§ Mr. Warrenasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will give a detailed statement of the total expenditure overseas by Her Majesty's Government during the most recent financial year for which statistics are available.
§ Mr. Peter ReesTable 1.9 of the Public Expenditure White Paper Cmnd. 9143 shows that in 1982–83, the last financial year for which reliable outturn information is available, current grants abroad and net lending and investment abroad by the public sector amounted to £1,687 million net.
The main components of this expenditure are detailed in the following table:
Public Expenditure Main Programme £ million Defence 35 Overseas aid and other overseas services* 1,607 Agriculture, fisheries, food and forestry 16 Trade, industry, energy and employment -215 Transport 7 Education and science 46 Health and personal social services 18 Social security 169 * Further details on the overseas services programme may be obtained from Chapter 2.2 of Cmnd. 9143. The table excludes defence expenditure of about £1.7 billion defrayed overseas (for example, on equipment and overseas bases); this is included in the defence budget but is not separately identified as overseas expenditure.
Also excluded from the table are salaries paid to locally employed staff overseas, which are classified in the White Paper as part of other current expenditure but cannot be separately identified without incurring disproportionate cost.