HC Deb 25 March 1991 vol 188 c293W
Mr. Alan Williams

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what is the standard spending assessment for(a)education and (b) social services, for each local authority in Wales in 1991–92.

Mr. David Hunt

The Welsh revenue support grant formulae do not form a basis for calculating standard spending assessments for individual services.

Mr. Gwilym Jones

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what have been the relative rates of increase in Wales of(a) council spending, (b) inflation and (c) the uniform business rate and locally determined rate poundage, over the preceding 10 years.

Mr. David Hunt

Information available is shown in the following table:

Percentage change on year earlier
Revenue spending1 Retail prices index2 Average general rate poundage
1981–82 N/A 11.4 14.2
1982–83 5.8 7.3 3.1
1983–84 5.0 5.1 0.7
1984–85 2.9 4.7 8.1
1985–86 3.7 5.9 7.8
1986–87 8.2 3.0 12.5
1987–88 7.1 4.2 7.2
1988–89 9.2 5.9 8.8
1989–90 38.1 7.6 10.1
1990–91 311.7 10.9 4N/A
1 Revenue expenditure net of specific Government grants, sales, fees and charges. Because definitional changes in 1990–91, the percentage change shown for that year is on a slightly different basis to those shown for the earlier years.
2 Using September of each year as the reference point.
3 Provisional.
4 Due to the change to the uniform business rate in 1990–91, no comparison with the preceding year is available.

Mr. Alan Williams

To ask the Secretary of State for Wales whether specific grants were ring-fenced for social service expenditure in the settlement for 1991–92.

Mr. David Hunt

The following specific grants in respect of the Government's social services training support programme for local authority social services staff in Wales were included in the Welsh revenue support grant settlement for 1991–92:

£ (000s)
Child care 453
Children Act 1989 240
Community care 465
Post qualifying level training for staff in management and training posts 300
1,458