Mr. J. Enoch Powellasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will publish table 7 of the Financial Statement and Budget Report of 1981–82 at 1978–79 prices so as to be directly comparable with the corresponding table 9 in the 1980–81 Statement and Report.
§ Sir Geoffrey Howe[pursuant to his reply, 16 March 1981. c. 23]: I refer the right hon. Gentleman to some recently published material. Paragraph 25 of part II of the Financial Statement and Budget Report 1981–82 states that the figures at 1978–79 prices in tables 6, 8, and 9 of last year's Financial Statement and Budget Report—corresponding to tables 6, 7 and 8 of this year's issue—can be approximately translated to the price base used this year by inflating them by 16½ per cent—which was the rise in the GDP deflator between the two years as estimated at the time of the 1980 Budget. A Treasury note, "Comparisons of this year's and last year's medium-term projections of expenditure revenues and borrowing in the Financial Statement and Budget Report" revalues in this way the figures published last year and compares them with those published in table 8 of the 1981–82 Financial Statement and Budget Report. Another Treasury note, "Government Revenues from North Sea Oil and Gas"—compares the estimates of Government revenues from the North Sea given in table 7 of the 1981–82 Financial Statement and Budget Report with those published last year. Copies of these are in the Library of the House of Commons.