§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will give for each year since 1979(a) the assumed movement of National Health Service pay and prices for 280W the following financial year at the time of the publication of the public expenditure White Paper and (b) the actual movement of National Health Service pay and prices over that year; and if he will give the scale of cash uplift and efficiency savings required to cover (i) the assumed inflation rate and (ii) the actual inflation rate in each year.
§ Mr. FreemanThe information requested is not available. NHS expenditure plans are made in cash and the Department does not produce projections of a price index for its aggregate programme. Generally, when measuring the effects of inflation on NHS expenditure, the GDP deflator is used as this gives the best picture of the costs of the resources spent on the NHS to the economy as a whole. By this measure gross expenditure on the NHS has increased by more than 40 per cent. over and above retail price inflation since 1978–79, or an average of over 3 per cent. a year. In addition to these extra funds, the Health Service has also benefited from the effects of health authorities' cost improvement programmes.