HC Deb 02 February 1970 vol 795 cc39-40W
Mr. Marples

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will show in a table the total expenditure of central government and local government, respectively, indicating expenditure on defence separately, for each of the following years, 1900, 1910, 1930, 1950, 1960 and 1970.

Mr. Diamond

Figures of total expenditure by central government and local authorities, excluding transactions between central government and local authorities, but including grants and loans to public corporations, are given below for 1950, 1960 and 1968 (the latest year for which figures are available). Figures of Defence Budget expenditure for which calendar year figures are not available, are given for the financial years 1950–61 and 1968–69.

£ million
Central Government Local Authorities Defence Budget
1950 3,557 1,085 1950–51 801
1960 6,774 2,251 1960–61 1,612
1968 12,923 5,447 1968–69 2,252

No figures on a comparable basis are available from official sources for the years 1900, 1910 and 1930. Some private estimates are given in tables produced by A. T. Peacock and J. Wiseman in their study "The Growth of Public Expenditure in the United Kingdom" (Princeton 1961), but these are not entirely comparable with those given above for the later years.

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