator, the retail prices index and the university pay and prices index, for each of the years 1980–81 to 1988–89;

(2) if he will give the cash and constant price figures of funds made available to the UFC for recruitment and capital grants, shown separately and each deflated by the appropriate gross domestic product deflator, and the universities retail pay and prices index for each of the years 1980–81 to 1988–89.

Mr. Jackson

Capital and recurrent grants made to universities in Great Britain on the advice of the University Grants Committee were as follows:

£ million
Financial Years Capital Recurrent
Cash Real terms Cash Real terms
1980–81 97.9 144.6 942.9 1,393.1
1981–82 103.1 138.8 968.0 1,303.2
1982–83 106.8 134.3 1,176.2 1,478.8
1983–84 103.1 123.9 1,222.2 1,468.5
1984–85 106.7 122.2 1,253.2 1,434.9
1985–86 118.2 128.3 1,282.6 1,392.3
1986–87 130.2 136.7 1,320.1 1,386.4
1987–88 128.8 128.8 1,464.0 1,464.0
'1988–89 140.1 130.6 1,584.9 1,477.8
1 Estimate.

This includes cash provision of £50 million in 1982–83 and £30 million in 1983–84 for redundancy and premature retirement compensation: subtracting this from recurrent grant gives real terms figures for those years of £1,415.9 million and £1,432.5 million. Recurrent grant for 1982–83 included provision of over £100 million in compensation for reduced tuition fee income but was not separately identified in later years. Information is not available to make the other adjustments requested.

Real terms are at 1987–88 prices as measured by the GDP deflator which the Government regard as the most appropriate measure of the cost to the economy as a whole and to the public purse of expenditure changes. Over the period in question, this moved from a base of 100 to 158.5. The retail prices index, which relates only to general consumers' expenditure, moved from a base of 100 in January 1981 to 157.9 in January 1989. From November 1980 to January 1989, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals' university pay and prices index moved from a base of 100 to 167.6, although this does not fully reflect the efficiency gains which have occurred over the period.