§ Ms. RichardsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what was(a) the total public expenditure on nursery schools and classes in each year from 1975 to 1985 and (b) the total public expenditure on these services as a percentage of the gross domestic product for England and Wales for each of these years.
§ Mr. DunnThe available information relates to an estimate of total net recurrent expenditure by local education authorities in England on under-fives in 633W maintained schools from 1976–77 and is shown in the table. Each amount has been expressed as a percentage of the total United Kingdom gross domestic product.
LEA expenditure on under-fives1 Year Net recurrent expenditure £ million cash Percentage of GDP (rounded to three decimal places) 1976–772 127 0.098 1977–78 128 0.085 1978–79 146 0.084 1979–80 177 0.085 1980–81 222 0.094 1981–82 241 0.093 1982–83 274 0.096 1983–84 296 0.096 1984–85 331 0.101 1985–86 350 0.097 1 Information is given for under-fives as a group because separate figures for nursery classes in primary schools is not available. 2 1976–77 is the earliest year for which figures are readily available.