HC Deb 22 April 1991 vol 189 cc318-9W
Mr. Andrew Smith

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what the Government have spent in grants for(a) current expenditure and (b) capital expenditure to the Open university in each year since 1978–79 in (a) cash terms and (b) real terms, indexed so that 1978–79 equals 100.

Mr. Alan Howarth

The tables give recurrent and capital grants to the Open university since 1978–79 in cash terms and also expressed as an index1 using 100 as a base for the financial year 1978–79. The figures for capital grant reflect a decline in the number of capital projects after the initial development of the Walton Hall site.

(a) Recurrent grant:

Cash terms Index
£ million
1978–79 29.96 100
1979–80 36.71 105
1980–81 47.13 114
1981–82 51.27 113
1982–83 55.21 114
1983–84 56.42 111
1984–85 59.05 111
1985–86 60.93 108
1986–87 60.39 104
1987–88 64.25 105
1988–89 66.39 101
1989–90 72.77 104
1990–91 80.94 107
1991–92 87.98 109

(b) Capital grant:

Cash terms Index
£ million
1978–79 2.9 100
1979–80 4.7 139
1980–81 4.63 116
1981–82 3.69 84
1982–83 2.03 43
1983–84 0.7 14
1984–85 1.4 27
1985–86 0.87 16
1986–87 2.08 37
1987–88 1.43 24
1988–89 2.37 37
1989–90 2.41 36

1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89
Cash figures (£ million) 614 634 657 703 748 810 887
Real terms (£ million—1989–90 Prices) 886 875 863 876 900 926 944
Index 100 98.7 97.3 98.8 101.6 104.4 106.4