§ Mr. Moonmanasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what proportion of the gross national product is spent on education as compared with the United States of America, Germany and the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, respectively.
§ Mr. MulleyFigures of expenditure on education in the USSR and the German Democratic Republic are related to net material product which precludes comparability with countries in which expenditure is related to gross national product. The most recent figures available on a comparable basis for the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany are those published in the 1973 UNESCO Statistical Yearbook in respect of public expenditure on education in 1970:
Percentage of gross national product at market prices United Kingdom 5.9 United States of America 6.5 Federal Republic of Germany 4.0 It must be emphasised that the UNESCO definition of public expenditure differs from that used in the corresponding statistics officially compiled and published in the United Kingdom, and that the UNESCO definition of gross national product is at market prices—which includes taxes and excludes subsidies— rather than at factor cost. Moreover, since the education systems of the various countries have salient differences which can affect comparability, care should be exercised in any use made of these figures.