§ Mr. Barry JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Wales, if he will make a statement on the implications for health, education, housing, roads, the environment, tourism and the arts in Wales flowing from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Autumn Statement.
§ Mr. Peter WalkerTable 1.4 of the Autumn Statement 1989 shows that in round terms my total expenditure 339W provision for 1990–91 is £4,460 million. As explained in the statement, the public expenditure picture is affected by the introduction of the new planning total. On this basis the £4,460 million represents an increase of 15.5 per cent. (10 per cent. in real terms) over the forecast outturn for the current year (£3,860 million). Allowing for changes in coverage of Welsh Office programmes between the two years, the increase is 12 per cent. or 6.7 per cent. in real terms. This compares with the average increase of less than 9 per cent. (3.8 per cent. in real terms) for all other departmental programmes.
I announced yesterday the provision that I have made for local authority capital programmes next year. This provides for gross spending of £475 million, an increase of almost 7 per cent. over the comparable provision for 1989–90.
I shall be announcing my decisions on other major Welsh Office programmes in due course. Full details of my planned expenditure for the next three years covering all my programmes will be set out in the public expenditure White Paper and the Welsh Office commentary which will be published early next year.