HC Deb 05 May 1977 vol 931 cc257-8W
Mr. Baker

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he will publish a table showing the percentage of public expenditure on each programme that is demand-related, together with some indications of what the demand-related heads of expenditure are.

Mr. Joel Barnett

The term "demand related" does not have a precise definition in this context and it is therefore not possible to put firm percentages to the demand related component of each programme of public expenditure. But in general the services which are exempted from the cash limits system are services where, once policy and rates of payment have been determined, the total of disbursements in the short-term will depend on such factors as the number of qualified recipients. The extent to which each public expenditure programme is cash limited is described in "The Government's Expenditure Plans," Cmnd. 6721-II, and details of the main exclusions from cash limits were given in "Cash Limits on Public Expenditure", Cmnd. 6440, supplemented by "Cash Limits 1977–78", Cmnd. 6767.