§ Mr. Nicholas BennettTo ask the Prime Minister what is Government expenditure per head in(a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland.
§ The Prime MinisterThe following table shows identifiable public expenditure per head for each of the four countries of the United Kingdom in 1987–88, the latest year for which information is available:
268W
£ per head England 2,063 Wales 2,370 Scotland 2,676 Northern Ireland 3,097 The term "identifiable expenditure" refers to expenditure that can be identified from official records as having been incurred in a particular country. Total identifiable expenditure accounts for just over 80 per cent. of total departmental public expenditure; it excludes expenditure on defence, overseas aid and other overseas services which are deemed to have been incurred on behalf of the United Kingdom as a whole. It also excludes Government net lending to, and the market and overseas borrowing of, the public corporations (including nationalised industries), due to the difficulty of allocating this finance to expenditure in a particular country.