§ Lord James Douglas-Hamiltonasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer what was the identifiable public 310W expenditure (a) in total and (b) excluding capital grants and net lending to nationalised industries per head in (i) England, (ii) Scotland, (iii) Wales, (iv) Northern Ireland and (v) Great Britain for each year from 1977–78 to date; and if he will express the figures as percentages, taking England as 100.
§ Mr. Brittan[pursuant to the reply, 16 December 1981, c. 167]: The following table gives the information requested for the years 1977–78 to 1980–81, the latest year available.
The term "identifiable expenditure" refers to expenditure which can be identified from official records as having been incurred in a particular country. It has a wider coverage than expenditure within the responsibilities of the Secretaries of State in case of Scotland and Wales and in the case of Northern Ireland it has a slightly wider coverage than the Northern Ireland programme in the public expenditure survey. It excludes debt interest and expenditure on defence, overseas aid and other overseas services which is incurred on behalf of the United Kingdom as a whole.
Total identifiable expenditure represents about 80 per cent. of total public expenditure on programmes. The extent to which expenditure can be identified may vary from year to year and between countries. Total Government net lending to nationalised industries is allocated to countries industry by industry, according to the industries' identifiable capital investment. The amounts attributed to each country fluctuate from year to year because of the variability both of the aggregate lending figures and of the incidence of expenditure on large capital projects in particular countries.
311W
312W
Identifiable Public Expenditure per head England Scotland Wales Northern Ireland United Kingdom (a) Total identifiable expenditure per head (£) 1977–78 805 1,015 988 1,226 845 1978–79 915 1,147 1,073 1,420 958 1979–80 1,097 1,394 1,243 1,634 1,147 1980–81 1,333 1,684 1,730 1,943 1,402 per head England = 100 1977–78 100 126 123 152 105 1978–79 100 125 117 155 105 1979–80 100 127 113 149 105 1980–81 100 126 130 146 105 (b) Identifiable expenditure per head excluding capital grants and net lending to nationalised industries 1977–78 805 1,004 936 1,226 842 1978–79 910 1,139 1,051 1,420 953 1979–80 1,074 1,349 1,147 1,638 1,118 1980–81 1,289 1,592 1,423 1,943 1,342 per head England = 100 1977–78 100 125 116 152 105 1978–79 100 125 115 156 105 1979–80 100 126 107 152 104 1980–81 100 124 110 151 104