HC Deb 27 July 1978 vol 954 cc877-8W
Mr. Lawson

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether, further to his Written Answer, Official Report, 7th June, columns 189–91, he will make available a quantified comparison of the projected expenditure by programme in 1977–78, as set out in Command Paper No. 5519 and the outturn expenditures by programme in that year, making whatever judgments as to price, base and coverage of programmes as would seem to be most appropriate in order to contrast properly actual expenditure levels with those projected in the White Paper.

Mr. Joel Barnett,

pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 24th July 1978; Vol. 954, c. 509], gave the following information:

For estimates of outturn expenditures by programme in 1977–78 I refer the hon. Member to Cmnd. 7049. Table 9 in Volume I shows expenditure by programmes under the current definitions. Volume II shows nationalised industries capital expenditure in table 3.1 and the total or public sector debt interest on page 107.

For the Cmnd. 5519 plans for 1977–78 on a comparable price base I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 7th June [Vol. 951, c. 189–191.] Only very broad estimates can be made of the effect of the other classification changes indicated in the answer. These are given below:

£ million at 1977 Survey prices
Agriculture, fisheries and forestry -50
Trade, industry and employment 150
Nationalised industries capital expenditure -50
Roads and transport 50
Other environmental services 100
Law, order and protective services -100
Health and personal social services -50
Other public services -100
Common services -50