§ Mr. Hooleyasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if, in the light of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's statement on 8 November and the autumn statement 1982, he will now state the United Kingdom overseas aid expenditure for 1983– and how this compares at constant prices with the estimated expenditure in 1982–83 and the outturn for 1981–82.
§ Mr. Neil MartenThe net aid programme proposed for 1983–84, subject to possible minor technical adjustments, is £1,035 million in cash. Sums equal to the expected repayments of capital on past aid loans would also be provided to be used as new aid grants or loans. The addition of these sums to the provisions for the net aid programme gives the gross aid programme.
There is no single way of expressing cash provisions in constant prices. Adjustment for general United Kingdom inflation as measured by the GDP delator and using the forecast increase of 7½ per cent. in 1982–83 and 5 per cent. in 1983–84, as shown in the Autumn Statement 1982, gives the following figures for net aid programme provisions in cost terms:
Cost terms (base year 1981–82) £ million 1981–82 972 1982–83 892 1983–84 917 The corresponding gross aid programme figures would be:
Cost terms (base year 1981–82) £ million 1981–82 1,029 1982–83 956 1983–84 979 In both cases the 1981–82 figures are the funds provided as the final outturn figures are not yet available.