§ Mr. Kaufmanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will publish a statement with appropriate statistics, explaining the basis on which expenditure on the police is budgeted to increase by 6 per cent. in 1986–87, and by 2 per cent. in real terms, over what was scheduled to be spent in that year, as stated by the hon. Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor) on 5 December, Official Report, column 419.
§ Mr. HurdThe basis for the reply of my hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Mr. Mellor) on 5 December was as follows.
Planned expenditure on the police in 1985–86, as given in the 1985 public expenditure White Paper, was £2,843 million. Planned expenditure on the police for 1986–87 was given in a reply to a question from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton (Mr. Kaufman) on 18 November at columns 15–16 as £3,025 million. Those figures would represent increases in planned provision for police expenditure between 1985–86 and 1986–87 of just over 6 per cent. in cash terms and nearly 2 per cent. in real terms. In fact planned expenditure on the police in 1986–87, to he published shortly in the 1986 public expenditure White Paper, is £3,060 million. The planned increases are therefore nearly 8 per cent. in cash terms and 3 per cent. in real terms. I regret that the figure for 1986–87 given on 18 November was incorrect.