HC Deb 16 January 1989 vol 145 cc70-1W
Mr. McLeish

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the expenditure per pupil on books and on equipment in(a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools at the end of each year since 1978–79 in cash terms and real terms using 1987–88 prices and using an index of 100 for 1978–79.

Mr. Michael Forsyth

The information available is given in the following tables which have been compiled from local authority financial returns. Expenditure on equipment was not separately identified in these returns until 1982–83. There have been some variations from year to year in the recording of expenditure under these two headings. In particular some of the figures for expenditure on library books may include some expenditure on items of equipment.

Books Educational tools, equipment and materials
Year Primary Secondary Primary Secondary
1981–82 8.83 13.20 n/a n/a
1982–83 8.85 12.63 10.30 34.42
1983–84 10.83 16.08 8.77 30.55
1984–85 10.95 15.86 10.22 34.50
1985–86 9.69 14.65 9.06 32.92
1986–87 11.51 17.55 9.39 35.64
1987–88 11.68 18.26 11.40 42.39

Table 3: Expenditure per pupil on text and library books at outturn prices expressed as an index with 1978–79 = 100
Year Primary Secondary
1978–79 100 100
1979–80 120.9 115.6
1980–81 128.6 111.8
1981–82 144.1 117.6
1982–83 154.8 120.7
1983–84 198.0 160.6
1984–85 210.4 166.4
1985–86 196.3 162.1
1986–87 240.7 200.6
1987–88 257.3 219.7

Table 4: Expenditure per pupil on text and library books adjusted to 1987–88 prices using the GDP deflator, expressed as an index with 1978–79=100
Year Primary Secondary
1978–79 100 100
1979–80 103.4 98.9
1980–81 92.9 80.8
1981–82 94.7 77.4
1982–83 95.0 79.9
1983–84 116.2 94.3
1984–85 117.5 93.0
1985–86 104.0 85.9
1986–87 123.5 102.9
1987–88 125.3 107.1