§ Mrs. Winifred Ewingasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what proportion of the £3,000 million in Supplementary Estimates is attributable to identifiable expenditure in Scotland.
§ Mr. Joel BarnettIt is assumed that the Supplementary Estimates referred to are the Winter Supplementary Estimates published on 8th December which totalled £3,160 million. The identifiable expenditure in Scotland contained within these Estimates is expenditure within the Secretary of State's responsibility and was £204 million—i.e., 6.45 per cent. An analysis of one batch of Supplementary Estimates gives an inadequate picture of expenditure in Scotland, since at this point in time it is only possible to show what has been provided for in the Votes within the responsibility of the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Of the total of £3,160 million, £370 million was for defence and £24 million for overseas services which are services for the United Kingdom as a whole. Similarly there are a large number of other Votes which also provide for services in the United Kingdom as a whole and for which additional provision was sought—e.g. national insurance, supplementary benefits, non-contributory pension benefits. These provisions cannot be analysed by region at this point in time but only at the end of the year when the expenditure has been incurred. The Abstract of Statistics for Scotland shortly to be 593W published will show that for 1974–75 this was £3,580 million which represents about 12 per cent. of the total expenditure for England, Scotland and Wales.